The Crimson Vault Part 4

"I know you have one of those Lirial viewing lenses," Talos said. "Adessa's about to try and kill Father. I thought you might want to watch."

Talos was six years older than Leah, and he matched the common image of a Damascan royal Heir: he was tall and strong, with soft blond hair and chiseled, commanding features. He looked a bit like an older version of Alin, now that she thought of it, down to the smug self-confidence permanently plastered on his face.

Absently, he rested his hand on the sword at his belt. It was sheathed, but she caught the barest glimpse of its red blade. It was a gift from their father, and an artifact of Ragnarus, so she understood his attachment to itabut he wore the sword everywhere. She had seen him wear the blade to weddings, funerals, delicate negotiations, and peace talks. He had no sense of what was appropriate.

Even worse, he was obviously looking forward to watching their sister attempt to kill their father. As much as Leah hated to do anything Talos had commanded her to do, she needed to see this. a.s.suming, of course, that he was telling the truth.

Leah turned her wrist, so that the blue-white summoning crystal she wore there could catch the light. "She can't succeed," Leah said, casting her mind out to Lirial for her scrying lens. It dropped into her hand a moment later: a clear, milky white disc of crystal the size of a dinner plate.

Talos shrugged. "He has every Traveler who can so much as open a Gate running back and forth across the country, preparing for the war against Enosh. Indirial should be the only one with him now, if everything goes according to plan."

Leah pressed the scrying lens against the wall, sealing it in place with an effort of will. "What about the guards?" she asked. Zakareth was a powerful Traveler in his own right, but there was no way he would allow himself to go totally unprotected.

"They're all Travelers, aren't they? They're off on a.s.signment. I got rid of a few of them myself." He tossed that last bit of information out casually, as though he weren't admitting to aiding an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt against the King.

She glanced at her brother out of the corner of her eye. Why was he telling her this? He had never hated her, like he hated some of their other siblings, but Talos was the kind of man who didn't need to hate someone to have them murdered.

He rapped his knuckles on the arm of his chair. "Hurry up, now," he snapped. "She'll head into the throne room any minute."

Leah sighed and pressed the palm of her hand against the crystal disc, calling power from Lirial and feeding it into the device. As she did, it grew, swelling until it was the size of a bathtub.

She almost winced at the amount of energy that had taken. Power in Lirial had to be stored, and soon she would exhaust her stockpile. After that, if she needed to call on Lirial's power in an emergency before she had a chance to resupply, she would have to place herself in debt to some s.h.i.+fty and dangerous beings.

But she couldn't let her brother know that. Around him, she had to spend power like it was nothing. If he sensed anything but utter confidence, she would find herself a target.

When the crystal filled most of the wall, Talos made a satisfied sound, and Leah cast her mind out to her sister Adessa.

The milky clouds in the crystal thinned and vanished, like a fog melting away before the sun. The huge lens cleared until it looked like a flawless window staring into the next room.

Leah's older sister Adessa marched through a shadowed hallway, her dark hair standing wildly in every direction. The lens moved along with her, giving Leah the dizzying impression that the hall outside was sliding past.

Adessa wore a dress in red and gold*the royal colors of Damasca*but she strode forward like a soldier in boots and leather pants. Her eyes burned and the corners of her mouth twitched, as though she was just about to burst into manic laughter.

In her right hand, Adessa carried the Bleeding Wand, her own artifact of Ragnarus. The Wand was about two feet long, and one of the deadliest weapons in the physical world. It was a thumb-thick bar of ruby at its core, with a dark wooden root twisting up its entire length from one tip to the other. The deadly end of the wand trailed bright red sparks that dribbled down like tears. Hence its name, Leah supposed.

The Wand could reduce a legion of soldiers to b.l.o.o.d.y sc.r.a.ps, but its cost was far too high. Leah would never give up what the Wand required, not for something so crude as a brute-force weapon. Even Adessa had only used it once or twice, as far as Leah knew.

