Queen of Darkness

was the right diameter for a child’s hand, cut it in half, and then Lucivar set out to show you the drills he’d been practicing.”

”He’s always had a natural talent for weapons,” Andulvar said, ”but at that age, he wasn’t good at explaining the drills.”

”So,” Saetan said, ”he got in a couple of good whacks, and you, by luck or temper, got in a couple of whacks yourself. At which point, the two of you tossed aside the sticks and started using your fists. Manny put an end to it by dumping a bucket of cold water over both of you.”

Daemon had to make a conscious effort not to squirm. ”Are you going to do this every time?” he growled at Saetan.

”Do what?” Saetan asked blandly.

”Trot out embarrassing stories from my childhood.”

Saetan just smiled.

”Come on, puppy,” Andulvar said. ”You need a hot bath, a rubdown, and something to eat. The morning’s still young, and you’ve got the rest of the day ahead of you.”

Daemon’s snarl turned into a yelp when Andulvar grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him to his feet.

”One moment,” Saetan said quietly.

Sensing the change in mood, Daemon turned to face Saetan squarely. ”You sent for me.”

Saetan studied Daemon for a minute. ”I’ve received a request.Whether you want to honor it is totally your choice. If you decide you’re not ready, or don’t want to at all, I’ll try to explain.”

Daemon felt ice rush through his veins, but he resisted the urge to give in to the cold rage. He had a lot to learn about the give-and-take between males and females in Kaeleer. He shouldn’t assume that a request made here meant the same thing as a request made in Terreille.

”What’s the request?”

Saetan said gently, ”Your mother would like to see you.”

6 Kaeleerspan

Sipping a cup of herbal tea, Karla wandered around the inner garden, hoping the sound of the fountain would soothe her. She looked up once, apprehensively, at the second floor windows on the south side of the courtyard. Was Sadi up there right now, watching her from behind the sheer curtains?

Hell’s fire, I shouldn’t have blurted out that he is a Black Widow. She’d realized that the moment she saw the cold fury in his eyes. But she’d been disturbed by the tangled web she’d woven a couple of days ago and so preoccupied with trying to understand the cryptic images she’d seen… Well, seeing Daemon Sadi certainly explained a lot of those images. She’d seen the High Lord looking into a mirror, but the reflection wasn’t him. She’d seen truths protected by lies. She’d seen a Black-Jeweled Black Widow who became an enemy in order to remain a friend. And she’d seen death held back by a ring. Her death.

Troubled by her inability to interpret the vision of the High Lord, she had begun to wonder if she’d misread the tangled web somehow. Now there were no more doubts.

She drained the cup and sighed. There was one more thing she’d better get straightened out before Jaenelle returned-for all their sakes.

Daemon reached for the black jacket he had laid on his bed, then paused when he heard the tapping again, a little louder this time. Someone was outside the glass balcony door of his sitting room.

Leaving the jacket, he went into the sitting room, pulled aside the curtain, and stared at the spiky-haired witch standing on the balcony. His first impulse was to release the curtain and ignore her. He didn’t want her physical presence or her psychic scent in his rooms. He didn’t want anyone wondering why he was entertaining another woman before he’d had a chance to be formally accepted by the Queen.

He didn’t give a damn that she was a Territory Queen. But the fact that she was in the First Circle of Jaenelle’s court did matter.

Reluctantly, he opened the door and stepped back to let her enter.

”I have an appointment in a few minutes,” he said coldly.

”I came to apologize,” Karla said. ”It won’t take long. I’m not very good at them, so I tend to keep them short.”

Daemon slipped his hands into his trouser pockets and waited.

Karla took a deep breath. ”I shouldn’t have announced your belonging to the Hourglass so publicly. The First Circle would have been told in any case, but I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that. I was thinking about something else that had been puzzling me, and when I saw you…” She shrugged.

”How did you know? No one in Terreille realized what I am.”

Her lips curved. ”Well, I doubt any of them has spent the past ten years annoying Uncle Saetan. Those of us who have would notice the similarities in your psychic scents and reach the correct conclusion.”

Daemon blinked. ”Uncle Saetan?”

Her lips finished curving into that wicked smile. ”He adopted Jaenelle, and the rest of us adopted him. We came to stay for a summer and never quite went home again. You can imagine how thrilled he was to discover he’d acquired ten adolescent witches instead of just one-and the boyos, too, of course.”

”Of course,” Daemon said, fighting not to smile. ”Some surprise.”

”Mmm. That first summer, when we all piled in on him, the coven became very adept at brewing soothing tonics. It was so distressing to hear him whimper.”

Daemon choked on a laugh. Then his amusement faded. She was clever, this Queen with the ice-blue eyes and spiky white-blond hair. She must realize how much he wanted to hear stories of Jaenelle’s youth.

Karla studied him. ”If it would make you feel better, you can threaten to throttle me.”

He was speechless for a moment. ”I beg your pardon?”

”In this court, it’s the acceptable way for a male to express annoyance with a witch.”

”Threatening to throttle a woman is considered acceptable?” Daemon asked, sure that he had misunderstood something.

”As long as he says it calmly so you know he doesn’t mean it.”

A male who could remain calm in this place must have an amazing amount of self-control, Daemon thought. He rubbed his forehead and began to understand Lucivar’s warning about having one of the coven explain things to him.

”Having Lucivar threaten you doesn’t bother you?” Daemon asked. Since Lucivar usually sounded calm when he threatened someone, only a fool wouldn’t take him seriously,

Karla twitched her shoulders. ”Oh. Well. Lucivar. He rarely says anything if he’s annoyed with you. He just picks you up and tosses you into the nearest body of water.” She paused. ”Although to be fair-”

”Who wants to be fair?” Daemon growled.

”Spent the morning with him, didn’t you?” Karla said knowingly. ”If it’s a watering trough or a fountain, he dunks you rather than tosses you so that you don’t get hurt. However, that’s Lucivar. We strongly discourage other males from acquiring that particular habit.”

”If you didn’t, you’d be wet most of the time,” Daemon muttered.

Before Karla could respond to that comment, Morghann, the Queen of Scelt-the red-haired Queen he’d seen earlier that morning-and Gabrielle, the Queen of the Dea al Mon, gave the balcony door a token tap before walking in.

”The coven’s rooms all face this inner garden, so it’s quicker to use the balcony doors rather than walking all the way around inside,” Morghann said at the same time Karla said, ”Where’s Surreal?”

Gabrielle hooked her silver-blond hair behind her pointed ears and grinned. ”Chaosti claimed her on the pretense of giving her a tour of the Hall. She was still snarling about having to apologize to Graysfang for sounding like she meant it when she threatened to smack him.”

”I was explaining some of the rules to Daemon,” Karla said.

”I really do have an appointment,” Daemon muttered, then said, ”Come in,”-loudly-when someone knocked on the sitting room door.