by Megan Derr
"Yes, Your Highness." Fatih bowed, rose, bowed again, and departed when Ihsan nodded.
Ihsan checked on Sabah, Haluk, and Demir, made certain they all drank a bit of what little water he already had in the room. When they were tended, he stripped off his banquet clothes and pulled on some more suitable for work, tucking away more knives before he cleared the table of the leftover card game and prepared to work.
Six
Euren's eyes snapped open. She stared out at the darkness, looking for a shadow that did not belong. What had woken her?
On either side of her, Canan and Asli slept soundly. Gulden was asleep nearby, preferring space. Scattered across the rest of camp was Cobra, and they all seemed fast asleep. She counted, but everybody was there. Still no sign of what had woken her.
Then she heard it: soft footsteps, the kind of careful, near-silent walking that took a great many hours of training. Behind her, coming from the cluster of rocks they had put to their backs for safety. Beyond them was nothing but scrubland, rocky paths overlooking steep drops.
Whoever had decided to come over those rocks must be of reasonable skill and familiar with the area.
Keeping the rest of her body still, listening to the slow footsteps, Euren crept a hand beneath the spare cloak she had folded to use as a pillow. Her fingers found the special sheath that held three of her throwing knives. Pulling one free, focusing on keeping her breathing normal, and gripping the knife firmly but not tightly, she waited.
Closer… closer… closer…
Euren snapped around, sat up, and thrust, driving the knife through thin leather armor and into the would-be assailant's stomach. Yanking the knife back out, she helped him fall to his knees, then drove her knee into his face and let him collapse to the ground.
By that point everyone else had stirred. Emre spoke sharply to his men, and two of them surged forward to take care of the attacker.
"The rocks!" Asli cried out, voice rough with sleep but sharp with alarm.
Euren spun back around—just in time to see a knife lodge in the throat of the man on the rocks. She turned back around, following the direction the knife must have flown, and her gaze landed on Meltem. Her hair had come loose in sleep and spilled around her shoulders in a riot of curls, making her look mussed and half-wild. "Impressive throw."
"Thank you." Meltem strode across camp toward them, pulling her hair back as she did so. "We should see if there are any others."
"I'll take care of it," Emre said. "Seems only fair since I slept through the whole mess until too late. Our honored father would kill me if he knew I'd been so sloppy." He signaled to one of the other men, and they darted off, scaling the rocks like spiders and vanishing like shadows in the dark.
Euren used the jacket of the man she'd killed to clean the blood from her knife, then pulled the sheath out and put the knife away.
"An efficient kill, Princess," said one of the men looking over the body.
"Killing should always be efficient if it must be done. No one should die more miserably than can be avoided," Euren said quietly.
"Your husband said you were well-trained, Highness, but I admit …" The man trailed off, shook his head.
Euren might have smiled if the situation had been more light-hearted. "To be fair, royalty is seldom trained in such things; they've too many other lessons to master. But my father is Captain of the Guard, and he was harder on me than his men." She looked down at the body, pushing back the familiar tumult of emotion. "The killing I learned being a smuggler. Not on purpose, but it was my life or his, and since that first one I've had to kill three others. I hope this is the last man I have to kill."
"We all hope our latest kill will be our last," Meltem said quietly. "Your father sounds much like mine. He was certainly more ruthless with my brothers and me than he was with anyone else in the tribe." She looked over the dead man, then up at the Cobra standing nearby. "So we killed them both?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Pity, we might have learned something useful. I should have aimed to wound."
Euren motioned toward the fire. "Bring lanterns and we may yet learn something."
Asli, Gulden, and Canan lit several lanterns and carried them over. Euren knelt beside the dead man, wrinkling her nose. He smelled like he had not bathed for several days. Hopefully they would be well away before death added its stench.
"Bandit?" Meltem asked. "He looks like the type we get in the sands from time to time: filthy, desperate, foolish."
