“How did you decide that?” She asked.
“You haven’t relaxed your guard since you entered the room.” He replied “Even when you caught me cooking your favourite food you didn’t let your face loose composure for even a second.”
“Trust me, that isn’t always the case.” She replied, taking another bite of pancake.
“I know, you talk normally to the other maids.”
“With all due respect, the maids aren’t the prince of the human realms. They’re illiterate gossips, who, while still being caring and wonderful people, don’t get me wrong, have very little to truly care about.”
“And you do?”
“I have Katelyn.” She replied automatically, “and you have a kingdom to run, I’d say that made you more important.”
“Or so most people may think.” He replied “But either way you look at it, I’m only a man, a rich one, and one with an expensive bloodline that goes back centuries, but a man nonetheless.”
“A man with humility, it would appear.” She replied, sipping at the water that he’d brought with the pancakes.
“I spent a lot of time with the elves as a child.” He replied “Their way of looking at things changed me, and I hope it was for the better.” He finished his pancakes. “How are you finding the palace?”
Confused slightly by the change in topic, she hesitated. “I haven’t really had time to look around. But everyone I’ve met seems nice.”
“Still only worthy of a nice?” He asked.
“How do you know about that?” She asked, baffled by his way of knowing everything.
“Hana reports directly to me.” He replied. “She came to me that night saying that we needed to tell the gardeners that they weren’t doing a good enough job because our resident elf thought that the gardens were only worth a ‘nice’.”
Romana laughed again. “I only meant that walking round gardens full of roses isn’t really my thing.” She replied.
“Hana also told me that you’re a good fighter, and you wanted to step it up a level from fist fighting.”
Romana finished her pancakes and met his eyes levelly.
“I won’t lie; I want to learn to fight. But I didn’t know the rules about doing so here.”
“Officially, it’s illegal.” He replied. “But I might be willing to make an exception.”
“What’s the condition?” She replied, raising her guard again. “You still haven’t used your last favour.”
“You don’t like being in debt, do you?”
“It makes me vulnerable.” She replied.
“You don’t consider Katelyn a vulnerability?” He asked, curiosity showing through.
“No, I will always protect Katelyn, but I know she will die before me, I accepted that fact when I chose to allow her to become close to me.” He nodded as if satisfied with her answer.
“The condition would be that I would be your teacher.” He replied.
“Keeping an eye on me, your highness?” She asked, enjoying the surprised look on his face at the title. She was playing with him, she realised, just a little, but it was definitely playing.
“As much as I think you’ll allow me to.” He replied.
“I accept your condition, on another condition.”
“What’s that?”
“If I ever get the chance to fight you and we’re equally matched, don’t hold back because I’m not one of your guards.” Because I’m a woman, the words hung unspoken in the air between them.
“I accept.” He replied. “You know, I don’t usually have to bargain with my maids.”
“Well, I guess you have something to get used to.” She replied, unbending on this issue.
“I’ll clear second-day mornings for both of us.” He replied, “You’ll have to catch up with the work later, but I trust it’ll be no problem for you.”
“I haven’t been given my duty list yet.” She replied. “I don’t know what I’ll have to catch up on.”
“Give me a second.” He stood up, and cleared the plates away, before going into a room adjoining the one they were in. When he returned he had two sheets of paper in his hand. “Here is yours.” He said, handing her the paper. “It’s over six weeks.”
“This can’t be right.” She replied “I’m part of a two person team cleaning your rooms every morning.”
“Yes. You said you were good at that sort of thing, and you’ll notice most afternoons you’re on scribe duty, and when you’re not, you’ll be a message runner, assigned directly to me.”
“Definitely keeping an eye on me.” She replied. “Why?”
“Ask me another time.” He replied, again with the mysteriousness.
“A girl could get a headache trying to figure you out.” She informed him.
“Maybe that’s why most of them don’t try.” He replied.
She flicked through the schedule, looking for anything telling her who the other person she’d be working with would be. “Who am I working with?” She asked when she found nothing.
“You’re training with Hana, and when she decides that you’re ready, you’ll take over from her on your own.” He informed her. “Katelyn will be going to school in the classrooms opposite the room she’s in right now.”
“And this begins when?”
“You start tomorrow, seventh-day.” He replied “Everyone else is on week three.”
“Was that all?”
“Yes, got somewhere to be?”
“It’s Katelyn’s seventh birthday in three days. I’ve got to get her something.”
“What kind of things does she like?” He asked
“Pink, purple, girly things. Dolls, mostly, but she seems to be getting interested in jewellery and animals.”
“I see you’re going to have your work cut out for you trying to find something and hide it.”
“Pretty much.” She replied.
“You can go.” He said. “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow morning.”
She bowed her head slightly, and left, only to come to a halt outside the door. She was going to have lessons on how to use a sword, every night from a centaur, and once a week from a prince who’d probably been learning since he was old enough to walk. She was going to be pretty good after all this training.
