Cam's Kingdom

I blew out a breath.

Irze said, "Likely nothing will happen tonight, I suspect both issues will come to a head tomorrow. It'll take time to fully spread the rumors, and for their anger and fear to build up. I suspect the king will want to carefully consider if he should step in as well, the evidence is strong circumstantially, but still weak on any actual proof."

Niri nodded, "Agreed. I'll go talk to some people tonight though, maybe we can get some guards out there before a riot starts."

"Any way to counter the rumors?'

Lysa shook her head, "Not effectively, good news doesn't travel fast, and it doesn't sink in through fear."

I sighed, that idiot, who was already dead thanks to Siora, had just managed to put the remnants of the witch race in deadly peril with his betrayal and antics. Without the betrayal earlier in the day, the cabal wouldn't have found out about the spell-book.

The elves and shifters had their own kingdoms, but the witches had always lived with the humans, as had the sorcerers. The latter were safe in their tower, but witches were an endangered species of low numbers. At least in Cyrene, there were probably more out in the wider world, but I took very little comfort in that. I almost wished we could create our own kingdom, but we didn't have the numbers, or the space, to make that idea feasible.

We spoke about it a little more, but when we realized we were just going in circles, Niri left to speak to a few nobles, while Cassia took care of getting messages out to the witches, to inform them of the danger.

Then we all went to bed. I didn't fail to notice, the wistful look on Lynn's and Jade's faces, as I headed upstairs with my six mates.

It was a few hours later, and I felt quite flush with power, as we found sleep.

When we woke up the next day, or rather when we finally got out of bed and headed downstairs for breakfast, there were two squads of guards out in front of the house, twenty of them. I hoped that meant all the witches had protection, and not just us. It occurred to me if it was at behest of the king, under the guise that we were critical to the crown's protection, he could have sent them instead of the nobles, to keep his daughter safe.

"Breakfast smells wonderful," I complimented the sisters as I sat down. There was bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, as well as fresh juice.

Lynn smiled, "Thanks," and Jade just nodded.

"Any idea when we got our guards?"

Jade replied, "They were here when I woke up at dawn."

I nodded, that's when we'd all woken up, but it was after eight by the time I had my ladies sated, and I'd gotten my second feeding from my seductively mesmerizing Faith.

Cassia sighed, "I guess we need to wait for word from Niri."

Siora said, "Mara is keeping an eye on the whole city from altitude, she'll roar for us if a major riot happens."

I grunted, good to know.

Lysa said, "I'm sure Niri will send word as soon as the cabal is questioned, of if the king decides against questioning."

Tammy snorted and waved her hand, "He's been itching for a reason to deal with them ever since he found out about the silver mine and the long history of this... cabal. I'm sure that he will, given all that we know. Circumstantial or not, the only reason he'd hesitate was if it would offend the other nobles, and clearly it won't do that, since the other nobles are the ones bringing it to his attention."

"Maybe we'll find out when we take care of the wards."

As if there wasn't enough going on, but it'd been a week.

Cassia said, "We should all go, things are too uncertain for us to split up today."

Siora replied, "My presence might be an issue, and I've no wish to be powerless inside that ward of yours. I'll be safe enough at the sorcerer's spire, you can drop me off there on the way to the castle, and then pick me up when you leave."

Tammy gave her an apologetic look, but didn't say anything, so there must've been some truth to her presence being an issue, even if she wasn't a human sorcerer bent on replacing the royal family.

The conversation trailed off for a while, as we ate to replace our spent energy that morning, and then cleaned up before we headed over to the castle.

It was a little strange, dropping Tammy off for a visit with the parents for the first time, while Irze, Lysa, Faith, and myself watched over Cassia, Lynn, and Jade as they took care of the ward. We didn't learn anything while in the castle, or at least the Duke didn't clue us in to what was going on. It was only after we'd left, and we'd picked up Siora at the tower, that Tammy finally broached the subject.

Tammy said, "He'll be questioning them this afternoon, at least he's sent orders out to that effect."

"Orders?" Cassia asked.

Tammy shrugged, "Guards won't be sent, they're expected to present themselves according to their noble oaths and honor. If they run, or refuse to show, they'll be judged guilty, stripped of their titles, and hunted down. It's happened before, no one guilty ever seems to want to talk to my father."

