A Future, Forged

by Aiki Flinthart

  Teya snorted and Ying glowered.

  Dallan held up a hand. ‘I have no qualms with a woman running the jundom—as long as she’s competent. I certainly wouldn’t want to. The problem is, Jenna admires Han Grey-Saud when she shouldn’t.’

  ‘What are you saying?’ Teya frowned.

  ‘We need to get rid of Han Grey-Saud,’ Dallan said, ‘and you’re the one who’s best positioned to help me achieve that.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  TEYA

  A knock fell on the door and it opened to admit Shunu Neri Qin-Turner, regal in a heavy grey robe with copper edging around the hems. A broad-shouldered, xiao-bear of a weishi followed and took a watchful stance behind her chair when she settled beside Dallan.

  The woman smiled gracefully. ‘Good morning, girls, Dallan. Don’t let Barrod and me interrupt your breakfast.’

  Teya glowered at the jun. She scanned Neri’s stoic shangwei, Barrod. With his stern jaw and sharp black eyes, he seemed to see everything. He stood now in a corner of the room, one hand on the hilt of his ceramic sword, the other on his dagger. His gaze skimmed across hers without changing expression. Arrogant. Just like his mistress.

  Dallan bowed and spread honey on a pastry. ‘We were discussing how Teya might help us with our Gray-Saud problem.’

  Neri scanned Teya, faintly scornful. ‘I don’t see how. We need to deal strongly with him and she’s hardly—’

  ‘Don’t.’ Dallan cut across Shunu Neri’s objections. Her eyes glittered but she shut her teeth with a snap.

  Teya studied him. He was only a first-family. Money or not, how could he speak so boldly to a jun?

  ‘Don’t be disrespectful, Neri. And don’t underestimate her,’ Dallan said. ‘I agree we need to kill him. But we haven’t got the manpower for an assault on Grey-Saud, and a paid contract to the xiongshou-assassins of Weishi House would be traced to us. You know how scrupulous they are about paperwork. Besides, Mistress Keyli of Madina Weishi House works closely with Mistress Rua of Xintou House on political assassinations. They only happen if both approve. And, while I think Rua approves in theory, if I’m wrong, and she feels keeping Grey-Saud alive is better for the jundom, she’ll have to take action against us.’ He eyed Neri sardonically. ‘Do you want your Xintou turned against you?’

  Next to Teya, Ying paled. ‘Mother wouldn’t!’ She sent a shocked glance at Neri.

  Neri sighed. ‘She would, child. And she would be within her rights. It’s the House’s duty to do what they deem necessary to keep peace and stability in the jundom. If they feel a jun is becoming too powerful, they can replace him or her with the next successor. It’s the way of things for the last four hundred years.’

  ‘So why haven’t they replaced Grey-Saud, or his Xintou, then?’ Teya snapped.

  Dallan sent her a look of mingled sympathy and uncertainty. ‘I’d like to know the answer to that, myself. Any thoughts, Ying?’

  The young girl wrapped an air of dignified authority about herself. ‘I can only guess, shenshi.’ She shot a quick, half-scared peek at Teya. ‘But given…other things I’ve heard of Gray-Saud and his Xintou, Shana, it’s possible she could have turned against the House to side with him for some gain to herself. But I don’t believe it. Not without proof,’ she finished.

  Neri stiffened. ‘Turned! How could she?’

  ‘It happens sometimes.’ Ying nibbled on a pastry. ‘But it shouldn’t. Xintou House is meant to keep Mamlakah stable and peaceful. It shakes the peoples’ faith in us when this happens. We must get evidence. Then we can tell Mistress Rua.’

  ‘My word isn’t good enough, I suppose,’ Teya said.

  ‘Unfortunately,’ Dallan said, ‘no. Unless you want the Law Mistresses reading you and your memories very closely. Do you?’

  Teya hunched a shoulder.

  ‘We should send a message to Mistress Rua,’ Neri said.

  ‘Agreed.’ Dallan lifted a finger when Ying straightened. ‘But not quite yet, if you don’t mind? His smile became nasty. ‘There are a few other things we need to have ready before Grey-Saud’s stripped of his Xintou and his title.’

  ‘Like what,’ Teya asked, fascinated.

  ‘Like his successor.’

  ‘But Ying said he has…a son.’ She swallowed the acid that rose with the words.