She walked back to their rooms, to get out some money for the trip into town. Most of the traders would be shut, but she knew that the place where she’d seen Katelyn’s present on market day wouldn’t be, having checked with the owner.
She stopped in to pick it up, paying for it to be gift wrapped, so that Katelyn wouldn’t guess what was inside.
“You look a little distracted.” The woman she was paying informed her. “Is something wrong dear?”
“What?—Oh, it’s nothing.” She replied “Just, having an off day.”
“Well, I hope that it get’s better.” The lady replied.
“Thank-you.” Romana said, not even noticing what the woman looked like.
Of course, she knew the reason for her distraction, her mind was still trying to analyse the prince’s behaviour over breakfast. The way he constantly shifted the situation to get his questions answered. He was infuriating; there was simply no other way to describe him.
She was so distracted that she almost didn’t notice the boy crash into her and steal her purse. Almost.
She caught the boy by the arm as he tried to walk away, and using elvenstrength, she pulled him down an alley.
“My purse,” She requested as she pinned him up against the wall “or I turn you over to the guards.”
The boy, surprisingly, was still completely calm, even as he handed over the purse. He even grinned slightly.
“Guess I should’ve seen that you were an elf huh?” He replied.
“Guess you shouldn’t be on the streets stealing in the first place.” She replied, looking him over. The boy was around fourteen, small and skinny with his ribs visible through his olive skin. “Come with me.”
“What? So you
can turn me over to the guards? No thanks miss.”
“No, so I can get you something to eat; you look half starved.” She replied. “What’s your name?”
“Tommy, Tommy the thief.” He introduced himself.
“Are you with the Thieves Guild?” Romana asked.
“One of their finest,” He told her with a cocky grin.
“I have no doubt about that.” She replied, releasing him. “I meant what I said, you need some decent food. You’re too thin.”
He followed her without a word, and when they reached the gates the guards didn’t question his being there, presuming he was coming to help her with something.
“You’re kinda different to most people miss.” He informed her as he sat at her table while she cooked him a large brunch.
“Most people would have handed you to the guards.” She acknowledged. “I invited you to my home and made you brunch, even when you pocketed my keys a few minutes ago.”
The boy blushed and slid the keys in question onto the table. “You’re sharp, might have made a good thief. But I didn’t mean because of what you did.”
She started to serve up his breakfast, buttering the toast, and adding sausages, bacon eggs and tomato.
“Here.” She put the meal in front of him and started cleaning up, waiting for him to expand on it.
He chewed slowly, “For one thing, you’re an excellent cook.”
“That’s what they say.” She replied. “And don’t talk with your mouth full.”
“You sound just like my old ma.” He replied.
“Where is she?” Romana asked, fearing she already knew the answer.
“Dead. But my Pa’s alive, he’s a thief too, and he took me in. But back on topic, the other reason is that you don’t seem to care that I just tried to rob you.”
“Why should I? People get robbed all the time. Doesn’t make the thieves bad people.” The boy gave her a surprised look at that. “You can put the set of marbles back where you found them.”
He smiled again, and put the marbles on the table with the keys.
“All of them.” She insisted.
“Definitely not stealing from an elf again,” He muttered.
“I should hope not. Most of my kind would probably have done the law abiding thing and handed you in.”
“It’s a status symbol to have stolen from an elf and not got caught.” He informed her.
“So if I let you walk away with that ornament in your lap, you’ll be a superhero.”
“Not quite, but pretty close.” He replied, placing the ornament on the table.
“Take this then.” She passed him her purse, which she’d left mostly empty apart from some copper pieces.
“Why are you being so nice?” He asked, suspiciously.
“Because I think you need it.” It was true. She could read this human’s struggles from his face. He’d been bullied and cheated, lied to and stolen from. “If you ever want any more food, my kitchen’s open.”
“I might take you up on that offer.” He informed her, wiping up the tomato juice on his plate with a piece of toast, and pushing his plate away as he finished. “You ever need something stolen, give the guy who lurks around the market a silver piece and tell him my name. I’ll know it’s you, and I should be able to meet you by the large oak next to the palace wall about ten minutes later.”
“I’ll remember that.” She promised, watching him leave, signature cocky grin on his face even as he left through the door.
Chapter Nine
NO INTERFERENCE
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Romana cleaned their rooms, then went to groom Jayde, who was munching away happily at the hay net that had been hung on her door. But when the time came to go back to the caves, Romana decided against riding Jayde there, and decided to use the secret passageways accessible from the fireplace in her room instead. She paused as the door opened; checking that Katelyn’s regular, even breathing hadn’t changed, and then disappeared into the darkness.
The passages were dark, and dusty, she sneezed slightly as she entered them, unused to it. She pulled the map out of its home in her pocket and glanced at it, mentally tracing the path she would take to the caves, before taking off at elvenspeed.
