Demon's Dream (High Demon 6)

"I get that a lot," I said. "It doesn't matter. I've come to expect it." I received a framed certificate from Refizan's Governor, proclaiming me a hero. I didn't feel much like a hero. Mostly I'd been desperate to keep people from burning. I thanked the Governor, said good-bye to him and the magistrate and Norian led us out of the office.

"Here," I handed the certificate to Kevis when we landed inside Edward's huge kitchen. I wanted to see Edward. Make sure he wasn't something I'd dreamed up. He appeared moments later, a huge smile lighting his face when he saw me. I did something I never do. I ran to him and wrapped my arms around his waist.

"I missed you, sweetheart," he lifted me up and kissed me.

"I missed you, too," I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Let's sit on the deck by the pool," he said. I let him take me.

* * *

"Why don't we ever get that?" Aurelius muttered.

"Are you ever that glad to see her?" Kevis asked.

"I am now. I guess that hasn't been the case for the past twenty-five years, though."

"Want to take a little trip with me?" Kevis looked at Aurelius and Lok.

"I suppose. How painful is it going to be?"

"No idea. I want to talk to Edan Desh."

"Let's go," Lok sighed in resignation.

* * *

"What can I do for you?" Edan Desh, now Doctor Edan Desh, sat behind his desk at a small clinic on the southern half of Ooklar. He treated the children in a particularly poor section of that world. He was also campaigning for better education for them. Things were looking up at the moment; a very generous sum had recently been donated.

"Tell me what you remember about Reah. When she was small," Kevis said, sitting in the chair Edan offered. Lok and Aurelius also sat.

"Those memories are hazy, like they're from a vid that I watched when I was young," Edan sighed. "I know they're borrowed from that other lifetime. I try not to call them up if I can help it."

"What can you tell me of the motivation that other Edan had, then, when he hurt her?"

"I only sense anger," Doctor Desh replied. "Extreme anger. I can't explain it any better than that. He was striking out at something, to assuage that anger. Only it never seemed to work."

"You shouldn't waste your time here," Kifirin appeared. "This one cannot help you, and it will only upset him to attempt to remember things for you. He is not to blame. Come, I will take you to the one who is."

Kevis didn't have time to protest, Kifirin had folded him, Lok and Aurelius away. "So, the real Edan Desh." Kevis walked around Edan, who lounged on a small cot inside a prison cell.

"Go away," Edan growled.

"No, I think I'll stay," Kevis said quietly. "Aurelius, will you place compulsion, please, for him to tell the truth?" Kevis wasn't going to ask Kifirin for anything. The god had a way of making someone pay for anything asked of him.

Aurelius had Edan's face in his hand in less than a blink, staring into his eyes and telling him that he would only speak the truth. Edan, frightened out of his wits, could only nod.

"Now, tell me about Reah," Kevis said pleasantly.

"I hated her. Hated Ilvan, hated Wald, hated my mother and hated my father. But mostly I hated Fes. I should have been firstborn."

"What did you think, when your father sent Reah to you when she was eight?"

"He saddled me with a kid. His kid. Or so I thought. I was skimming money from the business that he didn't know about. I had to worry about keeping her in clothes and school supplies."

"Yet you never spent much on her. Did you? You took the money your father sent for her upkeep."

"He sent four hundred a month. I was able to keep three hundred fifty of that."

"When did you put her to work in the kitchen?"

"Right away. Wasn't about to spend a single credit on childcare. She could do dishes. That's what she did."

"But she started cooking quickly."

"She watched the others and picked it up. I ignored her."

"Unless you wanted to beat her for something."

"I liked listening to her scream. And beating her got rid of my frustrations with Father." Edan was clenching and unclenching his fists.

"You will not be violent now," Aurelius commanded. Edan's fists stilled.

"Tell me about Raedah, Reah's mother."

"Small. Weak. Mother was jealous of the time Father spent with her. He might have loved her. He never loved the rest of us."

"Why did you conspire with your mother to kill her?"

"She didn't belong. Didn't fit in. Fes was even older than she was. We didn't know Father was seeing someone else until he brought her home with a ring on her finger."

"You felt usurped."

"Yes!" Edan cursed. "And so did mother. She approved of all the other wives. She never saw Raedah until after Father married her."

"Did you try to kill Reah when she was a baby?"

"Yes. Mother and I fed her poison. Only she didn't die. Then Farla became curious and started checking on Reah. Since we were afraid of getting caught, we backed off. I thought I'd killed her when she was ten. But she came back after that, too. Then she began cooking, and the awards started coming in. She was the prize. If Father had found out about her, he'd have taken her back to Targis, so I kept beating her and told her to keep her mouth shut. She did. Until that f**king conscription notice came."

"Would it interest you to know that your father manipulated that?" Kevis asked.

"What the f**k did Father have to do with that?"

"Ilvan's name was the one selected. Your father went to the state recruitment office and paid the officer there to change the name to Reah. She was hauled away, while Ilvan remained in your kitchen. Your father thought he was protecting the business, because he saw Reah as worthless."

"Number two never got another top award after that," Edan grumbled. "We tried. Used the recipes Reah left with us, to the letter. And then varied them, attempting to duplicate the results. It was never the same."

"Reah was very intelligent. She knew not to give you everything."

"She got her revenge."

"I don't think of withholding a few recipe ingredients as revenge for broken bones and the hate you spewed in her direction," Kevis said.

"But she led the ASD to us. You see where I am, now."

"For crimes you committed against her mother. Do you not see murder as a crime?"