Chapter Forty-Six
Valeris
“Hunt her down,” I said. “No one leaves the city until you find her.”
I didn’t recognize my own voice filled with the harshness of a biting blizzard.
Every soldier in the keep was searching the streets of Paravellia, but discovering anything in the dark would be difficult.
I had watched her scale the wall and get away.
I should have tried harder to stop her, shouldn’t have let her slip through my fingers.
I hadn’t meant to let her go, but shock had left me paralyzed.
Seeing her for the first time after leaving my uncle’s office, it was like a veil had been lifted from my eyes. I couldn’t comprehend why I hadn’t been able to tell before, but I remembered my uncle saying after meeting her that there was an enchantment around her face.
I’d stared at her surrounded by the guards.
It was Analleia.
But she was Analleia.
Analleia Kallistar from the kingdom of Donnovar.
A fugitive. A criminal. Everyone believed her to be dead along with her entire family, but anyone who had once met or heard of a Kallistar could immediately identify one.
White-blond hair. Bright blue eyes. Iridescently pale skin.
Sharp features. They looked like the gods come to walk among men, and I didn’t understand how the enchantment could undermine that kind of recognizability.
That family all possessed the same unique features.
It would be impossible to mistake them for anyone else.
So why had I?
I had, and now she’d lied to me. Used me.
Had she only been trying to get to my uncle, or had she planned to kill me too?
I hesitated, thinking back on all the times I had been alone with her, how many times she could have killed me if she’d wanted to. When we’d scaled the wall during the puzzle ball, she could have pushed me off the ledge. Called it an accident. Why help me with Ezrielle, why kiss—
I clenched my jaw, pushing the thoughts from my mind as I headed to the infirmary to check on my uncle. He insisted the damage was minimal, but he’d lost a great amount of blood.
When I entered, the physician was inspecting the wound and the stitches.
I stopped short at my uncle’s bare chest. I had only ever seen a brief glimpse of it when I was younger and even that had been an accident.
He hid it well. Fresh bruises colored a few patches, but it was the silver scars littering his skin that I remembered.
A broad and jagged one swiped across the center of his chest, the remnants of an injury that should have killed him.
Hundreds of others decorated his skin. Some small and insignificant while others were larger.
He never spoke about where he had disappeared to in his younger years, but wherever it was, it had been brutal. I had always known that.
He inspected the wound himself when the physician stepped away.
“Anything you would like to share?” He didn’t look up, but I sensed a hint of accusation in his voice. “You’re not stupid, Valeris, and I know you grew close with her. Too close. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I remained silent, shame flooding through me. The signs had been there, but I hadn’t had the right pieces to put everything together.
“Perhaps the beginning would be a great place to start.” He met my gaze, waiting for me to spill.
So I started there, from when she first destroyed my alliance with Lord Eyreling, to the deal I made with her to release Nadiyah, to her scaling the walls, spying on Ezrielle.
He knew most of it, but there were also parts I had left out.
I told him last about the dagger I had swiped from her during the masked ball.
That piece of information intrigued him the most. “What did the dagger look like?”
I described it to him, the etchings on the hilt, and Vera’s findings. His face paled a shade.
“Do you realize how close you were to death, boy? She’s a trained assassin. A Dark Walker at that. You should be dead right now.”
But I’m not.
The thought stopped me short. Was there more she needed from me?
My uncle rose from the table, cringing at the pain the movement brought. “I’m sure the other two we captured are assassins as well. The blond man is also a Kallistar, so they’ll need to keep an eye on him, but that other girl with the wound, is she ...”
I offered a helpless shrug, and he nodded in understanding.
“Well,” he said. “At least that problem took care of itself.”
I shifted on my feet, staring at the floor. “The soldiers are scouring the streets and haven’t found her yet.” I hesitated. “What if they don’t find her before the finale?”
He grunted, leaning against the door frame.
“If she tries to sneak into the palace, she’ll be recognized.
We can’t announce this or use wanted posters because the last thing we want to do is cause panic or insinuate Paravellia does not have its affairs under control.
