"No," Rose said sharply, placing herself in front of Surreal. "You can't touch any of Briarwood's uncles. No one can."
Surreal straightened, a feral expression in her gold-green eyes. "I'm very good at what I do, Rose."
"No," Rose insisted. "When Jaenelle's blood was spilled, it woke the tangled web she created. It's a trap for all the uncles."
Surreal looked at the building, then at Rose. Therehad been rumors of a mysterious illness that was affecting a number of Chaillot's high-ranking members of the council—like Robert Benedict—as well as a few special dignitaries—like Kartane SaDiablo. "This trap will kill them?"
"Eventually," Rose said.
A vicious light filled Surreal's eyes. "What about a cure?"
"Briarwood is the pretty poison. There is no cure for Briarwood."
"Is it painful?"
Rose grinned. " To each will come what he gave.' "
Surreal vanished her stiletto. "Then let the bastards scream."
4 / Terreille
In the light of two smoking torches, the young Priestess double-checked the tools she had placed on the Dark Altar. Everything was ready: the four-branched candelabra with its black candles, the small silver cup, and the two vials of dark liquid—one with a white stopper, the other with a red.
When the stranger with the maimed hands had given her the vials, he'd assured her that the antidote would keep her from being affected by the witch's brew that had been designed to subdue a Warlord Prince.
She paced behind the Dark Altar, chewing on her thumbnail. It had sounded so easy, and yet . . .
She froze, not even daring to breathe as she tried to see beyond the wrought-iron gate into the dark corridor. Was something there?
Nothing but a silence within the night's silence, a shadow within the shadows, gliding toward the Altar with a predator's grace.
The Priestess squatted behind the Altar, broke the seal on the white-stoppered vial, and gulped the contents. She vanished the vial and rose. When she looked toward the wrought-iron gate, she clutched her Yellow Jewel as if it might protect her.
He stood on the other side of the Altar, watching her. Despite the rumpled clothing and the disheveled hair, he exuded a cold, carnal power.
The Priestess licked her lips and rubbed her damp hands on her robe. His golden eyes looked sleepy, slightly glazed.
Then he smiled.
She shivered and took a deep breath. "Have you come for advice or assistance?"
"Assistance," he said in a deep, cultured voice. "Have you the training to open the Gate?"
How could a man be so beautiful? she thought as she nodded. "There is a price." Her voice seemed to be swallowed by the shadows.
With his left hand, he drew an envelope out of an inner pocket in his coat and laid it on the Altar. "Will that be sufficient?"
As she reached for it, she glanced at him, her hand frozen above the thick white envelope. There was something in the question, although courteously asked, that warned her it had better be enough.
She forced herself to pick up the envelope and look inside. Then she leaned against the Altar for support. Gold thousand marks. At least ten times what the stranger with the maimed hands had offered.
But she already had an agreement with the stranger, and there would be time to pocket the marks before the guards arrived.
The Priestess carefully placed the envelope on the far corner of the Altar. "Most generous," she said, hoping she sounded unimpressed.
Taking a deep breath, she lifted the silver cup high over her head, then placed it carefully in front of her. She broke the seal on the red-stoppered vial, poured the contents into the cup, and held it out to him. "The journey through a Gate is a difficult undertaking. This will assist you."
He didn't take the cup.
She made an impatient sound and took a sip, trying not to gag on the bitter taste, then held out the cup.
He held it in his left hand, his nostrils flaring at the smell, but didn't drink.
A minute passed. Two.
With an imperceptible shrug, he gulped the contents of the cup.
The Priestess held her breath. How soon before it worked? How soon before the guards came?
His eyes changed. He swayed. Then he leaned across the Altar and looked at her the way a lover looks at his lady. She couldn't take her eyes off his lips. Soft. Sensual. She leaned toward him. One kiss. One sweet kiss.
Just before her lips touched his, his right hand closed around her wrist. "Bitch," he snarled softly.
Startled, she tried to pull away.
As his hand tightened, she stared at the Black-Jeweled ring.
His long nails pierced her skin. Then she felt the sharp needle prick of the snake tooth beneath his ring-finger nail, felt the venom chill her blood.
She flailed at him with her other hand, trying to reach his face, trying to scream for help as her vision blurred and her lungs refused to fill with needed air.
He broke both her wrists, snapping the bones as he thrust her away from him.
