Dea al Mon would probably take even more time. If Lucivar was planning to leave within the hour to reach the guardhouse, he was planning to arrive so that there would be just enough time for Jaenelle to rest and eat a late midday meal before doing whatever she was going to do. Just enough time…
The Sadist in him woke up. He looked at Saetan and saw his own suspicions reflected in his father’s eyes. ”When was the body found?” he asked too softly.
Lucivar jerked to attention, then swore viciously.
Saetan returned his stare for a moment. ”If Jorval had been informed immediately, there would have been just enough time to pen a hasty note and send it here by courier.”
”No, I wouldn’t say so.”
Which meant Jorval had known about Magstrom’s death before the body had been found. And Jorval was the one who had made these arrangements for Jaenelle to come to Little Terreille.
As soon as he and Lucivar were away from Saetan’s study, Daemon settled one hand on Lucivar’s shoulder, his long, black-tinted nails providing just enough bite to ensure that he had his brother’s undivided attention. ”You will do anything you have to in order to keep her safe and take care of her, won’t you?”
”I’ll keep her safe, Bastard. You can count on that.” Then Lucivar smiled that lazy, arrogant smile. ”But you’re the one who’s going to take care of her. You’ve got less than an hour to get packed, old son. Bring enough to get you through a couple of days in Amdarh as well.”
Daemon stared at Lucivar, then stepped back and slipped his hands into his trouser pockets. ”She’s not comfortable with me, Prick.” Not even to Lucivar would he admit how Jaenelle had practically fled her own rooms in order to get away from him after he had spent the night with her. ”My being there would only distress her.”
”You’re her Consort,” Lucivar said sharply. ”Stand your ground.”
”But…”
”She isn’t going to pay attention to either of us before this meeting, and I’ll be with you when you go to Amdarh. While she’s swearing about tripping over me, she isn’t going to have time to feel nervous about being around
He finally understood. Lucivar didn’t want him there because he was the Consort, but because he was the Sadist.
Daemon nodded. ”I’ll be ready to leave when you are.”
Seeing the contained grief in Jaenelle’s eyes, Lucivar didn’t need to ask if she’d been told about Lord Magstrom’s death. He almost asked if she wanted to postpone the meeting, but didn’t bother. There was something else in her eyes that told him she would see this meeting through, for her own reasons.
He eyed the large flat case that stood near her traveling bag. She had several cases like that of different sizes that contained the wooden frames she used to weave her various webs.
”You’re expecting to weave a healing web that size?” he asked.
”It’s not for a healing web; it’s for the shadow.”
He eyed the case again. A ”shadow” was an elaborate illusion that could fool the eye into believing a person was really there. Jaenelle could create one that was so realistic, the only difference between it and her real body was that, while the shadow could pick up or touch anything, it couldn’t
”Do you feel well enough to channel that much power through your body to make the shadow capable of doing an extensive healing?”
”There won’t be much healing required,” Jaenelle replied calmly.
That wasn’t the impression he or Saetan had gotten from Jorval’s urgent letters, but he knew better than to say anything. Serving Jaenelle in the past few years had taught him when to yield.
She vanished the case and traveling bag, then picked up a hooded, full-length black cape. ”Shall we go?”
Kartane SaDiablo restlessly paced the sitting room of his suite.
The bitch was late. If he’d been home, the bitch wouldn’t have dared keep Dorothea’s son waiting. Hell’s fire, he’d almost be glad to get back to Hayll.
Working himself up to insulted outrage, he almost missed the quiet knock on the door. He pulled himself together. He needed this bitch, who, Jorval assured him, was the best Healer in Kaeleer. If he was uncivil, nothing and no one could stop her from walking out the door again.
He walked over to the windows and looked out. There was no reason for her to know he had been waiting anxiously, no reason to give her even that little bit of power over him. ”Come in,” he said when the knock sounded again.
He didn’t hear the door open, but when he turned around, a figure shrouded in a hooded black cape stood inside the room.
At first he thought it was that witch Dorothea called the Dark Priestess, but there was something slimy about the Dark Priestess’s psychic scent and this one’s scent…
Kartane frowned. He couldn’t detect a psychic scent at all. ”You’re the Healer?” he asked doubtfully.
”Yes.”
Kartane shivered at the sound of that midnight voice. Trying to ignore his uneasiness, he reached up to unbutton his shirt. ”I suppose you want to examine me.”
”That won’t be necessary. I know what’s wrong with you.”
His fingers froze around the button. ”You’ve seen this before?”
”No.”
”But you know what it is?”
”Yes.”
Annoyed by the terse answers, he tossed aside any effort at civility. ”Then what in the name of Hell is it?”
”It’s called Briarwood,” replied the midnight voice.
The blood drained out of Kartane’s head, leaving him dizzy.
”Briarwood is the pretty poison,” the voice continued as fair-skinned hands reached up and pushed the hood back. ”There is no cure for Briarwood.”
Kartane stared at her. The last time he’d seen her, thirteen years ago, she had been more like a drugged puppet than a child-a plaything locked in one of Briarwood’s cubicles, waiting to be used. But he’d never forgotten those sapphire eyes, or the terror he’d felt after he’d tried to touch her mind.
”You.” The word came out as nothing more than exhaled breath. ”I thought Greer destroyed you.”
”He tried.”
It hit him then. He pointed an accusing finger at her. ”You did this to me.
”I created the tangled web, yes. As far as what’s happened to you, Kartane, you did this to yourself.”
”No!”
”Yes. To each is given what he gave. That was the only command I spun into the web.”
”Since you did this, you can damn well undo it!”
She shook her head. ”Many of the children who were the threads of that tangled web have returned to the Darkness. They’re out of reach, even for me, and there’s no way to undo the web without them.”
”You lie,” Kartane shouted. ”If I hand you enough gold, you’d find a way fast enough.”
”There is no cure for Briarwood. But there
”WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?”
