Forest Kingdom Trilogy 2 - Blood and Honor

man from one of the minor lines is laying claim to Blood. Traditionally, the royal line always attends such ceremonies. Even after everything that's happened, a Testing is too important to be ignored, so both you and your brothers will be expected there. You can use the occasion to call out the actor as an imposter. He won't dare spill his blood on the Stone; he'll have been told that would kill him. So, when he refuses, everyone will know him for what he is. Exposure of the use of a double will also discredit Viktor, and isolate him from any support in the Court, during whatever time he has left.'
    'Yes,' said Dominic. 'I like that. We'll do it. Make the arrangements. You've done well, my slave. You can go now.'
    The faceless man didn't move. 'Your highness, you know I can't leave yet.'
    'Really? There's nothing more we need to discuss, is there?' Dominic's voice was calm and easy, but his eyes were mocking.
    'I need you to renew the spell before I leave,' said the man with no face. 'The spell that keeps me alive.'
    'Of course,' said Dominic. 'How remiss of me. How could I have forgotten that?' He gestured lazily with his left hand, and a great bloody wound appeared on the faceless man's chest. It was an old wound, and the edges were crusted with dried blood, but at the base of the deep cut the heart muscle could clearly be seen, pumping wetly. 'A very nasty wound, my friend,' said Dominic. 'I think I judged the blow rather well. Deep enough to cause a mortal hurt, but not so deep as to kill you outright. Without my magic you'd bleed to death within moments, but as it is, you may live for ever. Or at least, for as long as I need you.'
    He spoke a Word of Power, and a blinding light crackled fiercely around the faceless man. He screamed in agony, twisting and writhing in the grip of flames that did not consume him. And then the light was suddenly gone, and he fell forward on to his blank face, twitching and moaning. Dominic prodded him with the toe of his boot. 'Get up and be quiet.' The faceless man rose shakily to his feet. The wound on his chest had disappeared again. Dominic smiled. 'I've given you another day of life, slave.
    Perhaps tomorrow I'll give you another day. If you please me. Now get out of here.'
    He gestured impatiently, and the air split open and swallowed up the faceless man. Dominic leaned back in his throne, and ran one hand caressingly over the smooth ridge of bone that formed his arm rest.
    Soon the real throne would be his, and all of Redhart. And then the land would see some changes. All the Kingdom would bow down to him, to his wishes and his whims. Everyone and everything would be his, to do with as he pleased. He wasn't quite sure yet what he wanted to do with them, but no doubt he'd think of something. And if nothing else, at least then he wouldn't be so horribly bored all the time.
    He scowled at his wall of water. He usually found the subtle changes of light soothing, but today nothing seemed to comfort him. For as long as Dominic could remember, he'd been bored. As a Prince, he'd soon discovered that nothing was really barred to him. Every action, every sensation could be explored
    and experienced. But when things come without cost or effort, they quickly lose their flavour.
    Dominic had tried everything in his time, to keep his frenziedly active brain occupied. He'd tried sex and politics and magic, and all of them had failed him. His mind worked frantically on, never quiet, never letting him rest, until he felt like screaming. Boredom gnawed at him like a cancer, or a hunger that could never be satisfied. To feed that hunger, to stave off the boredom that tormented him night and day to the edge of hysteria, he would sacrifice anything and anyone. All that was left to him now, his only hope, was the Stone and the power it promised him. Power over the Unreal . . . the endless change and novelty of the Unreal.
    His bedroom door suddenly swung open, and Dominic looked round to see Elizabeth standing in the doorway. She was wearing a clinging silky nightdress and a fur wrap that between them revealed as much as they hid. Dominic nodded politely to her, and looked back at the wall of water. Elizabeth chuckled softly.
    'You've been brooding again, haven't you, my love? Staring into the water and getting all depressed.
    Come to bed, my dear, and I'll make the darkness go away for a while.'
    Dominic smiled sadly, and got up from the huge skull throne. 'Do you love me, Elizabeth? Really love