Magus Star Rising
Chapter Twenty Three

Beware the deceiver.

The bau-bau lives in his soul.

OLD SENITTE PROVERB

Intruder

The view from the shuttle was like nothing she had ever imagined. I feel like a rocra soaring on the wind, she had thought then dreamily. At first, she had been nervous. The liftoffs and landings had been a little unsettling, her stomach pitched and her head buzzed both times, but those small discomforts were quickly forgotten when she had looked out of the window.

The view!

Below, the mountains of the Ecron Highlands had risen majestically, snow-capped and windblown. Foothills fell to lushly forested depths. And there! There was the River Hinuett, famous in Senitte legend and song, cutting its serpentine way through those same forests, wide and silver, almost glowing in the sun.

Then, to see Frenati City from the air. She smiled at that remembrance. Though squat and ugly from the ground, the city took on a dream-like substance upon seeing it from above. It seemed to crawl out of its foundation, pushing its domed and spired superstructure upward like a huge, intricately twisted weed.

Even now as she stood in her darkened sitting-room, the memory was as vivid as if she still could see it. I was flying, she thought. Somehow that act served as a metaphor for her present situation. Soon, she would ‘fly’ from here and be free for the first time in her life.

The thought made her giddy. All that she had gone through, the risk and the subterfuge, would soon end. At last her goal was in reach.

Iolyn stiffened. A coldness had slithered into the room. She didn’t even have to hear him to know he was there, standing behind her. “I trust everything meets your approval?” she asked casually. She turned to confront Kazrah. He stood at the entrance to the sitting-room, his face unusually thoughtful.

“Of course, Mistress Honin-Zay. Your planning for this operation has been exceptional. I commend you.”

A compliment. Interesting. “But?”

“I just had a, shall we say, revealing conversation with Behoola,” he said, just as casually. “As I’ve hinted before, she is much too intelligent for her own good.”

“Perhaps. She knows something is different,” Iolyn said, not sure what he was getting at. “How could she not?”

Kazrah’s eyebrows rose. “Ah. You said ‘she knows something is different,’ not ‘she knows something is wrong.’”

Iolyn frowned. More games. “Well?”

Kazrah waved a hand. “Nothing. Just an observation. It just proves to me how far you have come.”

Iolyn laughed then, loud and mocking. “You are a good one for observations, are you not? Still the scientist studying his experiment. Well, the experiment is almost over so get as much data as you can before the subject escapes her cage.”

“Not yet. There is still more to do. You must undergo the second treatment in the next sun or two otherwise your body will reject the accelerator’s enhancements. I only agreed to your returning here tonight because of the next act in your... play.”

“I know. I know. Must you always repeat yourself?”

Kazrah shrugged. “Sometimes, unfortunately, yes. Like now. I must ask you again, what is this new ‘assignment’ you have for Behoola? You mentioned in the communa there was a further service that needed performed.”

To provide for her. I will not destroy all that I care for. “Yes,” she said, deciding to tell him the truth. “I have set up a trust for Behoola so that she may leave the Honin-Zay household if she so chooses and still live comfortably. I will not forsake her like so much used maca. The other servants, with possibly the exception of Marka, who can have his pick of employers, I really do not care about. But Behoola, that is different. I will provide her with the paperwork to secure the credit she deserves.”

She lifted her chin as if defying him to debate her.

Kazrah smiled, surprising her again. “Excellent. I am pleased. I would expect no less from such an honorable mistress. Such an action may, in fact, assuage Behoola’s suspicions, a payoff, if you will. Just make sure she does not suspect anything. Couch your reasons for your generosity very carefully.”

A sound of voices outside the room caused Kazrah to exit briefly. When he returned, activating the automatic lock to the main door behind him, the cook’s Second entered with him. Terenio, she remembered his name was, placed a tray of food and drink on the table. “I have already said I am not hungry,” Iolyn said irritably. I must get ready for my meeting with the Terran tonight, and then Behoola. One last time.

“You must eat,” Kazrah said, moving behind Terenio. “Your body has undergone a great stress. Please, Mistress Honin-Zay, I must insist.”

Please? An act of politeness only because of Terenio’s presence.

“Oh, very well.” As Iolyn approached the servant, Kazrah suddenly lashed out with his left arm, his extended fingers stabbing Terenio at the base of his skull and knocking him to the floor. The second fell to his hands and knees, stunned.

Iolyn’s mouth dropped. “What are you doing? Have you gone mad?” As she instinctively moved toward the groaning second, Kazrah stepped between her and Terenio, his hand grasping Iolyn’s forearm.

“How dare you! What...?”

