The Dread: The Fallen Kings Cycle: Book Two (11 page)

Jonmarc was losing his fight to keep his temper. “So one minute I’m vermin, and the next I’m a martyr?”

“You leave a trail of dead men in your wake, Vahanian. I don’t trust you, your biter friends, or the Eastmark bastards. They threw our mercs into the front lines first, to draw fire before they risked their own precious skins. And now they send one of theirs to marry the queen, and you, of all people, you’re going to stand for it?”

Jonmarc saw the glint of Gregor’s drawn blade and parried fast and hard. Practice against
vayash moru
opponents gave him an edge in strength and speed. He sent Gregor’s sword scuttling down the corridor, and he body-slammed the general against the corridor wall.

“Take your opinions about Eastmark and shove them up your ass.” Jonmarc’s voice was a hiss, close to Gregor’s ear. Gregor struggled, but Jonmarc kept him pinned with a blade at the general’s throat. “I’ve been betrayed by too many people to blame it on anything more than old-fashioned greed.”

He twitched the blade slightly under Gregor’s chin, raising a thin line of blood. “This is the second time I’ve
let you off without breaking some bones or running you through. So you say one more word to anyone about ‘vermin’ and I’ll cut out that tongue of yours and pin it to the wall for a trophy. I’m expecting you to do your duty and keep your opinions to yourself.” He poked the tip of his blade into the soft skin beneath Gregor’s chin. “Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Jonmarc pushed away hard from Gregor, giving himself space and slamming his opponent into the wall again for good measure. He kept his sword in hand as Gregor straightened his uniform and recovered his sword.

“Is it your doing that my men and I are in the first wave while the Queen’s Champion takes his time to reach the battlefield?”

“Thank the queen for that decision, not me. Perhaps you didn’t notice that, so far, there’ve been more casualties here in Principality City than on the coast?” Jonmarc sheathed his weapon in disgust. “I don’t have time for this. Now get out of my way or, by the Dark Lady, I’ll cut a door right through your hide.”

“I’m leaving.” Gregor turned and strode away. Jonmarc did not relax from a ready stance until he was certain that Gregor was truly gone.

D
rink this.” Kolin pushed a cup of
kerif
into Aidane’s hands. Aidane accepted the strong, bitter drink gratefully and sipped at it as she sat beside the fireplace in her room. “Why didn’t you tell me you were having nightmares?”

Aidane shrugged and looked up at Kolin where he stood beside the fireplace. The glow of the fire made his
vayash moru–
pale skin less pallid. His dark blond hair framed a sharp-featured face that was distinguished if not quite handsome. By comparison, Aidane had the coal-black hair and dusky skin of a Nargi native. Dark eyed and with high cheekbones, she had heard more than one courtier describe her as “exotic.” She had yet to decide whether or not that description was meant as a compliment.

“I’m a
serroquette
. I should be used to dreams—my own, and others.” She sipped the hot tea and repressed a shiver.

“Are the dreams always like these?” Kolin looked at her with a mixture of horror and sympathy. “You woke
screaming and fighting for your life. If I’d been mortal, I’m not sure I could have contained you.”

Aidane sighed and looked away. “I allow ghosts to possess me to make peace with their lovers. My sanity depends on being able to keep most ghosts at bay and allow only certain ghosts to possess me. But something’s going wrong.”

Kolin frowned. “So are you dreaming, or being possessed?”

Aidane sipped her tea again as she thought. “I think it’s something in between. Not a full possession; I can tell that my own spirit is still in control. But more than a dream. And they’re not just any ghosts. They’re young women, and they’ve been murdered.”

“By whom?”

Aidane met his eyes. “Buka.”

Kolin’s eyes widened. “The killer in the city?”

Aidane nodded. “He’s not
vayash moru
, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ve seen the ghosts’ deaths… felt them. It’s a knife, not teeth, that does the killing. But the funny thing is, I don’t think he’s Durim, either.”

“Why?”

