Chapter Twenty-Five – Scarlett
Chapter Twenty-Five
Scarlett
The inside of the palace was no less foreboding, its sparseness intimidating in a way that the luxuries of the Ravalian Court never could be. And around every corner were Warriors. Black-garbed men and women standing guard, swords and spears ready at their sides.
General Harte didn’t spare them a glance. He escorted us through a servant entrance towards the stables, and my stomach sank as I saw the austere courtyard – and the steel gates. But there was nothing I could do as the Warriors pushed me inside.
The gate slammed shut – separating me from my companions. General Harte’s Warriors took hold of Lillian’s and Aella’s arms, while the general himself dragged Aric from view.
I wrapped my hands around the steel gate. Black veins crawled down my arms – but my death magic didn’t travel into the gates like it travelled into flesh.
I released my grip with a frustrated hiss, glaring at my surroundings. I was in a holding area next to the main stables, solid stone walls blocking me at every turn. When I glanced up at the battlements, I saw a dozen archers with their bows drawn. Roran wasn’t taking any chances.
‘You’ve finally stopped underestimating me,’ I said a few minutes later, when the steel gate opened once more.
Roran stepped inside. Every inch of his skin was covered by armour, barring his face, and he was accompanied by a retinue of Warriors. But his expression was amused as he regarded me.
‘Our father never saw you as a threat, and look how that turned out for him.’ He smiled at my surprise. ‘Yes, Scarlett. I know that you were responsible for his death. I have sources of my own – or did you truly believe I would rely on Zandri for information?’
‘But you can’t possibly know that,’ I said, more to myself than him. ‘Only Zandri and her Masks–’
My voice cut off as a masked woman stalked into the courtyard. In fitted black fighting feathers, with long, pin-straight copper hair that fell almost to her waist, she was quite striking – and she was clearly one of my mother’s Masks.
But while Roran might be foolish enough to believe that this woman was loyal to him, I wasn’t convinced. All Masks were taught how to manipulate their enemies – and my mother had ways of ensuring their obedience.
The Mask strode brazenly up to Roran’s side. I caught a whiff of her perfume: linden blossom and sage.
It was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t recall where I’d smelt it before.
‘You ought to look more worried, Sister,’ Roran drawled, opening his palm to reveal a blood ruby. ‘I may not have magic of my own, but Emperor Kalias trusted me with all his secrets – and your mother’s.’
I stared Roran down with loathing. ‘So she’s to be my executioner, then? I suppose it gives you some kind of perverse satisfaction, forcing a Mask to kill Zandri’s daughter.’
‘You’re wrong on both counts,’ Roran said, passing the blood ruby to the masked woman and smiling at my shock. ‘As you can see, I’m not forcing her to do anything. And she’s just convinced me to spare your life.’
I glanced from the Mask to Roran and back again. ‘If this is some kind of game–’
‘It’s not a game,’ Roran interrupted smoothly. ‘It’s an offer. And my terms are simple: a life for a life. In this case, Mira’s life for your own.’
I studied his face – and then I laughed, though the sound contained no humour. ‘You can’t be serious.’
‘It should be easy enough,’ he continued, as if I hadn’t spoken. ‘Aella told me all about your magic – and how it’s transmitted through touch. What better way to kill one monstrosity than by using another?’
But I was no longer listening. I had stopped listening at the sound of my attendant’s name.
Now that Roran had said it, it seemed obvious. The woman’s slight stature, her perfume–
Aella had seemed so small to me before. So delicate. But there was nothing small or delicate about her now.
‘Don’t feel too bad about it, Scarlett,’ Aella said, picking at her nails.
Her voice was still soft – but now it carried a razor-sharp edge.
‘No one ever notices their servants. It’s the whole reason Zandri assigned me to you in the first place; so that I could watch over you and report back to her without anyone knowing. Including you .’
‘But if you were following Zandri’s orders–’
‘I stopped taking orders from Zandri a long time ago.’ Through the mask, Aella’s eyes were as cold and hard as stones. ‘Getting close to you suited my purposes, that’s all. And Roran’s.’
I looked away from Aella and refocused on my brother. ‘You would trust me? To kill Mira?’
‘Not without insurance. I’m sure you’re aware of the deal Emperor Kalias and Zandri signed in blood,’ Roran said conversationally, ‘which prevented either of them from physically harming the other. As a descendant of the Sorceress, your blood contains the same magical power to hold us to our promises.’ He paused, his eyes glittering.
‘I’m prepared to give you – oh, let’s say a month – to kill Kasmira Volaris, and in exchange, I will allow you to live.
