Broken Lords: Book Two of the Broken Mirrors Duology

by A. F. Dery

  “I had no idea,” Kesara said when it became apparent that Elsbeth wasn’t going to say anymore. “The bidding is usually anonymous. How did you…?”

  “I’m bonded to one of the High Lord’s emissaries,” Elsbeth admitted. She colored a little. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything, I’m sorry. I thought you would have known, we all thought you were some sort of favorite…not without good reason, of course, but still. I thought you might have been told, even if that isn’t strictly how things are supposed to be done. And anyway, there’s no real harm in you knowing now, it’s over and done with anyway.”

  “That’s true,” Kesara said slowly. I had no idea the High Lord knew about me before I even got here, was even bidding for me…for me. I suppose he was just interested because he must have heard I had talent, but he surely must have just wanted me for the status involved. The High Lord certainly did not appear to Kesara to actually be in any need of a Mirror’s talent.

  “In any event, Lord Eladria seems to treat you well,” Elsbeth continued, seeming anxious to change the subject. Her eyes flickered to Kesara’s bare wrists, though.

  Kesara flushed. “He does treat me well,” she said, a little tersely. “He’s not aware of our traditions, and I’m fine with that.”

  Elsbeth gave her a skeptical look but forbore to comment. Kesara suddenly felt like cursing, then she remembered the other reason she really wanted to speak to the other Mirror.

  “Listen, could we go speak somewhere a little more…private?” Kesara asked tentatively.

  Elsbeth glanced at the door leading into Lord and Lady Malachi’s rooms. “I’d rather not go back in there, but maybe we could go out to the gardens.”

  “That would be good,” Kesara agreed quickly. “I haven’t seen them yet.”

  Elsbeth silently led her back downstairs and then out a side door which opened up on a lovely walled garden. In her sudden anxiety, Kesara could barely see the exotic plants and lush green foliage surrounding her. She felt the other Mirror’s hand on her arm and she looked back at her, startled.

  “You’re wringing your hands,” Elsbeth said dryly. Kesara glanced down at her hands to see she was doing just that and let out a little laugh.

  “All right, I can admit I’m nervous speaking to you about this.” Kesara looked around again and saw they were alone. Perhaps due to the high stone wall fencing in the garden, there wasn’t even a guard here. Elsbeth gestured to a bench, a short walk down the path that snaked its way from the door through the garden. They walked over and sat down, and Kesara felt Elsbeth’s eyes on her as she intently studied her own hands again, feeling her cheeks starting to burn.

  “This must be really something,” Elsbeth commented lightly.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just that…I guess I’m afraid what your answer might be,” Kesara said sheepishly. She forced herself to turn a little and meet the other Mirror’s eyes. “You know we never had the opportunity to speak to Mirrors who were already bonded. I don’t know if my bonding was…normal. Or if the bond itself is normal.” Elsbeth raised an eyebrow and Kesara added hurriedly, “I’m sure it’s working like it’s supposed to, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t really understand what I’m feeling. Emotionally, I mean.”

  Elsbeth’s expression softened. “Oh, I think I understand now.” Now she was the one to sigh and look away. “I wasn’t really prepared for it, either. It wasn’t at all like I thought it would be. I thought, I don’t know, that it would be this great moment. We’re prepared for it all our lives up until that point, you know? Instead, it felt like signing a contract and shaking hands. Disappointing. Emissary Hector- that’s my refrere-wouldn’t even look at me the whole time.”

  “Oh,” Kesara said weakly. This conversation isn’t going the way I hoped it would, at all.

  “Then he went off to some fancy dinner and I spent the night alone, in his room since I could no longer stay with the students. I had to sleep on a chair. I knew it wouldn’t be anything spectacular on a day to day basis, they do tell us that much, but until the High Lord asked him to have me help Lady Margaret, I just felt so useless. Though I think he must be sick now or something, because I still don’t feel well even though I’m no longer helping her. It was really getting to be too much between the two of them, at the end.”

