24 TRAITORS

Remy had demanded that Speck put him back to sleep so he could find Malekh, but every attempt was unsuccessful. He would jerk back awake from a dreamless sleep with no Night Empress to confront, and he couldn’t ignore the growing horror churning in his gut. The lord slept on, despite all their attempts to rouse him.

The news outside the temple remained grim. The high priestess had informed Xiaodan that several vampire covens were approaching the lake. Xiaodan had been adamant that no one tell the Antecedents or the other kindred of Malekh’s condition, and her instructions to inform the other courts about the developing situation aboveground and prime them to defend the temple, should the attack come, was accepted without question.

Though she put on a brave face before the priestess, Xiaodan was a different story in private. She didn’t stop cradling Malekh in her arms, staring down at his face like willpower alone was enough to wake him. “I know you’re in there,” she said hoarsely, tracing a path down one side of his cheek. “I know you can hear me. You have to wake up. We can’t do this without you.” Her voice broke. “I can’t.”

Remy had chosen a different route, throwing all his anxiety and worry onto poor Speck, who was horrified that nothing he did could bring back his lord. “He isn’t dead,” the young physician said, pacing the floor in a nervous fit. “He would have been reduced to ashes otherwise. But if his mind is afflicted, then we’re treading in unknown territory. The only theory I can surmise is that whatever the Night Empress has done to him, he’s fighting it off.”

“Fighting it off?” Remy was incredulous. “This is what you describe as fighting it off?”

“Had the Night Empress succeeded, he would likely be awake and under her thrall, trying to murder the rest of us.” Speck paused, thinking hard. “I can perhaps take the inoculation I made for you and modify it to suit Lord Malekh. It’s not a guarantee, but anything more complex requires ingredients from the Fata Morgana laboratory. That he is unconscious is a good sign, though it may not appear so.”

“It’s not a good sign at all, especially when everyone is waiting on him to lead the charge against the revived First,” Elke said worriedly. “Did not the priestess say that they were already amassing by the lake’s shores?”

“However large this coven is, most would find it difficult all the same to infiltrate the temple,” Alegra said. “The waters will slow them down, and they can be picked off in the caves. Lord Malekh deigned to activate the outer defenses—he said it was integral to defending the Allpriory against would-be intruders in Ishkibal’s time, and he places faith that it is just as effective now.”

“Except Ishkibal didn’t fall to any outsider kindred, did he?” Elke muttered. “He lost because both Lilith and Lord Malekh attacked from within. History repeating itself, but this time against us. What do we do now?”

“What he would have done,” Xiaodan said, looking up with a determined set to her mouth. “He would have told us not to waste any more time on him. I know his plans, and I know what he intends to do. The trick is to keep the other courts in the dark, to say that he is preoccupied with strategy and I am issuing the orders in his stead. I’ve spoken up for him enough times that we can probably pull it off, but it’s best not to let them foster any suspicions.”

“Elke and I will watch over him,” Alegra said. “And Speck will continue to monitor any changes to his condition.”

“We can’t leave him with only you two guarding him,” Remy protested.

“You underestimate both our capabilities,” Elke said gently. “Your place right now is with Xiaodan, fighting whatever bloody abominations that woman has chosen to unleash on us this time. The more you kill out there, the fewer will reach us. What would Malekh have asked of you?”

“To protect Xiaodan. He’ll be particularly unpleasant, should I let anything happen to her.” Remy scowled at Malekh’s still figure. “Don’t let anyone near him until Speck figures this out.”

“And I will,” the doctor said determinedly.

Remy found Zidan’s valise easily enough, and Xiaodan took out a sheaf of papers within, spreading them out on the bed beside her sleeping lover while taking care not to dislodge his head from her lap. “He had no desire to return to the Allpriory, but his memory is eidetic; he knows every arsenal King Ishkibal once employed to defend the place, likely because he had to circumvent most of them in the past.”

She gestured at a piece of paper: a broad sketch of the cavern outside the temple and another that laid out the palace structure. “All the crossbow clusters and spiked traps are here. We’ll need the Antecedents to coat them with Zidan’s formula to keep mutations from reviving. And these are key spots within the cave and near the temple best for ambush.”

She turned her attention back to Malekh, stroking his face. “What are you doing in there, love?” she sighed. “I’m not so sure I’m capable of this.”

“Yes, you are,” Remy said, laying his hand on hers. “And the bastard’s going to be proud of you when he wakes. But right now, we need to leave him to Elke and Alegra and see to the rest.”

