Page 17 of The Empty Throne

Noise from the door drew Kite's attention,and the first guard Sobeki had sent out came bursting through,followed closely by two city guards and a man still wearing hissleep clothes. He didn't bother to introduce himself, onlyabandoned the cloak he was more holding than wearing and climbedonto the bed with Wishta. The two of them spoke quickly, rapidly,in the jargon of magic users that so often was beyond Kite. Nearby,Sobeki followed avidly, flipping through his books, andoccasionally calling out to them.

Eventually, right as Kite wanted to screamsimply to relieve tension, Wishta slumped against blood-stainedpillows and the newcomer in his sleep clothes sprawled along thefoot of the bed, his feet hanging off one side.

"Fuck me," the man said. "Sobeki, I'm goingto tell my staff they're to ignore any and all communications fromyou."

Sobeki gave a dry, cracked laugh. "That'sfair. Thank you for coming so quickly, Tol."

Tol just grunted and heaved upright, thenclimbed off the bed. "Got any tea?"

"Right here," said a woman who'd just strodein bearing a heavy tray piled with food and tea. Behind her cametwo others with equally full trays, and still more behind them withfresh bed sheets and cleaning supplies.

Kite motioned his bodyguards to the hallway,then sat at the table with Sobeki. "He'll be all right now?"

"Temporarily, Your Highness," Tol said as hesat directly opposite Kite and drank down tea that surely still hadto be scalding. "Someone put a castle curse on the poor bastard,and like most youths, he seemed to have thought that a baddampening spell and sheer stubbornness would see him through. Noidea who the lad is, but I'd wager my co—er, book collection,rather, that he's trying to get to someone that can break it forgood."

"Well. Fuck. No wonder he was so angry," Kitesaid with a groan. "Wishta, are you all right?"

"Been better, been worse," she said, and tooka seat as well when Kite motioned for her to do so. Behind them,servants had already set briskly to work moving the unconsciousLysyken to a temporary cot, stripping the bed, replacing the wholemattress, and making it again. "He will need plenty of rest torecover from such extensive blood loss. If I'd been summoned just aminute later, it would have been too late."

Kite felt sick just thinking about it. Thedeath would not have been their fault, but there also would havebeen no way to prove it that Terek would have believed. It was likegift-wrapping a reason to finally explode into war. "So what can bedone to break the curse?" he asked as he watched the servantsfinish with the bed and gingerly settle Lysyken into it, one of thewomen pulling the blankets up almost tenderly before resting a handon his forehead like a mother comforting a child. She then cluckedand fussed at the others until the food and additionalsupplies—should he start bleeding again—were arranged to hersatisfaction. "You called it a castle curse?" He made a mental noteto learn more about the woman and dismissed the staff withthanks.

As the door closed, leaving just the four ofthem, Tol replied, "Yes, Your Highness. It has a fancier name inmagic parlance, but essentially it binds the victim of the curse toa certain area, generally a particular building and a certainamount of the area around it. Hence, castle."

"How do we break a curse like this?" Hedidn't mention Cohea this time, as Cohea being Bonded wasn't commonknowledge, given how fucking illegal such a thing was. Cohea hadnever said much about it, as cagey as ever, but Kite had always hadthe distinct impression it was something else done by order of thelate king. He just hoped Cohea knew what the fuck he was doingbecause Binding wasn't breakable. Once cast, it was done,sealed.

Hopefully, this fucking castle curse wasn'tthe same.

"We kill whoever cast it," Sobeki said,pushing back strands of hair that had come loose of the bun he musthave hastily thrown it into as he bolted for Lysyken's room. "Thatcould be anyone, though. I don't doubt his father is ultimatelyresponsible for the curse; he seems that sort. He could have hiredanyone to do it, though."

Kite's mouth tightened. "What otherways?"

"Find someone or something strong enough toburn the curse out," Tol said. "That usually winds up killing thevictim anyway, though, and people with that much power will takeeven more time and effort to find than whatever mage cast thecurse. If it really is Laird Fazekas who is responsible for this…that man is many things, but stupid isn't one of them, especiallywhen it comes to magic. He's the most feared of the Terekian lairdsfor a reason. I cannot begin to guess why he'd curse his ownfucking son, but he did the job well, or paid well, at any rate.That curse isn't coming off."

"Bloodstone," said a raspy voice, and Kiteand the others snapped their gazes toward it.

Lysyken stared back at them, pale andshaking, eyes glazed with pain, but he licked his lips and said, "Abloodstone could break it. That's why I ran…" he collapsed again,and with a soft sigh, Wishta rose to tend him, muttering aboutstupid, stubborn men.

"Bloodstone? There are no bloodstones, notanymore, not that aren't heavily secreted away," Kite said. Thelast time anyone had seen a bloodstone, it was the twenty of themused by the Kuluris family to cast a spell that had failedmiserably and taken most of the surrounding ocean with it. Twentybloodstones, twenty dead mages, thousands of leagues of dead sea.Only the fact that branch of the family had not been the rulingfamily and declared traitors had kept the rest of that Housealive.

Much good it had done them, as only oneKuluris remained alive, and nobody at all wanted Bitterseaprocreating.

The realization slammed into Kite like acrashing wave. "Fuck me, he wasn't trying to get out of thecountry—he was trying to get to the old Kuluris lands. Whathappened to his forged papers? Have them—" He swore as he realizedthere was no one in the room to do his bidding. Pushing to hisfeet, Kite stormed over to the door, yanked it open, and gave theorder to a servant waiting patiently in the hall.

Closing the door again, Kite returned to hisseat. "Why would he think there's a bloodstone to be found in theold Kuluris seat? No one has been there since I was sent to seewhat was going on and found the bodies."

The first, but clearly not last, time he'dwalked into a grisly scene of slow and painful death. Where theroyal family had been poisoned, though, the Bittersea family—well,the parents, brother, an aunt, and two uncles—had been torturedslowly for hours before finally dying, likely from shock and pain.A handful of servants had suffered the same fate. The only otherchild in the house had been Bittersea's little sister, but she'dbeen killed by a blow to the head. From what little he'd been ableto piece together from what remained in the house, she'd fallendown the stairs and struck her head on one of the ornate,decorative pillars that lined the winding staircase of the entryhall.

Unfortunately, that was all he knew. Whetherit had been done by Bittersea or someone else, they'd probablynever know. Likely the fucking bastard's one soft spot was hissister, so he'd been kinder in his method of killing her. Everyoneelse…

Well, Kite really hoped he was done being theunlucky bastard who found the bodies. "So do I have this right? Ouronly chances of saving him are to: find the caster, find anextremely powerful burner, or find a bloodstone."

"Correct," Sobeki replied grimly.

"Then of those three options, I would say thebloodstone is our best bet."

"No! Absolutely not!" Sobeki snarled,standing and slamming his hands on the desk. "You will not say whatI know you're about to, you stupid, stubborn bastard. You're neededhere."

Kite turned to the other two, who werepolitely looking everywhere else in the room and striving to gosuddenly deaf. "Would you excuse us, please? Linger, though, byyour pleasure, for I may require your skills again shortly."

---