But I wasn’t going to allow them to harm my eagle. I scrambled clear of the straps on her back and jumped away from her.
“Go, go, go!” I yelled, and she didn’t argue the point. I could feel the terror rolling off her. With a spring, she was airborne, and fighting for height, stirring up a storm of dust.
Gods, those wings, powerful as they were, moved so slowly. My heart was in my mouth. One, two, three bows were primed, arrows nocked…
“No!” I shrieked. “Don’t shoot!”
An arrow launched, and missed. Another, closer. But soon she was enfolded in dust and barely visible as she gained height. The bows drooped. But then their owners turned to me, and raised their bows again.
I raised my hands above my head. “Don’t shoot! I am Highness Axandrina, the Drashona’s daughter. Please don’t shoot me.”
Bows dropped a fraction, uncertainly. From behind the uniformed line strode another figure, a captain. He was young, not much older than I was, and clearly quite junior, since he’d been left in charge of the dawn watch, the least favoured chore. But he was hard-faced, his expression all determined hostility.
He looked me up and down, and I swear he sneered. “By the powers vested in me by the—”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I said hastily, before he could formally make me a prisoner. “But you don’t want to do that, Captain. Very embarrassing for you. I am Highness Axandrina. Please take me to the High Commander.”
This time he definitely sneered. “The High Commander is asleep. I am in charge here, and you are my prisoner, by the powers vested—”
Oh dear. Not a man capable of reason. Nor could I use charm or engage his sympathies. No, I had to make him doubt his own judgement. I summoned all the aristocratic scorn I’d learned from Yannassia.
“What are you going to do, drag me in chains through my mother’s own army camp? She will be very pleased to hear about that. Look, I have no weapons. I am more than happy for you to search me to verify that. Well, maybe not you precisely, but one of your female soldiers. Then you can escort me into the camp and take me to the High Commander’s tent. Whichever of her senior commanders is on watch duty will be able to identify me.”
For the first time, doubt crept into his eyes. If he’d imagined I was from the Blood Clans, I hoped I’d demonstrated enough knowledge of Bennamorian ways to convince him otherwise.
He licked his lips, and I could almost see the thoughts chasing each other through his brain. Trouble was, he really was in charge, with no one to offer advice. The soldiers around him were as young and untried as he was. Now they watched him, waiting to see which way he would jump. Would he take me prisoner anyway and risk the Drashona’s displeasure if I really was who I said? Or would he be circumspect, and take me to someone who could identify me?
He grunted. “You, there – search her.”
I heaved a breath in relief. Caution had won out. The female soldier so summoned patted me down quite thoroughly, then the troop formed a tight ring around me and marched me into the camp. The few people up and about turned and stared as we passed by, pausing as they shaved or tended the horses or headed for the latrines. Two women sparring with pikes stopped, whispering behind their hands. Some of them must have recognised me, for I’d been paraded through the streets of Kingswell and at every ceremony for years, and my looks were distinctive enough. Yet no one spoke.
The High Commander’s tent was right at the heart of the camp, not especially bigger than any other, but made of stronger material and boasting the largest flag I’d seen, drooping on its pole in the still air. A troop of Elite Guards protected the perimeter, and the entrance was secured by two more and – praise all the gods! – a commander.
He jumped up as we approached, but as soon as he saw me his concerned expression changed to exultation.
“Highness! By the Moon God! What are you doing out here?”
Of course, word would not yet have reached them of my kidnap. I’d been gone for several suns, but somewhere along the road from Kingswell to the border, or on the unswerving Imperial Road, a rider still galloped her labouring horse, a message tucked into the saddle-bag warning the army to watch for me.
“I was kidnapped by the Blood Clans, but I managed to escape.”
The commander looked at my dishevelled appearance and made an instant decision. The right one, this time. “Guard, fetch the High Commander. Are you well, Highness? Uninjured?”
