Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses)

by Sharon Shinn

  “In general. Surely there are tactics you would not use even in war.”

  “War is about killing people,” she said grimly. “Surely there is nothing honorable about that.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “I feel like you are arguing in circles.”

  She spread her hands in a gesture of defeat. “Would I stab a man in the back? No. Would I harm an unarmed man? Only if he was threatening me with his bare hands. Would I take desperate measures to protect someone in my charge? I would if the threat was grave enough. I believe in the kind of honor that says I don’t try to start fights. But if I am under attack, I’ll be ruthless in response. And sometimes that response isn’t as pretty as you’d like.”

  “Well, now, that seems as honest as anything you’ve ever said to me,” he replied softly.

  Why was he always trying to poke beneath her hard surface? Why was he so interested in what she thought and how she felt? All he should care about was that she was good at the service he had hired her to perform. “Do you have such conversations with your butler and your valet?” she asked shortly. “Do you always try to force them to expose the darker side of their natures?”

  “Not so far,” he replied in a cheerful voice. “I can’t imagine anything they’d have to say would be quite as colorful as your observations, however.”

  She had been waiting for him to dismiss her, but now she pushed herself to her feet and prepared to take her leave. “You might meet a hundred soldiers and find all of them think exactly as I do,” she said. “I’m not as unusual as you think.”

  “Really?” he said as she walked to the door. “I must take more time to acquaint myself with the members of my guard if they are all as interesting as you. Goodnight, Willa. I will see you tomorrow.”

  Chapter 11

  THE TRAINING OF THE NEW GUARDS BEGAN IN EARNEST over the next few days, while the game of cruxanno continued in the evenings. It was clear that Jasper Paladar had no chivalrous thought of allowing Wen to win, and Wen decided early on that she would not graciously give him the upper hand merely because he paid her salary. So they advanced their troops cautiously, testing each other’s strengths, and the game proceeded slowly but in a manner that satisfied them both.

  They did not have any more conversations about Wen’s notions of warfare. Thank the miserable gods for that.

  Three days after the cruxanno game had begun, she received word that Orson had arrived in Forten City and was awaiting her at a harbor-side bar. She left Eggles in charge of the afternoon’s training session and met Orson down on the wharf. He’d picked one of the more respectable taverns, and it was relatively quiet during this hour of the day. They took a back booth and ordered a round of beer.

  “You’ve gone up in the world since I saw you last,” Orson observed.

  “It’s only temporary. For me, anyway.”

  He was sprawled on his side of the booth, looking as relaxed as could be, but she noticed how his hands never strayed too far from his weapons. Just like hers. It was a relief, after the long discussions with Jasper Paladar, to be having a conversation with a man who didn’t puzzle her. “What’s the job?” he asked lazily. “And why do you think I’d like it?”

  She gave him a straight look. “I’ve got a feeling you didn’t care much for the marlord who’s now dead,” she said.

  He nodded. “That’s a mild way to put it.”

  “His daughter’s sixteen. Will be marlady when she’s old enough. Karryn is—” Wen shook her head. “Well, she’s a handful and a half. Sweet one minute, stubborn the next, and stupid about half the time. But I actually like her. There’s no cruelty in her, anyway, like there was in her father, and she’s certainly never going to lead any kind of rebellion against the king. Against the queen,” she corrected herself.

  “Still not clear to me why this matters.”

  “From what I can tell, the war left Fortunalt in a mess,” Wen said bluntly. “Still a lot of outlaws on the road. The serramarra was kidnapped a few weeks back, and only got free through a lucky chance.” No need to go into the details of that luck right now. “Apparently there was only a ragtag bunch of soldiers left behind at Fortune once the marlord died in the war, and they never did a good job of protecting Karryn. Her guardian has hired me to assemble a real guard—twenty to twenty-four men who can truly protect her.”

  Orson looked intrigued despite himself. “They’d have to be pretty good.”

  Wen nodded. “Well trained, highly disciplined, and loyal to the House. But that’s a big enough force to hold off any petty bandits and make even a rebel lord think twice about trying to overtake it.”

  He nodded. “Even the queen only has fifty Riders.”

  Forty-nine. Or so Wen had heard. “Right. I’ve already organized a force of about twenty. I like who I’ve got so far. I think they’ll come together well. But I think the job will be more than I can handle by myself.”

  “You want me to be a training master?”

  “I want you to sign on,” she said. “Be my second in command until I go—and then step up as captain.”