With her skills, she won’t be found by the soldiers if she doesn’t want to be, but we have leverage with her brother.
Send extra guards to the dungeons and discreetly place others within a close distance.
If she tried to free her friend once, I’m sure she’ll do it again for her blood. ”
I gestured toward his abdomen as he pulled his shirt back on. “Will you be all right?”
He let out a laugh. “This is nothing more than a scratch. I’ll be fine. The question is, will you be fine?”
I forced a smile, throat bobbing. “She was a distraction. Nothing more. I’ll be glad when they find her.”
I could tell he didn’t believe me.
I would take to the streets myself if I thought it would do any good, but I knew it wouldn’t. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to see her again. Better to have them go through with the sentencing and execution as quickly as they could. Over and done with.
But I wouldn’t be able to watch.
Even after everything she’d done ... I didn’t trust my reaction if I were to look her in the eyes again.
“Are you going to kiss me or kill me?”
Her words from the night of the masked ball, when I had held the knife against her throat in the alley, returned to me.
I didn’t quite know.
“Why does she want your ring?” I asked, pointing to the opal stone on his finger.
He glanced around the infirmary, ensuring we wouldn’t be heard. “Because the vile witch she’s working for wants the power stored within it.”
I crossed my arms. “Is it magic you can use?”
He shook his head. “No, I can’t. You’ve heard of how I disappeared years ago?”
I nodded.
“Once I knew I would never have a claim to the throne, I sought my own path. I joined a guild known as the Serpent’s Blades, not to become an assassin, but to learn their ways, enough so I could be used as a weapon if needed.
While I was in training, one of the students possessed a natural affinity for magic.
Her name was Lavinia. Anyone who is born with magic instead of learning it is of special interest, carefully watched to discern their intentions, as restraining someone with natural abilities is far harder than restraining someone with learned abilities. ”
“Let me guess,” I said. “She didn’t have good intentions.”
He shook his head. “No. She wanted to conquer and control, and she was the most powerful Enchantress I have ever seen. The elders decided she needed to be stripped of her power. When it came down to it ... many lives were lost. Good people I knew.”
“But she still has power,” I said.
“Yes, they weren’t able to strip everything from her, but she was severely hindered.
” He lifted the ring up for me to examine it where it rested on his finger.
“The majority of her power resides in here, trapped within this stone. No one can access it as long as it is on my finger, not even me. It is tied to my life force and can only be removed by someone else in the event of my death, but it affects me. It’s the reason I can detect enchantments.
While I can’t directly access it, it’s like the power keeps me from danger.
In some ways, it feels like a sixth sense walking around with me, warning me of harm or when someone dangerous is near. ”
“Why didn’t the Enchantress come for you herself?” I asked.
“As long as I wear the ring, she cannot harm me. That’s why she hired a Dark Walker, someone to kill me and bring the ring to her. I’d hate to think what kind of bargain the girl struck.”
“Illusion,” I said, the pieces falling into place. “She told me she came here to kill the man who murdered her family. Now that I know she’s a Kallistar—she wasn’t lying about that. She came here to take down my father. The bargain with the Enchantress must have been part of it.”
“If she came here for your father then she’ll do everything in her power to come back and take this ring, but I’m more concerned about preventing her from accomplishing the latter.”
“What happens if the Enchantress gets the ring and her power is restored?”
My uncle grimaced. “She’ll take vengeance first on Paravellia, since they’ve harbored me all these years.
If she’s able to perform an enchantment as strong as an illusion to mask both that girl’s face and name, I’d hate to think how her power has grown even without the full force of it.
If she taps into the full source ... there’s no way to measure what kind of havoc she could wreak, especially after so many years of harboring vengeance and bitterness. ”
I clenched my jaw. “Then we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“That’s not all,” my uncle said.
I looked up.
“What prompted your father to change the line of succession?”
I frowned. “Rivero’s assassination.”
“Yes, but where did the idea of changing the line of succession come from? Do you really think he came up with that on his own?”
“What are you getting at?”
“When she attacked me, she accused me of a ploy for the throne and planning to kill you.”
