The new king rubbed his forehead with a pained frown. “That or we’re so sleep-deprived and short-handed we’re making snap judgments when we shouldn’t be. Thank you, Riana, for stating the obvious. We’ll do exactly as you suggested.”
She hadn’t actually meant to do anything of the sort. She’d assumed they’d had good reason to have the plan they did; she was just trying to get a sense of why they wanted it done that way. “Er, ye be welcome.”
“Ash.” Edvard pointed to another scroll lying on the table. “I’ll entertain your lady-partner. Draw me up new plans.”
Resigned, Ash went around the table and got to work.
Edvard gestured her to a set of chairs on the opposite side of the room, ones that were warmed by the sunlight streaming in through the windows. “Let’s give him a little space to work. He does better that way.”
She noted that for future reference and followed his lead. As she sat, Edvard went to a nearby table that had a bowl of fruit and a knife, with a stack of plates. “So, I take it that Gwen found you, as you came to see me.”
“Aye, that be so. She be a pretty lass.”
“Oh, adorable. She knows it, too. Uses every whit of that beauty and charm to get things out of me.” His indulgent smile said he didn’t mind. “I feel comforted that Ash spoils her just as badly as I do. But I suppose that’s the prerogative of younger sisters, getting their brothers to spoil them rotten.”
The open, candid way he said this encouraged her to ask the question she hadn’t thought proper to ask before. “So, Gwen be…?”
“My half-sister, born to a woman that used to be my nanny,” Edvard admitted easily. “Apple? Sure? Do you mind if I have one? Many thanks. The fact is, my father was very free with his favors when he was alive. I have six half-siblings, in fact. Well, six that I know of, at least.”
Riana’s eyes crossed. “Six?”
“Astonishing, isn’t it? I mean, really, was that all the man did in his spare time? Not all his lovers were common-born, either; some of them were aristocrats. I have four sisters and two brothers, the youngest of which is Gwen.” He peeled the apple with deft fingers, all the while imparting his sinful family history as if it were common knowledge. For all she knew, it might well be. “Some people like to claim that it was because he was unsure of how things would turn out. After my mother had me, you see, she was weakened so much that she was never able to have another child. The doctors strictly advised against it. And I wasn’t much stronger for the first few years of my life. No one really expected me to survive or amount to much. Ha! Fools, them. I grew stronger as I got older. But anyway, people thought it was my father’s fear of not having an heir that made him hop from bed to bed as he did.”
Something about his tone said that Edvard didn’t buy this story. Feeling as if she shouldn’t ask but unable to quell her curiosity, Riana encouraged him, “Ye do no’ agree?”
“Well, I have a brother that’s two years older than me, so that rather disproves the theory, don’t you think? And it doesn’t explain Gwen either, as I was sixteen when she was born, and completely hale and hearty at that point.” Edvard sank into his seat, slices of apples clustered in one hand. “Actually, Gwen was the linchpin to this whole thing. Are you sure you don’t want a slice? Best apples available this season.”
Sensing that he simply couldn’t eat in front of someone else without them joining in, she finally gave up and accepted an apple slice. “Thank ye.”
Beaming at her, he continued the tale, “You see, when Gwen was born, I expected my father to own up to his obligations. I mean, the whole country knew it was him that fathered her. You couldn’t not know, not with the way she looked. Spitting image of him, in a more feminine way. But he ignored her. When she reached two years old, I’d finally had enough, and I cornered him about it one evening. He informed me, in an outraged tone, that he ‘wouldn’t concern himself with some base-born child, especially a girl.’ I admit, I knew the man was selfish, but I hadn’t realized until that point how bad he was. I reeled. I reeled for days, shocked that he could ignore his own daughter, especially one as lovely and sweet as Gwen. But what shocked me more was that his peers and our fellow aristocrats didn’t seem to find his take on the matter odd at all. It set my blood boiling. I did what I could—made sure that Gwen had support from the family, a good education, and I saw her often. I didn’t have to worry about her much, considering who her family was.”