A chill crawled down Leah's back. If Adessa was carrying the Bleeding Wand, that meant she was serious. She actually thought she had a chance to bring down Zakareth and take the throne for herself.

She might really do this, Leah thought. Such a move would give Adessa great authority, of course, but it would also leave her vulnerable. Weak. Maybe susceptible to an attack from another royal Heiressa

Leah shook away those thoughts. It was too easy to fall back into her former patterns, back here in her old home, but she was determined to leave all that behind her. She knew better than to start a succession for nothing more than personal ambition. At least, not without a clear chance of victory.

In the clear crystal lens, Adessa glanced furtively around her, then turned to knock at a door. To Leah, her raps sounded quiet: the lens m.u.f.fled sounds like a thick door.

"She's in the servants' quarters," Talos said, leaning forward. His interest was plain on his face. "That must be where her followers are hiding."

Followers? Of course. Leah hadn't thought of it before, but Adessa would never have attempted a coup without support from other Travelers.

Sure enough, a woman opened the door seconds after Adessa's knock, following her into the hallway. The newcomer's face was hidden behind a white mask, but she wore the traditional mist-gray robes of Asphodel.

Two more Asphodel Travelers came after the first: an old lady and a boy who looked no more than twelve years old. They both wore identical masks.

"Follow me and keep quiet," Adessa ordered them, making no effort to keep her voice down. She gestured with the Wand as she spoke, making all three Asphodels flinch. But they bowed deeply and followed the Heiress as she continued marching down the hall.

Twice more Adessa stopped. The first time, she was followed by two leather-wrapped Endross Travelers so similar they could have been twins. Next, a small dark girl with hands covered by heavy jade bracelets*obviously an Ornheim Traveler*joined the procession. She, too, had hidden her ident.i.ty behind a white mask.

"Six followers," Talos murmured. "Will that be enough for Indirial?" His hand brushed the hilt of his sword.

Leah had the sick feeling that six Travelers and a Damascan Heiress would be more than enough. She couldn't help but worry for Indirial*as she grew up, the Overlord had been a fixture around the royal palace. Almost part of the family.

When Leah was thirteen years old, the night her mother had died, she had decided to run away from the palace. Indirial had followed her, even through a Gate and into her Territory. He could have dragged her back. Instead, the Overlord had sat next to her on a silver cliff under the Lirial moons. They swapped stories about her mother until she could no longer keep her eyes open.

The next morning, she woke up safe in her bed. As far as she knew, her father had never learned of the incident.

Leah opened her mouth to lie to her brother, to try and convince him that they needed Indirial alive, but Overlord Lysander spoke up.

"These are plenty, if they go about it the right way," Lysander said. His voice was thin and precise*a scribe's voice. "Valinhall Travelers excel in open combat, but they are not versatile. The fact that your sister has no Naraka or Tartarus Travelers suggests that they do not mean to try an open battle, but instead ambush or guerilla tactics. I would imagine that such a strategy has a high chance of success."

Lysander folded his arms and nodded sharply, almost sending his gla.s.ses flying off his face. Talos nodded along, but he seemed more thoughtful.

Neither of them asked Leah's opinion, but unfortunately she agreed.

From the other side of the lens, Adessa hissed, "Get ready." Her group had come to a door at the end of the hall. It looked much like the others they had pa.s.sed, but Talos pointed.

"That leads to the throne room," he said. "Servant's entrance."

"Are you in the habit of mapping the servants' pa.s.sages?" Leah asked. She herself had never paid much attention to the servants' routes.

Talos leaned back in his chair, adjusting his sword belt so he could sit more comfortably. "It always helps to have secret pa.s.sages around the palace," he said. "And friends among the servants."

So Talos wanted her to think that he had employed some of the palace servants as spies. Maybe he had, but it was more likely that one of his lackeys had summoned something to map the palace for him. Lysander, perhaps, with one of his Avernus birds.

