Lost mark 3 The Queen of Death: (14 page)

Ledenstrae coughed hard and reached for a nearby platter on which sat a steaming teapot, a number of small cups and saucers, and a small selection of cookies that seemed as if they’d stood there untouched for decades. As he poured himself a spot of brackish tea into a cup and drank it, Majeeda scowled at Espre as if she had thrown a soiled diaper into the middle of the floor between them.

"I’d rather not get into the details of the parting between your mother and I,” Ledenstrae said. "I don’t wish to speak ill of the dead.”

When he saw the disappointment on Espre’s face, he continued. "I’d long hoped that your mother and I might reconcile. As elves, our lives are long. Perhaps we might not have reached an accord until we both found ourselves ascended to the Undying Court, but I had faith that it would someday happen.

"Perhaps that’s why I never bothered to track you down before now. In my heart, I thought that Esprina would one day come back to Aerenal with you. I never thought that she would be so horribly lost. To not even know where her body is . . .” "I know where her body is,” said Espre.

Ledenstrae’s eyes flew wide. Espre looked to Burch, who gave her a tiny shrug. She knew he would have preferred for her not to talk with her father about such things, but she’d already opened that door, so she continued through it. As she spoke, she saw Burch turn and leave. She wanted to ask him to stay, but she feared what he might say to her. As it was, neither Ledenstrae nor Majeeda paid him any heed as he went.

"Kandler and Burch found her body in the western part of the Mournland, near where they helped found Mardakine—that’s a settlement of Cyrans located in the bottom of a blast crater,” she said.

Ledenstrae perched on the edge of his seat, his eyes boring holes through Espre. "What did they do with her?” "They buried her by a black river and placed a marker over her grave.”

Ledenstrae and Majeeda gasped in horror. The deathless elf clutched at her chest as if her dead heart might start beating again.

"Savages!” Ledenstrae said. "Did your stepfather not know what that meant, to bury an elf rather than recovering her body? It’s been years. The worms might have devoured every bit of her flesh by now.”

Now Espre understood Ledenstrae’s shock. In Aerenal, she knew, the Undying Court evaluated the lives of dead elves. Those deemed worthwhile were brought into the court itself to sit at the sides of their ancestors. Others, who had not yet had a chance to prove themselves, were usually resurrected by magical means. Only the worst sort were abandoned to the cruelty of Dolurrh, the land of the truly dead.

"Those killed in the Mourning cannot be brought back to life in any way,” Espre said. "Kandler would have moved the moons to bring my mother back to me. It couldn’t be done."

"Is this true?” Ledenstrae asked Majeeda.

The deathless elf frowned, and Espre wondered if her jaw might fall off. "From what I have been told,” Majeeda said. "I’ve never seen anyone actually try to work such magics on the victims of the Mourning. Those are the domain of the gods, and I fear I have ignored such beings now for countless years.”

"But Vol said—”

Espre leaped up from her chair. It crashed backward behind her.

"Vol?” She could not feel the air in her lungs. "You’ve been in contact with Vol?”

Espre watched her father’s eyes dart back and forth as he struggled to figure out what to say, what he could say to salvage the situation.

"I’m afraid so,” he said. "These are desperate times, I’m afraid, and I took desperate measures.”

"Do you even know who she is?”

"Of course he does, dear,” Majeeda said. "I introduced them.”

"Get out of my way,” Kandler said as he exited the basket.

Burch stood in front of him, his hands held up before him to keep the justicar from storming past him. "She deserved to know,” he said.

"That’s not for you to decide,” Kandler said. "She’s my daughter, not yours.”

Burch folded his arms across his chest. "You don’t want to try that line. She’s with her real father now.”

Kandler brought up the fangblade, which he’d never bothered to sheathe. Its tip came within an inch of Burch’s neck. At that moment, the justicar wanted to drive it straight through.

The shifter didn’t flinch. His eyes didn’t even flicker toward the sword.

