The Soulstoy Inheritance Page 16

  What kind of problems?

  I considered this, chewing my lip.

  If Harbringer has lied to me about something serious, it would destroy my trust in him.

  I have no doubt that Nareon would be pleased if you sent the Power Thief away, but not at your expense, Lady Queen. If he has warned you about something, I would endeavor to find out what it is as soon as possible. Nareon might be selfish, but I have spent a lot of time in his mind, and to my knowledge, he has always put your needs above his own.

  He didn’t do that for my mother, why me?

  Perhaps that is exactly why.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A Therapy of Violence

  I spent the next three months split between Red Ridge and the castle. The destroyed lands were slowly coming back to life, and with the constant outpouring of energy, I didn’t once have to fear for my death ability. Flintwood was almost returned to its former woodsy glory, but I had avoided spending time there over the last week, as Sweet—who had been assigned to keep an eye on the place—had reported flesh meat being consumed at quite a high volume. There was still no hint as to where they were acquiring the stuff, and while it wasn’t in the state of poverty that I found it, it would still take time for them to return to their former economy, so Sweet hadn’t yet ruled out the possibility that they could be sacrificing among themselves.

  The time I spent at the castle was devoted to training. I quickly found it beneficial to have my body in constant pain and movement, as it helped to control the dark moods that my hunger often pushed me into. I had seen Nareon only twice since his last appearance, and each time he warned me of Harbringer, which had managed to drive my suspicions despite my unwillingness to believe them. Eventually, I couldn’t even train with him anymore, and insisted on going through the daily drills with Grenlow’s men.

  When Harbringer finally broached the subject, I told him that I needed someone that I could trust to go with Teddy each day to Ravenport. It wasn’t entirely untrue, as I was beginning to grow frustrated at the lack of progress in finding out who was managing to poison the waterways. Quick and Teddy took turns most nights guarding my door, while Quick shadowed me around during the day whenever I sent Harbringer away. They were the only ones who knew about my late night meetings with Leif, and sometimes Ashen.

  My mind was too chaotic anymore for Harbringer to easily decipher my thoughts, so I was mostly afforded privacy. It was the first time I became truly grateful for my decision to forgo feeding.

  “Lady Queen, you’re up,” Grenlow announced, interrupting my thoughts.

  I moved into the center of the circle of soldiers and caught Quick’s eye from where he perched on the lower steps of one of the portable wooden spectator stands. He winked, which caused a preparatory grin to spread across my face. Hayden, my current opponent—who was twice my width, and almost as tall—caught the grin and lowered into a crouch, bouncing on the balls of his feet to let me know that he was just as ready as I was.

  My first months of training had been pandemonium. With my Force in constant flux, roots sprang from the ground to trip up whomever I fought, and often when I moved toward people, I would intentionally send out blasts of wind to precede my attack. I was better at controlling it all now, as Leif had promised.

  I narrowed my eyes, and tuned out the whisperings and occasional jeering of the surrounding soldiers. They often took bets on my fights, and then tried to heckle me into whatever outcome they had predicted. Hayden flew at me, dashing to the side at the last second, and I bent beneath the arm that he threw out, the arm that usually would have snapped my top-half backward, sending me sprawling in the dirt. I spun at the same time as him, and we faced each other again, circling slowly until he made to move again.

  I realised that it was a bluff a second too late, and had to alter my pounce into a roll, ducking beneath his arms again as he made a grab for me. This frustrated both of us, and when I jumped up to face him again, he was ready for it. His fist flew toward my face, and I turned, managing to avoid most of the impact. I flung out my arm, continuing to turn and bringing the side of my hand down hard into the juncture of his neck. That alone wouldn’t have done much damage, but it was a good distraction technique, which allowed me to quickly shift my touch toward his jugular notch, jabbing my fingers swiftly into the dip at the base of his neck. He gagged and I jumped back, scrunching up my face, checking to see whether my nose was broken.