She blinked at him. “Sorry, I do no’ follow.”
“Gwen is Ashtian and Ashlynn’s baby sister,” he expounded. Then he chuckled. “Look at that face of yours! What, you didn’t know?”
“No, I did no’ know!” she spluttered. “They do no’ look like kin at all!”
“Of course not, Gwen took after my side of the family. Why do you think my relationship with my wizards is so good, eh? It’s because we’re family, in a sideways sort of way.”
Well, Ash had said at their first meeting that he and the king were “blood-brothers,” but she’d assumed it was because of some ritualistic oath. She hadn’t realized he’d meant the words literally, that they were actually brothers connected by blood—in a way. The whole tangled knot of his family tree was giving her a headache.
“Wait, ye be making me poor head spin. I’d think it strange to call them blood-siblings when ye do no’ share blood directly.”
“Well, how else would you phrase it?” he challenged, unbothered. “We debated it ourselves. We’re not step-siblings, after all. We aren’t full-siblings or half-siblings of course. But we do have a relation to each other. So how would you phrase it?”
She opened her mouth to give a response, but honestly couldn’t think of a word or term that would fit. Their situation was too unique, or the language too restrictive. Finally, she gave up and conceded the point to him with a flip of the hand. “I take yer meaning. And then? What happened next?”
“Well, my father did everyone a favor and killed himself. By accident. He got drunk one night and rode home at breakneck speed. Quite literally. It destroyed my mother—heavens know why, the man was atrocious as a husband—but the rest of us were relieved. With him gone, I wanted to put a stop to all this nonsense about not acknowledging my siblings officially, so I went to properly register them with the court.” Edvard’s eyes darkened and went hard. “Only I wasn’t allowed to.”
Riana didn’t have to demand an explanation. “Because they be illegitimate?”
He dipped his head a fraction in agreement. “Yes. The whole government fought me on it. I spent a good six months petitioning, going through legal channels, even attempting a bribe or two. But with me as a fully functional heir, they wouldn’t hear of it. Now, if my family line had ended with my father and only bastards were left, they would have begrudgingly brought one of them on and legalized them. But with me alive? No chance of that. And that was when I stopped and looked, really looked, at the country that I lived in. I looked at our laws, our customs, and the future that my beautiful, amazing sisters would be forced into because of a reckless night of folly on our parents’ part. And you know—I couldn’t stomach it. I just couldn’t. I couldn’t tell Gwen, who was six by that point, that no decent man would ever marry her because of her birth.”
Propping her head in her hand, Riana stared at Edvard in fascination. “So ye immediately thought to overthrow the government and establish yer own kingdom?”
“Well, no, I didn’t immediately jump into that,” he admitted. “First, I drew Ash aside, as he’d studied law more than any of us had, and we spent months researching, trying to find a precedent to turn all of this over in our favor. But we couldn’t find it, of course. Actually, researching like that told me just how corrupt and skewed our government really was. Because of the research, I decided that the only thing to do was to split off—form my own country and give people a place to go so that they could have a chance at a decent future.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “It’s turned out to be a more complicat
ed enterprise than I’d imagined.”
Riana nearly choked on her apple. “Ye thought it’d be simple?”
“Well, no, but less complex than this, certainly.” He grinned at her. “You know, Ashlynn looked at me the same way when I complained that this was more than I signed on for. Especially since I was the one that talked her and Ash into helping me to begin with.”
Aye, she could imagine.
“Well, we’ve had our challenges, but so far it’s going well.” Edvard popped an apple slice into his mouth and happily chewed. “I’m terribly glad that you and your father were found, too. You have no idea how happy I am about that. A lot of trouble has been following my wizard-siblings recently. People somehow assume that if not for them, I wouldn’t be able to maintain my kingdom or win any battles.”
Well, those rumors might be about half-right, but Edvard possessed that special something that drew people to him, and encouraged amazing bonds of loyalty. He could be a complete idiot when it came to strategy, and still, people would follow him into battle.
