Veilspeaker (Pharim War Book 2) (7 page)

Villia inclined her head. “That may be, Your Majesty,
but the boy has been with me for the past half hour, and these men haven’t been
dead nearly that long.” She looked from Lina to Jez and frowned. “I don’t think
they should be here, though. This isn’t a sight for young eyes.”

Varin started to protest but stopped when he saw the
king nodding. His face reddened slightly, but Jez didn’t think anyone but him
had seen.

“Take my daughter back to her room,” he said to Lina’s
guard.

The lean woman nodded and took Lina by the hand and
led her away. Lina gave Jez a hard look, but other than that, she seemed
listless, almost as if she were in a trance. One of the king’s men motioned for
Jez to follow, and Jez fell into step behind him, and they walked away from the
hall Lina had gone down. Just before they turned a corner, Jez took one last
look over his shoulder. Villia was speaking to the king, and she kept glancing
at the bodies. Jez started to turn away when he caught a faint hint of sulfur
in the air. He gasped and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He took
a deep breath, hoping he’d been wrong, but the smell was there, not quite
hidden by the scent of blood. These men had been killed by a demon.

Jez practically ran to the sick
chambers. One of the healers was leaving as he approached, and she scowled at
him. It was an older woman, the one who was the head of the sick chambers. Her
silver hair was tied in a bun, and she wore the yellow robe of someone who had
been trained at the Academy.

“I suppose he’s with you,” Mage Rana said.

Jez stared at her. “What?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Your bodyguard.”

“Osmund? Isn’t he here?” His eyes sought out the bed
Osmund had been in last time, but it was empty, the blanket having been thrown
off.

“No. He kept insisting he didn’t need to be in bed. As
soon as I turned my back, he was gone. He hasn’t been gone half an hour.”

“Where did he go?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

He nodded, trying not to look too worried. He started
walking out of the sick chambers. Rana called out to him, but he ignored her.
Osmund would’ve probably tried to get to Jez’s quarters. He couldn’t have had
worse timing. Jez had an alibi during the murders, but if Osmund didn’t have
that same protection, it was only a matter of time before he was accused too. Jez
doubted Villia would be able to help him then. That was assuming the demons
hadn’t attacked Osmund already.

He was only halfway to his quarters when he found
Osmund leaning against a wall breathing heavily. His eyes were sunken and
looked a little red. He still wore the sick robes, and when he saw Jez, he gave
him a weak smile.

“Maybe I should’ve listened to the healers.” Jez
grunted and Osmund raised an eyebrow. “What happened?”

Jez lowered his voice. As quickly as possible, he told
Osmund about the murders and how Lina had accused him. Osmund nodded. He
scanned the hall as if looking for guards. A young man and woman of the
nobility came around the corner, arm in arm. Jez didn’t recognize them, but
when they saw Jez and Osmund, the lady whispered to her companion, and the pair
turned to go, leaving Jez and Osmund alone.

“What do we do now?”

“You should find somewhere to hide. It has to be Varin
summoning the demons, and he doesn’t like you very much. Once I tell Villia
what I detected, she’ll have to convince the king to move against him. There’s
no way Varin will get out of this one. I’ll come find you once this is all
taken care of.

Osmund nodded. “Be careful. Last time you thought you
had an advantage over Varin, it didn’t turn out well.”

“Last time, he wasn’t summoning demons. Do you need
help finding a place to hide?”

Osmund forced himself to stand up straight. “I’ll
manage.”

Jez nodded, but helped Osmund down the hall. They
found an empty room and he left Osmund there to rest. He went back to Villia’s
workshop to wait for her. She didn’t take long to arrive and seemed surprised
to see him.

“I didn’t expect you so soon.”

“What did you find?”

Her eyes hardened. “I may respect you, limaph, but do
not presume to make demands of me. You’re in enough trouble as it is.”

“Those men were killed by demons,” Jez said through
clenched teeth. “Tell me what you learned.”