  “You don’t know?” Kesara asked, her eyes widening. “Isn’t he here?”

  “He’s somewhere,” Elsbeth shook her head. “I haven’t seen him at all since we got here. It feels like he’s close, but he hasn’t come to see me and I haven’t been moved from Lord and Lady Malachi’s tower. He hasn’t sent for me.” She met Kesara’s gaze again. “You don’t know how fortunate you are that Lord Eladria still keeps you close. I’ve never had that with my refrere. I think…I think it would make it easier, somehow. Though as strange as it sounds, I’m not entirely sure that’s even what I want- to see more of him, I mean. I think what I really want is just to be treated like something of value, instead of a child’s toy to be forgotten and left lying around wherever it was last used.”

  “I’m sorry Elsbeth,” Kesara said, putting one hand over the other Mirror’s and gently squeezing it. “Maybe it’s just like you said, that he’s gotten sick. If he’s not used to you being around, with the time you’ve spent away…maybe it just hasn’t occurred to him.”

  Elsbeth smiled wanly. “I hope that’s all it is. You know how they can get, when they tire of us. We’ve all known a sister it’s happened to.”

  Kesara squeezed her hand again, but didn’t say anything. Nothing needed to be said.

  “Well, I hope that helps, knowing you’re not alone,” Elsbeth continued after a moment with a forced smile. “Sometimes I wonder what we ever did to call this curse upon ourselves. Or what our parents did.”

  Kesara didn’t know what to say. It occurred to her in that moment that if she weren’t “cursed,” she never would have met Thane, and the thought made her throat ache unexpectedly. She swallowed hard and nodded.

  “Come on, we had best go back in. I’m still hoping if I stay put, he’ll send for me,” Elsbeth said quietly, briefly squeezing Kesara’s hand in return before rising to her feet.

  Kesara followed her back inside, and they said their goodbyes at the base of the stairs before going their separate ways, Elsbeth back to the Malachi tower and Kesara to Eladria’s. Her heart was racing as she walked, even though she forced herself to maintain a sedate pace.

  So what I’m feeling for Thane isn’t normal. She doesn’t even want to be around her refrere, she’s just scared of what he’ll do if he doesn’t value her. And the bonding…Her mind went back to the memory of hers and she felt herself flush again as she wrenched her mind away from it again. Definitely not like ours. Of course, the circumstances were very different, too…

  Kesara stopped dead in her tracks, the realization slamming into her with the force of a warrior’s blade. I love him. Oh gods, I do. I can’t keep blaming this on the bond. Other Mirrors don’t feel like this about their refreres. And I can’t blame it on being “broken.” That wouldn’t affect the way I feel when I’m with him, or even when I’m not, just make me potentially dangerous to him.

  “Miss? Are you all right?” A servant Kesara hadn’t even seen stopped right in front of her now, looking concerned. “Are you lost?”

  “No, thank you, I know exactly where I am now,” she said slowly. She resumed walking, conscious of the servant’s skeptical eyes following her, and wondered what she was going to do. Or if she ought to even do anything.

  I know he’s attracted to me, and he values me, but that’s all I know. Whether I mean something more to him, as a person, as a woman…that I don’t know. He’s always been so adamant that he doesn’t want me as a lover. But was that just so I wouldn’t be afraid of him?

  She felt ridiculous even considering these things. Mirrors and their refreres simply did not become involved, beyond that relationship. She was bonded, and had a refrere who valued her and even wanted to keep
her close; that ought to be enough. More than enough, even, considering what Elsbeth’s experience had been like.

  But somehow…it wasn’t. She had a sudden fierce longing to be back in his arms. She didn’t worry about all these stupid things there. She was just…home.

  Kesara was within sight of the corridor that led directly to Thane’s rooms when she saw an Eladrian soldier come rushing towards her.

