by R. J. Price
“We're going where?” Aren said, stopping the moment she made the connection.
Av and Jer pulled to a stop, looked at one another, then to Aren. Jer cleared his throat and muttered something in Av's direction, rubbing at the back of his head as he suddenly found a tree intensely interesting. Av chewed his bottom lip.
“I thought it best if we not tell you where we were going, given what was said before.”
“He'll kill me!” Aren shouted at Av. “Are you mad? Do you want me dead? Just take that axe and chop off my head, do it before he spots me.”
“We are here to talk to him about Jer and me,” Av said, motioning between himself and his brother. “Not about you. I had to bring you, because I couldn't very well leave you at the palace with Em.”
“You said he would kill any queen that steps on his land. What am I? What is this? He won't care your reasons, only that you disobeyed him!” Aren shouted, stomping her feet in frustration when Av almost smiled at her. “I have to get out of here before he finds me.”
“Too late,” an older voice said from behind Aren, causing her to stiffen. “He already knows you are here.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Av smiled when he saw his father step onto the path behind Aren. He saw the approving look, as eyes so much like his own roved up Aren's back, and an eyebrow quirked when the young woman stomped her feet. Av also saw the terrified look on Aren's face when his father spoke, how she made no attempt to hide it as she turned to him.
“Av, Jer,” their father made eye contact with each of them before he focused on Aren. “Who is this pretty little thing?”
No comment on the bruising across Aren's face, though their father knew that Av was training the ladies at court, and might assume it was from an accident.
“You owe me six coins,” Jer said quietly to Av.
Being the one who had brought Aren, Av stepped up beside her. “This is Lady Aren Argnern, her father is lord of the Bilgern vineyards. She was ward of the palace until a few months ago.”
“Bilgern makes good wine, at least they did until about five years ago, now it's all piss and grape juice,” was the gruff response. “Only wine I used to drink, too, a shame, really.”
“She's a queen,” Jer called over Av's shoulder.
Av turned and shot his brother a scathing look. Jer stuck his tongue out at Av.
“I'm not blind, boy,” their father responded. “And stick that tongue back into your mouth.”
Jer swallowed hard. Av turned back to his father. Wrapping an arm around Aren possessively, he pulled the woman close to him.
“You two head on to the house,” their father said, motioning to Aren, then Jer “You, Jer, leave that axe by the woodpile. I want to try it on some kindling. Going to be cold tonight.”
“Yes, sir,” Jer responded. “Come along Aren. We'll get some food into you before you chew someone's face off.”
“I'm not going to chew someone's face off,” Aren snarled.
She left with Jer nonetheless, disappearing around the corner in a matter of moments. Av watched his father watch him, certain he was going to be in a heap of trouble for bringing Aren without permission. He knew that bringing her was calling his father's bluff. He also knew that his father would see the move as a challenge and an insult.
“That is a mighty fine woman you've found yourself, son,” his father said, motioning down the trail.
Av moved down the trail, keeping pace with his father. He stepped off the trail, knowing that the conversation would take some time, and would not be of a topic that he wanted Aren to overhear.
“She's been hiding herself, at court ten months, and I only discovered her recently,” Av said in frustration. “Four days ago no less. I'm supposed to be master and I cannot even see a queen that is standing under my nose.”
“Is this what the two of you were fighting over?” his father asked.
“Jer doesn't want her.”
“Jer doesn't want any woman,” was the growled response. “He is simply trying to do what he thinks a good son should, and find a woman to settle down with. I meant, were you fighting because she and Em got into a spat?”
“Yes, Em tried to order Aren executed.”
“When women fight, you let them fight. You let them punch and kick and scratch one another, let them roll across the floor and make fools of themselves because if you break it up, you only cause more problems later on. It is not like you and Jer fighting, and my telling you to stop, which puts an end to it. Them, as Aren and Em are, do not think clearly, not in the least. Especially when facing one another.”
“Jer has been increasingly upset and I don't blame him,” Av said.
His father shook his head and waved a hand at Av to stop speaking. “That is for me to discuss with him, not for you to tell me. You know that both of you want the ability to tell others what is wrong, anything less and it is a betrayal of trust.”
“This is important, Father, just one thing, please.”
“Does it bother you as well?”
“It weighs on my mind.”
“Very well,” his father stopped to inspect an apple for ripeness. “Tell me what burdens your mind. Unload yourself, Av.”
“When I first noticed Aren, it was her absence, not her being there.”
“Did anyone else notice?”
“No,” Av said, shaking his head, “what's that got to do with anything?”
“When a man notices the absence of a woman it speaks volumes,” his father responded. “Continue.”
“While she worked the kitchens I barely noticed her, and then she was injured while working and hid it. Yet when I discovered this, I was not upset with her, I chased her and caught her and I was proud that she fought back, that she managed to catch me off guard.”
“Volumes,” his father muttered. “Is this all?”
“Aren was placed in charge of Mar and used that to come back to training when I forbid her from returning because after teaching her she allowed herself to be injured.”