  His face didn’t register surprise or even much curiosity. He’d sized her up a long time ago. Neither did he make any false statements of modesty. They’d fought beside each other once, and that was enough for both of them to have taken an accurate measure of the other. “You’re thinking lifelong commitment.”

  “It could be. Plenty of the great lords find one watch captain they trust and stick with him till the end.”

  He scratched his finger along the side of the glass, where it seemed someone hadn’t done a good job of scrubbing off splatter from a former patron’s meal. “As you said, I’ve no love for House Fortunalt. I’m not sure I could look at his daughter and forgive her for having such a father.”

  “Maybe it helps a little if you know that she hated him even more than you do.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “But I can’t suppose a sixteen-year-old girl will be ordering the guard about anytime soon. What about this guardian you mentioned? What’s he like?”

  How to describe Jasper Paladar . . . “He’s one of the stranger sorts I’ve met, but in a way that makes me like him,” she answered frankly. “Very smart man—always surrounded by books, always thinking. Never had any weapons training and doesn’t pretend to know what it’s like to be a soldier. But I feel respect when he talks to me. And that makes me respect him in turn.”

  Orson raised his eyebrows. “Liberal with his coin?”

  She grinned. “The pay’s fair, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “How long do you plan to stay?”

  “I promised a month. He’d like me to stay for six. Somewhere in the middle, I’m guessing.”

  “Aren’t you worried about me trying to undermine you? If I think I’m to be named captain next, why won’t I try to assert my authority now?”

  She just looked at him and didn’t answer. Finally his brown eyes warmed and his face split in a smile. “No, guess I wouldn’t be doing that,” he said. “I don’t suppose you make that many mistakes when you’re judging a man.”

  “One mistake I hope I didn’t make,” she said. “Thinking you could take orders from a woman.”

  He shrugged. “Take orders from anyone as long as they make sense.”

  “And fight alongside a woman. I’ve got two in the group already and would hire more if I could find them.”

  “Looking for allies?” he asked with a smirk.

  If he’d been close enough, she would have swatted him. “Looking for people who bring different strengths to the mix.”

  “Got no problem with anyone who can hold a sword and listen to reason.”

  “How about mystics? Problem with those?”

  He settled back and studied her more closely for a moment. “Not you,” he said at last. “The serramarra?”

  “No. Couple others at the House, though, including one in the guard. If it matters to you, tell me right now, and the rest of this conversation never
happened.”

  He scratched the underside of his chin. His face was rough with about a day’s worth of stubble, which just added to his generally rakish air. He still reminded her of Justin, but he was coming into sharper focus for her as his own man. “I rode for a while with a small troop out of Coravann,” he said after a moment. “One of the soldiers could shape-shift a little, just enough to look like someone different. One of our men got drunk one night, locked up by the local magistrate for starting a fight and, I can’t remember why, there was some fear they might hang him. So this shiftling, he changes his face so he looks like that magistrate, and he goes striding into the building where they’re holding our soldier. ‘There’s been an order to release this man,’ he says, all mad like he thinks it’s the worst idea ever. So the guard at the cell lets him go. We rode out of that town as fast as our horses would take us,” he concluded. “And I’ve had a soft spot for mystics ever since.”

  “Were you the drunkard who was looking at a hanging?”

  He laughed. “Not that time, but it could have been. I was young and not as smart as I am now.”

  “Smart enough to take this job I’m offering? You might never have to go roaming again.”

  “That’s a funny thing to say for someone who can’t sit still herself.”

  “Right now we’re talking about you.”

  “I’d have to see the place,” he said. “Meet the serramarra and her guardian.” He eyed her. “Meet the men who’d be reporting to me and make sure they’re any good.”

  That was intended as a jab, but it was so halfhearted she didn’t bother reacting. “You wouldn’t be worth much if you’d take a job like this without looking it over,” she said. “Come on back to the House.”

  ORSON spent his first hour at Fortune in the training yard, watching some of the maneuvers and introducing himself to the guards. The veterans among the group sized him up while he was assessing them, and Wen was aware that most of them drew the correct conclusion about his presence. It didn’t seem to bother anyone, particularly once he slipped over the fence and took a few practice swings with Eggles.

  Bryce had wandered over to watch, as he often did, and Wen asked him his opinion of Orson. “I think I’d like him,” the boy said. “Is he going to stay?”

  “I hope so.”

