Chapter 16
It was just like the time Gran took her and Jason to the beach in New Orleans. She'd wanted to lie in the sand and enjoy the sun, and Jason wanted to play. He found a wide piece of driftwood and used it like a shovel to cover her with sand. She'd lay there and let him do it. He wasn't using the hot, top layer of sand. He was digging a little deeper for the cool, damp sand that felt so nice against the warmth of her skin. It seemed harmless enough, until he dropped a shovelful on her face.
She began choking at once, and no matter how she struggled, the heavy sand held her down. Jason panicked and forgot all about his makeshift shovel. He began wildly scooping at the sand with his hands, screaming for help and begging her to breathe as he went.
The tight, claustrophobic feeling was the same, but this time the soil gave way to her with almost no effort at all, and there was no choking, just an irritating, itchy feeling when dirt sifted over her nose and mouth.
Damn, she wished she hadn't thought of Jason. She didn't have time to miss him right now, despite the fact that if everything went according to her plan for the next half hour, she would never see him again. Focus, Sookie. You can't do this. Not now. There isn't time.
One more push and her hand broke through to air, it was met by another. A hard tug and she was upright beside Oliver.
"Good evening, Mistress."
"No time for polite chatting," she said, hurriedly brushing at her clothes as she sped toward the opposite side of the clearing and the secret latch to the vault door. "Eric probably already suspects where I am, and Ocella will too, the minute Alexei sees us."
They arrived at the wall and the last chance for Sookie to change her mind about her course. She turned and looked Oliver directly in the eye. "I am about to divulge a secret to you, which I swore to protect. Before I do, I must have you swear a solemn oath to me. "
"Anything, Mistress," he replied at once, dropping to one knee and bowing his head.
"You will never dispute anything I say to anyone about what happens on this mountaintop tonight. You will confirm my account, without hesitation."
Oliver looked up at her. "Mistress?"
"Swear it, Oliver, or we go back to the villa right now. On your love for Mina and for me, I must have your oath."
"I swear it. Any word you speak of tonight will be sacred and never contradicted by me for any reason."
She smiled and turned back to the wall. "Here we go," she whispered, shoving her arm into the upward hole in the rock. She stretched her fingertips, not caring if she encountered an army of spiders, until she could feel the latch. They heard the scraping of stone on stone, and a voice too low to be Mina's.
"Ocella? I did not expect you back so soon."
Sookie backhanded Alexei as hard as she could, sending him sprawling across the floor. Oliver yelled Mina's name, as she emerged from the niche looking frightened and confused.
"Oliver? And Sookie?" she questioned, glancing between them.
Mina didn't run to either of them, Sookie noticed as she tripped the inside latch to close the vault door. It sealed up sound proof when it closed, and it was going to get a lot louder in here before it got quiet again. There was no need to attract the attention of any passing humans.
"You bitch!" Alexei shrieked at Sookie, coming off the floor and standing directly in front of her. "If the Norseman believes me to be of so little consequence he can send his woman to deal with me, he is sadly mistaken."
Oliver retrieved a pair of handcuffs from his hip pocket. They were the only things he'd brought. Unlike Sookie, he had anticipated the possibility of Mina not being willingly separated from her Maker. He closed one cuff around her right wrist and the other around his left.
He realized an instant too late he should have waited before encumbering himself with a baby vamp who was in no mood to be constrained.
Alexei swung to hit Sookie. She raised an arm and successfully blocked the punch, but he was ready for her. He faded back and kicked at her ankles.
She fell sideways to the ground, but she was able to put her hands out in time to catch her fall. She rolled into Alexei's legs, bringing him down with her, where they became a writhing tangle of arms and legs, jockeying for superior position.
"Alexei!" Mina screamed. The panic in her shrill tone translated perfectly to her face. "Sookie, stop! What are you doing?" She tried to run, but came crashing back into Oliver, as if she were tethered to him by a rubber band. She gaped at him, clearly with no comprehension of what was happening.
