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Despite Lucivar's and Chaosti's firm warnings, Daemon had to bite his tongue to keep from suggesting that she eat something first. They had told him her resistance against any attempt to get some food into her would be in direct proportion to her mood when she returned from this meeting. He'd only needed one glance at her face when she came out of her room to know any suggestion would have been pointless.
"I think you'll like Amdarh," Jaenelle said. "It's a beautiful—" She stopped walking, then sniffed the air. "Is that stew?"
"I believe it is," Daemon replied mildly. "Lucivar and Chaosti made it. It should be just about done."
"They made wildwood stew?"
"I believe that's what it's called."
Jaenelle eyed him. "I suppose you're hungry."
Even if he had never picked up a cue before in his life, he couldn't have missed that one. "Actually, I am. Do you think we could wait until after dinner before heading to Amdarh?"
Jaenelle turned her head away from him, but not enough that he couldn't see her lick her lips. "It wouldn't take that long to have a bowl of stew. Or two," she added as she hurried toward the guardhouse.
Daemon lengthened his stride to keep up, and wondered how much of a tussle the males were going to have in order to get their fair share.
6 / Kaeleer
Kartane burst into Jorval's dining room. "Is that bitch alive?" he demanded.
Jorval hurried toward him while a man Kartane had never seen before sat at the table and just stared.
"Lord Kartane," Jorval said anxiously. "If I'd known the healing would be done so soon, we would have waited din—"
"Damn you, just answer the question! Is she alive?"
"Lady Angelline? Yes, of course she's alive. Why do you ask? Didn't she arrive?"
"She arrived," Kartane snarled.
"I don't understand," Jorval said, almost wailing. "She's the best Healer in the Realm. If she—"
"SHE'S THE ONE WHO DID THIS TO ME!"
Jorval's shocked look was quickly replaced by a sly one. "I see. Please, come and join us. I can see you've had a distressing afternoon. Perhaps some food and company will help."
"Nothing will help until that bitch is made to heel," Kartane snapped, accepting a chair at the table and a quickly filled glass of wine. He glared at the other man, who continued to stare at him.
"Lord Kartane," Jorval said smoothly, "may I present Lord Hobart? He, too, has reasons to want to see Jaenelle Angelline subdued."
"Not just Jaenelle Angelline," Hobart growled.
"Oh?" Kartane said, pushing his anger aside as his interest in Hobart sharpened.
"Lord Hobart had controlled the Territory of Glacia for several years," Jorval said. "When his niece became the Territory Queen—"
"The ungrateful bitch EXILED me!" Hobart shouted.
"And you want to regain control," Kartane said, starting to lose interest.
Then Jorval added, "Lady Karla is a close friend of Jaenelle's."
Kartane randomly selected food from the dishes offered as he nibbled on that bit of information. There was nothing he would have liked better right then than to hurt a close friend of the bitch. "I may be able to help. My mother is the High Priestess of Hayll."
Not only didn't Hobart look sufficiently impressed, he looked distinctly uneasy. He cleared his throat. "It's a generous offer, Lord Kartane. A very generous offer, but..."
"But you're already receiving some assistance from the Dark Priestess," Kartane guessed. When Hobart paled, he crossed two fingers and held them up. "Perhaps you're not aware that my mother and the Dark Priestess are like that."
Hobart swallowed hard. Jorval merely drank his wine and watched them out of dark eyes filled with sly glee.
"I see," Hobart finally said. "In that case, your help is most welcome."
Chapter Nine
1 / Kaeleer
Andulvar settled into a chair in front of Saetan's blackwood desk. "Karla says you've been in here sulking for the past two hours, ever since you got a message from Lady Zhara."
Saetan gave his longtime friend his iciest stare. "I. Am. Not. Sulking."
"All right." Andulvar waited. "Then whatare you doing?"
Saetan leaned back in his chair. "Answer me this: if I were to run away from home, is there anywhere in any of the Realms I could go and not be found?"
Andulvar scratched his chin. "Well, if you wanted to hide from the Dhemlan Queens or the coven, there are quite a few places you could go to ground. If you wanted to hide from your male offspring, there are a few places in the Dark Realm that would take even Mephis a while to think of. But ifJaenelle was looking for you..."
"Which is precisely why I'm still sitting here." Saetan rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Zhara has summoned me to Amdarh to take care of a problem for her."
Andulvar frowned. "Lucivar's in Amdarh, isn't he? If Zhara needs help from a male stronger than the ones who serve in her court, why didn't she ask him?"
Saetan narrowed his golden eyes and let the words fall like precisely dropped stones. "Lucivar is in Amdarh with Jaenelle."
The silence thickened into a solid curtain.
"Ah," Andulvar finally said. "Well, Daemon—"
"Is in Amdarh with Lucivar and Jaenelle."
"Mother Night," Andulvar muttered, then added warily,
"What did Zhara say?" Saetan picked up the message and read in a funereal voice, " 'Your children are having a wonderful time. Come
and get them.' "
2 / Kaeleer
Daemon braced his head in his hands and closed his eyes.
"Mother Night," Lucivar said, enunciating very carefully.
"I've never been this drunk," Daemon moaned quietly.
Lucivar stared at him with bloodshot eyes. "Sure you have."
"Maybe a couple of times in the stupid phase of my youth, but not since I've worn the Black. My body burns it up too fast to get drunk."
"Not this time," Lucivar said, then added after a long, possibly thoughtful, pause, "I've been this drunk."
"Really? When?"
"Last time I went on a crawl with Jaenelle. Big mistake. Should have remembered it. Would have, too, if I'd been sober when Idid remember it."
After a minute's painful effort, Daemon gave up trying to decipher that comment and found something else to think about. "I've never been thrown out of a city before."
