Innkeeper Chronicles 3.5: Sweep of the Blade

by Ilona Andrews

  The tachi had left only one seat open, that directly across from the

  royal. She would be sitting between two sets of bodyguards, with the

  other four watching her. Maud bowed her head and sat.

  “Greetings.”

  “Greetings,” the royal replied, the bottom segment of her face rising to

  reveal a slash of a mouth.

  The ten plates were clean. The vampire cooking utensils, small four-

  pronged forks, lay untouched. Nobody had eaten. The moment she sat

  down, she saw why. The two large bowls on the table contained a salad.

  They served them salad. Maud almost slapped herself.

  The tachi were on a mission among other species, which meant they

  would not consume meat, so at least House Krahr had gotten that

  right. But they were notoriously fastidious in their preparation of food.

  It was an art as well as sustenance. Every ingredient had its

  place. Nothing could touch. The vampires served them a

  salad. Drenched in dressing. Ugh.

  Mom would turn purple if she saw this. Orro would probably commit

  homicide.

  The tachi would never say anything. They would just sit there and quietly

  fume. If that royal got up from the table without consuming any food,

  House Krahr could kiss any hope for cooperation good-bye.

  Maud turned to the nearest server. “Bring me bread, honey, a variety of

  fruit, a large platter, and a sharp knife.”

  The server hesitated.

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  She sank ice into her voice. “Am I not a guest of House Krahr?”

  The server flashed his fangs at her. “It will be done, lady.”

  The tachi watched her with calm interest. Nobody spoke.

  The server arrived with a massive wooden cutting board, bearing a loaf

  of freshly baked bread. A second server set a large bowl of fruit in front

  of her and glass gravy-boat-like vessel of honey. The two servers parked

  themselves behind her. They didn’t bring the platter. No matter. She

  would have to make due.

  Maud sliced the crust off the bread, trimming the round loaf into a

  square shape. At least the knife was sharp. That was one thing one

  never had to worry about with vampires.

  The tachi watched her with calm interest.

  She cut the bread into precise half-inch cubes, placed five of them

  together onto the plate, one in the center, and four in the corners, so

  they formed a square. She picked up honey and slowly dripped a few

  drops onto each cube, until the bread soaked up the amber liquid.

  The tachi at the edges of the table leaned in slightly.

  Maud plucked the blue kora fruit from the bowl, peeled the thin skin and

  carefully cut the fruit into even round slices. She managed eight slices,

  seven even and one slightly thicker. She placed the seven slices around

  the cubes. The eighth was a hair too thick. She pondered it.

  The tachis pondered it with her.

  Better safe than sorry. She reached for another kora.

  The tachi to her left emitted an audible sigh of relief and then crunched

  his mouth shut, embarrassed.

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  After the kora, she cut the red pear, then the think yellow stalks of sweet

  grass, slowly building a mandala pattern on her plate. The kih berries

  followed, prefect little globes of deep orange. She carefully arranged the

  berries and took one last look at the plate. It was nowhere as perfect as

  it should’ve been, but that was the best she could do with what she had.

  Maud got up, lifted the plate, and offered it with a bow to the royal.

  “Lady of sun and air, it is my great honor to share my food with you. It is

  humble, but it is given freely from the heart.”

  The table was completely silent. The royal looked at her with her six

  glowing eyes.

  Color burst on her exoskeleton, the pale neutral grey turning a deeper

  azure of the morning sky. She reached out her long elegant arm and took

  the plate.

  “I accept your offering.”

  Maud exhaled quietly and sat. The color around the table darkened

  slightly. She could tell the shades of blue, green, and purple apart now.

  The two vampire servers behind her took off at a near jog.

  She reached for the next fruit and began peeling it.

  The royal speared a cube of honey-drenched bread with her claws and

  popped it into her mouth. “My name is Dil’ki. What is yours?”

  “Maud, your highness.”

  Dil’ki clicked her claws. “Tch-tch-tch. Not so loud. The vampires do not

  know. Where have you learned our customs?”

  “My parents are innkeepers on Earth.”

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  A deeper blue blossomed on Dil’ki’s segments. The tachi around the

  tables shifted, their poses less stiff.

  “How delightful. Do you speak akit?”

  Thank Universe for dad’s insistence on a superior speech implant. “I do.”

  Maud arranged another, less complex mandala and passed it to the tachi

  on her right.

  “We will speak akit,” Dil’ki declared, switching to the dialect. “Do you

  understand me, lady Maud?”

  “I do,” Maud said.

  “Yes.” The royal leaned closer and popped a berry into her mouth. “Tell

  me, what are you doing here, among these barbarians?”

  “One of them asked me to marry him.”

  “No,” the green tachi from the right gasped. “You mustn’t.”

  “They can’t even make proper seats,” another green tachi said. “Some

  of them are joined into benches.”

