Heroes Return (40 page)

What a mess. Really. Fiona didn’t need this. A disaster to join the string of incidents that the tenants felt she was responsible for. People had died, and grief easily turned to anger. I had no doubt there would be those who would blame Fiona for this as well.

What would they do, if they got angry enough? Were there other challenges like the retesting that they could force Fiona to meet? Would they just leave? Could they leave?

Maybe it would be better if they did leave. Then new people could move in, people who didn’t have preconceived notions of who should be the titleholder, people who could support Fiona in the manner she deserved.

We took the bend. There were no groups working on rocks beyond it. None that I saw. Of course, my attention was pretty thoroughly absorbed by the sight of Lila swinging a shovel at Fiona.

Fiona ducked and made a grab for the shovel, but missed. Lila swung again, aiming for Fiona’s head.

Taro started running at them. I followed, but slowly, too tired for more than a light jog.

Fiona, I would have thought, should have been able to stop Lila, shovel or no. But Fiona was clearly exhausted, and Lila moved as though she were at full strength. I couldn’t remember seeing her with any of the groups I’d worked with. That didn’t mean she hadn’t done any work, but she certainly looked like she was full of zeal.

And Fiona, rather desperately avoiding the swings of the shovel, stepped back into some loose rocks and fell flat on her back. Lila raised the shovel over her head, obviously planning to bring it down as hard as she could. But the angle implied she meant to use the flat of the shovel, not the edge, which was an interesting choice.

Taro tackled Lila when the shovel was an arm’s length above Fiona’s head. Fiona had been rolling away, but it looked doubtful she’d have been able to roll far enough fast enough. The shovel went flying and Taro and Lila landed on the rocky ground with an audible crunch.

Lila was on the bottom. That must have hurt. Yet immediately, she started screaming and struggling. She managed to push Taro off of her, but by that time I had reached them, and I jumped on her. I didn’t aim for any kind of finesse. I just sat on her back.

With grimaces and groans, Fiona staggered to her feet. “You’ve been behind everything, all the accidents, haven’t you?” she accused Lila.

Lila went still and silent.

My breath caught in my throat as images and ideas slotted into place. Lila, a servant, newly hired. She would know where Fiona was, what she was doing. She would be able to move about the manor, move about anywhere, without anyone questioning or even really noticing.

But why?

“Did you try to kill me in my room?”

No answer.

Fiona kicked the ground near Lila’s face. “Tell me!”

Lila said nothing.

“You removed the rope from the cave. And I’ll wager you cobbled the wind rock.”

I remembered how insistent Lila had been that Fiona had to go out that day, regardless of the weather. “Answer her,” I ordered.

Which I knew was stupid as soon as the words left my mouth. If she wasn’t going to obey Fiona, she certainly wasn’t going to obey me.

“Fine,” Fiona spat. “You don’t need to tell me. I know what I need to know. You tried to kill me today. I have two witnesses to it. That’s all I need to find you guilty of attempted murder and have you executed.”

Really? She could do that? For crimes committed against herself? Didn’t they need someone who wasn’t personally involved to make those kinds of decisions?

Fiona’s threat finally got a reaction out of Lila. “You wouldn’t dare,” she smirked. “You and your cousin and his whore are the only ones who saw anything.”

I blinked. I didn’t think I’d ever been called that before.

“What were you playing at?” Taro demanded. “You were always so eager to tell me when Shield Mallorough was with Academic Reid. You kept walking in on us at times when any servant worth her bells would know not to interrupt. Was that part of some plan?”

Huh. It had never occurred to me that Lila’s invasions of our suite at the most inopportune moments could have been deliberate. What would have been the point of it?

Lila didn’t respond to that charge. She had a more serious one to justify. “You won’t be enough to convince the people you have the right to kill me. They’ll riot and you’ll lose everything.”

Fiona knelt down close to her head. “I don’t care,” she said in a low voice.

And I believed her. She would execute Lila, regardless of the consequences. Her resolution was chilling to witness.