“Listen to me.” Kazrah’s face, so close, took on a fire-like intensity. His eyes burned, his mouth set in a grim, tight line. Iolyn smelled the faint scent of morium on his breath and clothes. So, he abused that outlawed medicinal! “There is something else you must do to prepare yourself,” he said, his lips barely moving. “Consider it a rite of passage.”

Iolyn felt no fear, only a rising anger and disgust. This insolent, criminal scum! Surely he had served his purpose. Her hand went to her side where she had secretly hidden a knife beneath her vest.

“And what is it I must do?” Her voice steady, her eyes flashed back at him.

Kazrah nodded, almost imperceptibly. It was as if he approved of her reaction. “It has to do with your plan to kill your husband,” he said matter-of-factly. “And to, what is the term? ‘Frame’ the Terran for his murder.”

“Keep your voice down!” Iolyn hissed. “By Vanera, what are you playing at?”

Kazrah grinned, an act that made his face seem artificial, as if Iolyn confronted a mask. “But it is more than just that,” he continued, ignoring her protest. “I have discovered a ‘play-within-a-play’ here. Oh, yes. Do not deny it. You have other, more intricate plans for Master Weller, do you not? The blame for your crime will be directed at him but he will have a choice. Not to just use your money to escape, as was originally planned for him now. But for something else. Something more... personal. Am I right?”

“You fool.” Iolyn struggled now, trying to reach her knife. “Maybe I will kill you instead!”

Kazrah grasped her wrist and took the knife from her. “Yes. He said. You would like to, would you not? But you fear reprisals from my guild. The Ahnka looks after its own, it is true. But, in this case, I am acting alone. Oh, do not look so surprised. I have had some help in this, it is true, but I am doing this outside of Ahnka domain. My life would be worth nothing if my associates found me. So, you see, you and I have something in common after all.”

“Why? I... I do not understand.”

“Money, credit. A chance to go solo. It is not without precedent. But I must make my name first before I can visibly oppose the Ahnka as a competitor. This ‘project’ of yours will help the right people take notice.”

“Business. All business.” Iolyn ceased her struggling. “What do you want? I can call for help. Someone will be here...”

“You forget yourself, mistress, as well as the arrangements you have made.” Kazrah looked at the still groggy Terenio and then back at her. “Despite his discomfort, Terenio has heard this conversation, he now knows of your plan. He must not be allowed to tell anyone. You must silence him.”

“What?” He was right. The servants were gone. Kazrah had locked the doorway between the anteroom and the sitting-room. There were no camera-eyes here and, for all intents and purposes, the sitting-room was sound-proofed. Iolyn felt a chill now as if she looked at the Ahnkan for the very first time. Silence Terenio?

His grip on her arm tightened. “Here is your knife. You must use it now. I know you can. I’ve seen the change in you since the treatment. Oh, you were walking on that path before you met me but so tentatively, so indecisively. But now, I know you can do it.”

“No, I...”

He grasped both of her arms and pushed her back against the wall. “If you cannot kill this insignificant one, how will you be able to kill your husband? How will you have the courage and tenacity to carry out your plan? To take all his money and disappear as if you had never existed? The Yharria can swallow you up but you need to survive there, no matter who you pretend to be. You cannot be free if you go there merely to hide. This is yet another required step to that survival, to that freedom.”

He looked at her then like the predator he was, his expression changing as he moved even closer. His lips found hers, pressing hungrily. Iolyn felt his tongue in her mouth as his loins ground into hers.

Repugnant, vile creature.

She remained as still a piece of wood, trying to curb the hammering of her heart. She had suspected the Ahnkan’s true feelings but didn’t count on this happening. Not now.

Kazrah pulled back, a smile on his glistening lips. “Do it,” he said. “Believe me, this is for your own good. You hired me to do a job. Well, that is what I am doing.” He released her and stepped back, eyeing her as if she were a piece of meat. “And later, when you are settled in your new life, well, with or without the Terran, I can still be of service.”

Iolyn’s eyes flickered to a movement at her right. Terenio had stood up, silent as a Terran cat. But she couldn’t hide her surprise at what she saw.

It wasn’t Terenio at all.

Kazrah whirled (warned by the expression on her face? The reflection in her eyes?). But the figure that had been Terenio moved with a lightning swiftness even faster than that of the criminally-trained Ahnkan. Before Kazrah had even completed his turn, Iolyn saw the dark glint of a knife as it curved in a deadly cutting backhand.

Kazrah’s head snapped back. His body half-turned again, his upraised hand swinging around and striking Iolyn flat against the jaw. Hard. Stunned, Iolyn jerked and slid to the floor, her blurred vision trying to focus on Kazrah’s back as he then seemed to move toward his attacker.

