Traitor (15 page)

She sported a pair of baggy, dark blue silk pants low over her broad hips. They ballooned out a bit and were gathered at her feet. She wore a short tunic of the same fabric and style, cut low across her chest and gathered at her ribs and wrists—leaving her entire abdomen bare. A long, banner-like belt was strung around her waist on golden cords. It was so long in the back that it dragged the ground like a train on a gown, and it boasted an intricate embroidered design in the shape of a stag’s head. The front was just as ornate, but it was set with jewels.

There was no doubt she was royalty. She walked with poised, predatory grace. I could see her multicolored eyes studying Jace carefully through the holes in her mask. She glanced at me quickly, and then leveled her blade back at Jace’s throat.

“You should be dead,” she insisted. “I saw you fall.”

Kiran suddenly emerged from his hiding place. He kept his head low as he went slinking up to the princess, cowering like a submissive puppy. He pointed at me and began speaking in the elven language.

My mind was so hazy I could barely piece together what was being said. It didn’t sound good, though. Kiran used the word “
caenu
” several times, which generally didn’t bode well for me. It was the word they used for all halfbreeds, and it basically meant the same thing as “filth” in their language.

The princess set her harrowing gaze upon me again. Jace flinched as she began to walk toward me, but she left no room for him to try anything funny. She ordered Kiran to draw on him and make sure he didn’t move. With a poison-tipped arrow aimed squarely at his nose, Jace didn’t move again.

The gray elf princess crouched over me. She pulled back her battle headdress, sliding it up onto the top of her head, to get a better look. I couldn’t move enough to look back at her, though. All I could do was stare at the tops of her black leather boots.

She grabbed my chin, turning my head to look directly into my eyes. Her face was devastatingly beautiful … and yet eerily familiar. It was as though I should have known her, though I couldn’t imagine how.

I watched her nose wrinkle in disgust as she regarded my dragonrider armor, my pointed ears, and my long ash-gray hair. She dropped me back onto the ground and actually wiped her hand off on her pants like I might have some kind of disease.

Then Kiran spoke, and I actually caught what he said this time. “No, no. He wore it. It must be under his clothes.”

The princess sneered down at me again. Curling her lip, she grabbed the front of my breastplate and stuck her arm down the front of my shirt. She went groping around under my clothes and armor until at last I felt her hand close around my mother’s necklace. She pulled it out, and with one quick jerk, broke the resin string.

I wanted to scream in protest. That was
mine
. She had no right to take it. But I couldn’t do much more than give a disapproving groan as she held it up to the light.

Her expression cleared like storm clouds breaking on a calm morning. Her eyes shimmered with mystification. Her lips parted, and I saw a hint of lovely color flush across her elegant cheeks. When she looked down at me again, her expression was much different. She seemed puzzled and slightly horrified at the sight of me now.

“Where did you get this?” Her voice held quiet suspicion as she spoke to me in the human language again. “Speak, demon!”

It took all I had, the very last of my strength and will, to get the word out. One word was all I could manage, so I chose it wisely and spoke it in her native language.

“Mother.”

When I opened my eyes to nothing but darkness, I just assumed I was already dead. I was delirious, and it seemed very likely that I’d probably been killed either by the gray elf princess or some horrible monster that had stumbled across me lying unconscious on the jungle floor.

Then I heard a sound like something or someone breathing next to me.

“H-hello?” My voice was hoarse, and for some reason, my throat was absolutely killing me.

“Keep it down,” a familiar tone answered. It was Jace.

I didn’t understand. But as my delirium began to clear, I became more and more aware of our situation.

It was bad. Incredibly bad—even by my standards.

I was sitting on what felt like a stone floor. It was cold to the touch, and the fact that I could feel it rather obviously let me know that I was completely naked. The gray elves had taken my armor and my clothes. When I tried to move, I realized I was tied up. My wrists and neck were tightly bound to what felt like a metal pole. No wonder my neck was sore. I couldn’t move my head or do anything about the blindfold that had been pulled over my eyes.

“Where are we?” I whispered. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere in the jungle. You were unconscious for a long time,” he answered. His voice echoed all around, making it impossible to tell how far apart we were.

“Are you tied up, too?” I asked.

“Yes. They took all our gear, clothes, and anything we had on us.” He paused a moment, as though he were thinking. Then he said, “Jaevid, they’re going to torture us. You need to prepare yourself.”

My insides wrenched up with frantic anxiety. I couldn’t breathe. Memories like nightmares of the battle scenario ran through my mind. I did my best to calm myself, to keep my head clear. Panic was the enemy. I knew that. Somehow, I had to keep my head on straight.

“This is my fault,” I realized aloud. “If I hadn’t let things get out of control—”

“Don’t even start with that.” Jace’s tone was serious. “It doesn’t matter now.”

My guts were writhing around like I’d swallowed a live snake. “There’s something I have to tell you. I should have told you before.”

He was quiet while I gathered my nerve.

I was going to tell him about my father. He deserved to know that our torture might be worse than expected because of that. If any of these gray elves remembered the horrible sin my father had committed, then they might also recognize that I favored him. We might be made to suffer even more.

I didn’t get the chance, though. No sooner had I opened my mouth to speak than I heard the sound of footsteps and angry voices coming toward us. I sat perfectly still and didn’t make a sound. Neither did Jace. Inwardly, I was paralyzed with fear. I didn’t know what was going to happen. All I could do was strain to listen and try to piece together the elven words to figure out what was being said.

It had been so long since I had even tried to speak my mother’s native tongue that my comprehension of it was poor. I caught only every other word. But from that, I could draw a few conclusions.

