"Can you get somebody else on that?" Norian muttered. He was still backtracking on the reptanoids he'd uncovered—looking to find names and where they'd traveled from, hoping it would lead him to Black Mist's headquarters.
"I'll find somebody," Lendill punched up a list of available agents.
"Let me know what you find," Norian mumbled and turned back to his work.
"Lissa, we've been waiting for you to come back for longer than a few hours at a time," Drake, Drew, Gavin and Tony were all inside my office. Heathe and Grant had taken off the minute all four of them arrived. I was studying the monthly tax reports and the disbursements that Kyler had made. I hadn't seen either of my nieces for a while—not since the whole Cloudsong debacle. That seemed like a hundred years gone, now, with everything that had happened in between.
"Why have you been waiting?" I pretty much knew the answer, but wasn't sure I wanted the information that came with that answer.
"To tell you who leaked your whereabouts to a Black Mist spy," Tony said. Well, he'd once held a position close to that of Norian's, so he was taking point on this.
"You found a Black Mist spy. Here, on Le-Ath Veronis." My voice was flat as I stared at four of my mates. They'd pulled in additional chairs so they could all sit.
"She's in the dungeon—the Council has already passed the death sentence, they're only waiting for you to talk to her if you want before sentence is carried out." Gavin provided that particular piece of information.
"And you're holding back the worst piece, aren't you? The one who gave her the information to begin with."
"Baby, it's hard, telling you this part," Drake said. "The Council wants to prosecute, but Aurelius and Aryn have convinced them to table this discussion until you knew everything."
"What charges are they planning to levy?" I asked. I wanted to shiver—the news was coming, and until now, I'd successfully held it away from me.
"Treason," Drew said. "That's all it is at this stage. A defense can be mounted."
"Of course it can," I muttered. I knew the Council. Knew that many of the oldest vampires on the Council had once been Heads of Vampire Councils on their respective former planets. They hadn't kept their race alive and thriving by being anything less than ruthless. If a vampire made a misstep, they were eliminated. I'd seen it myself, first with Wlodek and then with Flavio. If I thought they might be anything other than merciless in this matter, my heart would be beating at a more normal rhythm.
"Tell me," I muttered, standing and turning away from all of them. A painting hung behind my desk that I seldom looked at, once I took my seat. Winkler had hired a vampire artist to paint it for me. He'd taken vid images of the Green Fae settlement, when the trees were flowering. Little Toff was sitting on the ground, playing with a basket of blooms there among the trees. I figured Corent or Redbird had originally been in the image, but the artist had been instructed not to paint them. Only Toff remained. The whole thing made me want to weep.
"Giff revealed your location," Tony said. "She thought Pearlina was a friend. She knew it was wrong to tell anyone, but she did it anyway. She didn't think the woman was a spy."
If I'd been stabbed in the heart, it might have hurt less. "We've questioned Giff extensively, some of it under compulsion," Gavin went on quickly. I heard him as if I were listening underwater. "She knew it could harm you. She knew Pearlina might pass the information to others, because Pearlina likes to gossip. It's true she didn't know that Pearlina was a spy, but Giff was angry with you, cara. Didn't care if you might be hurt in all this."
"Did she realize that this might come of it? That six-hundred-million might die in my stead?" I asked. Silently, I cursed my father as I whirled and blinked helplessly at Gavin. Had Griffin seen this, when he'd so callously allowed Toff to be taken? Did he realize so many might die, because Giff would be angry with me—and with him? If I dwelt too long on those thoughts, I might curl up and weep for a month. As it was, numbness had taken over. Giff hadn't thought past getting back at me, somehow, and so many were now dead from a few careless words.
"She didn't hear about Trell until recently," Drew said. "I think her cousin Dariff told her. Rolfe was asked to place compulsion not to reveal any other information she might have to anyone, and she has been confined to Rolfe's home and the surrounding area near his estate. We have removed Rolfe from his duties at the palace until this matter has been resolved."
"You're saying that Rolfe has been punished too." I turned and reached out to place a finger against the image of Toff's tiny face in the painting. "Even though he has no guilt in this matter."
"Lissa, it is better this way," Gavin said. "Rolfe is torn between two he cares for. This allows him to spend time with Giff until the matter can be brought before the Council."
"Where is Roff? This has to be destroying him." I was emotionless, my voice detached. I was in my study and a million light-years away at one and the same time. How had things come to this? How? Did Giff now blame me so much for Toff's taking that she wanted me to die? Is that how things stood? Instead, and without thinking, she'd condemned an entire planet to death in my place.
