Infamous Reign (3 page)

"But what happens to me?" Tate eventually managed to stammer.

"When a changeling absorbs someone else, they absorb their features too. You'll be turned into a smooth, pink, fleshy bag with descriptive marks. Your body will be disposed of by whatever carrion-eaters we happen to have working in the city." I walked toward the door. "Thomas and I will be outside," I said to Raulf. "Are you sure you're up to this?"

"It is my honor to serve Avalon in this way," he said with a slight nod of the head. "The process will take some time."

"Good-bye, Lord Tate," I said. "If you hadn't been such a colossal waste of a title, you may never have met us. As it is, this is your own fault."

“Mordred,” Tate shouted, gaining my utmost attention.

“What did you just say?” I demanded.

“When Buckingham met me to arrange everything, he mentioned working for another man. He called him Mordred, after the character from the King Arthur legend.”

I darted toward Tate, grasped him around the neck, lifted him off the chair, and slammed him into the wall, his feet dangling uselessly above the wooden floor.

“Are you certain?” I asked. “Do not lie to me.”

Tate nodded as best he could. “I can’t tell you more though.”

I released Tate and let him drop to the floor. “You’d be surprised what the mind can recall, even when you can’t remember.” I turned to Raulf. “Dredge his mind clean, search for anything about Mordred.”

Raulf nodded and stepped toward the traitor as I walked out of the house with Thomas beside me, the screams of horror only reaching us as we closed the front door.

Chapter
4

The whole process took only an hour, but it was enough time for Thomas to run off and arrange for the Tate household to be cleaned and the bodies of the maid, butler and Tate himself to be disposed of.

While the Shield of Avalon had assigned Thomas to live in London and watch the tower, there were other agents within the city who were doing a similar job. All of them had an understanding, if you needed something removed or cleaned quickly; you could contact them. Occasionally the work of the SOA gets dark and dangerous, especially if they discover something, or someone, that needs stopping, or are in turn discovered. Being able to count on your comrades-in-arms to reduce exposure to yourself and your goals is a necessity. I didn't ask what species would be helping Thomas clean the house, or what they would do with the bodies and blood. There were some things better off unknown, but I was sure the three corpses would go toward feeding a few people for several weeks or months.

Left alone while Thomas made his arrangements, I paced up and down outside the house, impatient to learn more about Mordred’s involvement. At one time I’d considered him a friend, although those days had long since passed. Centuries ago, Mordred, along with a woman I’d once loved, used me to get Arthur where they wanted and then attacked us both, nearly killing me and mortally wounding Arthur. Only Merlin’s magic kept Arthur from immediate death. Since that day more and more magic is needed to keep Arthur in his state of neither living nor dead, as Merlin refuses to allow my friend and king to die without a fight.

Mordred disappeared immediately after the attack, occasionally turning up over the years to cause mayhem wherever he went and then vanishing for centuries after. The need for retribution to be visited upon Mordred had been coming for some time.

Hopefully, in stopping Mordred I would also learn the location of Ivy, a psychic whom Mordred had infected with dark blood magic, giving her an immortal lifespan, but one infused with constant torture and misery. I’d had the chance nearly seventy years previously to save her and stop Mordred, and I’d failed to do either. I swore that if I got the chance, I wouldn’t fail again.

“Nathaniel, I want to know, too,” Thomas said once he’d returned. “Mordred knows were Ivy is. I haven’t forgotten her.” Clearly he’d been having the same thoughts I’d had. Thomas had been seriously injured by Mordred’s followers, allowing my old nemesis to escape into the French countryside with Ivy.

“But?” I asked.

“But your constant pacing and glaring at the house is making me nervous.”

I took a deep breath and tried to calm my thoughts. Thomas was right, I needed to relax.

Unfortunately, Raulf, the new Lord Tate, had fallen asleep after the transfer was complete, and the hour turned into two before he resurfaced. The time had done very little to ease the anxious feeling that had settled inside me.

Raulf opened the front door and beckoned Thomas and me to join him in the study.

