Lorelle of the Dark, page 6
But they would have to think of somewhere else for the queen to not-actually-be, and soon.
There were only so many people they could confide in before their shaky facade came tumbling down. Frankly, only a few people would even believe such a wild story. A magical traveler. A Giant’s portal. A queen vanishing into thin air.
Four scant months ago, Khyven himself wouldn’t have believed it.
Since it became obvious that they couldn’t make the Thuros work, they rarely saw Lorelle. She was never in her room, never in the palace. As far as Khyven knew, she never slept. Vohn had been tasked with finding out what she’d been up to.
“So… you lost her,” Khyven said.
Vohn’s temper flared. “You try following a Luminent, Khyven!”
“I can’t turn invisible in shadows. That makes you the—”
“Can you jump on rooftops? I can’t jump on rooftops.”
“What?”
“She’s jumping on rooftops!”
“Vohn, we can’t just—”
“Are you saying I didn’t try?” Vohn said, clearly working himself into a fit. “Is that what you’re saying?”
Khyven held his hands up. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Her legs are twice as long as mine!”
“I’m sorry.”
Vohn frowned at him.
“Do you know where she might have gone?” Khyven asked.
“She’s looking for a Plunnos.”
Plunnos… Slayter and Vohn had done the research and discovered that the only thing that could open the Thuros and make it usable was a “key” in the shape of a giant coin, some magical artifact created by Giants long ago. Such a key was called a Plunnos.
“In the city?” Khyven said. “I thought we agreed there weren’t any in the city. Where would she go to do that?”
Vohn exploded again. “Well, if I knew that I’d know where she’d gone, wouldn’t I?”
Khyven held up his hands again. “I’m sorry.”
“She asked me about Lore Magic,” Slayter offered. He was considering one of the brass dragon map weights, and he picked it up contemplatively. He was prone to distraction and his mind constantly wandered. The mage was a walking library, but you never knew if the information he spouted was going to be helpful to the topic at hand or if he was going to talk about how to safely cook raw meat.
“She wanted to know about Lore Magic? Why?” Khyven asked.
“Oh, and Readers.”
Khyven sighed, feeling like he had to pull the information from the mage. He didn’t know what a “Reader” was. “Is that relevant to this conversation?” he forced himself to ask.
Slayter, now toying with the brass dragon, finally looked up, seemingly startled. “Oh, well… it certainly could be. Actually, knowing Lorelle, it is. The Readers are the keepers of ancient knowledge since… Well, as far back as recorded time. If anyone has an artifact like a Plunnos, it would be them.”
“And these Readers are in the city?”
“They certainly could be. They’re probably all over the place. Most people think the Readers vanished a long time ago, if they think about Readers at all, but I’m fairly positive that the Readers still exist yet remain hidden.”
“That’s a helpful bit of information,” Khyven said, trying to keep his temper. It was so helpful, in fact, Slayter should have mentioned it the moment Rhenn had vanished.
“In fact…” Slayter turned the brass dragon left and right, inspecting it from both sides. “Anything crafted by Giants, if it still exists, could be stewarded by the Readers. It’s the kind of thing they would do. I heard of a Reader who possessed a working Dragon’s Chain.”
“A what?”
“You’ve never heard of a Dragon’s Chain? It’s a powerful artifact made by the Giants, of course, long ago and with such vast and powerful magic it makes me shiver. A Dragon’s Chain has the power to trap and keep an elder dragon. Isn’t that amazing? An elder dragon.” He glanced up at Khyven. “And the trigger is so uncomplicated, even you could do it. It was just a simple chain with a manacle at one end. You snap it on the back of the dragon’s leg and that’s it. The magic in the Dragon’s Chain came to life, so powerful it could actually hold the dragon, would hold it for eternity no matter how many spells the dragon cast, no matter how he clawed at it.” Slayter set the weight down, marveling at it as though it was actually a mythical Dragon’s Chain. “Unless, of course, you touched the dragon. Once you clamped the manacle on, you couldn’t touch the beast. If you laid even a finger on it, the spell would break, and it would instantly devour you because—”
“Slayter,” Khyven interrupted. “Does this Dragon’s Chain have anything to do with Lorelle?”
