by Lee Hayton
“For goodness’ sake.” Shandra released her hold and jumped to her feet, taking a step back as she stared down at Baile in disgust. “What do you think you’re doing, creeping into my bedroom in the middle of the night? Did Wella get sick of your antics and kick you out?”
Baile turned and held up a hand, still gasping for air.
Guilt lanced through Shandra at his wheezing breath. She cupped her hands around her elbows, and looked back at the closed door, wondering if she should call out for help.
“Are you all right?”
He nodded, spreading the fingers of his right hand out across his chest, as though giving a compression to resuscitate himself. With the other, he held up a forefinger.
“Don’t they have candles in your room?” As guilt continued to stab at her, Shandra tried to deflect the blame. “I’m sorry I jumped on you, but you could have been anyone. The next time you walk into a room at night, calling out hello wouldn’t go astray.”
“I didn’t want to draw attention.” Baile’s voice cracked three times while he spoke, and he ended in a short coughing fit.
“Well, great job. I’m sure half the rooms on this floor heard me jump you.” Shandra tilted her head, expecting to hear the sounds of rustling and movement coming from the adjoining wall. Only silence responded.
“They’re probably still sleeping it off,” Baile said in his new, strained voice. “A few of them never made it back to their bedrooms. They’re probably still lying unconscious on the lawn.”
Shandra’s lip curled. Bad enough behavior if it came from local yobs. When it came straight from the overlord and her party, it was a dozen times worse. She could still remember a time when the previous overlord for the district had set a high moral example for her people to emulate.
Wella’s leadership was a far cry from those days. Suddenly, the passage of the past few decades felt more like the passing of centuries.
“Is it okay if I sit down on your bed, or do you have other moves to show me?”
“It’s fine.” Shandra moved to sit beside Baile, holding her arms up to demonstrate peace as she did so. “What did you sneak in here at this time of night for, anyway?”
“Wella told me quite a few things relevant to the cause. I thought you should know so we can prepare ourselves for what’s coming.”
Shandra thought of Wella leaning into Baile’s chest and felt the muscles in her neck tighten. “I saw you two were getting close.”
“Just to get information out of her.” Baile gave Shandra a poke in the hip. “I tried to signal to you as much, but you didn’t seem to get the gist.”
“When did you try to signal to me? When you were letting Wella comb your hair with her fingers?”
Baile sighed. “I stared at you for a good minute, telling you with my eyes what I was doing. All you did was look angry.”
“Oh, really. Show me this signal.”
“The room’s too dark to see it. I’ll show you in the morning.” He gave her another poke, this time in the rib. “Sulli always told me you were chock full of empathy. I just assumed that would work for me as well. Instead, you looked like you were going to choke with jealousy.”
“I wasn’t jealous.” Shandra tilted away from him on the bed but the mattress was so soft his body followed her. “All that concerned me was you making a fool of yourself.”
“Oh, yes. I’m usually making a fool of myself, remember? Why did it worry you so much this time?”
In the dark, with his voice still strained where she’d choked him, Shandra found herself warming to Baile in a greater fashion than she’d done before. On the ride to the party, she’d allowed herself to imagine him sneaking into her room at night. Now, here he was. Not the way she’d pictured but his scent still reeked of masculinity. His shoulders were just as broad and his hair just as soft.
“What did you find out, then?” Shandra had to clear her throat a couple of times and was glad the room was dark. It hid the flush in her cheeks and the throb of her lips.
When Baile spoke, the disappointment was heavy in his voice. “Wella needs a mineral the dwarves have locked up in the mines. Although she keeps insisting that her army has beaten them into a state of surrender, they’re not giving up their riches that easily.” He shifted on the bed, moving away from her.
“We knew that already, didn’t we? She wants to get rich off the mines. That’s the reason she shifted the focus of the war.”
“Not exactly. The precise mineral she wants is called Thurkagite. Wella didn’t spell out everything but from what she said, it could make a powerful explosive. She wants to weaponize it somehow.”
“Does that woman never do anything that doesn’t result in more fighting?” Shandra stood up from the bed and moved to the window, socking her right hand into her left and wishing it was Wella’s face. “I swear, by the time she’s finished there’ll be nothing left for anybody to enjoy. She’ll raze the entire area to the ground in the pursuit of warfare.”
“She has to stop at some point. People can only be killed once. She’ll run out sooner or later.”
The weak joke did nothing to improve Shandra’s mood. She stared at the stars twinkling in the skies above and wished she could travel to a distant world. One where the people worked together to better each other’s lives instead of fighting to win everything for themselves.
“The drink got the better of her before I could get anything more useful,” Baile continued. “Tomorrow, I’ll ride up alongside her and see if I can put this gorgeous physique to better use to gain more information.”
“And I’m just mean to let you?” Shandra turned with a frown. “Even if it's just pretending, you’re part of my harem. To let you openly flirt with another woman and not respond will look bad. Either they’ll think me weak or assume I don’t care. That puts a target on the entire harem.”
