Blood Double (God Wars #1)(60)
"You think to get to me so easily," he hissed, dragging his body toward me. I removed his second leg just as I had the first while he shrieked in anger and agony.
"Your arms come next," I shouted as Vyris looked on in horror. Glendes, thankfully, held Raffian and Shadow back and ordered them to maintain their shields. Mindlessly, the girl continued her stabbing motions against their shield, when any normal person would have already given up. Vyris moaned and turned away, cringing.
"No!" the Sirenali snapped. I began to remove a hand, one finger at a time. Who knew that would break him? "Your obsession is removed. It is removed," he wept. Vyris dropped to his knees as the girl's wooden knife clattered to the floor and she fell to her knees beside it, sobbing.
I stepped forward, prepared to separate the particles of the one before me. The Sirenali shuddered. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice trembling.
"I've been named Vhanaraszh," I said. I didn't add that I still didn't know what that meant.
"No," the Sirenali whispered, his voice filled with terror. I almost asked what he knew of the Vhanaraszh, but I'd wasted enough energy and effort on him already.
"Time for you to go," I said and holding out my hand again, I watched his sparks float peacefully away.
*
"You killed my assistant," Vyris shook as he made his accusation. Glendes, Raffian and Shadow stood by, still in shock.
"You will stop this now," I placed compulsion. Vyris shut up immediately. "Now," I said, walking toward the former King of Bexari, whose seemingly lifeless body stood as decoration—and a reminder—in Bexari's throne room. "Here's the problem, right here. Grey House armor designed to protect the King no matter what, and a sword spelled to kill whatever he stabbed. The two are waging a war inside his body." Gripping the hilt of the sword protruding from Cildis of Bexari's body, I used vampire strength to remove it. Then, before the body could crumble, I reached out a hand and Changed What Was.
*
"The Vhanaraszh is making her presence known," Graegar informed his father with a smile.
"Good," Renegar smiled back at his son. "Has Kalenegar harmed her recently? Your grandfather and I are quite upset over this."
"She argued with him last time, I believe," Graegar shook his head. "I worry that he is being affected in some way."
"As do I, child."
*
Breanne's Journal
I drank tea and munched on a delicious scone as I watched King Cildis hold Vyris' throat in his hand. It only took one hand—Vyris wasn't strong at all and Cildis was very tall. Vyris' feet were at least six inches off the floor and his face was turning blue as Cildis castigated the Prime Minister for hiring the (now deceased) Sirenali as an assistant long ago.
Apparently, the Sirenali had placed an obsession on Cildis, too, ordering him to commit suicide. The spelled Grey House armor, working against the spelled Grey House sword, had placed Cildis in a kind of stasis, and once his body had been moved to the throne room as a reminder for Glendes Grey and to extort funds from Grey House, Cildis had witnessed every bit of wrongdoing Vyris had committed. I was grateful, too, that Cildis' obsession had been included when the others were removed.
Glendes studied me with interest from time to time but said nothing as he, Raffian and Shadow ate the offered food and watched Cildis berate Vyris. At the moment, Cildis was describing an elaborate death for Vyris while servants scurried to do anything Cildis asked of them. Vyris wasn't welcome as a ruler, that was quite obvious, whereas the legends surrounding Cildis were just that—legends.
"Honored King, perhaps we should take our leave," Glendes suggested during a break in Cildis' shouted wrath. "We will repair your armor and sword at no charge, should you wish it," he added.
"Of course. You have my apologies, too, that I cannot repay the debt I apparently owe to you and yours." Cildis nodded to Glendes before ordering guards to escort Vyris to the dungeons.
"I'm just happy to have it resolved," Glendes bowed. Without delay, Glendes then folded all of us back to Grey House.
*
"That was excellent!" Glendes' laughter boomed as he dropped into the chair behind his desk. "Exceptional. Perfect." Well, at least one of us was happy. I was worried that news of the assistant's death would reach others of his kind, causing a witch-hunt. I snorted at the irony of that thought.
At least I knew Erithia was connected to the one I'd killed—I'd seen it there at the last—that he was frightened—both of her and for her. Something was definitely going on, but it was difficult reading a Sirenali completely, and somehow, their obsessions were impossible to read.
*
"Rathik, I felt him die—my brother on Bexari," Erithia was dangerously angry. "I will call one of my Ra'Ak, who will transport you there. You will discover how he died and report your findings to me."
Rathik Erwin, eager to please as always, kissed Erithia's hand. "Of course I will, my love," he agreed. "I will go as soon as my transport arrives."
"Yes, the Ra'Ak made from my race can travel through any shield. That is fortunate, is it not?"
"Just as you can, my dearest," Rathik kissed her hand again.
"But I cannot transport others, I can only transport myself. My Ra'Ak are powerful enough to take others with them. That is how you survive," Erithia leaned in to kiss Rathik, who moaned in pleasure at his lover's touch.