Slayter blinked, then chuckled. “Well, no. Why would a Dragon’s Chain have anything to do with Lorelle?”
Khyven sighed.
“We’re talking about Lorelle,” Vohn said through his teeth.
“Oh, the Plunnos!” Slayter said.
“Yes, the Plunnos.”
“Well, she’s probably doing exactly what she said she would do. I’d say she’s hunting for Readers, looking for a Plunnos. She mentioned something about kicking and choking a thief, as I recall.”
“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Vohn asked.
“Should I have?”
Vohn was exasperated. “Yes, you should have. She’s not acting normal!”
“Am I to know this?” Slayter looked from Khyven back to Vohn. “I thought maybe she was bloodthirsty.”
“What?” Vohn said incredulously. “She’s a Luminent!”
“Well, Khyven is,” Slayter said. “You don’t seem angry about that.”
“Lorelle is not Khyven.”
“I’m not bloodthirsty,” Khyven interjected.
“How do you know she’s not bloodthirsty?” Slayter ignored Khyven’s statement.
“I’m not bloodthirsty,” Khyven repeated.
“She uses a blowgun,” Vohn said.
“And?” Slayter said, nonplussed.
“With sleeping potion on the darts.”
“So?”
“Why do you think she does that?” Vohn practically shouted.
“Style?” Slayter offered.
“She doesn’t kill people,” Vohn said. “She’s never killed anyone in her life.”
“Well, now I know that,” Slayter said.
“What’s a Reader?” Khyven tried to turn the conversation back to something useful.
“A secret order.” Vohn glanced at Khyven, though the little Shadowvar looked like he wanted to continue glaring at Slayter. “Keepers of lore. Librarians with a secret handshake.”
“Librarians?”
“And most of them are mages,” Slayter interjected.
“Most? How many mages are we talking about?” Before Khyven had actually seen behind the throne, in all its imperfect workings, he’d thought King Vamreth had two dozen mages in the castle working with him in secret. In reality, Slayter was almost unique. He had an apprentice he described as “an incompetent duke’s son whose cranium is comprised primarily of wood.” There was also an ancient mage who Slayter had described as “a mediocre talent in his prime. In his dotage, a doorstop.”
That Slayter was the only real mage in the palace explained, in part, why his deception of King Vamreth had been so successful. The king hadn’t wanted to believe Slayter was a traitor. He’d needed him too much.
“I thought mages were as rare as an ice storm in summer,” Khyven said.
“They are, but when you can predict the future, you can find the best talent. Readers know what we don’t. That is their hallmark. And they have been at it a very long time, longer than most kingdoms have existed.”
“Longer than Usara?” Vohn asked.
“Usara is very old,” Slayter said.
“How is it I’ve never heard of the Readers before?” Khyven asked.
Slayter spread his hands. “Readers take great pains to ensure you do not. King Vamreth knew about them. And Rhenn. They might both even have had liaisons within the Order. But if Vamreth did, I didn’t know about it.”
“So Lorelle is looking for these Readers because she believes they have a Plunnos.”
“Yes,” Slayter said.
“Where would she go?”
“Probably to their hidden library in Usara,” Slayter said.
“They have a hidden library in Usara?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“Undoubtedly?”
“Without doubt,” Slayter clarified, then narrowed his eyes as though he might have to explain the word to Khyven again. Khyven wanted to punch him.
“I mean,” he said, measuring each word. “Do you know where this library is?”
“No. It’s hidden.”
Vohn snapped his fingers. “The interrogation of the thief. That’s why she did it. Slayter, did she mention a name?”
“Zenghi,” Slayter supplied. “A thief master, now that I think of it. She said she interrogated a thief master.”
“And he’s a Reader?” Khyven said.
Both Slayter and Vohn turned disappointed frowns at Khyven like he’d said something stupid.
