Challenges (36 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Lady Eltrina Razas was enjoying herself thoroughly when the knock came at the bedchamber door. It was the deferential knock of a servant, so she ignored it and told her current toy to continue with what he’d been doing. The dear boy had
such
knowing hands and mouth, not to mention the fact that he’d been completely ready for her for quite some time…

“Rot!” Eltrina snarled when the knock came again, this time more insistent. “They’re supposed to go away if I don’t answer the first time. I’m not going to dismiss whoever it is, I’m going to have them drawn and quartered!”

The beautiful young man chuckled as she kissed his desire before getting out of bed, but chuckling wasn’t what Eltrina felt like doing. She hadn’t been joking about the drawing and quartering, and she barely had the patience to pull on a wrap before going to the door. But she was about to find out who was to blame for this intrusion, so she yanked open the door and—

“Please excuse the disturbance, my lady, but Advisory representatives are downstairs demanding to see you,” Shorten, her husband’s majordomo, said as quickly as possible. “I tried to tell them that the hour was much too early, but they refused to be put off.”

“Give me just a moment, Shorten,” Eltrina said quietly before closing the door again. She had no idea what was going on, but when Advisory representatives “demanded” to see someone, that someone obliged or was immediately arrested. It was really bothersome, but going downstairs was preferable to being arrested.

“I’ll be back in just a few minutes, so don’t you go away,” Eltrina said to the beautiful boy as she found a decorous nightgown to put on under the wrap. “Spend the time thinking about what you’ll do next, and if I find I like it I’ll buy you a present you’ll adore.”

The boy nodded with eagerness in his lovely eyes, so Eltrina slipped on a pair of mules and went back to the door. Shorten stood waiting patiently just outside, and when she appeared he led the way downstairs to her husband’s study. Her husband wasn’t in it, of course, since he was currently away on a business trip, but the two strange men who failed to rise from where they sat reminded her strongly of him.

“Lady Eltrina?” one of the two said, looking up from the papers he studied. “I’m Lord Anglard Nobin, and the Advisors speak through my voice.”

“Funny, but I could have sworn that the Advisors had voices of their own,” Eltrina replied dryly, strolling over to sit in a chair opposite the man. “I don’t know why you’re here, Lord Anglard, but you’ll get a lot more accomplished if you come to the point. Wasting time with vague and childish threats is … a waste of time.”

“Getting straight to the point suits me as well,” Lord Anglard agreed without showing anything even vaguely resembling a smile. “You began as the assistant of Lord Ollon Kapmar, became his mistress in a very short time, then took over his responsibilities when he … suffered a personal tragedy. When was the last time you lay with him? Was that also the last time you recall speaking to him?”

“The last time I spoke to him was after the … tragedy,” Eltrina snapped, feeling the heat which had risen to her face. “That was when he asked me to take over his duties until he felt able to return to work. The rest of what you said is disgusting, and I refuse to comment on malicious rumor.”

“Your prestige rose quite a bit when Lord Ollon was incapacitated, didn’t it, Lady Eltrina?” Anglard pursued in the same cold tone. “It was a situation you were hoping for, and one you might even have been willing to arrange. That rumor you mentioned has it that you were more than willing to make Lord Ollon’s absence permanent.”

“I don’t have to sit here and be insulted,” Eltrina said as she rose from the chair, the heat in her face having turned chill. “I don’t know what you’re accusing me of, and seriously doubt if
you
know. I—”

“Sit down, Lady Eltrina,” Anglard ordered in a voice of steel. “You will either speak to us here, or in your cell once you’re arrested. Our forbearance is for your husband’s position, and is merely a matter of courtesy. If you force me to it, that courtesy will be forgotten.”

Eltrina hesitated only a moment before obeying, her mind sick and wild with conjecture. How much did they really know, and how much were they simply guessing at? She
had
intended to have Ollon murdered, but since she never actually got around to it, how much could they do to her?

“Your aspect of talent is Earth magic, I’m told,” Anglard went on in the same chill, distant way. “Just how strong does that talent happen to be, Lady Eltrina? Middle strength, surely, or possibly even more?”

