To say that she was angry was an understatement. She was utterly infuriated. She was so angry that she was nearly frightened of it, but her rage made her blind to her own self-fear. There would be blood to pay, and that blood would come right now. She was so mad that a red haze had filmed over her eyes, and her pulse pounded inside them in time with the angry pounding of her heart. Yet her mind was clear, calm, icily calm. She knew exactly what she had to do, and she was ready, eager, nearly frenzied to carry it out. She found herself staring at her own towering fury, and she accepted it completely.
"Princess, you're not allowed-" one guard began, but it was cut short when Keritanima made a slashing motion at the cat Wikuni, and he went flying down the hallway to impact against the hallway's end some twenty feet away. He crashed to the floor and laid there, unmoving.
"Do you want to make an objection?" she asked the other guard in a nearly hysterical voice.
The dog Wikuni gaped at her and shook his head vigorously.
"Good. If anyone enters my apartment while I'm gone, I'll crush you into a liquid and use you to paint my bedchamber. Do you understand me?"
The guard nodded emphatically, holding his halberd in a deathgrip as he moved to block the door after Binter exited the apartment.
She made no attempts to hide or sneak. Keritanima marched through the hallways of the Palace with Binter following closely behind, pushing anyone out of her way that interrupted her, sometimes resorting to displays of Sorcery to move the more dumbfounded. Keritanima marched straight to the kitchen, where servants busily worked to clean the bloodstain off the stone floor so they could get back to the chore of cooking. Keritanima ignored them as she raised her hands and touched the Weave, weaving together he spell that made scents visible. She didn't know who attacked Miranda, but she did know that the Wikuni used a gun. Gunpowder had a very disctinct odor, and it would leave a very visible trail. So long as the assassin kept that gun on him, she could use it to track him down.
The trail became visible, a bright orange series of glowing dots and splotches spattered on the floor. Keritanima and Binter followed that trail at a brisk pace, along the servant's hallways and down into the basement, then back up again in a residential area for noble guests of the Crown. It ended at an elaborate double door, one of the more prestigious residences. Keritanima simply pointed at the door, and Binter used his hammer to break it down with one blow.
Inside were a rather unusual combination of five people. The two she noticed immediately were Arthas Zalan, the raccoon Wikuni head of the noble house Zalan, and none other than Jenawalani. Two others she identified as Praki Mation, a female bear Wikuni that led the minor noble house of Mathon, and Carlis Eward, the male meerkat Wikuni who led another minor noble house of the same name. The fifth Wikuni was dressed in servant's garb, a gray-furred wolf Wikuni, who now had orange spots on his waistcoat since he was within Keritanima's line of sight.
"What is the meaning-" Arthas Zalan began, but he went silent and gaped when he saw Keritanima.
She never said a word. A blinding blast of lightning issued forth from just in front of the still Princess and lanced across the room, striking the gray-furred wolf Wikuni squarely in the face. He didn't even have a chance to scream before the intense heat caused his head to explode, showering Jenawalani and Praki Mation with grisly spoor. Praki began to scream incoherently, holding up her arms and nearly jumping up and down in place, but Jenawalani simply wiped a smatter of brains from her muzzle and fixed her sister with an icy stare.
"How dare you murder my servant!" Arthas Zalan screamed.
Keritanima turned her merciless gaze on him, and Arthas Zalan stared in horror, realizing that he had just sentenced himself to death. Keritanima carried out that sentence instantly, raising a hand and pointing at him, as a pale blue beam of pure energy blasted forth from her single finger. It struck him squarely in the chest, enveloping him before he could writhe, and leaving him standing motionless, his face locked in a look of agonized horror that made Jenawalani scream in terror at the sight of it.
His body had been turned into ice.
Keritanima issued forth a single scream of rage, amplified by her own magical power. It hit them like a giant's hand, slamming them all back and away from her, but to Arthas Zalan it was the final blow. It struck like Binter's hammer, shattering his ice body and scattering it all over the back of the room.
The three survivors gaped at Keritanima from where they were laying against the back of the destroyed room. Keritanima's blast had shattered more than Arthas Zalan. The table and the furniture that had been just in front of the Crown Princess had been shattered by the power of the blast, and that which wasn't close enough to break laid scattered all against the back wall of the room, sometimes on top of a surviving noble.
Keritanima glared viciously at them, and when she spoke, it was like the cold hand of Death Herself issuing forth from her maw.
"If you ever, ever, try to kill me or anyone with me again, I'll make sure people shudder when they hear your name for a thousand years," she promised in a voice so cold that the three nobles shrank back from her. "This is not your game anymore, and I play for keeps," she added with a hiss. "If you want to stay alive, then leave me alone !"
They just stared at her in awe and horror.
"Binter, bring that body," she said, pointing at the headless corpse of the wolf Wikuni. "It's carrying the pistol that will give me all the evidence I need to shrug off any punishment."
Binter nodded calmly, stalking across the room and picking up the body by the tail. The Vendari dragged it callously behind him, leaving a smeared trail of blood from the mangled neck. Keritanima gave the three survivors one more ominous glare, then turned and left in front of her hulking protector.
That was one name to cross off her list.
GoTo: Title EoF
Chapter 14
No spy would come within a mile of Keritanima now.
When she got back to her apartments after eliminating Arthas Zalan, she killed all the spies around her apartment. No subtle games, no making them vanish and leaving her opposition curious. She killed them. She left their bodies there for others to discover, and when men came to find out why the spies weren't reporting, she killed them. Then she killed those who came to see why the checkers didn't report back. After the third wave, they seemed to realize that going to find out what was going on was suicide, so no more came to find out what was going on.
By then, she simply had nothing left. She had pushed herself beyond her limits, and the last killing Mind weaves nearly knocked her out. Binter had to put her to bed after that, sleeping beside the recovering Miranda, with Kalina and Azakar in the room as physical protection while Binter covered the middle chamber.
The sleep had broken her fury. When she awoke, she felt weary and drained, but she wasn't walking the edge of control any longer. In those initial moments of lucidity, after checking on Miranda, she analyzed what she did, and considered how it would change things.
Her attack on Arthas Zalan was no doubt common knowledge by now, and it would tell those seeking to plot against her that she did not play. That she was more than willing to come after anyone she caught planning against her and kill them would most certainly be riding high in the minds of anyone who wanted to do it. The fact that she was a Sorceress in a kingdom where only priests were technically allowed to practice magic worked in her favor. Her magic was strange, powerful, terrifying to people used to seeing only the gentle magic of the priests, who wouldn't use their magic to harm other living beings except in self-defense. She was certain that those who had seen her or followed her knew that she used her magic to track down Miranda's attacker. Her status as the Crown Princess made her generally inviolate from retribution, even as it protected her from the law against magic. That law didn't apply to the Royal Family, who were only constrained by the laws that specifically dealt with them. And that she had found them so quickly, before they could even scatter after meeting with their assassin, would also be high in their minds. It would make even the daring think twice about attempting anything like that again, knowing that the Princess could use her mysterious powers to track them down with shocking speed, and possibly be only two steps behind them with murder in her eyes.