“No, he’s a thief.” Slayter continued. “But thieves go everywhere. He probably knows where the Readers’ hidden library is.”
“So, we interrogate Zenghi again,” Khyven said. “Find out where she went.”
“I have no doubt you’d scare him more than Lorelle,” Vohn said. “But you’d probably also kill him.”
“I don’t just go around killing people!”
Vohn began ticking off fingers. “Txomin, Ferbasi, a half dozen of Vamreth’s knights at Rhenn’s camp, most of Vamreth’s honor guard in the Thuros room, at least fifty people in the Night Ring—”
“That’s not—I’m not bloodthirsty,” Khyven said. “And I didn’t kill Ferbasi.”
Vohn rolled his eyes.
“Well, bloodthirsty or not, Lorelle wouldn’t wait,” Slayter said. “So, whatever she intended to do, I would guess it’s already done. And since she’s not at this meeting, I would speculate one of two things has happened: either she has the Plunnos or the Readers killed her.”
“Killed her?”
“That is the most likely,” Slayter confirmed.
“They didn’t kill her!” Vohn flared.
“Oh, they probably did,” Slayter said. “Even I know you don’t steal from Readers. They kill you.”
“How can you be so callous?” Vohn said.
Slayter raised his shoulders. “I’m just stating the likeliest possibilities.”
“Well, we need to find this place and we need to find it now. She’s in danger. I mean, if she’d found the Plunnos, she’d be at this meeting,” Khyven said.
“Oh, I hardly think so,” Slayter said. “She’d be at the Thuros. If she was successful—unlikely, but let’s just say—then she wouldn’t wait.”
That realization smacked Khyven like an iron pan to the head. “Of course!”
“You could have just said that,” Vohn said.
“I did say that.”
“In the beginning!”
Slayter opened his mouth, then shut it. “Should I have?”
“Slayter!” Vohn snapped. “Yes, damn it!”
“Oh.” Slayter seemed genuinely mystified. “Well, now I know that.”
“So, she could be there right now,” Khyven said. “At the Thuros. She could be trying to use the Plunnos to go wherever Rhenn went.”
“Assuming she didn’t die,” Slayter said.
Khyven pushed away from the table and headed for the door.
“Khyven—” Vohn said.
Khyven slammed through the door and sprinted up the hallway.
Chapter Five
Lorelle
Lorelle climbed the dark, winding steps up from the Thuros room. She should be sprinting. She should return to the library and throttle that Reader, but she couldn’t muster any rage at the moment. The heart had gone out of her.
The Plunnos didn’t work.
It hadn’t opened the portal. Lorelle had flicked it at the surface like she’d seen Nhevaz do. She’d pressed it against the surface. She’d slid it around in a circle, clockwise and counterclockwise. She’d hammered the damn giant coin against the portal so hard she’d scarred and dented it. Her knuckles were scraped and bruised.
She reached the top of the stairs, pushed through the painting into the study, and fell to her knees and pushed her hands against her head. It didn’t work!
Her ragged soul chewed at her insides with flaming teeth. Only the piercing need to find her sister rose above the pain, but it was slowly being engulfed.
It was possible Rhenn was dead, anyway. Whatever Nhevaz had in mind for her, surely two weeks was enough time to carry it out.
Dead… like Lorelle’s family was dead. Like Rhenn’s family was dead.
The last thing Lorelle wanted at this moment was to think of that night, but it came anyway, the last conversation she’d ever had with her parents…
* * *
“I heard something today, dewdrop,” Mother said as she arranged her dress on the hangar, making sure every fold hung just so.
Lorelle’s heart sank. She knew immediately what it was going to be. Yesterday Rhenn had taken Rogan, the stable master’s son, behind the stables. It was all because Lorelle had said something she shouldn’t have in a moment of confession: she’d never kissed a boy before. Rhenn had thought that was simply a crime, and despite Lorelle’s protests, she’d been determined to remedy it.
