Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) (6 page)

Unfortunately, duty was calling her, and the
longer she stayed in the gardens, the louder it got. It was hard to
ignore that pesky voice in the back of her head telling her she was
just procrastinating. With a sigh, she meandered back towards the
palace and made her way to the suites that Lord Telvani had, until
recently, occupied. The guards at the door nodded to her and she
searched their faces for that of Philip, with whom Phoenix always
got along with well. He had the patience of a saint and didn’t seem
to mind doubling as guard and baby-sitter while she looked through
the books they had gotten from Telvani.

“Where is Philip today?” she asked the other
guards.

“Out with a cold, Your Majesty,” said the one
nearest her, saluting her smartly. He was a bit rigid for her
tastes. With regret, she doubled back to the nursery to leave
Phoenix with Amelia. She hated to bother any of the other guards
with the task of watching her, as they always looked put out at
this request, though she would have preferred having Phoenix close.
She entertained the idea of asking Amelia to come back with her,
but she felt too guilty asking her to leave the comfortable nursery
in favor of the stuffy office. The woman might still be as feisty
as she was in her youth, but her body was starting to show its
age.

Once she was back at Telvani’s suites, the
guards nodded to her once more, looking relieved that she no longer
had the child. She opened the vault they had discovered there, and
murmured the key to get past the magic that they had put on it to
keep it from prying eyes.

Tomes of blood-magic did not need to be seen
by just anyone. Layna had wanted to destroy them when they’d first
been confiscated, but Gryffon had pointed out that the knowledge
within them might actually be useful. They hoped that something in
the troves of information might contain some clue as to what
Telvani had been up to.

Layna sat down in the chair she had occupied
too much of late and started reading. Hours passed with no luck,
and Layna rubbed her temples. She glanced out the window and forced
her tired eyes to focus on the trees in the distance. They wavered
slightly, but eventually cleared and focused.

Most of what she read simply sickened her. A
large number of the spells focused on the application of pain in
order to release the most power from a creature rather than on the
intricacies of the spell itself. Many of them were tasks that could
be completed without the use of blood-magic, but the authors seemed
disinclined to mention this fact.

Blood-magic was an easy way for a less
capable mage to wield the power, by using the sacrifice’s body to
buffer the blow of drawing out more magic than they would otherwise
have been able to manage, so the mage could become much stronger
than they once were. These spells also tended to gravitate more
towards destruction, the tomes including long winded explanations
of all the nasty creatures you could come up with and horrendous
traps and killing spells that could be implemented with it.

The blood-magic itself, while still horrible
enough as it required causing pain or death in another being, did
not necessarily mean that the magic it provided would be used for
an evil purpose, though anything tainted by it was prone to be.

The need to look at the horrendous tomes made
her feel ill and she stood to take a break. Moving to the desk that
Telvani had once used, she searched it once again for signs of his
activities. She opened the drawer and shuffled through the papers
listlessly. They had been looked through so many times before she
had little hope of finding anything new now. Even Gryffon, with his
experience in espionage and codes, could find nothing suspicious
about the documents.

As she slid her hand along the edge to grasp
the sides to take them out, her finger caught on something, and a
sharp pain shot up her arm.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed, pulling her hand out
of the drawer and scattering the papers all over. She examined the
cut dispassionately, and sighed as she looked down at the mess. She
gathered all the documents back together, and tapped them on the
desk to get them in order.

Something caught her eye in the drawer, and
she peered closer. The area where she had cut her hand looked
slightly different from the rest of the wood. She carefully ran her
finger against it, mindful of the possibility of injuring herself
further, until she came across the section which had cause the
wound.

She hooked her fingernail underneath the tiny
lever and clicked it outwards. A long sliver of wood swung out, and
as it did so, the bottom of the drawer popped up slightly.

“Well, I’ll be…” Layna murmured and reached
in to remove the panel. Underneath were piles of more papers, all
with a particular symbol etched into the top right corner, the
symbol of the Order, but slightly modified. It must be Telvani’s
correspondences to his new faction of the Order, the Faithful!

Layna picked these up with glee and read
through them quickly. The first few gave no more information than
they had already gathered themselves, though they were an unwelcome
reminder of the humiliation of what was going on behind their
backs.

One near the bottom, however, spoke of a
project on a much greater scale. One that would make certain that
Lord Telvani would have the support he needed to gain control of
the country. Layna gathered up all of the hidden papers and rushed
from the room, sweeping past the throng of aides to find
Gryffon.

He was talking with the royal mages, and by
the expression on his face, they had come no closer to figuring out
what was wrong with the Council members. They had several of them
transported to the palace to keep an eye on them and hopefully
quell any rumors of what was going on. Layna hated the need to not
be forthcoming with the people, but the last thing they needed was
to hear about yet another misfortune in the government. It was
supposed to be a time of healing.

“Gryffon, love,” she interrupted his
conversation.

He looked to be just as relieved to be torn
away from his task as she had from hers and she held up the papers
triumphantly. “I may have finally found something useful,” she told
him and his eyes looked at the documents greedily.

“Where did you get them?”

“From a secret compartment in Telvani’s
desk.”

“You’re kidding me - we searched that thing
top to bottom for just that reason!”

“I know, but this one was well-hidden. It was
only because the tiny latch caught my finger that I noticed it at
all.”

“What was in there?”

Layna held out the papers to him and waited
impatiently for him to peruse them. All the while her mind was
whirling with the implications. The papers seemed to suggest that
there was a Faithful stronghold somewhere nearby where this project
was being conducted. Papers pertaining to several prominent members
of the Order escaping were also present in the pile and Layna drew
the conclusion that perhaps one or more of these people were
responsible for the overseeing of the project.

