by Auryn Hadley
He nodded.
"Ok, so, please don't take offense to my questions. Your sister, she doesn't know who sired the kid?"
"I'm guessing she does, but damned if she'll tell us. Sal, she's got another. The younger one, she's only six. They look like a matched set, though, so I'm pretty sure they were sired by the same man, but she's never been seen with anyone."
"So, she thinks no one will approve of him, right? Could it be his rank?" she pressed.
"Yeah, that's usually how it works. Princess Vanica – as my sister, she got a new title, too – she inherits her husband's rank and title if she marries. She's old enough that she doesn't need approval for her vows, although traditionally, it would be expected for her to ask me."
"You humans make these things too complicated," Sal teased. "But I take it she isn't married now?"
"No," Dom said, "otherwise the kids would be able to inherit the title of their stepfather, and then I could squire the boy."
"So, if Vanica cares for this man, she wouldn't be interested in marrying someone else just for his title, since she can't exactly move up from where she is, right?"
Dom nodded.
"Then what would it take to promote the boy's dad to a rank that she'd be able to marry him? Marquis? Duke? Can you do that?"
Dom looked at Sal strangely. "I'd have to know who the man was. Marquess is the closest to the title she holds now, but Duchess is so close that she wouldn't notice a difference. Either one would grant the children the rank they'd need, too. But she won't tell me who he is, Sal. I've asked her for years. You're also assuming that the kid's dad would even be interested in marrying her."
Sal smiled, her feral teeth showing. "Dom, you know how we are."
"You know something, don't you, Sal?"
She grinned at him. "It's not my story to tell. I can assure you that the father, he's in love with her, and has been all this time. You've even seen them together. I was standing next to you when it happened. Jase assures me that this gentleman is more than ready to give everything he has to her and the kids, but he lacks the rank. Knowing that, does it change your opinion any?"
Dom stared at the ground, thinking hard. "When did you meet my sister, Sal?"
"I never did. I was told who she was, and we've had enough court dinners that she and I have been in the same room. Dominik, you know better than that. Jase got a read. He's known for a while, but never realized the importance of it until now. We don't think of things the same way you do. A woman who has a child with a man she loves? That's all there is to it. The complexities of your," Sal flailed her hands, "government system, monarchy, thing. It makes no sense to us."
"Sal, she loves him?"
She shrugged. "Supposedly. She hasn't told you who because of the punishment he'd get."
"He works in the palace then. But back then we weren't in the palace, we lived in Valmere," Dom muttered to himself.
"You won't figure it out, and I'm not going to tell you. Dom, what I want to know is how can we make this work out?"
"I just need to know who it is so I can grant him a title and give the man a chance to do the right thing. That's it. You just have to let me know who to ennoble."
Sal leaned back in the chair, pleased. "That's all I needed. So who can be ennobled? Obviously, the military, if you're willing to grant me a title."
"Yeah," Dominik said. "Soldiers who've proven their worth in battle I can grant minor titles. Officers who perform acts of heroism can get others. Military leaders – which is basically you, Ilija, Jase, and the officers that report directly to you – I can ennoble them. I can raise a minor noble to a higher position, and I can grant legitimacy to a known bastard. That's about it. So unless this man falls in one of those categories, we'll need to work something else out."
Sal shook her head at him. "No, Dom. I think you're going to be ok. Speaking of accolades, though, did you hear about the soldier that saved the grauori Ahnor?"
The King looked at her slyly. "Him?"
"No, different subject. A soldier named Dalyr Trant. The Ahnor risked his life to save a human, and he took a Terran ax in the side for it. Dalyr took grauori teeth but got him to the healers. Rragri is in his debt and would like you to be sure he gets the credit he deserves. Dom, she'd never say it, but you need to know this. If her mate had died, all relations with the grauori would be over. Her rage, and her hold on the grauori link – our mental connection – it could've caused them to turn on all humans. Anglians."
"She'd do that?" he asked.
"She wouldn't mean to, but grief is grief. Jase took a lance today, and I almost killed the kid even after he surrendered. Jase stopped me, though."