  “You must be very brave to come here,” a purple tachi said from the left.

  “Did you say yes?” Dil’ki asked.

  “I said I would think about it.”

  The vampire servers arrived, bearing platters of precision sliced fruit and

  cubed bread. The tachi fell silent. The food was placed on the table and

  the server backed away.

  “You may serve yourselves,” Dil’ki said. “If poor Maud has to feed us

  all, we will be here all night.”

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  The tachi clicked the mandibles inside their mouths, chuckling. An

  instinctual alarm dashed through Maud. Every hair on the back of her

  neck stood on end.

  Claws reached for the platters, each arranging their own small

  masterpiece of fruit on their plate.

  “Which one asked you?” Dil’ki asked.

  Maud craned her neck. If Arland was anywhere, he’d be at the host

  table, but she couldn’t really see him. “The big blond one. The son of

  the Lady Illemina.”

  Dil’ki leaned in and the other tachi mirrored her movement, as if they

  had choreographed it.

  “Tell me all about it,” Dil’ki said.

  Maud opened her mouth and saw Seveline walking toward her, two male

  vampires in tow.

  “Enemy?” Dil’ki guessed.

  “I don’t know yet,” Maud said. She realized she had pushed her chair

  back from the table slightly, on pure muscle memory. When an enemy is

  approaching, it paid to make sure getting up didn’t cost you a precious

  fraction of a second. “I think she might be.”

  The tachi went light grey, as one.

  “There you are!” Seveline grinned at her. “I was wondering where they

  hid you.”

  No prope
r address. An insult. It would’ve been fine if they were friends

  in private, but they were neither friends nor alone.

  Maud plastered a smile on her face. “Lady Seveline.”

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  “I expected to have to search, but at this table, really?”

  Another insult. She really was enjoying herself.

  “And I see they forgot to bring you meat. Do they think you are a

  herbivore, honestly? Are humans herbivores, Lady Maud? I only ask

  because of your small teeth.”

  A third insult. The dark-haired vampire at Seveline’s right flashed a quick

  smile. Couldn’t help himself.

  A tachi on her right leaned to her and murmured in akit. “Would you like

  me to kill her? I can do it quietly tonight. They’ll never figure it out.”

  Oh crap. The last thing she needs was to cause an interstellar incident.

  Seveline narrowed her eyebrows slightly. Ten to one, Seveline’s implant

  didn’t recognize akit. It was an internal tachi language. But if Maud

  replied in English, it would translate her reply. Maud cleared her throat.

  “Khia teki-teki, re to kha. Kerchi sia chee. ” No, thank you. She’s a source

  of information.

  Argh, she’d mangled it. There were sounds human mouth just couldn’t

  make.

  The tachi clicked their mandibles again, in approval.

  “That was very, very good,” Dil’ki said in akit. “Good try.”

  “Is something the matter?” Seveline asked.

  “Not at all,” Maud smiled. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  “As a matter of fact, there is.” Seveline smiled. “These lords with me

  were wondering if there was some unique aspect to human lovemaking

  that particularly appeals to vampires. I thought you would be a perfect

  person to ask, since you have used it to such great effect.”

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  Quarter of a second to get up, another quarter to jump up the table, half

  a second to ram her fork into Seveline’s neck, piercing the windpipe. She

  would look so pretty with a bloody fork sticking out of her neck.

  Maud smiled and stopped. A sentinel stood at the doorway of the fest

  hall. A small figure in a blue tunic with a silver sash stood next to

  him. The beginning of a huge black eye turned Helen’s right cheek bright

  red.

  “Excuse me.” She jumped up and hurried through the tables to her

  daughter.

  Helen looked up at her, her face pinched. She was trying not to cry.

  “What happened?” Maud asked.

  The sentinel, an older male vampire, smiled at her. “Personal challenges

  are forbidden in the nursery. Lady Helen was warned about the

  consequences of her actions, yet she chose to continue as did her

  challenged.”

  “He called me a liar,” Helen squeezed through her teeth.

  Fear crushed Maud. Somehow, she made her lips move. “Is the other

  boy alive?”

  “Yes.” The older vampire smiled brighter. “His broken arm will serve as

  a fine reminder of today’s events. Unfortunately, Lady Helen must leave

  us now. She is to report tomorrow to the nursery to atone for her failure

  in judgement. Should I take her to her quarters?”

  “No,” Maud said. “I’ll do it.”

  “But your dinner, Lady Maud?”

  “I have had my fill.”

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  Maud took her daughter by the hand and walked down the hallway,

  away from the feast hall.

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  Chapter 4 Part 3

  February 23, 2018 by Ilona

  The long hallway of House Krahr’s citadel lay deserted. Behind Maud,

  the noise of the feast hall was dying down, receding with every step.

  Helen walked next to her, her face sullen.

  “What happened?” Maud asked softly.

