Warrior

by Jennifer Fallon

  “It doesn’t hurt to let a man know you can be bought,” Tejay advised with a chuckle. “You just need to make sure the price is high enough.”

  Rielle laughed. “And that if he’s not willing to pay it, somebody else is! One thing’s for certain.

  With me dressed in the red, Darvad will never look at another court’esa. What do you think, Luciena?”

  “Do you want my opinion on the dress?” she asked. “Or on your rather skewed view of men and their court’esa?”

  Tejay looked at her curiously. “What do you mean skewed?”

  “Nothing,” she said hastily, fearful she may have offended the other girls.

  “Now, now!” Tejay scolded. “You can’t make a comment like that and refuse to elaborate.

  Explain or suffer the consequences!”

  Luciena wasn’t sure what the consequences might be, but Tejay didn’t seem a person to be trifled with. She shrugged uncomfortably. “I just meant . . . well . . . it’s sort of not what you . . .” Luciena threw her hands up helplessly. “It’s too hard to explain.”

  “Try anyway,” Tejay suggested. She glanced at Rielle for a moment and then turned to Luciena and added threateningly, “Or do we have to find out the hard way if you’re ticklish?”

  Luciena smiled when she realised Tejay was teasing. “Very well, then. If you’re going to be like that, I’ll see if I can explain it.” She tucked her feet under her on the bed before continuing. “My mother was a court’esa, you see . . .”

  “I heard she was something of a legend,” Tejay said, “Wasn’t she the greatest beauty in all of Greenharbour?”

  “So they claimed,” Luciena agreed with a shrug. “I never really noticed. She was always just mother to me. But she used to tell me what it was like, being a court’esa. And why men prefer them to their wives.”

  “Why is that?” Rielle asked, coming to sit on the bed beside Tejay.

  “It’s because court’esa are slaves,” Luciena explained, wondering how these girls could be so worldly, yet so ignorant, at the same time. “Their sole purpose in life is to pander to their master. And it’s more than just training. Their very survival depends on it. A wife, according to my mother, doesn’t need to be nearly as accommodating. She has standing of her own, particularly if she’s highborn. She has family, even children, who look up to her. Often she’s responsible for running a large household and commands the respect of both her own friends and her husband’s friends. More importantly, she has friends. If she’s been indulged as a child, she’s usually had her own court’esa whose sole purpose was to pander to her desires before she married, and often after. She’s not equipped to give her husband the sort of adoration he secretly desires. And according to my mother, every man wants to be worshipped, whether he admits to it or not. So, when he finds himself married to a woman he barely knows, who’s got no reason to worship him and every reason to doubt he’s worth the trouble, he turns to his court’esa, because a slave has no choice but to worship her master or be sold off as unsatisfactory.”

  “Your mother was something of a cynic, I suspect,” Rielle concluded. “It won’t be like that for me. Darvad loves me.”

  “You’ve described my future rather succinctly, though,” Tejay sighed.

  “You don’t love your betrothed?” Rielle asked sadly. “Even a little bit?”

  “Love him?” Tejay scoffed. “I can barely bring myself to like him.”

  “I always liked his father,” Rielle said, looking a little puzzled by Tejay’s attitude. “Chaine Lionsclaw is one of Princess Marla’s most trusted allies. They’ve come to Krakandar a number of times. I know he’s a little sensitive about his father being baseborn—and his own common-born start in life—

  but Terin never struck me as being that bad.”

  “Who’s Terin?” Luciena asked, a little confused. These people all knew each other intimately.

  She was still trying to get the children in Krakandar straight in her mind, let alone figure out who might be who in the vast network of family and friends the Wolfblades had gathered around themselves.

  “Chaine Lionsclaw’s son,” Tejay told her. “He’s the Warlord of Sunrise Province. Chaine was the previous Warlord’s unacknowledged bastard and he didn’t get control of the province—or the title that went with it—until a couple of years after Glenadal Ravenspear died. Terin was eight or nine before he could call himself highborn.” Tejay rolled her eyes. “He has a chip on his shoulder the size of the Greenharbour Seeing Stone about it, too.”