I laughed, and she winked at me.

"Everything went well?"

Tammy nodded, "He was satisfied by my report, that all is well. I'm afraid you're stuck with me."

I let out a faux melancholy sigh, which got me glared at.

I grinned, and then took her hand.

Faith took a deep sniff, and then looked at Lysa questioningly.

Lysa frowned, and nodded as she wrinkled her nose, "Fire."

We all looked around as we walked down the street, and maybe a quarter mile away there was thick smoke rising up into the air, and I frowned.

"Riot's starting, or coincidence?"

Irze snorted, "I love you, my mate, but there's no such thing as coincidence."

She was probably right, and I was unsure for a second what to do. Did we want to wade into that? I doubted any other sorcerers would bother with it, which meant I had the only two that would or could put out the fire.

"Keep alert, let's head that way."

"If we run into a mob?" Siora asked.

I smirked, "We give them something besides witches, to fear. Maybe we can short-circuit this nonsense, the only thing that a being in fear will understand is a greater fear."

We moved quickly in that direction, and it wasn't long before we entered a nightmare. Most humans were in their houses and off the streets, but there was a mob damaging the city, and seemingly lighting random fires as humanity's darker nature took hold in the city.

Whenever a mob even looked in our direction, Siora or Tammy launched a display of power that was relatively harmless, but that got them running in the other direction. It was even amusing in a way, as my two lovely sorceresses started a contest of sorts, as to who could do the flashiest magic that got the mobs running the fastest. It wasn't a joking matter, not really, rioters and mobs were dangerous, but we were trying to derail their unreasoning fear.

So far, none of the mobs had attacked, but if one did, I wouldn't be holding back at all. They'd all burn to protect my six mates as well as Lynn and Jade who were becoming more and more important to me as the days passed. If it was necessary and we couldn't stop them in another way first.

The building that was on fire turned out to be a tavern, not a witch's home.

"Maybe the riot started as a bar fight."

"Maybe," said my goddess of gardening, as she narrowed her dark blue eyes at the burning building, and the flames were snuffed out with her power.

Witchcraft was more diverse, at least in theory before they'd lost so much knowledge, my witches could have done that with a spell, but for a sorcerer the elements were quickly and easily controlled.

We looked around, and the rest of the rising smoke above the city was small and thin, most likely from cookfires. We turned around to head back home, when the street flooded with two mobs coming in from two directions, which mixed and turned our way. Several of them wielded clubs, crow bars, and some even had blades.

I roared, "Go home!"

They kept coming in our direction, anger, fear, and violence in every eye.

Siora raised her hand, and a burning whirlwind rose out of the ground between us and the mob, and it quickly grew in size to encompass almost the full width of the street. The mob hesitated at that, which is when a huge creature of fire shaped like a man rose from the ground. It must've been at least twenty-five feet tall, and there were small blue-white fires for eyes.

The fire creature roared, and it said in a deep voice that crackled like fire, "Burn!" and it slowly grew in size as it stepped toward the mob.

The mob broke and ran.

Tammy smirked at Siora, as if to say that's how you do it, and I couldn't help a chuckle.

Siora shrugged, "That one was really good actually, fire and air?"

Tammy nodded, "Air for the voice, and to burn the fire in its head a little hotter in two places, for the eyes."

"Let's head home."

We didn't get into any serious fights, but that was more than okay with me. Still, the city had been seriously damaged by the mob, and they had the guards running around like crazy. There were more than a few deaths, ironically only humans who'd gotten in the mob's way, no witches were killed on that morning. The city was pretty torn up in places, but they could rebuild.

Things would've gotten a lot uglier, if it hadn't been for Siora and Tammy putting some real fear into them, instead of just the phantom and paranoid fear of being stirred up against the witches. Without them, it'd come down to true violence, and despite having the right of self-defense, the idea of striking down paranoid humans caught up in group fear wasn't one that settled easily.

At least we'd prevented a major fire from sweeping the city, which was on thing to feel good about. Of course, it was still early in the day, relatively, none of us were sure if it'd flare back up or not.