“How...” she looked Jez in the eye. “Oh, I see.” She
sat at her table and Jez took a seat across from her. Absently, she fingered
the crystal Sharim had used in his attempt at scrying. “I didn’t learn much.
They were killed quickly, too quickly to cry out. The cuts came from a sword,
or at least from something as sharp. It wasn’t the stomach wounds that killed
them, though, at least not directly. They just served as a conduit to their
bodies. They were cooked from the inside out. I told the king they were killed
by an expert in ember magic. Are you sure it was a demon?” Jez nodded. “Do you
know what kind?”

Jez searched his mind, looking for some the knowledge
he’d been able to access during the ordeal with Marrowit, but Sariel had bound
those memories away, leaving him with only mundane knowledge. He’d done
research into demons in his study of how to bind the creatures, but even that
was limited to lower level demons whose knowledge wasn’t considered too
dangerous by Master Besis. He shook his head.

“Not exactly. I mean there aren’t many demons that can
kill and not have it obvious it was a demon who did it. Most don’t use swords,
but a couple have claws that can make wounds that look like swords. Almost all
of them can use at least some level of ember magic. I just don’t have enough
information.”

Villia nodded. “Can you find them?”

Jez shook his head. “I’ve been learning how to bind
them, not how to track them. Can’t you use divination?”

“No. Divination touches on another world. That’s not
exactly right. It’s difficult to explain. It’s not really a world.”

“Between,” Jez said before he could stop himself.

Villia’s eyes widened slightly, but she nodded. “Yes.”
Her voice cracked on the word, and she cleared her throat. “That’s as good a
name as any. Where did you hear it?”

Jez waved off the question. “What does that have to do
with divination?”

She narrowed her eyes but continued. “Rumar seems to
be cut off from this...Between. No magic that touches it is functioning. I’ve
never seen anything like it.”

A chill ran down Jez’s back. “I have. Dusan could do
it.”

Villia raised an eyebrow. “Could he? That’s not a
small working.”

“Varin has been after me to give him specifics of what
Dusan was doing. First the circle in his room and now this? He’s trying to do
the same thing. Marrowit is destroyed, but that’s not stopping him from
summoning other demons.”

“I need more time.”

Jez shook his head. “Dusan could’ve destroyed the
kingdom, if not the world. There’s no time for subtlety. We have to move
against Varin now.”

Villia pursed her lips but nodded. She looked up, and
the stars in the ceiling began to dance. “You’re right. By the seven, you’re
right. I hate moving so openly, but if Varin is summoning demons into the keep,
we don’t have much of a choice.”

“So what do we do now?” Jez asked.

“Let’s go speak to the king.”

As soon as they stepped out of the
tower, they were surrounded by guards, all with swords bared. On instinct, Jez
reached for his power. The three swords closest to him clattered to the ground,
but in the next instant, he felt a point pressed against his throat. He froze.
It might have been his imagination, but he thought he felt a trickle of blood
running down his neck.

“We were warned about your ability,” the guard holding
the weapon said. He had a gold sun pinned to his chest, an indication of his
rank as captain. “Lord Varin instructed us to avoid hurting you if possible but
to take no chances.”

“What is the meaning of this?” Villia asked. None of
the guards were holding weapons at her, and a few backed up at the tone in her
voice.

“Forgive the inconvenience, Mage Villia. By your own
admission, the men who were killed died by ember magic. His bodyguard is a
known battlemage. One who specialized in ember magic. He is one of the few who
would have the power to do that, and he’s missing.” The guard glared at Jez.
“He had reason to hate Lord Varin.”

“Even if that were true,” Villia said, “and I don’t
believe for a second that it is, why would you come after Baron Jezreel?”

“Lord Varin expressed concern that it was done on the
Baron’s orders.”

“That is utterly ridiculous.”

“We are here on Lord Varin’s orders to take him into
custody.”

“Well, I am giving you new orders. Put down your
weapons.”

The guards exchanged glances. The pressure of the
sword at Jez’s throat lessened slightly, but the guard didn’t lower it. Jez
looked down without moving his head. He glanced at Villia and took a step back.
The guard didn’t follow. After another second, he lowered his weapon. Jez
touched his neck looking for blood, but his fingers came away dry.

“You will convey us to the king.” Once again, Villia’s
voice took on that strange resonance that made it seem like it was coming from
everywhere at once.

The captain eyed Jez. “But Mage Villia...”

