The White Gryphon

Judeth's expression never varied. "That bad?" she said.

He nodded. "That bad. We kestra'chern are often presented with—some odd requests. He has used the opportunities he was presented with to inflict pain and damage, both emotional and physical, purely for his own entertainment."

"Why haven't we heard of this before?" Skan demanded, his eyes dangerously alight.

"Because he is," Amberdrake groped for words, "he is diabolical, Skan, that is all I can say. He's clever, he's crafty, but above all, he is supremely adept at charming or—manipulating people. He has succeeded in manipulating the people who came to him as clients so thoroughly that it has been over a year from the time he began before one was courageous enough to report him to me. Even the other kestra'chern were fooled by him. They couldn't tell what he was doing behind his doors. But I know—I have felt what his client felt."

Skan's beak dropped open a little. "What isthis man?" the gryphon asked, astonished. "Some sort of—of—evil Empath?"

"He might be, Skan, I don't know," Amberdrake replied honestly. "All I know is that the person who came to me needed considerable help in recovering from the damage that had been done, and that there are more people who are more damaged yet who have not complained." Amberdrake had been very careful not even to specify the client's sex; while the victim had not asked for anonymity, Amberdrake felt it was only fair and decent to grant it. He spent several long and uncomfortable moments detailing exactly what had been done to that victim, while the others listened in silence. When he had finished—as he had expected—all three of them were unanimous in their condemnation of the ersatz kestra'chern.

"Who is he?" Judeth asked, her voice a low growl as she reached for pen and paper to make out the arrest warrant.

Amberdrake sighed and closed his eyes. He had hoped in a way that once the charges had been laid and the Council decision arrived at, he would feel better. But he didn't; he only felt as if he had uncovered the top of something noisome and unpleasant, and that there was going to be more to face before the mess was cleaned up.

"Hadanelith," he said softly, as Judeth waited, hand poised over the paper.

She wrote down the name.

"Hadanelith," she repeated as she sealed the order with her signet ring. "Can I deal with him now, or is there something else you want to do with him first?"

"Now," Amberdrake said quickly, with a shudder. "Arrest him now.He's done enough damage. I don't want him to have a chance to do any more."

"Right." Judeth stood up. "Skan, would you have Kechara call Aubri, Tylar, Retham, and Vetch, and have them double-time it over here to meet Amberdrake and me?" She handed the arrest warrant to Amberdrake, who took it, trying not to show his reluctance. "I'll be going with you to take this Hadanelith down. This could look bad—I am considered to be the military leader here. A military leader arresting a putative kestra'chern under any circumstances will cause some discontent. Still, I don't want to be seen as being above getting my hands dirty or unfit for service with the other Silvers. And I definitely do notwant someone like that loose to deal with later. Hate to saddle you with this, Drake, but—"

"But I'm the one bringing the charges, so I had better be there. It's my job, Judeth," he replied as he wrung the warrant loosely in his hands. "Though it's times like these when I wish I was just a simple kestra'chern."

Judeth snorted and gave him a sideways look. "Drake," she said only, "you were never a simplekestra'chern."

"I suppose I wasn't," he murmured as she, Snowstar, and Skan left the table and the Council Hall.

Hadanelith whittled another few strokes at the wooden bit before setting it down. After some more cutting and rounding—not too much rounding, though, it needed to remain a challenge for the client, right?—he'd add the pilot holes for the wooden pegs and straps later. Carving wood was so much like what he did for a living with his clients, it was natural that he would be excellent at it. He could grasp the roughness, grip it firmly, and then cut away at every part that didn't look like the shape he had in mind.

Telica, here, was one of his works. A slice here, a chunk taken off there, and before long she'd be another near perfect item. Her mind was his latest work. She was nude, kneeling on the floor, held in place by several lengths of thread binding her neck to her wrists, her wrists to her ankles. The thread was completely normal in composition, which was what made it so amusing to him.

Virtually any effort at all would have snapped them, without leaving so much as a welt; no, the real bindings here were those of his will over hers. The regular training that made her one more of his items held her as firmly in place as any set of iron shackles or knotted scarves. She was one of his carvings, inside, though she didn't presently show so much as a scratch on her alabaster-smooth skin.

Every time Telica came to him for one of her appointments she knew she would be trained and tested in a dozen ways. All of his girls knew this. They could be trapped or tricked, hurt or caressed, abused or set up for humiliation, and after a while, they came to love him for it—or at least obey him. Obedience was close enough for him; he'd take that over love any day.

So it was with no worry at all that he took three steps to stand before her steadily breathing, still form, and put a hand to her jaw. "Open," he said in his rich voice, and her lips parted in instant compliance to receive the wooden bit he'd been trimming. As he pressed it deeper into her mouth, he noted that it scraped the gums, and probably pressed the palate about there.Good, good. It would serve as another test of her training in itself, then, and the soreness that lingered after Telica's visit would simply be another reminder of his attentions, and who she served now.

Who sheserved? That was another delicious irony. Hadanelith was, as far as anyone else knew, serving her,but behind these doors, she was hisas surely as any other of his whittled treasures. His treasures were six now; Dianelle, Suriya, Gaerazena, Bethtia, and Yonisse, and Telica here, each one a good but still slightly flawed carving.

There was always something wrong with them by the time he'd made them his artworks. Why was that? Why was the wood always unseasoned, or knotty, or split down the middle, when he'd finally carved away enough of the bark to make something beautiful? It was as if the wood that looked so promising on the outside failed to live up to the promise; that by the time he'd gotten enough of the useless wood shaved away to refine the details, the flaws in the material showed themselves.

Telica here, for instance, was too quiet. It was nearly impossible to get as much as a whimper out of her. He was no more lusty than any other man, he felt, and there were times, just as when one craved a certain dish or fruit, when he simply had to hear a muffled cry of anguish or a sob. Telica was mute as a stick unless he lacerated her with a blade or pierced her flesh with a needle. She was just as flawed in her silence as Gaerazena was in her garrulous, hysterical chattering and Yonisse was in her shuddering anxieties.

It couldn't be his skill; it had to be the material itself. If only he could get his hands on a woman of real substance, breeding, true quality. A woman like Winterhart....

Thatone he had yet to touch, although he had watched her hungrily for ten years. Now there was a creature fit for an artist! Not wood at all, she was the finest marble, a real challenge to carve and mold. But he could do it. He was more than a match for her, just as he was more than a match for any of them. What sculptor was ever afraid of his stone? What genius was ever afraid of his toys? The challenge would be to unmake and then remake her, but to do it so cleverly that she askedfor every change he made to her.