“You are a strange child,” Yannassia said. “But now we must decide how to deal with this mess you have created. You are not in love with this boy, but you have made him fall in love with you—”
“Oh no,” I said. “He’s been in love with me for years, and very tedious it was. I just… exploited that, for my own ends.”
She laughed at that, and it was as if the sun had emerged from behind a black cloud. “Do you see how perfect you are for the political life? Exploiting others for your own ambitions – you remind me of myself at your age. The question is, do you want to take him as your drusse?”
“Gods, no!”
Another laugh. “Good, because I would not have approved of that, and nor would the Nobles’ Council. He is a guard, so I shall get him redeployed. He can take his broken heart to the eastern borders, perhaps, and watch for the Vahsi.”
“He is still in training.”
“So he is. Well, the Elite camp down on the Taysil River, then. That should keep him busy. Before he leaves, you will apologise to him, and to his parents, too. In future, find a stranger to satisfy your whims, and preferably a nobleman. You will take the herbs, of course.”
She was back in control, of herself as well as of me.
I nodded. I’d intended to get myself pregnant, but probably it was better this way. Another plan ruined, but at least I had achieved something: my mother would be coming to Kingswell. Not immediately, perhaps, but soon. So while I crawled back, chastened, into my role as dutiful potential heir, I also had a future to look forward to for the first time in years.
Yannassia treated me thereafter as if nothing had ever happened, and so did the entire court. Only Vhar-zhin withdrew from me for a while, and when we talked, she was less warm and friendly. I had no idea why, but it distressed me that our closeness had become so fragile.
~~~~~
The message to my mother had barely been dispatched when we had an unexpected visitor. A rider arrived in all haste from the northwestern border with news that Ly-haam had requested permission to visit Kingswell.
“What under the sun does he want?” Yannassia said, frowning.
“Sex?” I hazarded, and she burst out laughing.
“Are you minded to oblige him, if so?”
Good question. I’d returned to Kingswell hoping that little incident was behind me, but that night had changed me in some fundamental way. The inner warmth had dispersed, but I still felt different, and I now knew that regular sex was not at all the same as that all-consuming need I’d felt with Ly-haam. I had a curiosity to experience it again.
“I might be,” I said. “If nothing else, it would be an opportunity to get more information from him.”
“Indeed it would.” She almost purred in satisfaction at the thought.
Zandara coughed discreetly. More like a little ‘hem’ sound in her throat, to be sure we all noticed her. “I could look after the byan shar in that way, if you wish, Most Powerful. I am more detached than Axandrina, I believe.”
I tried not to roll my eyes. Zandara’s attempts to wheedle her way into her mother’s favour were so obvious.
“Thank you, Zandara,” Yannassia said placidly. “However, Drina is already known to the young man, and he seems to have an affinity for her. Let us not confuse him.”
Indeed. Better not to throw a visibly pregnant woman at him.
“I was joking, Zandara,” I said. “I hardly think Ly-haam is coming here for bedplay. No doubt he wishes to put his case for mage-power to the Drashona.”
“Whatever his motives, it will be a most interesting meeting,” Yannassia said. “I look forward to it immensely. We might be able to come to some beneficial arrangement, if he will give us mining rights in the hills he controls. Or access to their black-bark forests. I should love more reliable supplies, and cheaper, perhaps. How many advisors and the like will he wish to bring, Drina?”
But that was something I could not begin to guess. I’d never seen him talking to advisors at his camp, in fact, most of the time he was alone. But he would hardly come all the way to Kingswell on his own.
“No matter,” Yannassia said, when I explained this. “I will give him an apartment near to yours, in case anything should arise, and we will fit in his entourage somehow.”
~~~~~
While we waited for Ly-haam to arrive, the usual round of court events continued. There were a number of important festivals in the autumn, not just for the Sun God and the Moon God, but for several smaller religions, and a couple of commemorations of important battles. We were in a quiet phase as far as conflicts went, with even the eastern borders peaceful, but our past was dotted with wars.