My escort circle drew away from me, instinctively settling at the distance due to my rank, pretending they had been an honour guard all along instead of prisoner escort. The captain, his cheeks burning, said nothing, melting into his troops as if hoping to pass unnoticed. I wasn’t going to let him get away with that.
“Quite uninjured, I thank you. Commander, perhaps you would be good enough to vouch for my identity to the captain here. He was about to take me prisoner until I persuaded him otherwise.”
The captain’s cheeks flamed even more. He made me a deep bow. “Your pardon, Highness, but in war, we are taught to be cautious.”
“There is a difference between caution and discourtesy,” I said coolly.
He bowed again, but he was saved from any further embarrassment by the emergence from the tent of the High Commander herself, remarkably fully attired, considering she must have been abed. She needed only boots, sword, coat and helmet to be ready for the battlefield.
“Highness! This is a surprise. But how you getting here?” Her dialect was oddly soothing to me, for I’d grown up amongst riverside folk.
“On the back of an eagle, High Commander.”
“An eagle?”
I pointed upwards, to where the bird still circled. I’d given her no other instructions, of course. Time to let her go. I sent her a clear mental image of the castle and Ly-haam – I couldn’t quite bring myself to visualise his mother – and muttered, “Go,” under my breath. She wavered for a moment and then resumed her circling. Well, if I was the only connected mind she could detect, perhaps she would stay with me until Ly woke up.
“An eagle,” the High Commander repeated, in a disbelieving tone. “Right. The guard saying you being kidnapped? And you not being injured? You not being ill-treated?”
How to answer that? Was I ill-treated? Bound, dragged about, and then – how could I describe what Ly-haam did to me?
“I am not injured,” I said neutrally.
The High Commander gave me a penetrating look, but let it pass. “And are you being pursued?”
Good question. “Not yet.”
“Very good. Villor, be sending a couple of your fastest riders to Kingswell with a message for the Most Powerful Lady Yannassia. She will be wanting to know at the first opportunity that her daughter is safe. Now, Highness, come inside. How may we serve you? Food and drink? Or shall I organise a horse for you at once?”
“A hot bath, if you can manage it, and clean clothes.”
She could indeed manage it. Within a very short time, I was soaking in hot water, while the High Commander herself sat beside me feeding me summer fruits and asking simple questions that I found hard to answer. How did I come to be kidnapped in the first place? What strength could the enemy muster? Were they about to respond to our invasion?
In the end, I decided that she, at least, deserved to know everything I could tell her. She was so vulnerable out here, the camp isolated and many suns from the Bennamorian border. So I explained about the mental connection to the eagle, and I even told her something of my problem with Ly-haam, although I daresay she knew of it already. She wouldn’t be very good at her job if she hadn’t kept a very close watch on him when he was in Kingswell.
She listened intently, absentmindedly nibbling the fruits herself, occasionally asking for clarification in her rolling river cadences that reminded me of home. She came from very humble stock, shopkeepers or some such, but she’d worked hard and learned well, better than the noble sons and daughters she now commanded. We had a habit of losing High Commanders more
frequently than we should, but this one was young and keen, and likely to last for a few years yet.
“Will they be sending more eagles after you?” she asked.
Another good question. “Possibly. Probably. They have more, I know that.”
“What about the one you came on? Can you be flying home on that?”
“No. No, not at all. If the byan shar takes control of her…”
She nodded. “That be making your journey difficult. You have to be taking the Imperial Road, since the forest being impassable, but then you being visible from the air. I be sending plenty of archers with you, then. How about land pursuit? They be having horses?”
“Not that I ever saw, no. I never saw them riding anything, but then I wasn’t mingling with them. They are reputed to have lions and wolves.”
She grunted. “I be worrying about that when it be before my eyes. Besides, we be dealing with that, no problem. Eagles – trickier. They can swoop down, snatch you up and be off. But my archers be taking care of it.”
