Forest Kingdom Trilogy 2 - Blood and Honor

A traitor. Would you like to meet him?'
    Lewis fought to keep his face calm and undisturbed. If Dominic really did have a traitor in Viktor's camp, he had an advantage Lewis couldn't hope to match. How the hell had Dominic managed it? Lewis had tried everything from outrageous bribes to open death threats, without any effect at all. He would have sworn that all of Viktor's people were under a geas, they were so sickeningly loyal. Either that, or they didn't know anything good enough to be worth selling. He realised Dominic and Elizabeth were still looking at him inquiringly. Did he want to see the traitor? They knew damn well he couldn't afford to say no. He nodded stiffly, and got to his feet. Dominic and Elizabeth took their time getting up, and Lewis seethed inwardly. There had to be a catch in this somewhere. They were just baiting him, for the fun of it.
    If the traitor's identity had any real value, they'd never have mentioned his existence, let alone offer a chance to meet him.
    'He's waiting for us in my private chambers,' said Dominic calmly. 'I thought you might like to take a look at them while
    you're here. I designed them myself, and I'm rather proud of the way they've come out. This way.'
    He turned to the inner door, and it swung smoothly open before him. He offered Elizabeth his arm, and the two of them walked unhurriedly through the doorway. Lewis jerked his head at the Monk, and hurried after them, barely able to contain his curiosity. The Monk followed after him, the hem of his long robe brushing noisily against the stone floor. Dominic and Elizabeth stood to one side as Lewis and the Monk entered the main room, and Lewis stumbled to a halt just inside the door, staggered by what he saw.
    All of the intervening walls in Dominic's suite had been removed, turning it into one gigantic chamber.
    Lewis hated to think how many spells Dominic must be maintaining just to keep the ceiling from collapsing. The outer walls had been painted varying shades of blue and green that shifted subtly as he watched, suggesting the endless tides and swells of the ocean. The air was unpleasantly moist, but the carpeted floor showed no signs of damp or rot. The scattered rugs and hangings were a depressingly bitter shade of green. Lewis supposed they were meant to represent seaweed. They were ugly enough.
    The delicate filigreed furniture seemed out of place in the grotesque setting.
    Lewis walked slowly forward, drawing strength from the silent figure of the Monk at his side. The glistening wall to his left swirled and heaved constantly, and Lewis realised he was looking at a vast expanse of water. He thought at first it must be contained behind a wall of strengthened glass, but when he moved over and reached out a hesitant hand to touch it, his fingers slid unimpeded into icy-cold water.
    There was no wall. Only Dominic's sorcery held the water in place. Lewis stirred the surface of the water with his fingers, fascinated by the slow ripples that rolled away from the disturbance, and then something moved deep in the darkness of the water. Lewis watched, open-mouthed, as a huge shark, easily thirty feet long, came surging out of the distance towards him, growing larger and larger as he watched. He snatched his hand out of the water and
    fell back a step. For one horrible moment he thought the shark was going to burst out of the water after him, but at the last second it turned aside and swam along the length of the wall. Lewis's belly tightened as the shark's flat black eye rolled slowly in its smooth grey head, watching him. It knew he was there. Its teeth were a jagged row in a mouth that had never known a smile, and in its cold dead eye there was all the hunger in the world. The shark flicked its tail suddenly and was gone, gliding back into the immeasurable depths beyond the wall of water.
    How far back does the water go? thought Lewis dazedly. What the hell has Dominic done here?
    'One of my pets,' said Dominic behind him, and Lewis jumped in spite of himself.
    'Very impressive,' he said tightly. 'I never knew you were fond of fishing.'
    Dominic smiled, and Lewis felt something cold move within him. For a moment, Dominic's eyes had looked just like the shark's.
    'I promised you an audience with my spy,' said Dominic. 'And here he is.'
    A man wrapped in a dark cloak appeared suddenly out of thin air to stand beside Dominic. Lewis jumped again, and flushed hotly. He didn't take kindly to being made the butt of someone