The nobles vied with each other provide interesting and unusual entertainments for the jaded appetites of the court. One time there was a performing bear brought from the southern forests to entertain the court. It was a pathetic thing, slow moving and not terribly threatening, unless prodded with spikes by its handlers. Then it stood up and roared, towering over the men struggling to hold fast to its chains. For a moment, I feared it would break away altogether.
And at that instant, I was inside the bear.
I heard the squeals of the audience and the shouts of the handlers, seeing through the bear’s eyes the terrified spectators. I even saw myself, wide-eyed, hands to my face in alarm, small amongst the crowd. I towered over the feeble humans, stretching my claws to rip them from head to foot, but the chains held me back. Roaring my fury, a great wave of pain and rage swept through me. Several spots on my hide ached where the spikes had drawn blood, and the massive metal collar weighed heavy around my neck.
This time, I was half aware that I was also me, sitting watching the performance, and something in my mind shifted to push the illusion away. The sensation vanished, and I was myself again, solely myself, watching the bear from the outside.
Shaking violently, my legs were so weak that I collapsed to my seat. It was lucky the crowd was mesmerised by the bear, roaring and swaying about, otherwise I might have been noticed. By the time the bear had been soothed and led away, I had composed myself enough not to attract attention.
There were two other times when my strange experience had been repeated. Once I went back to the same spot on the Queen’s Way, and again felt as if I were in some other place. In some other body. The feeling lasted longer this time, but, half expecting it, I was less disconcerted by it. When I went back a couple of suns later, there were painters working on that section of the corridor, so I couldn’t linger, and when I tried again after they had completed their work, nothing happened at all.
The other such occasion was very different. I was in the cellars, reviewing the supplies of oil with a couple of the Keep’s Stewards. It was routine business, and I was only there to supervise, ensuring that the tally was accurate and none of our expensive goods had mysteriously vanished.
Because of that, I was only half attending to the catalogue of barrels of this and jars of that. My mind was wandering, as it often did, to warm thoughts of my former bodyguard. Now that I’d had some experience of sex, I longed for a man whose touch I’d enjoyed, a man I truly wanted to share my bed with. Sex would be no chore with him, as it had been with Lathran. Nor would it be driven by some strange compulsion, as with Ly-haam. With Arran, there had never been anything more than kisses, and not a single item of clothing had become unlaced or unbuckled. Nevertheless, my imagination was able to supply full details of the occasion.
I had just got him down to his undergarments when I became aware of something nudging at my mind. Many things, in fact. Many minds, although not human. That much was obvious. These were small, animal minds, with limited capabilities.
Curious, I stretched my consciousness towards them. And then I was inside one of them. A rat, I thought. One of many scurrying about in the darkness of the cellars, chewing at carelessly stowed sacks of flour or vegetables. I could taste the grainy flour, feel it powdering my whiskers, the rough hessian scratching my back as I
burrowed. I could smell others of my kind, and the myriad scents of a well-stocked food cellar.
This time, I was completely aware of myself at the same time. I could switch my focus from rat-me to real-me and back whenever I wanted. When I tried, I managed to shut the rats out altogether. Then I had only to focus my mind to become aware of them again. Each time I tried it was easier. It was fascinating.
“—the matter, Highness?”
They were staring at me, the two Stewards, the two cellar workers in their aprons, and my bodyguard, their faces anxious.
I smiled at them. “I am perfectly all right. It is a little close in here, however. Perhaps we can finish another time?”
Sweeping out, I left them gaping at me, Cryalla scrambling to catch up. But I spoke the truth. Finally, I understood what was happening to me. Now all I had to do was to work out why, and for that I needed help.
One of the advantages of my high rank was the ability to summon mages and scholars at a word. Within an hour of leaving the cellar, I had two of each gathered in my office.
