by C. L. Scheel
Assur handed Adzra's reins to the eager hands of another warrior who bowed low at the waist. Curious behavior for a servant of a mercenary, Kitarisa thought, but then as she had decided long ago, Assur was no mere mercenary. He was undoubtedly some favored lord of the Ter-Rey, sent to the Eastern Lands to observe and report on all the incidents he encountered.
"We were confronted by Wrathmen, Nattuck, and they will send more to trail us. We cannot stay here much longer."
Assur turned and lifted his hands to help Kitarisa down from the saddle.
"Then we shall fight them," the tall Siarsi answered vigorously. "Witch-hounds do not frighten us--they are carrion for the marglims."
"That may be true, but they greatly outnumber us at present. Remember Nattuck, marglims are not particular about the differences in the carrion they eat--Wrathmen or Siarsi."
Assur gestured to Kitarisa. "Nattuck, this is Princess Kitarisa, lately of Gorendt. We must see to it that she safely reaches Riehl."
Again, the Siarsi barbarian went down on one knee, offering her the same salute as he gave Assur.
"My lady, we welcome you. I am Nattuck Evneth, my Lord Assur's First Commander."
Kitarisa glanced at Assur. He appeared completely unconcerned with Nattuck's fanatic display of loyalty as if it were to be expected. Her father's own warriors would never have shown such intense devotion, not even the faithful Mar'Kess.
"Please rise, warrior," she said softly. His obeisance to her was disturbing--far more than any warrior should pay to her, even as a princess of the Dominion. Or when she was... Kazan would have considered Nattuck's courtesies too close to groveling for any warrior, but to Assur, it seemed altogether correct.
"Kuurus and the others arrived only a short time ago. I have taken the liberty of allowing them complete rest. I have also met with your Captain Mar'Kess. A worthy warrior, my lady," Nattuck said courteously.
Assur nodded in agreement. "Let them get as much rest as they can--the horses need it, too. Have Jarad look at this Wrathman-beast. See if the horse can stand the rest of the journey to Riehl."
Nattuck bowed again.
"The lady is exhausted. You will see to it she is made comfortable."
Nattuck nodded and motioned for her to follow him. He led her to one of the smaller tents flanking the greater one set in the middle of the camp--Assur's, she presumed. Upon entering the smaller tent, she was surprised by its simple but richly appointed interior. A low brass brazier set in the center of the tent on a intricately patterned carpet, sent its welcoming warmth to every corner of the tent. There were two small trunks for storage, both made from a wood she did not recognize and each inlaid with red corals and gleaming onyx.
To her right was a low bed covered with thick black fur, cut and sewn in an intricate pattern.
Kitarisa was so tired she barely had the strength to remove her riding dress and brush out her hair. Someone had brought a basin of hot water and a towel and she gratefully sponged off the dirt and grime from her hard riding. She slipped on her nightdress and touched one of the ribbons at her shoulder. It was a garment meant for an eager and expectant bridegroom. Kitarisa bit her lip and fought back the sudden tears. Perhaps it was exhaustion, or maybe the strain of uncertainty, but for whatever reason, knowing she was within the barbarian's grasp and his rights to have her was more disturbing than she realized.
She heard a polite cough--Nattuck's cough--just outside her tent. It had come sooner than she thought. Assur's summons. Not unlike being Summoned by Verlian, she thought wearily.
Kitarisa pulled on the silk overrobe and stepped outside, allowing Nattuck to escort her to Assur's tent.
His tent was sumptuously appointed. Assur fared well as a mercenary. Under her feet spread a thick carpet, intricately patterned in reds, black, and gold--the kind of carpet her grandfather would have brought to Sherehn Keep, having come from far-off Maretstan.
Unlike the smaller tent, low tables were placed strategically near a brass brazier that glowed and smelled of fine incense. There was no furniture except for a generous scattering of cushions and pillows designed to recline against, and a bed, draped and covered in silk and thick furs.
Kitarisa shuddered. A place arranged for seduction. Hopefully he would be quick about the whole sorry business, she thought miserably. Once he saw....