  “There you are, miss. You need to return to your room immediately. Lord Eladria has given orders that you are to remain there until he sends word that it is safe for you to leave.”

  “Safe?” Kesara frowned. “I don’t understand, what’s going on?”

  “Lyntara has just attacked!”

  Her eyes went wide. Lyntarans, attacking here? Then a moment later: he needs me. Of course he does. The Eladrians will be fighting too…why wouldn’t he want me there? Even if he did care for me…his people will always come first. He’s Eladrian.

  “I…I will go back now,” Kesara said. “You should go see if he needs you.”

  “I’m to stay and guard you, miss,” the soldier replied. But though his tone was polite, his chagrin was evident in the clench of his jaw as he regarded her.

  “I will surely be safe in the tower. I’ll even bar the door behind me, but I understand you’re doing what you must, just as I am,” Kesara said apologetically. The soldier’s brows knitted together in confusion, but she went down the corridor and into Lord Eladria’s rooms without further comment, making sure to throw down the bar on the door behind her as loudly as she could, just in case there was any lingering doubt in the soldier’s mind about her compliance.

  Then she promptly went out to the balcony and started the climb down. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as she feared it would be. She was small and light, and the dense vines growing up the side were entirely strong enough to support her, provided she moved quickly enough not to leave her full weight on any one part of it for more than a moment. And the entirely justified fear of falling and smashing her head open on the stones below was more than sufficient to lend her movements speed.

  At length she dropped the ground, brushing down her skirt and trying to still the shaking in her hands. She could hear distant sounds of metal on metal if she strained to listen. The very thought that the Lyntarans had not just attacked the High Lord’s country but his castle sent chills through her.

  She moved quickly along the side of the castle until she came to a stone wall blocking in a terrace garden from one of the exterior entrances. Sending up a silent prayer to any deity who would listen that there wouldn’t be any guards in there to question her, she climbed it with some difficulty. She didn’t recognize the garden she ended up in- it wasn’t the same one she’d just visited with the other Mirror- but there was no one around, guard or otherwise, and thankfully the door to the castle interior was not barred.

  Kesara slipped inside to find a tumult. Servants and guards were rushing around everywhere, each looking intent on some urgent task. She recognized a lesser lord from the night she’d met the High Lord and overheard him insisting on answers from one of the guards, who was none too politely trying to get rid of him. So not everyone knows what is happening, Kesara mused. It must not be common knowledge. This is going to be a problem. I can hardly ask even a guard where Thane is if I’m not supposed to know what is going on, and if I WAS supposed to know, I’d also already know where he is, right?

  She bit her lip, anxiously debating a moment with herself about what to do, but only came to one conclusion: she would have to try to find him herself. She could try to use their bond to locate him; though the invisible “tether” between them was infinitely flexible now that they were bonded, it still existed. She could sense when he was near and when he was far. Between that and the all too familiar sounds of battle, it should at least point her in the right direction. Perhaps she could then bluff her way from there.

  Kesara took a deep breath and briefly closed her eyes, focusing on Thane, on the pain she carried in her body that actually belonged to his, on the bond between them, binding as iron now. She reopened them and started to follow one surge of the crowd, but felt it was moving away from wherever she sensed him, so she changed direction to follow another, until she felt as though he were nearer. She fought down a rising sense of panic that this would take too long, that her blundering around would be fruitless and she would not make it time, and forced herself to focus.

  He needs me, she told herself firmly. I will find him.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Thane had no time to feel the things he was sure he should be feeling. Certainly he should have been shocked, appalled, and utterly gob-smacked.

