A Gift Freely Given (The Tahaerin Chronicles Book 1)

by J. Ellen Ross

  Everyone walked out into the large open area of the hall. Normally filled with tables, servants had pushed them all to the edges of the chamber. The dancers formed a loose circle and waited for the first song to begin.

  “These are warm-ups,” Lukas told her. “We just move in a circle with everyone else, in simple steps.”

  The musicians started with a slow, simple drum accompanying a high melody played by the piper. All of the dancers took a step to the left, paused and then took two to the right. “See? Easy,” Lukas said, smiling. A few more repetitions and the rhythm increased in speed.

  “Take my hand and we add a jump at the end.” He grabbed her hand without waiting for her permission.

  Concentrating on not falling, Leisha did not notice his touch as she recited, “One to the left, two to the right, jump.” Easy, indeed.

  Under his mask, Lukas grinned at her. “Take his hand next to you.” When she hesitated, he whispered, “He doesn’t know who you are.”

  Holding the hand of one of her nobles crossed a line Leisha never considered, but the disguise made her feel brave and reckless. She offered her hand to a man wearing a mask in a riot of green and blue and gold, closing the circle of dancers.

  A man and woman, each carrying lutes, stood up and joined in the song with the piper and drum.

  “Now faster, and add a bow when you move left. The steps are more like a skip now, too. Keep up.” Lukas encouraged over the musicians.

  Under her breath Leisha repeated, “Left, bow, right, right, jump.”

  Soon the dancers whirled around their circle, moving faster and faster as the tempo of the music climbed. They added a few new steps, but Leisha found the dance easy to keep up with—and so exhilarating.

  When the song ended, she called a momentary rest to get her breath back. Lukas snagged glasses of water from a servant, and they both drank, pushing their masks up but take care not to remove them. After resting through a single song, he pulled her back out. This time the steps built on the first, adding a hop and flourish with their right hands. The playful atmosphere caught up with her, and she laughed at her missteps. For once, she did not care who saw or what they thought.

  Three more dances and Lukas pulled her back out of the circle. “For someone who never dances, you seem to be enjoying yourself.” He loved the color in her cheeks and the grin just below the mask.

  “I am,” she said, sounding surprised and delighted.

  More water appeared and this time they sat down. Lukas told her stories about balls and dances he attended growing up in Adrojan with Lorant. They laughed together over his memories of turning three pigs loose in a banquet Lorant’s father barred him from.

  Sitting down made Leisha realize how tired she was. Today had been filled with petitions from several towns for new walls and improvements to other defenses. It had taken time to figure out the sums for each and where the money could come from. She stifled a yawn with the back of her hand, seeing how low the torches along the wall had burned while they danced and talked. “I think I’m done for tonight.”

  “For shame,” Lukas said, but a smile accompanied it. “I’ll walk you back to your rooms. And maybe I could escort you to the play in a few nights?”

  “I would very much like that, Lukas.”

  He offered her his arm and together they made their way out of the hall. At the doors to her wing, he bowed with a flourish to her and to the two guards flanking the entrance.

  ***

  Two days later, a servant announced Lukas had arrived just as her maids finished dressing her in a dark green gown with midnight blue accents for the play tonight. When she met him in her public room, he smiled. “You look beautiful, Leisha. You’ll outshine them all tonight.”

  “Thank you, Lukas.”

  He offered to tie on her mask, covered in dark green fabric and iridescent green feathers. His hand brushed her neck and she shivered at the casual touch. “Shall we?” he asked, indicating the door.

  Together, they made their way to the hall and found a stage erected and rows of seats set up in front of it. He warned her the actors would bring people up on the stage throughout the evening to participate in the play. Lukas asked if she wanted to sit in the back, and Leisha quickly agreed.

  Once the play began, the acting was terrible and the writing incomprehensible. After ten minutes or so, Lukas leaned close again. “Can I confess something? I’d rather not sit here and watch this. These things last for hours and honestly, these actors aren’t good.”

