“Are you not? You murdered his family. You destroyed his House. The loss drove him as mad as the fear of loss has driven you.”
One of Ryll’s men darted across the room. A blast of magic erupted from the hallway. Ryll’s man barely managed to dive to safety. The table behind him, however, did not fare so well. The spell—whatever it was—scorched the wood and shattered several sealed glass jars, liquefying their contents and spilling smoking, bubbling goo across the floor. Several of his men began to cough and wave at the noxious smoke.
“Be careful, Nephew. What’s in my lab doesn’t tend to react well when mixed together without care. I suggest you take your men and leave.”
Ryll’s man reached Dilys’s side. “It’s just him in the hall,moa Myerielua.TheSirenaisn’t with him. The hall is about twenty yards long, with a closed door at the other end. She must be behind it. There’s nowhere to hide that I could see.”
Dilys glared at the smoking mess on the laboratory floor. Enough was enough. “You want to kill me? Here’s your chance. Because I’m coming to get Gabriella. The only way to stop me is to kill me. Then you can explain toNimahow you murdered her only child.”
“I’m not going to murder you. There’s no need. You’re already dead. You just don’t know it yet.”
Dilys’s blood turned to ice. Calivan’s smug certainty could only mean one thing.
“What have you done to her? What have you done to my mate?”
Mindless of the threat of his uncle’s magic, Dilys lunged through the doorway and ran towards his uncle. Just as Ryll’s man had reported, Calivan was alone in the corridor. The door behind him—the only other way in or out of the corridor—was closed.
Dilys’s battle fangs descended and his claws came out, but neither were needed. Calivan stepped aside without protest as Dilys shoved past. When Ryll and the rest of their men would have raced in as well, however, Calivan sent them careening backwards with a power Word and threw a vial after them, shouting, “Ignetha!” He slammed the hallway door shut against the resulting fiery blast and locked it tight.
“A Calbernan deserves the right to die by his mate’s side,” Calivan said. “That much I can offer you. Ryllian Ocea and your men, however, either leave my lab or die.”
Dilys ignored him. He’d reached the door at the end of the hall and was straining to open it. The circular steel locking mechanism refused to budge.
“It’s no use,” Calivan said. “She’ll be gone long before anyone manages to get through.”
Now seemed a perfect time for fang and claw.
Dilys whirled, grabbing his uncle by the throat. “Open it! Open it now!”
Calivan regarded him with an almost pitying expression. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to. The door is bolted shut with three-inch steel bars driven half a foot into solid rock, and I destroyed the mechanism to retract the bars.”
“Then melt the bars!”
“It doesn’t work that way, Nephew. Besides, even if I could, yourlianawould be dead long before I finished. The room should be entirely flooded by now. Gabriella Coruscate may possess a Siren’s gifts, but she doesn’t possess a Calbernan’s gills.”
Dilys squeezed his hand around his uncle’s throat until runnels of blood seeped out beneath his claws. “GabriellaMerimydion,Uncle. A daughter of mynima’s House.”
“A usurper. A threat to my sister’s life.” Calivan tilted his chin, his expression proudly defiant and tinged with triumph. “Go ahead and kill me, Nephew. The usurper will still be dead.”
There was a screech of protesting metal, and the door to the laboratory flew off its hinges. Dilys and Calivan both spun towards it in surprise. Alysaldria stepped across the threshold, flanked by an ash-blackened Ryll and followed by a small army of grim-eyed warriors, many of them sons of Houses Merimydion, Ocea, and Calmyria.
“He’s not going to kill you, Cal,” Alysaldria said. “You’re going to stand before a Gathering, confess your crimes, and accept the Crown’s judgment for the murder ofMyerialSiavaluana,MyerialuannaSianna, Nyamialine Calmyria, Fyerin Merimydion, and every other life brought to an end by your treasonous actions, and for the attempted murder of my son and hisliana,the Siren and soon-to-be-Myerial,Gabriella Merimydion. And then, Cal, you’re going to be executed. Noran”—she turned to one of the warriors behind her—“I want you to oversee the destruction of everything in this laboratory. That means every magical artifact, book, vial, jar, and implement, including whatever items the former Lord Chancellor has on his person.”
“Alys,ono!” For the first time, genuine fear entered Calivan’s eyes—but not for himself, and not for the execution awaiting him. He clutched the pouch at his side. “You’ll die!”
“Then I will be free to join myakua,as I have longed to do all these many years since his death.” Her eyes were cold, her face drawn and tight, but she didn’t waver. “Take him into custody. And get that door open!”
Two men marched forward to grasp Calivan’s arms while Ryll and half a dozen other warriors raced for the other end of the corridor, axes and crowbars in hand. They began hacking at the door and the surrounding wall.
Dilys didn’t want to release his grip on his uncle. Everything in him demanded that he rip out the throat of the man who had threatened his mate. But it was more important right now to get to Gabriella. With a snarl, he shoved his uncle away and spun away to help Ryll and the others.
“Hold on,moa kiri,” he shouted. “I’m here. We’re going to get you out of there!”
A shout and a sudden scuffle made Dilys spin back around. Calivan had Spoken a Word that sent the two warriors holding him to their knees.
Dilys bellowed a war cry and launched himself at his uncle. Calivan turned, but he wasn’t fast enough to evade the fist that slammed into his temple. The blow dropped Calivan to his knees, and Dilys was on him in an instant. He wrapped one clawed hand around Calivan’s throat, and positioned the other at the vulnerable flesh of Calivan’s belly. All he needed was a single word from his mother, and he would eviscerate his uncle, ripping out both throat and belly in lethal wounds not even Calivan’s considerable seagifts or his skills with foreign magic would be able to staunch.
Instead of fighting Dilys’s hold, Calivan clutched his leather pouch to his chest and pled with his sister. “Alys, you can’t let them destroy what’s in here. You’ll die, and everything I’ve done will have been for nothing!” His face was pale beneath its deep Calbernan bronze. “Please! Please, Alys! I’ve been trying to make things right for you again since Dillon died!”