Ash came to them and handed Edvard a new scroll. Edvard popped the last apple slice into his mouth to free up his hands, then rolled it out. He nodded, “mmming” approval around his mouthful.
“I take it that it meets your approval, and you want me to build it immediately?” Ash translated dryly.
“Mmm-hhmm, mmmm.”
“There are no take-backsies on this one, alright? Once it’s built, no magic will move it.”
“Hmmm. Mmm.”
“Fine, then I’ll get to work. Riana?”
How in the world had he kenned any of that? Amused, Riana got to her feet, nodded goodbye to Edvard, and followed her wizard out the door.
Somehow, in the time that they’d been working, beds had been found and brought up to the wizards’ rooms. The narrow poster beds were shoved into the corners, with chests sitting at the end of the footboards. Broden had wondered where he and his daughter would sleep that night, but with a castle of this size, he’d assumed they’d be given a place of their own. At least for tonight, until things were sorted.
But that seemed not to be. Were both wizards so determined, then, to keep their newfound partners close by?
Ash had gone confidently inside, gesturing for him to follow, but when Broden hesitated at the doorway, the wizard looked back up at him in confusion. “Well, don’t just stand there; come in.”
Broden did not budge an inch. “There be magical doohickeys hanging about from the ceiling, glowing circles on the walls, and a carpet on the floor that looks like those—” his fingers made a scribbling motion in the air “—things ye draw afore ye chop down trees, and ye want a man to just casually enter? I think no’.”
Throwing back his head, Ash laughed aloud. “They’re not dangerous! I promise you. In fact, they’re here to prevent danger.”
That was a fine thing to say to a man about his sleeping space. “What sort?”
“Magical attacks, for the most part. Some of them are alarms. Like this one here—” he pointed to one that hung from the ceiling “—is connected to a city alarm. We’ll know if a fire breaks out. And with this one, we’ll be alerted if a large body of men approaches Estole.”
Oh. Like that wavy-lined trinket of Ashlynn’s? That be fine, then. Reassured, he entered all the way and got a better look at the rest of the room. If a man could ignore the magic squiggles, it seemed ordinary enough: just beds, trunks for clothes, and a washstand next to the window. An open hearth was against the back wall, a fire already going, chasing away the evening chill. He’d slept in far worse places.
Satisfied, Broden opened the trunk to put his pack inside, only to pause when he found several sets of clothes in there. “Ash. Whose trunk be this?”
“Yours. So are the clothes. I had a quiet word with Ashlynn, who had a word with someone, likely Miss Haley, and she arranged for clothing and things to be sent up for you. Think of it as an advance payment.”
“Miss Haley?”
“She’s the head matron of the house. She runs things around here. You’ll likely meet her soon.”
“Ah.” Well, true, he and Riana only had what was in their packs to claim, but how would this woman know what size of clothing to get him? Gingerly, he set his pack near his feet before lifting a shirt and shaking it free of its folds, holding it up. His eyebrows climbed as he realized that it looked like it’d fit him fine. “Lad, the sizing be too close to be a guess.”
Ash shrugged, eyes crinkling up at the corners. “You’ll soon discover that my sister knows many things that she shouldn’t. The fact that she knows your size is not the least surprising.”
True, the lass had seemed uncanny in the way she’d handled the surprising things of the day. “Then, Riana’s chest be akin to this one?”
“Oh absolutely. Ashlynn made sure of it.”
From next door, they heard a pair of voices giggling. Broden’s head snapped around, astonished to hear his daughter laughing. She had not made a sound that happy and carefree in…well, longer than he could remember. Mayhap years. It softened his heart to hear it.
“I knew those two would hit it off.” Ash grinned at the wall, smile growing when one of the girls said something to the other and started another giggling fit. “They’re scarily alike in some ways.”
“Aye, they be at that,” Broden grumbled good-naturedly. “Quick to let the fists fly, they be, and loyal to their own.”
