Bloodtraitor (17 page)

Did Nathaniel realize I was probably the
last
person he should be relying on to negotiate with a falcon? Considering how my father's people thought of mongrels like me, I would be safer with Jaguar.

I don't know what you're thinking, Nathaniel, but it isn't a good idea.

“YOU ARE HARA
Kiesha Cobriana,” Ashley murmured to the lethargic serpent. “You are heir to the serpiente throne. You are one of the strongest women I ever met.”

Ashley's memories of the days before she came to this place were faded and blurry, but Hara's needling these past weeks had brought a few things into focus. Ashley had no interest in remembering who
she
used to be, but she knew who Hara was supposed to be, and couldn't stand to see her so cowed.

The serpent's eyelashes fluttered, but her eyes didn't quite open. “Leave me alone.”

Ashley looked instinctively at the door, though she knew Master Gabriel wouldn't be back for hours.

“Hara Kiesha Cobriana,” she tried again, using the name like a magical spell to draw the cobra back to herself. “If you—”

“What is the
point
?” Hara snarled, finally looking up. “It's been weeks. My father isn't coming for me. Either Nathaniel didn't tell him I'm here, or Midnight wouldn't let him buy me out, but he
isn't coming
.”

“That's the only reason you were fighting?” Ashley asked. “You were waiting for someone to rescue you?”

She was hoping to get a rise out of the other woman. Hara's glare was halfhearted, but it was something.

“What right do you have to criticize?” Hara challenged. “You let him treat you like a pet. You deny even
remembering
you were once Alasdair.”

Every time I caught a glimpse of Hara with Alasdair, I wanted to hate her more, but ended up hating her a little less instead. I wanted to be angry that Alasdair was supporting the woman who had sold Shkei into slavery, but after each vision ended, I had to admit I admired how Hara—even while fighting tooth and nail to retain any semblance of self—was still pushing “Ashley” to admit who she had once been.

Had the falcon Jaguar worked with held on to who she was? He had expressed frustration with her and her kind, so she had clearly given him some trouble, but he wouldn't normally work with Nathaniel to sell her unless he felt she was ready to serve. It didn't seem like a trainer to give up on a project.

My head was spinning with possibilities—some good, and some very bad—as the guard escorted me into the Shantel village and straight to the sakkri's hut, giving me no time to compose myself or look for Kadee. Inside, the elderly priestess was conversing with a fair-haired woman.

The falcon was wearing slim leggings, high boots, and a low-backed bodice that left bare the place where she would have worn wings on the falcon homeland, Ahnmik. She didn't seem to be armed, but a master of Ahnmik's magic didn't need to be.

“Charis?” I asked, assuming this was the falcon Nathaniel had borrowed from Jaguar.

The falcon spun about as if startled.
“Hehj?”

Instantly, I realized every assumption I had made was wrong. The wide eyes that stared at me with apparent excitement were pale green, more like my brother's or sister's than any falcon I had ever met, and there were no traces of blue or violet power in her hair. Her skin was fair by local standards, but did not have the unnatural porcelain color it should have.

She was a falcon. I was sure of it. But I was equally sure that this girl had less power than I did.

Her expression held bright hope. “You know Charis?” she asked in the falcon's native language.

I looked toward the sakkri, hoping she could explain what was going on.

“We have struggled to communicate clearly,” the sakkri said. “Our languages have some similarities, but many differences, and she does not seem to speak the native tongue. I believe she was on her way to Midnight.”

I nodded, dazed. The more powerful falcons spoke multiple languages, but this one was
ka'jaes,
without magic, which meant she had probably never been taught anything but the language of Ahnmik.
“Hehj'rsh'hena?”
I asked.
Who are you?

I could tell from her wince that my pronunciation was off, but I was trying to speak a language I had literally learned through childhood
dreams
. She should be grateful I spoke her tongue at all.

“La…”
She responded in her own language, just as haltingly, though surely for other reasons.
“La'Keyi'nasa'ha'o'Alain'ra'o'aona'Araceli.”

I repeated the foreign words, not because I didn't understand them, but because I didn't understand how they were
possible.
This powerless slip of a girl was claiming to be an emissary for Lord Alain, son of the heir to the falcon empress. That seemed odd enough, but in giving her name, she had included none of the lengthy titles of which falcons were so proud.

Of course she doesn't have a title,
I thought.
She's ka'jaes.

I reached toward her magically, opening myself up to the swirls of fate and prophecy that danced around every living creature.

Mistake.

She
had no power, but somewhere on her person, she was wearing a talisman embedded with the magic of the royal house of Ahnmik. When my poorly disciplined power brushed over it, I was dragged into a tornado of politics, passion, intrigue, and betrayal.

“I gave Charis more freedom than her birth would have allowed her. I allowed her…many freedoms.” Alain paused, then, finally, he confided, “I knew what she was doing. I tried to ignore it, but once her treason became too loud, I couldn't let it go. Charis would have gotten herself killed if she had gone through with her plans, and she would have brought a lot of people down with her. And it never would have worked.”