"Please, be comfortable," his deep voice came from behind, startling her. She whirled to face Assur.
The heavy leather jerkin was gone as were his swords and the other equipment of his trade. He had been washed and the trim beard and moustache were clipped and neat. She caught the scent of cedar or sandalwood emanating from his skin which Kitarisa found strangely disturbing. Assur was a tall man and filled the tent with his presence--a presence enhanced by his wearing the magnificent fox robe that hung in deep folds from his wide shoulders to the carpet.
Kitarisa felt her face turn pink as she stared at him. The open robe revealed no shirt or tunic under it. Fine, black wool trousers hugged his trim waist and were tucked into high boots made from black, breok calfskin. In the shadowed light of the tent, the markings around his eyes appeared both frightening and uncomfortably sensual, like being watched by a tiger.
"I trust you found everything to your liking?" he asked with one of his slight, wry smiles.
"Yes," she managed to murmur.
"Then, please sit down." He gestured to the cushions.
Kitarisa sank stiffly onto the nearest cushion, clutching her hands together so he would not see them shaking. He sat down so very near her, Kitarisa felt somehow surrounded. Unlike the casual familiarity of their traveling, with his men all about and with Alea to watch over, Assur was now dangerously close and close enough to touch her. The sleeve of his robe brushed lightly against her arm sending faint shivers under her skin. She fervently wished she could get up and leave or that he would find her tedious and send her back to the other tent.
Assur leaned back into the cushions. "Would you care for some wine?" he asked pleasantly.
"No."
"No?" A black-winged brow swept up. "Very well, I know just the thing--some shen tea. It is soothing and warming on such a chill night."
He clapped his hands once and a young Siarsi entered from the side of the tent. Kitarisa looked down, too ashamed to look at him.
"Shen tea, Lostic."
The boy bowed and disappeared only to return quickly with a tray bearing black enamel cups and a matching teapot set over a tiny flame. Assur dismissed the boy and poured the tea. He handed her the cup and poured some of the steaming liquid for himself.
Kitarisa sipped the tea tentatively. It was delicious and did help ease her hammering heart and trembling hands.
"It is good," she admitted, setting the cup back on the tray.
"More?" He did not wait for her to answer, but again poured her another cup. "My mother used to ladle this down me when I was a boy, when my stomach was bothering me."
"Oh?" Kitarisa could scarcely imagine Assur as a boy much less with a doting mother administering tea to him.
He handed her the cup and his fingers brushed against her knuckles causing her to start so suddenly, she nearly spilled the tea.
Leaning forward, his midnight-blue eyes seemed to bore through her. "Kitarisa, I am not going to hurt you."
She looked down into the cup, formulating her next words.
"Will you just be quick about this?" she asked, forcing herself to glance up at him.
Assur frowned, confused. "Quick about what?"
When she did not answer, he nodded, finally realizing what she meant.
"My lady, as much as I may appear like one, I am not a barbarian...a merciless savage. You are not here as some...pleasure slave."
Bitter tears pooled in her eyes and she brushed them away angrily."Then tell me why I am here? Like my father said, I shall be a disappointing prize, my lord."
"Is that what you think?"
She looked away from him. "What else am I expected to th
ink? Surely, I am not here merely to enjoy tea with you? Or maybe I flatter myself too much?"
Assur took the cup from her hand and forcibly turned her by the shoulders to face him. "You are here because I wish it, and because you asked for my help. I told you, I would not leave until I found a way to free you." Very gently he touched her cheek.
Kitarisa blinked back threatening tears. "So, you have freed me. What am I to expect now? Am I some kind of Talesian booty? Where am I to go?"
"Your rightful place is in Riehl. Surely you know that? I have already told you, you are not bound to me."
"My father has made sure I will not rule Riehl. I cannot imagine Riehl accepting me as their ruler after having renounced my rights to the Falcon Throne. They are not fools, my lord." she said, lifting her chin a little.
"The Council Circle of Riehl would be fools if they did not accept you. The document you signed will not be honored."