  “I was afraid I was the only one who thought so,” she whispered.

  “Shall we sneak out?” he asked, standing up and offering her his hand.

  They exited and found their way out of the castle. “Gardens?” Lukas suggested. “I think I heard there are musicians there tonight.”

  Past a gate cut in an ancient hedge, they found Lovek’s fantastic garden. Servants wandered amongst the beds serving food and drinks to those not attending the play. A troupe of musicians played traditional music from Otokar.

  “Should we try the maze?” Lukas asked, gesturing to a tall, dark hedge hidden in the shadows on the opposite side of the gardens. “I remember playing in it with Lorant as children.”

  The idea of being lost in the maze and Eli not being able to reach her made Leisha uncomfortable. Zaraki would not approve, and she tried always to keep his instructions in mind, but she found Lukas’s excitement infectious. She glanced around, but Eli was hiding somewhere, being unobtrusive. Surely he would keep up. “All right, I’ve never been in one.”

  At the entrance, a servant handed Lukas a torch and lit it from his own. Lukas offered her his arm and they wandered, turning left or right at random. As they walked, he said, “I have to say, you’re much more pleasant than my father implies when he talks about you.”

  Leisha laughed. “Andrzej and I didn’t usually get along well. I think in the beginning he imagined keeping me there was a great blow against his enemy. After a while, he realized I was a great deal more trouble than he expected.”

  “Was it hard coming back to Tahaerin for you?” he asked.

  “Yes and no. I always knew I would return. I never imagined I would be queen at sixteen, but I can’t fathom what my life would have been like if my parents had not died. An arranged marriage with the first nobleman’s son to agree to an alliance with my father?” She shuddered dramatically. “Your father left me to fend for myself. We never got along, but I appreciate he forgot to teach me to be compliant or obedient. I would have never accepted the life my parents imagined for me.”

  Finally, their path ended at the exit to the maze. “I suppose it’s getting late. Your butler will be worried.”

  “He’s gone to bed. I have other shadows. They never let me get too far out of their sight.”

  Lukas looked around. “We’re being followed?”

  “Certainly. And watched,” she said, nodding to the dark corners of the garden.

  “You do live a much different life than I do, Leisha. Surely you’re safe here.”

  “I haven’t been safe since I left Embriel. It’s the life I’ve chosen,” she said and shrugged. “I could marry one of my nobles’ wretched sons and live a quiet life where no one tried to assassinate me, but I choose to be master of my fate.”

  They walked together back to her apartments and once against he left her with the guards. As he made his way back to his own wing, Lukas wondered if Leisha would prefer to marry royalty and what his father would say if he became King of Tahaerin.

  Tumultuous

  For the night of the Tumult, her maids chose the most daring of all the dresses. Leisha started to protest it was too much but relented thinking of all the work they had put into it. She wore a rust and gold embroidered brocade bodice laced up the back. Pearl embellishments covered the front panel while the square neckline plunged lower than anything she had ever worn before. Oversleeves of white fur covered her arms to the elbow and then deep brown undersleeves fell to her
wrists. The overskirt was made from the same gold and rust brocade as the bodice while a gold silk forepart showed where the overskirt split.

  When Symon tied on her mask, it covered her eyes and nose. With feathers, Danica crafted the outline of a hawk diving and then filled the spaces with rubies and gold beads. Tonight they pulled her hair up and pinned into a cascade of black curls.

  Lukas appeared at her door dressed in a dark brown coat and vest. Fashioned in brown leather with accents sewn in a lighter thread, his mask made him look roguish.

  “Tell me what exactly to expect at this Tumult,” Leisha said as Lukas and Symon walked down the hallway with her.

  Symon started to answer but realized she aimed her question at the prince. He shut his mouth, used to being the one she came to for information. For a week, he had tried to dismiss the concerns he felt about Lukas and for a week, he failed to do so. The boy had insinuated himself into Leisha’s confidence very fast, and at nearly twenty-two, she still seemed woefully ignorant of men. Symon could guess what the prince sought but did not know how to talk to his queen about it or if she would appreciate his intrusion.