Adessa's Travelers were gathering power. The Ornheim girl juggled two spikes of pale blue quartz and a rune-carved ruby, muttering to herself. All three Asphodel Travelers had their hands cupped before them, colorful flowers budding from seeds in their hands. Mist rolled off them in the process. The Endross brothers had summoned their Gates*like rolling thunderstorms captured in their hands*and just held them, waiting for them to grow large enough to summon something substantial. They were already big enough to swallow large dogs.

"No mistakes," Adessa said, glaring around her. "Now. Here we go."

Leah expected her sister to blast the door off its hinges, or have one of the other Travelers do it. But she simply opened it and marched through, the other six following. Smart of her, to enter quietly, without alerting anyone inside.

The servant's entrance opened behind the throne, hidden behind a tapestry hanging from the eaves above. The scrying lens remained centered on Adessa as she made her way around the tapestry, so that she had full view of the throne.

The throne room was vast, suiting its function as an audience chamber for those seeking a meeting with the King. Expensive carpet covered the floor, and tapestries hung from the ceiling, most of them bearing the symbols of the nine Territories alongside key battles in Damascan history. There was only one piece of furniture in the room.

Many Overlords had carved their own thrones over the years, all in imitation of Zakareth's. Leah had spent most of the summer at Malachi's estate, and his throne had been made of dark wood and amethyst*reflecting his colors, purple and brown*and carved with creatures of Naraka. Other Overlords had seats even more gaudy and ornate.

None of them matched the original.

The Damascan throne was made of precious materials, and designed to show off the royal colors of crimson and gold. But it was not made of gold and set with rubies. King Zakareth's throne was carved from one enormous ruby, its shape outlined in gold. Even with Ornheim Travelers providing the materials, Leah could barely imagine the expense.

The throne room could hold several hundred people, if necessary, though today there were only three: Overlord Indirial, a high-ranking servant that Leah recognized, and King Zakareth.

Leah's father, Zakareth, commanded immediate attention seated on his throne. He was a few years past sixty, though he still had a powerful warrior's build, and his hair was solid gray. His right eye was bright blue, like Leah's own, and it was fixed on a doc.u.ment held by the servant. The King's other eye had been lost, a scar running from above his eye socket to below. It had been replaced by a bright red stone from the Crimson Vault, which glowed softly. He wore his tall, peaked crown, which was black-and-gold, set with one huge ruby above his forehead.

Indirial had the coloring of a man who had grown up in the villages: naturally tan skin with dark eyes and short, dark hair. As usual, he wore an easy smile and a s.h.i.+rt with the sleeves cut short, exposing the black chain tattoos that wove up his arms. Today, a black cloak hung around his neck, though he had thrown it carelessly back.

The servant stood before them, bowing every few seconds, holding up something that looked like a map or other official doc.u.ment. As they were both bowed over the paper, neither of them looked up at the sound of the opening door.

Adessa and her group did not waste any time. As soon as she saw that the King was indeed seated on his throne, she shouted, "Now!"

The Endross Travelers raised their stormy Gates, and lightning blasted the throne.

White light swallowed the image in the lens, and Leah flinched back from the glare. What are they thinking? she wondered. The King was protected from such direct attacks, especially on his throne.

Sure enough, when the light cleared, Leah's father was still seated. He apparently hadn't even moved, though the servant's charred body was smoking on the ground several paces away, and Indirial now stood directly in front of the King. He held his long, pitted sword in hand, and his black cloak swirled around him, almost covering Leah's view of Zakareth. Black chains crawled up the Valinhall Traveler's forearms.

Leah realized that something else had changed: huge, drooping flowers now surrounded the throne. The blossoms were all brightly colored*red, yellow, purple*and they released clouds of glittering spores into the air. She had never seen such plants before, but she recognized them from her tutoring: flowers from the legendary Midnight Fields in Asphodel.

"The yellow flowers paralyze," Lysander muttered to Talos. "The purple induces sleep, and the red kills. In Asphodel, these flowers often hunt in unison."