Kitarisa saw the hard light in his eyes and suddenly felt uncomfortable. Again, she had the odd sensation that Assur was more than what he appeared to be. His words were too decisive for a roaming soldier of fortune--there was too much authority in his voice.
"I do not understand the depth of his cruelty to you," he continued, visibly suppressing his fury.
"I have told you before, I am the daughter of his enemy. There is nothing, nothing I, nor anyone else can do to change that, not even your kindness. You asked me once why I turned away from kindness when it was offered to me. I will tell you why--because it is always used against me."
Tears began to run down her face, unheeded. She no longer cared what he thought, but suddenly felt a lifetime of anguish and disappointed hopes break through her cool resolve.
"You remember when I told you about the guard Rhynn Palinn, the one person I dared to love? The man my father had butchered? Kazan's anger did not stop with him. Oh, no. He made very sure I would never again give myself to anyone and every man in his court would know it."
Trembling and sobbing, Kitarisa turned on her knees until she faced away from Assur and shrugged off the brocade robe revealing the delicate silk of her nightgown. She pulled down the ribbons at her shoulders and let the gown slip to reveal her entire back to him.
"You did not get any prize, my lord, and Riehl will get no blushing maiden for a ruler. As you can see, you get `used linen.'"
She felt his eyes, staring at her back--sensed that he was sickened and appalled by what he saw.
Her shoulders, down to the deep V at the middle of her back had been spared, but the rest had been marred by a networking of scars revealing where she had been brutally flogged.
"Every man in the garrison watched, my Lord Assur," she said through her angry tears. "Now. You take me barbarian. It just does not matter. You cannot add anything to my shame. Just use me and leave me alone."
Kitarisa buried her face in her hands, too ashamed to continue. She released the pent-up, carefully controlled pain and cried out her bitterness in deep, aching sobs.
"Kita'lara." In an instant, he was around her and pulling her into his arms. She did not fight him, but buried her face into his chest. Tenderly he stroked her hair and then pulled the edge of his fur around her back, enveloping her in his embrace and covering her shame.
Kitarisa was not sure how long he held her, but she did not care, and he would not let her go until she had cried out the last of her tears. Sometimes she moaned, sometimes she cried out and tried to push away from him, but he would not release her.
Finally she stopped, resting quietly against him, warm and safe. So safe. She sighed. For a moment she was at peace.
It had been a long time since she had felt so secure and protected, not since she was little and permitted the short stays with her grandfather. She pressed her cheek against Assur feeling his heart, strong and steady, as if by its very beating he could keep away the nightmares and the pain. She did not want to leave his embrace, but stay in his arms forever.
Assur muttered something in a strange, dark tongue that sounded like and oath or a vow.
"Kitarisa," he said quietly, "Kazan will be punished for this vile crime, I promise you."
"What can you do? You are only--"
"You must know by now I am more than a mere mercenary. You have told me all your secrets, I will give you mine."
He pushed up the left sleeve of his robe and turned the wrist over to reveal a black mark embedded deeply in the skin on the inside of his lower arm--a firemark. Assur turned over his right arm and matched it against the left, showing the twin brand. It was the same mark, the crest she had seen on the saddle knife he had given her: a rose and a sword, encircled by a crown.
"Only two people have these marks. Myself and my father. I am D'Assuriel, Kitarisa. The Ter-Rey."
She pulled away, staring at him, clutching her gown to her breasts at once frightened and mortified.
"You are the High Prince?" she whispered. "I cannot...I do not understand."
She felt tears come again as she realized the full import of his confession and what she herself had just said and done. Kitarisa collapsed before him, forehead pressed to the carpet.
"Mercy, Great Lord. I beg your forgiveness. I was foolish and--"
"There is nothing to forgive. Please rise, Kitarisa. Look at me."
She obeyed, but lifted herself slowly. She knew her face was aflame with embarrassment. How could she have done such a thing? Baring herself to him like a silkroom whore and assuming he would--
"I am sorry, Great Lord. I did not realize who you were."