Villia raised a hand and the corridor dimmed. She
stood up straight, and somehow, she’d gained two feet of height. Her eyes
glowed an angry violet, and the guards backed away. One man’s hand was shaking
so violently he dropped his sword. Villia’s voice seemed to come from the
stones themselves. The air hummed with power.

“I am a master mage in the service of King Haziel
himself. My commands supersede those of any lordling. You will do as I say, or
you will suffer the consequences.”

The last word seemed to hang in the air for several
seconds. As it faded, the lights returned. Villia was back to normal size,
though Jez hadn’t seen her change. The guard who’d dropped his weapon scooped
up his sword and shoved it in its sheath as if afraid for Villia to see him
with a weapon drawn. The captain nodded.

“Please,” he said in a shaky voice. “Follow me.”

The other guards fell into step behind him. Jez and
Villia followed a few steps behind.

“That wasn’t exactly subtle,” Jez said, pitching his
voice low.

She smiled. “When you have weapons pointed at you, the
time for subtly has passed. I may not like to work overtly, but I can if I have
to.”

Jez’s heart was pounding as they made their way
through the keep. Some of the servants and nobles whispered as they passed,
though no one tried to stop them. Whenever Jez tried to meet anyone’s eyes,
they turned away. The guards led them to the same dining room Osmund had
originally been arrested in. They walked in, and Jez froze.

There, on the floor with chains around his legs and
wrists, was Osmund. A brown robed woman with a blue sash stood near him,
holding her arm toward him. Power flowed out and held Osmund’s power in check.
A guard held a sword to his back. For a second, Jez just stared. It was only
when someone pushed past him that he blinked and gathered his thoughts. Varin
and Lina, who had come in after Jez, walked to the other side of the room and
stood next to the king. Lina refused to look at either Osmund or Jez, but
Varin’s face was twisted in a scowl.

“I ordered the Jezreel taken.”

Villia stepped forward. “And I ordered them to bring
him here.” She narrowed her eyes. “And it is Baron Jezreel, Lord Varin, not
simply Jezreel. You are not so highly regarded that you can ignore the rules of
the court, and you don’t have the authority to order the arrest of a baron.”

A cold grin formed on Varin’s face. “Well, it seems
the boy has managed to form an alliance after all. Too bad it’s too late.” He
turned to the king who had been impassively observing the conversation. “Your
Majesty, the evidence is clear. The boy’s bodyguard attacked and killed my men,
almost certainly under his instruction. Once he is arrested, the threat to your
throne will be ended.”

Almost immediately, the gathered nobles went silent. A
few stared at Varin, and Jez resisted the urge to smile. Varin had made a
mistake. If he could order the guards to arrest him, he could do the same to
any noble in the room, and they knew it. Haziel wouldn’t be able to allow this.
From the grin on Varin’s face, he hadn’t realized his blunder. The king raised
a hand and those few who were still speaking quieted.

“No,” Haziel said in a quiet voice.

There was a collective sigh of relief. Some of the
nobles started murmuring to each other. Jez wasn’t close enough to hear any
details, but the general tone was angry, and more than one gave Varin a
piercing glare. Color had drained from Varin’s face.

“Your Majesty?”

“I said no, Varin. Mage Villia is right. I will not
permit you to ignore the forms when you’re right in front of me. If you have an
accusation against a baron of Ashtar, I will hear proof.” Varin sputtered for a
second, but said nothing. The king turned to Jez. “There is ample evidence against
your bodyguard, I’m afraid.”

“It wasn’t me,” Osmund said, but one of the guards
slapped him.

“What evidence?” Jez asked as he glared at the guard.
The man turned away and started muttering to a companion, as if afraid to meet
Jez’s gaze.

“He carries a sword.” Varin practically spat the
words.

“He’s my
bodyguard
,” Jez said. “He’s supposed
to carry a sword. Anyway, he hasn’t even had one since he got hurt.”

“Maybe not,” Varin said, “but Brallion’s sword wasn’t
found with his body.”

That caught Jez by surprise. Most demons didn’t have
weapons, but there were plenty that could pick one up and use it.

“I saw Osmund after the men were killed. He could
barely stand. There was no way he could overpower a guard and take his weapon.”