Severed Souls(75)

“Since then, in return for that trust in me, have I not proven myself to you, Lord Dreier? Have I not carried out all of your instructions and satisfied all of your desires, no matter how difficult, how easy, how large, or how small? Have I not kept your secrets? Have I not stood my ground at your side even in the face of death?

“When the half people came flooding into the abbey to assassinate you, I could have left you. You would have been ripped apart by that many soulless ones. I could have left you to them, when you died my bond to you would be dissolved, and I would have been free. No one would ever have known but me.

“Instead I stood with you when you didn’t know what to do. I protected you until I could get you away from there with your life. In all of that, have I not proven my loyalty to you?”

Ludwig’s mouth twisted with a pang of guilt for being so quick with an accusation. There had been so many of those bloodthirsty half people coming for him all at once that he hadn’t been able to think clearly. In that bewildering moment, Erika had gotten the two of them out of there and to safety. She had known what to do. She had never before mentioned it or ever asked for any recognition for what she had done.

“You have,” he conceded quietly. “You have more than proven yourself, Erika. In every possible way.”

She smiled, a rare sight other than when using her Agiel on those who required it. She had the pride of a true Mord-Sith, and the devotion to duty.

He supposed that she had indeed proven that while she had left Darken Rahl and Hannis Arc, there was good reason and in turn she had proven loyal to him.

He considered her words about the others, though, realizing that there might be more to it. He didn’t like having to worry about a knife in his back, so to speak.

“So which one?” he asked. “Which one would scheme against me behind my back?”

“The brunette. Alice. She is older than the others and her braid is longer—as if that is supposed to mean something to the rest of us. She is the one who first suggested we could leave Darken Rahl and instead throw our lot in with Bishop Arc. We thought such a thing was impossible. We were bonded to Lord Rahl, after all. You can’t so simply break such a bond.

“Darken Rahl sent Mord-Sith to visit any number of lands in his far-flung empire. On one such a mission, Alice had come here to the citadel. That was when she first met Hannis Arc.

“Several of the Mord-Sith with her died during the journey. Darken Rahl shrugged when she returned and reported losing several of her sister Mord-Sith. He said it was a dangerous place and it was to be expected. He considered the Mord-Sith to be an expendable asset. He had plenty of Mord-Sith and more than enough of any other woman he might want.

“Alice told us that it was then that she decided that if she ever had the chance, she would break her bond to the man.

“Then, one spring, he again sent some of us off to check up on the petty ruler here, Bishop Arc. Since she had been here before, Alice led us on that mission. During the journey she began to suggest that we could make it appear that our lives had been lost on the long mission to a far-off and dangerous place.”

As he listened, Ludwig stroked his thumb and first finger along the stiff upright collar to either side of his throat. “What made her think that Hannis Arc could take all of you in? After all, you were still bonded to his ruler.”

“I asked her that. I told her that leaving him is one thing, but we would still be linked to him through the power of that bond. He would know we were alive. Just leaving wasn’t a solution.

“She said that in this case it was. She said that on her first visit to Fajin Province, she had learned of Hannis Arc’s hatred for the House of Rahl. He told Alice that if she and any of her sisters ever wanted to leave Darken Rahl, he would provide refuge and with his power he could break their bond, replacing it with a bond to him instead.

“She told us that this was finally her chance and she wanted us to join her, to stay, and be free of Darken Rahl. We accepted and never returned to the People’s Palace. With our bond to Darken Rahl broken, everyone there believed us dead.

“So, we had traded one master for another.

“Only much later did I come to discover that, knowing Bishop Arc wanted anything that belonged to the House of Rahl, it had actually been Alice who suggested the scheme to Hannis Arc in the first place. He wanted a number of Mord-Sith as the price of going along with her scheme. She had cooked up the entire plan and delivered us to Hannis Arc.

“It also turned out that in return for delivering us to him, Alice was given mastery over us. The authority Hannis Arc gave Alice over us outside the bond—a separate link all of her own—was not only improper, but went entirely to her head. We are her sisters, not her subjects. Yet she relished her dominion over us merely for the sake of exerting her petty power to make herself feel important. We still had to serve him first and do his bidding, so Hannis Arc never cared.