  “Can’t you refuse to marry him?”

  “Are you going to refuse the husband Princess Marla offers you?” Tejay asked pointedly.

  Luciena shrugged. “I don’t really have a choice.”

  “None of us has a choice, Luciena. The best I’ve been able to do is delay the inevitable for a while.” Suddenly her gloomy expression vanished and she smiled brightly. “But now, thanks to your precious stepbrother, I’ve been able to delay the wedding for another whole year, maybe longer if I’m lucky! I love that boy already!”

  “Do you mean Damin?” Rielle asked.

  Tejay nodded. “Princess Marla spoke to my father last night and asked him if he would take on Damin’s fosterage. I was able to convince dear papa that he’ll need me at home, at least for the first year, until Damin settles in.”

  “Won’t your fiancé be upset with the delay?” Luciena asked.

  “Do I look like I care? Anyway, as Rielle said, the Lionsclaws are close allies of Princess Marla.

  Chaine won’t object to the delay if it’s because of Damin and I really don’t give a wooden rivet about what Terin thinks.” The Warlord’s daughter studied Luciena curiously for a moment. “Have you been told yet who Princess Marla expects you to marry?”

  Luciena shook her head. “I haven’t officially agreed to the adoption yet.”

  Tejay smiled indulgently. “Do you honestly think you’re being given a choice?”

  “That’s what Princess Marla agreed to.”

  “Try refusing the offer, Luciena,” Tejay suggested. “I think you might find you don’t have quite as much choice as you imagine.”

  “I won’t let her bully me.”

  “Marla doesn’t bully anybody,” Rielle warned. “She’s far too subtle for that. She just tells you one thing, knowing full well you’ll probably go and do the exact opposite, and just when you’re patting yourself on the back, thinking you’ve finally managed to get one over on the great Marla Wolfblade, you discover you’ve done exactly what she wanted all along.” The dark-haired girl laughed. “It’s what she did to me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She warned Rielle away from my cousin, Darvad,” Tejay informed Luciena, apparently just as amused by the whole thing as Rielle. “It was at the Krakandar races, last year, wasn’t it?”

  Rielle nodded. “She took me aside before the races and told me that Darvad Vintner was riding for Izcomdar this year and that he was the Warlord’s nephew, and that she expected me to behave myself in a manner befitting a trader’s daughter. Then she lectured me about how even though he was young, and rich, and good-looking, I wasn’t to get any ideas about him, because Lord Bearbow would never countenance a common-born wife for any nephew of his.”

  Luciena frowned, thinking Rielle’s tale had a horribly familiar ring about it. “What did you do?”

  “I was furious, naturally,” Rielle laughed. “So I marched straight down to the stables and threw myself in front of Darvad Vintner’s horse.”

  “You didn’t!”

  “She did, too!” Tejay assured her. “You should have seen the look on poor Darvad’s face. He thought he’d killed her. And Rielle! What an actress! I swear, by the time he got her back to the stables, she had him ready to throw himself on his sword for her. And it was only twenty feet away! I tell you, Luciena, if you ever need lessons in how to seduce a man, forget asking a court’esa. Just speak to this girl here. Nobody swoons as well as Rielle Tir
stone, and I’ve seen some good ones in my time.”

  Rielle laughed at the compliment. “Why, thank you, Tejay.”

  “Did he really fall for you so quickly?”

  “Of course not! Tejay’s exaggerating. It took five, maybe ten minutes longer than that! Anyway,”

  she continued, climbing off the bed and holding the red dress out for another look. “To cut a long story short, Darvad and I sneaked around behind everyone’s backs for the whole two weeks of the races, thinking we were being terribly clever and that our affair was the best-kept secret in the province. By the time Lord Bearbow was due to return to Natalandar, Darvad and I were so desperately in love that we confronted him and my father. Darvad threatened to throw away his entire inheritance or kill himself, if necessary, unless they allowed us to marry.”

  “What did they do?”

  “There’s no need to kill yourself, lad!” Tejay declared in a gruff, masculine voice, which Luciena guessed was a fair imitation of her father. “You can marry the wench if you want. We signed the agreement last summer.”