  ‘Yes,’ he agreed, ‘but he’s a child and would need a regent. Too young to be Bonded to a xintou, either.’

  ‘And Shana’s gene-daughter should be the next Bonded Xintou for the family,’ Ying put in. ‘But she’s only eleven. So either the Grey-Saud family would have no Xintou until she’s older, or the House must appoint a new one and that would be unfair. She was genetically crafted for that role.’

  ‘So was her mother,’ Teya muttered. ‘But being born a xintou doesn’t make you a good person.’

  Ying flinched. ‘No, but most of us are good. It’s not fair to judge all xintou by the actions of one. Especially when we can’t prove anything.’

  Teya studied the younger girl but held her tongue.

  Neri ran a hand over her mouth. ‘Who did you have in mind for Grey-Saud’s successor if not his son? You set a dangerous precedent if you don’t put a direct heir in his place, even if the heir is kin-child, not full-blood.’

  Dallan’s grim smile returned. ‘But doesn’t the law state that a kin-child who is the product of a forced union, is not eligible to be heir?’

  ‘Forced!’ Neri blanched. ‘Is there evidence?’

  He eyed Teya.

  Her cheeks washed with heat as unwanted memories flooded in. She was there again. In the fire. Choking on smoke. Screams. Hers. Blistering pain. Also hers. Her body curled protectively around baby Perrin.

  Her heart skittered and sweat prickled beneath her arms. She dragged in slow breaths and struggled to keep her new mental wards in place. When she was in control, she shot Ying a glare. The young xintou must have told Dallan.

  ‘Only what I saw,’ Teya replied, her voice cracking. ‘He took my mother and his Xintou watched on.’

  Neri spread her hands wide. ‘An appalling act, to be sure, but how do we know it’s the same woman?’

  Teya clenched the chair arms, but said nothing.

  ‘What’s your family name, Teya,’ Dallan asked.

  Something lodged in her throat, closing it with an iron fist. She forced herself to relax.

  ‘Connor,’ she murmured, stroking the gold locket at her breast.

  ‘And the woman he has used to father his kin-child heir is named Helva Connor.’

  ‘Yes,’ Teya grated, ‘that’s my mother. She was midwife to his first hunlinna but the baby was stillborn and a girl. Han was so angry he wouldn’t let my mother treat his hunlinna, so the poor woman bled to death. He told everyone she died in childbirth. He blamed my mother. Destroyed her reputation. Then, when she had no income and no friends and no other choice, she had to accept his offer to bear his kin-child. He had been pressuring her for years.’

  ‘Why her?’ Dallan frowned.

  Teya inspected her hands, twisting in her lap, glad of her new mental wards. ‘She never said.’

  He sat back, mouth bitter. ‘It’s typical of Han to choose a woman from a well-known first-family to bear his kin-child. He thinks those without first-family or jun names are lesser beings. I’m surprised he didn’t bind her in the hunli ceremony, but the woman he did take as a second hunlinna is a jun’s daughter—which he would think a better political choice.’ His scowl deepened. ‘But where’s your father in all this? Surely he must have objected to your mother’s change in situation.’

  Teya stared blindly out the window, into the brilliant green sky. Her chest ached, her throat ached. Everything in her mind and body ached with tight-leashed pain and anger, years old but nonetheless potent and sharp.

  ‘Dead,’ she spat. ‘Or as good as. He’s nothing to me or Perrin.’

  Dallan studied her for a long moment before sitting forward again.

  ‘Is Perrin likely to tell the
city junren his family name?’ He sipped at a fresh cup of lancha tea and observed Teya over the rim.

  She shrugged again. ‘Don’t know. Maybe. We left the Grey-Saud estates when he was a baby, but I told him all the stories my mother told me, so he knows. It doesn’t come up much. In the Migongs no-one cares who you are.’

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘in Grey-Saud’s prison, they will.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  TEYA

  Teya tried to ignore the squirming sickness in her gut. ‘Why should the prison guards care what Perrin’s family name is?’ If they found out the truth, what would they do to him?

  Dallan placed his cup on the table with deliberate care. ‘I’ve heard rumours that prisoners from good families are being separated. Ransomed back.’

  Neri gasped. ‘That’s…monstrous! How could the Jun First allow such a thing? And the Law Mistresses—don’t they read prisoners to determine guilt or innocence? They’d recognise the boy’s situation and protect him.’