  “They asked me where I came from, and I told them about how I made

  my room, and Aunt Dina said she would get me fishes. This boy said that

  houses can’t move if you think at them. He said I was lying.”

  Of course, he did. “Then what happened?”

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  “Then I got mad.” Helen bit her lip with her fangs. “And I said take it

  back. And he said I was stupid and a liar. And then he wagged his finger

  at me.”

  “He did what?”

  Helen stuck out her hand with her index finger extended and waved it

  around, drawing an upside-down U in the air, and sang, “Liar-liar-liar.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Then I said that pointing was bad, because it lets enemy know where

  you are looking.”

  The lessons of Karhari had stuck. No matter how long Helen would spend

  away from it, the wasteland had soaked into her soul. And there wasn’t

  anything Maud could do about it.

  “And he said I wasn’t good enough to be his enemy. And I said, I’ll punch

  you so hard, you’ll swallow your teeth, worm.”

  Maud hid a groan. “Where did you hear that?”

  “Lord Arland.”

  Oh goodie. “Then what happened?”

  “Then the scary old knight came and told me that if I challenged the boy,

  there would be ripper cushions.”

  “Repercussions.”

  “Yes. So I asked if the boy would get reper-cushions if he fought me, and

  the knight said yes, and I said I was okay with it.”

  Maud rubbed the bridge of her nose.

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  “And then the knight asked the boy if he wanted help and the boy said

  he didn’t, and the knight said proceed, and then the boy punched me,

  and I got his arm. With my legs.” Helen rolled on the floor and locked

  her legs together. “I said say surrender and he didn’t say anything, he

  just yelled, so I broke it. If he didn’t want me to break it, he should’ve

  said surrender.”

  Maud rubbed her face some more.

  Helen looked at her from the floor, her big blue eyes huge on her face.

  “He started it.”

  And she finished it.

  “You weren’t wrong,” Maud said. “But you weren’t wise.”

  Helen looked on the floor.

  “You knew you weren’t a liar.”

  “Yes.”

  “So why did it matter what the vampire boy said?”

  “I don’t know,” Helen mumbled.

  Maud crouched by her. “You don’t always meet an enemy in

  battle. Sometimes you meet them during peace. They might even

  pretend to be your friends. Some of them will try to provoke you so they

  can see what you can do. You have to learn to wait and watch them until

  you figure out their weakness. The boy thought you were weak. If you

  let him keep thinking that you were weak, you could’ve used it later.

  Remember what I told you about surprise?”

  “It wins battles,” Helen said.

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  “Now the boy knows you’re strong,” Maud said. “It wasn’t wrong to

  show your strength. But in the future, you have to think carefully and

  decide if you want people to know your true strength or not.”

  “Okay,” Helen said quietly.

  “Come on.” Maud offered her daughter her hand. Helen grasped her

  fingers and got up. They resumed their walk down the hallway.

  “Mama?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are vampires our enemies?”

  That was to be determ
ined. “That’s what we are trying to figure out.”

  “When are we going to go live with Aunt Dina again?”

  An excellent question. What am I doing here anyway? She’d had it up

  to her throat with all of the vampire backstabbing. There was a reason

  why she decided she was done. She’d promised herself she was done

  the moment they landed on Karhari and she repeated this promise over

  and over, when she lay on the hilltop, breathing in Karhari dust, watching

  the blood sword flash and seeing Melizard’s head fall on the ground;

  when she tracked his killers; when she bargained for shelter and water,

  knowing that if she failed, Helen would die. It became her mantra. Never

  again. Yet here she was.

  Arland had abandoned her the first chance he got.

  What did you expect? Did you expect he would come and take you by the

  hand and lead you to a seat at the host table?

  Yes. The answer was yes. She didn’t expect it, but she wanted it. Stupid.

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  It was stupid to hope for something that wouldn’t happen. It was stupid

  to come here.

  “Mama?” Helen asked.

  They could just go home right now. Go back to Dina. Helen would never

  be able to join a human school or play with human children, because

  there was no way to hide the fangs, but all three of them, Klaus, Maud,

  and Dina, had been home schooled in the inn, and none of them turned

  out badly.

  They could just go home, where nobody would belittle them or punch

  them in the face. Home to the familiar weird of her childhood, before

  Melizard. Before Karhari.

  But they had come all this way. She had dragged Helen here, because

  Arland had offered hope for something deeper than Maud had ever

  hoped for. A part of her rebelled at giving up without a fight. But was

  this even a fight worth fighting?

  I’ll do one more day. One more day. If it’s all shit at the end of tomorrow,

  then I’m done.

  “We have some things to do here first.”

  “I liked it at Aunt Dina’s,” Helen said. “I like my room.”

  A short figure turned the corner and was coming toward them, walking

  upright on furry paws. She was only three and a half feet tall, counting

  the nearly six-inch lynx ears tipped with tufts of fur. Two thin gold hoops