“Is the man who injured her still alive?” was the response, no questioning as to the chase, to the lack of discipline and upholding the laws which his father had laid down and Av had sworn to keep.
“I don't know.”
“Very well, though I would suggest you look into whether his health has taken a sudden turn. Continue.”
“When Aren questioned me, in front of the palace guard no less, I should have put an end to her rebellion then and there but I felt something that confused me.”
“It's called lust.”
“No, I know what that feels like,” Av said absently. “I helped her train Mar because I wanted the girl trained but Em said that Mar could not be trained. I knew Aren must have been doing other things against Em's wishes but I made no effort to look into the matter. Em sits the throne, I'm to protect her.”
“See my response to your noticing Lady Aren's absence,” his father said. “Continue.”
“When Aren brought Mar, I determined to do anything in my power to discover what Aren was hiding.”
“By this point it was obvious that she was hiding something? Why did you believe that?”
“I don't know, my gut simply told me something was off about the lady.”
“I would suggest that you did know she was a queen but did not understand what you were looking at, however, her behaviour was suspicious, do you not think? She allows a man to stab her but dares stand up to you when you banished her from training. Why allow the one to get away with a bodily slight while refusing to allow another to attempt to make a valid point?”
“Why does Aren do anything?” Av growled.
“Being stabbed, Aren was trying to remain hidden. The healers have skill at the palace still, do they not?”
“Yes, why?”
“No rank can hide when a healer lays hands on them, standard practice when checking anyone brought to them to ensure the injury is not life threatening.”
“The h
ealers know?” Av asked, pulling to a stop in the middle of the path.
“If the healer did her duties as are laid out in the agreement between the healers and the throne, yes, she knew the instant she touched Aren what the lady was,” his father said, motioning Av to keep moving. “But at the same time Aren knew you saw her, knew that you would not forget the woman you chased across the grounds. She was taking action, placing herself before you and ensuring you could see her and knew where she was at all times. Sometimes the easiest way to hide something is to place it in plain sight.”
“Maybe,” Av murmured.
“What does this have to do with what is between your brother and me?” his father asked.
“Jer has been helpful along the way. At Mar's mating the aunts came—Em's aunts.”
His father muttered, “Those three? Talking in riddles and circles, getting your mother to do the same. Hardly ever understand what they mean.”
“They made a great show of telling anyone who would listen, how much Mar looked like her father's mother, how she had her father's features,” Av said. “This all works in, you understand.”
“You are unloading yourself and will reach that point when you come to it, is what I understand. Continue.”
“During the festivities of the engagement party, I lured Aren away and revealed her as a queen but no one else at court felt it, only me, in that room. She clubbed me on the back of the head.”
“Never turn your back on a woman after you've revealed that you know her secrets.”
“She did it with magic,” Av grumbled. “Then she fled the palace, managing to snag the only madman the palace has seen in fifty years and went out to his murder plot in the west where he proceeded to attempt to murder her but she hid in a spirit cave.”
They walked a little in silence.
“Cleaning house,” his father said finally.
“What?” Av asked.
“Never mind, it was something your mother said when I accused her of getting into trouble. Managed to find herself cornered by a rapist while she was dressed in training clothing and dirt all over her face, he had no idea who she was until she put a blade through his throat. Then she stumbled over the still-warm body of the ambassador to the coastal villages while the baron of the Southern Wastes tried to pull his axe from the man's back.”
“I thought mother was telling a long tale when she told me that story at bedtime,” Av said.
“There was something about your mother, as if trouble were attracted to her and yet none of the trouble that found her ever went looking for her on purpose. They were just as surprised as she was to be in that situation. She called it cleaning house, ridding the world of evils that went unnoticed for too long.”
“Are you saying that trouble will find Aren?”
“Constantly, unless,”—a motion to the woods around them—“this is the type of life that she wishes to lead. It was what your mother wanted but the throne called. We came out as often as we could. She needed the quiet, to get away from everyone because there was so much wrong with the world that she simply could not fix it, not by herself. She wanted to call in the other queens, the stronger ones, and create a council but you try convincing them to sit for longer than an hour without one of them trying to stab another.”
“Aren gets along with Mar, and Telm was gruff but said she had no problem with Aren,” Av said. “Mind you, Telm likes Mar better.”
“Telm, that old housekeeper?”
“Head of house now, house master as well,” Av said. “Em is a good deal of things but she recognizes hard work and Telm does a magnificent job at the palace.”
“She's older than I am. And she knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That Aren is a queen. She ever rage to you about her staff being too friendly with Aren?”
“She was absolutely furious when a serving girl tried to hide bloody rags from her, when she discovered the servants fought over who had the privilege of cleaning Aren's rooms. Why?”
“The servants know as well?” his father sighed. “In their case, however, they know but they don't know, as commoners are wont to do. It seems nearly everyone but the lords and ladies at court know.”
“How do you know that Telm knows?”
