Betrayals (10 page)

“You’re right, Naran, we can discuss it later,” Tamrissa said hurriedly when Naran’s voice grew uneven and her rate of breathing increased. “You ought to be told, though, how grateful I am that you didn’t just sit there. If not for you, I’d probably still be trudging down Lanir’s drive, wondering if I’d reach the road before dawn.”

Naran’s agitation eased with that, especially since Rion had put his arms about her again. He would wait with her in the coach because that was all he was currently capable of doing, but the helplessness still rankled. And all he could do beyond that was hope he didn’t nod off while they waited….

CHAPTER EIGHT

Valiant had dozed any number of times during the last hours, but at least he’d been able to keep himself from falling deeply asleep. It was only a small way of fighting against the drug in his system, but it was still better than nothing. At one point a servant had appeared with a tray of food, and had tried to feed him. The food might very well have had more of the drug in it, so Valiant had pretended to be too confused and logy to eat it even with the servant’s help. The servant had left again acting frustrated and annoyed, and Valiant had gone back to fighting the drug while feeling hungrier than ever.

Now there was the sound of the lock being thrown again, but Valiant hadn’t regained enough control of himself to take advantage of it. He wanted to jump to his feet and fight his way out of that room and house, but simply opening his eyes to see who his visitor was seemed to be the most success he was able to claim.

“You’re beginning to really annoy me,” the Razas woman announced when she stopped beside the bed to look down at him. “I’ve just been told that you didn’t eat anything, but that won’t be permitted to continue. When I give you back you have to be in good condition, so after I enjoy you—thoroughly this time!—you’ll eat everything you’re brought. Do you understand me?”

“Have we met?” Valiant asked innocently as he pretended to study her face. “I’m not havin’ luck rememberin’ things, like how I got to this place. And what was that you said we were goin’ to do?”

“Not we, I, ” she corrected, looking more annoyed than ever. “ I’m going to enjoy myself, and whether or not you have any pleasure is entirely irrelevant. And don’t even think about asking me any questions. You can’t seem to remember the answers from one minute to the next, which I’m now told happens at times with that sedative. As if the fool couldn’t have mentioned that in the first place. Take that sheet off you.”

As she spoke she opened her wrap and slipped out of it, then stood naked in a pose she must have considered arousing. Valiant couldn’t imagine any situation in which he would find Eltrina Razas attractive or desirable, not to mention the fact that her presence made the room even smaller. Those two factors combined to add to the woman’s displeasure when she lost patience and pulled the sheet off him herself.

“This is beginning to be a good deal less than amusing,” she growled when she saw his lack of readiness, the look in her eyes close to fury. “I went to a great deal of trouble to have you even for this short amount of time, and early tomorrow morning they’ll be coming to take you back. I will have my enjoyment of you before then, even if you have to spend most of the intervening hours in that tiny box I had prepared. Do you really want to be put into that tiny box?”

Valiant tried to keep the terror from touching him, but even the sedative in his system wasn’t able to do that. The mere suggestion that he’d have to face the equivalent of being buried alive was enough to set his heart pounding and his sweat to turn cold, but it did something else as well.

“Ah, I see there’s something you do remember,” the Razas woman said with a laugh, reaching down to caress him. “We can just dispense with the rest, then, and concentrate on your only current value. Here I come!”

Her tone had changed to a playful one as she came down onto the bed to bestride him, but not to immediately impale herself. She leaned forward first to kiss his face and lick his lips, teasing his arousal with her womanhood. The humiliation was intensely painful for Valiant and so was the revulsion he felt, but nothing seemed able to displace the terror. If he protested in any way she would have him put into that box, and he simply couldn’t bear the thought of it—

“How dare you just walk in here!” the woman suddenly snarled as she looked toward the door. Valiant had heard the door opening, but the sound hadn’t done more than register vaguely in his awareness. “Get out this instant, and go and pack your things. You no longer have a—”

Her words broke off as she colored even more, and then Valiant saw rage explode in her eyes. The doorway was all the way back to the right and well out of his line of sight, so Valiant had no idea about what was happening until he heard the voice.