Xiaodan nodded, lips tight.

“We’ll die before we let anyone harm him, milady,” Alegra swore.

“I don’t want it to come down to that, either.” She bent and kissed Malekh on the forehead, then gently laid his head back onto the bed.

“You better be up when we get back,” Remy muttered to Malekh’s unconscious form, allowing his knuckles to brush against the man’s cold cheek before reluctantly standing. “Because if you make Xiaodan cry again, I’m going to kill you.”

---

“ABOUT TIME,” Fanglei grumbled when Xiaodan and Remy appeared. “Where’s Lord Malekh?”

“Making sure we leave nothing else to chance,” Xiaodan said calmly. “Are the others ready?”

“Hylasenth’s got the archers stationed on the rocks above us, as Malekh instructed. Grager and his men will serve as our frontline. Raghnall is still keeping watch over his familiar, which I suppose is for the better. The traps secreted within the outer caves should slow any invaders down. Even Lorien, bless his heart, is ready.”

“The Third Court lies closest to the Allpriory. Help from them should arrive sooner than most.”

“I hope so.” Fanglei smiled briefly. “I’ve always found it ironic that the Fata Morgana is but half a day’s away from the temple, and yet its lord is the most invested among us in seeing it fade into obscurity. I always wondered if he chose to build his own domains so close in order to keep a careful watch—to warn whoever takes up the throne whom they need to contend with.”

“It may not seem like it to the others, but he has always put the best interests of the kindred first.”

“We’ve all tried to in our own ways, child. But sometimes what we think is best differs from his.”

Remy stood beside Xiaodan, only half listening to the conversation. He hefted Breaker from one hand to the next, not quite sure what else to do with his hands as he waited.

“I’d rather you stay inside the temple,” Xiaodan said quietly.

“Not while you’re all out here fighting, I won’t,” Remy said, struggling not to glance up.

“It is good to see you looking healthier, at least,” Fanglei told Xiaodan. “Priestess Isabella admitted to worrying over your health when we shared a cup of tea. Full wore out the table wood with her fingers fretting.”

Xiaodan frowned. “Did you—”

“Incoming!” The call rang clear across the cave. At the same time, loud splashing noises erupted from the underground lake as several creatures came loping out of the waters to meet them.

These were new kinds of mutations, like an attempt had been made to improve upon the ones they had last faced. These hulks had the same scaly appearance, but the horns carved at the sides of their heads were longer, sharper. Their teeth extended cruelly from their mouths, and their faces had broadened, eyes flattened against the side of their heads like a lamprey’s. A strange antenna hung from atop each of their heads, and every move they made triggered a spark off it like bottled lightning.

“Fall back!” Xiaodan shouted. “Move away from the lake!”

The dozen or so creatures yowled. Their antennas blazed, more light rippling out as they struck the damp ground before them, sending shock waves their way.

Many of the kindred fell, stunned by the unexpected blast. Remy would have as well, but Xiaodan had snatched him up and darted away from the radius, sticking to drier ground. The mutations themselves appeared immune, using the pause to lumber forward.

“Altace reported that they brought no mutations,” Xiaodan all but snarled. “A lie; the Night Empress could not have hidden so many of these blasted monsters.”

Fanglei had received a mild jolt, having stationed herself by the lakeshore, but she recovered swiftly, staggering back to her feet while her husband helped her up. “Take out their antennae first!” Xiaodan roared to her and the others. “Relay that to the Eighth! And tell bloody Grager not to move forward! Not with his damn soldiers in all that chain mail!”

Hylasenth’s clan quickly received word; arrows sang through the air, striking many of the mutations and severing their antennae-like appendages clean off them. The Seventh’s second-in-command was reluctantly retreating, he and his kindred positioning themselves before Fanglei and her soldiers. “None of the traps have been set!” he roared at them. “They’re in a position to swarm us if we don’t hold them back.”

“I want you to keep them busy,” Xiaodan said grimly, “and I will see to securing the temple.”

“We will hold the line,” Fanglei promised. “There may be worse waiting for you back at the palace. Take some of my kindred; you ought to have company.”

“No; you will need all you can to keep them from advancing.” More mutations had surfaced, and Hylasenth’s archers were targeting them next, aiming for their antennae. “Grager, have your clan bring the wounded behind our defenses. I would like to know what the conditions are aboveground, if you have anyone skilled enough to get past these fiends.”

“I do not mean to brag, milady, but I am more than stealthy enough for the task.”

“I can accompany him,” Krylla offered. “I can be quiet when I need to be.”