The initial surprise was over, leaving Sookie and Oliver with a more difficult fight than either one anticipated. Sookie found herself wishing she had her sword, but she had a sneaking suspicion Alexei might best her with a blade as well. She hadn't been in a fair fight since she and Jason used to get into squabbles as children. Jason had been stronger than her then, just as Alexei was now, but Jason had never really been trying to injure her. Alexei was. He was going to win if she didn't figure out some way to outthink him, and quick.
Oliver wasn't faring much better. Of course Mina wasn't doing any real damage, it was mostly a case of him trying to control her without harming her. She wasn't strong enough to hurt him badly, but housecats being weaker than humans didn't mean the cats would make it easy.
XXXXXXX
Ocella was standing in the bathroom admiring his reflection when he felt Alexei's first twinge of surprise register. "Ha! You see what waking up with a woman will do?" he laughed to the face in the mirror, as if they were sharing a secret. "I tried to warn him, but he was so proud of doing what any vampire with a set of fangs and a spare human can manage."
He stepped into the steaming shower stall laughing to himself and thinking of what good sport it would be to tease Alexei over the apparent trouble he was having with his new progeny.
A minute later he was standing back in the middle of the bathroom floor, dripping on the tile. Something was terribly wrong with Alexei. His feelings had gone from surprise, to irritation, to anger to fury in very quick succession. Now he was an unintelligible mass of rage, determination, hurt and pain.
Was this Mina creature beating him? Surely not. Ocella had a sadistic streak a mile wide and he had always encouraged Alexei to use his victims to play out any of his fantasies or baser urges. It never occurred to him Alexei would want to play the part of the victim himself, but even that explanation didn't feel right. No, something else was happening at the vault; something Alexei was not enjoying.
Ocella hurried into jeans and a dark t-shirt, before sliding into a pair of deck shoes and bolting out the bedroom door. He took the stairs, rather than waiting for the elevator. He should have never let Alexei keep that wretch of a woman. Bringing a woman home was worse than taking in a stray cat. He should have staked her himself rather than leave her there with his Alexei.
Holding the doorframe as he made a wide arcing turn out of the stairwell on the main floor, Ocella collided straight into Ermessen's male secretary, and would have run into Ermessen as well, had she not jumped aside in time.
"I am growing weary of your coarseness, Appius Livius," Ermessen chided him as he scrambled to his feet. "Is it not sufficient for you to bellow until you have terrified most of my staff and task an army with trampling my grounds? Am I not to be allowed to feel safe walking my own halls without you careening about like a bowling ball and preventing me from sorting out my schedule for the evening?"
Damned meddlesome women, Harpies, the lot of them. "My apologies, Your Majesty. I will remove myself from any further impositions on your hospitality before sunrise. In the mean time, I must beg your indulgence, as I have been in touch with Alexei and he requests an immediate audience."
"Have him come to the ballroom for your audience and I will receive him as well. I am most anxious to meet your Russian trinket." She knew dismissing Alexei as nothing more than a plaything would not sit well with him, but she didn't care. She was tired of feeling as if she were a babysitter whose charges were running amok.
"If you please, Ermessen," Appius countered from behind a tight-lipped smile. "Alas, Alexei is unavailable to come here at present. I must go to him."
"Unavailable?" Ermessen questioned. "Am I to understand that I have offered to receive the progeny of a guest in my court, and the answer to my invitation is, he has better things to do?
Unacceptable, Appius! I am Queen of Spain, not some camp follower to be told to wait until you fancy spending time with her."
Ermessen glared at him. He was almost shaking, he was so nervous. She knew it wasn't fear of her causing his distress. He desperately wanted to leave. Something was afoot. It occurred to her she had not seen Don Rafael, Eric or Sookie yet this evening. True, it was early, but still. If Appius had heard from Alexei, then chances were good Saaset was back as well, yet she had received no word from Don Perdigo. Of course none of the missing were hers, but she was Queen and she didn't like being bypassed in this manner.