  “Ah, I’ve attended two in Otokar, I believe,” Lukas said. “I assume they’re all the same. All week there has been a curfew for everyone in town so things could be set up. Tonight, no one is allowed out of their houses at all. Breaking the peace will usually result in your house being burned to the ground.”

  She scowled. “A bit barbaric, isn’t it?”

  He shrugged, unconcerned. “All of the people we see on the streets tonight, the acrobats, the musicians, the stall vendors, they are all actors, performers and guards. We’re free to roam the streets as long as we’re masked. We can shop, eat and be peasants all night without having to smell like peasants.”

  Symon wrinkled his nose and saw Leisha frown. She felt a great sense of responsibility to her people and he knew she did not approve.

  “Can you please inquire about it, Symon? I’ll be speaking to Lovek if it’s true. It isn’t acceptable to burn people’s houses down.” She kept her voice low, but Lukas remained oblivious to it anyway. They continued to walk through the castle, and then out into the courtyard.

  A huge bonfire burned in the middle of the yard. With a flare of dramatics, Lovek had also sealed the gates and had guards standing on either side. He stood on the back of a wagon draped in black fabrics. At the appointed time, he called out, “Royal and noble guests. Tonight the night is ours. The city below awaits, filled with wondrous surprises and exotic delights. Take care you aren’t taken advantage of by pickpockets and other assorted brigands.”

  The crowd cheered as horses pulled the wagon out of the way and the great gates swung opened. A throng of people surged forward, eager to see what delights Otokar had in store. Leisha and Lukas walked ahead together.

  Symon followed discreetly for a while, in case she needed anything. Watching them, he imagined he knew how fathers must feel watching their daughters grow. Though he had no children of his own, Leisha came very close, and he did not like how near Lukas stood tonight and how he steered her through the crowds with a hand on her elbow.

  On the streets, it almost looked as if someone had set the city ablaze. Everywhere, torches burned, filling the avenues with light. For the last week, work teams had departed the castle early each morning to scrub the streets and clean the building facades. Tonight, Leisha saw homes decorated with wreaths and ribbons. At most intersections, small bonfires burned. But suspiciously attentive beggars squatting near each one, with water barrels placed out of the way. She recognized several food vendors from the castle and realized they were guards in disguise.

  The street opened up into the first plaza. Stalls filled with cooking food and glasses of wines lined the square. To allow the nobles the novelty of paying for goods with their own coins, all of the vendors charged a small fee for their wares. “Hungry?” Lukas asked.

  “I am,” Leisha admitted. She pointed across the square, “There are meat pies.”

  “Perfect.” He offered his arm and she rested her hand there as they walked toward the stall. “One for myself and one for my lovely companion.” Lukas paid and the seller handed him two porcelain plates with their pies. Lukas steered them both towards benches set around the square. They ate, passing the time in pleasant conversation and Leisha noticed Symon had slipped away. She thought Zaraki would have loved this spectacle.

  As they finished their meal, a beggar wandered by and asked if they could spare a poor, sick, old man anything. Even the dishes in their laps could help. They shared a smile and handed their plates to him. Then it was time to see what other surprises the city held.

  Down the main street, a market sprouted. Goods of all sorts were on display: ribbons and silk fabrics, small dogs and birds in cages, musical instruments, books and jeweled rings. Lukas wanted to look at a very fine hunting bow. He paid the seller handsomely for it and arranged to have it delivered to the castle tomorrow. He asked if anything caught her eye. It felt odd for someone to suggest buying something for her. She thanked him but said no. They moved on to the common area in front of the merchant’s guildhall.

