Read Online The Magic Council (The Herezoth Trilogy) by Victoria Grefer - Free Book Online Page A

hand on Rexson’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean to…. Lanokas, your
sons are holding up. I know they are. You’re remembering what a mess I was after
Kora rescued me and Zac from, well, from this very building, wasn’t it?”
    Her
voice shook but she plowed on, recalling the day Zalski had taken her and Zacry
captive: the boy to be a protégé, she a hostage. She had spent half a week as a
prisoner in the Northeast Tower.
    “I
was alone when Zalski first locked me up. I was alone, and your sons aren’t.
They have each other. Then there’s the fact Zalski blinded me, which, well,
didn’t settle my nerves any.” She shuddered, though a trip to the Miracle Pool
in Partsvale had restored her sight years before. “They haven’t hurt your boys.
Arbora promised they’re not hurt, didn’t she? There isn’t so much as a scratch
on them, because they didn’t do something stupid when they came across Dorane.”
    The
king buried his head in his arms on top the desk. Then he bolted up so quickly
Bennie gave a small hop back. He slammed a hand on the back of the chair,
nearly toppling it.
    “I’ve
never hated anyone more than these bastards. By the Giver’s bloody harp, I
didn’t hate Zalski this much. Zalski at least had the decency to come after me, after ME , which is what Dorane would have done if he had any sense of
honor. Why, Bennie, why the hell did the blackguard…? Whywould he go after my children? What the cad’s done to Gracia you
have no idea. You can’t imagine how she’s changed. It makes me want to wring
his neck, his scrawny neck to remember how she used to be. All we have left’s
our daughter, six months old, and Gracia can’t even feed her. The woman’s so
distraught, so completely destroyed, she can’t feed the babe. And the boys, my boys…. What are they guilty of? Of
existing, that’s what. Of being born in this festering pit of a kingdom, and
they’re not even to blame for that.”
    Rexson
lamented, “I never should have married. From the moment Gracia told me she
expected Valkin, I’ve feared this. I feared he might live what I lived all
those years ago. Now he has, his brothers with him, the difference being Iwas twenty when Zalski struck. Valkin’s
the oldest, and he’s half that. My God, I’ll kill that sorcerer son of a bitch,
him and his accomplices. I don’t care if they’re women. If I had them here, I’d
kill them in blood so cold they’d be screaming for a funeral pyre just to warm
themselves.”
    A
series of tremors shook Bennie’s bottom lip. Eyes glistening, she put Rexson
back in his chair and gave his arm a supportive squeeze. “We’ll get them back,”
she whispered. “Your boys, we’ll get them back.” She poured him a glass of
milk, which he proceeded to knock to the floor.
    “Say
we do,” he said. “Say we get them back. What’s to stop this happening again?
What if my daughter were ten, or fifteen, and they abducted her for a month and
raped her routinely while they held her?”
    Bennie
was crying silently now. “You listen to me, no one’ll harm Melinda, not ever.
You won’t let it happen, pure and simple, and these jokers won’t hurt her
brothers. You taught the boys too well, I know you did. You taught them to be
responsible, and that’s what’ll keep them safe until we rescue them. I know
what they’ll have learned from you, because I know the kind of person you are.
I hadn’t seen you in fourteen years, Lanokas. Fourteen years, and I came
running to help when I heard you needed me. You made that much of an impression
on my life.
    “How
dare you be this unfair to yourself? I mean it, how dare you? Man alive, you’ll
knock it off this instant, and you’ll drink this second milk I’m about to pour
you, because you haven’t put a thing in your stomach all morning. I’ve been
watching. You have to care for yourself, you really do. Those boys don’t want
to come back after this much time to an ill father. Their mother’s ill