  More awkward, of course, to introduce him to the serramarra and her family, though Wen figured she could count on Jasper Paladar to make this seem natural. After Orson had shaved and otherwise cleaned himself up, Wen took him to the library, where Jasper Paladar was studying the cruxanno board. The lord looked up as soon as Wen and Orson entered.

  “I’ve spent half my day wondering when you were going to move your southern troops,” he greeted her, but his eyes went quickly beyond her to Orson. He came easily to his feet and held out his hand. “I see Willa has brought a friend.”

  She could tell Orson appreciated the gesture as the two men shook hands. Jasper was the taller of the two, but Orson was bulkier. “Yes, my lord,” Orson said. “She told me of the opportunities at the House and invited me to come look things over.”

  “And what do you think?”

  “I think she’s assembled a good troop, but there are a few basic fortifications you’d need to make to really turn this into a defensible position,” he said.

  Jasper regarded him with a faint smile. “I meant, what did you think about taking on a job with us?”

  Orson glanced at Wen. “It sounded like an excellent post and I’m honored to be considered. But I thought you’d want to get to know me first, and I’d like to meet the serramarra if I’m to serve her.”

  “I’m not sure that meeting Karryn will be an inducement, but certainly I can arrange it,” Jasper said. Wen laughed, and only then did Orson smile. Clearly, he hadn’t been too certain the lord was joking. “We’ll have to wait until the morning, though. She’s gone up to her room in a temper because her mother disapproved of the style of a dress she wanted to commission.”

  “I have sisters,” Orson said. “I remember how that goes.”

  Jasper glanced down at the game board. “Do you play cruxanno?” he asked.

  “I play,” Orson said, “but I’m better at cards.” Which made Wen laugh again.

  “Clearly, I need to take up cards and other games of chance,” Jasper said. “Maybe someday you can teach me the games you play in the barracks.”

  “We usually play for money,” she said. “You might want to get your skills to a respectable level before you ask to be dealt in to a soldier’s game.”

  “Nonsense,” Orson said with a grin. “We’d be happy to invite him now.”

  “I can see that having a House guard will prove to have educational as well as security benefits,” Jasper said. “Orson, I enjoyed meeting you. Come to my study tomorrow after breakfast and I’ll make sure Karryn is on hand to greet you. We can get to know each other over the next few days and you can let me know if you’re interested in the position. Willa wants you to be second in command.” He left unsaid the part all three of them mentally filled in: And captain once she departs.

  “You need to decide, too,” Orson said. “If you want me for the position.”

  Jasper glanced at Wen. “If Willa trusts you, so do I,” he said. “We’d be happy to have you serve House Fortunalt.”

  KARRYN chose to be mature and earnest when Jasper introduced her to Orson the next morning. Wen could only imagine she was trying to impress her mother, who hovered nearby, watching them with her huge, haunted eyes.

  “Have you been a soldier long?” Karryn asked him in a polite voice.

  Orson kept his face serious. “All my life, except for a time I was a sailor, and even then we fought at sea more than once.”

  “Have you ever served in a civil guard like the one Willa wants to put together for me?”

  “Once or twice I took a job with some minor lord or a wealthy merchant who liked to have a troop around him when he traveled. It was much the same.”

  “Willa thinks I need guards with me practically every minute of the day,” Karryn said, flicking Wen a slightly accusatory look.

  Orson nodded. “I’d tell you exactly the same thing.”

  “My father had soldiers around him, and I didn’t like them,” she burst out.

  “I think Willa has assembled a better caliber of fighters,” Orson replied quietly. “People who will neither desert you nor hurt you.”

  Something about that answer seemed to please Karryn. “Maybe I should meet all the new guards she’s hired.”

  “An excellent idea,” Wen answered. “Anytime you like.”

  Serephette chose that moment to enter the conversation. “Not today, however. The dressmaker is on her way.”

  Karryn assumed an expression of long-suffering. “Not today,” she repeated. “But very soon. Orson, thank you so much for taking the time to meet me.”

  So Orson’s first experience of Karryn was highly favorable and Wen was feeling pretty good about the whole situation. Two days later, though, he had a chance to see the serramarra practically at her worst.

  NOW that she was close to a full complement of guards, Wen had instituted true security measures, leaving two soldiers at the gate and having another two patrol the grounds at all hours of the night and day. Whenever there was company—which was often, for Jasper frequently had appointments with merchants and vassal lords who had some grievance to air—she insisted that one guard be inside the house itself, instantly on call. Those who were off duty spent their days training, practicing both on foot and on horseback, constantly striving to improve their skills.