Mercedes Lackey - Elvenbane

Not that it really mattered. What was important was that her hold over him had continued undiminished. There had been no damage done to the glamorie after that incident with Laras. If anything, her power over him was stronger than ever.

She continued to praise his puny effort, while he basked in the warmth of her approval, and banished, then reinstated the illusion. Perhaps she would turn the other three over to the elders. If she engineered this right, it would look as if they were discovered from outside. She could hide Mero, and let Cheynar's people take away the others...then he wouldn't have anyone to turn to but her.

She smiled over his shoulder, at the trees beyond the windows. That wasn't a bad plan at all; in fact, she ought to be able to accomplish it easily enough by having Cheynar's people descend while she and Mero were off riding or hunting.

And it was something she was going to have to do, to put his cousin and those others completely out of his reach. If she didn't get them out of here, Mero was never going to sever his ties completely with them. She felt it in her bones.

And then, once she had him isolated...she would throw him to the harem pack. He'd come out on top, but he'd have to use all of his abilities to do it. Including wizard-powers. That would keep him busy enough that he wouldn't have time to think about Valyn and the others.

She found herself looking very much forward to it, as she nodded and spoke empty words of praise.

It would be most amusing...

Shana grabbed Mero's arm as he passed, pulling him into the library before he could protest or pull away from her. She shut the door quickly, locked it, and turned, pressing her back up against it.

He stood where she had left him, a look of bored tolerance on his face. "All right, Shana," he said, with weary patience. "What's all this nonsense about? What is it Triana is supposed to have done now?"

"It isn't what she's done, it's what she's going to do," Shana replied angrily, tossing her hair out of her eyes. "She's moving you into a suite of rooms of your own, isn't she? Right next to hers!

Shadow shrugged carelessly, and Shana wanted to strangle him. He folded his arms over his chest, and sighed theatrically before replying. "I suppose there's no use in denying it if you already know. So what?"

The bored expression on his face made her angry, and caused her to blurt out the first thing that came into her head. "So she's separating us from you, that's what! We hardly even see you anymore! She wants to keep you away from us so she can manipulate you...why, you haven't said more than two words to Valyn in weeks!" That wasn't what she'd intended to say. She had intended to sound a little more reasonable, but she couldn't stop herself.

She noticed that he looked a little shamefaced when she'd mentioned Valyn, but otherwise he seemed unmoved.

"She doesn't want you to have anything to do with us, Mero," she continued, trying to make him react, trying to penetrate his indifference. "She's going to betray us, I know she is, all of us but you...and then she's going to use you..."

A look of disgust was her only reward, and he interrupted her impassioned speech. "I can appreciate that you're concerned about me, but I don't think that's what's really bothering you right now. You're just jealous, Shana. She's beautiful and well-bred...everything you aren't ...and you're just jealous of her!" While she dropped her jaw in outrage over this injustice, he continued on, relentlessly. "I'm sorry for you, I really am; she'd be perfectly willing to be your friend...if you weren't so sure there was something wrong with her just because she's so lovely! You know, in a lot of ways she admires you...she thinks it's really fascinating how strong and self-reliant you are. You could be her friend, Shana, if you weren't so eaten up with envy!"

Shana clenched her fingers into white-knuckled fists, and felt her ears burn with mingled shame and fury. Shame...because she was jealous of Triana; how could she not be? Triana was exquisite, and standing next to her, Shana felt like a young heifer with muddy feet and a tangled tail. But fury because the elven maiden had taken Shadow in so completely. There was no way Triana wanted to be friends! The so-called overtures she had made were all as phony as a glass ruby. Every one of them had been poisoned sweets...with mockery beneath the gentle words. But no one...or at least, no one male...was going to believe that. They wouldn't look any deeper than the surface.

"It's not you I'm worried about," she retorted angrily. "It's what you're doing to the rest of us! We're supposed to be finding ways to help the humans and the halfbloods, but we haven't done one single thing since we got here...because you have been spending all your time with her! You've been ignoring your wizard magics, trying to show off for her. I know you haven't been learning anything about combining your powers...you've let it all go to waste, everything I tried to show you. And I'm telling you, Shadow, she's going to betray us, you...all of us!"

As she searched his face for any sign that he'd actually heard her words, she felt herself being tempted to use her mental powers on him. If she could just force him to pay attention...and if he wouldn't, she could probably control him...

"This is childish," Mero declared loftily. "I'm not going to waste another moment of time on your infantile accusations."

He reached forward and caught her arm before she could pull away. "And don't try your wizard tricks on me..." he warned, as he took a firmer grip on her arm and forced her away from the door. "I'm ready for them, and you won't get anywhere."

And with that, he turned the lock and let himself out, slamming the door shut and leaving her fuming behind him.

She wanted to kick, scream, run after him and beat some sense into his head. She did none of these things. Instead, she forced herself to calm down to a point where she could think, taking deep breaths and deliberately emptying her mind, as the flush left her cheeks and ears, and her icy hands warmed.

She had to think objectively about this, she decided, when she had sufficiently calmed down. She went over to her favorite chair in the library and curled up in it, watching the tops of the trees tossing below her, as a high, warm wind whipped them, the kind of wind that heralded a storm. All right...if she kept an eye on Triana, there was nothing she could do that Shana and Keman together couldn't escape from. At least, I don't think there is . If they both watched her, they could get away. If Valyn wouldn't believe her, too bad for him. She'd get him away when Triana betrayed them all and then he'd believe her.

She indulged in a brief daydream of tearing Valyn out of the hands of Cheynar's men and escaping into the night with him...of his gratitude afterwards...

But reality intruded, and a stab of pain at the way Shadow had treated her. I am jealous of Triana; Shadow's right . The way she manipulated and used him was sickening...she drained him without his knowing, otherwise he'd be farther along with his magic by now...

She suddenly realized something and her cheeks burned with shame. She had been using the others in exactly the same way, though not to the same degree. She'd been stealing their power, a little bit at a time...and she'd been considering using her mental abilities to manipulate Shadow. To manipulate him just as surely as Triana, though in a different way.

In fact, she'd been using her powers to manipulate a great many people in the past year.

She shuddered as she realized just how close she had come to becoming like Triana. She had learned a great deal with the wizards in the Citadel...but not once had any of them said anything about morality. The wizards were not unlike their elven parents...any means was fine so long as the desired end was reached.