Bloodleaf (Bloodleaf #1)(64)
“Does the king have a bastard somewhere? A child no one but you knows about? Answer!”
Despite all, Thackery chuckled. “Everyone knows the king is as sterile as a ball o’ cotton. Only reason he had the one kid he got is because ’is wife asked the Assembly to use magic to help her conceive. Took the work of the whole lot of ’em, too, I’m told.”
“You’re useless,” the man said, and pushed his knife the rest of the way in.
Thackery fell and rolled over, throat filling up with blood. The man nudged him with his boot and leaned down close.
“Send my regards to the other side,” he said, before stabbing him with his luneocite knife again, and again, and again . . .
I came out of the horrid vision with tears running down my face.
Thackery was already gone. He’d done what he meant to do. He’d shown me what he wanted me to see.
The face of his killer. Dedrick Corvalis.
I dropped my half-dead flowers and ran.
* * *
The manor was built dockside, but it was cut off from the teeming life that pervaded the rest of the pier. I ducked under a gate, struck by the emptiness. There were no people here, none. No servants or sailors or sound but the hollow thunk thunk of my shoes on the pier’s timbers.
I let myself inside, thankful it wasn’t locked. The house was a maze of golden chandeliers and marble columns but empty of furniture. “Kate?” I called softly, timidly, and the sound ricocheted around in the vaulted rafters. When it faded, I heard another sound: voices, a man and a woman.
She’s up there, I thought, and I dashed toward the grand, circling staircase, taking the steps two at a time before stumbling breathlessly out onto the top floor.
I landed in a huge antechamber painted to the ceiling with a depiction of a terrifying, fiery-winged Empyrea descending from the heavens and touching down to earth. Fire and water and stone and storm and forest were shown to be colliding around her, while streaks of blue-white light jigged out from the collision point. This was a sanctorium, not unlike the one back home in Renalt.
Beneath the monstrous illustration there was a door.
It was dark, but there was still enough light to see that the entire left wall was made of ruched velvet curtains. I could hear voices on the other side.
“The crown jewel of the whole place, where a lovely, pious woman can come to rest and restore her spirit, basking in the light of the great Empyrea. This is the part of the house I’ll miss the most.”
“You saved the best of the tour for last, I see,” I heard Kate reply. “Your home is very impressive. I can hardly believe you’ve sold it when you seem to love it so much.”
“I wanted to collect the proceeds of my investment before property value declines within the city.” A soft chuckle. “I have reason to believe that such a downturn is imminent.”
“Always one step ahead, predicting the future,” Kate said with a polite laugh. “Do you also happen to know when my mother will arrive?”
I peeked through a break in two panels to see Kate and Corvalis alone in the enormous inner sanctuary. It was at least six times larger than the one back home in Renalt. He took her hand and pressed it to his lips as her smile froze on her face.
“Now that we’re in the confessional, I have a confession to make, dear Katherine. Your mother isn’t coming today. I’m sorry. Something came up for her, and she wasn’t able to make it.”
“Oh,” Kate said, visibly deflating. “Well, thank you for the tour of your lovely home. I’d probably better go.”
“Back to a husband who mistreats you?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve seen it, Katherine. Firsthand. The irreverent way he speaks to you, the way he lords himself over you. Not to mention how he’s forced you into subservience, working for others when it should be you going to balls, so the rest of the world can marvel at your beauty.” He stroked her cheek. “It is my greatest folly, letting you get away.”
“I’m sorry, Dedrick,” Kate said, “if I’ve given you the wrong impression—?”
“It would be easy to undo,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “The marriage, so obviously performed under duress, can be annulled. And as for the whelp, no one of importance even knows about it. Once it has been delivered, it can be given to a decent, Empyrea-fearing family somewhere, or to an orphanage—?”
Kate hit him, her hand whipping so fast across his face that it knocked his head to the side, revealing a series of scratches under his hair, by his ear. The ones I’d given him just after he’d killed Molly.
He touched a hand to his lip, and it came away with blood. “Don’t be stupid, Katherine. I’m trying to save you. To give you a chance. A lesser man wouldn’t even consider taking up with you now.”
She raised her hand to strike him again, but he grabbed it before she could land the blow. His handsome face was drawn into a sullen pout. “Oh, Katherine. You’re breaking my heart.”
He pulled her against his chest and took out his luneocite knife, nicking his own hand with it before pressing it against her neck. I grabbed the object nearest me—?a vase—?and dashed from my hiding place. But I was fast enough only to hear him say, “Know that I never wanted this for you. Nihil nunc salvet te.”