  “Last summer?”

  “That’s right. Princess Marla had arranged the whole thing the year before with Lord Bearbow.

  I’m not sure whose idea it was to keep Darvad and me in the dark about it, though. I suspect it was my father, actually. He’s a bit of a romantic at heart, while I don’t think Princess Marla even knows what it feels like to really be in love.”

  “Don’t you mind being manipulated like that?” Luciena asked, a little disturbed to think she was being controlled in a similar fashion. “Even a little bit?”

  “Not really,” Rielle shrugged, as she held the dress against her body and examined herself critically in the mirror.

  “Sometimes it’s better not knowing the future,” Tejay advised. “I was informed I was going to marry Terin Lionsclaw when I was twelve and I’ve despised him ever since, on principle. I often wonder what would have happened if I’d not been told anything and he’d just come along one day and swept me off my feet.”

  Luciena frowned, remembering Marla’s warning about Xanda Taranger. And the princess had given her nephew the same warning. Is it all just part of the game? Did Xanda kiss me because he likes me, or because he thinks he can’t have me?

  “Do you really think I should wear the red?” Rielle asked, oblivious to Luciena’s inner turmoil.

  “You might as well,” Tejay suggested. “What about you, Luciena?”

  “What?”

  “What are you wearing?”

  “Um . . . the blue and gold dress, I thought,” she replied, forcing her thoughts away from the puzzle that was Xanda Taranger and back to the subject at hand. Aleesha had laid the gown out across the back of a chair. “It’s new.”

  Tejay studied it for a moment and then looked at Luciena. “You’re going to need something around your neck,” she advised. “Something gold, to pick out the highlights in the dress.”

  “I sold all my jewellery before I came to Krakandar.”

  “Then we should go shopping,” Rielle declared delightedly. “There’s bound to be something in the markets that will do. And I could look for some ruby earrings, to go with my dress, at the same time.”

  “If it means getting out of the palace for a while, I’m all for a shopping expedition,” Tejay agreed, pushing off the bed. “What do you say, Luciena? Shall we go into the city, beggar our fathers and enrich the merchant classes of Krakandar for a bit of light entertainment?”

  Luciena nodded, a little uncertainly. “Why not?”

  Tejay grinned and rubbed her hands together. “Then let’s go shopping.”

  Chapter 24

  Having extracted a promise from her brothers to help her visit Wrayan Lightfinger, Kalan’s next problem was trying to find a legitimate excuse to leave the palace. She had spent a good deal of the night wide awake in the darkness, silently beseeching Jakerlon, the God of Liars, to provide her with a plausible excuse.

  Jakerlon must have heard her prayers. Not long after lunch, Kalan overheard Rielle, Luciena and Tejay Bearbow announce they were going shopping in the markets. The young princess quickly invited herself along and somehow managed to convince the older girls that Damin, Rodja, Adham, Narvell and Starros had nothing better to do—and wanted nothing more—than to accompany them into the city.

  It was such a glorious day, and the markets weren’t that far from the palace, so the girls had decided to walk. Unfortunately, Damin wasn’t allowed anywhere outside the palace without a substantial bodyguard so it took much longer than normal to get organised, and the older girls were tapping their feet with impatience by the time Captain Harlen announced they were ready to leave.

  Finally, some two hours after the young ladies of the palace had declared their intention to go shopping, Kalan, surrounded by tall Raiders, her older sisters, Tejay Bearbow and her brothers, set off into the city, each step taking her closer to—she was quite certain—her new destiny.

  The presence in the markets of the children from the palace caused a stir, particularly when the citizens of Krakandar realised one of the group was their young prince, but it settled down after a while and they were left to shop in peace. The three older girls appeared determined to try on every single piece of jewellery they saw, and then discuss the comparative merits of each item, before moving on, declaring it the wrong colour, the wrong shade, the wrong size or just simply wrong.