“I want to know all about the Blood Clans,” I told them. “Specifically, their ability with beasts. I would like to know how they do that.”
The mages were dubious. “It is outside our domain,” they said. “Unless they use magic…”
“Maybe they do,” I said impatiently. “Find out. Bring me any books you have that refer to the subject.”
They bowed low, and scuttled away to their libraries. They found me a handful of books describing clan history, which I read avidly. I’d missed that, since I’d left the scribery, that deep immersion in books, sitting up half the night jumping from one to another, tying together details from one account with another. But there was little in these books to tie together. The Blood Clans rode into battle atop lions and bears, it was said, and the beasts’ ferocity was such that enemies turned and fled. It was not much to go on, but there had to be more somewhere. The library was vast. Clearly, I would have to find the necessary books myself.
But now that Ly-haam would arrive in Kingswell at any moment, the project had become urgent. I needed to know everything I could about him and his people, and quickly. I abandoned the books, and turned directly to the scholars.
One of the scholars specialised in Blood Clan research. He was so wizened, I was afraid he might fall over at any moment, yet he insisted on standing when he was brought before me.
“The beasts… we do not know how they control them, Highness, but it is so. Wolves, I have seen, and smaller animals, too, weasels and foxes and the like. Lions… that is well-documented, although I have not seen it myself. And birds of various kinds.”
“Tell me about the blood ceremony.”
“Ah, now that is documented in many places. There is a coming-of-age ceremony when a child attains the age of fifteen. It is very simple, in fact. The child cuts his hand, one of the elders cuts his hand, they exchange blood. It is called the Blood-Giving Ceremony, when the child is given the blood of the ancestors.”
“But what is the purpose of that?”
“It is a ritual, Highness. The purpose is symbolic, nothing more.”
I wasn’t so sure of that, but I didn’t pursue it. “What about this boy god of theirs?”
“Ah, now that is something which happens very rarely. A child is born in whom, they say, ‘the blood runs true’. They claim he has the pure blood of the ancestors. He is destined to be a great leader, that is the theory. And naturally, since they all believe it, so it comes to pass.”
“Then he has no special powers?”
“None at all, Highness. But you have seen the current byan shar. You may judge for yourself whether he has or not.”
It was not very helpful. If I knew whether Ly-haam had special powers, I would hardly be asking the scholars for advice.
Now he was on his way to Kingswell. Yannassia had sent a troop of Elite Guards to take care of him, and a carriage to convey him in proper style, but he refused the carriage and even the offer of a horse. He would walk all the way.
And he came alone.
~~~~~
As we waited for him to walk the many marks from the border, business went on as usual. Yannassia was holding a reception one sun, a very dull affair to welcome a new diplomat from the Nyi-Harn. I was only there because I had to be, smiling and making polite conversation with a couple of young noblemen who were vying for my favour. I’d long since ceased to find such competitions amusing. Instead, I was watching Zandara play two merchants against each other. She was rather good at keeping her face expressionless, just like her mother. Even her eyes, bulbous like a frog, were completely blank.
Another group moved in front of her to block my view, and my thoughts began to wander. As they did so, I was aware of three minds far, far above. By instinct, I looked upwards, but there was nothing to see except the very ornate plasterwork of the ceiling and a gold-encrusted chandelier. These minds were a long way above the Keep.
I focused on one of them, and became aware of air currents, of rising warmth, of massively strong wings and feathers ruffled in the breeze.
An eagle. And two more alongside. Ly-haam’s eagles, I knew. He was no more than two or three suns from the city, but he had sent his birds ahead to scout out the land. They were lazily circling at a great height, no more than distant specks from the ground, no doubt.
Could I enter their minds, as I did with the rats, and look down on Kingswell from their great height? I stretched out my mind, just as I had learned to do with the rats.