"How are you feeling?" Thomas asked as we entered the room.

"Lord Tate was not a healthy man, but I've expunged all disease from my body and am ready to work as needed."

It was always weird to see a changeling after finishing the transformation, the fact that I'd been talking to the original lord only a few hours ago was a little disconcerting. "Are you ready to tell us what we need? What did you discover about Mordred?”

“Tate was telling the truth, Buckingham mentioned Mordred only once in his hearing. But there was something else in the memory, a tone of fear in Buckingham’s voice. I believe that Mordred is definitely involved in the princes’ disappearance. How much involved, I can’t say.”

“Anything else?” Thomas asked.

Raulf nodded. "Tate was told to meet some soldiers at a tavern near Gatton Park, south of here. He was to pass over the crowns and then ride on with them. He knew nothing more than that, not even their destination."

"A ditch, I imagine," I said.

"That's what I feel too," Raulf said. "Although Tate firmly believed he could trust them."

"What's the name of the inn?" Thomas asked.

"The Huntress," Raulf replied. "Tate was told that it was a fine establishment."

"I guess we ride south then," I said. "When was Tate meant to arrive?"

"Tomorrow evening, but your arrival sped up his planned departure. If you left now, you'd be there by nightfall."

I shook Raulf's hand. It was an odd sensation. "You are to act as Tate would have, but any information you gather is to be given to one of the SOA agents whom Thomas will inform you about."

"Yes, sir," Raulf said.

"And be nice to your wife, she didn't deserve to have a traitor as a husband, I imagine."

"I believe she knew nothing. And despite the fact that she is quite the striking woman, his list of sexual encounters with maids and whores is long and mostly unpleasant to think about."

"Well, this is a chance for Lord Tate to be the best husband in London."

I left Thomas and the new Lord Tate together to discuss whatever details needed to be arranged out and went to my horse. I'd taken the bag with the two crowns with me. Part of me had wanted to melt them down right away, but if the soldiers in the inn were expecting to receive crowns, I might be able to use them to find out where the princes were being taken.

Then there was the problem of Mordred. If he was involved and that possibility appeared to be very high, then it changed things. I knew that Mordred would only be part of anything if it meant the possibility of hurting Merlin, and by extension Avalon, but for the moment I doubted he had any notion of my investigation. I needed to keep it that way if I hoped to stop Mordred and his plans once and for all.

I attached the bag to my saddle and pulled myself up onto the animal, ready to calm the horse if necessary, once Thomas reappeared. As it turned out I needn't have been worried; Thomas arrived and the horse gave no indication that it was unhappy about it.

"You really have been practicing," I said.

"So long as I don't change, I can control it."

"And how are you going to keep up with me once we leave the city?"

"I don't think you need to worry about me being too slow.” He paused for a second and a serious expression crossed his face. “That bastard Mordred is involved. I want to kill him, Nathaniel. For what he and his friends did back in France, I want him to die painfully.”

“We will find him,” I said. “And he
will
tell us where Ivy is. Even if I have to remove one tiny piece of him at a time until he talks.”

Chapter
5

Once we left the city, Thomas vanished into the woodlands that stretched for miles on either side of the road. Occasionally I had glimpses of Thomas darting through the trees, or a deer would sprint out in front of me, startled by the presence of a predator. I wished I could have joined him, using my air magic to make me faster and more agile, but keeping the horse was more important than exorcising the emotions I was feeling after discovering that Mordred was involved in the princes’ disappearance. So, instead I spurred the horse on to a canter. I would have liked to go full gallop, but the ground was uneven, and I didn't want to risk the animal's health for the sake of arriving at the tavern sooner.

As it turned out, even with resting the horse twice, it still only took three hours to reach our destination.

A few hundred meters from the tavern, I got down from my horse and led him by the reins toward a nearby stable, hitching him to a post outside. After checking I was alone, I removed the satchel containing the crowns and walked into the stables, which was devoid of man or beast. I walked to the far end of the building and hid it under a large bale of hay. It wasn’t the safest place on earth to hide something, but it would keep until I was ready to retrieve it.

