Well, there was nothing to be done about it now, she told herself grimly. Except be certain she showed up to Court bright and early the next day and did her royal duties to the best of her ability. Nothing to do but carry on and act like everything was normal, even if she felt like she was falling apart inside.
And the first normal thing she could do was eat dinner. Or at least pretend to eat it.
“I thank you, Captain Kiyda,” she called through the door. “You may have my dinner sent here to my apartments tonight.”
No matter how much she needed to save face, she felt she couldn’t bear to go to the formal dinner in the Dining Hall. She would go on with the business of being Potentate tomorrow. But for tonight, she wanted to stay in her apartments and lick her wounds.
“Yes, oh Goddess in the Flesh,” Kiyda answered. “It shall be as you say.”
He went away and in due course, her silver dinner tray arrived.
Ellina sat at the table by herself and looked at it sadly. The food looked and smelled delicious but she had no appetite. All she could think of was Ty tasting a bit of everything to make certain it wasn’t poisoned or drugged and how he wasn’t here to taste for her now and keep her safe with the essence from his fangs.
Of course, she reminded herself, he wasn’t needed now. The poisoner had been caught—it was the same male from the Southern Continent who had planned the attack during the Grand Promenade. The same male whose head Lord Kikbax had blown off with his blaster…
But the memory of that—of the bright spray of blood and brains all over the wall of the dungeon interrogation room—turned her stomach. Ellina pushed the tray away without tasting it. Ugh—she couldn’t eat a thing tonight. She just wasn’t hungry.
She sent the tray away, back to the kitchens, and settled disconsolately on the couch again with her legs curled beneath her. She wished she had someone to talk to besides Lor and Tisa. The two chewchies were curled up together on the back of the couch, comforting each other. They were considerately not mating, though Ellina wasn’t certain how she would handle it when next they did. After all, she didn’t have Ty to take the edge off the intense sexual lust the two chewchies generated now. She was probably going to go crazy with need the next time they decided to get together. If only Ty was still here…
Ty, Ty, Ty—stop thinking about Ty, she told herself angrily. He left you and he’s not coming back so it’s time to forget about him! He—
“Oh my child—you are in turmoil. I can feel it through Shel.”
Her grandmother’s voice, coming from Lor’s mouth, interrupted Ellina’s train of thought abruptly.
“Grandmamma?” She looked up, as though she might see the old woman standing in front of her. Her grandmother had still been ill—too ill, Ellina had thought, to bother or frighten with the news of the latest assassination attempt. She’d been checking on her two or three times a day but usually she only got her lady’s maid, who informed Ellina that her grandmother was on the mend, but slowly. Now, she found she was very glad to hear her beloved voice.
“Grandmamma,” she said again, smiling. “How are you? I’ve been so worried about you!”
She expected the older woman to say she felt perfectly well and that Ellina shouldn’t worry about her. So her next words came as a terrible shock.
“Ellina, child,” Lor said softly in her grandmother’s voice, “I’m dying.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
When Ty woke up, he couldn’t tell where he was. It was so dark that at first, he couldn’t even tell if he had his eyes open or closed. And even more frightening, he couldn’t move.
Be calm, he told himself sternly when he wanted to panic. The first thing to do is to figure out where in the Seven Hells you are. Everything else can wait until you do that.
Closing his eyes—he thought, anyway—he took a deep breath and held it, listening.
From somewhere near, he heard the slow drip…drip…drip of water. It echoed as though in a deep chamber, like beads of moisture were falling into a stone throat. Next he became aware of the smell of dampness and rot. His nose wrinkled—where had he smelled that scent before?
Finally it came to him—the dungeon. That was where he’d heard these sounds and smelled that scent before. He must be down in the dungeons under the palace.
But how in the Seven Hells had he gotten here?
Suddenly he became aware of a faint light in the darkness and then footsteps—two sets of them—coming towards him.
“You’re certain he’s still out, Your Holiness?” one voice asked
“Quite certain,” came the reply. “There was enough toxin on that dart to put a terga beast down for a day and a night. He won’t wake up until I’m ready.”
“I don’t understand, though,” the first voice said as the light came nearer. “Why not kill him right away and be done with it? Why lock him away in the dungeons like this?”
“Fundreg, you fool, you never could plan worth a damn,” the second voice, which sounded very familiar said. “I can’t kill him because I need him for leverage, of course!”
Fundreg? Ty frowned. Wasn’t that the name of Ellina’s old Captain of the Guard? The one who was dismissed from service because he failed to stop the assassination plot against her at