A sudden flick of perception, and there below me was the shimmering golden glow of the Imperial City between the arms of Candle Mountain. In front of it, the solid red mass of the Keep, with the gardens in the centre, the fruit trees a blur of reds and oranges and golds. And surrounding the two, the dark stain of the city proper, with all its myriad houses and shops and craft halls and warehouses and stables and yards and a few green spots, where the wealthier citizens owned enough land for a little square of garden.
But as I gazed through the eagle’s eyes, I became aware of another mind altogether. A human mind, this time, connected to the eagle just as I was.
Ly-haam. And he was terrified.
9: The Inn
Poor Ly-haam! Whatever the truth of the Blood Clans’ way of life, he was surely not accustomed to the high stone buildings and teeming roads of Bennamore. It took great bravery to make his way to Kingswell alone, but it was no surprise that the experience overwhelmed him. I could help, and perhaps a familiar face would raise his spirits.
After hastily summoning an escort and leaving a cryptic message for Yannassia, I rode out to meet him. By riding hard all afternoon, we caught up with him just an hour or so beyond Wemborth.
He wasn’t difficult to find. Traffic on the road was crawling at moundrat pace for many marks, so that we had to ride on the verge to get past. Wagons of vegetables, piglets and geese, all heading for the autumn lantern festival in Wemborth. There were public wagons, too, crowded with travellers, and a few private carriages. And it wasn’t the press of traffic which slowed them, it was the sight of a nondescript man accompanied by an entire troop of the Drashona’s Elite Guard that caused every passer-by to slow to walking pace and stare at the spectacle.
Poor Ly-haam. He was sitting on a marker stone beside the road, his head hanging low. Beyond him, the captains of the honour guard sent to accompany him had dismounted and were in animated discussion. With the sun low in the sky, they had stopped beside a sprawling inn set back from the road, with open fields behind for the excess horses, if the stables were too small. Plenty of room for everyone. Yet if they carried on, they would end up in Wemborth, in the middle of the lantern festival, and no accommodation anywhere. Not a difficult decision. Yet no move was made towards the inn.
We forced our way through the many wagons. The captains saw us first, their faces breaking into smiles as they recognised the signal pole.
I ignored them. All my attention was focu
sed on Ly-haam. He looked up only as I slid from the saddle, and for a moment I saw nothing but misery in him. Then he recognised me and his face lit up like the moon.
“Princess!” he yelled, leaping to his feet and dashing across to me. For a moment, I thought he was going to sweep me into his arms, perhaps even kiss me, and who could guess how that would end? Would his touch set the fires raging again? But he stopped short, half bowing to me, one hand to his forehead. Then he tucked his hands under his arms, as if to stop them moving without his command.
“Byan shar,” I said. “How good to see you again. You have made good progress. You are no more than two or three suns from Kingswell. I trust your journey has not been difficult?”
“No. No, but…” He glanced at the two captains, who stood watchfully a few paces away. “They do not like me to sleep outside. But I do not like to sleep in a house.”
I tried not to look surprised. “You have been sleeping out of doors? Every night?”
“Of course.”
One of the captains coughed discreetly. “The byan shar does not like to be confined, Highness.”
“I see. But how will you manage at Kingswell? You cannot sleep outside there, you know.”
He looked at me anxiously. “No. I realise. I looked forward to seeing your great city, I was excited to come here. But… I do not like solid walls around me.”
“Well, let us try it, just for tonight.” I turned to the captains before Ly-haam could object. “Captain, secure a good room for us. Something large, preferably on the ground floor with a big window. You understand?”
He did, nodding and summoning a couple of guards with a few terse words. They vanished into the inn.
“Now, where is your luggage?” I said to Ly-haam.
“Luggage?”
“Bags. Spare clothes, or whatever you carry when you travel.”
“Oh, my travel roll. The woman on the grey horse has it.”
I turned to the other captain, but he was already giving the order. Ly-haam’s travel roll soon appeared, a simple cloth bag with a long strap which I guessed he would normally wear over one shoulder as he walked. However, the captain carried it for him now.
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