The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

who seemed to be hovering outside one particular cell. None of them seemed to notice the shaking. The hideous statue of a weasel that had once been in Simeon’s study rocked with the trembling Kardia.
    Before she could analyze the nature of the vibration, her guard lifted her by the elbows and thrust her past the snarling statue, into the cell.
    “Never utter your blasphemies again, boy,” King Simeon screamed at a man, hanging by his wrists from the wall. “My mother was Jaylene D’Rossemeyer, exiled daughter of the late king. Jaylene, not Janessa. Janessa’s children are all bastards and not a drop of royal blood in them.” Spittle dribbled from the king’s mouth and his eyes showed more white than color.
    “Tell that to your aura,” Jack defied him.
    Jack! Oh, poor Jack. Katrina looked closer at the magician who had vowed to help her. He had shielded her from Brunix and the palace magician last night, and opened his mind to her. Her heart shrank and burned for him. If only she could ease his pain.
    Blood and bruises spread an ugly stain across his left side up into his naked chest, and probably his back, too. His bare feet looked swollen and raw. More bruises marred his jaw and wrists. Arms stretched wide by the rings holding his manacles, he seemed to cling to consciousness by the barest of threads.
    Death was the only way to ease pain now. There was no escape from Simeon’s dungeons. Just as there was no escape from his mines.
    But Jack and P’pa escaped the mines, a tiny thought whispered into her mind.
    “What do you mean about his aura?” The black-haired beauty who was always at Simeon’s side these days thrust the king aside and stood squarely in front of Jack. None of them seemed to notice Katrina.
    “I mean that Simeon’s aura is almost identical to Krej’s, and his magic smells just like Janataea’s. He’s brother to those two, which means you’ve been sleeping with your uncle, Rejiia.”
    Rejiia reared back in alarm.
    “And borne him a child,” Katrina added from across the cell, noting the woman’s now flat belly. “An abomination by anyone’s standards.”
    At last they all looked at her. She almost wished she’d kept her mouth shut. The malevolence dripping from Simeon’s and Rejiia’s demeanor echoed that of the weasel, and was almost enough to physically push her back into the arms of her guard. A disgusting thought, almost as unpleasant as the thought of Simeon sleeping with his niece.
    “You can’t prove that!” Simeon defended himself. “My servant destroyed the runes that Brunix copied. I have the shawl with the runes woven into the flowers. I have unraveled it and burned the threads. No one will ever prove that Janessa was my mother. Therefore, I decree that it is not so. It is treason to say otherwise.”
    “You’re insane,” Jack breathed. His chest heaved and he winced in pain. “As insane as Janataea was just before she died. The Tambootie has rotted your mind.”
    Katrina agreed with Jack. She didn’t know the people Jack spoke of, but she saw Simeon’s eyes and knew that madness lay behind them.
    “We will discuss this later, Simeon,” Rejiia ordered. She edged away from her lover as if she, too, believed he had lost control of his mind. “These two must be kept alive and reasonably healthy until the Solstice.”
    “I can’t allow him to spread treason,” Simeon protested. “Tattia put the runes into the shawl to warn the queen. But I had the lacemaker murdered and the shawl destroyed with her. But the shawl survived to haunt me. I have finally burned it and all who know of it must die. I want him dead now. Guard, slit his throat. Now. I demand his death. Now.”

Chapter 34
     
    ‘ D on’t be a fool, Simeon.” Rejiia brushed the mewling aside as she faced Jack once more. “He has the transport spell. While he is in pain, and hungry—totally vulnerable—I will strip his mind and have the secret. I will also learn where the Commune hides. This boy will be the instrument of their destruction!”
    Jack bit back a retort. Why waste energy asserting his right to a name? He’d need all of his strength to combat Rejiia’s mind probes.
    Then he made sense of her statement. Some of the Commune had escaped the fire at the monastery! Fervently he prayed that Jaylor and Brevelan and the baby had been among them. If they had, then the remnants of the Commune might have retreated to the clearing or Shayla’s lair. He had a place to send Shayla for