Page 102 of Fortune's Blade

“You killed two demon lords?” Rathen asked, still polite.

I wondered how much longer that would last.

Hopefully not long, as it was getting creepy.

“No. Just the one. It was on the first trip. We, uh, we stay . . . busy.”

“So it would seem. Leave us.”

For a moment, I thought he was talking to Louis-Cesare and me, until everyone melted away except for him, Regin, Tanet and Antem, who Regin took over guarding, holding him by the back of the neck like a misbehaving puppy. “If you wish, I can go as well,” Regin offered.

“You know damned well I didn’t mean you,” Rathen said, and yeah, the forced politeness part of this conversation had just ended, I thought, checking out his new expression. He looked back at me, and for once, he was every inch a king. “Explain yourself.”

Yeah, I thought. That would be a good trick. But I tried, and thankfully, the properties of the little flower known as Dragon’s Claw were well known to them.

Unfortunately, that didn’t help with the whole disbelief thing.

“It doesn’t do what you describe,” Tanet said, when my account of the time Dorina and I assumed the form of an angel to defeat a demon was finished. “It is a children’s toy! An amusement sold at faires—”

“That would explain how Dorina obtained it,” Louis-Cesare said.

“It explains nothing!” Tanet snapped. “Dragon’s Claw is far too weak to do anything but make cosmetic changes! It is used in glamouries, nothing more! I’ve never heard—”

His father made a small gesture, cutting him off. Lord Rathen was still staring at me, which was unnerving. The eyes were human but there was enough of the dragon behind them to shine though, especially when he was thrown off kilter, which had obviously happened here.

I just didn’t know why.

“My lord?” Regin said, clearly as concerned as I was.

I gathered that Lord Rathen wasn’t flummoxed often, but it was kind of looking like it now. And then it was looking like something else, when he suddenly grabbed me and started looking me over with a frown on his face. One that changed to a scowl when Louis-Cesare knocked his hand away.

But instead of starting a fight, the gesture barely seemed to register. Rathen looked at his subordinate, who was frowning now, too. “Fortune’s Blade?”

Regin’s eyes widened slightly, which from him was quite a reaction, but he said nothing.

“What?” Tanet asked, looking between the two men, neither of whom spoke. But at least they weren’t focused on me anymore. Instead, Rathen crouched in front of the prisoner again, his loose velvet robes puddling on the ground around him.

“You know that term, don’t you?” he asked. “You flinched just now; I saw it.”

“I did nothing of the kind!”

“Don’t lie, boy,” Regin said, his hand tightening around the back of the man’s throat. “It will go ill for you.”

“Ill?” Antem spat. “Worse than this, you mean? I know the fate that awaits me. Why the hell should I tell you anything?”

“There’s death and then there’s death. You would prefer the former.”

“I’m no coward! Tear me to pieces and I’ll still tell you nothing!”

“But I will.”

The voice made everyone jump, ringing out crystal clear in the cold mountain air and coming from behind us. Louis-Cesare whirled, sword up and eyes startled, because there weren’t a lot of things that could sneak up on a vampire. Or break through a silence spell that had been laid by another.

Or, for that matter, slip unnoticed by the guards that had been posted around the glade, and who were only now realizing that someone had gotten past them.

I saw them turn, shaking their heads and acting almost as if they were waking from a dream. But they barely registered, because my eyes were on the woman who had spoken, and who was standing there calmly, a tall column of blue velvet, as if she’d appeared out of nothing. Louis-Cesare pulled me back and got in between us, but I had the strangest feeling that it didn’t matter.

If she’d wanted to get to me, she’d have done it. She would even now, with a first level master protecting me. I didn’t know how I knew; I just did.

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