"I will be in my chair in the ballroom in exactly one hour. I will be expecting you and your progeny to attend me there," she snarled, her words sounding much more like a threat than an invitation. "You may sign my appointment book to confirm the meeting."
Ocella's hand was trembling with rage as he suffered her delays and snatched a pen from the secretary, signing where the man pointed.
"I give you leave to go," she said, with as regal an air as her anger would allow.
Ocella responded with only a jerk of a nod before speeding toward the front entry.
"Find King Eric or his Queen," Ermessen said quickly to the secretary. "Tell them what just happened, every word. If you can't find them, call Don Perdigo and see if he has heard from them. Tell them all I have followed Appius and I will try to report where he has gone. Go."
She didn't wait around to make sure her secretary did as he was told she knew he would. He may not be successful, but he would try. She headed off in pursuit of Appius.
It was going to be tricky. She didn't fly, but she was very fast cross-country and she was intimately familiar with the surrounding area for miles around in all directions. If she could keep him in sight, she was confident she could keep up. He was heading east.
She dug her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed Eric's number.
XXXXXXX
He felt it the moment his eyes opened. The pieces on the chessboard of his life were out of place. Sookie had left the villa last night and she hadn't returned. Wherever she'd gone, she was still there. She was excited. Not sexually he was quick to note, closer to nervous. Where was she? It was impossible to tell with any certainty. A blood bond could act similarly to a homing device, but even coupled with a Maker's bond, it wasn't a GPS. She hadn't left the country, but she had definitely left Zaragoza.
Eric responded to the soft knock on the door wearing only a pair of low-slung jeans. A boy of maybe twenty, with large brown eyes and chestnut hair, gave a formal bow from the waist before asking, "The kitchen wishes to know if Your Grace has any feeding preferences we can accommodate? We have a wide selection of donors available on the grounds, but we will make every effort find someone more specific if need be."
"My requirements are minimal. Send up whoever has had the longest rest since their last donation, as well as a bottle of warmed True Blood. Type is unimportant."
"Any particular time choice, Your Grace?"
"As soon as possible. I may be leaving soon."
"Of course, Sir. Right away."
The kitchen servant bowed again and hurried away. Eric picked up his cell phone from a table by the door and called Sookie's number. No answer. He left no message. She would see the call next time she looked at her phone and she would call.
A few minutes later, Eric was fully dressed when he answered the door to a middle-aged woman wearing a scoop-necked blouse and carrying a bottle of True Blood on a small gold tray. He sent her back to the kitchen having taken very little from her apart from the True Blood.
He left his suite and retraced his steps from last night until he arrived back in the room with the massive fireplace. Don Perdigo was in the room alone, sitting in the same chair he'd been in last night, facing the fire.
"Good Evening, Eric," he said, not standing, but offering a welcoming smile. "When one has made ones home beneath the water, ever after it seems there can never be enough warmth. Luckily, the flames of the sun are the only flames we must forgo. Come. Sit."
He was aging. That was the difference Eric noticed but couldn't place. It was very subtle, but it was there, tiny lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth. How extraordinary. He wondered how long it would be before he would need to start checking his mirror for signs he no longer had the appearance of a man in his early twenties.
"You look troubled, my young friend," Perdigo said as Eric took the chair opposite him.
Being called young broke through his worries and forced a laugh from him. "If I were indeed young, perhaps I would not have the sense to be troubled."
Perdigo added his laughter to Eric's. "Too true. A Frenchman in a film Saaset is fond of watching says, 'Youth is wasted on the young', truer words were never spoken. To be a young lion is glorious, but without being tempered with the wisdom of age, it is squandered."
Eric could feel Sookie's anxiety growing.
