Blood Double (God Wars #1)(33)
*
My comp-vid was in my hand while we traveled everywhere the following day—I huddled in the back seat of the hover limo and parceled out funds to waiting comesuli as we traveled from farm to farm to inspect crops and storage facilities. Inspecting the orchards and crops was something the Queen obviously took pleasure in, if I were to believe the beaming faces of the comesuli who greeted us everywhere.
I hugged children, tasted berries, handed out compliments and accepted requests. Until we arrived at the last place, that is. "Corent, how are you?" I knew who he was the moment I stepped out of the vehicle. A Green Fae, he was one of the last of his kind. Certainly the last on Le-Ath Veronis, I knew that much. I also read in his face what had happened to the others—they'd died in a terrible event that had almost claimed him, too. That wasn't all I saw, but the information I gleaned from him even he didn't know and I had to tuck it away in my mind until I could examine it more closely.
Corent's hair turned a serene, dark-blue as he gazed at me, and then he smiled. I couldn't help but smile back. He led me away and Gavin, thankfully, didn't follow. We walked silently for nearly half an hour, through rows and rows of apple trees.
"They are forcing you, aren't they?" Corent asked eventually.
"Yes. I'm surprised you know that." Somehow, he'd seen through my disguise and I wasn't sure how that was.
"I can sometimes read Gavin—he is angry, is he not?" Corent's face looked so young. He was immortal, though, and I could see that he was more than five hundred years old.
"He is angry," I agreed. "Many are. They think I'm here to take the Queen's place. I had no choice in the matter, and have less choice, now. They shove me into Council meetings and other functions. Frankly, I am at a loss to explain any of it."
"Something is not right with Gavin in this, but I cannot determine what it is and have no idea how to reverse its effects."
"If you figure it out, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know," I replied dryly.
"The Queen has special talents," Corent smiled again. When he did that, his face lit up. He was quite handsome, even with blue hair.
"Yes," I nodded.
"Perhaps you should attempt to duplicate them."
"Are you serious?" I'd seen it in her photographs. She could mist. She could mindspeak. Well, I could mindspeak. She could also fold space. That frightened me, actually. What if I got lost between one place and another?
"I feel power about you, but I can't define it," Corent sighed. "That is why I suggest this—you cannot know what you might do until you make the attempt."
"If I did have power, I'm afraid I might send Gavin to another planet," I muttered.
"You are frightened of what you might do to those who harm you?"
"Well, yes."
"Because you might harm them, or they might retaliate?"
"Yes. To both. I really don't want to harm anyone, but I've never been around anyone who didn't want to harm me. It's just the way things are." I hugged myself.
"But when you were small, surely," Corent blinked dark-blue eyes at me.
"Until I was twenty-two, that was the worst time of all," I whispered.
Chapter 8
"We discussed apple trees," I muttered as I loaded into the hover limo. We had. Corent hadn't gotten any information from me after my foolish admission, so he talked about apple trees on the way back to Gavin and the vehicle. Corent had made an offer, too, before we came within Gavin's hearing range.
"If you want to talk," he said, "Come and find me." He'd faded into the trees after that.
"Tomorrow evening, we are hosting a gathering. Many important vampires will be there. You will appear as the Queen," Gavin informed me on the drive to the palace. Sighing, I continued to approve funds for comesuli requests on my comp-vid and nodded in reply.
*
"Block the visions!" Graegar hadn't been able to keep Kalenegar away from me and the tall, red-haired Larentii returned with a vengeance the following evening. I'd hoped to crawl into bed and sleep without interruption after a bitter day of listening to vampires squabble over petty matters. Then I'd moved in a daze between vampires, who'd come to a formal gathering to rub elbows with those in the palace. Kalenegar had shown up shortly after Gavin allowed me to retire for the evening.
I tried to do what Kalenegar ordered. Really. I just had no idea where to start. At least these mind blasts weren't as powerful as the last ones that had knocked me cold, but they still forced me to my knees in whimpering pain. Another blast was leveled in my direction when I didn't rise fast enough.
"Think of a f*cking clear wall between you and your target," Kalenegar shouted. Shocked by any Larentii's use of "f*cking" as an expletive, I stared at him in surprise before turning to the male walking past us on Shaaliveer. A clear wall? I shivered as I attempted to devise a way to mentally construct such an unusual thing.
Thoroughly surprised, I stared as my reading went fuzzy before I lost my concentration and it returned. Kal hit me with another power blast. My vision grayed and I almost toppled again. Terrified that he'd make me lose consciousness before I could perfect my experiment, I latched onto another person passing us—a woman so depressed she was almost suicidal. Recognizing that emotion (I'd experienced it often enough), I worked on the clear wall again. Everything went blessedly blank around her and the reading disappeared. I sighed and went to my knees in welcome relief.