“Yes, exactly.” Ash seemed to take a breath before he turned and looked at Broden straight in the eye. “Broden. I know you’re worried about me. Worried about me being alone with Riana, I should say.”
Well, now. Broden rocked back on his heels, surprised that Ash would so candidly face him on the matter. “Aye.”
“She’s highly attractive; I recognize that. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted my partner to be. I won’t pretend otherwise.” Ash’s voice was level, firm, unapologetic. “I can’t promise you that I won’t put her in harm’s way. That’s not why she’s here. But I swear to you I’ll never cross the line of propriety with her, and I’ll defend her as fiercely as I’d protect one of my sisters.”
So said the man that was Court Wizard and Lawmaker of Estole, and had put his life and magic on the line to defend not only his family, but his new country. Broden did not doubt for a moment that the man was good for that promise. “I take yer word as truth, Ash.”
“And if I break it, you’ll deal with me then?” Ash responded, brows arched in sardonic humor.
“If there be anything left of ye after Riana’s done,” he agreed, eyes twinkling.
Ash seemed to realize that he was not joking. “Warning taken. Well, then, let’s get ready for bed.”
A sensible enough plan. Broden went about changing into more comfortable clothing, but he did not put on a nightshirt, just a looser set of linen pants and a cotton shirt that he found in his chest. His bow and quiver he set next to the headboard just in case, with a long dagger slipped under the pillow. It did not sit well with him to be completely at ease when there was such tension with Iysh, no matter what sort of protections Ash and Ashlynn had about the room.
Ready for bed, he sat on the edge of the mattress, one knee tucked up near his chest. “Ash?”
“Hmm?” Ash pulled a shirt of a similar kind to what Broden wore over his head before sitting on his own bed.
“Ashlynn mentioned to me that bribes come for the pair of ye time and again. How long has that been going on?”
“Oh, ever since Edvard declared independence of Iysh. That was the first unified tactic they tried, actually. We just sent them back at first, but that didn’t deter them. Now, we burn whatever they send and return the ashes.” Ash rubbed his hands together in small circles and said thoughtfully, “I’m beginning to think that we should send hexes along with the ashes so that they’ll get the message.”
“I would no’ rush that,” Broden advised. “Better bribes than assassins.”
Ash’s eyes wen
t wide. “Zounds! Hadn’t thought of that. But that’ll likely be the next thing they send, won’t it?”
“Belike. Or worse, they will find some weakness of yers to use against ye.”
“Well, now, there’s a cheery thought.” Ash gave Broden an uncertain look. “I know we said that we’d try out our partnerships for a while before making any decisions, but if Zelman really does try something else, it’d be best to have dedicated bindings with both of you.”
Broden wagged a chiding finger at him. “No rushing things, lad. No’ on a mayhap.”
“You and I both know these are likely the partnerships we’ll end up with anyway,” Ash responded, exasperated. “My sister was singing your praises all during dinner. Just you standing there looking menacing made people behave. Normally she’d have to break arms to get the same sort of respect. And you aren’t easily rattled in a crisis, which is an invaluable trait to have with her new position.”
Well, to himself, he could admit that working with Ashlynn that day had been more pleasurable than he would have thought. But one day was not enough to base a decision on. “Give it a few more days at the very least, lad.”
“Fine, fine.” Ash held up his hands in surrender. “I just hope that we have our partnerships sorted before more trouble comes knocking on our door.”
Chapter Nine
Broden sat in the main dining hall enjoying a moment of peace as he tucked away a breakfast fit for a king. (That be no exaggeration as the table was set for Edvard.) Riana and Ash had eaten and gone, determined to use every bit of light to build as much of the wall as they could. Ashlynn had run upstairs to fetch something or other, leaving him at the table alone for a few minutes.
The peace would not last long, but he enjoyed it while it remained. He’d be out again in the city soon enough, dealing with one fashious situation after the next. As he ate, he mulled over Ash’s words of the night before. He did not care to admit it, but Ash likely was right. Probably they’d end up in the partnerships they had now.
Arrows Of Change (Book 1) Page 8