“Through the ghosts, I’ve gotten glimpses of what he does in the moments around the deaths. He… carves up the bodies,” Aidane said, swallowing hard. “He takes pieces of them. But it doesn’t feel like what we found on the road, when we came upon where the Durim had fouled the barrow. And yet…”

“What?”

“I think that Buka does make some kind of offering. He mutters to himself as he does the cutting. Sometimes, I can hear him. He says things like ‘honor the master’ and
‘make the master welcome.’ The Durim worship Shanthadura, a goddess. Whomever Buka is trying to please is a man.” Aidane finished her drink and set the empty cup aside. She stared into the fireplace, trying to dispel the awful visions from her memory.

Kolin sat down across from her and gently took her hands in his. “Dying once was bad enough. I can’t imagine what you’ve been though, reliving all those deaths.” He paused. “What can I do to protect you? Are there charms, talismans that would keep out the ghosts? Can a mage help ward your chamber? Tell me, and I’ll make it so.”

Aidane squeezed his hands in appreciation before moving away to wrap her arms around herself. Although the fire was warm and the autumn night was not yet wintry, she felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. “Yes, I’d like to be free of the dreams. Of course. But… I think there’s a reason the ghosts are trying to contact me. I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m afraid that if they can’t reach me, something worse will happen. They’re angry. So angry.”

“So you’ll let them consume you instead?” Aidane heard anger in Kolin’s voice, and his eyes blazed. “Maybe they’re jealous that you’re alive and they aren’t. Maybe they intend to take you with them.”

The thought had occurred to Aidane. “I think that if they meant to kill me, they’d have done it already. Maybe they just want me to carry a message.”

“Do you get a choice?” he asked, and his eyes met hers with a gaze that was difficult to elude.

A sad smile crossed Aidane’s face. “I’m just a ghost whore, Kolin. No one worries much about my choices.”

Kolin’s eyes darkened. “Even as a
vayash moru
, we choose how and where to slake our thirst.”

Aidane turned away. “You wouldn’t understand,” she said quietly.

“No? What part of not having a choice do you think is beyond my experience?” There was an edge in Kolin’s voice Aidane had not heard before. “It was not my choice to be brought across. When I was new in the Dark Gift, the hunger that drove me to kill like a wild thing didn’t obey my choices until many years later. It was not my choice to submit to the will of my maker for a hundred years until Lady Riqua purchased my freedom. It certainly wasn’t my choice to lose Elsbet to her father’s rage.” He struggled to temper the anger in his tone. “And it is not my choice to be denied the chance to ever walk in the sunlight again.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Kolin looked at her as if he were debating with himself. “You have a dark gift of your own, I think. Why are you ashamed of it?”

Aidane looked up defiantly. “Who said I was?”

“If you really believe that with your gift you are ‘just a whore,’ in Principality of all places, where they worship Athira the Whore and even the temple oracles join their bodies with the supplicants, then yes, I think you’re ashamed. And I wonder, why?”

Aidane’s heart was pounding. No one had ever questioned why she felt shame. Everyone, from her parents to the Crone priests to the other whores, all made it clear to her that being a
serroquette
was even worse than the common strumpets who sold their bodies but did not permit their entire being to be possessed for coin. “You, of anyone here, know what I am.”

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a virgin in Principality, with the exception perhaps of our queen,” Kolin replied. “They worship the Lover and the Whore, and the kingdom is full of mercs. ‘Experience’ isn’t shameful here, Aidane. You’re not in Nargi anymore.”

Aidane wanted to flee the room. This was not a conversation she had ever imagined having with anyone, certainly not Kolin. And although she had told him that she retained no memory of the reunion between Kolin and the spirit of his dead lover whom she had channeled, she had remembered almost everything. It had been easy, over the years, to block out the awful experiences, the beatings, the enraged clients, the betrayed lovers bent on revenge. Those she could honestly say blurred into a jumble.

But Kolin’s reunion with Elsbet had been so tender and his love for the ghost so sure that the memory burned brightly.
None of those feelings were actually for me
, she reminded herself sternly.
And the kindness now is just gratitude; it’s because of the memory of Elsbet, not really for Aidane
.