"Mm," Euren said, grimacing as she examined the body. "I agree with the filthy and foolish, but I don't know that he was desperate. His armor is good quality, and he has a metal flask, not leather." She pulled the dagger still sheathed at his waist. "This is good steel, well-balanced. Desperate men cannot generally afford good steel." She picked through his jacket and the pouches on his belt a bit more, coming up with a small purse of coins. Pulling the drawstring, she tipped the coins into her hand. "Ten sovereign marks. These men didn't need to rob us." She handed the money to Asli, who tucked it away in the folds of her own clothes.
Meltem thumped her fist on her thigh. "Assassins sent after you, then. That begs the question of how he—they—knew where to find us. We've told no one outside this group what our mission is, and the only other person who knows is my honored father. Could one of the monks be responsible?"
"Anything is possible, but after all this time I find that hard to believe," Euren replied. "If someone there wanted me dead, it would have been easy enough to make it look like illness or an accident. There's no reason to wait until now and hire bandits to kill me. Anyway, the clothes this man wears, the fact he would so carelessly carry his money where anyone could snatch it—he is from a city, but not Tavala, the royal city." Her mouth quirked. "Anyone who grew up near the market knows better than to put their money in easy reach, and bandits have the same sense. This man comes from a place where they are not as cautious with their coin. Chaya, perhaps, or Temeesa. Those are the nearest cities and the easiest place to hire a cheap assassin quickly."
Brows lifting nearly to her hairline, Meltem asked, "What exactly was your father training you to do?"
"Take his place," Euren replied with a faint smile. "He was not at all amused when I ran off and married a crown prince instead."
"I think I would prefer my child to be a captain rather than a queen," Meltem replied. She brushed her hands off and stood. "Get rid of the body, throw it where the animals will take care of it. Let us finish helping pack up camp. Princess—"
"I can pack as well as anyone," Euren said, faintly amused, and strode off, harem around her as they began to pack their own belongings.
They were just getting it all strapped to the horses when Emre and the man who'd gone with him returned. "We found a camp—four other men but twelve horses. Either they are traveling far and hard, or there is another camp somewhere. I felt it better to come back and warn you than to go looking for it. But it is good we're leaving, and we should definitely be on guard. We cut the horses loose to slow them down and give us more time to get well ahead of them, but I'm not going to rely on that. It troubles me they knew where to find us." He bowed to Euren. "I apologize we did not better protect you."
"Cobra Amir, if not for your people, my women and I would have a far more difficult time of it. Our little group of four would have stood no chance against twelve mercenaries. No apology is necessary. Let's be on our way." He nodded, and Euren spun around to mount her own horse.
They rode for three hours before the sun slowly began to drive back the dark. Only endless hours stuck on a horse with her father and years as a smuggler kept Euren on her horse. She must have dozed at least a few times, which was sloppy, but they'd spent entirely too many hours awake. They had only been at camp a couple of hours and had stayed awake just long enough to see to the horses and eat a quick supper.
At least the traveling would go much more quickly once they were out of the mountains and the roads became broad and we
ll-paved.
Emre finally called a halt mid-morning, when they came to a public watering area at the base of the mountain. There was a small group of people clustered around the well in the center of the clearing; a short distance behind them was an old wagon, a pair of weary-looking horses feeding nearby. The group's eyes widened when they saw the Cobra, and they hastily made signs of protection before scurrying away from the well and back to the safety of their wagon.
At a signal from Emre, Meltem approached the well while the rest of them hung back. She dismounted, then removed her head and face wraps. Damp strands of hair had slipped from the knotted braid of her hair, and they clung to the sides her flushed, sweaty face. She smiled at the gawking group, then lowered one of the two buckets into the well.
Euren removed her own wraps, wiping sweat from her brow with her sleeve. She would gladly give her husband's fortune for a bath. "Not so far from home now."
"It's hard to believe," Asli said. "We've not seen it for so long." Her voice was wistful, hopeful. "I scarcely can believe we're nearly there. It feels strange to think we'll never again return to the monastery."