Xiaodan nodded. “Don’t engage any of the mutations in battle. Your priority is to make for the surface and see what else we have to deal with. Lord Valenbonne’s army moves decidedly slower, but send word to him. I will make arrangements within the temple.”

“I’m coming with you,” Remy said.

“And I with you,” Shiragiku said. “Queen Yingyue is still inside her chambers. I understand that she is well protected, but we must confirm her safety all the same.”

Remy and Xiaodan sprinted back into the Allpriory, Shiragiku close behind. There was no one waiting for them within the great hall, but Remy’s senses were on full alert. Each of the courts had left a few of their own stationed within the temple walls; the absence of anyone about was worrying.

Xiaodan made for her mother’s quarters first and saw the Fourth Court matron in fine fighting form. Much to Remy’s horror, one of the mutations had managed to get inside without anyone the wiser. Yingyue was holding her own, using her spiked chakram to cut deep gouges into its skin. There was no water here for the Rot to take advantage of, but the antenna continued to blaze with lightning, making any closer contact with it fatal.

Remy fell back to the new daggers Elke had given him, as Xiaodan took her mother’s side. The room was far too cramped, giving them little space to fight. The creature took advantage by spraying a radius of sizzling levin around itself.

Xiaodan moved, forcing the creature to turn its back on Remy. He flung his knives, watching with satisfaction as the first blade cut its antenna cleanly, leaving a short stump, while the other embedded itself deep at the back of its head.

The beast yowled and lifted its arms up. It was just enough time for Lady Yingyue to shove her circular saws into the monster’s face. Toxic black blood spurted up, Giufei yanking her mistress back before it could get onto her clothes and skin. Xiaodan had snatched off one of the curtain rods and shoved it hard into the mutation’s stomach, punching a hole right through it. It stumbled away from them.

“Let’s see if you’re still as smug about the lightning if it comes from someone else,” Shiragiku said, charging her fire lance. The tip of it gleamed with a familiar white-hot glow, and the resulting blast that came spiraling out of it turned the mutation into an inferno. It careened wildly, clung to the side of the wall before losing its balance, and sank down to the floor, where it soon stopped moving.

Giufei darted forward, a syringe in hand. “Lord Malekh gave us ample supply,” she said, plunging the needle into the Rot-spawned creature and watching the thin layers of gelatin-like substance spread across its form. “I’m so glad to see you, milady. A few more minutes and we could have been—”

“Nonsense,” Yingyue said, using some discarded cloth to wipe her chakrams free of the monster’s blood. She frowned as she examined her weapons, watching a faint steam rise from the metal as the poison stained the surface. “I am perfectly capable of handling such vermin.” She turned to Xiaodan. “Still, it would have been far more challenging had you not shown up in time, my dear.”

“I…” Xiaodan began, taken aback.

“The Allpriory has been compromised, has it not? Curse these fools. I would not have thought they would want your head so badly that they would destroy this temple to see you mounted on their wall.” Yingyue squared her shoulders. “I cannot sit back and watch while they bring the Allpriory down around us.”

Xiaodan stared at her, opened her mouth, and closed it again. “Thank you, Mother,” she finally said with only a slight tremble of her lips. “We must speak to Isabella and determine the extent to which the Allpriory has been breached.”

“Isabella?” Lady Yingyue scoffed. “What would she know about the attacks?”

Xiaodan looked at Remy and Elke. “This is no coincidence. Someone sent a mutation specifically to my mother in the hopes it would kill her. Whoever it was knew enough of the temple’s wings to bring it to her very door. We must hurry; we may have been compromised for far longer than we thought.”

They returned to the quarters where Malekh lay sleeping, but neither he, Speck, Alegra, or Elke were there. “Why would they have left?” Remy asked, stamping down his panic. “Malekh was in no shape to be moved.”

“There are no signs that the room has been disturbed,” Elke said. “It could be that Alegra decided that they move somewhere safer.”

“If he dies,” Remy said, “I’m going to fucking murder him.”

They scouted briefly where the priestess and the other Antecedents kept quarters, but the rooms were empty.

“They’ll be at the Godsflame,” Xiaodan said. “And the Fount. Protecting those above all else.”

They encountered no one else on their way to the temple’s underground, Remy training his eyes on the semidarkness before him. When they finally emerged from the narrow caverns, he did so with some relief.

That relief quickly turned to horror as he beheld the Night Empress before the roaring flames, gazing into its center.