“That’s preposterous,” I said.
“Yes,” he said. “But she did raise an interesting question. If you are crowned king and die before having an heir—who stands to gain the throne?”
I shifted on my feet, running the idea through my mind. “You don’t think changing the line of succession was a whim or an accident?”
He shook his head. “Whatever her plans, in this I believe she was right. Someone wants the line of Zaricor to end. They want you crowned, and then they want you dead.”
I ran each ball through my mind, every man and woman in power.
“Ezrielle was meeting the chancellor, but he’s not smart enough to double cross her without getting caught.
My death after being crowned makes her ineligible for the throne, but even if she tried to change the laws, suspicion around my death would prevent her from getting anywhere near it. ”
“Then who,” my uncle said, “arranged Rivero’s assassination in order to place you on the throne?”
––––––––
HOWLAND BECAME MY SHADOW when I stepped into the hall.
He kept one hand on his sword at all times, two extra guards flanking him.
I could argue with him, tell him the extra protection was overkill, but I knew he wouldn’t listen.
What he didn’t understand was if Analleia wanted me dead, I would be.
I was only alive and breathing because she willed it.
Howland searched my rooms before allowing me to enter, barring the balcony and the main door from the inside and making me promise not to remove them no matter what happened. He insisted he should remain stationed inside my chambers, but I drew the line there. I wanted to be alone tonight.
He escorted the maids in and out as they built a fire and then left me with a tray of food the kitchen had brought up. From the missing chunks of food dotted around the plate I assumed he had taste-tested everything himself before allowing it inside.
I picked at the chicken and potatoes absentmindedly, staring into the flames of the hearth while they danced about as if laughing at me.
Laughing at me, because the night of the opening Paravellian Ball when she had made a fool of me in front of Lord Eyreling wasn’t the first time I had met Analleia Kallistar.
And I had never forgotten her.
I’d danced with her five years ago at the last Paravellian Balls after she beat me at chess, intrigued by the prospect of a girl who had the ability to keep up with my wit and mind.
I could tell she thought I was overdone, but after that first dance, she’d gotten under my skin.
I was a fool back then, doing stupid things I shouldn’t have done in an attempt to get her attention.
When I’d heard of Donnovar’s betrayal, it had gutted me, then gutted me again when I learned she was dead.
The reaction seemed confusing for someone I barely knew, but she was also the only person I had ever felt a true connection with—and then she was dead.
I first met her after I’d beaten every person who challenged me to a chess match, being a jerk about my victories and proudly proclaiming that no one was better than I. She had waltzed in, tired of my cockiness, and took up the challenge.
I had laughed at her, rejecting the proposition of a little girl.
But then she had asked me if I was scared.
Scared to be beaten by a little girl. No one had ever had the guts to talk back to me like that.
To challenge me. It infuriated me. Intrigued me.
All I had wanted that entire game was to beat her, to prove a point, but the truth was—I was infatuated with her.
Curious about this unknown girl who had the audacity to put me in my place, the girl whose long white-blond hair and pale skin made her stand out from others, the girl who I decided was one of the prettiest girls I had ever seen.
And then she had beat me at chess.
The humiliation that had washed over me was like nothing I had ever felt before. The crowd around me mocked and jeered, insulted me for being so prideful, glad that I was put in my place, and by a little girl no less.
But she hadn’t jeered.
She had simply looked at the board, said, “Checkmate.”
Shrugged her shoulders.
Smiled.
Then left.
I’d crawled away from the chess table in shame, slipping into the shadows where I could watch her, figure out who she was and where she was from.
That was the night I had vowed to never lose a game of chess again, the night I started training with my uncle, but that vow had now shattered, cracked at its very core.
Because this entire event of the seven balls had been a chess board, and while I hadn’t known it, I was playing against her. We were each moving pieces, fighting for a common goal, but we were ultimately playing against each other, and like a game of cards, she had just shown her hand.
I’d vowed to never lose, to never be humiliated like that.
But I hadn’t learned yet.
And she had beat me again.