"It is I who should do the apologizing. I should have told you earlier, but it seemed best to keep my identity a secret."
"Do the others know? Captain Mar'Kess?"
"Yes."
"Then, my father must know. If he finds me he will kill me."
"No." Assur took her shoulders again and shook her lightly. "Kazan will do nothing to you. Nothing. Now he must answer to me and with his very life if necessary," he said grimly.
"I still do not understand. How did you come to be here and at Sherehn Keep?"
"The Riehlian Council sent a secret communication to me, telling me about Alea's abduction and the ransom. They also told me of their suspicions concerning Kazan and his determination to put Alor on their throne. I do not often rescue princesses from common roadwilds, but for such a high ransom, that is something else. I have had my own suspicions for some time and it is a good thing I came to see for myself."
Assur paused a moment to shrug off the heavy fur and drape it around her shoulders. He sat back from her. "Kazan has never seen me--he has seen my father, D'Achad, but not me. It has been too long since a Ter-Rey has looked into the affairs of the Eastern Lands and I can see I was nearly too late. Kitarisa, I know your father intends to have Riehl, if not by an arranged marriage, then by force."
Kitarisa's tears left her as she realized the seriousness of his words. She sniffed and touched her hands to her wet face, trying to blot away the last of the tears.
"You think our abduction was part of his plan?"
"Yes, but why he had both of you abducted is a mystery to me. What purpose does it serve other than to get my attention?"
Kitarisa pondered his words for a moment. "It has something to do with that witch, the White Sister. And, it would have been a convenient way to be rid of me. He undoubtedly had arranged for my `accidental' death, or for me to be sold into slavery...or else I was to go the Catacombs."
Assur's brows knitted together. "Perhaps."
"If I were dead, it would clear the way for Alor."
"And serve as an excuse to attack Riehl," he added.
He stood and began pacing the confines of the tent.
"Will they truly attack Riehl?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Yes, I am sure of it, only now he has something else to contend with: me."
"How would he know you are here?"
Assur stopped his pacing and looked down at her, hands on his hips. "Kitarisa, what
has happened to the saddle knife I returned to Lady Falla? Did she give it to you?"
Kitarisa shook her head, confused for a moment, trying to recall the knife. "No, my lord. I guess there was no time--she must have forgotten it."
"Thenthe witch knows I am here. She knows and so will Kazan."
Kitarisa glanced at his arms and suddenly realized what he meant. The firemarks burned into Assur's arms were the same as the mark stamped into the knife--the mark of his house and his clan.
Kitarisa looked up at him again, her eyes huge. "If he goes to war, then they will be breaking your peace and the treaty. Surely he will not be that foolish."
"He will, because he will think I do not have enough time to re-cross the Adrex and send for help. The snows will come soon, Kitarisa, and no one, not even an army of Talesians can cross the Adrex in the dead of winter. Riehl will be Kazan's by spring. However, I have taken some precautions. There is a large mountain valley two day's ride from here, where my legions await."
"The Riehlians will fight, I know it. Surely they are not helpless."
"They are brave warriors, but will be no match against Gorendt, especially with all the new arms and horses Kazan has been gathering. If Riehl falls, then he will control all of the east."
"That is treason," Kitarisa whispered.
"Yes, it is and Kazan must be stopped."
She had nothing more to say, but remained kneeling before him acutely conscious of his eyes upon her. She tugged at the fur about her shoulders trying to recover herself with as little embarrassment as possible.
"I have much to do and you should rest. For now, you must keep my secret Kitarisa. I will send spies into Gorendt to find out if Kazan knows I am here. You will be safe from him. One of us will always be at your side and I know if that old Siarsi had his way, Kuurus would probably wish to stayin here." He smiled.
With the greatest care Assur assisted her pulling up the ribbons of her gown and resettled the silk of her robe. His hands were warm and gentle and lingered only for a moment on her shoulders.
"Some day, my lady, I will hear you say to me the kind of words you said to that guard in Sherehn Keep."
