Blaedergil's Host by C.M. Simpson (reading well .TXT) 📕

had honored every contract I had made with him... and I would honor this one, as well. The only contract I had issues with was the one Odyssey had forced on me. I had not agreed to it, and I refused to honor it, out of principle.

“I see,” and Sandoval’s intrusion into our implants, made us all remember that he’d hacked them some time back. “In that case, let’s negotiate.”

His voice pulled us from our implants in time to register the scent of the coffee Tens had requested. Sandoval spared him a look.

“You have studied something of our customs,” he said. “We do negotiate over coffee, and we seal our deals with brandied ivanox.”

Tens paused, having taken his first sip of coffee. I watched as he swallowed it, and his face paled.

“Ivanox... is that safe?”

Around the room the hardened faces of Sandoval’s body guards broke into smiles of brief amusement. Sandoval’s expression echoed theirs—and his smile faded just as fast.

“We have much to decide,” he said, and I settled in for several long hours of discussion.

Delight and Pritchard came up, and were just as quickly discarded. As much as Sandoval wanted to see Delight dead, and Pritchard serving hard time for his part in the kidnapping of their child, Mack pointed out that the child had not been harmed, and that he had rescued both the child, and Sandoval and his bride.

“For which I should charge you protection,” he said.

“Or I could let you keep your Odyssey agent and her side-kick, and we could call it even,” Sandoval suggested, and Mack had reluctantly agreed.

He was happy with that, however, no matter what he’d lost in fees. Sandoval’s good will was more than worth it. The next sticking point came when we reached the question of Mack’s existing contract with Corovan.

“It has to be filled,” Mack said, and, again, weapons were raised around the room.

“You are not taking my bride,” Sandoval said. “Her safety is not negotiable.”

“But is she willing?”

Sandoval opened his mouth to respond, but the door behind him slid open, and Treivani’s voice carried clearly across the room.

“I am. This union was brokered before Corovan pressed his suit and my parents agreed to it. I did not inform them of what I already had in play, and they would not have approved if I had.”

Of what she’d already had in play? I thought, and it must have shown on my face, because Treivani gave us a self-satisfied smile in response.

“My parents would have considered the risks too great.” She cast Sandoval a glance that went beyond fond, making the bodyguards shift uncomfortably, and me feel like I’d intruded on an intimate moment. “I preferred it to what Corovan could offer.”

Her face twisted in dislike, and Mack frowned.

“You didn’t like him?” he asked, even though the answer was obvious.

“Blaedergil was a nicer man,” she told him, which confirmed what we’d suspected about Andreus Corovan, more than we’d ever wanted.

Treivani ignored us, and then fixed her gaze on her husband as she crossed to his side, “and Sandoval is everything I could have ever dreamed of in a partner.”

I refrained from pointing out that Sandoval was the reason she’d been tortured and killed every night until she’d conceived with Blaedergil. I even managed to keep that thought off my face. Not quite out of my implant, though, because Tens and Mack looked momentarily horrified, and Sandoval shot me a look of distaste.

“That was necessary,” he said, and I arched an eyebrow.

Mack cleared his throat, and I bit back the challenge that half rose to my lips. Mack was right; we had more important things to focus on... and Treivani’s choices were not mine to judge.

“Nor are mine,” Sandoval added, and I wondered when I’d ever get the privacy of my implant—and my own thoughts—back, but the Skymander lord was already changing his focus. “The contract with Corovan is over.”

Mack frowned, but didn’t say anything.

“It was not his to make, and for you to complete it means you are taking my bride against her will.” A touch of desperation tinged his next words. “Corovan had no right to hire you to do what he’s asked—and he knew it. You live because you accepted his contract in good faith, and honor requires you be given a chance to correct your mistake.”

The view screens came up as he stopped speaking, and played the recording of a conversation had long ago.

“Give her back,” Corovan snarled, and we all heard Sandoval’s reply.

“She has chosen another betrothal.”

“It doesn’t matter. My bargain is with the parents, not the child.”

“She is not a child, and her parents did not have the right to make the bargain. My contract was already signed and witnessed.”

“It is void; it was not agreed to by the clan elders.”

“They cannot gainsay the heir.”

“She is only one of the heirs, and this will make her claim void.”

Sandoval’s voice, when he replied, was very self-assured—and tauntingly smug.

“Then you have plenty of other brides to choose from, don’t you?” Sandoval had replied, and he’d ended the call.

“I take it Corovan didn’t agree,” Mack said, and Sandoval gestured to the screen, once more.

“The Hazerna elders ratified the contract between us, and have approved the wedding, something Andreus Corovan would have been aware of, when he hired you.”

Documents supporting his claim, flashed up on the screen and Mack rested his forehead in his hand. Sandoval watched as Mack wiped his hand down over his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose, keeping his eyes closed as he took a breath. He stayed silent as Mack lifted his head.

“Can I have a copy of those?” he asked. “I’ll need them to confront Corovan, and to keep Odyssey on side.”

“Done,” Sandoval said, and the room relaxed.

Treivani settled herself on a chair beside her lord, and curled her hand through his arm.

“Now that that’s settled,” Sandoval continued, with a fond glance at his bride, “I’d like you to retrieve Melari from Andreus Corovan’s possession—and the cure for whatever disease she is