Cursed by Ice (18 page)

And yet it was a struggle for him to care about his own preservation when he knew Sarielle might be out there, a victim to the mage. The gods only knew what he might do to her.

Dejected, Garreth followed his brother back to the Kithian keep. They arranged for search parties to travel both the roads leading out of Kith, in the hopes they might stumble upon the mage when his guard was down and his magic was not in play, and to search other cities for someone to help them find Sarielle.

That left Garreth with nothing to do but wade through the burdens of his day. He struggled to focus on the tasks at hand: the rebuilding of the city, the feeding of his army, the control of the Kithian peoples, and the process of freeing the slaves for good and all. When Sarielle came back, he thought, it would be to the city he had promised her. A city without slavery. A city where she would be free to live for all the rest of her days as an equal to any other Kithian.

Nay. Better than any other Kithian. As their leader, if she would have the position.

To help him feel as if she would be returning soon, he had her things removed from her old rooms and brought into the bennesah’s mistress’s quarters, which were adjacent to his rooms. The bennesah’s mistress, who had gone relatively unnoticed to Garreth before this and who was still in residence, was moved to Sarielle’s old room. She did not seem to take great offense, however, which
Garreth might have noticed as being odd had he not been so preoccupied. As it was, the beautiful young woman proved to be a helpful resource when it came to information about the city and its workings … and most important, in the navigation of its interpersonal relationships. She seemed to have a knack for soothing the many frayed tempers and ruffled and indignant feathers of those close to the government who were being forced to adjust to a life without slaves.

Davine, for that was her name, showed such a usefulness that Garreth and Dethan were willing to overlook the way she was trying for all she was worth to make inroads into Dethan’s bed, trying to secure a future for herself with the new power in the city. But the young woman, for all her perfect figure and kempt beauty, was sorely disillusioned if she thought she could hold a candle to his absent wife. It did not matter how long Dethan was away from Selinda; he would never be unfaithful to her. His devotion was pure. Untouchable.

And that is when Davine thought to turn her sights on the other brother. She began by showing great concern for the missing slave girl, offering to help Garreth in any way. She hid her fury when her rooms were taken from her. Showed him only her most pleasant nature. Garreth, preoccupied with other things, completely missed the true nature of her machinations.

“My lord,” she said to him in her softest, most concerned voice, “you must take a small amount of respite.” She handed him a cup of wine and moved behind him to rub away some of the tension that was knotted in his shoulders. “The riders will be here within days with news of a mage or magess who can do your bidding.”

“Days is too long,” Garreth said bitterly. “There’s no telling what he might do to her in the meanwhile.”

“He will not hurt her,” she said. “She is too valuable to him.”

“Nor will he let her go as long as she is.”

“But it is good she has value,” Davine said as she leaned her supple body against his back. “For if she were to lose that value, the wrena would be of no use to him.”

“Away,” he said irritably to her, brushing off her attempts to physically comfort him. “I thank you for your concerns, but I have work to do.”

Davine reigned over her temper. She had not gotten where she was by letting her caustic nature show. She was an expert at presenting the image a man wanted to see. If he felt compassion for a slave girl, then so be it. She too would be a slave.

“I’m sorry,” she said meekly, putting her head down and standing away from him. “The bennesah always made me do that. I thought … I thought you would like it too. Please don’t be angry with me.”

“I am not angry with you,” Garreth said with surprise in his voice. “I simply don’t need that kind of comfort.”

“Then you will not punish me?” she asked hesitantly, looking at him through her lashes. She squeezed out a tear, letting it drop down her cheek.

“Punish you?” he asked in a hard voice. “Is that what the bennesah did when you did not make him happy?”

“Yes, my lord,” she said quietly.

“Well, that will not happen now or ever again. If you wish to help … fetch me some more wine, then see about getting some food on my table.”

“Oh, I’d be happy to, my lord,” she said eagerly. She went to fetch him the wine and brought it to him, taking the opportunity to brush up against him again.

She had been in the rooms adjacent to the bennesah’s, and so she had heard a great deal through the door between
the rooms. Not the least of which was the passion he had shared with the slave girl. He was most certainly a lusty man, from the sound of it, and with the slave girl out of the picture, he would probably be in need of a woman in his bed. She was determined to be that woman.

And she would be, no matter what it took.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Garreth was mentally and physically exhausted. Dusk had come and gone again, and there was still no sign of Sarielle. Dawn was creeping into the sky, and he had not slept since he had discovered Sarielle was missing. He was out on the walls of the keep, the cool air blowing past him as he looked down on the city.

Where could she be? What else could he possibly do to find her? Once again he thought of going into the Asdar Mountains to search for Koro. He wished he too had some way of calling him.

And that was when a huge, winged creature flew past him, skimming so close and with such a huge wash of air that Garreth nearly tumbled over the wall and onto the rocks below. As he gripped the wall and regained his balance, he looked with shock and a surge of hope as Koro settled, digging his talons into the stone of the keep’s walls, his great wings out for balance.

Koro! It was most certainly Koro with those blue iridescent scales that sparkled here and there with the red gemstones stuck between them.

The great beast chuffed out a breath of air and fire, the flames warming Garreth as he stood in awe beneath him. He grinned from ear to ear.

“Koro! She sent you, didn’t she? My clever girl!”

Koro simply looked at him. It was as though Koro were expecting something from him.

“Tell her I’m coming for her! I’ll do whatever it takes, but I will find her!”

Koro spread his wings, the rising sun showing through their membranes, displaying blood vessels and knobby bones. Then Koro was up again in a great wash of air and circled the keep … then the city, then came back again and chuffed fire over Garreth’s head.

Garreth got the message instantly.