"And here we sit," Perdigo continued, "two old vampires attempting to impose the wisdom of our age on glorious young creatures who make us remember how it felt to be reckless."
"I hope you are having better luck imparting wisdom than I am," Eric said with a scoff. "Sookie does not lack intelligence, but she is determined to act on her feelings without regard or consideration for consequences."
Perdigo smiled. "She is difficult for you to understand because you were old, even when you were young. An impetuous nature will always seem foreign to you, as it is to me. Saaset is such a woman. She is both a source of endless delight and overwhelming dread. She has returned the element of mystery to my life. I rise each evening wondering what the night will bring. It is maddening and exhilarating."
Eric felt a sharp pain at his left brow. Sookie was injured. He jumped to his feet. "It appears tonight is maddening, Don Perdigo. I must leave you. We will speak again soon."
Before Perdigo could respond, Eric's cell phone rang.
Ermessen didn't wait for Eric to say anything. "I am following Appius on foot. He is heading east, away from the villa. I think something must be happening to Alexei. I have not seen or spoken to Sookie."
Eric was outside the fortress and in the air before she'd finished speaking. "Give me landmarks. Tell me where you are, so I can pick you up."
"You need to find Appius, not me."
"I know where he is going. I fear Sookie is there as well. I will need you to protect her, if I cannot."
XXXXXXX
Alexei's fist connected hard above Sookie's left eye. She felt her flesh split along the bone of her brow. A sharp pain reverberated through her skull, followed by a torrent of blood flowing into her eye, rendering her blind on her left side. As soon as Alexei realized she was without peripheral vision on that side, he would be able to pummel her from that direction until he pounded her head off.
She'd gotten in some good licks. If they were in a ring, the judges might have given her a round or two, especially the one when her knee landed right on target between his legs. He'd let out a mighty scream and dropped like a sack of potatoes. If she'd gone for his throat or tried to tear his heart out at that moment, rather than going for her stake, she might have taken him out, but the chance had passed unrealized.
He was back with a vengeance now and determined not to give her another inch. She was on her back on the ground and he was straddling her. She could hear Oliver still struggling to try and get Mina to calm down and stop fighting him.
She was on her own. Alexei drew his fist high, too high, she saw his elbow. She threw all her strength into wrenching her body enough to give her some extra leverage as she brought her knee up as hard as she could. It struck him in the middle of the back, temporarily throwing him off balance. It was enough, just enough, for her to get her hand into the waistband of her pants and grab the end of the stake.
When Alexei saw it, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He forgot about her blind side and trying to relieve her of her head. She could keep her head for now. He needed what was in her hand.
Alexei twist toward her right hand and brought his body down to cover hers. With his two hands he was able to force her right arm to extend, so her left arm offered her little help. It was only seconds before he was able to wrest the stake from her. The smile that crept across his face as he did was insidious.
"He is going to kill our Mistress!" Oliver cried, slamming their cuffed hands against the wall. In a single movement, he wrapped the short chain between them around a hook embedded in the wall. He gave a powerful twisting yank, thus freeing his arm and leaving his hand dangling beside Mina, who seemed to choke on a scream.
Alexei's smile had yet to fully form on his lips when the stake changed hands again. A second later Alexei's face was frozen in an expression of utter disbelief.
Sookie knew what was coming next and she wasn't waiting around for him to disintegrate all over her. As she shoved him backward and pulled herself out from under him, she heard the stone door scraping its way open.
Oliver's eyes opened wide. Sookie reached up, pushed him away and pointed to Mina, who was clutching her midsection and making a sort of loud whining noise.
"Alexei!"
Oh god, it was Ocella. Sookie tossed Oliver a look forbidding him to come back to her. She reversed her position with Alexei. Now she straddled his disintegrating corpse. Everything about him was revolting, and what was left of him was getting more disgusting by the second. Fortunately, there weren't but a few seconds to go until she would be forced away from him. She leaned down and grasped the stake with both hands. Unless Ocella killed her the moment he came through the door, she had to have the stake in her hands. There could be no question in his mind about who staked Alexei.
