Blood Royal (Page 15)

"He truly came from another world?" René asked.

"Yes. He was chosen as a healer for one of the Saa Thalarr," Griffin nodded. "Lisster served more than thirty thousand years before requesting retirement. Saxom did not wish to go into retirement with him. He asked to stay with the Saa Thalarr in his healer capacity. This request was granted." Merrill stirred uncomfortably at Griffin’s explanation. "Kiarra was chosen as Lisster’s replacement and she inherited Saxom as her healer. They did not get along very well and as First at the time, I was not paying attention to this. I imagined that things would probably work out—that the two of them only needed to become used to each other. I was wrong. Saxom developed an unhealthy obsession with Kiarra and I failed to see it. He asked her to mate with him and she refused. Her refusal sent him down a dark path. He went looking for the Ra’Ak in order to get what he wanted."

"He was a healer for the Saa Thalarr?" that was alarming news. This sounded like their f**k-up, and now all of us were paying the price.

"You may well be correct, sweetheart," Griffin smiled sadly after reading my thoughts. "We all ignored Saxom. He was only a healer, after all. We had other things on our minds and I never bothered to delve into the matter. Saxom made a deal with the Ra’Ak and three were sent for Kiarra, after Saxom promised to deliver her to them. Of course, he intended to get what he wanted from this, somehow." Griffin sighed, his eyes a bit unfocused at the memory.

"Kiarra managed to kill those that came for her—they never intended her or Saxom to survive. The Powers That Be punished Saxom afterward, but did not require his life—they did this because of the many years of service he’d provided the Saa Thalarr. Instead, they removed his immortality and set him upon the Earth to live out a normal lifespan. Unfortunately, Saxom found a way to become immortal once again—he convinced a vampire to turn him and then made another deal with the enemy when the Ra’Ak came four years ago."

"Is that what Shirley Walker was talking about?" I asked, recalling a conversation with the Corpus Christi Packmaster. "She said something about Unicorns, or something. I saw Dragon become a Dragon. Is Kiarra a Unicorn?" I was almost holding my breath.

"Kiarra is The Unicorn," Merrill smiled at a memory. Okay, that was part of the reason he had the hots for her; I just knew it. Griffin laughed out loud.

"Is that why they call you Griffin?" I looked up at my newly discovered father, ignoring the fact that he’d just read my thoughts.

"It is why they call me Griffin," he nodded, still smiling. "I don’t change much anymore—Chessman wanted the Gryphon form and I didn’t argue. His is solid black; mine was brown and gold."

"You weren’t one of the Elemaiya that could shapeshift?" I asked.

"I never tried," Griffin said. "I was raised by my half-Elemaiyan mother in the Queen’s camp. She forced me out when I was sixteen."

"That’s what Gabron said about his mother," I offered. "He said she never got over it." I realized then that as a quarter blood, my mother had been culled as an infant. I shook my head slightly to clear away those thoughts.

"They aren’t kind about abandoning their children," Kifirin muttered angrily. "Perhaps they should show some sense. A day will come when they will greatly regret the laws they created regarding the dilution of the race."

"I have seen that as well," Griffin agreed. "The Ka’Mirai will not come to them as a result." Kifirin nodded and laughed humorlessly at Griffin’s words.

"The Ka’Mirai?" I was curious about that word.

"A legend to the Elemaiya race," Griffin said. "One who can reverse time or events for them—the term means True Mirror. In a mirror’s reflection, your left appears to be your right, and vice-versa. One day, the Elemaiya will greatly desire something to be changed, but it will be withheld because the Ka’Mirai will also be a quarter blood. I have seen it." I stared at Griffin’s eyes as he made that pronouncement—the well of knowledge within was fathomless and the hazel color had gone pale. It was frightening.

"You should take one of the comesuli with you on your mission, avilepha," Kifirin said, breaking Griffin’s spell. As if they’d been summoned, both Roff and Giff walked in.

"Which one of you wants to go?" I twisted around to look at them.

"Are Charles and Rolfe going?" Giff asked brightly.

"No, honey," I said. "I think they’re staying here with the Honored One."

"Then I will stay, too," Giff declared. He’d already made friends with Charles and Rolfe, looked like.

"I desire to come, Raona," Roff informed me, bowing his head in my direction. He’d gotten a haircut, as had Giff—Greg and Franklin had probably seen to that when they’d taken both shopping for clothes. Roff’s dark hair was now styled neatly, and a smile lit his face.

"Then I guess it’s you and me, then," I said. "I think we can find a bag or two so you can pack."

It was getting late, so Franklin and Greg climbed out of the hot tub first, closely followed by the werewolves. Merrill placed compulsion on the wolves not to reveal anything they’d heard. They nodded and went toward their beds.

"Tony, is your father still alive?" I asked, leaning around Griffin to look at him. Kifirin was smiling at me when I asked.

"He is, we just don’t talk much," Tony shrugged.

"You got that mindspeech from somebody that was Bright Elemaiya," I said. "I don’t think it was your werewolf mother, dude."

"Holy shit," Tony muttered. "Do you think anybody else might know that?"

"I didn’t tell anybody, you did," I pointed a finger at Tony. "You told Bill and Dusty and Arthur, at least." He had—he’d blithely announced to those three that his mother was werewolf.

"Larry Frazier knows, too," Tony rubbed his forehead—I could tell he regretted letting that information out. René was suddenly concerned for his newest turn.

"Him again," I snorted. "I should have just dropped him in the ocean and let him drown." That comment forced me to tell Wlodek what happened on the Arabian Sea; he was giving me the look—the one that was silently saying you haven’t told me something.

"You should have seen her fight Karl Johnson’s Second; that was epic," Tony was back to himself quickly.

"Like you’d know," I huffed. "You weren’t there."

"I had somebody hooked up with a camera."