“I find it really amusing that all you so-called nobles tend to say the same thing,” were the words spoken, very dryly. “ ‘How dare you, how dare you’—as though any normal person needs permission to interrupt you freaks during your perversions. That pile of clothing in the corner appears to be his, so move your oversize backside away from him while this servant dresses him.”

“You have the nerve to come into my house and try to give orders?” the Razas woman spat in response, nevertheless rising quickly to her feet. “You’re even more stupid than you are useless, you ignorant peasant, and it will be my pleasure to—”

Once again Razas’s words broke off, this time with a small shriek as she stumbled back. She’d begun to stalk toward the door, but a heavy wall of flame had erupted into the air in front of her, driving her quickly back. At that point. Valiant could have wept. It was Tamrissa who had appeared, and she’d seen everything.

“ ‘Useless’ isn’t precisely the right term to apply to me,”

Tamrissa said, her words still very dry. “As you can see I do have one use, and I’m still extremely good at it. Have you ever seen someone of my strength burn something from the inside out? The trick is to keep the outside from going up until the inside is completely consumed, but it isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds. For the second and last time, get out of the way so the servant can dress him.”

“How far do you think you’ll get once you leave here?” Razas demanded, nevertheless moving back to allow the husky male servant to reach the pile of clothing on the floor beside the chest. “I’ll have the guard after you so fast that you’ll think they appeared out of thin air! And when Lanir gets his hands on you again, you’ll spend a long time regretting whatever trick you used to get away from him!”

“Lanir won’t ever be getting his hands on anyone again,” Tamrissa commented, faint amusement now in her voice. “You fools had a lot of nerve, letting him call himself the Seated High. Seated Middle was more like it, but he isn’t even that any longer. And you really ought to understand: if you send guardsmen after me and force me to kill them, I’ll consider myself honor bound to come back and do the same to you. Even if you run away and try to hide. I’ll still find you, and then you’ll learn the most efficient way to slow-roast meat.”

Razas paled at that, and the hands of the nervous male servant dressing Valiant began to tremble even more. It wasn’t possible to believe that Tamrissa wasn’t serious, and both of her listeners knew it.

“But you can’t take him,” Razas whispered, her pasty complexion showing the fear which now touched her. “They’ll be here to reclaim him tomorrow morning, and if I can’t produce him—! I’ll pay you gold. Name a price and it’s yours.”

“You can’t afford me,” Tamrissa commented dismissively. “And if his being gone will bring you grief, so much the better. What were they going to do with him?”

“Why should I know or care?” Razas countered, beginning to look frantic as she bent to retrieve her wrap and put it on. “But you can’t let this happen to me, not to me. I’ve almost gotten the power I was always meant to have, so you simply can’t interfere. I’ll give you a thousand gold dins if you just go away, or I’ll use that thousand to buy someone with Fire magic stronger than yours.”

“For some reason you seem to be deliberately trying to miss the point,” Tamrissa said, without the anger which could normally be expected. “There’s no one left with Fire magic even as strong as mine, never mind stronger. Even the Blending we faced in the final competition couldn’t match us, and I suspect that the same can be said of the Seated Five. None of your misnamed Highs and Adepts could do anything like— this, for instance.”

Razas shrieked as the wrap she’d put on began to burn, then terror silenced her as well as freezing her in place. She stood trembling with her fists and eyes closed tight, and in a moment the wrap was completely consumed.

“There, you see?” Tamrissa asked lazily. “There’s nothing left of your wrap but ash, and yet not the least bit of your skin was burned. That should show that I can reach you even if you try to hide in a tight knot of innocent servants, so remember what I said about summoning the guard. Now we’ll be leaving, so help him up.”

That last was to the servant who had finished dressing him, but not in the robe and sandals he’d worn during the competition. Someone had apparently retrieved the pants, shirt, and shoes he’d worn getting to the competition, and that was what he now wore. The servant pulled him up to sitting and then hoisted him to his feet, but even with his arm draped around the servant’s neck and the servant’s arm around his middle, Valiant discovered that he could barely stand, let alone walk.