"Take her and get out!" Sookie yelled at Oliver.
Mina's incessant moaning was wearing on Oliver's nerves, especially since he wasn't certain of the cause. Severing of the Maker's bond at any time can be traumatizing, though it becomes easier with age. Mina was not yet two full nights a vampire. It was possible she was suffering physical pain in addition to the psychological distress.
Oliver remembered when his Maker was killed. He felt something similar to when a human has the wind knocked out of him. The world just seemed to freeze for a minute and when it started up again, it was as if he wasn't quite in sync with everything else. That feeling persisted for several days, but the initial gut-punch pain was over in a few seconds.
Unfortunately for Mina, Sookie was the larger concern at the moment and he wasn't going to be much good to either of them if he didn't get his own bleeding stopped, or at least slowed. He knelt on the floor next to where Mina was crumpled and crying. "Rip my shirt. Help me make a tourniquet." She didn't respond to him.
The door opened and Ocella's voice rumbled through. "Who dares to-"
Whatever grand speech he'd been formulating, slipped away, replaced by a stunned silence as the scene before him registered in his brain. After what seemed like hours, but in reality was mere seconds, Ocella's eye fell on Sookie, still squatting in a puddle of Alexei and holding the stake in both hands.
Ocella took one step toward Sookie. "You!" he growled, noticing a slight movement of her hands. The stake was now directed at him.
He was infuriated to the point of trembling; yet his survival instinct would not let him approach the stake, at least not before Alexei evaporated completely. If he struck at her now, one of them might slip in his lover's gooey remains. A happy accidental staking might befall her, but could just as likely come down on him. The prospect of the latter did not sit nearly so happily in his thoughts.
Oliver was holding his left wrist upward as Mina tugged haphazardly at his shirt. She seemed weak and drugged, unable to focus. His strength wouldn't hold up much longer, but having a task was keeping her from wailing, and he couldn't look away from Ocella. The Roman was stalking Sookie with his eyes, waiting for his chance to pounce.
"You have made an error you will not survive, little faerie," Ocella hissed. If he could kill by force of will alone, her remains would be mingled in the shrinking puddle with Alexei. No. She was unworthy.
Her only response was a defiant stare. The stake was steady in her hands. Her body and expression betrayed nothing.
"My Eric is coming," he said with a menacing grin. "No doubt you know it as well." He began walking a slow, wide circle around her, carefully avoiding contact with any part of the vanishing Alexei. "Typical thoughtless woman. Let me give you something to think about between now and when the sun is burning your tender flesh away. Who do you think Eric will turn to for comfort when he is mourning the loss of his chosen? Perhaps I should thank you? You stole his mind from me."
He paused and made a dramatic point of looking at the few bits of Alexei remaining. "And with this single act, you have returned him."
Mina finally managed to tear a strip of fabric from Oliver's shirt, but before she could get it tied to his arm, he stood and took a step toward Sookie. "Mistress, I-"
"Will remain silent!" Sookie ordered, without taking her eyes off Ocella. "Tend your arm. This conversation has nothing to do with you. I killed Alexei. That is all Appius Livius is here to discuss."
I killed Alexei. With those words Oliver's oath dropped firmly into place. She knew, he thought helplessly. She knew Alexei would end up dead and it was her intention all along to take the blame, regardless of which of them managed to do the deed. She'd asked for his vow, and he'd given it to her, not thinking how she intended to use it. He could not contradict any word she said about what happened tonight. Even if Ocella killed her, he would be honor bound to say to any who asked, she died a murderess. He would be haunted by this night until he died.
As the last traces of Alexei turned to wisps of smoke and ash, Oliver summoned all his remaining strength and charged at Ocella.
It was a futile attempt and easily repelled. Ocella barely flinched, holding his ground and striking Oliver with a vicious kick to the chest, sending back to Mina, in a heap.
