Riven (Exile Book 2)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  Renn’s men would be very good with a bow. That was his weapon, and he was an excellent teacher.

  As they drew within the shadow of the fortress, Shannen heard a strange buzzing sound overhead. She glanced around to see Renn’s guardsmen all looking up, apparently having heard it as well. The sound grew louder, until, in the blink of an eye, a silvery, almost mirror-like object jettisoned across the sky. The sight drew gasps from the assembled guardsmen, and Shannen had to look again, sure she had been seeing things. Of course, when she looked back up in the sky, there was no sight of the object.

  When she looked back at the guard who was holding her horse’s reins, he was studying her.

  “Tell me that was a Maarlai…thing,” he said.

  She shook her head. “I never saw anything like that with them. If they had it, they would have used it against us, I think.”

  The men all stood, still looking up into the sky, until the one at the head of the line called, “come on, let’s get in the fortress.”

  “A play of the light,” one of the men muttered. “Had to be.”

  “And the buzzing sound?” another asked.

  “Insects. Big ones. All this drought, they must be swarming somewhere nearby.”

  “That didn’t look like any bug I’ve ever seen,” a third man put in.

  “Let’s just keep moving,” the first man said.

  Moments later, they rode through the gates, which were quickly closed behind them. The man leading her horse stopped and helped her down, then ushered her into the large central building. She gave the stone walls, flickering torches, and narrow windows a cursory glance, and nodded at her escort as he showed her into what looked to be a small sitting room or parlor.

  “Please be seated. I will have one of the servants bring refreshments, and Lord Kinari will join you shortly.”

  “Thank you,” Shannen said. He gave her a nod and left, closing the door behind him.

  Shannen took a deep breath and inspected the room. She would guess that Renn did not use this particular room often. The furniture was stuffy and formal, all ornate carvings and plush silks and velvets. A generic painting of a hunting scene hung over the fireplace, a sorry copy of one that had been produced hundreds of years ago. Like everything in the world they lived in, it seemed to lack the life and vitality of days past.

  Shannen lowered herself into an armchair near the fireplace, wincing as she settled onto the seat. She shifted a bit from side to side, trying to stretch her lower back.

  The softness felt strange, as if her bottom would sink right through the puffy seat cushion and she would find herself on the floor. She found herself looking for a hard wooden chair, and then rolled her eyes. How far I have fallen, she thought to herself. Before I know it, I will be one of those people who prefers the hard earth to a soft bed, or dried meats to a juicy roast.

  Though, to be honest, dried meat would have been welcome. Her stomach growled again and she tried to think of something other than food.

  When I’m queen, I’ll never be hungry again, she told herself. No one will be hungry, because I won’t allow it. She knew that if she were to ever say those words aloud, she would be called naive, simplistic, or any number of things. But if she could not, at the very least, ensure that all of her people ate, how could she even dare to promise them anything else? She would never be Edwell, taking and taking and lying and cheating. She would make promises and keep them. As if that was such a difficult thing to do…

  Before she could follow that train of thought any longer, the door opened and Renn stepped through.

  He still looked the same. Same dark, wavy hair, same thick beard. Same piercing dark eyes, mischievous smirk, dimple on his left cheek. Same broad shoulders, lean waist, and muscled forearms. He walked to her and bowed before her, kissing her hand gallantly.

  “Your highness,” he murmured. He raised his eyes, lips still pressed to her fingers.

  “Lord Kinari,” Shannen said.

  “Don’t the Maarlai feed you? Where have you gone, Princess?” he asked as he straightened, walking around her as if studying a piece of art.

  “They fed me just fine. Six weeks of marching and sparse supplies will do this to a person.”

  His face lost all of its humor. “So it’s true.”

  Shannen nodded.

  “You know he put a bounty out on you a couple days past? A big one.”

  “I heard.”

  Renn shook his head. “Princess, out of respect for our long and… pleasurable past together, I have to ask you: have you lost your gods-damned mind?”

  “Clearly not.”

  “Clearly so,” he said. He shook his head again and opened the door. “Please have Magdelene bring up something for supper. And plenty to drink,” he added. “And clear out the hall, other than you.”

  “Yes, sir,” Shannen heard another man reply, and then Renn shut the door and walked back toward her.

  “Did he put you up to this?” he demanded.

  “Who?”

  “The Maarlai bastard.”

  Her jaw dropped open, and Renn looked away.

  “I can’t believe you married him.”

  “I did not exactly have a choice. And before you say anything you might regret later, I am still married to him.”

  “That’s not what we’re hearing.”

  “I know. We each have things to deal with, and it is politically advantageous for him right now if it looks as though he has renounced me. Which works out for me, because now I can travel freely and none of the Maarlai give a damn. Mostly.”

  “I never would have let you go off on some half-cocked suicide mission like this—”

  “Which is why we never got anywhere, Renn.”

  He took a deep breath. “Why are you here?”

  “Because I need someone to train my army. I need the manpower you could provide. And I need someone I can trust.”

  “No.”

  “That was too quick,” Shannen teased. “You know you want me to convince you.”