Lila believed her, too, and she started squirming. I had gotten lax and was easily shoved off.

Taro opened up to channel, and almost before I knew it he had sunk Lila’s arms, legs and part of her chest into the ground. Only her back and her head remained above the ground. It looked uncomfortable and I imagined it was a horrible position to be in.

Her eyes went impossibly wide, practically bulging in her face. Her skin grew pale. I could see her jerking against the ground, trying to free herself and failing.

And she was screaming. I didn’t blame her. I’d descend into panic, too.

“Let me out!” she shrieked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Taro said mildly.

“I can’t breathe!”

It sounded to me like she was breathing well enough, if she could make that much noise.

“Then tell us what we want to know.”

“The Emperor will punish you!” she shouted.

“The Emperor doesn’t give a damn about how I discipline murderous servants,” said Fiona.

“I have the protection of the Emperor!”

What an odd, deluded little creature.

“Don’t be a fool. The Emperor has little enough respect for titleholders. He’s certainly not going to be concerned about a servant.”

“Ask him yourself!”

“I’m not going to seek the Emperor’s attention for a situation I can handle myself.”

“If you kill me without contacting the Emperor, he will call you a traitor and kill you and take this land from your family. He’s just looking for an excuse to do it.”

That didn’t make sense. If he wanted the land, why was he so eager for Taro to be the titleholder?

Of course, we didn’t know that he did. That was just something the Dowager was saying.

Lila closed her eyes and squirmed, another attempt to free herself. When that didn’t work, she screamed.

“You’re not getting out until you tell us what we want to know,” Fiona said coolly.

Lila continued to scream. I looked back up the shore, where, beyond the bend and out of sight, there were dozens of people working. Lila’s screams didn’t seem to bring anyone running.

We waited.

Lila eventually descended into mere gasps for breath.

“Tell me,” said Fiona.

“He sent me,” Lila said.

“Who sent you to do what?”

“The Emperor sent me. To kill you.”

Shock had me sitting on the ground with a painful thud. The Emperor had sent someone to kill Fiona. My gods. How was that possible? What the hell was going on?

An Emperor trying to have a titleholder assassinated. He had no legal tools available for acting against Fiona. I had no doubt she was meeting every requirement demanded by her role, and she hadn’t yet spent any time at the Imperial court, so she couldn’t have gotten herself in any trouble with any political games.

Lila had been trying to make Fiona’s death look accidental, in the beginning. That was why the original attempts had been so clumsy and had fallen so short of the mark. The Emperor hadn’t wanted anyone to know that Fiona had been murdered. But Fiona was strong in mind and body. She hadn’t panicked when we’d been trapped in the cave, the wrong person, namely me, had been shoved out into the fog, and Fiona had survived being out in the wind, so Lila had moved on to more direct measures. Maybe that was why she’d been using the flat of the shovel. Maybe she thought a blow from a flat instrument would look less like murder, somehow.

“If you let me live, I won’t tell the Emperor you’re letting your tenants use spells,” Lila said desperately. She looked at Taro. “I won’t tell anyone you and your Shield are using spells. I saw you this morning. I haven’t told the Guards, but I could.”

What a unique strategy for pleading for your life. List all the reasons why someone would want you dead.

“Why were you interfering with Lee and me?” Taro demanded.

“He wanted me to poison your bond,” she said. “He wanted the Shield gone.”

As did the Dowager. “Why?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know! Let me out!”

And just like that, slabs and chunks of the ridge started tumbling down. Thundering groans filled the air.

“Get her out!” I shouted at Taro.

“Run!” he shouted back.

I thought we were far enough away to be out of danger. The crashing rock quickly proved me wrong, and Fiona, Taro and I had to run into the freezing water to avoid the damage.

Lila was screaming.

“Get her out!” I demanded.

I felt Taro’s protections lower.

The rocks leapt onto Lila. They covered her completely.

Her screams were cut off.

More and more slabs and rock piled on top of her. I cringed.