"Roff is worried for his child," Gavin sighed.
"Lissa, what would you do, if this were placed solely in your hands?" Kifirin appeared suddenly at the side of my desk. I turned slightly to look at him.
"I would send Giff, Yoff and Rolfe to Kifirin," I said, meaning the High Demon world that Kifirin had named after himself. "They could live and work there, without fear of betraying any of my secrets. Glinda might welcome them into her home and Giff could go back to the work she likes—stuffing a queen's closet with clothing." I brushed away unwelcome tears.
"Then your heart is generous," Kifirin nodded to me. "I will not circumvent the rules as laid down for Le-Ath Veronis. I will not forget your judgment, however." He disappeared as suddenly as he'd come. Well, if a god wouldn't intervene, what hope did I have?
"Shall we set an appointment to interview the prisoner tomorrow morning? I don't think Norian is going to drag me away between now and then," I mumbled. For now, I wanted to be alone. Wanted to go to energy and leave everything and everyone behind me. My mates might have wanted to give comfort, but there wasn't any comfort to be had for me. I could have hunted Griffin down and shouted at him—I could have blamed him for all this. None of that seemed to matter anymore. Nothing did. I faded to mist in front of all four mates before going to energy and flying away from Le-Ath Veronis.
Gavin and Tony got the call to fight a pod of spawn, just as the other spawn hunters did. They all folded away when the call came in the middle of the night. Gavin dropped to the ground beside Tony—they were practiced at fighting in tandem. Winkler appeared nearby, Thomas Williams right behind him. Turning to their werewolf state, they were prepared to do battle. Aurelius came, as did Rolfe, Jeral, Drake and Drew. More than a thousand spawn had been unleashed upon unsuspecting Birimera, deep in the agricultural area surrounding the equator. Drake and Drew had blades out, ready to fight. They would only turn to Dragon if they were forced to do so. All spawn hunters made ready to do battle as the spawn advanced toward them.
I didn't return to Le-Ath Veronis until shortly before I was scheduled to interview the Black Mist spy in my dungeon. Walking into the kitchens to find something small to eat perhaps—I didn't want to go to a formal breakfast—I found Cheedas and his assistants too upset to cook. Cheedas was wiping tears away as I appeared beside his wide granite island.
"Cheedas?" I reached out a hand.
"Raona," Cheedas threw himself at me.
"What's wrong, honey?" I stroked the dark hair that now held much gray in it. Cheedas was getting old—I had to face that.
"Raona, have you not heard?" Cheedas pulled back from me. "The entire city is in mourning."
"Honey, tell me," I said, my breath too short to get the words out properly. I was suddenly terrified.
"Rolfe and the others went to fight those awful things," Cheedas wept on my shoulder. "Gavin tells me that Rolfe did not even attempt to fight them when they came—he just stood there and let them take him. He died, Raona. There was barely anything left of him when the others killed the spawn attacking him."
My legs gave way beneath me and Cheedas and I both fell. It couldn't be. Couldn't. Rolfe—our Rolfe—the Northern Star, guard for Heads of Councils and a Queen—he could not be dead. He was death on any attacker—nothing withstood that tall vampire. It was why he'd been chosen to protect Wlodek and Flavio. And then me. Rolfe could not be gone. I was weeping with Cheedas as we huddled in the kitchen floor.
"Lara'Kayan?" Only two people called me that—Karzac and Thurlow. This wasn't Karzac. Lara'Kayan meant forever love in Neaborian. I had no idea where I was, lying on a bed supported by a floor and nothing else. Clouds floated past me as I blinked up into Thurlow's face.
"What am I doing here?" I asked, pulling myself up and leaning on an elbow. The blue of the sky was like a Larentii's skin, it was such a perfect color.
"Lara'Kayan, you were about to separate permanently from your body," Thurlow said. "You were in such pain. I am holding your pain away from you at this moment, so that you will not leave us. We have much to do, my love. You cannot leave your children before they are born. How can they love a mother they will never know, if you leave us?"
I blinked at Thurlow. I'd forgotten about Garde's and Erland's surrogates. Forgotten about my own babies. How had I done that? How? "I know you loved Rolfe and the others," Thurlow went on. "How do you know they will not come back to you? Have you spoken to your Larentii mates lately?" If he'd wanted to push his point home, he couldn't have chosen a better way to do it.