Part 15 (1/2)

Beside Myrmeen, Stralana attempted to take a step closer to the girl, but the young mage fixed him with her wild stare and he froze. Suddenly, a blast of cold air came from the other side of the room and everyone turned to see Lord Zacharius standing in the doorway, a black cat in his hands. The cat had intense gray-blue eyes. Around the animal's neck was an amulet Myrmeen had seen before, a heart split in two. When she had last seen it, one side was blood red, the other black. Now both halves were crimson.

The cat was Siobhan.

”Guards!” Myrmeen shouted.

Lord Zacharius shook his head. ”They won't be able to respond, I'm afraid. The same magic that made the other soldiers sleep in the garden has been employed. We're quite alone in here, except for my people.”

Myrmeen looked to the door and saw the solid, brutish, human forms of Niccolo and Sauveur. A dozen other cat lords crowded in behind them. Evon Stralana grabbed for his sword. Myrmeen looked at him sharply, raising one hand. Reluctantly he released the weapon.

”You killed Penn Othmann,” Myrmeen said flatly.

”Not at all,” Zacharius said, raising the cat slightly. ”She was the one.”

”Siobhan,” Myrmeen said.

”Yes.” Lord Zacharius looked to the girl. Softly, he said, ”h.e.l.lo, child.”

Myrmeen watched as Andreana drew back from him.

”You have nothing to fear. You know that,” Zacharius began. ”I have visited you many times. I told you that we would rescue you, if you would get what we wanted. We have fulfilled our end of the bargain. Will you renege on yours?”

”My parents,” Andreana sobbed.

”They're fine. Elhazir's threats were meaningless. Even if the woman had been telling you the truth, my people would have protected your parents, even in Daggerdale. You must believe that. You've seen tonight what we can do.”

Nodding tearfully, Andreana reached into her pocket and drew out the mummified remains of a tiny leg that ended in a cat's paw.

”Satsuma's remains,” Evon Stralana whispered.

Myrmeen was staring at the amulet around Siobhan's neck when the words of her husband came to her: The dark miracle of vengeance will be mine.

”The bones of Satsuma were a ruse,” she said flatly. ”Nothing but a lie. This was about revenge.”

”Yes,” Lord Zacharius replied as he bent low and allowed the black cat in his arms to leap free. It landed with only three legs and looked briefly to the doorway.

Following the cat's gaze, Myrmeen saw the young mage, Walcott, standing between Niccolo and Sauveur. From his eyes, glittering even in the dark room, she could tell that he was one of them. At Othmann's shop, he'd tried to guide the investigation toward a murderous mage, away from the cat lords and the truth.

As Myrmeen looked away from the mage and stared at the crippled cat, she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. This cat was Siobhan. She was certain of that. But what had happened to her leg? The cat lord who'd presented herself as Siobhan at the audience . .. Myrmeen thought of the high leather boots she'd worn, her graceless movements, and finally she understood.

The cat went to the young girl and stopped before her. Andreana set the leg beside the crippled creature and drew back. The cat lord grew in size, its features widening, the hair retreating from its skin. Soon the naked, human form of Siobhan sat before them. Her left leg ended in a stump just past her hips. She reached for the cat's paw and held it to her breast as she fought to hold back her tears.

”What's happening here?” Stralana demanded.

Myrmeen took off her cloak and draped it around Siobhan's shoulders. ”A dark miracle.”

The beautiful cat lord regarded Myrmeen with reddened eyes and asked, ”How much have you guessed?”

”Some,” Myrmeen said. ”It would be better if you told me.”

Siobhan looked to Lord Zacharius. ”Do you trust her?”

”Yes,” he said.

She nodded. ”Twelve years ago, I was attacked by two men. It happened in your gardens, at that gazebo. They knew somehow that I was a cat lord. They considered me less than human and treated me as such. The mage used an amulet to trap me in my human form, then he and the other man forced themselves on me.

”I came back the next day to punish them, but Othmann carried a weapon of some power in those days. He hacked my leg off while I was a cat and stabbed me a dozen times. He thought I had bled to death and dumped my body in the trash. The leg he kept as a souvenir.”

Myrmeen shuddered. ”You survived and sought revenge.”

”Lord Zacharius helped me. I would never have found him again on my own, since both men changed their names and employed magic to alter their appearances after the murder.” She grinned wickedly, and her eyes flashed. ”Maybe they thought I'd only used up one life and might come back to haunt them.”

Zacharius frowned at the woman, then turned back to Myrmeen. ”Some time ago Othmann learned of our quest for Satsuma's remains-which is quite genuine, I a.s.sure you. He claimed to have some information we required, but refused to part with it for a reasonable price. In truth, he tried to extort us. And when the negotiation got out of hand, he threatened my envoy, using Siobhan's leg as an example of his past dealings with our kind. Word reached me, and I put the two together. You've seen the rest firsthand.”

”What about Volney?” Stralana asked.

”Volney and Othmann had a violent parting several years ago,” Walcott replied. ”I had to search Arabel for nearly a year before I found a sorcerer who bore the scent of Siob-han's blood.”

”I don't understand,” Myrmeen said. ”Years have pa.s.sed since the a.s.sault. Her blood had been washed from his body.”

Walcott cleared his throat. ”From his body, yes. But not from his soul.”

”Walcott can sense such things. He's one of our most powerful mages,” Zacharius said. ”He befriended Volney, then guided him to your employ, where we could involve him in the murder investigation. Though the arrival of the cat lords made him nervous, Volney had no idea that it was his former partner who had been slain-after all, both had changed their appearances. And if all had gone as planned, we would have framed Volney for the murder.”

Stralana rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ”So, what happened?”

Siobhan answered this. ”I needed my paw back as much as I needed revenge. Walcott has a spell that will restore me, you see.” She rubbed the grisly prize lovingly. ”Anyway, Othmann died without telling us where the paw was. We hoped Volney knew. When it became clear he was ignorant, we killed him and returned to Elhazir.”

”She claimed not to know,” Lord Zacharius said, ”but she was using the child's powers to hide some objects from your men-including the paw-which she'd stolen from Othmann's shop. She figured the paw must be worth money, since we were searching for it, then decided it was dangerous. I suppose she thought that as long as she held onto what we wanted, we wouldn't harm her. Tonight, when several of my people went through this place in search of the paw, she snapped. The fear was too much for her.”

Myrmeen glanced at Siobhan's locket. ”There's one thing more, isn't there? The reason why the bodies resisted all forms of divination and spirit magic?”

”Yes,” Siobhan said, fingering the locket. ”How could you contact their souls when they were safely locked away?”

Myrmeen looked at the brilliant red halves of the heart-shaped locket. They seemed to pulse slightly, like a living, beating heart.

Lord Zacharius knelt before Andreana. ”You're free, you know. If you like, you can travel with us for a time. We'll see that you get back to your parents.”

”What about the gold Elhazir was giving me? That's what interested my parents. They didn't want me.”

Confusion clouded Zacharius's handsome face. ”I thought you wanted to live with them again.”

Andreana bit her lip. 'They'll just send me somewhere else. I might have to work for someone just like Elhazir again. Maybe even worse.”

”But your concern for them-”

”I didn't want them hurt. I still don't. That doesn't mean I want to go back there.”