“Dethan!” he shouted as he went into the keep and ran down the hallways. He got to his brother’s room and thundered his fist against the door. “Dethan, get up!!”

A very groggy Dethan opened the door. “Damn you, Garreth, can’t it have waited an hour?”

“No! Koro is here!”

That woke Dethan up instantly. “Is he attacking?”

“No! He’s waiting! I think he wants us to follow him. I think he wants to lead us to Sarielle!”

“What if he wants to lead us into a trap?” Dethan said with a dark frown.

“I don’t give a fuck!” Garreth said explosively. “Whether it’s a trap or not, it’s leading us toward Sarielle. If he wanted to kill me, he could have picked me off just now. Roasted me like a duck where I stood. I think he wants to lead us to Sarielle so we can help her.”

“And suddenly you can read the mind of this thing? You aren’t a wrena, you know.”

“And you aren’t an idiot! Surely you can see what’s happening here! Or am I mistaken?”

“No,” Dethan said, “I’m not an idiot.” He scratched his head. “All right, then. Let me put some armor on. You do the same. Have someone prepare our horses, and get a small group of men together. We’ll ride out,
follow this thing, and see where it takes us. But I’m warning you. If you get me killed, Selinda’s going to take your head off.”

“I know. Trust me. I’ll do everything I can to keep you alive. Weysa would be just as pissed at me and I can’t afford either one of them being mad at me.”

“All right. I’ll be there in a minute.”

He shut the door and Garreth hurried off toward the main hall so he could find some men.

The only person there was Davine. She was sitting in front of a fire, her body lounging on a chaise. It was pretty early in the morning, so he was surprised to see her there.

“Davine, have you seen any of my men?”

“No, but I could go get someone for you,” she said helpfully.

Garreth smiled, walked over to her, and touched her chin affectionately. “You’re a very good girl,” he said. “That would be very helpful, yes.”

She smiled brilliantly at him. She was up and out of the room in an instant. As Davine ran from the room, she chuckled to herself. Her plan was working. He was beginning to see her. All she had to do was continue to figure out what he needed, what he liked, and soon he would be completely molded to her hand.

Garreth paced the hall as he waited for his men. He wanted to be gone. He couldn’t see Koro from the hall, but he hoped the wyvern understood that he was coming, that he just needed a moment to get his feet beneath him. He had never been so impatient in his life as he was in that moment.

He was going to find her. Koro would bring him right to her—no magician’s magic would hide her from her wyvern. He wished he had a mage of his own to counteract the mind magic of this one, but he did not. He would have to do his best and hope that it was enough.

Dethan was there minutes later with Tonkin by his side. He eyed his brother. “No armor?” he asked.

“No,” Garreth said. “Unlike you, I don’t require armor.”

“Damage can still slow you down,” Dethan said with a frown.

“And I can move faster without it.”

“Very well, brother,” Dethan said reluctantly. “Let’s follow a wyvern!”

The brothers set out within the hour to follow Koro as he reeled and dipped in the morning sky, apparently very satisfied that they were following him. He kept buzzing them, his great wings flapping and washing air down over them.

“All right, you overgrown bird!” Dethan cried after the tenth time he did it. “You’ll blow me off my horse!”

“He’s playing with you,” Garreth said with a chuckle. “Remember, he’s very young yet.”

“Which prompts the question, is he really leading us to her or is he just playing?”

“We’ll find out soon enough. Now, let’s go! They are over a day’s travel ahead of us!”

Both brothers urged their mounts faster, following the spike-tailed beast.

In the back of the wagon, Sarielle was sitting with her eyes closed, keeping in touch with her wyvern. Through his mind, she felt Garreth was coming for her, following Koro as Sarielle had hoped he would.

Koro was playing with the men … or at least that was the impression he was giving her, that he was having fun. She chuckled to herself as she thought of what that might mean. How exactly does a wyvern play with a human?

Sarielle sat back with a sigh. Communicating with Koro was exhausting sometimes. His thoughts could be
very unfocused, his natural instincts getting the better of him. But she was pretty sure he was leading the men from the keep in the right direction. She was assuming it was Garreth … and maybe even his brother Dethan. But she couldn’t be sure. Koro’s description of the men was a little vague: “short” and “tiny” and “shiny metal skin” could mean just about anything, but it sounded a lot like men in armor.

Sarielle looked down at her sisters. Her real sisters. She knew for sure these were not changelings this time. The changelings had been called forth with the power of the mage’s magic. They were real beings that were able to take on the appearance of anything they wished. That was why she hadn’t been able to see through the magic. They had not acted like children because the mage had controlled the changelings, and his concept of how a child should behave was distorted. There had never been children in the bennesah’s household. He had no heirs. His wife had died trying to birth his only child and the child had followed quickly after. It was one of the events that had colored him against mating Sarielle to another slave. As much as he would have liked to breed the strength of her line, he had not wanted to risk losing her and the power of the wyvern.

The mage had no idea that men from the city were on their way. Perhaps if they caught him off guard they could end this without any of them, her or her sisters, getting hurt.

She began to sing softly to the girls, always keeping her mind open to Koro. In the back of her mind she could feel him swooping and dipping, cutting sharply through the air and blowing fire. All of these things came so naturally to him, including his naturally playful personality. Sometimes she wished she could share this with others, so they could feel the sheer freedom and joy in the wyvern’s heart. His life and needs were simple: food
in his belly, air beneath his wings, gems and shiny things for his nest. When he got older, she supposed he would want a mate. And when that mate laid eggs, he would father the hatchlings. Wyverns in the wild were opposite to humans in that the female came and went as she pleased and the male watched over the nest. In the human world, the men came and went and the women were left to nurse.