When we got home, it was past time for lunch, and we got started on it.

Chapter Twelve

The storm had fully passed, and the sun was shining later that afternoon as I answered the door.

I raised an eyebrow, "You really can't get enough of me, can you?"

Niri snorted a laugh, and then looked me up and down as she licked her lips lasciviously. Wow, if I hadn't had my demon powers, I'd have bet every penny I owned she was panting for it.

"Damn, you are way too good at that."

She giggled, "It's a simple trick of the imagination, with Karen in my mind's eye," and then she gave me another one of her mostly chaste kisses, as she walked into the house.

"Drink?" I asked as we walked toward the living room.

She tilted her head, and faux accused, "You're just trying to get me drunk. Actually, I will take a wine this time, if it isn't much trouble?"

I nodded, and before I could say anything Jade hopped up from the couch and headed toward the kitchen. We took a seat, her in one of the chairs, and I sat between Cassia and Irze on the couch. We engaged in a little small talk, until Jade was back with Niri's wine and we were all back in our seats.

Niri sighed, "The city seems to have quieted down for the moment, that's one piece of good news. The second is the king has stripped the titles from the four barons, as well as their lines. I don't know if you were aware, but all four barons were in their forties and fifties, and they have grown children. They won't be charged, but they also won't have any authority in the city. It seems pretty clear it runs in the families, and they've been the worst of the nobility as far as bigotry in the past."

"That's, good news."

Niri nodded, "The bad news is the barons never showed up for questioning, and it's suspected that they somehow fled the city last night with several of their personal guards. The city guards searched their baronies, and have found no sign of them, although their children have been ousted from their hereditary land and given ten gold to start a new life as a commoner. That's one less complication to deal with."

"How many guards?"

Niri said, "Close to forty, each of them had ten personal guards not part of the city guard, we can only assume they were chosen for their point of view on the non-human races first, and their talents second."

I frowned, "Where would they go? There're no other cities in the kingdom, and we're surrounded by non-humans. A ship to another kingdom?"

My stomach fell at that idea, if they'd hit the ocean they'd never be caught and pay the price for their slavery and wicked agenda.

Niri shrugged, "Maybe, or they could be at some country estate out by the farming towns. It's possible they may try to work behind the scenes, and hope for a reversal of fortune."

I didn't see that kind of pigheadedness, but then I wasn't them, and ambition and bigotry didn't have me by the balls like it did those assholes. Maybe they hadn't fled the kingdom, hell, maybe they were lying low somewhere in the city, and hadn't even left it.

Mara said, "Bring me to one of their homes, once I get one of their scents, I'll be able to track them all if they stayed together, unless they did leave by the ocean for another kingdom. Even I cannot track over the ocean."

Mara's words were closer to an order than a request, but Niri was smart enough not to take offense at the presumption. Dragons were allowed to presume, like arrows had the right of way.

Niri nodded, "That should be possible, we'll have to recruit one of the barons though, or the guards will seek to bar our entry."

"Alright, sounds like a plan. Who's coming?"

Everyone spoke up at once, then blushed.

"That's everyone then."

Niri finished her wine, and then stood up, the rest of us got up and followed her.

It was somewhat bemusing to walk down the streets with ten gorgeous women around me, even if only six, and possibly in the future, eight of them were mine. Okay, more than possibly, maybe that was arrogant of me, but I'd be truly shocked if I didn't have Lynn and Jade in my bed, and fairly soon. Their signals had been getting less and less mixed by the day, and we'd even had a few conversations where they didn't look scared or were constantly blushing.

I'd come a long way from the boy turned eighteen just a month ago. Point was, our little party was garnering a whole lot of looks, something I still didn't like but had somewhat gotten used to. As long as they didn't touch what was mine, I could let them live.

It took us about fifteen minutes to reach Baron Dietrich's estate, and he was more than willing to open a few doors for us if it would help to catch the cabal. I liked the man, and I liked even more that most of his attention was spent on Niri and Mara, he'd never met a dragon before. He seemed to have a fascination with my Siora as well, but not an unhealthy one, just curiosity about the elves. He was a good ally.