  “Even you couldn’t convince me to get involved in this mess. I won’t help Edwell, but I’m definitely not putting myself and my men on the front lines of your little war for vengeance.”

  Shannen studied him. All right. He knew her too well. She could not very well play the “I am doing it for my people” game with him.

  “Edwell is a buffoon. We both know that. Yes, I want to see him fall. I want to be the one to bring him crashing down, and I want to do it as publicly and spectacularly as possible. I will not insult you by lying about that.”

  “Thanks,” he said sarcastically.

  “But everyone else would benefit from his fall as well,” she added. “Think of it Renn. The wars, the way he spends money as if he pulls it from the air, the cruelty—”

  “And you’d be better how, exactly?” Renn asked.

  Before she could answer, there was a light knock at the door and Renn called for whoever it was to enter. A solidly-built middle-aged woman walked in bearing a tray and a large basket. Renn stood up and took the tray from her, setting it onto the table, and the woman set the basket down beside it.

  “Is there anything else, m’Lord?” the woman asked.

  “No thank you, Magdelene. Thank you for this,” he said, gesturing toward the tray.

  “Of course,” she said, giving Renn a slight curtsy. Her gaze went to Shannen and then widened with recognition. She fell into a low curtsy before her, head bowed.

  “Your Highness,” she said quietly.

  “Thank you for bringing this, Magdelene. I was starving,” Shannen said with a small laugh, realizing with a wince that for the first time in her life she knew what that felt like, when so many lived that way every day.

  “It was no problem at all.” Magdelene glanced at Renn, and then gave Shannen another bow. “If I may speak freely, your Highness?”

  “Of course,” Shannen said, bracing herself for whatever the woman might say.

  “My hu
sband and sons all died in Edwell’s foolish wars. If you do truly plan to usurp him, I will help in any way I can. I will march. I will fight. No one has ever given me the opportunity to avenge them. I want to, so badly.” She reddened, then glanced at Renn again. “Apologies, Lord Kinari. You have been a fair and kind employer.”

  “None taken,” he said, a look of baffled amusement on his face.

  Thank you, Magdelene, Shannen thought, hiding a grin.

  “If that is what you want, I am more than happy to have you,” Shannen told the woman. Magdelene curtsied again and excused herself, closing the door behind her.

  Shannen looked at Renn, who seemed to be busying himself pouring wine and adding meat, bread, cheese, and some plump berries to her plate. Her stomach growled loudly and Renn shook his head.

  “Eat,” he said, handing the plate to her. “And then we’ll talk.” He settled back and watched her. “Harledon is here, by the way. He was here checking up on us, hinting that the king would like a bit more in tribute. We will be keeping him here for a while, if you’re so intent on doing this.”

  At the mention of her uncle’s vile little secretary, Shannen gave a sound of disgust. “Thank you for that.”

  “Right. Now, eat.”

  Shannen was caught between wanting to argue with his commanding tone and giving in to her growling, clenching stomach. In the next moment, she was stuffing fragrant meat into her mouth without any care to how indelicate she looked. She chewed, swallowed, licked her fingers, then ate cheese, bread, fruit. Renn refilled her plate wordlessly, and she finished that in no time as well.

  “Well, your appetite hasn’t changed. Thank the gods,” he muttered. “I can’t believe he let you go off without adequate supplies. Or that he let you go off at all, but that’s a whole other matter.”

  Shannen sighed and took a gulp of the sweet wine Renn always kept on hand. “Nobody ‘lets’ me do anything. You know better than that,” she said, looking over the rim of her cup.

  “If he had any sense at all, he would well fucking try.”

  “Is that any way to speak in the presence of a lady?” Shannen asked.

  “Well, since I don’t see any ladies here, I’m not too worried about it.”

  Shannen laughed, and after a moment, he joined her.

  “I’ve missed you, you absolute pain in the ass,” he said, still smiling.

  “I have missed you, too.”

  Renn took a deep breath. “This thing you’re asking me to do, Shan…” he shook his head. “There is no way you can win this. And then where does that leave me? And fuck it all if I don’t sound like a sniveling worm for saying that, but it’s just not me that I have to think about, though my ass is on the line as well. What about the people under me, who’ll fight for you because I ask them to? What about their families? What about all of the people who work here and in the village, who rely on me? Do you think for even a second that Edwell will be lenient toward anyone associated with a traitor?”

  “Then we must not lose.”

  Renn laughed, and it was not a humorous sound. “So says she who has never actually been in battle. Who has never led a damn thing other than pranks against Edwell and his family. You know nothing about what it takes —”

  “Which is why I need you,” Shannen said, meeting his eyes.

  He sat back in his chair, and it creaked beneath his bulk. He studied her. “You hate him this much for making you marry the Maarlai?”

  Shannen rolled her eyes. “Why are you so interested in my marriage?”

  “As someone who has spent more than a little time in your bed and contemplated a lot more than that, who considers you a friend, yes, I am interested in your marriage. How can you stand it, Shan?”

  “My husband is warm, intelligent, caring, brave, and honest. He bears the weight of leadership well, and I am proud to be married to him. He is the first person in my life to understand that I want so much more, and not ridicule me for it.”

  “Do you love him?”