"Jase took a lance?" Dom said, rising to his feet.
Sal waved him down. "Risk healed him. His tattoos need to be re-inked, but that's about it. But I don't think you humans can understand. We link when we fight. We share a mind – all of us share it. If someone in my link dies, I'd feel it. I'd know his last thoughts, I'd feel his pain. I'd feel him wrenched from my mind. That's what happened with Roo, I could feel her dying." Sal dropped her head to rub her face. "If Arrgro had died, nothing could stop Rragri. Her pack would be locked in the grief with her. They'd feel the loss as much as she did, and they'd frenzy. Now multiply that by seventy-five hundred of them."
"Shit," Dom said softly. "There'd be nothing left but grauori."
Sal let a smirk show. "So give the kid a medal, ok?"
He huffed out a laugh. "Well, you have a good way of putting things in perspective, don't you."
Sal shrugged. "I try."
"Anyone else I need to know about?"
Sal paused to think about that. "You saw most of what I did. Ilija rounded up the prisoners and kept the rest of us from them. The Shields were amazing out there, but I can't think of anything they did that was out of the ordinary for an elite unit. I'll ask the other officers and the grauori. I can get you a list if you need it?"
"That would be great, actually. Military heroes help keep the civilians supporting what we're doing."
Sal met the King's eyes. "And I'm ready to hand over my title to Ilija."
He looked away. "I'm not ready for that. Not yet, Sal."
"No, not yet. But when we're back in Dorton and the alliance with the grauori is sealed, I'm going to do it. We're going after Terric, I'm sorry."
"Then lead us. Take Anglia, and lead us," Dom begged her.
"No." She cut that thought off with a slash of her hand. "Sire, Anglia needs an Anglian leading it. We're iliri, and we'll always be iliri. The grauori will have their own structure, and I don't know how you will deal with that. Anglia has two very different species, and two very different types of leadership."
"I don't think it's as different as you think, Sal. I have some ideas, but I need to talk them over with Rragri, and this isn't exactly a good time for that, but what better than some iliri to blend the differences between us? And a woman! What with the equality movement going on, you'd be perfect."
She shook her head. "I can't, Dom."
"Why not?" he insisted. "What would it take to keep you with us?"
"You don't need us. Out there, millions of iliri part-breeds are being killed or enslaved, and there's no one standing up for them. We're all that's left. We're the only iliri on the continent that follow the old ways. You have no idea what we've done to get here. We hid our instincts, we played human when we had to, and we fought hard. All you've heard are the stories about our victories. No one talks about how when Jase and I rode in from eliminating the Escean warlords we were spat on. No one talks about how a man stuck a poisoned knife between my ribs in the middle of the army encampment, and if he'd lived, he would have spent a month cleaning latrines to pay off the debt of my training. No one talks about how it's legal to force me to lay with a human in every other nation on this continent!"
Dominik watched her with a shocked expression.
She kept going. "You don't have iliri here. You don't know what it's like ou
t there. If we don't stand up for them, who will? How can I sit in a palace in the mountains, shivering by a massive fireplace and enjoy it, knowing that somewhere another iliri is being beaten to death, and she doesn't have a pack to protect her?"
He leaned over his knees. "I never knew, Sal. You never told me that."
"It's not your problem, Dom. Here in Anglia, you worry about titles and bastards and how high the women's skirts are. When the women talk about wanting their rights, I can sympathize, but only to a point. We should all be equal. In the Conglomerate, women are treated the same as men, but iliri are not. We aren't human, not even Razor- who looks more human that half of Anglia. He has grey eyes, though, and that's all it takes to be labeled as iliri and sold."
"What did they do to you?" he whispered.
She raised her eyes to his. "I wasn't treated any different from anyone else in the Blades."
"Even your human?"