  “One hit each,” Grenlow announced. “Come on you two, you’re dancing around it again.”

  Hayden made the mistake of shifting his attention to Grenlow then, and I dove toward his midsection, unintentionally knocking him off balance with a gust of wind that also caused a stir among the onlookers. I wedged myself beneath his meaty arms and drove him backwards, quickly slipping behind him before he could get a firm grip on me and planting my foot at the base of his spine, giving him a good shove.

  I heard a scattering of cheers, and a few appreciative chuckles, and I wondered who I had managed to win money for with that move. Hayden stumbled forward, but managed to steady himself before he fell over, which I observed with begrudged admiration. I gave him a chance to get his bearings again, and then immediately jerked to the side, knowing that he would charge at me. Unfortunately, he had also guessed my dodge, and I felt his shoulder drive into my stomach with a bruising force. This time, when I tried to spin around, he was ready for me, and he threw himself to the side, the momentum sending us both crashing toward the ground. I jerked my elbows up, shaking his hold on me with just enough time to change the direction of the fall, and then I inserted my forearm beneath his chin, and grabbed a hold of his shirt with my other hand, keeping myself anchored until his back slammed against the ground, and my arm pressed too tightly into his windpipe for him to throw me off immediately.

  “Three hits. Bea wins again,” announced Grenlow.

  I jumped off Hayden, and he grunted, struggling back into a standing position and rubbing his neck.

  “I’m sorry,” I offered with a wince. “You don’t have many weak spots.”

  He managed a smile. “You’re nose is bleeding, Lady Queen.”

  I put a hand to my face, surprised. “Oh, so it is.”

  Quick pushed into the circle then, holding a piece of parchment nailed to a board.

  “That’s your sixth win for the day, Bea. You’re flying up the ranks.”

  “If only Nareon had left me a sword and a helmet instead of a kingdom.” I scoffed.

  The men had grown used to my self-depreciating humour now, which had worsened considerably with my dark moods, and I was relieved to hear some of them laugh now. I walked back to the castle with Quick, and we passed through to the back garden, which had been cleared for my crossbow training. With my unpredictable Force outbursts, I had quickly declared myself completely unfit to train with long-ranged weapons in the presence of others. There were a number of barely-visible targets nailed to the trees at various distances from my starting point. Quick wore a wholly unnecessary amount of protective gear, which amused him more than it shielded him, and I wore my usual daily attire: dark tights and plain shirt, with my knife harness strapped across my chest. I shot at the first few targets, with my Force sometimes helping the arrow to fly impressively close to the center circle, and sometimes causing it to go in the complete opposite direction.

  After a while, my arm grew sore, and I set the crossbow aside, rubbing my shoulder.

  “I think it’s time to go back across the border,” I said, more to myself.

  Quick lit up instantly. “Are you preparing for the Winter Festival?”

  “What? Oh that, no… although…” I chewed the inside of my cheek—a bad habit that I had gotten into since cutting the synfee energy out of my diet—and thought about my conversation with Leif a few months earlier.

  “I suppose I could ask Hazen to attend. It would show us as a unified front.”

  Exactly what Nareon wants.

  “And the su
ccess of the Winter Festival is always measured by the number of monarchs in attendance.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, Nareon once had every monarch on this side of the sea here in this very kingdom.”

  “How many was that?”

  He tapped his chin, pretending to think, though I had a feeling he was just being dramatic.

  “Five, I believe.”

  “Five? Wow.”

  “Yes, one of them caused quite a stir. He ruled a motley kingdom of both tainted and human races. The human subjects were oppressed into natural slavery by the stronger races, which, incidentally, were the synfee and ranger sorts.”

  “Oh dear. I can’t imagine his meeting with the human king went well.”

  “Nareon poked at them all week, and finally they both just exploded and started fighting right in the middle of the courtyard. They broke his favourite fountain.”

