Betrayals (42 page)

That tiny part of his mind was composed of all the strength and cunning and rebellion that his father had never allowed a very young Delin to show. It was smarter and even more ruthless than the rest of the man named Delin, and many years ago it had … almost separated itself from him. At times it whispered to him, usually when things were going worst, telling him that it would make sure that everything turned out all right. It had whispered to him again only a few minutes ago, and this time it had sounded gleeful.

Kambil wanted lists of things they could do to protect themselves, and also wanted to keep people from knowing what was going on. Those two things were commands to Delin, and even as he trailed along behind everyone else, his inner companion explained how they would take advantage of those commands. Someone without Delin’s experience in controlling his reactions might have laughed out loud, but Delin simply put his unending, simmering anger to the front of his mind and did his laughing behind it.

Soon, very soon, he would be able to take his revenge, and then—then!—

Hallina Mardimil was furious, and she made sure to let everyone around her know it—especially the fool of a man who now stood before her.

“How dare you come to me with nothing to show for all the gold I’ve spent?” she spat, sending her venom full force at the man she spoke to. “You can’t tell me that that ingrate simply disappeared from the face of the world! He must have gone somewhere , and I want to know where that is.”

“My own men have been coordinating the search with the groups assigned to the matter by the Five,” the man, named Ravence, replied wearily. He was a short and pudgy man, but the look in his eyes was anything but soft. “We have our own sources of information to tell us about the things they’re holding back on, and we’ve learned that your son and his friends were taken in temporarily by a bunch of supposed conspirators. They’re firm believers in nonviolence, so the powers that be allow them to continue with their plotting—with suitable watchers keeping an eye on them. They—”

“I don’t care about a handful of stupid peasants!” Hallina interrupted, her small amount of patience long since exhausted. “If my son is among them, why haven’t you gotten him out and brought him to me?”

“I said he was with them temporarily,” Ravence corrected, the look in his eyes sharpening. “He and the others left rather quickly, and the fact that they’re gone entirely from Gan Garee has been confimed. And if you’re dissatisfied with the way I’m handling this, Lady Hallina, do feel free to find someone else.”

“Don’t be insolent!” Hallina snapped, hating the need to associate with a peasant. But more than one person had assured her that Ravence was the best to be had, so she had to put up with his irritating presence. It was a pity that no one of her own class would even dream of doing such menial work….

“It isn’t insolent to expect common courtesy from people,” the man dared to say, looking her straight in the eye. “I know that your sort detests all things common, but in this one instance you will comply, otherwise you’ll have to find someone else. That means I’m not above getting up and walking out, so watch your tone when you speak to me. Now, do you want me to continue?”

What Hallina wanted was to see the man beaten before her eyes, but that couldn’t be done right now. Once she no longer required his services it would be another story, but for now all she could do was nod without speaking.

“Very well,” he said, obviously knowing that he’d gotten all the concessions he would out of her. “Once I knew that your son had definitely left the city, I sent men out along all the major roads to find out which direction he took. They were supposed to stop at both the first and second inns along the way, but the man I sent west got lucky rather quickly. The landlord in the first inn claimed to remember nothing, but one of the serving girls was glad to take my man’s silver. Your son was there with two other men and two women, and they continued on the next morning.”

“So now he’s with two sluts,” Hallina muttered, fury rising in her again. “I kept him pure for so long, and everything was marvelous between us. Then those sluts got their hooks into him, and now he prefers them to me! But once I catch up to them I’ll make them all sorry, you wait and see if I don’t.”

“I now have four of my best people following their trail,” Ravence continued. “They have remounts and pigeons with them, so they can travel fast and keep in touch. When they locate your son and his friends they’ll send me that location, and then I’ll pass it on to you. Is there anything else you want to know?”

“Not at the moment,” Hallina replied, her heart beating excitedly at the thought of being able to give those five vicious children the location. She would throw it in their faces and then march out, and there would be nothing they could do to her after that. Her power and position rested on more than her kinship with three of the former Five, and that those children would eventually learn.