Canan laughed as she drew off her own head covering. "If you ever get nostalgic, I am sure we can stay in a temple for a few days, enjoy the rustic life before we remember why it's not actually all that enjoyable and go scurrying back to the palace."
"Some priestess," Gulden drawled.
"Why do you think I gave it up to be a concubine?" Canan retorted.
"You gave it up because you are terrible at being a priestess, and the High Priestess was going to throw you in the well if she caught you being helpful with one more guest," Euren said.
Canan shrugged. "I can't help that being a priestess is the most boring thing in the world." She dismounted as Meltem walked over to them bearing cups of water. Taking one, Canan lifted it up to Euren. "My parents should have sent one of my sisters to be a priestess if they wanted somebody who was going to be pious and well-behaved about it. I am far too devoted to the pleasures of the flesh to give any devotion to vague beings I will never meet."
"Tsk," Euren said with a grin. Accepting the cup, she quickly drank half of it, then handed it off to Asli while Gulden and Canan shared the second cup. "Thank you, my lady," she said to Meltem.
Meltem bowed her head, smiled briefly. "Highness." She took the cup when Euren held it out, then refilled and returned it. "Would you like something to eat?"
"I would not be adverse," Euren replied. "Have we the time to spare to sit and eat?"
Emre nodded. "The horses could use the rest. Though I hesitate to linger in so public a place for too long."
"Then let us press on until we come to a place more suitable. I thank you for this rest, though. I have not yet decided on the first thing I will do when we reach the palace: sleep or bathe." Euren sighed, thinking longingly of soft beds and hot baths.
Gulden grinned. "Surely my princess wants nothing more than to fall into the arms of her dear husband."
"My husband is currently enjoying all the luxuries of his station. He can suffer until I am clean and rested and feel like dealing with him." She smiled as even some of the Cobra chuckled.
Still snickering, Asli leaned in and kissed her cheek, tugging at one of her damp curls. Drawing back, she said, "I vote for the bath. It's been so long since I've enjoyed the luxury of a proper hot bath."
"The sooner we go, the sooner we arrive," Meltem said, but she lingered a moment before finally turning away to return the bucket. Across the way, the travelers continued to not-so-subtly stare. Though Euren's group had not spoken loudly, it was possible their words had carried enough to be overheard.
Emre spoke with his men, and one of them nodded before separating slightly from the group. Turning to Euren, Emre said, "I am leaving a man behind to keep watch for anyone who might be following us. I am hoping that between the two dead men, the horses we cut loose, and our hard traveling that we have left any remaining pursuers behind. But time will tell."
"Thank you, Cobra Amir." Euren pulled her wraps up and secured them in place. Meltem mounted her horse and readjusted her wraps. When everyone was ready, they followed Emre away from the watering station in a cloud of dust.
They stopped an hour or so later by the broken remains of what had once been a traveler's pavilion, long fallen into disuse after a better one was erected a little further down the road. Old campfires, rinds and other inedible bits of old food were scattered about, and the general smell of smoke, cheap wine, and piss made it clear the pavilion was still frequented by those who could not afford—or otherwise wanted to avoid—the active pavilion.
Euren gratefully dismounted, letting one of the Cobra take her horse while she walked stiffly over to a crumbled bit of wall and sat down. Gulden sat beside her while Asli and Canan sat on different broken bits, forming a loose circle.
Meltem approached them carrying bread, cheese, olives, and a skin of wine. "Here you are, Highness."
"Thank you. Join us, please, unless you prefer to sit with your companions."
Smiling, Meltem sat on the ground, handing the food over before stripping away her face and head coverings entirely and setting them in a heap next to her. "I see them all the time and have been traveling with them for weeks. I could use the company of other women. Thank you, Highness." She pulled her hair loose, combed it out with her fingers, then began deftly to re-braid it, tucking it neatly into a knot at the base of her neck.
"I did not know the tribes had women soldiers," Euren said, sipping at the wine and passing the skin along. She ate an olive, nibbled at a bit of cheese. "Though I know next to nothing about them, only the overblown rumors that trickle to the palace."