“Are you insane?” Eltrina whispered, no longer able to control her own voice or emotions. “I was declared a Low talent, just like one fifth of the rest of the people in the empire, but what can that possibly have to do with anything else? Why are you doing this to me?”

“Show me your talent, Lady Eltrina,” Anglard commanded, ignoring her plea entirely. “Open yourself to the power, and touch me with your talent.”

Eltrina’s head spun even more wildly, but very frankly she was too frightened to refuse. Everyone involved in a career played stab-in-the-back, and the only hard and fast rule was, Don’t Get Caught. If she’d really been caught, the only thing that might possibly save her was full cooperation.

So she opened her mind to the power, and reached out gingerly to touch Anglard. She gasped when she finally accomplished it, as Anglard was stronger than anyone she had ever met.

“Yes, a Low talent beyond all doubt,” Anglard said, but not to her. He spoke to the other man, who until now hadn’t said a word.

“And her guilt seemed to be over plans she’d made, not over something she’d actually done,” the second man broke his silence to agree. “She was a good possibility, but now we’ll need to look elsewhere.”

“What are you talking about?” Eltrina demanded wildly when Anglard nodded and began to gather up his papers. “What’s going on here?”

“You no longer need to be disturbed, Lady Eltrina,” Anglard said as he rose to his feet. “You were one of our main suspects, but now you’ve been cleared. And, by the way, congratulations on your advancement.”

“Advancement?” Eltrina echoed, barely able to keep control of herself. “What advancement?”

“Why, to the position of permanently replacing Lord Ollon,” Anglard said as he and the other man walked toward the door. “I’m certain it will be yours, now that Lord Ollon is dead.”

Dead! Eltrina slumped back in stunned shock as the two men simply left. Ollon was dead, but … if
she
hadn’t done it, then who had…?

* * *

“Now I’m feeling marvelous,” Delin announced as he joined everyone in the sitting room. “I’ve slept for hours, and I feel like a new man.”

“I’m sorry, Delin, but Kambil has already claimed the new man title,” Bron informed him with a grin while everyone else chuckled. “I’m beginning to think that you two have the same person writing your passing comments for you, and whichever of you arrives first gets to speak them first.”

“Say, I never thought of that,” Delin returned, much too pleased to let some innocent banter disturb him. “Hiring someone to write my comments, I mean. It would certainly save me the effort of having to do it myself, and then I’d be able to avoid the fate of sounding like Kambil’s echo.”

“If you find someone, do let me know what his name is, won’t you, old man?” Kambil drawled, turning away from the tea service with a freshly poured cup. “Just to satisfy my curiosity, of course.”

Kambil’s words had been so thickly coated with innocence that everyone began to laugh really hard, including Delin. It was no longer possible to be angry or impatient with those wonderful people, not since they’d Blended. They were now part of each other, and everything said was simply said in fun. Delin not only knew that, he was endlessly thankful for it.

“Hmmm. I wonder if the rest of us should also be curious,” Bron said after a moment, glancing to Homin and Selendi. “That way we could say the words with them, and correct any mistakes they might make…”

That set them off again, and Delin laughed till the tears ran down his face. Never in his life had he enjoyed himself so much, not even when he—

“Pardon the intrusion, gentles!” a voice said rather loudly, as though it had tried to say the same before. Delin joined the others in turning to the doorway, and was startled to see Lord Idian behind the almost-shouting servant.

“You’ll have to excuse this unscheduled visit, but there’s a very important reason for it,” Idian said as he made his way forward, gesturing at the servant to leave. “Something extremely upsetting has happened, and I’ve been asked to inform all my people.”

Delin disliked the way Idian said, “my people,” but had no intention of making an issue of it. This was probably the announcement he’d been waiting for, and he intended to enjoy every word of it.

“I know you all have reason to remember the source of the scandal Rigos became embroiled in,” Idian said as he sat heavily in the same chair he’d used earlier. “The life which was lost belonged to your stepmother, Lord Homin, and I’m afraid I’m now the bearer of further ill tidings. Your late stepmother’s brother, Lord Ollon Kapmar, has also been murdered.”

Delin joined everyone else as they gasped or made some other show of surprise, and then Bron spoke up.

