Page 159 of Brimstone

I leaned in close to her and whispered. “Do you know how this works?”

“No. I assumed he just . . . told everyone he doesn’t want to be my maker anymore.”

“Not quite.”

I was prevented from explaining when Tal jogged down the steps to the dais, snagged a silver bucket from a passing Fae thrall, tossed the ice from inside it onto the floor, and came jogging back up the steps. He thrust the bucket into Saeris’s lap and then spun around, holding his arms theatrically in the air.

“Noble high bloods of Sanasroth, your attention, please!”

The soft music that had been playing—some kind of plucked instrument—halted on a discordant note. It took a moment forthe hubbub of conversation being conducted throughout the hall to subside, but eventually an expectant silence fell over the gathered vampires.

“Welcome all. This evening we come together to celebrate our evenlight—a gift from the gods that lights our court where nothing else can. As there is every year, there will be singing, and dancing, and feasting, but first, there will be a slight deviation from our usual annual festivities. A new Lord must be appointed to the fifth point of our star, which means that one of you must rise to serve your court. There must always be five.”

“There must always be five! There must always be five!”

The cheer went up among the high bloods, resounding throughout the hall.

Taladaius nodded.

As he spoke, going over the order of proceedings, a waif of a low blood approached the dais, creeping forward hesitantly, carrying a platter of sweetmeats in his hands. He could barely have seen his seventeenth birthday before he’d undergone his transition; he would never know what it would have been like to reach his maturity and step into his magic. Flinching, he offered the tray up toward Saeris, too nervous to even climb the steps of the dais.

Saeris beckoned him forward.

The low blood was weak, in a place where being weak doomed your odds of survival. That was why he served with the thralls. He cowered as he ascended the stairs, hands shaking, sweetmeats wobbling . . .

“I’m not hungry,” she whispered. “Come here. I need you to do something for me.” Noplease. Nothank you. The queen of Sanasroth didn’t beg favors, and low bloods were not afforded niceties.

What are you up to, Osha?I asked her.

Outwardly, she didn’t react to the fact that I’d spoken into her mind. She cupped her hand around the low blood’s ear and whispered to him, answering me at the same time with a remarkable show of concentration.I’ll tell you soon. For now, I have to keep it to myself. I’m sorry, I wish I could explain, but I can’t.

Ahh. So this was related to the journal, then.

I relaxed back into my seat, refocusing on Tal’s performance down on the five-pointed mosaic below the dais.It’s okay, Osha. That’s all you need to say. I won’t ask again.

The low blood scuttled back from Saeris, staring at her as if she had lost her mind. She raised her brows at the male questioningly. “Well? Go. Do as I’ve asked you, and I’ll see to it that you’re rewarded.”

“Rewarded?”Skepticism shone in the male’s eyes.

“Yes. Payment. In blood,” Saeris said. “Now go.”

The low blood didn’t need telling twice. At the mention of blood, he bolted from the dais and disappeared into the crowd, who were all still listening to Tal. I followed him, watching his head bob through the knotted mass of bodies, until he ducked through a curtained alcove and was gone.

“But before all of that, there is something else that I, personally, would like to address. When we came together here last to welcome our new queen, accusations were made that I hoped tocontrolher. Slanderous accusations that I wished to puppet her for my own purpose and gain. There was no time to refute those claims at the coronation, in light of what transpired . . .”

Hundreds of angry eyes turned on me.

I shot the crowd a beatific grin.

“. . . but now that we have reached acalmerplace, I stand before you all, making that proclamation. I do not have designson the Sanasrothian throne. I do not wish to control Saeris Fane, regent of this court.”

Unrest stirred by the head of the table to my right. I didn’t even need to look to know Zovena would be at the center of the angry muttering, but yes, there she was, glowering at Taladaius. I could almost see the steam piping from her ears.

Tal, ever the practiced orator, ignored the disturbance and continued his address. “I do not want, nor have I ever wanted, power over the other Lords of Midnight, and I will happily prove that to you all, right here and right now. I, Taladaius Helyer, once eldest son of the Helyer household, Keeper of Secrets and Lord of Midnight, do hereby rescind the gift of my blood!” He lifted his arms in the air again and turned away from the crowd to face us, his features stormy, eyes as steely as thunderheads. Hewinkedat Saeris, raising his voice even louder so that it boomed throughout the hall. “Without rancor and with the deepest respect and humility, I call back my blood, Saeris Fane, queen of Sanasroth. I revoke my lineage and my patronage, so that you may stand alone in your task, and I may do the same. I call upon the gods and the demons of this realm. It is my will!”

I braced for the clap of Tal’s hands, knowing what would come with it. The shock wave tore through the hall, causing the ground to buck beneath the palace. The disruption was gone as quickly as it had come, but the smell of sulfur lingered in the air, burning the back of my nose. Next to me, Saeris grimaced. She looked at me, confusion written all over her face.

“What the hell?” she whispered.