“Because her girls are fighting over Aren and she was not angry about that. She wasn't even angry that the girl was trying to hide something from you. Telm couldn't care less if her servants told you to take a flying leap off a cliff. She was upset because this behaviour can be noticed by the outside and if Em happened to pay attention, happened to see the change, then Aren would be outed.”
“Does that mean Telm sides with Aren?”
“Is Em wasting away?”
“Yes,” Av said quietly.
“No, Telm is siding with the throne. The woman has stopped herself from taking the throne several times and when a woman does that it leaves an imprint on her. Telm would know, having never seen Em, that she was wasting and if Aren is a queen it would be in Telm's best interest to keep Aren around.”
“Why?”
“Sacrificial lamb. If Telm doesn't ensure there is a queen within the distance of the throne, the throne can actually override her refusal and take her instead, no matter her age. Telm is very certain her life on the throne would be short and painful, something that I completely agree with. She is a wonderful woman and a good queen but she hasn't the magic to do more than register as a magic holder.”
“Oh,” Av said, a whole new image of Telm forming in his mind.
“Buy Telm's trust by buying her. When Em passes, the throne will go to another. Ensure that you tell Telm that no matter who takes the throne, you will protect her interests thanks to her years of service. Telm will find another queen as sacrifice. You don't need to mention to her that Aren is yours, she already knows it, she knows things about you and Aren that you think no one else knows, things that even you don't know. Just offer her protection.”
“Thank you, for that advice,” Av said.
“Continue, as this has yet to link to your brother.”
“After Mar mated, after Em and Aren fought, I called a meeting, see if we could sort it out. Jer comes upset, beyond the usual problems. I try to see to him like I do everyone else and he comes out with the fact that Mar is his daughter.”
“What?” his father stopped, spun on Av. “You saw her, you swore to me she shared none of the bloodline features.”
“Maybe she hasn't grown into the features in a way that I would notice,” Av said in defence of himself.
“Maybe,” his father relaxed. “Confirmed by Em?”
“Yes, she lied all this time,” Av scuffed his foot against the path. “I feel... robbed by this. I've thought of Mar since I met her. I talked Em into bringing Mar to court because of that meeting, because I felt drawn to her. On the one hand I'm relieved that it was not attraction, as Em first suggested but on the other hand.”
“You want to stab Em?”
“A little bit, yes. She hurt my brother. I'm the only one who is allowed to do that.”
His father nodded. “I know the feeling, though it was my sister's mate I stabbed. Let me give you a bit of advice on that one: do not, under any circumstances, act on your desire. Both will be upset, they'll bond over it and he'll end up drowning her in a lake and burying the body in a place that he never tells you, preventing you from giving her a proper burial.”
“I thought Aunt Olerma went across the eastern ocean,” Av said.
“What else do you tell a child?”
“You said her mate followed her a few months later.”
“There was no way I was telling you what actually happened to him—you boys were already terrified of me,” his father said.
“One question though,” Av said. “What exactly is a spirit cave?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Aren,” Av said, motioning to his father. “This is Ervam Marilton, youngest son of the baron of the Northern Wastes, mate to M
irmae Hue, who sat the throne before Em. Ranked, trainer.”
“Your mother was a queen?” Aren asked Av, setting aside the peas Jer had given her to shell, to give her something to do while she waited for Av and Ervam to come in from their walk. “And you're both ranked and your father is ranked. Whatever happened to your other siblings?”
“Other siblings?” Av asked, obviously confused.
“She's looking for the commoners,” Ervam said, shaking his head. “There are none, Lady. My father, and his family, were mainly ranked. The law says that one cannot become baron of the Northern Wastes without being a warrior and having a queen as mate. Of course our queens tend to be stronger because they don't have the throne to take their magic, they need to concentrate on lighting things, and then learn to do it while carrying on everything as per usual.”
“Why not bring one of those queens down?”
“I did, I brought Mirmae at the insistence of my father,” Ervam said. “She and my step-mother did not get along, and my father wanted us both to survive. First trainer born in seven generations to the bloodline. He was very proud of me. Mirmae took the throne and, well... The rest is really history, isn't it?”
“But Hue is a Southern Coastal name,” Aren said, pointing to the east towards the coast.
“She took her father's name but his family had lived in the north for three generations before Mirmae was born,” Ervam said with a smile. “Av here took my name, whereas Jer chose to take his mother's name. That would make any of Jer's children Hues, wouldn't it Av?”
Av considered, smiling slightly before he said, “If Jer had children by Em it would, yes.”
“Why?” Aren asked. “The girls take the mother's name, the boys the father's. Unless they chose the opposite parent's second name, but only if they are a commoner. Except in the case where a single parent raises multiple children.”
“Or no child of the right gender is born to a dying line, You're quoting palace law, but the boys were born in the Northern Wastes and use those laws, because the man comes first to the mating,” Ervam said. “Unless a prearrangement is made. It's a fact that most don't know unless they move from one area to another. The coastal regions went through their change shortly before you were born. Is it your mother or your father you take your name from?”
