CHAPTER EIGHT
A draft blew down on Josey’s neck as she tried not to be sick. Around her stood the members of her war council accoutered in their fine ball regalia, with capes thrown hastily over their shoulders as they answered her emergency summons. The reason was laid out on the table before them.
Poor Fenrik.
After the attempt on her life, Josey had waited in a salon with her maids and a team of bodyguards as the palace grounds were scoured. Now the notables of her court gathered in the armory hall where the remains had been brought for examination. Candlelight reflected off the weapons and polished coats of armor that hung on the walls. Looking down at the body, Josey couldn’t believe that Fenrik, a man she’d known and trusted her entire life, was dead. But she still didn’t understand how, after his escape, his body had appeared under her bed. She felt like she might be going insane.
“Drained of blood, you say?” Lord Du’Quendel asked through a scarf pressed over his nose and mouth.
Hubert wore a rapier at his side, the first time Josey had seen him wear the sword since…since Caim’s bogus funeral.
“That is correct, my lord,” Hubert replied.
Standing at Josey’s side, Anastasia shook her head. “It’s terrible.”
Duke Mormaer reached over and turned the corpse’s head to the side, revealing jagged wounds on the throat. They looked like the marks a beast might make tearing into its prey. Lord Du’Quendel gasped and pressed his scarf tighter to his mouth. Josey bit down hard on her tongue to keep her stomach from rebelling; she was still a little queasy, and this examination wasn’t making her feel any better.
“And what of the man who interrupted the empress’s coronation ball?” the duke asked.
Josey looked to Hubert. The agitator had been hustled out of her sight, and she’d not heard anything about him either.
“He is the son of a minor family,” Hubert said. “And, no surprise, an ardent supporter of the Church. We are in the process of determining if he had any help from the palace staff, but it appears he was alone and not involved in the attempt on the empress’s life.”
“Thank the Light,” Anastasia said.
“I trust, Lord Chancellor,” Duke Mormaer said, “that you will be fervent in your quest for the truth of the matter.”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
“No torture,” Josey said. Then, as both men looked to her, she said, “I do not condone it, Lord Chancellor, not for this or any matter. Do you understand?”
“It will be as Your Majesty commands.”
Josey glanced back to the body, the flesh pale as ivory. She remembered the way Fenrik had looked at her as he attacked, like a crazed rabid beast. Now his eyes were closed in a peaceful demeanor. His clothes were rumpled but whole, save for the torn collar. No sign of the gashes she had made with the knife now sheathed once again at her thigh. No sign of the ghastly wounds inflicted by the guardsmen as they drove the manservant away. It was like the whole thing had been a dream.
Captain Drathan cleared his throat. By his sweat-slicked hair and the shadow of stubble on his face, he had not slept since yesterday.
“We searched every foot of the grounds and found nothing amiss,” he said, his voice gruffer than normal. “There is no sign of anyone falling from Her Majesty’s chamber window. Nor did the sentries posted outside notice anything out of the ordinary.”
Duke Mormaer slapped the corpse upon the forehead. “Did this just appear out of the air, Captain?”
Before Captain Drathan could answer, Josey snapped, “Be so kind as to unhand my servant, Your Grace.”
Mormaer lifted his hand from Fenrik’s white-haired pate. He started to say something, but a voice called from the entryway.
“If you would, stand away from the body!”
Everyone turned to where a man stood beyond the door sentries. He was short and wore a brown overcoat several sizes too big. That, combined with a frumpy blue-brimmed hat and big shiny boots, made him look like a barker from a carnival show. He started to enter the chamber, but the soldiers blocked his way. He stopped short of their poleaxes and looked past them.
“Who let this man into the palace?” Hubert asked. “Guards, escort him out.”
The man in the hat stared at the sentries as if daring them to try. He reminded her of someone, but Josey couldn’t place where she might have seen him before. She stopped the guardsmen as they moved to obey.
“Wait.” Josey pulled free of Anastasia. “Who are you? How did you get inside the palace unescorted?”
He made a bow, doffing his hat to reveal a circle of rust-red hair. Returning his hat to its rightful place, he answered, “I am Hirsch, adept of the Enclave. I have come to see the empress.”
Josey looked to Hubert, who lifted both hands as if to say he had no explanation.
“I am Empress Josephine. What is your business here?”
“I have been sent to assist you in this dire time.”
The man—the adept—pulled a scroll from inside his sleeve and held it out. Josey wasn’t sure what to make of this. With a nod, she instructed one of the guards to bring her the scroll. Hubert moved to take it, but she waved him aside. She was tired of being treated like a piece of the palace decor. The wax seal that bound the scroll was stamped with a sigil she didn’t recognize, an owl clutching a rod and a sheaf of papers in its talons. Josey broke it open. The message inside was written in stark black ink.
Empress Josephine,
In accordance with the enduring pact between the Empire of Nimea and our Benevolent Society, the Enclave of the Unseen offers to Your Person the service of this adept, Hirsch Red-Hand, for as long as Your Majesty should require it. We desire nothing in exchange save for the continuation of the proprieties and conditions agreed upon by our forebears.
In Highest Regard,
High Magus Threptos
Hubert looked up from reading over her shoulder. “Enclave of the Unseen, eh? An apt name for an organization we know nothing about.”