If you fail – well, I’ve heard it’s a horrific way to die, choking on your own blood. ’
I had heard the same. According to my mother, once a deal was signed in blood, there was no voiding it. And I knew that she had tried.
‘Your survival should be enough motivation on its own,’ Roran continued, ‘but if you do a good job, who knows? I might allow you to serve me in the Order of Masks. I’m sure your gift for assassination would prove useful.’
I looked up at him blankly. The last thing I wanted was to live out my mother’s existence: serving an emperor that I couldn’t kill, and plotting his downfall for decades. But what other choice was there? At least this bought me some time – at the expense of Mira’s life.
But that was a trade I was willing to make.
‘Fine,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘But I want Aric and Lillian included. They live – or the deal is off.’
‘Of course,’ Roran said, too easily and too pleasantly. ‘Aella, why don’t you bring them back in? There’s one last piece of business to conclude.’
I stepped towards Roran, heedless of the arrows trained on me. Roran held up a hand – instructing them to hold their fire.
‘If you could have ended me, you would have done it by now,’ he said dismissively – but his gaze sharpened as he watched my death magic rise, the dark veins twisting across my bare arms.
I had hoped to see fear in his eyes. Instead, I saw hunger.
That hunger shifted as Aella and General Harte returned with Lillian and Aric.
It darkened into something vengeful and terrible.
Foreboding gripped me as I glanced between Aric and Roran.
A year had passed since Aric had humiliated Roran during the Choosing Ceremony, but I knew Roran hadn’t forgotten.
‘You resemble your brother,’ Roran said conversationally, approaching Aric. ‘Kain, wasn’t it?’
Aric jerked against General Harte’s iron hold. ‘You don’t have the right to say his name.’
The general kicked at Aric’s legs, sending him to his knees. Roran moved closer, taking Aric’s jaw in his gloved hands. Forcing him to look up into his pitiless face.
‘Your brother died well,’ he said. ‘Too well for a traitor. Had it been up to me, I would have made sure your entire family suffered for his folly. How fortunate that fate has seen fit to rectify that mistake.’
I tensed as the gate groaned open, but didn’t dare shift my gaze from Roran as he approached Lillian.
‘Don’t touch her–’
General Harte backhanded Aric across the face. He spat blood onto the ground and fell forward, onto all fours. When the general reached for him, Aric reacted – elbowing him in the stomach and lunging for his sister.
‘Behave,’ Roran said calmly, shifting so that he stood behind Lillian, one hand on the base of her throat and the other resting on the back of her neck – in the perfect position to snap it. She said nothing – did nothing – but the rapid rise and fall of her chest betrayed her.
And then I heard it. The low, rumbling growl.
Lillian’s face went pale as the hound approached, its snout wet with blood, its hulking body covered with spiked armour. Black armour, similar to what Ravalian Warriors wore.
‘Call it off,’ I said coldly to Roran, trying not to imagine those jaws ripping Lillian to shreds. Not even my death magic would be able to resurrect her then. ‘You’ve made your point.’
He merely smiled. ‘My spies tell me that the Volaris bitch intends to become clan leader. To do that, she will have to leave the safety of the Temple and seek out the Council of Ancients. You will take a small force and assassinate her – ideally before she reaches the council, but if she makes it there first, you will convince the council to deny her request. If you undermine me in any way, if even a rumour of a kind word between you and Kasmira reaches me, I will give Titus the attack word. It would be a shame to see such a pretty girl ripped to shreds.’ Roran released Lillian abruptly.
She stumbled to the side, tripping on her skirts as she tried to put some distance between herself and Titus.
‘As for you . . .’ Roran returned his attention to Aric, whose gaze was on Lillian and the circling hound, its every movement filled with barely leashed aggression. ‘I’d like you to give Kasmira a message for me.’
‘You can’t kill him,’ I said quickly. ‘Aric is part of our deal; I need him alive–’
‘Who said anything about killing him?’ Roran twirled a dagger in his palm – Aric’s dagger.
He nodded to General Harte, whose grip tightened on Aric, holding him immobile. And then Roran sliced the dagger down Aric’s cheek in a jagged line.
Lillian screamed, clawing for her brother. Roran’s Warriors held her tight as blood ran down Aric’s face in rivulets.
Aric didn’t cry out. Didn’t so much as stumble as he lifted his searing gaze to Roran’s.
‘There,’ my brother said, smiling as he walked past me. ‘Still perfectly functional. Just not quite as handsome .’