  Teya bit on a fingernail. Perrin might be innocent of attacking Dallan, but he was guilty of many minor crimes and a xintou would read that and condemn him anyway. What did they care about a little boy?

  As he scratched at his scalp, dust flew from Dallan’s dark hair and skittered restlessly in a beam of orange sunlight. ‘That’s the problem. I don’t think Han and Shana are allowing the Law Mistresses access. And I have a horrible feeling Jenna doesn’t know. Madina is a long way from here.’ He cocked his head. ‘Or Han has convinced her it’s another way to raise much-needed revenue for the Crown. Not unlike the way he’s campaigning for legalisation of slavery.’

  Teya gulped. She’d heard rumours about the Melcori slave-trade. About the conditions on the boats going downriver to Melcor. The end of year death-games slaves were sent to if they tried to escape. She shivered.

  Neri rubbed at the arms of her chair. ‘I still don’t believe Jenna will legalise slave ownership in Mamlakah, no matter what Han advises. She’ll listen to the Council of Juns.’

  Dallan shrugged. ‘The juns are struggling financially. You know that. And the Melcor economy is booming since they legalised slavery. If you don’t have to pay your workers, you can produce goods and food much cheaper. They’re selling live runiu herdbeasts, and bamboo to Adhegal, Mamlakah, and even south to Jadid, at half the price of what we can charge. Mamlakah estates bordering on Melcor lands have started using slaves. It’s only a matter of time before it spreads. Jenna is anxious to prove herself fit to rule, so she doesn’t want to hear about the negatives.’ He scowled. ‘At least, not from me.’

  ‘Well.’ Neri shook her head confidently, but her fingers trembled as she picked up her cup. ‘I think you’re worrying too much. I don’t think Jenna can possibly know what’s going on—with Melcor or with Gray-Saud holding hostages for ransom. She’s young, but she’s not stupid.’

  Dallan raised bleak eyes to hers. ‘But her Xintou hasn’t been seen in weeks, from what I hear. Where is she in all of this? Why isn’t she guiding Jenna?’

  Ying’s mouth dropped open. ‘Didn’t you know? The Jun First’s Xintou is sick with something Healer House can’t diagnose.’ When Dallan raised his brows at her, she flushed. ‘I overheard Mistress Rua telling another Mistress.’

  ‘Interesting.’ He scratched at his jaw. ‘Worrying. I may have underestimated Han. If he has…arranged this illness then Jenna may be in greater danger than I thought. Without her Xintou’s protection, she could be influenced by Han’s Xintou, Shana.’

  Neri scowled. ‘No. Jenna would have strong wards. The Jun First family is always taught by the best.’

  ‘Shana wouldn’t do such a thing,’ Ying stated, only to shrink beneath Dallan’s weary regard.

  He sighed. ‘Then why is Han taking his hostages out of the main prison and holding them in the cells beneath the Chinshi? Not even Jenna could be that blind. And he’s staying in guest-quarters in the Chinshi, too.’

  Time stopped and ice congealed Teya’s blood. ‘Perrin’s in the Chinshi?’ she whispered. ‘It’s impossible to get in there.’

  ‘We don’t know, yet, child.’ Neri touched her wrist and Teya snatched her arm away.

  ‘Don’t gouri touch me, jun,’ Teya snarled, half-rising. ‘I’m not a child. I stopped being one the day Han took my mother and left me and Perrin for dead in a burning house.’

  In the corner, the weishi, Barrod, shifted. His dark gaze fixed on Teya and she sank back into her chair. Typical jun. Couldn’t fight her own battles.

  She turned on Dallan. ‘If we’re going after Han Gray-Saud, I’m in. What do you want me to do?’

  ‘I can get you into the Chinshi.’ Dallan drew his steel dagger from its sheath and laid it on the table. ‘Then you’ll sneak into Han Gray-Saud’s room and kill him. With this. And I’ll make sure Perrin is free and you’re reunited with your mother. Safe on my family estates outside of Asalam. You’ll never want for anything.’

  ‘You can’t send a child to do something like that!’ Neri protested.

  Dallan silenced her with chill consideration. ‘Teya said she’s not a child. I agree. She deserves the right to revenge her mother.’

  ‘That’s not how things work,’ Neri replied. ‘We have a law system for a reason.’

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘the law system is broken and the man who broke it isn’t likely to step aside without a fight.’