  One moment, he was striding towards the High Lord’s chamber for their first, much anticipated private meeting to seek the answers he was sure the High Lord held; the next, the High Lord himself was actually rushing towards him, murmuring to him that he needed Eladria to rally any present troops at once; Lyntara had come and he needed Thane on the battlefield at once. How that country had managed to pierce the High Lord’s defenses at the heavily guarded border and make it as far as this chief holding was incomprehensible to Thane, unless matters here were truly in a far worse state than he had ever imagined, but there was no time now for questions. The only proper response was to obey: it was his duty to the Union. He gave orders by way of one of the High Lord’s messengers for all available Eladrians to gather immediately at the High Lord’s armory. He instructed one of his best fighters to find Kesara, return her to the Eladrian tower and guard her there with his life (that man had also obeyed with all the unquestioning promptness one would expect from an Eladrian, but Thane had felt his disappointment at this order keenly). Then he made his own way to the armory, moving with single minded focus to the small collection of battle axes displayed on its walls.

  By the time he’d armed himself, Eladrians were spilling into the armory, their brown eyes universally gleaming in anticipation. Thane’s heart sang to see them.

  “We do as we must, to live as we must, because we are what we must be,” Thane recited the words in the ancient language of their people as soon as he saw that they all were present and armed. No one living knew that language any more, even in Eladria, but every Eladrian who had reached adulthood knew that particular phrase by heart and what it meant. Learning the old words and being able to clearly pronounce them had been one of the most torturous exercises of Thane’s youth, but nothing could stop the smile they brought, even now.

  It was one of the few times that smile was ever returned to him, answered in kind on the faces of his soldiers as they bellowed back the same words to him, lifting their weapons as one.

  “Lyntara attacks. We are to repel the invaders and hold this keep. Fight well for the honor of Eladria, who would never abandon an ally to the Beast.”

  “For Eladria!” the men shouted, again lifting their weapons.

  The time for words had passed. He signaled with his hand which formation to use, and led his troops to the battle without looking back.

  And that battle. There was no mistaking Raiders as they approached the field on the eastern side of the moat’s exterior, for it was Raiders who were attacking, their arm bands brilliant from afar. All were mounted, unlike the Eladrians, but that made no difference to them. Thane did not pause as he saw their approach, although horror momentarily clenched his stomach. Raiders did not usually attack like this. That was not their purpose. Whatever this display was, it was exactly that: a display.

  The Beast knows there’s a conclave, and he’s sending a message, Thane thought grimly. But he knew better than to discount Raiders. There had to be a hundred of them, maybe more, and all would be skilled fighters. To be a Raider was an honor to a Lyntaran, as baffling as that idea was to Thane’s Eladrian sensibilities. In his mind, they were little more than glorified petty thugs.

  Again he signaled to his men and they plunged into the fray.

  It was impossible to say how long it ha
d been going on before the first Eladrian fell. Thane saw it, with his own eyes, as he turned with crimson ax from the most recently fallen Raider. It filled his heart with anger and renewed his resolve; he turned again to the enemy, just in time to see another Eladrian fall in his periphery as he swung his ax.

  There were too many of the enemy. It was as simple as that. The men he had brought comprised a single unit only; to have taken more would have been offensive politically to his host. Even a single unit of Eladrians was worth many more of any other kind of troop, of this Thane was absolutely certain, but they were still gravely outnumbered, and the Raiders fought with a viciousness borne of long and deeply held resentments. It wasn’t Eladrians they resented, but the ally they fought for. It would not have surprised Thane at all if curses for Almryn were among the first words Lyntaran children were taught to lisp in the cradle.

  And it appeared that the Eladrians were the only ones called to this particular front. On the one hand, it was a great compliment of the High Lord that he entrusted the entire eastern side to Thane and his men only; on the other, it was strategically stupid, uncharacteristically so for the man.

  Then again, Thane had no idea what the battle looked like on the other fronts, or what the state of the High Lord’s own defenses were. At one time, he would have assumed them to be more than suited to the task, but now? That this many had even reached the castle, many miles from the border adjoining Lyntara, was unfathomable. Perhaps the High Lord was not even aware of how many Raiders were attacking here.

  He ducked from the battle just long enough to send word of the Lyntarans’ numbers and a request for reinforcements, twice, but he did so with little hope of receiving them, and indeed, no one came.