“I was never really privy to her plans,” Keyi said. “Mostly…we played chess.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, in the rhythmical language of Ahnmik. The vision wasn't clear enough for me to understand what relationship this powerless girl had to the most powerful man in Ahnmik, or the falcon who had been sold to Jaguar.

“My lord sent me to assess the strength of the vampires' empire, to advise him as to whether an alliance would be profitable.” She frowned. “Something knocked me from the sky.”

My stomach sank. I shuddered to imagine Mistress Jeshickah and the falcon empress, two near immortals with a thirst for power and nothing but ice in their souls, allied.

The sun itself would fall before them.

We were lucky the girl had made the mistake of traveling over Shantel land.

“To whom am I speaking?” the ka'jaes—
Keyi,
she had called herself—asked testily.

Truth, or lie?
Most falcons could sense a lie, but this one didn't have the power to do so.

“La'Malachi'ra'Obsidian,”
I answered, erring—unusually enough, for me—on the side of the truth.

The words clearly answered none of her questions.

“But who
are
you? Did my lord send you to check on me?” she asked nervously.

“Why would he need to check on you?”

I tried again, and this time got a clearer picture of the situation.

Two women, sitting at a chessboard.

“They'll let this entire world die if they continue this way,” Charis grumbled as she moved her bishop across the board to take Keyi's rook. “Did you know it has been nearly a century since there has been a pureblood birth that did not result in a ka'jaes child?”

Charis considered the fact that she was alive and sane despite being half crow a sign that the empress was unnecessarily destroying their world through her laws against
quemak
children.

“Pureblood
ranked
birth,” Keyi corrected absently as she considered her next move. “Risha was executed last week.” Ka'jaes falcons conceived far more easily than magic users, but doing so was as forbidden as the conception of
quemak.
Risha had been allowed to deliver her child—the empress would never allow the destruction of an infant, unborn or not—and then put to death.

“My apologies,” Charis said. “Your kind and mine are the exceptions.”

Though Keyi claimed to speak for the son of the heir to the Empress, if she had followed Charis, she was as guilty of treason as her predecessor.

Once again, I used the truth.

“I'm
quemak,
” I admitted, and saw her eyes widen. “I was born in Midnight.” Many of Ahnmik's words had shades of meaning. The word I used for “born” was not the one usually used for children. This one could just as easily mean “created.” It was more accurate. “I have never been to Ahnmik, and I owe no loyalty to the falcon royal house.” She flinched instinctively at those words, which would have been treason if I had spoken them to…no, they
were
treason. If this girl reported back to the royal house about my existence, Ahnmik might very well feel the need to get rid of me. They had ways of tracking a traitor that were a good deal more frightening than those the serpiente employed.

If she doesn't choose to side with us, we will have to kill her,
I thought.
She has so little power, the royal house won't be able to tell exactly what happened to her.

“You're loyal to Midnight?” she asked.

I looked at the sakkri, who had been waiting patiently, and said, “I don't know what value she has in terms of Nathaniel's plan, but I think it's worth bringing her in as an ally.” Better than having a woman with the ear of the royal house on any other side.

“I concur. She's a catalyst,” the sakkri said. “Like you are.”

“Catalyst?” I asked.

“Your being in a place and time changes it,” she elaborated. “You walk through visions and use those visions to guide you even when you think you are blind. How else did you end up here today when we needed you?”

“Nathaniel sent me.”

“You made Nathaniel send you,” the sakkri said. “He does not know yet that she is here.”

Keyi cleared her throat, clearly irritated that we were speaking around her in a language she didn't understand.

“I apologize,” I said, switching back to the falcon tongue. “I needed to explain the situation. As for my loyalty, I am as loyal to Midnight as you are to Ahnmik.” Her eyes widened, and I saw the instinct to protest, but I didn't let her continue. “Charis was your leader, wasn't she?”

I could see her weighing the risks of answering honestly, and considering the treason I had spoken myself, before she said, “Yes. Alain sent her to Midnight as punishment for her treason…or for getting caught, anyway. He thinks a poor, powerless peasant like myself will be too grateful for his royal attention to hold a grudge and too stupid to realize he will get rid of me the same way when I cease to be useful. Is she alive?”

The falcon royal house made Jeshickah's arrogance look like nerves. Then again, they made her power look like a child playing house, too.

“Alive, yes,” I answered. “I do not know if she is well, but I think I can bring her here.” Of the sakkri, I asked, “How quickly can you get a message to Nathaniel?”

“Within moments,” she answered. “He is carrying a talisman of ours.”

“Tell him to bring Charis here,” I said. If Charis wasn't broken, she would surely tell Keyi that the last thing the world needed was a Midnight-falcon alliance. And if it was too late for Charis, that too would make the point I wanted.

While we waited for Nathaniel and Charis, I looked for Kadee. I wished Keyi would stay behind with the sakkri, but wasn't surprised that she followed the one person she had found who spoke her language.

I found Kadee practicing her archery with some of the Shantel hunters. When she saw me, she dropped her bow—causing quite a few winces from the Shantel around her—and ran to my side.