Homage and Honour

by Candy Rae

  Tana believed she had the answer that would pass muster. To tell him that she intended to spirit away the Queen’s youngest daughter was unthinkable, part of the truth would be best.

  “I have news for her,” she gulped, “news of her eldest daughter.”

  “Jessica?”

  Tana was confused. How did he know about Jess? This man must be closer to the family than she had thought.

  “Yes,” she admitted, “she is dead.”

  Philip nodded and Tana got the distinct impression that this was not news to him.

  “You have come all this way just to tell Her Majesty that?”

  “I promised Jess that I would if anything happened to her and Mlei.”

  “How did she die?” Philip’s question was deceptively mild and disinterested.

  “She died in the mountains in a fight against the gtran defending a mining camp.”

  “You were her friend.” this was a statement, not a question, “a good friend to put yourself in so much danger to venture south like this. Are you in the Vada too?”

  Tana remained silent but a slow flush spread through her cheeks.

  Philip looked at her closely. Something wasn’t quite right about this lad. He sensed it, an indefinable feeling as yet but one that warranted further investigation. First things first though.

  “Are you hungry? Course you must be. I’ll get you a meal in a bit. I must admit that you don’t look like an assassin, but it is my duty to make sure. I know the royal children well. What are the names of the next two after Jessica?”

  “Anne, she is called Annette and then Xavier.”

  “The youngest girl?”

  “Ruth. Her grandmother chose it.”

  “Did you ever meet them?”

  “Once, during training. Jess took me and Beth to meet them. I stayed with the family at their farm.”

  “Describe them to me.”

  It was only as Tana did that Philip began to relax.

  “You must have been very young if you trained with Jessica,” he observed, “I did not know the Vada trained babes. What age are you now? Fourteen?”

  Tana blushed again and stared at him, agonised. He was close to finding out her secret.

  “James gives your name out as Tam. What is it really?”

  “It is Tam,” Tana floundered.

  “I think not girl,” was his sharp retort.

  Tana bit her lip, to have come so far and to have been stopped at the final hurdle. He would not take her seriously now. Beth had taken pains to explain how the men of Murdoch treated and thought of their women.

  Philip surprised her.

  “So why come all this way to tell them their daughter is dead? A letter would have done.”

  It was time to be straight with him, “Jess and I, we were friends from the start. We were like sisters, closer even. We swore blood-oath. I promised that if anything happened to her I would do what I could.”

  “Where does Elisabeth Graham come into all this?”

  “She began training at Vada same time as me. She was so helpless, you should have seen her. Jess and I, we looked after her, Hannah too. We were all close, Jess, Beth, Hannah and me.”

  “The other two, are they blood-sisters too?”

  “Yes, but Jess and I were closest.”

  Philip’s own meal appeared at this point and Philip ordered another portion, passing his own to Tana who attacked the repast with gusto; such a change from trail rations.

  “I think it safest that you remain here in my quarters,” announced Philip, “the necessary is over there.” He pointed to a narrow door then left.

  * * * * *

  Tana remained in Philip Ross’s quarters for what was left of the day while her host came to a decision. He spoke to his Sergeant, an old friend of his and one whom he could trust.

  The two gate guards who had been on duty when Tana arrived found themselves out of the palace grounds and on a trip to Smithstown. Philip was in no mind to advertise his guest’s presence in his quarters. The guards were more than happy with this unexpected holiday especially since the Sergeant indicated there was no hurry to return.

  He returned to Tana.

  “It will not seem strange to my men that you remain here. They know I am friendly with the Graham cousins. I often spend time with their messengers and get news of the family. They also know, or think they know, from your attire that you are a close family retainer, a relative even.”

  “How so?” asked Tana.

  “You are wearing the livery of Duke Graham, you know this?”

  Tana nodded.

  “You wear the badge of not just an ordinary retainer, but one of the bloodline. Jeremy Graham has many offspring begat on the wrong side of the blanket, at least fifteen at the last count. I wish to encourage their assumption that you are yet another of the Duke’s by-blows. I also think it best that you have no need to beg a cot in the barracks. It would be impossible to hide your sex there. You have rested?”

  “Well enough.”

  “Then I’ll leave you here. Don’t go out. I’ll be back within the candlemark, two at most.”

  When Philip returned he told Tana that his meeting with the family, who she still thought of as the Crawfords, had been successful.

  “I have spoken to the Prince Consort. He has agreed to meet you after his evening meal. He often strolls in the gardens alone, to collect his thoughts and to feel the air on his face. He did so before his illness and more so now.”

  “We will wait for him there? He will definitely be on his own?”

  “He insists upon it, always has.”

  “How much have you told him?”

  “That one has come from the North with news of his daughter.”

  The gardens to where Philip took her were large and extensive. They were very like the formal gardens situated on the outskirts of Settlement. Full-grown trees swayed gently in the balmy breeze and paths meandered through them. Tana and Philip waited on a wooden bench at the edge of the garden but far enough from the outer walls so that no-one could overhear.