Meltem laughed. "I promise the rumors that trickle back are no better. And it varies from tribe to tribe, and sheik to sheik. My father would prefer I stay safe in camp, but he feels the same about my brothers. His complaints are reserved for men who refuse to marry a woman who can best them." She made a face. "I envy you a husband who brags about a wife who fights better than him."
"Ihsan has always been unique," Euren said with a smile. "Often to the frustration of all who know him, though he always means well. I only hope I do not arrive to find him in chains."
Asli gave a soft snort. "Do not ask for the impossible, princess."
"Hope is eternal."
Meltem laughed. "I do not know His Highness very well, but my brothers love to recount stories about him. I think there is hope, Princess, and then there is delusion."
Euren made a face as the others laughed, but a smile tugged at her mouth. "Yes, well, I have no room to complain. I was the naughty soldier's daughter who stole the crown prince from his betrothed, and then turned right around and stole the betrothed as well."
"What?" Meltem asked, mouth gaping. "How in the name of the Lady…"
Asli giggled. "That is exactly the face Euren made when Ihsan kissed her, and again later when I begged to join her harem. It's also the face our fathers made when they found out." Her face soured. "Except His Majesty, of course, who looked like he wanted to execute the lot of us."
Meltem shook her head, still looking stunned. "So you were betrothed to His Highness?"
"Betrothed is overstating it," Asli said. "It was an informal understanding I would probably marry him one day. My mother is from Tritacia, but my father is of high enough station that I was still considered a suitable queen, especially these days, when the council is pathetically eager to please foreigners. Who better than the daughter of a councilman and a foreigner?" Her lips curled. "But I never had any desire for that kind of responsibility. Ihsan does want to be king, has happily trained for it all his life. He needs a queen who wants to be at his side, who wants to help him rule. Power should never go to the greedy, but it should not go to the unwilling either. I am happy where I am."
Euren smiled, leaned over, and kissed her, squeezing her hand briefly. "I don't know that I'm enthusiastic about being queen someday, but I like a challe
nge."
"I would gladly leave it to others," Meltem said. She looked at the other two. "Would it be rude to inquire how you wound up in Her Highness's company?"
Gulden swallowed the olive she'd just bitten into and smiled. "Not at all. I was hired as a tutor, to help teach Her Highness all she would need to know to be crown princess and, someday, queen. My family has been tutors to nobility and royalty for many generations. I had a great-great-grandmother who was concubine to a queen."
"I am the sixth of eight children," Canan said. "My parents are book merchants in Tavala. I was a difficult child, and they thought the priesthood would calm me, teach me discipline, get rid of my…" She pursed her lips, then smiled and finished, "…promiscuous ways, let us say. They were terrified I would come home pregnant, nevermind that I have always had a penchant for women and no interest in men. Being a priestess turned out quite a good idea for me, if not in the way my parents anticipated. Not that they know yet; all they know is that I left the temple in the company of a lover."
"I am honored you would share your stories," Meltem said. She started to say more when Emre came striding up. Meltem stood. "Is something wrong?"
Emre shook his head and then looked at Euren. "I wanted to send two men to scout ahead, but that means it will just be four of us riding with you for the rest of the day. The others should return to us at sunset, unless they're given cause to return sooner. But I wanted to be certain you did not mind the reduced protection."
"Not at all, Cobra Amir. I remain grateful to have your company and protection. My only fear is that you and your people will come to harm, and I do not want that."
Meltem and Emre exchanged a private smile, then Meltem replied, "Highness, I would never make light of violence and danger, but we face worse than this every single day in the Desert. A few bandits and mercenaries, no matter how blooded, are no match for the Children of the Sands."
"You certainly were impressive with that knife," Gulden interjected. She finished a last bite of bread and cheese, then brushed crumbs from her skirt and stood. "Right in the throat. I did not think anyone could match my princess's skills, but you might leave her in the dust."