The Ornheim girl raised her hands, launching two blue spikes at the throne. Indirial batted them aside almost casually. Then she reached into a leather pouch at her side and withdrew a handful of dust, which she cast in his direction.

The dust should have fallen to the ground inches in front of the girl's face, but it drifted forward unnaturally quickly, flowing into Indirial's face.

Indirial reached a hand up to his throat. He choked, letting out a single cough, and then sank down to one knee, making retching noises in his throat. Leah's heart dropped. Apparently even Valinhall's strength counted for nothing against poison.

"I don't know what that was," Lysander said, sounding surprised.

"Find out," Talos ordered.

Wind rushed from the open Endross gates, catching the various glittering spores and whipping them into a whirlwind that swirled around the King and his guardian.

Adessa raised the glowing end of the Bleeding Wand. A crazed smile grew on her face, and the wind tossed her hair into wild shapes. She looked like a witch from the stories, about to bring a horrible curse down on her enemies.

Leah was certain that she was about to watch her father die.

Then the clouds parted. The wind slackened enough for her to catch a glimpse of Zakareth sitting on his throne, his chin cupped in one hand.

He hadn't moved.

A dull white light flashed in the middle of the whirlwind. It somehow shone through Indirial's skin.

Indirial rose to his feet, and for an instant Adessa's aim wavered between her father and his bodyguard.

Then Indirial moved.

He appeared ten feet away, just in front of Adessa, as though he simply hadn't bothered to cross the intervening s.p.a.ce. His cracked sword slapped into the ruby wand, knocking it out of Adessa's grip.

As the Wand tumbled through the air, a huge war-hammer of mirror-bright Tartarus steel appeared in Indirial's left hand. End-to-end, it was almost five feet long, and made of solid metal.

Indirial spun with the hammer in one hand, slamming it into the side of one Endross Traveler's head. Blood and brain sprayed out, and the sheer force behind the blow launched the Traveler's body into the air.

In the same motion, Indirial swept his sword across the other Endross Traveler's throat. He spun around until he was facing the King again, then he turned his momentum into a huge overhand throw. He hurled the war-hammer at the wall just behind the throne.

The hammer struck at terrifying speed, blasting a huge chunk of the stone wall outward. A cloud of dust billowed up, shrouding half the throne room in a split second.

Adessa's Bleeding Wand and the Endross Travelers' bodies. .h.i.t the ground at about the same time.

The Endross Gates*hungry, swirling thunderstorms*hung in midair, blowing air steadily forward. But now, most of the deadly spores were blown through the gap in the wall instead of swirling around the throne.

The thunderstorms began to shake and crackle more violently.

The Ornheim Traveler threw her carved ruby to the tiles, and the tiled floor began to crack and flow upward as it gathered itself together into a golem.

Indirial flowed forward. His sword flickered out, cracking the golem's heartstone in two, then thrust into the Traveler's rib cage.

She slid off the sword and onto her back. Her half-formed golem crumbled.

Only the three Asphodel Travelers were left. The boy ran headlong toward the door, which Leah thought showed unusual wisdom. The young woman clapped her hands together and began to summon mist. That was likely suicide, as the mist would turn on any source of terror, even its summoner, but she was clearly desperate.

The oldest Asphodel Traveler tore off her mask, revealing a calm, grandmotherly face. She sank to her knees and folded her hands in her lap.

Waiting for death.

Indirial cut the young woman down before she could summon anything, then he once again moved so fast that he seemed nothing more than a black blur. He grabbed the boy by the neck and clubbed him with the hilt of his sword. The boy collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The Overlord's mercy was touching and tragic, but ultimately futile. He would plead with the King for the young Traveler's life, saying that he was too young to know what he was doing, that his elders had just led him astray.

Indirial would try his best, but Leah knew her father. He had no use for rebels.

The cloaked Valinhall Traveler walked over to the kneeling old woman, who was the last of Adessa's followers left. Indirial said something too soft for Leah to hear, m.u.f.fled as it was by the Lirial lens.

The old woman shook her head. She closed her eyes.