“Did you know that a
vayash moru
takes more than blood with a bite?” Kolin’s question pulled Aidane from her discomfort. He did not wait for her to answer. “We taste the life that’s in the blood. With animals, there’s a sense of its fears and abilities. A deer tastes of the forest, of flight from hunters. But with humans, it’s much more.”

Kolin usually kept his eye teeth hidden, but now she could see them plainly. “We can’t subsist completely on animal blood. Sometimes, we’ll feed lightly from a drunk or a willing donor. Through the ages, villages have tied their criminals outside the gates as an offering to us and to the wolves. There and in battle, over centuries, I’ve
drained the life from hundreds of people. And in the draining, there is a… joining… of sorts. Not bodies but memories, consciousness, thoughts. You eat a piece of deer meat and need not really think of the deer. But with the blood, I drain life and self. It’s a far more intimate twining than bodies can ever make.” An edge of bitterness tinged his voice. “So who is the whore?”

Aidane looked up at him slowly, surprised and confused by his confession. “Why tell me this?”

Kolin’s smile was self-deprecating. “I wanted you to know that we have more in common than you thought. I’m willing to bet that, through Elsbet, you saw me as Kolin and not as a
vayash moru
. I’m impressed by the
serroquette
, but I’m more impressed by Aidane.”

“I don’t understand.”

This time, Kolin’s smile held more warmth. “You stayed alive in Nargi, when it’s not a healthy place for our kinds. When the Durim took you, you fought them. When my team rescued you, you took a huge chance to get us out of that ambush. You were willing to carry Thaine’s ghost to warn Vahanian and the queen when holding her inside was difficult, maybe painful for you. And I’m betting that you lied about not remembering the night you brought Elsbet to me, for my sake.”

Aidane blushed and looked away. “Clients prefer to think that,” she mumbled.

“You have the heart of a warrior. You don’t back down. And even though you’re mortal, you risk that precious life—and that
is
a choice.” He shrugged. “I’m impressed.”

To Aidane’s overwhelming relief, a knock at the door saved her from having to respond. Jonmarc Vahanian stood in the hallway.

“Sorry to trouble you, but may I come in?”

Aidane stepped back to permit him entrance. Jonmarc and Kolin acknowledged each other with a nod. “If it’s about Thaine, she’s really gone,” Aidane said.

“I’m not here about Thaine,” Jonmarc said. He glanced up as Kolin moved to slip out the door. “Please, stay. I don’t want anyone running back to Carina with tales of me alone with a
serroquette
.”

Kolin raised an eyebrow and suppressed a smile. “So I’m to be a chaperone?”

Jonmarc shrugged. “Call it what you want. Actually, I’d value your opinion on this, too. Berry asked me to find out if Aidane knows anything about the Buka killings.”

Aidane and Kolin exchanged glances. With a sigh, Aidane motioned Jonmarc to a seat and gave a shorter version of the story she had shared with Kolin. She was pleased that this time, she betrayed little emotion, and she hoped that she shared the information dispassionately. Kolin said nothing, and she felt a flash of gratitude that he did not bring up just how much the dreams had bothered her. When she was finished, Jonmarc sat back and pursed his lips, thinking.

“So you’ve heard from the ghosts without ever leaving the palace. Am I right that taking you to the places the murders occurred wouldn’t be a good idea?”

“I can’t guarantee what would happen,” Aidane said, trying to keep her voice steady, although her heart pounded at the thought.

“I think it would be a very bad idea.” They both looked at Kolin. “When we were on the road to Dark Haven, Jolie and I both saw Aidane be attacked by spirits that wanted to possess her by force. We were able to stop that, but it
was too close for my comfort. If the Buka victims are angry enough to distress her here in the palace, there’s no telling what would happen if you took her to where the ghosts are actually stronger.”

“When I traveled with Tris Drayke two years ago, the ghost of a murdered woman tried to possess Carina and steal her body,” Jonmarc said quietly. “It took a summoner to cast the spirit away. I wouldn’t put you in that kind of danger. But I had to ask.”