Amaskan's Blood, Raven Oak [read me a book .TXT] 📗

sadist, Master Adelei. He finds girls of a certain age, young but not little children, and he lures them in with promises of nobility, land, or trinkets of great value. Then he breaks them. Sometimes they come back with such damage. Unspeakable things on their flesh. If that’s how they’re found, they are lucky.”

“How so?” Adelei asked and swallowed the bile in the back of her throat.

“In the worst cases, their minds are gone. I don’t know what magics or evils are used, but they aren’t there anymore. Any trace of who they were is gone. And this is in addition to the body’s physical condition.”

“How do you know for sure this is what he does?”

Lady Millicent’s eyes went flat, and she blinked slowly, wrapping her arms around herself as if trying to hold all the horrors inside. Adelei had seen it before in other victims, and she asked, “Did he hurt your Ladyship?”

“Not me,” she whispered. “My daughter. My only daughter.”

Adelei could smell the bile in her throat. Again she swallowed it down. “I would think this proof enough for the Boahim Senate.”

Tears smeared the lady’s well made up face. “I thought so, too, which is why when we found her, broken and beaten, I rushed her before the Senate, but they wouldn’t see us until morning. But by then, my Alethea—” Adelei flinched at the name. Puzzle pieces clicked into place. “My Alethea, she’d found a knife and… and…”

“She took her own life.”

“Yes.”

Adelei handed Lady Millicent a kerchief which she used to blow her nose indelicately. “How do you know it was him?”

“Our manservant found her. In an alley in the city’s lower quarters. When he found her, Prince Gamun’s name was the last word she ever spoke.”

“I know this is difficult for you.” Adelei clumsily patted the woman’s hand. “But I must ask you more questions if I’m to stop this from happening again.” When the woman nodded, Adelei continued. “You said he’s left a trail of bodies behind him. How did you come by this information?”

“After Alethea, my husband hired some men to find information, to find out more about this prince. We knew who he was, of course, as he visited our city on his tour of the Kingdom of Alexander years ago.”

“When he first met the Princess.”

“Y-yes. He flirted openly with our daughter, and while we knew he was promised to Her Royal Highness, we thought maybe he might take our daughter as a second wife or a mistress. We thought, the mistress of a King is better than naught—it would be a chance of royal blood in our line. So when he invited her to dine with him, we thought her safe. We thought her happy and our future secure.”

Adelei grimaced at the picture being painted. As highborn as her ladyship was, no royal blood graced her family tree. Adelei could picture it now, how happy Lady Millicent and her husband must have been at the idea of a grandchild of such prestige—bastard or no.

“My husband searched for information and found similar tales all over, though most were in the Kingdom of Shad itself. Tales of girls disappearing, never to be seen or heard from again. And each time, before the girls were missing, their home was visited by Prince Gamun Bajit on his tour of his kingdom or ours.”

“How many?”

“My husband stopped asking after three dozen.”

Thirty-six girls he’d used and discarded.

“Why hasn’t the Boahim Senate stopped him? Their entire purpose is to stop crimes against the Thirteen. The temple is a gift from Adlain. To kill another is to kill yourself. Not even royal blood would protect him from their reach.”

“Evidence. There isn’t any. Just gossip. Stories. Any lead they’ve had just disappears forever.”

“Have you ever thought to hire the Amaskans?”

Blue eyes focused so intently on Adelei’s jawline that her toes curled in her boots. “Not in this kingdom, Master Adelei. Not since—”

“Iliana.”

“Yes. The death of the princess . There is no help to be had. And now you understand why this wedding must not occur. He must not gain entrance into our kingdom as King.” Lady Millicent’s voice doubled in volume, and Adelei waved her hands at the distraught woman to quiet her. Outside, the guards shuffled in place.

“I understand, and now if you don’t mind, I must attend to another matter. Thank you for your information.” Adelei guided the woman from her seat by the elbow.

“So you believe me?”

“I do, which is why I must attend to something immediately,” said Adelei, and Lady Millicent hurried out. Once away from ear range, Adelei turned to the nearest guard. “I need to see His Majesty immediately. Please take me to him.”

King Leon’s rooms backed up against Margaret’s, but his sitting room made her feel impoverished in comparison. “Wait here,” the guard said, and Adelei stood. If she sat in the chair, it might wilt or tarnish. The number of blue hues tripled that of the sitting room she shared with Margaret. The guard returned and ushered her into a private study where more blues colored her vision by way of a large tapestry—its subject, a woman she could only assume was her mother.

The thread’s thinness and colors’ brightness spoke of great wealth. Not to mention the labor to create such a thing. I wonder who made it?

Her father cleared his throat, and she bowed. “Rise,” he said, without looking up from the paper before him. Leon wiped the pen free of ink and gestured for her to sit. “Stunning, isn’t it?”

“Your Majesty?”

“The tapestry.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Adelei lied.

King Leon tilted his head. “Come now. Be honest—you wouldn’t be formerly Amaskan if you didn’t notice. I’d wager you’ve counted the number of objects in the room that would serve as a weapon.”

“Forty-two, but only because your bedspread is dusty enough to choke one to death.”

Adelei’s nose crinkled, and he laughed. His rich, brown eyes turned wistful. “Your mother was quite the beautiful woman, although a bit scatterbrained. Still, you have her smile, you know.”

When