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Expensive."
Malthus chuckled. "And reasonably rare in most places."
"Where you get them?"
"Charas, but that's a long story and we don't have time for it." He placed
three of the glass rods into a leather case with a flap lid and a belt loop.
"I'll need these to deal with
Caimbeul."
"Aren't we just going to stick him?" Rheu said, pushing between Preece and
Shalto.
Preece gave Rheu's head an affectionate ruffling. Rheu was an orphan who had
lived with Preece for a year now. Malthus suspected it was not a case of
comfort nesting, for he had caught a glimpse of Preece fondling Rheu in the
sweet pepper bushes near the stream. Yet, they both spent a lot of time with
their sticks in the females.
Malthus explained it all again and by then Nesswen and
Oswyl had arrived. He could taste the blood lust rising from the auras of the
young wolves, just as it did when they hunted deer in the winter in wolf form.
It would be a pleasure to watch them tomorrow.
"What if Caimbeul kills one of us?" Oswyl asked. "They say he was a fighter in
his day."
Malthus regarded all of them. Oswyl was a liability that he needed to
eliminate. He was too weak willed and worrisome.
If any of them were seriously wounded in the fight ... Well, he would take
along several vials each containing a fatal overdose of concentrated
Pollendine, a powerful narcotic, in case one of the others might be foolish
enough to ask a
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
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437
healer to look at the wounded, and draw dangerous attention to the rest of
them.
"You've all seen someone felled when an elk turned at bay, yet the pack
continued to attack..." Torquil said.
"No quarter asked, no quarter given," Malthus said quietly, his steepled
fingers tapping his lips. "We're all taking an equal chance. Shall I get us
all some mead?"
Malthus spelled the tankards before bringing them in to ensure that all the
gang was even more susceptible to his plans, and handed them around.
"The more you stick him the faster he dies," Preece said.
Malthus regarded Preece, thinking that the eighteen-year-
old might be much more experienced in murder than he let on.
* * * *
Claw walked to his study, and dropped into his chair breathing hard. Just that
much walking and he was exhausted. It grated on his nerves. Sheradyn had
ordered him to take it easy, and Aisha was enforcing that by not allowing him
out of the house. Malthus, they had informed him, would handle his duties for
the nonce. That made him edgy and got on his nerves. Malthus was not lycan.
Merissa should have married a lycan.
What would happen to Darmyk without him to protect his grandson? The fact that
Darmyk was godmarked would not be counted as much as the fact that he was
sa'necari. The hatred of sa'necari went too deep.
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
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438
He could only hope that when the time came, Pandeena could find Brock and get
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him here fast enough.
Claw opened a drawer in his desk, pulled out the last bottle of Faery wine, a
glass, and poured himself a drink. He drank two glasses before he felt the
chest pain start. A tremor of panic ran through him, and he drew a flask from
his pocket. Claw poured the medicine into the glass on top of the wine, and
drank all of it. Sheradyn had told him to keep the medicine with him at all
times, and at the first symptoms to drink it. He probably should not have
added it to the wine, but he didn't have another glass and didn't want to
waste something as expensive and rare as that vintage.
The chieftain tried to hold his eyes open as he felt the heavy cottony
sensation of pressure in his head. Claw fainted at his desk, his head folding
forward over his arms.
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
by Janrae Frank
439
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ALICE
When Lukasz woke again, Berran was sitting with him. The morning streamed
through his window, gilding everything with gold. Crisp autumn air breathed
across him, delighting his senses. "Good morning, Berran."
Berran smiled. "Morning, Lukasz."
Lukasz lowered his eyes. "Every time you or Warenhari come, you're here to ask
more questions. What is it this time?
Can't it wait a bit?"
"I'm afraid it can't. Tell me about Iwona, Lukasz. She made some wild
accusations. Were you intimate with her?"
Lukasz's cheeks colored. "Yes. Gunther paid her to lead me into a trap." He
swallowed and then described his assignation with Iwona that nearly turned
into a death trap.
Berran considered. "Then I was right to have her killed."
Lukasz's shoulders slumped at the thought of the hangman's noose around
Iwona's pretty throat, but there was nothing to be done for it. She had helped
them try to kill him.
"Yes."
"Did you like having her in your bed?"
The young duke, soon to be king, brightened slightly. "I
liked it."
"Next time, don't sleep with a servant." Berran smiled ruefully. "Although I'm
hardly one to speak. I've done my share of it."
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
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440
Lukasz licked his lips and lowered his head. "I'll never do it again. Never."
Berran eased himself forward and lifted Lukasz's chin.
"Saying something like that just gets you into trouble. It's a natural thing
... wanting to sheath your cock in a sweet flesh hole. I just think..."
"What?"
"That you should have a suitable mistress, someone from a noble family and not
just a gutter whore hired from the streets. There's more to being a royal
mistress than sex.
Although that is part of it. She needs to understand the politics of sleeping
with a king. She needs to be a political advisor, a confidante, and a
comforter."
Lukasz's eyes rounded as he thought about that. "That's a lot."
Berran laughed. "You are too young to have realized this, perhaps. But the
most influential women in a kingdom are more often the mistresses than the
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wives."
"So what do you want me to do?"
"Let Talons and me find you a suitable mistress. Someone who you can have on
your arm in public and play Jack in the
Orchard with at night to your heart's content without endangering yourself."
Lukasz remembered Aroana's admonition to get himself a mistress that Talons or
Berran had chosen. "I'll be good to her."
"Is that a yes?"
The young duke nodded.
* * * *
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
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