“Give him all the help he needs,” Tamrissa directed the servant, stepping aside to clear the doorway. “If it becomes necessary, carry him.”

The servant nodded with a grunt and began to half drag him toward the door, and Valiant had never been so mortified in his entire life. Tamrissa was as beautiful and vital as ever, and there he was, being hauled along like a useless side of beef. How many times was he supposed to accept being humiliated in front of her without dying from the shame? He didn’t know, but even one more time would have been too much. For that reason he gritted his teeth and forced himself to walk, if that dragging shuffle could be called walking….

“I think it’s best if you stay in this room until someone lets you out, Eltrina,” Tamrissa said as Valiant was hurried toward the door. The last glimpse he’d had of Razas was the way she still stood rooted to the spot, her eyes now open and visibly filled with fear. “Your people will be told that you don’t want to be disturbed, and I suggest that you make no effort to call for help. The longer you stay locked up and out of touch, the better off you’ll be if the guard comes looking for us after all. It won’t save your life, but it will certainly save you a great deal of pain.”

Valiant heard a sobbing moan come from Razas, and then the servant maneuvered him out of the room and began to guide him up the hall. Behind him he heard the sound of the door being closed and locked, and then Tamrissa moved ahead to lead the way. The way she glanced at him said he wasn’t doing well at all with moving on his own—as though he needed to be told. Valiant made sure to avoid her gaze, concentrating instead on trying to keep up with the servant.

By the time they reached the front hall of the house, Valiant was drenched in sweat and gasping. He’d dreaded the thought that there might be stairs to descend, but his prison had been located at the back of the house rather than on an upper floor. Tamrissa moved forward to open the front door, then followed once the servant had him outside.

“Give me a moment and I’ll have the coach door open,” she said, but the expected delay wasn’t necessary. Naran leaned forward to open the coach door from the inside, and the servant grunted as he lifted Valiant bodily and put him inside on the empty bench seat. Rion shared the seat opposite with Naran, and to Valiant the man looked almost as bad off as himself. That thought cheered Valiant not at all, but it was useful to help him ignore the way he’d been treated like an infant.

“Here, take this for your trouble,” Valiant heard Tamrissa say, and he turned his head in time to see her handing something to the servant. “I’ll appreciate your telling the other servants not to disturb Eltrina, and then you’ll be wise to pack your things and leave. Even if you go and release her at once instead, she’ll never keep you around after you witnessed what was done to her.”

The servant’s expression said he knew that Tamrissa was right, and his curt nod was one of full agreement. He headed back to the house with his fist wrapped tight around the coin he’d been given, and Tamrissa climbed into the coach and closed the door behind her before taking the seat beside Valiant.

“The least he could have done was help me into the coach,” she muttered as she fought her skirts straight, her gaze already on his face. “Valiant, are you all right? You haven’t said even a single word yet.”

“Where is this coach takin’ us?” Valiant obliged in a croak, looking through the window rather than at Tamrissa. “Somewhere where we can eat and sleep for a while, I hope.”

“We need to stop back at Tamrissa’s house,” Naran said, sounding faintly disturbed. “I packed some clothing for everyone, so all we have to do is pick it up. Along with any food we can find. After that we’ll have to find some place to hide, at least until we locate Jovvi and Lorand. Once we do we’ll get out of the city … Valiant, you haven’t said yet whether or not you’re all right.”

“He’s probably no more ‘all right’ than I am,” Rion said after a moment when it became clear that Valiant had no intention of replying. “That damnable drug has taken all my strength both physical and magical, but when it wears off I expect to be able to touch the power again and find myself unchanged. Mother insisted that being pulled out of the Blending so abruptly had caused me irreparable damage, Valiant, but I mean to prove her wrong and I expect you to join me in the endeavor.”

Once again Valiant felt the clutch of fear, this time in regard to his ability. He could vaguely remember someone saying the same thing about him, that his strength would never again be what it had been. Finding out they’d spoken the truth would surprise him very little, especially after the rest of what he’d gone through….