"I don’t have time for this,” Kandler said. "Every moment she spends with that cold-hearted bastard, she’s in danger of—”

"What? Learning he’s a bastard?”

Kandler adjusted his grip on the fangblade. "Don’t joke about this.”

Burch unfolded his arms, the grim look on his face softening. "She’s a good elf, boss. She’ll figure this out on her own, and she deserves the chance to do it.”

" But what if— ”

"You have to have faith in her.” Burch closed his mouth for a moment then tried again. "There’s a damn good chance we’re going to get ourselves killed here, soon. How are you going to protect her then?”

Kandler rubbed his eyes with his open hand. "You’d better be right.”

"Have I ever steered you wrong?” Burch grinned. "Don’t answer that.”

Chapter

22

E
spre felt like her head might explode. She d stormed off the
Phoenix
to go find her real father, despite the fact that she knew that Kandler had lied to her about him being in town. She’d known he’d just been trying to protect her, and that had made her even angrier and more determined to find Ledenstrae.

Thankfully—or so she’d thought at the time—Burch had been willing to show her the way. Otherwise, she knew that she and Kandler would have had a horrible screaming match of a fight. Avoiding him instead had been the better course—or so she’d told herself.

Now, though, sitting alone with two elves who’d been in contact with Vol—the Lich Queen who’d sent Te’oma and a pack of vampires to kidnap her from her home—she had to wonder where it had all gone wrong.

Maybe at her birth.

"Why would you do something like that?” Espre said to Majeeda, her voice constricted with horror.

"I thought that they would have a lot to say to each other,” Majeeda said. "After all, they are related.”

The pressure inside Espre’s skull increased. "How?” That was the only word she could squeak out. If Ledenstrae and Vol were related, it meant that she and Vol were somehow bound together too, and by more than just the dragonmark they both shared.

Ledenstrae grimaced at Majeeda’s words. "That’s not exactly clear,” he said. He reached out a hand to Espre, who was too stunned to pull away. "It’s possible, but not certain.”

"Of course,” Majeeda said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Many of the records from the days of Vol were destroyed long ago, and it wasn’t just the elves working hand-in-claw with the dragons who did that.”

"What—what do you mean?” Espre said.

The feeling seemed to be coming back into her limbs. She needed to understand this, to wrap her head around it. The deathless elf’s words meant little to her. She decided to prod Majeeda into jabbering away until all the thoughts whirling about her coalesced into something resembling sense.

"The dragons and elves who joined together to destroy the House of Vol? They wanted to eradicate every last drop of blood that could contain even the barest potential for the Mark of Death, and they made good headway at it too. Every elf who had even the most tenuous claim to being a part of the House of Vol was put to death.”

"Except Vol, you mean.”

"Oh, she was killed too,” Majeeda said, "but as you see, death isn’t always permanent—especially for an abomination like a lich.”

This didn’t agree with what Te’oma had told Espre about the Lich Queen, but she didn’t care to argue the point. She just wanted to keep Majeeda talking.

"They killed an entire house?” she said. "How could

they do that? Didn’t anyone stand up for them?”

Majeeda’s face parted in a cold, crinkled smile. "This crusade against the House of Vol gave the dragons and the rest of the elves something in common—a foe against which they could rally together. It put an end to the Dragon-Elf War. To many on the Undying Court in those days, that alone was worth the sacrifice of a single house.”

"How many elves would share the blood of the House of Vol?” Espre asked. Her mind balked at trying to come up with a number.

"That is exactly the issue,” Majeeda said. "To be absolutely safe, to make sure you got rid of every last drop of that tainted, hateful breed, you’d have to kill every last elf who still drew breath.”

"Tell me again why we can’t just walk in and kill them,” Kandler whispered to Burch. The justicar knew the answer as well as his friend, but he wanted little more than to ignore that wisdom and give in to his anger instead.

"Majeeda would flash-fry us,” Burch said, "and probably Espre. We need some sort of distraction.”