It took her ten minutes to get there; compared to the three hours it had taken Jayde at constant trot. When she arrived, Lena was serving tea to a centaur with two swords strapped to her back and leather armour covering her torso. Moving closer, Romana saw that there were knives and blades strapped to everywhere their owner could reach. The woman must know what she’s doing, Romana thought, if she knew how to use all this stuff.
The centaur had the lower body of a bay horse but the torso of a human woman. Her hair was the same inky black as that on her tail, and her eyes were an astonishing shade of chocolate brown.
“Leigh, this is Miss Romana, Miss Romana, this is Leigh, the centaur that I was telling you about.” Lena introduced them.
“The stars foretold your coming unto my teaching a long time ago; I am honoured to finally make the acquaintance of my long awaited student.” Leigh greeted.
Well then, okay… Romana thought, this woman gave blunt yet mysterious an entirely new dimension.
“I’m Romana, and Lena told me that you could help me learn to fight.” She replied, not masking the reason she was there.
“Your weapon of choice, or so I’m told, is the double broadsword. Very advanced, we shall begin immediately.”
“I’m ready.” Romana replied, as the centaur drained the tiny cup of tea and stood.
“Then fetch your weapons.” Leigh instructed. “We begin in the dirt ring in five minutes.”
She nodded, and ran to get her things from the wardrobe, pausing in her haste as she inevitably saw the catsuit. You signed up for this, she reminded her reluctant mind. Pulling the single sheath from its place next to the suit and slinging it across her body in the way it was meant to hang.
The double broadswords, she’d discovered, were essentially one long and slightly curved sword split in half. No longer one sword but two. She ran out through the stables and out past the paddock to the dirt ring with piled walls that served as a training area. The centaur had taken all of her swords off apart from another pair of double broadswords that hung in the same way Romana’s did across her torso. Well, at least she’d gotten something right.
“We’ll begin with a few basic warm ups.” Leigh began.
By the time they were finished, three hours later, Romana was convinced that no amount of stretching was going to get her muscles ready for the day of cleaning ahead of her. She’d pulled one and although her healing was accelerated, she could already feel the tightness in her legs and arms that meant she was going to be stiff all day.
But she arranged for another lesson the next night anyway.
As she ran back along the passageways, she left her elvensense open, remembering Leigh’s first lesson about life.
“You’ve been muting your elvensense to make it easier on the humans.” Leigh had observed when she’d tried sneaking up on Romana and succeeded. “Don’t. It makes you vulnerable to attack. Humans are, in truth, one of the weakest and least intelligent races there are. Don’t make yourself that in an effort to be kind.”
Romana had protested about that, saying that she had human friends. Leigh had won the argument, as her trainer and all, but she still wasn’t sure about the way the centaur demeaned humans.
And it was thanks to this that she heard a shuffling and the clang of metal through the gloom. Someone was fighting in the passageways near to the prince’s rooms. She headed over, not to intervene, she didn’t have that much experience with the swords hung over her back, although she’d taken Leigh’s advice and worn the mask in case anyone did turn up in the fireplace passages.
She made sure it was still covering her face, as she rounded a corner and peered through the gloom. Three men were duelling against one. The one, she guessed to be the prince, and was
rewarded with a glimpse of his face as he stepped into the light of a fireplace to her left. None of them had seen her yet, and she stepped back into the shadows to make sure that they wouldn’t. Yes she had on her mask and wasn’t wearing anything to identify her as a servant, but she didn’t want to get caught up in this.
To her surprise, even through the prince was outnumbered; he was winning, his blade whirring at a speed she wasn’t sure a human should be able to achieve. He d already finished off one of his attackers, and wounded a second so badly he was on the ground. The third was tiring quickly, even as the wounded man on the ground reached for his sword and—No!
Romana unsheathed her blades using elven speed, and ran past the prince and his startled attacker to block the sweeping motion of the wounded man’s sword towards the prince’s calf. Then using the other she chopped off the hand holding the sword, leaving the man to screech in pain. Using another burst of speed, she ran over to the two frozen swordsmen and sliced a line across the ribcage of the third attacker.
There went the no interference policy. The prince was staring at her, sword ready in case he was next, but Romana took off before he could do anything, streaking away at elvenspeed to her own rooms, back to Katelyn.
She arrived, at the fireplace door wishing it would open faster; terrified the prince was following her.
She checked to make sure that she couldn’t see him before she stepped through. She didn’t want him to know that she’d just saved him. Then he’d probably do the royal pain in the butt medal thing. Or demand to know who she was.
She pulled the mask off and stuffed it in a pocket, checking to make sure that Katelyn was still asleep; she unbuckled the sheath from her back and stashed it inside her wardrobe. Stripping off her boots, she put them outside the front door, as all the maids did when they wanted their shoes cleaned. The shoe polisher boys would go round at dawn and clean all the boots, so they were ready when they were needed again. Her clothes, she dumped in the laundry hamper, and she changed into a short, loose fitting nightgown, before slipping into bed.
Romana's Freedom (Soul Merge Saga Book 1) Page 6