  Teya studied the dagger with longing. The steel blade was sharp, gleaming, but the yanstone in the pommel seemed dull and white instead of glittering with light as they were supposed to be. How odd.

  ‘What do you get out of it?’ she asked.

  ‘A chance to talk sense into the Jun First without Han around to twist her thinking,’ Dallan said. ‘If we can’t influence Jenna, people like you and Perrin will be slaves before the year’s out and those gouri kusarigama and kpinga will be in the hands of every jun and slavemaster.’

  Teya shifted, her shoulder twingeing. ‘And if I get caught?’

  He neither flinched nor gave anything away. ‘I’ll deny I know you.’

  Ying caught her breath and Neri frowned.

  But Teya nodded. She’d assumed that was what he’d do, but hadn’t expected the honesty. She held up the dagger. ‘And I suppose I’ve stolen this?’

  His mouth curved up. ‘You catch on fast.’

  ‘Why this dagger, though,’ Teya asked. ‘Mine would work.’

  Dallan’s face blanked. ‘There are reasons.’ He retrieved the dagger and slapped the blade lightly into his palm, his expression faintly contemptuous. ‘One of which is that Han wears an alzin chest plate under his robe at all times. Your bronze blade wouldn’t go through it.’

  He’d said ‘reasons’, but only stated one. Teya waited but he remained silent. What was the other?

  Neri grabbed Dallan’s arm. ‘You can’t, Dal. She’s not a xiongshou.’

  His gaze remained on Teya. ‘She doesn’t need to be a trained assassin. All she needs to do is get close enough to stick this into Han’s heart.’

  ‘How on Kalima is she supposed to do that? The Chinshi is guarded night and day by dozens of weishi and junren loyal to the Zah-Hill family. You and I can’t even get in without an escort and an appointment.’

  ‘She can do it.’

  Neri inspected Teya. ‘Dallan, she’s too yo—’

  Teya shot to her feet, fists clenched. Her legs shook. She should have eaten.

  ‘You call me a child one more time, jun, and I’ll…’ She laid a hand on her hip, but Dallan had not yet returned her dagger. She smiled thinly. Perhaps there was a better way. ‘No, I won’t. You will.’

  She drove her thoughts against the jun’s smooth wards but the hammer slipped and bounced off, leaving them unbroken. What? What was wrong? She hit again, harder, heat boiling from deep within. The steel hammer in her mind glowed the dull red of hot metal.

  Still nothing. No sound. No shattering of those grey, featureless wards.

  Shaken, Teya he
sitated. What was she doing wrong? It had worked so well against Ying and Dallan. What was different?

  Neri produced a condescending smile. ‘Child, you need to rest. You’re overwrought. Dallan and I will think on it some more. We’ll come up with something, don’t you fret.’

  Teya glowered, biting off another angry retort.

  Neri picked up half of Dallan’s broken teacup. ‘What happened here? This was my good set. Ow!’ Blood welled from her fingertip.

  A crack appeared in her mental wards.

  Teya concentrated on the slim fissure. The room swayed and darkened. She steadied herself with the chair back and sucked a calming breath. Too late to eat, now. She could prove her point and do it after. Neri needed to be taught a lesson.

  A blow with the steel hammer of her thoughts and the crack widened. Her ears rang with a distant, discordant song. Another blow and the crack in Neri’s ward became a chasm.

  Teya stiffened her knees and swallowed nausea. Now the woman would see.

  Neri screamed.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  TEYA

  Shunu Neri leapt from her chair, batting at her arms and hair. ‘Put it out! Put it out! Help me, Dallan! Barrod!’

  Teya smiled in satisfaction.

  ‘Teya! Enough.’ Dallan shook Neri. ‘Stop, Neri. It’s not real. It’s not real. Tighten your Outer wards. Do it!’

  Barrod rushed forward, sword half-drawn, glowering uncertainly at Teya.

  The jun struggled in Dallan’s arms, crying piteously and trying to slap at her hair and arms.

  A cold hand gripped Teya’s wrist.

  ‘Tey,’ Ying said, her voice a squeak. ‘Stop it, please? It’s not Neri you’re mad at. She’s nice. Really.’

  Teya met Ying’s pleading look and rode a surge of shame. Perrin would be horrified, too. She let go the illusion and hunched her shoulder. The room surged and flowed like the hotsprings water through the town’s pipes. She shook her head and blinked to clear it.

  ‘Neri, you’re alright,’ Dallan assured her.