When I could drag myself out of the water, and was dressed again, the High Commander said, “I very glad you be safe, Highness. Your mother will be relieved.”
“I’m glad you were here. If I’d had to fly all the way to Kingswell, I’m not sure I would have made it. But luckily we have this little outpost of Bennamore right here, just where I needed it.”
Her lips quirked a little, but she said nothing.
I caught the hesitation. “It is going well, the war?”
A lift of the shoulders. “Very well. Perhaps too well. No opposition at all. We be seeing their little tents here and there but the people – they be melting away like puddles. But sooner or later – they be coming back.”
“Everything seems very well-prepared here.”
“Oh, yes. But the supply lines are long…”
That had always been my worry, penetrating so far into the Clanlands. But it was done now, and there was no use worrying over what couldn’t be changed.
“I am sure you will prevail, High Commander. Do you have any message for the Most Powerful?”
“We be needing more horses, Highness. More soldiers, too, but I already be having my answer to that. And the wood. Supplies are being delayed.”
“I will tell her.”
~~~~~
Every step of the journey was terrifying. The horses were too slow, the escort too small, the archers too inexperienced, the road too exposed. I refused to stop until the light was almost gone, and then I was up again with the sun, ready to carry on. And always I was looking back, scanning the sky for the distant specks of eagles gaining on us.
It was my eagle who saved my sanity during the fraught journey. Sunshine. A strange name, but she had such a warm personality, it was appropriate, perhaps. She refused to leave me, no matter how often I urged her to return to her home. I suppose with Ly’s mother no longer able to connect with her, she had attached herself to me as a substitute. She was always there, wheeling overhead, something familiar for me to latch onto.
I searched many times for Ly’s consciousness, but he was never there. He must have recovered his magic by now, so I presumed his absence was from choice. He seemed to be able to connect or disconnect at will, but I was not sure I could do the same. I was always aware of the eagle, even when I was not particularly focused on her. And Ly had woken me from sleep once, through the connection. I was fairly sure I could not do the same to him.
The eagle was a great comfort to me. Through her eyes, I could scan the road, and she willingly turned her head to view the sky behind her. That way I could check constantly for pursuit. But despite my fears, it never came.
Eventually we crossed the border and reached the fortress, where my exhausted escort planned to hand me over to fresher troops. I was exhausted myself. Ly’s magic had buoyed me for many suns, but now it was gone and I was lapsing into my habitual state of illness. Weak and dizzy, I could barely stay on my horse. But I had to keep moving. I had to get back to the Keep. Only there would I be safe.
As soon as we reached the stable yard and my horse stopped moving, a figure shot out of an upper room, hurtling down the steps. I had barely dismounted and handed away the reins when I was wrapped in a rib-crunching embrace.
“Thank all the gods!” a muffled voice said, the face buried in my shoulder.
I chuckled. “Mother! What are you doing here?”
Her head shot up, and she glared at me. “My daughter was captured by barbarians. Do you think I could sit at home waiting for a letter?” Then another fierce hug, and a longer gaze. “Ah, you are not well. Here…”
She held her hand to my face. Oh, the bliss of magic streaming into me. I felt better almost at once. And somehow her magic felt purer than Ly’s, as if it had greater clarity, like a mountain stream.
Cal was there too, with hugs of his own, and for once I was truly glad to see him. Poor Cal, I’d always resented him when I was a child, and only because he was not my real father. I felt he was pretending, trying to take my father’s place, but maybe I’d misjudged him. Whenever my clinginess had got too much for my mother and she’d pushed me away, it was Cal who’d scooped me up and carried me out to the garden, even in the snow sometimes, and held me until the tears dried up.
Now I saw the genuine pleasure on his face.
But there was no time to linger over the reunion. Fresh horses were found for us, and a new escort, and within an hour we were off again, although at a slower pace. Mother was not the world’s best horsewoman.
It didn’t matter. It was good to be together as a family again, all three of us. For the first time since I’d left Ly sleeping, I felt safe. I knew my mother could protect me from anything.