Malekh, Elke, and Speck’s unconscious forms lay sprawled nearby. Alegra was still alert, but on her knees between the Night Empress and the others, holding her side.

“No!” Yingyue shouted, already moving, weapons raised. She leaped onto the platform and swung her blades at the Night Empress.

She was easily flung back, hitting the opposite wall hard and sinking down with her back against it. Giufei let out a terrible cry and rushed to her side.

“Ligaya Pendergast,” Xiaodan said, sounding far too calm.

Finally, the Night Empress turned, her eyes finding Remy as if it were a reflex. “It is over,” she said. “I have your temple. The throne is mine by rights.” But even as she spoke, she swayed on her feet, as if about to buckle under her own weight.

“You’re compelled,” Xiaodan said. “Aren’t you?”

“Silence,” the Night Empress gasped, reaching a hand to her head and lowering it again.

“Is Malekh inside your head, too?” Xiaodan asked. “He’s fighting you there, just as we’re fighting you here, isn’t he? I want him back.”

She was on the other woman in an instant, faster even than Yingyue had been. This time it was the Night Empress knocked off the platform, though she sprang back to her feet without pause, countering with a punch that could have taken out a full wall. Xiaodan ducked and made another strike, but the Night Empress blocked it with even swifter ease.

“Mother!” Remy shouted. Shiragiku was loading up another round on her fire lance, though she hesitated, the muzzle far too slow to track the movements both combatants were making. “Slow down enough for me to hit her,” she muttered. “Come on, Lady Xiaodan.”

Xiaodan snapped into the Night Empress with a strong uppercut, and that was enough for Shiragiku. The fire lance roared into life, light gathering at its tip for a few brief moments before she released it into one huge blast.

Someone screamed, and it was neither Xiaodan nor the Night Empress.

Thaïs was on fire. She had flung herself in front of the First Court leader before anyone else could react, scrambling from her fallen position on the floor to dive into harm’s way. She hit the ground hard, parts of her body blackened from the lightning, the rest of her broken and bleeding.

Xiaodan froze, stunned by the sight. But Remy, still staring at Xiaodan, saw the temple priestess approaching her with a knife in one hand. This time, it was his turn to jump.

He must have gotten faster since leaving Elouve, because he blocked the dagger before the temple priestess could plunge it into Xiaodan’s back, though not fast enough to avoid it cutting into his own arm. He swung Breaker on instinct, scythes jutting out, and one of them caught the high priestess up from her collarbone and right across the face. Blood spurted on his clothes as she let out a wail and fell back, clutching at her cheek and her ruined neck.

Altace, Gibrid, and Elspeth, the others Remy thought he could trust, now surrounded them. Gibrid punched Alegra, who went down, as Altace pressed a knife to Remy’s throat.

“What’s happening?” Remy panted. “Why are they not up there, fighting alongside the others?”

“Because they never intended to,” Xiaodan said. “They were our traitors all along.”

“But they wanted Malekh for Hierarch!” Remy choked. “They all but pressed the responsibilities onto him!”

“Well, we couldn’t have gone and said we didn’t want him, now, could we?” Altace said wearily. “But the Third was smart enough to see through us.”

“We have no intentions of killing him, milady,” Gibrid said. “Only wanted him out of the way. Armiger Pendergast being the Night Empress’s son, we thought you would all come round eventually. We were not lying when we said we hoped to avoid bloodshed.”

“Avoid bloodshed?” Remy shouted. “You killed Lady Rotteburg! And you attempted the same with me and Alegra and Trin!”

“Far easier for everyone to believe that one of the kindred had a vendetta against the humans. If Lord Malekh could barely protect his own familiar, then what hope could they have for him to lead the council?”

“Oh, you nearly did a good job of convincing everyone,” Xiaodan said, still far too calm for Remy’s comfort. “The council would have chucked him over, had there been another candidate they hated less. But you killed her for another reason entirely. I suppose it was you who orchestrated the attacks on Kerenai?”

“Her hatred for Hallifax ran too strong. We pulled her out of her rampage, but the damage was done. It was your sun, Lady Song, that weakened our hold on her. We did not realize she could find her way to her child in her dreams until much later.”

“I don’t understand,” Remy said weakly. The silent figure of Thaïs was crumpled at his feet. Deliberately ignoring the knife pressed against him, Remy slowly inched his way down, Altace following once he realized his intent.

Thaïs was still alive, though gravely injured. Most of her hair was gone, and the smell of burnt flesh turned his stomach. One eye slowly opened to look at him. “Remy,” she said weakly. “I am sorry.”