One of the voices I recognized right away. It sounded like the princess from before. “The halfbreed wore it. Some of the survivors from the cavalry claim to have seen him working miracles on the battlefield,” she insisted.

The man she was bickering with sounded much older, and apparently he was resolute against believing her claims about me. “Did you see any of these so-called miracles?” he demanded.

“No,” she admitted. “But surely you see the possibility. If he truly is the Lapiloque, then—”

“Silence, Araxie! Do not dare speak that blasphemy to me,” the man shouted suddenly. “That lineage died long ago. Any member of that bloodline is a traitor.”

“Let him be tested, then!” the princess yelled right back. “What harm is there in being sure?”

The man didn’t answer her. Or rather, it seemed like he was ignoring her outright. Their voices had come so close now that I knew they must have been standing close by, maybe even looking at me.

I tried to stay calm and to keep my breathing even. Of course, I was humiliated. I was completely naked while two strangers stood over me, deciding my fate. But there was nothing I could do except wait and see what fate had planned for me next.

“Show me his face,” the man ordered.

All of a sudden, the blindfold was ripped from my eyes. Light from two bronze braziers burning in a cavernous room blinded me for a moment. I looked up to face my accusers as I blinked away the spots in my vision.

I had been right. The female arguing with such spirit was indeed the princess. She looked down at me with a tense, unreadable expression. Her arms were folded under her chest and her muscular hips were cocked to the side in a defiant stance.

Next to her was a much older gray elf man. I didn’t recognize him at all, and yet I was sure he must be their king if only by the way he was dressed. He wore flowing robes of dark blue silk, and a waist wrap of gold that, even when tied, dragged the ground at his feet. The big bell cuffs of his gold-trimmed tunic touched the floor as well, and there was an intricate crown made of gold on his head. His silver hair was long and had been combed out to be perfectly straight, like a curtain of platinum that hung down his back.

The dark, weary circles and wrinkles around his eyes belied the ferocity in the way he was glaring at me. I got the impression right away that he wasn’t pleased to have me in his kingdom—not that I was necessarily thrilled about it either. Sile had told me to come here, but I sort of doubted this is what he’d had in mind.

To my right, I could see Jace was tied up right beside me, though I didn’t dare look at or draw any attention to him. Instead, I kept my eyes trained on the two royals standing before me.

The king leaned down to have a closer look at me, his multicolored eyes shining with severity and bitterness. I watched his expression sharpen. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows furrowed deeply.

“Kill him,” the king snarled suddenly. “He is the spitting image of that demon pig—the one who started this!”

The princess, Araxie, didn’t seem convinced. “Perhaps it’s just a coincidence. After a while, they all look similar.”

“No! I know those eyes; they looked at me on that day. This is his progeny, and likely something foul Hovrid has sent to deceive and destroy us!” The king backed away from me, but his eyes never left mine.

I knew the rules. The memories of my interrogation training demanded I sit in total silence. I shouldn’t speak a word to these people. But emotion ran away with me before I could stop myself.

“I don’t know anyone named Hovrid,” I declared in the human language. I didn’t trust that my elven was good enough to sound anything but ridiculous to them. “I’m the son of Alowin.”

They both froze and exchanged a wide-eyed look. Then the princess began to grin smugly. “See? Just as I told you.”

Her father’s glare returned and was more dangerous than ever. I knew he probably spoke the human language, too. Or at the very least, he understood it. But he refused to speak it and kept snapping angrily in elven. “Don’t be a fool, child. We underestimated Hovrid once. I won’t make that same mistake again. Who knows what power he has amassed in this time? This creature cannot be allowed to live. Kill him immediately.”

Araxie scowled rebelliously. “And if you’re wrong? If he truly is her child—our blood—then what?”

The king glanced at me as he turned and began to walk away. His expression was different, though, at that suggestion. Rather than fury, I saw plainly a look of hurt, like betrayal, etched into his features. “Then I’ve expunged the last of the traitors from our line. Nothing more.”

With only the princess left standing before me, regarding Jace and me with a look of distaste, I thought it was over. I would be killed for association with someone named Hovrid. There was nothing I could do about that. But I decided quickly that if I was going to die, then I wanted to at least try and get a few answers first.

Araxie had just begun to walk away when I called out to her as best I could in her own language. “Did you really knew my mother? Alowin, I mean.”

She paused.

Without turning around I heard her answer, “Yes.”

“Why is he calling her a traitor?” I pleaded.

Araxie glanced back at me over her shoulder, and once again I couldn’t interpret her expression. She seemed sad, angry, and terribly afraid all at the same time. “Because she abandoned us when we needed her most.”

That vague, cryptic answer was all I got.

The princess left without another word, and Jace and I were left alone again. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what she could possibly mean by that. My mother had abandoned them? How? By becoming a refugee in Maldobar, maybe? None of it made any sense.

“I take it that didn’t go well.” There was a sarcastic flavor to Jace’s voice.

“No, not really,” I admitted. “But on the bright side, so far they only seem interested in killing me.”

Jace scoffed. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure I won’t be left out. I’ve killed three of their princes.”

He was probably right about that. They may not have brought it up because it was a given that he would die—but the jury was still out on what to do with me. Or at least, it had been. Now things were looking pretty grim in that department, too.

“Can’t you use any of that magic to get us out of this?” he pointed out.

I thought it over. “It depends, I guess, on how far we are from Maldobar. Remember before? I don’t last very long once I go into that state. And you can’t very well carry me out.”