Before her head hit the floor, Iolyn saw a red arc hanging liquidly in the air like a crimson brushstroke. A wet, gurgling noise sounded from somewhere. And then she lost consciousness.

Iolyn felt paralyzed. The fearlessness and guile that had become a part of her since the first accelerator treatment faded away like smoke on the wind. She lay on her back on the floor, slowly coming to her senses. Her head hurt and she felt as if she would vomit. Her fingers scraped and clutched at the carpet beneath her.

“Mistress Honin-Zay?” A large, cool hand covered her brow. She snapped her eyes open, ready to scream or run or fight.

Kazrah knelt over her, his usual sneer the dominant feature on his face. “Are you all right?” he asked with absolutely no concern in his voice.

“What? By Vanera, what happened?” She tried to sit up but a blinding pain flashed through her head.

“Slowly,” Kazrah said. “You have been unconscious. I am sorry. I accidentally struck you during the struggle.”

“Struggle? Ne... Terenio?”

The Ahnkan glanced over his shoulder. “Dead. Do you have any idea why he attacked us?”

Iolyn closed her eyes again and tried to take deep, regular breaths. “No. But... it wasn’t Terenio.” She saw again the image of who she thought was her cook’s Second, rising to his feet like a Spirit. The clothes hung off his body as if he had become shrunken, the face no longer that of Terenio but of someone else... a woman, her eyes glittering with madness. The knife...

Kazrah’s brow wrinkled in thought. “What do you mean? I assure you, it was Terenio. You saw him. He is right here.”

Iolyn got to her feet. She stumbled, a sickening vertigo almost overpowering her. She backed away from Kazrah, bile rising in her throat. Behind him, she could see Terenio’s form, covered with part of the rug which had been rolled up over him. Only his feet, shod in oddly ill-fitting sandals, were visible.

“You will not touch me again,” she said, anger overcoming her fear. “Do you understand? You will not touch me again!”

Kazrah studied her for the briefest of moments. For a moment, it looked to Iolyn as if he didn’t know what she meant. “My apologies, Mistress,” he said at last, slowly and deliberately. “Killing Terenio was necessary, but I may have overstepped my boundaries in your case.”

Iolyn held onto the corner of her writing desk, her legs trembling. “May have? I do not care about your caste’s politics or your great plans for yourself or your own feelings in this matter! You are still under my employ. Do you understand!” But what did I expect from an Ahnkan?

Kazrah bowed. “Yes. I understand. As you wish. It will not happen again.”

Iolyn relaxed a little. She had not thought Kazrah would concede to her so easily. The fire that had consumed him only a few moments ago seemed to be out. The killing sapped his strength, she reasoned. It released his sick passion.

Kazrah looked once more behind him. “I will take care of the body. We will have to think up a story for his absence tomorrow. As a... writer, that should be easy enough for you.” He smiled then, an expression visibly forced, even from him.

This has affected him more than I would have guessed, Iolyn thought.

“In the meantime,” He continued. This time his look was distant, his eyes not making direct contact with hers, “you must rest and clean up and get ready for your appointment tonight.” And then, as an afterthought. “A drink, perhaps, will calm your nerves.”

Iolyn stood a little straighter. To her surprise, the fear and disgust dissipated. Perhaps the Ahnkan was right. Although she had no part in Terenio’s death, she began to get over her reaction to the deed very quickly. In fact, her first concern had been, not Terenio’s death, but Kazrah’s behavior toward her. She wondered, was that good or bad? “Yes. A drink. No, I will not have one here. I will rest in my bedroom.” It was then she saw the blood on the front of Kazrah’s shirt. “Are you hurt?”

Kazrah smiled. “A scratch.” Again a pause. “Are you sure you have no idea why Terenio would do such a thing?”

Iolyn shook her head. How would she know? It seemed madness surrounded her. Whatever the reason, that act and its aftermath still must be covered up. For now. “Very well, then. Do what you have to do.” She started for the door, glancing at the covered body. She stopped. “I want to see,” she said. “I want to see Terenio’s face.”

Kazrah moved then, planting himself in front of the covered corpse. “I am afraid that would be most unpleasant, Mistress,” he said slowly. “I had to resort to some extreme measures to...”

“Yes, yes. Never mind.” She took a bottle and a glass and walked from the room, still a little unsteadily. What had she seen? A trick of the light? Why did Terenio attack them? This is it, she thought, realizing again that none of it mattered anymore. Even up to this point, no matter what I had thought before, I could have changed my mind. But not now. Now, there really is no turning back.