  David walked with a slow gait towards them and Tana rose to her feet, alarmed at the change she saw in the man. She had expected that Jess’s father would be older, it had been over a decade since her visit to the farm but then he had been vigorous, brown-haired and with energy enough for two. He was now grey-haired and walked stooped over as if even the action of walking gave him pain.

  He recognised Tana, despite her disguise and travel-stained clothes.

  “It is Tana! By the Lai, how did you get here undetected?”

  “I rode,” she replied with a grin.

  “Tavei?”

  David had no trouble remembering her life-mate’s name and Tana realised that although he looked frail, there was nothing the matter with his mind.

  “He’s well hidden.”

  David sat down on the bench beside her and Philip left them to act as lookout just in case someone thought to brave the Prince Consort’s displeasure and follow him into the gardens.

  “I am amazed that you of all people are here.”

  Tana told him of her journey trying to put off the moment when she would have to tell him about the details of Jess and Mlei’s deaths but he guessed she felt diffident about bringing up the subject.

  “Jess is definitely dead then? Mlei too?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “How? How much do you know? We have heard little more than the official announcement.”

  Tana told him. “The gtran are very vicious. Three died in her Vadryz that day. As to why I am here, well, I promised her that I would tell you if anything happened to her.”

  “She would not have expected that you come in person Tana, much as I appreciate it.”

  “There is more,” admitted Tana.

  “Tell me the more.”

  Tana did. She told him of Andrei’s arrival at Vada and of how he had always thought of Ruth as his future; how they had played together; that he had com
e to her and Tavei for help when he had learned that Jess and Mlei had died; of how Jess had been planning to come south to get Ruth. “I spoke to Jess before her Ryzck had left for the mountains, if they hadn’t died, then ...”

  “It would have been Jess sitting here beside me,” David finished for her. “How could Jess have been so sure that Ruth would want to return to the North?”

  “During your visit to Vadath they talked. Jess promised Ruth. Jess was my oath-sister. Her promises are my promises.”

  David thought about Ruth, still, he had to admit, not reconciled to her life as a princess. She was always asking him to tell her stories about the North, about Jess, about the Vada. She looked set to remain the hoyden princess, always skipping away from the confines of her rooms to visit the stables, always demanding more freedom. Now Conclave was pressing for marriage. Of course, if given the chance, Ruth would go back to Vadath and he felt he had no right to try to stop her. If he thought about it, he had a moral obligation to help her do so. Ruth had not agreed to stay in Murdoch as a princess all those years ago when they had been kidnapped. Anne and he had made the decision. They had sacrificed their own lives and happiness for Murdoch. To his shame, they had also sacrificed the children, one to the crown and one to an arranged marriage. Did David want another arranged marriage for Ruth? No, he did not. He made his decision and turned to Tana. “We must make plans. Can you leave tomorrow night?”

  “It should be soon,” Tana agreed. She was surprised at the quickness of his answer and even more surprised at the speed with which David wanted to move on this. “The longer I am here the more likely it is that I will be found out.”

  “Leave the details to me,” David instructed her. “I will speak to Anne and Ruth. Now I must return, if I am away much longer someone will notice and begin asking questions.”

  “Before you go,” said Tana, struggling to reach her belt-pouch, “it isn’t much, but it’s all I could manage with safety. It is Jess’s Vada badge. She was wearing it when she died and was given to me by her commanding officer who knew of our closeness.”

  “Thank you,” was all David said as he took it with trembling fingers, then he left her, passing Philip with a few words and making his slow way back to the palace.

  Philip took Tana back to his quarters.

  In the quiet of their bedchamber, he and Anne opened the soft package Tana had given him and took out the silver badge within. They fingered it and remembered Jess. The corner was torn and dried blood stained the stitching but this made it all the more precious; Jess had worn this at the end and it was the only physical memento they had, this and memories; that of a laughing young girl, her curls blowing in the wind as she mounted Mlei at the end of that last leave at the farm, then later, a year ago, during their visit to the North, a tall serious young woman but still full of fun, of plans for the future, of joy at meeting her parents and little sister again.

  “I am to report to the Prince Consort first thing in the morning,” Philip told Tana. “He did not have time to say more except that you would explain all.”

  I could not tell you before,” began Tana.

  “You did not trust me?” Philip queried.

  “Not altogether … no.”

  “Do you trust me now?”

  “Jess’s father said I must. I think he intends that you will have a part to play. There is … there is … another reason, apart from the deaths of Jess and Mlei that is, why I came here. It is not merely my Lind Tavei who waits for me in the lian, the forest. Another is with him.”

  Philip was leaning forward, the better to hear Tana’s low voice.

  “The other is the future life-mate of Jess’s sister Ruth.”

  “Princess Ruth?” Philip sounded incredulous.

  Tana explained.

  “He is newly adult. He and Ruth met when they were very young and played together. Andrei tells me that they promised each to the other at that time, but they were too young. He told Ruth that he would return when he was older but when he did the family had disappeared, no-one knew where at first. He never forgot her. When he reached adulthood he began to look for her and he found out that Jess and Mlei were at Vada. He went to Jess and she promised to help. Then she died and now the task is mine. It is my right and duty. It is Ruth’s right to choose her own life.”