We waited. We had to, to make sure there was no more to slide.

“Think she’s all right?” Fiona asked.

I winced. That was a stupid question. I didn’t imagine Lila could have survived that. She had been completely exposed and unable to move.

A terrible way to die.

Could Taro have gotten her out?

I looked at him. He seemed shaken. But then, he had gotten used to sinking people into the ground without any consequences.

A few moments later, a handful of people ran around the bend in the ridge.

“Wait!” Fiona yelled. “Bring more spears! Lila is buried under there!”

Rods were brought over, and the rocks were attacked to dig out a woman I suspected was dead. That left me with a poisonous feeling in my stomach. Whatever she had done, no matter what her filthy schemes with the Emperor, she hadn’t deserved to die like that.

 

Night was coming by the time Lila’s body was uncovered. She was indeed dead, and if anyone thought it strange that she was more than half-buried in the dirt, they didn’t say anything. All digging ceased after that. It was deemed too dangerous to continue searching. Climbing back over the ridge nearly killed me, it seemed, and when we got to the manor, Bailey had hot food and baths waiting for us.

I slept. I couldn’t help sleeping. But I had horrible dreams about strangling Lila and my hands dripping with her blood.

Chapter Thirty

Two more days were spent digging people out of the rubble. By the third day, everyone we found was dead. It was demoralizing. People wanted to keep digging, but they couldn’t afford to leave their work any longer.

The next morning, Fiona asked us to join her for breakfast in the sitting room. It was earlier than I liked, but of course we went. She had Stacin in her lap, and I found that heartbreaking. Would he have any memory of his f ather?

“I just wanted to thank you for all your help,” said Fiona, her words slurred with weariness.

“It was merely part of our duty,” Taro told her.

“I imagine there are Pairs who would think such labor beneath them.”

“Perhaps, but they would be wrong,” I said. “Has there been any word about Radia?”

Fiona smiled. “It looks like she will live, and keep the leg. Browne is wonderfully skilled. And dedicated. She has filled her cottage with the wounded and is seeing to them day and night. I’ve sent Avkas to give her any assistance she might need. He has gentle hands. And I’ve brought Roshni here so she can get some peace, but she might be up to visitors.”

I would see her once Fiona dismissed us. “I’m curious. If something permanent had happened to Radia, who would have been your Wind Watcher?”

“We would have had to rely on someone who didn’t have the talent for it, which would have been much less effective. One of the reasons I’m teasing Roshni about Tarce is that, as far as I know, no one has caught her eye. We need her to have some children so she passes down the talent.”

Well, that had to be annoying. I was delighted that the ability to Shield was not genetic. While I would like to have children eventually, if it were possible, I didn’t want anyone bothering me about it.

Reid walked in and seemed surprised to see us all. “Good morning, everyone.” He poured himself some coffee.

“How does your translation go?” Fiona asked.

“I’ve just finished making a second copy,” he said, sitting on the settee beside Fiona’s. “I will keep one copy for myself, if that is acceptable. I’d like to show it to some of my colleagues. I can promise you they’ll be discreet.”

Fiona nodded.

“You should find the book interesting reading. And you might like to have Shield Mallorough look at it as well.”

I had pretty much read the thing already, in dribs and drabs.

“The Guards have demanded a copy, too, have they not?”

“They have demanded it.” Reid blew on his coffee. “I informed them that if they wanted a copy, they would have to apply to you. I’ve prepared documents you might want to give them if they do decide to ask you.”

He’d created a false interpretation of the book. He was wily for an academic.

“So you’re leaving us, then?” Fiona asked.

“I’ll be leaving today. I hope to reach Rushed Caps within the week. I have a colleague who will be most eager to see this.”

Discreet or not, I didn’t think it was wise of Reid to be showing the book to anyone else, but Fiona didn’t seem distressed, and hers was the opinion that mattered.

I glanced at Taro. He didn’t seem to feel any reaction to Reid’s departure. Good. So he shouldn’t.