  Shannen gave a small nod. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  He glanced away, then let out a short laugh. “Well, that’s something. I never thought anyone would earn that from you. I sure the hell didn’t.”

  “We have always been friends, though,” Shannen said. “For many years, you were the only one I could stand being around.”

  “Considering the other company you had, that’s not saying much.”

  “But it is,” Shannen insisted. “You helped me become myself. You helped me become unashamed of who I am and what I want. You have my loyalty, until my dying day, for that.”

  Renn groaned. “You can’t say something like that while asking me to do something insane for you.”

  “I’m very good at being manipulative when I want to.”

  “I know.” He sighed. “So how does this work? Hm? Assuming we can do this, assuming that we can march up there, remove Edwell, crown you… what then?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Are we still under Maarlai rule then, or are the humans their own kingdom again in reality, not just as a way of patting them on the head?”

  Shannen bit her lip, thinking. How could she state this and get Renn to still go along with her? “Daarik and I are married. He will be my king, as I am his queen. Together, we’ll rule everyone. The goal is to make us all one people, truly. Not this stupid, fractured way things are now.”

  “No one is going to go for that,” Renn argued. “They don’t want to be ruled by the Maarlai, either. If it’s between Edwell and the Maarlai, they’ll pick Edwell, even knowing what a nightmare he is.”

  “They’re already under Maarlai rule,” she argued.

  “Yes. And they hate it. These are beings who attacked us, who—”

  “Saved us from ourselves,” Shannen interrupted. “Even you have to admit that.”

  “Humanity never asked to be saved. Many would have rather died than have to bend knee to a bunch of aliens that invaded this world and then told everyone else what the rules would be.”

  “They lived here for a very, very long time before they made any move against us. They were happy with letting us do our own thing, until our stupidity endangered them as well.”

  “Decades, Shan. We fought them for decades, and we lost, and now you think everyone’s just going to come together because you tell them it’ll be fine?”

  “Edwell—”

  “They don’t give a damn about Edwell.”

  “Many of them do. Those who have already joined me do. Magdelene just offered to join me solely because of Edwell. It is not because of my sparkling personality, I can assure you.”

  Renn did not answer.

  “You are like me, Renn. You have lived comfortably. The only difference is, you have fought, willingly, for your king, and you have suffered for it. You have lost friends and family. Even so, you never went hungry. You never went without care when you were sick. You always had a home to go back to. Many of them don’t,” she said, gesturing toward the door where Magdelene had entered the room. “And it was a long time ago, but I swear I will never forget what it felt like to feel like no one cared, sure my mother and I would die and no one would bother to mourn, because we were nobody.”

  “You’ve already said this is about you and your vengeance, not anything else,” Renn said.

  “Vengeance for my mother, too, perhaps,” she admitted.

  “Which I understand. I can respect that. But this is impossible and I don’t want to fight and still be under Maarlai rule.”

  “We need to come together. I have lived with the Maarlai. They are good, decent beings, for the most part. Every group has its asses,” she added, and Renn snorted. “You might like them. They will like this just as little as you do.”

  “Then why push for it?”

  “Because I think we will need one another. They have seers, and they have foreseen danger the likes of which this world has never known. Our best chance at surviving it will be to stick together
, human and Maarlai alike. And I know Edwell would never, ever agree to truly work with the Maarlai, to get to know them, to come to a common understanding. It is just one more reason he needs to be knocked off the throne.”

  She caught a flash of… something in Renn’s expression. Not fear, perhaps, but something very close to it. It was gone almost before it had come, but she knew him well enough to know that he was unsettled, at the very least.

  Renn recovered and rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. You’re smarter than this. They feed you some horse shit about this ‘big danger’ that requires us to work together. You know what it sounds like to me? It sounds like them preemptively putting an end to any uprising we might stage. They know they’re outnumbered here. They know we’re not happy with them. So get us all to get along under the guise of some sort of world-ending danger or some shit like that, get Edwell knocked off the throne, and have one family controlling everything absolutely, without even a puppet king on the throne, which is what Edwell was in every way that mattered after they defeated us. You’re playing into their hands, Shan.”

  “I am not an idiot, Renn. That is not what’s happening here.”

  “This Maarlai you married is just as guilty as any of roping you into this. Let me guess: he told you about it in the first place.”

  Shannen did not answer.

  Renn shook his head. “You’re new to this whole being in love with someone thing. You know what the worst part of love is, Princess? How easy it is for the one you love to use it against you.”

  “Daarik would not lie to me,” she said. He was about to argue when she sat forward. “Did your men tell you about the thing that appeared in the sky earlier?”

  He winced, a tiny bit. Hardly anything at all, but she knew Renn well enough to recognize it. “That was not nothing,” she said quietly.

  He met her question with stony silence.

  Shannen stood up. “Fine.”

  “Fine, what?”

  “Fine. Don’t help. I will see what I can do without you.”

  She moved toward the door. When she heard heavy steps behind her, she knew what was coming, anticipated it as perfectly as she would have ten years ago. The moment his hand was on her arm, she reached back, grabbed his wrist, twisted, and brought him to the floor, her heel pressing into his throat.