Josey held up the scroll. “What does this mean by the ‘enduring pact’ between us?”
Hirsch scratched the end of his pug nose. “The accord was created three hundred years ago between the Enclave and the Empire. For generations, our order has served the rulers of Nimea, but the recent regime was…prejudiced against me and my brethren. We have remained out of sight, underground you might say, until the day we could once again step into the light. It is the sincere wish of my superiors that, with your assent, that day has come.”
While Josey pondered the statement, Mormaer leaned both hands on the table.
“Bona fides from an imaginary society are worthless. I suggest that this man be taken into custody and interrogated concerning tonight’s events.”
“It is because of tonight’s events that I am here,” the adept said.
Josey stared into his eyes. By all the stories she’d been told as a child, that was the wrong thing to do with an adept, but she wanted to see if there was deception in his gaze.
“How did you know?” she asked. “No one outside this chamber has been informed of the attempt on my life.”
“The cabalists of my order see far, lass. Little that happens within the city walls is hidden from us.”
Not sure how to take that, Josey gestured for the guards to stand aside. Hirsch came over to the table, leaning between Du’Quendel and Mormaer without giving either noble so much as a glance.
“A close friend?”
“He was in my father’s employ.” Josey glanced at Hubert. How farseeing was this adept if he couldn’t tell a servant from a noble of the court by dress alone? “I have known him my entire life.”
Hirsch bent down and peeled back one of Fenrik’s eyelids. “Male. Sixty-three years of age.”
Josey almost bit her tongue at that. “How did you—?”
But the adept kept on talking as if he were the only one in the room. “Contusions at the left carpal spur. More along the sixth rib, right side, and up through the sternum. Serrations at the neck juncture.” He stuck his forefinger into the throat wounds. “Two digits in depth.”
Anastasia averted her eyes as Hirsch moved around the table, not bothering to look up to see who he was jostling. Duke Mormaer stepped out of his way with a frown. The adept whispered something under his breath as he placed a hand on Fenrik’s chest. Then he stood up straight as a flagpole and rushed over to Josey. Like everyone else, she was so surprised by this sudden flurry of movement that she just stood there as he grasped her by the arm and pressed two fingers against the underside of her wrist.
Hubert grabbed for the adept. “Unhand the empress!”
Hirsch hissed a word and Hubert fell back against the table, his face frozen into a mask of terror. When the guards raised their weapons, Hirsch gazed deep into Josey’s eyes.
“Did it bite you?”
His tone was harsh, almost commanding, but there was concern in his eyes, true apprehension for her welfare. With her free hand, Josey held the advancing soldiers in abeyance.
“No.”
“Are you sure? Even a scratch—”
“No,” she repeated, firmer this time. “Why? What did you see?”
Hirsch let go of her arm. Hubert recovered enough to put himself between them. Josey was touched by the gesture, but if the adept meant to harm her she felt certain no one in the room could have stopped him.
“Tell me,” she whispered. “What did you see?”
“Your man was killed by a voldak, a creature of the Shadow that survives on human blood. This body must be burned at once.”
Josey looked around the table. Everyone’s face was marred by confusion. A year ago she would have laughed at those words, but she had been through a lot since then. She wanted to think she had grown up.
“How do you know this?” she asked.
Hirsch pointed to the neck wounds. “The voldak injects a paralytic toxin with its bite when it wants to kill, and then drains the body of blood. But certain contagions can also be spread by means of the monster’s saliva, so precautions must be—”
“God’s breath!” Duke Mormaer said. “Enough of this farce. Take this man away before we’re all bewildered by his words.”
“No,” Josey said. “I believe he is telling the truth.”
“Are you a seer now as well, Majesty?”
“I am your liege, Your Grace. As such, I expect you to believe me when I say I saw my manservant stabbed repeatedly before he leapt from my chamber window. Only to find the same man, moments later, dead on the floor of my chamber.”
Their gazes remained locked for a moment, and then Duke Mormaer turned on his heels and strode out of the chamber. Josey looked to Hubert.
“Burn the body.” Then she said to Hirsch, “Does that solve the problem?”
“Yes, but it’s only the tip of the tower. You remain in very serious danger.” Hirsch gestured to Fenrik as a pair of guardsmen hoisted the body. “Your servant was chosen for his advanced age and his access to your person, but the voldak is still at large.”
A hollow pain yawned in Josey’s chest, as if her heart had fallen down to her stomach. She had been prepared for any answer, even the prospect of treachery within her household, but not the thought of her friends dying for their proximity to her. She looked to Anastasia. I must send her away to somewhere safe.
Hirsch placed a hand over his chest. “I offer my protection to your person in the name of the Enclave, until such time as the killer is caught.”
Josey didn’t know what to do, but the sincerity in his eyes convinced her.
“I accept,” she said.
Ignoring the streaks of blood on the table, she sat down. She wanted a glass of wine, perhaps several.
“Your first task, Master Hirsch,” she said, “is to tell us everything you know about the assassin, and how we can stop him from killing again.”
Chair legs scraped against the floor tiles as the remaining members of the council seated themselves. The adept pulled back Mormaer’s chair and sat down.
While he began his lecture, Josey signaled to one of the guards. All of a sudden she was famished.