Kandler grimaced as he listened down the shaft that led to the ground floor. Someone pounded at the door below, and he heard the sound of splintering wood.

Burch squinted at the justicar. "You let the guards live?” "They were just doing their jobs.”

"Now it’s their job to kill us.”

"You said you wanted a distraction. There’s your distraction.”

Kandler reached into the shaft with his fangblade and began to slice the basket into small pieces. The broken bits tumbled back down the shaft to the stone floor dozens of feet below.

"That should slow them down,” the justicar said, "but they’ll still make enough noise to get Ledenstrae’s attention.” A thought struck him then, and he narrowed his eyes at the shifter. "What happened to all the guards who were hiding up here?”

Burch gave Kandler a winning grin.

"You didn’t think that would cause a problem?” "Thought we’d be long gone before anyone found out.” Kandler nodded. Since they’d come back before anyone had noticed, it had worked out all right. The fewer problems they had to deal with up here in the top of the tower, the better. He had a feeling that Majeeda would be trouble enough.

"She sounds scared,” Kandler said as he crept forward. "That’s because she’s smart,” said Burch.

Espre heard someone pounding on the door of the tower. Ledenstrae glanced in the direction of the room into which the shaft to the lower level opened up. He scowled at the interruption but ignored it for the moment.

"The Undying Court convinced the dragons that the sacrifice of the House of Vol would be enough,” Ledenstrae said. "However, the dragons live even longer than elves. Despite the fact that it has been millennia since that house’s eradication, the dragons have not forgotten the threat of the Mark of Death. If it were to arise again . . .”

Espre felt as if her heart had stopped beating. "You know,” she said, staring at her father. "That’s why you wanted to find me now. You know.”

Ledenstrae held up his hands to calm the girl. "When Majeeda first contacted me, I had no idea. She just told me that you were alive. You can’t imagine how that news thrilled me.”

Espre just nodded. She didn’t know what to think any more.

"Then how did you ..■•■?” She stared up at her father, who now seemed more of a stranger than ever.

"The Undying Court became aware of the reemergence of the Mark of Death via its powerful seers,” Ledenstrae said. "My ancestors warned me of this. When Majeeda contacted them about you, they recognized you instantly.”

"How did they know about my dragonmark?” she said. "Majeeda never saw it.”

"True,” said Majeeda, "but it didn’t take the Undying Court long to connect the two occurrences. Only so many things happen in the Mournland that are strange enough to attract their attention.”

"So,” Espre said to her father, "what do you plan to do with me?”

Ledenstrae’s face became grave. "If you bear the Mark of Death, my fair child, I’m afraid there is no other choice. For the good of all of Aerenal, you will have to die.”

"Do it,” Duro said to the changeling. "It's now or never.” "It’s not you who’s laying herself out as a target,” Te’oma said as she sat on the gunwale near the edge of the bridge, her legs dangling out over the open air below. She hefted Sallah’s sword in her hands.

"For a heartless killer, you’re a bit of a whiner," the dwarf said, rolling his eyes.

He stood next to her on the gunwale and tried to ignore their precarious position. Having lived most of his life underground, he hadn’t had too many dealings with the terrors of open heights. He tried to pretend the cliff was just one side of an open mineshaft, but it didn’t take the edge off his fears.

"The sword won’t be heavy enough to pull you to the ground,” he said. As he spoke, he glanced around to make sure that the others had gotten into position. They all seemed ready. They just needed the changeling to start it all off. "It’s light as a feather, and you’re not even carrying the scabbard.”

"Easy for you to—” Te’oma’s words turned to a scream in mid-sentence as the bottom of Duro’s hobnailed boot smashed into her backside and shoved her off the railing. She failed her arms as she fell.

"Woman overboard!” Duro shouted at the dockworkers. Inside, he said a quick prayer to Olladra, the goddess of luck, that this would work. He had been betting that Te’oma would remember to unfurl her bloodwings before she hit bottom. He winced as he wondered if she might forget in her panic. "Help!”