The action seemed to snap Mina out of her addled state. "Oliver!" she cried, with real concern in her voice. She still held the strip of cloth from his shirt in her hand. She pried his wounded arm from under him and tied the cloth as tight as she could, a few inches below his elbow.
Eric was here. The now familiar scraping of heavy stone on stone announced his entry.
As Mina tended Oliver, Ocella leapt at Sookie, knocking her backward and pinning her to the ground by holding her wrists.
"Do not attempt to aid her!" Ocella barked without looking up. He knew Eric was there, and he was having too much fun glaring down into Sookie's face. He was going to enjoy this. He would shackle this bitch to a tree just before sunrise and repair his long-neglected relationship with his Norseman by attending him through his grieving. It may turn out to be worth losing Alexei after all.
"You are kneeling to the wrong Queen, Appius," came a voice Ocella had not expected to hear.
Ocella's head whipped around, half expecting to find Eric had brought a small army with him to wrest his harridan from Alexei. He saw only Eric, framed in the closing doorway and hobbled by the order not to offer aid, and Ermessen.
Her presence galled him more than he could express. He couldn't wait to be finished. He'd had his fill of Spain and hellcat females who thought themselves important. He comforted himself with thoughts of leaving this place tomorrow and returning to Italy with Eric under his wing.
He rose to his feet, bringing Sookie with him. He had no intention of releasing her as long as she had a death grip on that stake. "Ermessen, my dear," he said in a buttery tone. "I regret I cannot receive you properly without opening us all to the risk of this woman using her weapon again, as she did on my poor Alexei. Alas, it is now impossible for him to attend our appointed meeting in your ballroom."
Ermessen came to stand in front of them. She reached up and touched the stake, running her hand down its length until her fingers rested on Ocella's hand. "Release her. Now."
Ocella complied. Ermessen grabbed the stake as Sookie's hand dropped, but she did not let go.
"Loosen your grip, madam," Ermessen said evenly. "Appius, step back please. She is no longer a threat."
Ocella moved back until he was standing at Eric's side. Sookie opened her hand.
"Don't move," Ermessen instructed as she examined the stake. When she looked back at Sookie, the hurt in her eyes said more than her words. "Did you think to cast suspicion in my direction by using this?"
Sookie's immediate look of horror was enough to relieve those concerned about the possibility of her wanting to frame Ermessen. "Never! I had to make sure it was clear it was me, in case I didn't survive the attempt."
"Someone explain," Eric said.
His tone was low and filled with pain. Hearing it was breaking Sookie's heart, but she couldn't change course now. She had tried to kill Alexei and she couldn't allow Oliver to be executed, Mina would need him.
Ermessen turned to Eric. "When you instructed Sookie to stake Don Rafael if he spoke again, I handed her a stake." She extended her hand toward him. "This stake. It was a gift from my Maker. It was carved from the burned frame of a rack used in The Inquisition."
Eric moved his desperate gaze to Oliver, noticing for the first time there was a gnarled and bloody stump where his left hand used to be. "Oliver, what happened here?"
Oliver looked to Sookie, who met his eyes with a smile.
"It's all right, Oliver. Tell them what happened, nothing but the truth, just like we agreed."
Just like we agreed. He was going to lie to his King and allow his Queen to be executed for a crime he'd committed. He had no choice. "We came here to free Mina. They resisted. Alexei attacked my Mistress and she defended herself."
"Convenient that she happened to be carrying a stake with her, one placed in her hand personally, by Queen Ermessen," Ocella challenged.
Just as she'd planned; her choice of stake was proof enough to convict her and keep suspicions away from Oliver or anyone else. Secure in this knowledge, Sookie's was the only serene face in the room. Eric and Oliver both looked as if their legs might collapse under them at any moment. Ocella wore the expectant expression of a man about to have his dreams come true, and Mina looked baffled and afraid.