20: Lovers
I had to tell my story over and over. Mother and Cal had heard the bones of it as we rode to Kingswell. Now I had to explain it to everyone else: first Yannassia alone, then with ever increasing numbers of advisors. Eventually I would have to appear before the Nobles’ Council, but I was spared that ordeal for now. I told the truth, but as always I blurred the details of what had happened with Ly-haam. It was a private matter, between the two of us, or so I told myself.
No one questioned me too deeply. In truth, they were bemused by it all, by the eagle, my kidnap and escape, my strange relationship with Ly. They didn’t understand it, but then I didn’t understand it very well myself. He had explained why I was drawn to him, by his magic, but why he was even more drawn to me was a mystery. And he had changed me, that first time we were together, and I hadn’t worked out the implications of that yet.
To my delight, Mother and Cal were to stay on for a while.
“We want to make sure you are fully recovered from your ordeal,” Mother said.
We sat nibbling cakes with Yannassia and Vhar-zhin after all the advisors had gone. Mother tucked in with enthusiasm – she loved her cakes – but although these were my favourites, they seemed impossibly sweet to me now. I thought wistfully of Ly’s simple foods – the flavourful stews and roasts, the texture of the breads, a different type for each meal. I abandoned the cake, licking the sugar off my fingers.
“We’re going to do some research in the Imperial City library while we’re here,” Cal added. “Do you want to come and stay with us in the mages’ house?”
“There is no need for that,” Vhar-zhin said, leaning forward and patting my hand. “I will take good care of her. You will come home now, I presume?”
“Home?” I said stupidly.
“To our apartment.”
“But… I have my own apartment, Vhar.”
“That was his,” she said scornfully. “You have had such a bad experience with that man, surely you will not want to go back there to be reminded of him?”
I hadn’t thought of it in that way before. It was true that my own apartment reminded me of Arran, and I’d been miserable there after he’d gone. Perhaps it would be better to go back to a place with only good memories?
“I�
��d be happier if you were with Vhar,” Mother said. “You shouldn’t be on your own.”
That settled it. I trotted off with Vhar-zhin, who babbled happily about scented baths and massage oils and a pretty new gown that was too large for her but would fit me perfectly. I let her rattle on. Her voice was melodic and soothing. My nerves had been stretched to breaking point over the last ten-sun or so, with the revelations about Arran, and then the kidnapping. I was more than happy to be pampered and spoiled for a change.
At the apartment, I was whisked off to bathe, while servants fetched clothes and hairbrushes and shoes from the other apartment. Then there was a meal laid out to tempt my appetite.
“You will not want to eat formally tonight,” Vhar-zhin said. “Not after such an ordeal. We can be cosy here together, just the two of us. This is so pleasant, do you not agree?”
“Yes, it is,” I murmured. But everything was too rich or too spicy or too salty for my taste, and I hadn’t the energy to eat anyway. I suppressed a yawn.
Vhar-zhin jumped up. “You are tired, dear one. Let us go to bed.”
Obediently, I followed her through to the bedroom, and began to undress.
“No, no,” she said. “Let me do it. There! These buttons are so much easier for me to manage.”
She patiently unfastened and loosened and untied, sliding my arms out of sleeves, and helping me out of the gown she’d put me in. Then it was undergarments.
I can’t quite say when it was I began to feel uncomfortable, or what caused me to feel that way. Perhaps it was the time she was taking, lingering over each ribbon and button. Or perhaps it was the intensity in her, which was unlike her usual calmness.
But by the time she stroked my breast and then cupped it in her hand, I was already unsettled.
“What are you doing, Vhar?”
“Just admiring you, dear. You have a lovely shape, and see how soft your skin is.”
“Vhar, are you making love to me?”
She lifted big eyes to my face. “I should very much like to, if you will let me.”
The Fire Mages' Daughter Page 19