  Before long, the guards were bored and the crowd of spectators faded away. To keep up the illusion that she wanted to shop with the bigger girls, Kalan paid five copper rivets—all the money she had on her—for a small amethyst drop on a copper wire. As they moved to the next stall, Kalan glanced at her brothers. Adham winked at her and began to wander across the way towards a stall stacked with cages filled with chickens. An alert guard accompanied Damin and Narvell, who deliberately walked in the opposite direction, as Starros and Rodja surreptitiously made their way around the other side of the cages. Nobody paid much attention to what they were up to. Kalan waited for their cue, poised and ready to slip away, as soon as her brothers gave the signal.

  “Here!” Tejay was telling Rielle as Kalan turned to see what they were doing. They had stopped at a stall under a brightly coloured awning to examine the various goods the merchant had on offer. This one seemed to be selling mostly copper pots and kitchenware, but also had a small tray of copper wire bracelets and necklets near the back of his table. “This is what you need, Rielle! A Fardohnyan bride’s blade!”

  “What’s that?” Kalan asked, feigning interest in what the older girls were doing.

  “According to legend, in ancient times Fardohnyan brides carried a sword on their wedding day,” Rielle explained. “I’m not sure why.”

  “I am,” Tejay laughed. “Have you ever seen a Fardohnyan?”

  “Can I see it?” Kalan asked, temporarily distracted by the little gold blade and its jewelled sheath. It was very pretty.

  “Careful, Kal,” Rielle warned. “It’s sharp.”

  Kalan examined the dagger closely, impressed by the workmanship.

  “How much is it?” Tejay asked the stallkeeper.

  “Seventy-five gold rivets,” he announced.

  Tejay took the blade from Kalan’s hand and put it back on the table. “Come on, ladies. We don’t deal with extortionists.”

  “But, my lady!” the merchant cried. “I traded my firstborn son for that knife!”

  “You were robbed,” Tejay informed him unsympathetically. “I wouldn’t give you more than thirty for it. And that would be charity.”

  “For sixty-five, I might be persuaded my loss was not in vain,” the man wailed plaintively.

  Kalan bit back her smile as the merchant traded insults with Tejay. She was extraordinarily good at haggling, and the merchant seemed to appreciate her skill. In fact, they both appeared to be having a high old time. After a few more outrageous claims by the merchant and equally outrageous responses from the Warlord’s daughte
r, they eventually agreed on a price of forty-five gold rivets, which Tejay parted with reluctantly, still complaining she was being robbed. The merchant wrapped the blade in a swatch of pale silk and presented it to Tejay with a small bow.

  “Rarely have I enjoyed a transaction so much, my lady.”

  “You should visit the markets in Natalandar some day, sir. I’m sure you’d find the experience quite invigorating.” She accepted the knife and handed it to Luciena. “Here. This is for you. In case it turns out Marla has promised you to a Fardohnyan.”

  Luciena looked stunned by the gift. “But I couldn’t . . .”

  “Take it, Luciena,” Rielle advised with a laugh. “She’s probably only giving it to you so she can borrow it back when she marries Terin.”

  Luciena smiled. “Then I’ll gladly loan it to you on your wedding day, my lady.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” Tejay said. Then she placed her hand on Luciena’s shoulder and smiled. “Welcome to the family, Luciena.”

  If Luciena offered Tejay a reply, Kalan never knew because at that moment a stack of chicken cages behind them toppled to the ground with an almighty crash.

  Amid the screams of the shocked people in the crowded markets, the shouts of their guards, the squawking of the startled chickens and the cries of the angry stallholders, Narvell shoved her between two of the stalls and someone grabbed her arm, pulling her away. Before she knew what was happening, Kalan was running through the markets towards the Beggars’ Quarter, free of any sort of armed guard for the first time in her life.

  About an hour later, Kalan found herself standing outside the Pickpocket’s Retreat, flanked by Damin and Starros. Rodja and Adham had stayed in the markets to make certain their diversion kept the guards occupied long enough to let them get away cleanly. Kalan looked around nervously. Just up the street, a ragged, blind beggar rattled a wooden box at passersby, and on the corner, a couple of rough-looking louts leaned against the wall, eyeing the strangers warily.

  Several blocks away in the vast Krakandar markets, there was probably a riot going on, as the guards responsible for the protection of the royal children realised they’d just lost three of them.