Slowly, she nodded. "They call him an Iliri-lover. When he was a kid, he had his ribs broken by his friends, because he hugged his servant." She shrugged it off. "I told Blaec what you offered us at the ball. We haven't told the rest of them. We wanted to wait until the fighting was over but we can't take it. Ten years ago, Blaec was promoted on the field. That's the only way a crossbred gets the rank he has, not to mention control of an elite unit. He made the Blades into what it is. For a decade now, we've done what we can to protect the iliri, to work for iliri equality, and to make the world a bit safer for our kind. We're not done. We can't stop until the Emperor is dead. I can't take Anglia into that. It's not your fight."
"It is now," he promised.
"Not like this, it isn't. You can push him back into Terric, but can you really justify taking over half the continent? How would you explain away the leader of your military mutilating the body of the Emperor and systematically slaughtering every anti-iliri officer they have? We're the Black Blades. We don't fight fair. I'm talking about assassinations, mutilations, the use of our abilities in ways that you cannot explain to most humans. I'm talking about breaking the Conventions of War to make sure my people survive. What would you even do with the iliri we plan to save?"
The King leaned back with a proud smile. "The same thing I plan to do now. Offer them a home here. Sal, we have acres of land with no one living on it. We have room for people, and we have no problems with iliri. Hell, this is your homeland, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it kinda is. Would you really take all of us?"
"I would. I don't know how, but yeah, I would. And I'd need someone to help me figure it all out. Sal, you've set me on my ass more times than I can count." He chuckled to himself. "You remember the night you bit me?"
She giggled, too. "Yeah."
"I've learned a few things since then. You put me in my place in a way that allowed me to keep my pride, and then you never held it against me. I need that. I need someone that understands iliri, but who can explain it to me in a way that I can get through my thick head. Shit, Sal. I can't do this without you."
"Yeah, Dom. You can. You have to." She pushed herself to her feet. "I'll check the prisoners, because if you're serious about your offer, I'm betting you have almost two hundred new citizens out there."
"See! That proves my point. I can't do this without you. How would we know if they were iliri?"
She smiled. "You'll ask the grauori. They can smell them as well as I can. Dom, you'll be fine. Ilija will do great." Then she headed to the door.
"So why can't you stay with us?" He called, stopping her halfway across the room.
She turned to face him, but her shoulders dropped. "I have to do this. We have to do this."
"Ok. And Anglia just got pulled into this war. What aren't you telling me?"
Biting at her lips her head tilted to the ceiling. She blinked and took a deep breath. When she looked back at the man she'd made into a king, her eyes were still dry. "We probably won't be coming back."
"Why not?"
Sal shook her head. "We know what the next mission will be. Someone has to infiltrate the Emperor's domain. He won't step down because we ask nicely, Dom. We have to take it."
"Sal," he said softly, moving toward her.
Sal lifted her hand, stopping him. "Just..." She had to breathe before she could finish. "You want to do something to show me how you feel? Take care of Roo and the pups. I need to check the prisoners and interrogate the Archduke."
Without another word, she turned and stormed from the tent.
Chapter 43
Sal pushed through the flap of the tent and kept going. Tebio and Caein got a nod as she passed but nothing more. Her destination was the Shield's camp. If Dom was going to start prying into her plans and trying to be nice, then she had a few things to take care of. She owed the man that much. Somehow this country had made her feel like she belonged, which meant the last thing she wanted to do was drag it into her mess. But that didn't mean she couldn't clean up a few that existed before she arrived.
Ilija was the first, and she was going to make him deal with this head on. As the royal guards, the Verdant Shields were clustered just behind the King's pavilion. The tents were green, like all the other Anglian tents, but the nearly white armor was stacked outside each one. Vanja walked past and Sal called out to him, asking for Ilija's tent.
He pointed. "It's that one, Kaisae. Everything good?"
"Yeah, I just need the Colonel."
"Gotcha. He hasn't been real sociable lately, just so you know."
"Thanks, Vanja," Sal said, moving toward the tent he'd indicated. She scratched at the flap, speaking softly to the door. "Ilija?"
"Come in, Sal," he called back.
Ducking through the flap, she found Ilija on the floor, his armor spread about him as he carefully cleaned each piece. Except for the gear, his tent was immaculate. The only thing out of place was the smell of his frustration and fear.