As usual, I could feel how turned on Faith was, by my possessiveness when we were in public, so I figured it was all good. Lysa didn't seem to mind all that much easier, she could clearly pick it up with her nose. I think Niri was amused by it, but it was really hard to tell with her at times. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't jealous of my women, or in the least bit insecure, they were all clearly and completely mine, it was the lewd and coveting glances of passing men that pissed me off.

He took us to Baron Nathaniel's estate, one of the four in the cabal, but I supposed it wasn't his estate anymore, and he was just plain old Nathaniel at that point. George, Marko, and Stephan were the others in the cabal.

I also felt suddenly curious, Mara never did say what her queen planned to do with them but asking in public was a bad idea.

The guards let us enter the estate with Baron Dietrich leading us, and he even guided us through the mostly empty halls of the place, and up into the master bedroom. I wondered if they'd already fired all the servants, or if they'd actually taken servants with them and no one saw them as important enough to mention.

Mara went over to the bed, and took a deep sniff, then growled.

"What is it?"

Mara spat, "This man took many unwilling to his bed."

"As if there weren't enough reasons to kill him."

Mara grinned fiercely, "He will live long enough to regret it."

I decided then that I really didn't want to know what the queens plans for them were, but based on their faces, it looked like many of my fierce ladies did.

Mara took another sniff, and scrunched her nose for a minute, then we were all following her. She let us out of the well bedecked master suite and down the hallway to the stairs. We went back down to the bottom floor, and she turned farther into the noble's mansion instead of toward the front door. She led us toward the back of the large mansion, and then out into the backyard.

Mara said, "He has ten men with him, as well as two women."

She continued out into the large landscaped back yard, and to a second smaller building. The door was locked, but it opened up for her pretty easily when she tugged on it. The loud ping of metal snapping reverberated across the property, making a few of my companions jump, including the baron. I pretended it didn't happen as he was clearly embarrassed.

We went inside, and she led us to a stairwell down, and into what looked like a wine cellar. I mean, it was a wine cellar, but she ignored the wine and went straight for the back wall, and ripped an expensive looking tapestry from the wall, revealing a steel door.

That door got ripped out of the wall as well, it didn't even look like Mara struggled with it a little bit. Dragons were rather strong, in any form.

The baron gasped, when we walked inside. The place was filled with piles of silver ingots, that I bet the bastard hadn't paid taxes on. We'd obviously found his secret vault. Despite the reputation of dragons, Mara completely ignored the ingots and walked to the back of the room, where there was another door, which led into a tunnel. Maybe because she was hunting?

I felt a hand on my arm, and I smiled over at Faith. I loved when she touched me, which she did often, and I tried to ignore and push down the ignited lust we both felt in that moment, and I stuck with the softer feelings her touch engendered. It wasn't really the time anyway.

Mara sniffed, then said, "They definitely went down this tunnel."

Niri said diffidently, "My lord, perhaps we should leave the hunt to them?"

Baron Dietrich frowned, like a disappointed boy, but I didn't judge him for it, he was too important on a higher level, he didn't belong in a chase. Then the man sighed and nodded reluctantly.

"You're correct of course. Good luck with your hunt, Lady Mara."

Mara nodded in thanks for the sentiment, and then she moved off without another word.

We all followed, save the baron and Niri who went back up, no doubt to report the illicit vault and silver. The tunnel was dank and old, but it was only about a hundred yards long. It came out in a cellar, which turned out to be a bakery. I'd bet the ex-baron owned it.

Then we were out on the streets of the city again.

Mara sniffed deeply, and then we moved west, and I let out a small sigh of relief, since it was the opposite direction of the docks.

We hadn't gone far, when Mara said, "I believe they were joined by thirty other men here," her nose wrinkled in disgust, "And several other females."

I looked at Faith in question, and she shrugged. Apparently, her nose wasn't as refined as the dragons, although I wondered if there could be a magical component to her tracking. There was a lot we didn't know about dragons, and I didn't want to be rude and ask.

Mara asked, "Is that typical of your nobles?"

Lysa replied, "No. Whores are common enough and used to mutual consent, and many of those with mates do not stray. It's just another evil in their character, maybe the four in the cabal hate women as much as they hate the non-human races."