I exited the stable with a hand full of hay and fed it to my horse, as a shirtless Thomas emerged from the woods. He was pulling his shirt out of a satchel and putting it on when I noticed he wasn't wearing shoes either. Werewolves don't like shoes at the best of times, and running in them was unheard of.

"You managed not to stop off for a meal," I said.

Thomas finished buttoning his shirt and removed his shoes from the bag, dropping them onto the damp ground. "I didn't think we had time," he said with a grin. "Although if you're saying we do, I could really go for some deer. I noticed plenty running away from me as I ran."

Drops of water fell onto my forehead. "I think getting out the coming rain is more important than your stomach."

The sound of raucous behavior reached me well before we'd covered the distance to the large tavern. It sat on two-floors, with the huge stable next to it.

If I'd thought the noise was loud outside, it was nothing compared to the cacophony of sound that exited through the open front door. At least a dozen soldiers, all wearing chainmail or leather armor, were busy drinking and laughing. The smell of cooked meat made my stomach growl, reminding me that I hadn't eaten for a while, and Thomas licked his lips and took a deep breath.

"You need food," I told him, which gained only a nod as we walked through the throng of armed men to the counter at the end of the room. A short, thin man with a large jaw and crooked nose stood behind the counter in conversation with a tall, elegant-looking woman. They stopped talking the second Thomas and I reached them, and both turned with a smile to greet us.

"Gentlemen, how can my wife and I be of assistance?" the man asked.

"Food," Thomas said with an almost growl.

"What are the soldiers eating?" I asked.

"Pork in a broth with vegetables. Everything we cook is fresh. Would you gentlemen like the same?"

I nodded. "Can you bring it to our table along with some beer? Also, my horse is outside, can you ensure he's placed in the stables and properly cared for?"

The man nodded and scurried off through a door behind him, presumably to the kitchen. The wife smiled at me as a young, voluptuous woman arrived and motioned for me and Thomas to follow her. She led us away from the soldiers, a few of whom I noticed were now watching us.

"Are the innkeepers your parents?" I asked and removed my black cloak before taking a seat at the table.

She nodded. "Yes, they own the tavern."

"It's unusual to be taken to a seat," I said. "Normally one fends for one’s self."

"The soldiers are very loud," she said softly. "I doubt you'd like your meal interrupted. Will you be staying the night?"

I shrugged. "That depends on the weather outside." I glanced out the nearest window as the rain began to increase.

She smiled and nodded, quickly walking away to deal with several of the soldiers who were beckoning her over.

"That is one very attractive, young woman," Thomas said. "Maybe this inn won't be so bad."

One of the soldiers had pulled the young woman onto his lap and was busy trying to get a kiss, an act that got him a slap from the woman and riotous laughter from his friends as she walked away.

I stopped watching at that moment when another servant, clearly the sister of the one who'd shown us to our seats, brought over two huge bowls of succulent pork, placing them in front of Thomas and me.

"Enjoy," she said as her mother placed two mugs of beer on the table.

"I will, thank you," I said. Thomas would have said something, but he'd already started tearing into the thick strips of pork and drinking the broth that they sat in. "Can you bring over two more bowls?" I asked.

The wife nodded and walked away with her daughter in tow. Something was very odd about that family. I wondered what it may have been and settled on the fact that maybe they were foreign. It was certainly possible. Apart from the father, their accents weren't quite English, but they appeared to speak the language without difficulty. It was entirely possible that they assumed people would be less comfortable being served by a foreign family.

I'd just finished my first bowl of hot pork and broth, when the wife brought over the second. "That was excellent," I said.

"Thank you," she said with a slight bow of her head. "It's something I learned to cook a long time ago."

"Did you learn it in Asia?"

The wife looked taken aback for a few seconds, and even Thomas stopped drinking the broth from his rapidly diminishing second bowl to look over at me.

"You've been to Asia?" she asked, slight anxiety in her voice.