Ermessen was the only one detached enough to not be clouded by her emotions. Her mind was clearly in overdrive, searching for something more. This package was tied up a bit too neatly to suit her.
"You," Ermessen said to Mina. "We've not heard from you. I assume you are the one tempest is about. What did you see? Did you see Queen Sookie kill Alexei?"
At the mention of Alexei's name, Mina grabbed her stomach as if she'd been punched and uttered a pained squeak.
Ermessen tried softening her tone. "The ache will pass girl. Many of us have known the death of our Maker. I have suffered it myself. Gather yourself and speak."
"They were fighting," Mina said haltingly, before beginning to cry. "They were fighting and screaming and hurting each other. It was terrible."
"Answer the question!" Ocella shouted impatiently.
Ermessen held up a hand and shot him an angry glare. "Ignore him," she said softly to Mina. "What else did you see?"
"Oliver's hand," she cried. "Oh my god! Oliver's hand! He wanted to help her, but it was too late. We were handcuffed together and he pulled loose, and his hand fell. It was just laying there on the floor and there was blood everywhere." Mina looked almost deranged. "And then hurt. It hurt so much. Alexei is gone. He was there and then he wasn't and he, he, he fell apart, and the Mistress. Sookie, you did this for me?"
Mina looked desperately at Eric. "Majesty, please, do something. Help her!"
Eric opened his mouth to speak, but Ocella spoke up first. "Hold your tongue, Eric! There is nothing he can do for the murderous wretch. Be glad to be rid of her."
"Rid of her?" Ermessen questioned, turning slowly to face Ocella. "No one is rid of anyone yet. Well, no one but you it would seem. There is no one here who is not either a witness or intimately connected to either the victim or the perpetrator. Under the circumstances, we are all unqualified to sit in judgement."
Ermessen took out her cell phone and placed a call to someone she had on speed dial.
"Alexei is dead and the girl has been recovered … Yes … Unfortunately, it is more complicated than that. Eric's Queen stands accused of murder. We will need to hold a royal court of inquiry … A very generous offer. I believe that would work best … I will bring her shortly, thank you … Yes, I would be pleased to accompany her. In fact, I would prefer it. I would not wish any unfortunate accident to befall her before she could be properly tried." She disconnected the call and made another. This time she called for a car to come and pick up her and a guest, in the town below.
"Eric, could you possibly carry both Sookie and me down to the village?" she asked.
"I would be honored," he replied with a nod.
He was on autopilot; Ermessen and Sookie could both see it. Ermessen could have asked him to give her the moon and she would have likely gotten the same response.
"We are at your service, of course," Ocella added. "Might I ask where the prisoner is to be taken?"
"The only service I require from you, Appius, is that you give your remaining progeny leave to give us unfettered passage. I could not possibly allow you to carry her, for fear you might lose your grip on her, and I could not possibly allow you to carry me, for fear you might lose your grip on reality and begin to think yourself more impervious to scrutiny than you are.
As for where she will be held. Don Perdigo's fortress has the most secure cells in the area. She will he taken there and held until her hearing, where her case will be heard by the ancients."
Ocella was irate. "I will content myself with taking the girl," he spat.
But Ermessen was ready for him. "You will do no such thing. As a Queen, Sookie is entitled to have her ladies to attend her. I understand Mina serves as Sookie's secretary. Eric, may I assume you will see that someone brings her to the fortress?"
"Of course."
Ermessen ordered the door opened and Eric took her and Sookie each under an arm.
"You said her case would be heard by the ancients," he said after placing them on the ground, next to the road where they would wait for their car. "Plural."
"Yes," Ermessen replied. "Don Perdigo will not hear the case alone. Sentence cannot be passed on your Queen unless there is no doubt of her guilt. Facts which cannot be heard must be seen, therefore, Perdigo will call upon Pythoness to act in her capacity as judge."