“You see?” he said, looking around at everyone. “I knew that doing it once meant it was only a matter of time before it was done again. They’d better have already arrested Rigos, and this time they’d better
keep
him locked up.”

“Considering the fact that Rigos and Ollon made a scene at a party last night, they did indeed go to arrest him,” Idian agreed with a nod. “The major problem arising there is that they found him to be beyond arrest. After leaving orders with the servants that he wasn’t to be disturbed under any circumstances, he apparently then proceeded to take his own life.”

This time there was a deep, shocked silence in which Delin fully participated. Rigos had found a way to escape from the horror Delin had planned for him, and it just wasn’t
fair
!

“Young Rigos apparently left a letter for his father,” Idian continued after a moment. “In it he asked forgiveness for his cowardice, but he simply couldn’t bear the accusation any longer. Had he been guilty he could have easily accepted the blame, but as it was… He felt that his life was no longer worth living, as proving the truth to everyone would be impossible.”

“He … could have been lying,” Bron tried hesitantly, the words more a hope than a certainty. “He could have intended to
seem
to kill himself, but expected to be stopped or saved. Afterward people would have believed—”

“Lord Bron, he went to the bath house, entered the water, and opened his wrists with a razor,” Idian interrupted to supply. “After the orders he’d given about not being disturbed, he had no hope of interruption. Special investigators were called as soon as he was found, and they determined that it would have been impossible for him to have killed Lord Ollon. Rigos was, beyond doubt, already dead when Ollon was killed.”

“But … that would mean he really was innocent, and someone else committed both murders,” Bron whispered, his face pale. “He was innocent all along, and I said—”

His words ended abruptly, but Delin almost didn’t notice. A great chill had formed inside him, centering around a suddenly growing fear. He’d left traces to prove that Rigos had killed Ollon, but with Rigos dead first, those traces would prove something else entirely…

“Are you all right, Lord Delin?” Idian said, breaking into Delin’s thoughts. “You appear to be even more pale than Lord Bron.”

“I feel more pale,” Delin said, automatically responding in a way to cover himself. “I knew Rigos since we were boys together, but instead of supporting him I joined the ranks of his accusers. Now I feel as though it were my hand which ended his life, rather than his own.”

“I think we were all equally guilty in that particular area,” Kambil put in quietly, sending Delin a look of support. “We believed the rumor rather than the truth, and tragedy followed. If it were only possible to take back those words and actions…”

He, too, let his words trail off, turning away to bow his head. Delin walked to a chair and sat, almost too numb to notice how Selendi cried against a Homin who seemed deeply touched by tragedy. None of them was taking the supposedly marvelous news at all well, and Lord Idian stirred before rising to his feet.

“Here’s that list of exercises I promised you,” he said quietly, removing a folded sheet of paper from his coat and placing the sheet on a nearby table. “You won’t feel much like practicing for a while, but when you do, follow the instructions carefully. I’ll see all of you again tomorrow.”

* * *

Lord Idian took one last look at the five people, then he left the room. A servant stood near the front door, so in another moment Idian was outside and climbing into his carriage. His driver already had his instructions, which meant that Idian’s carriage left the residence’s drive but not to take him home. When he reached the carriage waiting just out of sight up the street, Idian’s carriage stopped.

“Well?” Lord Anglard asked in the same cold and emotionless voice he’d used since Idian had first met him. “Was it one of them?”

“I’m tempted to say no, but something is keeping me from being completely certain,” Idian replied. “They’ve all changed radically since they Blended, and they’re very difficult to read.”

“How difficult can it be?” Lord Fortner Oplis asked, surprising Idian. “Your talent in Spirit magic is easily as strong as my own, and I’d be able to tell without any trouble.”

“You say that only because you haven’t yet come in contact with High talents, my friend,” Idian rejoined dryly. “You and I are strong Middles, but these people soar way above us. I’ve been able to feel the mountain of strength inside Kambil since the first moment I entered that residence, and the rest of them aren’t that far—if at all—behind.”

“But Delin Moord is the one you were supposed to be looking at the most carefully,” Anglard pointed out. “He’s the one with Earth magic, so he’s the only one who could have accomplished what was done.
He
doesn’t have a mountain of Spirit magic inside him, so what did you learn?”