“I don’t expect you to look like you’re enjoying it.” Baile walked over to stand behind her, placing his hands gently on her upper arms. Shandra pressed against the warmth of his body, enjoying the way his physique molded against her. “In fact, the more jealous you appear, the better we can sell the story. If Wella thinks she’s getting one over on you, she’ll be far more likely to let her guard down around me.”
Shandra turned and linked her hands behind Baile’s head. He took her signal, bending down to press his lips against hers, locking them together until he had to separate, gasping for air.
“Just so long as you remember it’s a game,” Shandra said, tracing the outline of his upper lip with her forefinger. “At the end of the day, we still belong to each other.”
Baile stepped back, looking away from her. Had she said something wrong? Sulli enjoyed her talking like that but perhaps it was too possessive. She stared out the window, her pulse racing at the same speed as her thoughts.
“Well, just keep your green-eyes as sparkly as they were this evening, and I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Baile withdrew further from her and Shandra didn’t sense she had permission to pull him back. He waved to her from the doorway, then disappeared down the corridor.
She wondered for a second if he was going to another’s bedroom, then slapped the thought away before it could gain a hold.
Jealousy. Tomorrow.
With her teeth gritted at the memory of Wella clutching onto Baile’s upper arm, Shandra decided the feat should be easy. Her stomach was in such knots already, not demonstrating jealousy would be the harder call.
Chapter Six
Starburst whinnied, her warm exhalation blowing over Shandra’s face. If it wasn’t for the morning breath, it would have been pleasant. As it was, she thought the horse could do with a nice teeth cleaning or a few carrots to sweeten her mouth.
“Good morning to you, too.” She rubbed her knuckles gently on the white marking on Starburst’s face. “We’ve got a big day ahead of us, so I hope you got a better night’s sleep than I did.”
Her slumber had been intermittent after Baile left her room.
The few times Shandra did manage to drop off, dreams didn’t let her rest easy. Wella’s gloating face seemed to become larger and more aggressive until she jerked awake, only to drift off and enter the cycle again.
“If I take a nap while I’m riding you, don’t let anyone else know, okay?” The thought seemed tempting now, but Shandra knew as soon as her thighs were stretched out and her torso was balancing out each motion, sleep would seem very far away.
“Are you coming along with us, or traveling with Wella’s party?”
Shandra turned, unable to place the voice for a moment. Her mouth dropped open when she saw it was Ricci speaking. His vocal cords sounded half an octave deeper, though judging from the bloodshot and bleary eyes, it could be the temporary result of overindulgence.
“I didn’t know the groups were traveling separately,” Shandra said, frowning. “Who told you that?”
“I didn’t make it up, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Ricci said sharply. At least his behavior was back to normal. “The guard told me.”
“Which guard?” Shandra looked around them to see if somebody was near. “When did he tell you this?”
“The big one.” Ricci held his hands out a good foot in front of his stomach. “He was out the back with all the young fellows, last night.”
“I’m sorry.” Shandra shrugged. “I don’t know him. I guess I’m traveling with Wella. Until somebody tells me different, at least.” She hesitated, unsure if Ricci would invite further queries, then decided it didn’t matter. The worst he could be was rude and he had a good handle on that already. “How’re you getting on with the young lads. From the looks of things, you’re one of the more senior new recruits.”
Ricci’s chest puffed out and a glow of pleasure crossed his features. “Yeah. I sure have a lot more experience than some of them. They’re a good lot. I think I’ll enjoy fighting alongside them.”
The words sent a shudder rolling through Shandra’s shoulders, which she tried to hide. “That’s sounds great. You’ve always been very good with Halv, so I guess that gives you a handle on the situation.”
Her brother looked away and Shandra saw the faintest ruby tinge touch his cheeks. Although a part of her heart broke to see how easily he fitted in with the other soldiers, the role might also go some way toward improving his attitude. If Ricci had enough people believing he was worth something, he might stop struggling so hard to prove it to himself.
Wella mounted her horse, not talking to anyone. She rode off without a signal and Shandra waited until the guards scrambled after her before following. From the looks of their leader, the wine the night before hadn’t left her body as easily as it had slipped down her throat.
With a wink, Baile took off after Wella, sticking just in behind her horse until the sun rose further in the sky. Shandra looked around to see if Ricci was nearby but couldn’t spot his unit on their trail. If he’d begun the journey, he must have left a fair while after her group.
“Are you one of the specialists brought in for the dwarves, then?” a man said, pulling his horse up beside Shandra’s. “I heard she had to go out to some farm or other to get a team in who were well-versed in these things.”
“I don’t even know what these things are,” Shandra said, not having to try hard to sound grumpy and put-out. “Wella came to my door last night, demanded that me and my brother and harem member follow, and hasn’t got around yet to telling me why.”
“That your fellow, then? Sitting right up next to her?” The man looked across at Shandra with keen interest, intent on reading her face.
“That’s him. My brother is following along with a squad of younger recruits.”
“Oh, aye. I know them. The guard in charge of that young lot is my cousin. He’ll take right good care of your lad.”
“Really?” Shandra squinted at the man, the sun behind him making his face difficult to read. “That’s good to know. It’s his first time away from home and I don’t know who was more scared about it, him or me.”