So, with Lorelle in tow, Rhenn had dragged the clueless Rogan behind the stables and planted a kiss full on his lips, showing Lorelle how to do it. The boy had turned beet red as Rhenn turned to Lorelle and said, “Now you try.” Lorelle had hesitated. It was then that Rogan’s father, Stablemaster Vhendin, had come around the corner and caught them. Laughing, Rhenn had grabbed Lorelle’s hand and fled.
Lorelle swallowed, glad that Mother was turned away. Lorelle knew she wouldn’t be able to meet her gaze.
“Can you guess who told it to me?” Mother asked.
“Master Vhendin,” Lorelle said glumly.
“Master Vhendin,” Mother agreed.
“I didn’t kiss him.”
“The boy?”
“Rogan. I didn’t kiss him,” Lorelle said.
Mother paused arranging the pleats and glanced over at Lorelle. There were many rules in a Luminent household, but foremost among them was telling the truth. Lorelle had never lied to her parents. Not once. But Mother looked like she was trying to decide if this was the first time.
“You almost did,” Mother said.
Lorelle couldn’t refute that. She probably would have kissed Rogan if his father hadn’t come along. Rhenn would have insisted, and Lorelle found it hard to say no whenever Rhenn insisted.
“Would that have been so bad?” Lorelle murmured.
“For a Human, no,” Mother said. “You are a Luminent.”
“Rhenn insisted,” Lorelle said, but as soon as she heard the words aloud, she felt heat in her cheeks and realized how silly the words sounded.
“Of course, she did. She is the princess of this kingdom. This—these kinds of situations—is one of many reasons we brought you here. We want you to experience new and different cultures.”
“Then I don’t understand.”
“Just because you’re friends with a Human doesn’t mean you act like a Human.”
“I don’t know,” Father said conversationally from the other side of the room, entering the discussion late in his usual fashion. Father never spoke first; it was always Mother who reprimanded Lorelle, who calmly laid out the expectations of a Luminent in Human lands, then Father would jump in and offer a more moderate perspective. Almost always, he was on Lorelle’s side, which she loved. She thought this should annoy Mother, but it never seemed to. Mother always looked placid.
It wouldn’t occur to Lorelle until much later that her parents had planned these coming-of-age conversations.
“Now is the time for her to be a little wild,” Father continued. “She’s eleven.”
“Eleven,” Mother said calmly, giving a critical eye to the dress as though it was her top priority and this conversation was a distant second. “And next year she’ll be twelve. And the year after that, thirteen. Will we leave her naked against the world? Or do we give her the skills she needs before the critical moment she needs them?”
“You’re probably right,” Father said. “But she’s not in danger of going through the Change today, is she? Perhaps we start in a couple of weeks?”
Mother hung the dress in the wardrobe, gave the line of dresses a last appraising look, as though they should live up to her expectations, then closed the wardrobe door. She glided to the bed and sat down.
Lorelle came closer as though drawn by gravity. Mother always did this. When she sat down, it meant Lorelle now had her full attention, and Lorelle loved Mother’s full attention. It always felt warm and full of love, even though it often came with lessons. She stood before Mother, her hip bones pressing against Mother’s knees. Mother took both Lorelle’s hands in hers.
“The Change will be difficult,” Mother said. “But your control will be superior to it. We will help you. We will show you how Luminents master their gifts and therefore their world. By this time next year we will be back in Lumyn so that, when the Change comes upon you, you will be among your kind. At that point, you will get to choose a mate and you will soul-bond.”
“But I don’t want a mate. I just want to play with Rhenn. The only reason Rogan was a part of it was because I told Rhenn I’d never kissed anyone. He isn’t usually there.”
Mother’s warm and genuine smile filled Lorelle. There was also a kind indulgence in the look, like she recognized Lorelle’s words as if they were an old friend she had known a long time ago. Lorelle suddenly wondered if a mother had said these same words—or something similar to them—to her when she was a child.
“Of course, you don’t,” Mother said. “As well you shouldn’t. But the Change will come swiftly when it comes, and you will feel different before you realize it, before you even want to realize it. By then we must be safely back in Luminent lands so you may choose.”
