believed for even a moment that you had anything on me, something that would result in my death, why wouldn’t I just rip your soul out of your body? They can’t kill me twice, right? So, do you really have anything of value that I should be concerned about?”
In my peripheral vision, I saw the corner of Master Akai’s lip quirk upwards before instantly returning to its standard straight line. Time stretched, and the only sounds heard were those of breathing. Poor Stin’ul couldn’t answer my question, and I knew it, but it was fun watching him try to come up with something.
Finally, Stin’ul faced Master Akai and blurted out, “We’re going to be late for our report to the King because of this ridiculous posturing.”
He spun on his heel and marched to the door, flung it open, and rushed out. The Masters watched him go, then angled to look at me for a moment. Finally, they shifted towards Master Akai, who nodded. The room cleared rapidly.
Trace peeked in as Flenrue, the last of them, hurried past him like a pack of rabid tigs were after him.
“What did you do, Zella?” Trace asked.
“Who says I did anything? Perhaps the King is offering sweets for the first five that arrive,” I said breezily.
Trace scoffed and pulled back, returning to his place beside the door.
I let out a heavy sigh and glanced over to find Master Akai rubbing his face.
Finally, he looked at me and mouthed the words, “Could he have something?”
I shook my head, then started waffling my hand side to side in that maybe kind of motion.
Out loud, I said, “I’m not troubled by him. My attacker lived, right? And my military records show exactly what I did, on orders, so I’m not concerned about that, either.”
The fact that no one found a dead body on the street the binal after Trace showed his Demon form tells me that minor incident will never come to light. And none of the others will ever be connected back to me.
Master Akai’s nod was slow to come. I hadn’t told him about the latest attack, so he likely was trying to figure out precisely what I meant by maybe. I made an effort to appear unconcerned and relaxed while he narrowed his eyes, concentrating on me as if he could see my secrets by sheer will. Finally, he stood and motioned for me to do the same.
When he floated over to me, he asked in a whispered voice, “Do you recall the tea you preferred as a child?”
I shook my head.
“Pity. Ah, well. What about that party when you were fourteen?” He held out his arm.
I took it and nodded.
“No worries then,” he continued in a whisper. Louder, he said, “Well, we really should be going. Do you have everything now?”
“I do. If Stin’ul hadn’t distracted me, I would have gathered my things earlier,” I added, playing along.
“No matter. We still have a few minutes,” he soothed as we exited the room.
Trace peeled off the wall and followed behind us. Neither of the males spoke, which gave me time to think. Of course, my mind drifted to the events Master Akai dredged up.
The tea he’d referred to represented a so-called training session I’d gone through as a child. He’d taught me poisons first, figuring that my first physical killings should be something that didn’t involve anything close up. For one of my competency tests, I’d been sent against an officer that had begun causing problems. Unfortunately for him, it was the kind that the King didn’t want anyone to know about. Apparently, the officer had taken a liking to females far too young for him.
His pride and joy was a tea collection from all around Delon. He boasted about it more than he did his own child. Master Akai dropped in on the officer under the guise of discussing end-of-service candidates for the DNB, sending me off to ‘play’ with the officer’s daughter. Instead of going straight to her room, I snuck into the tearoom and planted a crushed Intak leaf into his newest and most exotic addition. After his death, they’d decided that it must have ended up there accidentally since it looked so much like the Listianen leaves.
Later, during my fourteenth year, I’d killed a male using my Harvesting abilities at a party thrown by the King. That had been declared a stroke, though I still worried that someone figured it out when his soul was cleaned. Master Akai swore that