And after her ingrate of a son and his filthy friends were gone, when the Five were least expecting it, Hallina Mardimil would have her revenge against them….

Embisson Ruhl sat leaning on pillows in his bed, still aching from the latest forced trip to the palace. Those people were impossible, now insisting that he wasn’t even allowed to call himself an ordinary lord. Just because those peasants were still on the loose, as though the whole thing really were his fault. This time he’d pointed out that he’d had his orders from Zolind Maylock, but they hadn’t cared. Zolind was dead and so couldn’t be punished, but he remained alive. It had also made no difference that his people were hot on the trail of the fugitives. As long as they remained at large, Embisson would, little by little, lose everything he had.

Or so they thought. A knock came at the door, a knock he’d been waiting for, and when he called out the order to enter, his caller did. Edmin Ruhl, Embisson’s eldest son, closed the door behind himself then walked closer to the bed.

“How are you feeling today, Father?” Edmin asked, his concern most likely real. Embisson had been very close to Edmin while the boy grew up, finding in his first son a kindred spirit. They still enjoyed each other’s company from time to time, and when Embisson’s ills had first begun, Edmin had immediately shown up to help.

“The pain leaves me no more than slowly, and being dragged to the palace helps not at all,” Embisson replied. “I certainly hope you’ve had more success than I have.”

“I made the effort to see how your searchers were doing, and I’ve satisfied myself that they’re overlooking nothing,” Edmin said with a faint smile. “They’ll find those fugitives if it’s humanly possible, but in the interim I’ve done some finding myself. When you spread bribes lavishly in the right quarter, people fall all over themselves trying to earn more. In this case they earned more by supplying the identities of two of your attackers, and my people took the two last night.”

“Those pigs would sell their own mothers for gold,” Embisson said with all the disgust he felt, then he smiled at Edmin. “But you, my son, would make even the most exacting father proud. And you must have gotten an answer, otherwise you would not have come. Tell me who paid for all the pain I’ve had to suffer.”

“The fools tried to insist that they had no idea of the identity of the person who hired them,” Edmin said with a wider smile. “A masked agent hired and paid them, so how were they supposed to know who stood behind the agent? It took a while to make them admit that they’d followed the agent after he’d left, to find out who the man reported to. They had blackmail in mind, of course, and were almost ready to make their demands—of Lady Hallina Mardimil.”

“Her!” Embisson blurted, scarcely believing his ears. “That stupid slut, how dare she!”

“I’d say she discovered that it was you who refused to include her ‘son’ as an entrant from the nobility,” Edmin responded with a small-shrug. “You had no choice, of course, but obviously she refuses to see it like that.”

“Anyone but an utter fool would understand how ridiculous she was to even suggest it,” Embisson said, nearly huffing with outrage. “Just because she’s always insisted to everyone that she bore the boy, that doesn’t change the fact that it was one of her maids who was the child’s real mother. When the girl died, Hallina took the infant away from its father, dismissed the man from her service, and raised the brat herself. There are a few of us who know that, so how was I supposed to pretend that the boy was anything but the peasant he is?”

“You couldn’t have, but the woman is much too self-centered to allow anyone to cross her,” Edmin said. “She obviously considers the action a humiliation, and made the effort to return pain for it. What would you like me to do now?”

“Make suitable arrangements to repay her for her gift to me,” Embisson said, speaking the words Edmin clearly expected—and anticipated with enjoyment. “I want her to suffer just as I have, you understand, not escape retribution in death. I leave it to you to decide what her punishment ought to be—but there’s something more important—and more dangerous—that I must also ask you to do.”

“You needn’t speak the words aloud,” Edmin said at once, deliberately glancing around. “Too often the walls have ears, and we would not want this particular subject to get out. Don’t worry, Father, your enemies are my enemies, and I’ve already begun to look into a way to solve your biggest problem.”

“My son,” Embisson managed to get out, holding out his hand so that Edmin might grasp it in both of his. Pride choked him so badly that he was quite unable to speak, but as his son had said, words were unnecessary. They still thought so very much alike, that Edmin had already begun what Embisson had hesitated to ask of him.