"I see you keep your home as neat as your unit," she said.
He just shrugged. "Ok, let's get this over with. I fucked up."
She cocked her head, refusing to make this easy. "How?"
"I slipped in the link. Damn it, though, Sal. What was I supposed to do?"
"You mean Jarl? That's a mistake?"
The big guy looked up at her, clearly annoyed. "Don't play the fool with me, Kaisae." He gestured to his cot, inviting her to sit. "I just spent a few hours in your head. I have a pretty good idea of how you think."
"True, but what does that have to do with the kid." She held up a hand to prevent him from interrupting her. "Jarl's a good kid, Ilija. He's going to be a damned good soldier whether you like it or not. I'm still iliri, and I still don't really understand the foolish rules you have about who you love here, but I get that you've kept it a secret."
"Yeah, but shit. They all know, now."
"So?" Her ears flicked forward. "None of them know who she is. It's not hard to figure out, but you didn't leak that. Blaec closed you off too fast. I think only the Blades caught that you have more than one kid, but the Shields can put pieces together. From what I can see you've only made one mistake, and it's not the one you think."
"Ok, so what did I do wrong?" he grumbled, scrubbing at his bracer.
"You didn't trust your men."
His frantic cleaning slowed and Ilija stared deeply at the sheen on his armor for a moment. "What did you do?"
"I asked them. That's it. Tebio and Caein are at the King's door, and I had a visit with him – not about you. I asked what they thought about the whole thing, and it's not at all what you seem to think. They wonder when you'll trust them enough to tell them who she is. They're ready to cover for your visits, and they both said that the kid's actions today are why they plan to spoil him a bit." She smiled at the top of his head, watching the Colonel process that.
Carefully, he put the bracer to the side and sealed the container of oil. He sighed, then wiped the excess from his hands with the rag, and sighed again. Finally, he lifted his head and looked at her, h
is eyes red but dry.
"He doesn't know. We couldn't tell him."
She finally accepted the invitation and lowered herself to the cot. "Yeah, we all got that. You ever going to?"
He shook his head, slowly refusing the idea. "I can't. A soldier's kid doesn't get to be a king's page, but his sister's bastard does."
"What do you want, though? I don't mean what can happen, I mean what do you wish could happen?"
He looked down, rubbing at his hands again, and sniffed. "If you were anyone else, I'd say you wouldn't believe me. I love her Sal, I always have."
"I know – Ilija, you touched Jase. Does she feel the same?"
He nodded. "The King's bastard managed to marry the old Valmere Marquis's daughter. Valmere didn't have a son, and the province had fallen into poverty and near obscurity. Tam, Dom's father, was just as sly as the old king. He seduced the girl, compromised her, and married into the position of Marquis. My dad was a cavalryman until he took a bad fall. Well, he got transferred there so he could recover, and mom worked in the kitchens. My old man never left, so I was born and raised there, usually running errands for my mom until I got older." He paused, staring at the canvas wall while his eyes looked into the past. "Girls don't get treated the same as the heir, so Nica was always in the kitchens. I've known her since I can remember, Sal. When she was almost seventeen, I got her pregnant."
Ilija snagged a greave from the pile and began wiping it down, keeping his hands busy. She waited. When the last speck of blood was gone, he spoke again.
"When she told me, it was two weeks before I turned eighteen. Marrying her was out of the question. The Marquis was more likely to hang me. Nica was intended to secure some alliance that would make him wealthy enough to rebuild that stupid keep. So I enlisted and worked my way up. The least I could do was get out of her way and make sure the kid had what he needed, right? Four years later, I was stationed back in Valmere on the walls. I gave her everything I could, Sal, but we both knew that the kids would be better off as bastards than if we married. I could barely afford my own food, let alone a family. Well, being so close to her again, it was like nothing had changed, and, well..." Ilija took a deep breath. "That's when she got pregnant with our girl, Nava. She's six now. In all those years, I've never touched another woman."