  “How do you break a fountain?”

  “One of them had very strong bender talents—he tried to throw the fountain at the other.”

  A laugh bubbled in my throat and then burst forth. I couldn’t help it; the notion was just so comical. Quick looked at me strangely.

  “You know, that’s the first time I’ve heard you really laugh in… well, a long time. I think you’re finally getting a hang of these moods.”

  “That’s why I’ve decided to go over the border now. I didn’t dare do it before, not with the state I was in.”

  “Are you going to take Harbringer with you?”

  “Yes, I expect I will.”

  “And will you bring him back?”

  I froze, ripping off my gloves and beginning to move back toward the castle.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve been sending him away a lot, I’m not the only person who has noticed. Are you two having some kind of lovers’ spat?”

  “We’re not lovers, Quick.”

  “So something happened before it got that far?”

  “Not necessarily. I’m just… being cautious, that’s all.”

  He squinted at me, but I ignored the look and made my way to the courtroom, where I suspected I would find Ashen. Surely enough, he was sitting at the end of the table of court officials, his booted feet propped up before him and his arms folded behind his head, a look of perpetual amusement plastered to his handsome face. Whenever he came back from one of his trips, he always spent a day or two in the courtroom, apparently re-familiarising himself with the issues of our own kingdom. I wasn’t fooled. He liked to play games with people, it was as simple as that. He knew that the easiest people to play with were the ones who needed something.

  He sat up when he saw me and excused himself, sauntering to the other end of the courtroom. I found myself smiling at his display, though I hadn’t consciously meant to do it, and backed out of the room, knowing that he would follow me.

  “Lady Queen!” he said. “It has been too long since I was awarded the pleasure of your bloodied face.”

  I led him into his own office, and shut the door as Quick stationed himself outside.

  “How was your trip?” I asked, moving to the small decorative mirror that graced his wall, half-hidden behind a vase of fresh flowers, which he had most certainly not picked himself.

  “It didn’t go smoothly, but that is to be expected. The seas are a treacherous place in a time like this.” He peered over my shoulder, watching me trying to wipe the dried blood from my face before finally offering me a folded cloth.

  I spat on the cloth and began wiping again. He winced.

  “Any casualties this time?” I asked.

  “No, not this time. But the Renegade base remains cleared out. I think you should extend an offering to them, invite them to attend the Winter Festival. It’s only four days from now, it’ll force their hand, and also give us a good idea of how far away Dom’s new base is, from how they respond.”

  “Four days? I didn’t realise it was so soon.”

  “You’ve been preoccupied,” he said, gingerly taking the cloth that I handed back to him. “And speaking of which, it’s good that you’ve severed your romantic involvement with Harbringer, because we have something that we want you to consider.”

  I groaned, finding a seat and slumping into it.

  “I’m just erring on the side of caution with Harbringer! Why does Leif tell you these things?”

  Ashen grinned. “I’m his outlet, girl; he doesn’t get to talk all that much, in case you didn’t notice. It’s hard to have that kind of mind ability. Those throughout history have always had one person that they bond with, whose mind they like to spend more time in than they do their own.”

  “Interesting. Hazen does that with Cale, but Harbringer doesn’t do it with anybody.”

  “Don’t be so sure, it’s not exactly an optional condition. It develops as surely as the ability does. One could argue that the ability could not exist without it; our minds alone are not strong enough. A mind-ability that powerful needs another, a backup, an outlet. The more likely explanation is that he sent his mind-partner insane, that has been known to happen too.”

  “How do you know you’re not insane, Ashen?”

  “I’m quite sure I am, but thankfully for Leif, I was always insane.”

  I shook my head, though a smile softened the gesture.

  “I’ll send a messenger to the nearest Renegade camp then, how far away is that?”

  “Half a day, at worst.”