The man chuckled and jerked his head toward Baile, still riding up in front. From where Shandra sat, it didn’t look like he was making much headway with Wella. In fact, it looked like the overlord would eat alive anyone who tried to talk to her right now.
“You might want to keep an eye on your man. Seems like he was getting a bit handsy with the chief last night.”
Shandra let her face cloud over, a simple feat. “I saw.” She spoke the words abruptly, snapping them off and letting the silence afterward add to their import.
He chuckled again. “My name’s Elgerry, by the way.”
“I’m Shandra.”
“Nice to meet you.” He tilted his head to one side, then looked to the front of the pack again. “Wella seems to know what she’s doing.”
“You reckon?” Shandra turned to him, squinting again when the light hit her full in the eyes. “From what I’ve seen over the past few years, she’s careless with those who entrust their lives to her. Not the sign of somebody who knows what they’re up to.”
“Aye. Her eye’s always been fixed on the same prize. Now she’s close, I think we’ll all be better off. Our district is going to be heads and shoulders above all the competition. Once we’ve got the new weapons sorted, no one will dare try to attack us again.”
“What is this new weapon?” Shandra turned her head in the other direction, pretending nonchalance. “That’s the second time I’ve heard mention of it in as many days.”
“Don’t know exactly.” Elgerry gave her a broad grin. “Those that do find out details tend not to last very long. Our overlord isn’t a great one for sharing her plans.”
A shiver of worry caught Shandra and she fixed her eyes on the back of Baile’s head. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She looked back to Elgerry and returned his infectious smile. “Just another reason not to talk to Wella, eh?”
He laughed and moved his horse forward, calling out to the next man in line. Shandra couldn’t tell if he was there for gossip or simple moral support, but she felt all the better for their brief chat.
The next time their party stopped, she’d also talk to Baile about getting too close to Wella. If it meant the loss of his life, they were better off not knowing all the ins and outs of the overlord’s plans.
As the sun crept higher into the sky, Shandra sweated. Even this close to winter, there was a lot of heat left in the direct sunlight. She wished for the shade of the barn at home, where she’d usually stop for a break at this time of day.
“Hold up.” The man in front of Shandra raised his hand and turned to her, jerking his head to show she should pass the message on. She did, turning back to see another woman close on her heels. Her golden curls were matted and looked like they hadn’t seen a comb for a year.
Following Wella’s lead, the party dismounted, and the guards ran to lay out supplies for a midday meal break. Shandra headed straight for Baile, but Wella caught his arm and dragged him away into the shade of a nearby cave before she reached him.
With a petulant expression on her face, Shandra turned back and grabbed a quick meal of cheese and bread from the supplies.
“You’ll want to top up your water,” Elgerry said, coming up to greet her with a slap on the shoulder. “There’s a cool stream running just behind those trees. Some of the sweetest water in the world.”
“Live around here, do you?” Shandra had often run into folks who lavished praise on the areas they’d occupied in their youth, despite the actual appeal of the praised land being lacking.
“Aye. Just over the other side of that hill was where I grew up. My folks ran a tavern for the travelers. Did a nice business until the war set up camp nearby.”
“When was that?”
“Ten years ago, easy.” Elgerry sighed. “It would’ve been a nice inheritance but there’s not much left there, now. Certainly, nothing a traveler would want to stop for.”
“Sorry to hear it.”
Shandra heard Baile’s deep laug
h and turned to see him emerge from the undergrowth, pulling twigs and leaves out of Wella’s hair. She closed her eyes and swallowed, the fury rising up inside her even though she knew he was just playing the woman for information.
Did he have to make it appear so real?
“Looks like you might have to bring someone back in line,” Elgerry said with a wink. “If you’re looking for a new member for your harem, I don’t mind applying.”
“Good to know.” Shandra tried not to stare at the man, forty and so wizened and dry he looked like he might break in a strong wind. “If there’s an opening, I’ll keep you in mind.”
Elgerry hugged himself and chuckled as he skipped away to find a willing partner for gossip elsewhere. Shandra glared at Baile, who gave her a sheep-faced smile in return.
Wella came past looking like a cat who’d got into the cream. When she saw the expression of fury on Shandra’s face, her smile widened. “Don’t you know how to hold onto a man, yet?” She bent over and slid a finger down the side of Shandra’s cheek. “If you need lessons, come to see me. I’ll teach you how to bond properly. No good keeping your legs shut if you plan on your men staying satisfied.”
She danced away and mounted her horse in one leap, pulling the reins out of the startled guard’s hand and digging her knees into the animal’s side until it took off at a run.
“I guess we’re finished here, then.” Elgerry stole another piece of cheese and a few slices of meat from the table. “Did you refill your water as I told you?”
Shandra shook her head and hurried off to gather up the supplies she’d need for the day. When she finished, half the group had already given chase to Wella, now a smudge on the horizon. Baile was probably mounted right by her side. If he wasn’t mounting Wella.
As the sun cast the long shadows signaling late afternoon, Shandra fell into step next to some of Wella’s guards. One was digging his elbow into his mate’s side—a nimble feat owing more to the patience of their horses, than his skill—and jerked his chin at Baile.