“Why did you do this?” Remy asked, pained. “You were my friend.”

“And you are mine.”

“Why did you kill Trin and Lady Rotteburg?”

“Because she recognized the crest tattoo on Thaïs’s leg, bearing the temple clan’s sigil,” Xiaodan said. “That was the real reason she attacked Thaïs at the bath before she could stop herself. I wondered why Lady Rotteburg was so evasive. She would have had to tread carefully, knowing she was in their territory. The attack on her estate… Remy told me that she mentioned a certain mannerism the leader had, a habit of tracing circles on surfaces with their finger—just as Isabella does. And if Trin survives the frenzy, it will only be a matter of time before your secrets are revealed. Raghnall guards her too well for you to get past him.” She turned to the priestess. “You claimed that Etrienne Sauveterre approached you, hoping to experiment with the Fount,” she said. “But it was you who approached him. It was easy enough to replicate the infusions necessary to control the mutations using his experiments. It was not the Rot-infested creatures that you wanted to control, but the Night Empress. You sought to make her an unstoppable colossus.”

“What?” Remy choked.

“It was easier when you were physically at her side, where you could guide her actions—much like Lord Pendergast and his own creations. But you cannot be there all the time, and in those periods where you are gone, she breaks out into an uncontrolled frenzy. What we thought was a deliberate attack on Kerenai was actually the Night Empress untethered from your possession. And then there were the periods of lucidity in her dreams, the only place where she could be most like her true self.”

“You ruined her,” Isabella said accusingly.

“You approached my mother when she lived in Elouve,” Remy said, finally piecing things together.

“She was the closest descendant of the royal Wikaan bloodline. The babaylan passed down their blood through their village rituals, but most are so unfamiliar with their own history that they do not understand the significance of the act.”

“You killed her, and then revived her using the Fifth’s bloodwood,” Remy hissed, angry.

“Not Sauveterre’s bloodwood,” Xiaodan said. “The Fount. A mix of the First’s and what they preserved of Ishkibal’s blood was infused into her. It explained Spencer’s observation that there seemed to be a larger blood supply there than you implied. You needed a leader to unite the clans, but Raghnall is too hotheaded, Hylasenth too hedonistic. You don’t trust Fanglei, and my mother is too far gone to be of any use to you. Zidan you despise most of all for willfully destroying other courts, just as you feared.”

The high priestess simply nodded. “The Fifth’s experiments proved that it was possible to resurrect a facsimile we could control, and we found it even more efficient to infuse a Wikaan kindred with the Night King’s blood. We are not without our own scientists; one of us worked closely with Etrienne. Do you not see that we are doing this for the betterment of all?”

Xiaodan’s eyes flicked toward the Night Empress. “You took her from her own grave, then subjected her to the Godsflame without her consent, did you not?”

“We could not allow her to perish when she was the best choice to bring the Allpriory back to its former glory. She’d been killed in the chaos following the fight at the Fifth’s lair.” The priestess turned accusingly to the unconscious Malekh. “Likely by him! But by the Dark Mother’s grace, she survived these fires.”

Xiaodan’s eyes narrowed. “It was you who sent Zidan those corpses over the years, pretending they were killed by First Court vassals.”

“All for a greater purpose.”

“Do you still think you can win this fight, Isabella?” Alegra breathed. “You and your fellow Antecedents would be lucky if the other courts don’t tear you limb from limb, once they realize what you’ve done.”

“No matter. The Rot shall take care of them.”

“You have no idea how to exorcise Zidan from her mind,” Xiaodan said. “That’s why you haven’t killed him yet. Eliminating his physical body may lodge him permanently in her head. You’ve invested too much in the Night Empress for her to die on that chance.”

“Let me talk to my mother,” Remy said to her.

“No,” Xiaodan replied, at the same time the temple priestess said, “What do you intend?”

“We’re connected, mind to mind. I won’t harm her; I just want to get Malekh out. The same thing you want.”

“Remy,” Xiaodan said.

Remy flashed her a reassuring smile. “Trust me.”

Elspeth laid Malekh out on the floor. “I’ll kill him if you try anything else,” she threatened.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Altace took Breaker away from him, and Remy stepped closer to his mother. When no one protested, he took another, and then another.

His eyes flicked briefly toward Malekh’s form, wondering if he was close enough to make a running leap and grab him so that Xiaodan was free to attack the other Antecedents.

“Remington,” his mother whispered. And then all of his schemes fell away as he felt her in his mind, driving down deep, and the rest of the world swam away.