"The venom in my snake tooth doesn't work as quickly as you may think," he said too quietly, too gently. "In the end, you'll be able to scream. You'll tear yourself apart doing it, but you'll scream."
Then he was gone, and there was nothing but a silence within the night's silence, a shadow within the shadows.
By the time the guards arrived, she was screaming.
5 / Terreille
The floor rolled beneath him, teasing legs that already shook from exhaustion and were cramped by the foul witch's brew.
Behind that door was a safe place. As he reached for it, the floor rolled again, knocking his feet out from under him. His shoulder hit the door, cracking the old, rotting wood, and he fell into the room, landing heavily on his side.
"Bitch," he snarled softly.
Gray mist. A shattered crystal chalice. Black candles. Golden hair.
Blood. So much blood.
Words lie. Blood doesn't. •"Shut up, Prick," he rasped.
The floor kept rolling under him. He dug his long nails into the wood, trying to keep his balance, trying to think.
His fever was dangerously high, and he knew he needed food, water, and rest. Right now, he was prey to whoever might think to look for him in this abandoned house where he had spent his earliest years with Tersa, his real mother.
Everything has a price.
If he had given up outside that Sanctuary three days ago, if he had let the Hayllian guards find him, he might not have become so ill from the brew. But he had ruthlessly pushed his body to the point of collapse in order to reach the Gate near the ruins of SaDiablo Hall.
And every time exhaustion crept in, every time his strength of will slipped a little, a gray mist began to cloud his mind, a mist he knew held something very, very terrible. Something he didn't want to see.
You are my instrument.
Words, like flickering black lightning, came out of that mist, threatening to sear his soul.
Words lie. Blood doesn't.
He was less than a mile from the Gate.
"Lucivar," he whispered. But he didn't have the strength to feel angry at his brother's betrayal.
You are my instrument.
"No." He tried to stand up, but he couldn't do it. Still, something in him required defiance. "No. I am not your instrument. I ... am ... Daemon . . . Sadi."
He closed his eyes, and the gray mist engulfed him.
With a groan, Daemon rolled onto his back and slowly opened his eyes. Even that was almost too much effort. At first, he wondered if he had gone blind. Then he began to make out dim shapes in the darkness.
Night. It was night.
Breathing slowly, he began to assess the physical damage.
He felt as dry as touchwood, as inflexible as stone. His muscles burned. His belly ached from hunger, and the craving for water was fierce. The fever had broken at some point, but . . .
Something waswrong.
Words lie. Blood doesn't.
The words Lucivar had spoken swam round and round, growing larger, growing solid. They crashed against his mind, fragmenting it further.
Daemon screamed.
You are my instrument.
As Saetan's words thundered inside him, there was more pain—and there was fear. Fear that the mist filling his mind might part and show him something terrible.
Daemon.
Holding on fiercely to the memory of Jaenelle saying his name like a soft, sighing caress, Daemon got to his feet. As long as he could remember that, he could hold the other voices at bay.
His legs felt too heavy, but he managed to leave the house and follow the remnants of the drive that would take him to the Hall. Even though every movement was a fiery ache, by the time he reached the Hall, he was almost moving with his usual gliding stride.
But there was still something very wrong. It was hard to hold on to the Warlord Prince called Daemon Sadi, hard to hold on to his sense of self. But he had to hold on for a little while longer. He had to.
Gathering the last of his strength and will, Daemon cautiously approached the small building that held the Dark Altar.
Hekatah prowled the small building that stood in the shadow of the ruins of SaDiablo Hall. She shook her fists in the air, frustrated beyond endurance by the past three days. Even so, every time she circled the Altar, she glanced at the wall behind it, fearful it would turn to mist and Saetan would step through the Gate to challenge her.
But the High Lord was too preoccupied with his own concerns lately to pay attention to her.
Her main problem now was Daemon Sadi.
After drinking the brew she'd made, hecould not have walked away from that Dark Altar, despite what those idiot guards swore. But if he was actually making his way to this Gate ... By now the second part of her brew, the part that would make his mind receptive to her carefully rehearsed words, would be at its peak. She had planned to whisper all her poisoned words while she nursed him through the fever and the pain so that, when the fever broke, those words would solidify into a terrible truth he wouldn't be able to escape. Then all that strength, all that rage would become a dagger aimed right at Saetan's heart.
All her carefully made plans were beingruined because . . .
