The Queen of Death

22

Esprë felt like her head might explode. She d stormed off the Phoenix to go find her real father, despite the fact that she knew that Kandler had lied to her about him being in town. She’d known he’d just been trying to protect her, and that had made her even angrier and more determined to find Ledenstrae.

Thankfully—or so she’d thought at the time—Burch had been willing to show her the way. Otherwise, she knew that she and Kandler would have had a horrible screaming match of a fight. Avoiding him instead had been the better course—or so she’d told herself.

Now, though, sitting alone with two elves who’d been in contact with Vol—the Lich Queen who’d sent Te’oma and a pack of vampires to kidnap her from her home—she had to wonder where it had all gone wrong.

Maybe at her birth.

“Why would you do something like that?” Esprë said to Majeeda, her voice constricted with horror.

“I thought that they would have a lot to say to each other,” Majeeda said. “After all, they are related.”

The pressure inside Esprë’s skull increased. “How?” That was the only word she could squeak out. If Ledenstrae and Vol were related, it meant that she and Vol were somehow bound together too, and by more than just the dragonmark they both shared.

Ledenstrae grimaced at Majeeda’s words. “That’s not exactly clear,” he said. He reached out a hand to Esprë, who was too stunned to pull away. “It’s possible, but not certain.”

“Of course,” Majeeda said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Many of the records from the days of Vol were destroyed long ago, and it wasn’t just the elves working hand-in-claw with the dragons who did that.”

“What—what do you mean?” Esprë said.

The feeling seemed to be coming back into her limbs. She needed to understand this, to wrap her head around it. The deathless elf’s words meant little to her. She decided to prod Majeeda into jabbering away until all the thoughts whirling about her coalesced into something resembling sense.

“The dragons and elves who joined together to destroy the House of Vol? They wanted to eradicate every last drop of blood that could contain even the barest potential for the Mark of Death, and they made good headway at it too. Every elf who had even the most tenuous claim to being a part of the House of Vol was put to death.”

“Except Vol, you mean.”

“Oh, she was killed too,” Majeeda said, “but as you see, death isn’t always permanent—especially for an abomination like a lich.”

This didn’t agree with what Te’oma had told Esprë about the Lich Queen, but she didn’t care to argue the point. She just wanted to keep Majeeda talking.

“They killed an entire house?” she said. “How could they do that? Didn’t anyone stand up for them?”

Majeeda’s face parted in a cold, crinkled smile. “This crusade against the House of Vol gave the dragons and the rest of the elves something in common—a foe against which they could rally together. It put an end to the Dragon-Elf War. To many on the Undying Court in those days, that alone was worth the sacrifice of a single house.”

“How many elves would share the blood of the House of Vol?” Esprë asked. Her mind balked at trying to come up with a number.

“That is exactly the issue,” Majeeda said. “To be absolutely safe, to make sure you got rid of every last drop of that tainted, hateful breed, you’d have to kill every last elf who still drew breath.”

“Tell me again why we can’t just walk in and kill them,” Kandler whispered to Burch. The justicar knew the answer as well as his friend, but he wanted little more than to ignore that wisdom and give in to his anger instead.

“Majeeda would flash-fry us,” Burch said, “and probably Esprë. We need some sort of distraction.”

Kandler grimaced as he listened down the shaft that led to the ground floor. Someone pounded at the door below, and he heard the sound of splintering wood.

Burch squinted at the justicar. “You let the guards live?” “They were just doing their jobs.”

“Now it’s their job to kill us.”

“You said you wanted a distraction. There’s your distraction.”

Kandler reached into the shaft with his fangblade and began to slice the basket into small pieces. The broken bits tumbled back down the shaft to the stone floor dozens of feet below.

“That should slow them down,” the justicar said, “but they’ll still make enough noise to get Ledenstrae’s attention.” A thought struck him then, and he narrowed his eyes at the shifter. “What happened to all the guards who were hiding up here?”

Burch gave Kandler a winning grin.

“You didn’t think that would cause a problem?” “Thought we’d be long gone before anyone found out.” Kandler nodded. Since they’d come back before anyone had noticed, it had worked out all right. The fewer problems they had to deal with up here in the top of the tower, the better. He had a feeling that Majeeda would be trouble enough.

“She sounds scared,” Kandler said as he crept forward. “That’s because she’s smart,” said Burch.

Esprë heard someone pounding on the door of the tower. Ledenstrae glanced in the direction of the room into which the shaft to the lower level opened up. He scowled at the interruption but ignored it for the moment.

“The Undying Court convinced the dragons that the sacrifice of the House of Vol would be enough,” Ledenstrae said. “However, the dragons live even longer than elves. Despite the fact that it has been millennia since that house’s eradication, the dragons have not forgotten the threat of the Mark of Death. If it were to arise again …”

Esprë felt as if her heart had stopped beating. “You know,” she said, staring at her father. “That’s why you wanted to find me now. You know.”

Ledenstrae held up his hands to calm the girl. “When Majeeda first contacted me, I had no idea. She just told me that you were alive. You can’t imagine how that news thrilled me.”

Esprë just nodded. She didn’t know what to think any more.

“Then how did you ….?” She stared up at her father, who now seemed more of a stranger than ever.

“The Undying Court became aware of the reemergence of the Mark of Death via its powerful seers,” Ledenstrae said. “My ancestors warned me of this. When Majeeda contacted them about you, they recognized you instantly.”

“How did they know about my dragonmark?” she said. “Majeeda never saw it.”

“True,” said Majeeda, “but it didn’t take the Undying Court long to connect the two occurrences. Only so many things happen in the Mournland that are strange enough to attract their attention.”

“So,” Esprë said to her father, “what do you plan to do with me?”

Ledenstrae’s face became grave. “If you bear the Mark of Death, my fair child, I’m afraid there is no other choice. For the good of all of Aerenal, you will have to die.”

“Do it,” Duro said to the changeling. “It’s now or never.” “It’s not you who’s laying herself out as a target,” Te’oma said as she sat on the gunwale near the edge of the bridge, her legs dangling out over the open air below. She hefted Sallah’s sword in her hands.

“For a heartless killer, you’re a bit of a whiner,” the dwarf said, rolling his eyes.

He stood next to her on the gunwale and tried to ignore their precarious position. Having lived most of his life underground, he hadn’t had too many dealings with the terrors of open heights. He tried to pretend the cliff was just one side of an open mineshaft, but it didn’t take the edge off his fears.

“The sword won’t be heavy enough to pull you to the ground,” he said. As he spoke, he glanced around to make sure that the others had gotten into position. They all seemed ready. They just needed the changeling to start it all off. “It’s light as a feather, and you’re not even carrying the scabbard.”

“Easy for you to—” Te’oma’s words turned to a scream in mid-sentence as the bottom of Duro’s hobnailed boot smashed into her backside and shoved her off the railing. She failed her arms as she fell.

“Woman overboard!” Duro shouted at the dockworkers. Inside, he said a quick prayer to Olladra, the goddess of luck, that this would work. He had been betting that Te’oma would remember to unfurl her bloodwings before she hit bottom. He winced as he wondered if she might forget in her panic. “Help!”