When Gryffon finally looked up, she started
right in on her ideas. “I think that these people,” she pointed to
the list of escapees, “are possibly involved in it. We should start
investigating all of their properties and find out if there are any
estates that they still control or that their family doesn’t use
regularly that could have been commandeered for Telvani’s
project.”

“We should call Natalya too,” Gryffon added
and Layna gave him a confused look. He pointed out another section.
“It mentions a lot about people being transported to this place
that we can probably safely assume are prisoners, but what about
these ones?” His fingers outlined several passages for her, “There
are no prisons anywhere near these areas, and look at the last one
here.”

“Hardonia.” Layna’s lifted spirits dulled
slightly. Natalya’s sister was being used in some sort of
experiment. Some kind of experiment that had led to Lord Telvani
becoming a blood-thirsty creature in their dungeon. She
shuddered.

She and Gryffon had returned to the main part
of the palace to put their plans into motion when they were
interrupted by another servant.

“Beg your pardons, Majesties, but Lady Aria
from Treymayne has arrived and requested that she speak with you
straightaway.”

Layna and Gryffon exchanged a look. Treymayne
was tentatively their ally, but given that the two countries had
been isolated from one another for hundreds of years and then when
they were suddenly thrown back together King Nathair had almost
immediately began a war with them, relations were still tense. With
everything that was going on, they didn’t really need more problems
from their neighbors.

“Very well,” Layna acknowledged, “bring her
to the council room and we’ll be there shortly.” They hurried back
to their suite and stowed away the documents in a magical safe,
making their way back to the council room. Layna hated to imagine
what they would say to the emissary about their missing
Council.

The doors were opened at their approach, and
Layna stepped alongside Gryffon into the vast room. It looked even
bigger when it wasn’t filled to the brim with Council members and
members of the public alike. Since Layna had taken over, they had
tried to emulate more of the Treymaynian methods of governing by
welcoming the public into many of the meetings and encouraging
their input. At least they had been. Lately, they hadn’t even been
able to hold any open courts for the people to share their
grievances. Not since the Council had all simultaneously gone
mad.

Lady Aria was seated in the middle of the
large table and she stood to greet them. She hugged them both
–momentarily forgoing the formalities of both their posts – and
though Layna was extremely comfortable with her relationship with
Gryffon, given the past that Lady Aria had shared with him it still
gave her an uncomfortable twinge.

After Aria’s father, Baron Asheron, had been
murdered by the foul play of Lady Jezebel, Lady Aria had decided to
become more involved with politics. She found that it agreed with
her, and had been elevated to be part of the Triumvirate within the
Ieldran, one of three of the most exalted ranks, and one which her
father had previously held.

She invited them both to sit informally and
they did so, waiting for her to speak.

“The Ieldran has been in talks about
proposing a merger between our two countries,” she began and Layna
lifted an eyebrow. That had not been what she’d been expecting. The
lady continued, “Given that we were one big country previously,
with only the barrier that forced us to function as two separate
entities, and now that you are adopting an extremely similar
government, I have been suggesting that we unite together again as
one.”

“I assume you have given some thought as to
how we would merge?”

“Indeed. My thought is that the capitol would
be Endlyfta as it was in ancient times, but Naoham would continue
as a satellite area to house members of the Council from this end
of the country. A permanent gate could possibly be constructed
between the two for easy communication. Though we haven’t yet
succeeded in our trials of such a feat, we believe it to be
possible.”

“And what of the current councils?”

“They would be combined, and the two of you
and the Triumvirate of the Ieldran would be equals in status.”

“That leaves five people with a final say.
What if we can’t agree? Treymayne would have the deciding vote,
though representing a much smaller percentage of the
population.”

“There will be one vote from Gelendan and one
from Treymayne. The vote of the Council will be the deciding
factor, and there will be equal representations from every corner
of the country.”

“What would the new country be called?”

“We have not yet come to a conclusion on
that, but wanted to present you with the idea first. I had been
hoping to present it to your Council as well, but I am told they
are not currently in session.”

“That is a most interesting proposal, Lady
Aria,” Gryffon admitted, avoiding her questioning gaze regarding
their Council. “We will have to discuss it privately before sharing
any thoughts with you.”

She nodded graciously and stood, bowing to
each of them before exiting.

Gryffon turned to Layna, “Well, that was
unexpected. What do you think?”

She paused in contemplation before offering
an opinion. “I think it could be a very good thing. Other than
keeping to themselves behind the barrier, the Treymaynian ideals
are in line with Gelendan’s.” She gave him an impish grin,
momentarily ignoring the seriousness of the subject. “They did
produce the most wonderful man in the world, after all.”

He smiled back at her obligingly.

Her expression turned thoughtful once more.
“Added stability to our country would be a very positive thing.
Especially in light of this Council business. There is simply too
much to do it all ourselves.” Layna bit her lip, a habit Amelia was
trying to break. “I do have to wonder at their motives a bit…but I
suppose that merging with us would prevent them from being invaded
again. And it would allow them to at least partially control our
much greater resources and power, which, I’m sure, would give them
a greater sense of security. It would be nice to be able to share
some of our responsibilities…”

“I agree,” Gryffon nodded, “but we have
pressing matters to contend with at the moment before we can give
it proper thought. We don’t want to rush into something so drastic
just because we are feeling overwhelmed.”

“We need to find where Lord Telvani was
conducting his project and contact Natalya and the Knights.”

They stood and left the council chamber,
falling silent.