  “Good.” I began to walk my fingers across the wooden cabinet beneath the mirror. “If they’re here, on our own territory, we can better gauge where they stand. If they accept, how big of a contingency will their ruler—what’s his name again?” My fingers stopped walking.

  “Dom, and the size of his party will be another thing to note. The more people he brings, the more hostile he will be expecting us to be.”

  “So we should hope for a small group?” I allowed my hand to drop to my side.

  “The exact opposite. If they are planning an attack, they will want to lull us into a false sense of our own position. They will bring a small party.”

  “I see. Well, I’m crossing the border tomorrow, I’m going to suggest Hazen bring his own party. Nareon’s reports on the prison break-in attempts have been consistent with those of Leif’s spies, so I think it’s time to act on it.”

  “Which brings us back to what I wanted to ask you.”

  I stood up, pretending I hadn’t heard him.

  “I’m going to go clean up, and send someone to fetch Harbringer back from Ravenport, so that he can come back over the border with me tomorrow.” I reached the door, and even managed to get it open before Ashen was there again, striding alongside me and Quick, who was grinning as though he knew exactly what was happening.

  “Lady Queen, Beatrice, Bea, we really must talk about this at some point,” Ashen said, using all the aplomb of his most theatric voice, and twisting his face into an agonized expression.

  I rolled my eyes and picked up the pace a little bit, which didn’t bother his longer legs in the slightest.

  “Really, girl, you can’t ignore the issue forever.”

  “It’s not an issue, Ashen, it’s me choosing to ignore each new suitor you shove under my nose!”

  “Yes, but I think you’ll rather enjoy this choice.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  He suddenly stopped walking, so quickly that I stopped as well, and held my hands out, waiting for a response.

  “You know what, maybe it would be better if you weren’t told, from now on. That way you wouldn’t push the idea away before you even have a chance to explore it.”

  “Ashen!” I yelled as he spun on his heel and began moving back toward the courtroom. “That is not a good idea!”

  He waved a hand behind him, and a few scattered people about the hallway glanced between us. I grumbled, elbowing Quick for laughing, and continued on my way back to the barracks, where Grenlow would surely have a few messenge
rs for me to send off.

  “Who have they got lined up this time?” I asked Quick.

  “Oh, Bea, they’d never tell the Queen’s own spies.”

  “Like hell they wouldn’t. I know they’ve been trying to get an idea of my preferences from you three, not that they’d have any luck.”

  “They had some luck. I told Ashen that you liked men with speech impediments, and Sweet told him that you leaned toward the female persuasion.”

  “That’s terrible.”

  “Yes, but wonderful all at the same time.”

  “You’re terrible.”

  He chuckled and we broke into a run as we passed through the castle gates. He was used to my sudden bursts of energy by now, and I suspected that they were all just grateful that my Force no longer caused injury wherever I went. It may make me extremely volatile to spontaneous eruptions of emotion or physicality, but that was relatively painless in the wider scope of its potential to harm.

  The next day, Harbringer returned as we were preparing to leave. Just seeing him, despite how bedraggled he appeared, had my heart leaping in my chest. His eyes found me in the courtyard and he strode over to me.

  “You got hit in the face again. Grenlow really shouldn’t be letting them do that.” He reached out as if to touch my face, but then seemed to change his mind, drawing his hand back.

  “Any news for me?”

  “We’ve managed to figure out what poison they’re using, and where they’re leaking it, but so far whoever is doing it has proved annoyingly elusive.”

  “Nothing can ever be easy, can it?”

  “It would seem that way.”

  We saddled up without any further delay, and rode toward the crossing, where Ashen waited for us, to my surprise.

  “Are you coming?” I asked.

  “I’m the ambassador. Of course I’m coming.” He seemed affronted by the question, but I knew him better than that, and the blank look on his face was trouble personified.

  “I’ve got my eye on you,” I warned, poking a finger at him.

  “I’m flattered, Lady Queen. I hope you enjoy the view—should I ride up ahead?”