  “She is a Princess of Murdoch,” retorted Philip, “and a female. Her duty is to stay here.”

  “She wasn’t born so. She is of the North first.”

  “Will you tell me about the North Tana?” he asked, “my brother and father have been to Argyll but I have not.”

  Tana talked about her youth in Argyll, her training at Vada and serving with her Ryzck in both Vadath and Argyll. As she talked Philip grew more and more interested, began to wish he might have been born a northerner. He told her about Murdoch, about his own upbringing.

  As they talked an indefinable something began to pass between them, an electricity, a something that both took great pains to suppress. When they eventually went to their beds (Tana was given a truckle in the front room), Tana fell asleep immediately, but Philip lay awake a long time, thinking hard.

  Philip had been brought up in a hard school, both he and his younger brother Mark, after a short time spent at court in their middle teens, had gone on to officer training. He knew little of Argyll, less about Vadath and was almost completely ignorant about the rtathlians of the Lind. The Queen and her family had originated in Vadath but seldom spoke about it. The Prince Consort had been the most forthcoming but even he had said little, only some details about his own small corner. Until Tana began to talk Philip had had little idea of what life was like there. He also learned that the bonds between human and Lind had, at their root, love and mutual respect. Philip had been taught that Vadath was an enemy of Murdoch. Tana had said that the North had no intention of threatening Murdoch. What have you got that we could possibly want? had been her exact words. Well, he had never thought of it like that before, they merely defended what was theirs, same as his own people.

  So why are we taught that they are our enemies?

  From what Tana said, pirates apart, the real threat to both their countries was not each other but the Larg. He suspected his father believed this already and perhaps his brother too. Philip himself had never been as deep a thinker as the two of them.

  He had to know more about all this. If the Prince Consort asked him on the morrow to help Princess Ruth set out on her journey to meet the boat that Tana was sure would be waiting to take them north, he rather thought he would accept. He might even go a bit further than the palace environs.

  The private apartments of the royal family were situated in the only tower the palace possessed. It dated from the time of King Elliot the First, a time when the young king had fought for the right to govern on his own. The palace had grown over the years and was now a sprawling stone edifice with the tower at its centre.

  That morning both the Queen and her husband waited for Philip. As he bowed he noticed that Queen Anne looked pale and drawn. Obviously she had not slept well, hardly surprising with the double shock of hearing the details about the death of her eldest and the fact that she was soon to lose Ruth. Their conversation was rapid. They had been awake for most of the night David informed Philip, deciding on the best move. That Ruth should leave with Tana was a yes. Ruth, when told, had leapt at the chance of escape from a life abhorrent to her.

  “We did not know of her friendship with Andrei,” Anne informed Philip with distress. “She has held this secret all this time, too frightened to tell us of it. You will not understand, but a vadeln-pairing is considered sacrosanct in Vadath, there is no way a true Vadathian would come between them. We have no wish to see her forced into marriage but that is not what drives us. It is our duty to see that Ruth gets the chance to do what Annette, Xavier and even little David cannot.”

  David and Anne looked at each other for a long moment before Anne continued, “we are going to ask a great thing of
you,” she began.

  Philip tensed. So they were going to ask him.

  “You wish me to escort them to the woods where their Lind wait?” he asked.

  “Yes, we do, but it could be construed as treason.”

  “Yes, but I have spoken to Tana. I have been thinking, I feel the need to see more of this world of ours. I have never, in my entire life journeyed far. This is my chance.”

  “Something else has affected you,” said the astute David. “Tana is an attractive young lady underneath the disguise.”

  “I have met none like her,” Philip admitted.

  “She was a pretty child that time Jess brought her to stay,” said Anne. “She showed promise of beauty. Jess was like an untamed colt beside her, so tall and ungainly.”

  “A brave young lady,” added David, “I am proud that Jessica found in her such a staunch friend.”

  “I will do it,” Philip said, dropping to one knee. “I have spoken to Tana. We think we can manage a subterfuge to make it seem like I had nothing to do with it and thus make it look as if you both knew nothing also.”

  “What is your plan?” asked David.

  * * * * *

  War (1)

  The Largan had sent for his closest advisors and his bravest fighters.

  His voice boomed. “It is time. For too many seasons we have hidden here in our dens, waiting for the day when we can once again fight for what is ours by right. The kohorts are at full strength. The time is right. The time is now. The way is clear. We must not wait until the melts. Muster the kohorts and lead them to the gathering place.”

  He looked at the large male who stood quivering at the very front.

  “To you, Yvdr the honour to lead my kohorts to victory. If you succeed in this the next Largan you will be.”

  Yvdr stood tall and proud.

  “I will destroy them all,” he promised in a ringing growl, “or die in the attempt. Victory will be ours.”

  The war-baying could be heard throughout the valley and beyond.