Beyond the Shadows - Brent Weeks [111]
“What?” Luc asked.
Kylar punched him in the forehead. Luc dropped like a stone. Kylar rubbed Luc’s bloody hands against his own. He cut Luc’s tunic in two places with the dagger and finally stabbed him in the meat of his shoulder, shallowly.
Terah was aghast. “What are you doing?”
Kylar drew the mask of judgment over his face. “I’ve come for you, Terah.” He let the ka’kari sink back into his skin.
She screamed. He grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled her to her feet. He planted the dagger in her shoulder, and with his right hand free, pressed it against her wounded stomach to get it bloody. He wiped the blood on both sides of his face and pulled the dagger out of her shoulder. He stood behind her, using her body as a shield between him and the door. She was begging, screaming, cursing, weeping, but Kylar barely heard her. He sighed and when he inhaled, he smelled her hair. It smelled of youth and promise.
There was the sound of jingling armor and heavy footsteps pounding up the hall. A dozen Royal Guards burst into the room, bristling with weaponry. Behind them Logan Gyre and Duke Wesseros and their guards pushed into the room. In seconds, they’d formed a half circle around Kylar and the queen. Dozens of weapons were leveled at Kylar.
“Put it down!” a royal guard yelled. “Put it down now!”
“Help me. Please,” Terah begged.
“By the gods, Kylar,” Logan shouted. “Don’t do this. Please!”
For the job, it was perfect. Now dozens of witnesses had seen Logan command Kylar to stop. There remained only one thing. Kylar painted a desperate expression on his face. “Luc tried to stop me, and he couldn’t,” Kylar raved. “And you can’t either!”
Kylar slashed the dagger through Terah Graesin’s throat, and all the world screamed.
49
Mother,” Kaede said, coming into the study, “how are the wedding preparations coming?”
Daune Wariyamo raised her eyes from the papers spread all over her desk. She loved lists. “Our responsibilities are well in hand. Everyone has been informed of their precedence and the expected protocols. I only worry about Oshobi’s mother. I’d say she has the brain of a hummingbird, except hummingbirds can hover for a moment or two. I expect the Takedas’ half of the ceremony to be an unmitigated disaster.” She pulled off her pince nez. “I heard some lunatic arrived, claiming to be a Tofusin.”
A Tofusin, she said. As if there were more than one.
“He’s nothing. Some white-haired freak,” Kaede said, waving it away. “Mother, I want your opinion. An insult’s been done to our family honor that may be on some people’s minds as we go into this wedding, so I think I have to deal with it now. One of the cousins cuckolded her husband. She swears it was long ago and brief, but its effects continue. What should I do?”
Daune Wariyamo scrunched her eyebrows, as if the answer were so obvious that Kaede was stupid for asking. “A slut can not be tolerated, Kaede. A whore dishonors us all.”
“Very well. I’ll see it taken care of.”
“Who is it?”
“Mother,” Kaede said quietly, “I’m going to ask you a question, and if you lie to me, the consequences will be harsher than you can believe.”
“Kaede! Is this how you to speak to your mother—”
“None of that, mother. What—”
“Your tone is so disrespectful, I—”
“Silence!” Kaede shouted.
Daune Wariyamo was too stunned for the moment to begin the usual tactics.
“Did you or did you not intercept letters that Solon sent to me?” Kaede asked.
Daune Wariyamo blinked rapidly, then said, “Of course I did.”
“For how long?” Kaede asked.
“I don’t remember.”
“How long?” Kaede asked, her voice dangerous.
The empress’s mother said nothing for a long moment. Then she said, “Years. Letters came every month, sometimes more often.”
“Every week?”
“I suppose.”
“What did you do with them, mother?”
“That Solon was worse than his brother.”
“Don’t you ever speak to me of that monster. Where are the letters?”
“They were a tissue of lies. I burned