Embisson smiled, pleased and satisfied. Edmin was incredibly good at making plans and seeing them to fruition, at times being even more inventive than his father. Once he felt better Embisson would add his own expertise to the matter, and then, hopefully, the new Seated Five would no longer be in a position to give trouble to anyone!

Eltrina Razas moaned softly, the pain in her wrists so great that it nearly overcame the rest of the pain of her body. Her wrists were fastened with rough rope which was anchored to the wall above the pallet she lay on, a position she’d been in for at least three hours. This was Grail’s latest effort in his campaign to punish and humiliate her, and the fact that the pallet had been put in the main sitting room of the house—with her being absolutely naked on it—made the effort a successful one.

“Ah, there she is,” Grail’s voice came suddenly as he entered the room. “For once right where she’s supposed to be. I hadn’t realized that regular whippings did so well with a woman, or I would have begun the practice a good deal sooner.”

“You should have asked me,” another male voice replied lightly, one Eltrina didn’t recognize. “I’ve always disciplined my wife on a regular basis, and for that reason have never had a moment’s trouble with her.”

The two men came to stare down at Eltrina where she lay, and she couldn’t keep from flinching when she saw that Grail carried the switch he’d been using on her so often lately. Her entire body ached from the beatings, but none of them had been so bad that she was in danger of dying from it. Unfortunately. The thought of death had frightened her at one time, but now she knew there really were things a good deal worse.

“You’ve never met her, I know,” Grail continued to his male companion, “but I’m sure you understand that I’m no longer introducing her to people. She’s here to keep me amused in various ways while I struggle to keep what she nearly caused me to lose, and I’m making appreciable headway. If the Five don’t end up taking her life to pay for her stupidity, that’s all she’ll ever be allowed to do for the rest of that life. What do you think?”

“You were completely correct,” the stranger, a tall, lean, handsome man, said as he stared down at her. “She does have a fairly good body and a certain appeal, so I’ll be pleased to accept your offer. Would you like to remain?”

“If you don’t mind,” Grail answered with a smile, one which made Eltrina’s heart beat harder with sudden fear. “This is the first time I’m requiring this of her, and I’d like to see her reaction to it.”

“Then let’s by all means elicit that reaction,” the stranger said with his own smile, and then it started. He knelt and began to make free with her body, which caused her pain as well as blazing humiliation. She wasn’t able to respond to him, not with the way she felt, but that was clearly of no concern to him. After a few moments of toying with her breasts and poking at her womanhood, he opened his trousers and took her use. She screamed when he forced himself into her, struggling to escape such debasing insult, but the effort was useless. He had his way with her to pleasurable completion, and all the while Grail stood there watching and chuckling.

“That was rather entertaining, and I thank you for the opportunity to indulge,” the stranger said to Grail once he had finished and was again on his feet “What did you think of her reactions?”

“They came as no surprise,” Grail said, disgust clear in his voice even as he avoided looking at her. “She had no desire to squirm for you, but you caused her to do so anyway. She’s nothing but a slut, and fit for nothing but serving men on her back—which she’ll begin to do more frequently now.”

“You sound as though you have definite plans,” the stranger commented with faint curiosity. “Plans beyond simply offering her to a chance business acquaintance.”

“I do,” Grail replied with that same smile as he put a hand to the stranger’s arm, urging the man to walk with him. “There are a large number of men in my employ in just this house alone, and I mean to make her available to all of them. I’ve been taking my own entertainment elsewhere for quite some time, so there’s no reason not to return to that practice. Having her knees spread so often should please her, considering what her habits were….”

Grail’s voice trailed off as the two men left the room, but Eltrina was already weeping silently. He hadn’t just been threatening, she knew; her own husband was actually going to let their servants do as they pleased with her! The peasants would be using her, not the other way about, and the shame of it would come close to killing her. But Grail would make sure she survived, to be certain that she continued to be punished.