  The wide boulevard opened into a vast courtyard. In the center, a lovely fountain with several levels bubbled and splashed. Torches set in sconces high on the walls lent a good deal of light. Leisha saw four separate stages erected, each with their own sets of stage lights. On one, a group of musicians played music while groups of professional dancers moved and swayed through the crowd. Another stage held a troupe of acrobats and contortionists. They lingered in front of that one for a bit, enjoying the spectacle. On the third platform, a man with a trained pack of dogs put them through their tricks to the delight of everyone. A pair of jugglers worked through their routine while telling light-hearted jokes about nobles in attendance on the fourth stage. Leisha loved it all.

  Without warning the back of her neck prickled and the hair there rose. She heard this whisper of thought, like someone saying her name in a crowd. Someone was thinking about her. A foot shuffled behind her and she whirled, her hand darting out to grab the wrist of the pickpocket. His own hand was headed for a ruby pin in her hair.

  “Holy gods, you’re fast,” Lukas gasped. “Don’t worry, he’s an actor,” he said when she did not remove her hand.

  Fascinating, she thought. Just like the day of the parade, she realized she could take note of dangerous thoughts. Here, though, she could not tell the difference between real threats and ones for show. She let the man go and gave him a coin as an apology. “I’ve ruined the illusion. Take this, please.”

  The man bobbed his head, “Thank you, gracious lady. I would have returned the pin in the morning. That’s what we’re paid for.” He turned and hurried away, looking for his next mark.

  “Are you really a mind reader? Is that how you did that? My father said you were, but he didn’t know much about it.”

  “I am, but there isn’t much to say. I can feel your emotions and read your superficial thoughts if I want.” Even after all the years around Zaraki and Symon, she still hated people knowing about her odd gifts. She loathed the memories of rejection and the looks on people’s faces as they realized what she could do, just like her nannies.

  “Very interesting,” he said, not really listening anymore as he stared out over the crowd. “Let’s go find something to drink.”

  Leisha blew out a pent up breath she had not realized she held and felt pleased he did not care about her strange abilities. Just as she turned to follow him, she felt the whisper again, someone thinking about her. But this felt familiar, menacing and threatening. She could almost remember. It vanished as quickly as it came. Just another actor, she supposed, deciding to ignore it. There were guards everywhere, and tonight she just wanted to be an anonymous face in the crowd.

  Together they wandered around the courtyard until they found a seller with glasses of a variety of different wines. Lukas talked with the man a great deal before selecting two and
bringing one back to her. “Lovek has opened his wine cellar for this. There were vintages there I’ve never heard of. But I think you’ll like this one.”

  Relieved he did not seem to care about her strange gifts, Leisha downed the wine much faster than normal. Lukas grinned and fetched her another immediately. “It is good,” he said, laughing. “Looks like a troupe of actors taking the stage over there. Let’s go watch.” They stood together and watched the mummers acting out a story of two lovers reunited after a great battle.

  “How timely,” Lukas said, looking down at her. Suddenly, he was very close. His hand turned her chin towards him and he leaned in, pressing his lips to hers.

  Leisha gasped and stepped back, confused and alarmed. Her hand flew to her mouth. She had not expected it. People did not just touch her and they certainly did not kiss her.

  Cocking his head, Lukas asked, “My lady Queen, are you a virgin?” He watched her, thinking this could not be more perfect.

  When she did not answer, he said, “I see.” He closed the gap between them, watching to see if she spooked. Leisha stood her ground unsure what to do when he took one hand and kissed the top of it and then her fingertips. When she did not protest, he took the other hand and did the same.

  Leisha froze as all her gifts failed to explain to her how to react. She felt her heart beating too fast and wanted to run. Touching Lukas’s mind, she saw it swirled, awash with images and emotions. She understood desire and sex, though perhaps only remotely, but this seemed overwhelming. Yet here on the street, the anonymity of the night made her feel carefree. Like she did not have to run away from strange emotions and a situation she did not understand. In the back of her mind, she recognized the wine muddling her thoughts but did not care.

  Interpreting her stillness as permission to continue, he bent again and kissed her, this time running his tongue over her lips. She still tasted like the wine. “Tonight is the perfect night to lose it,” he whispered.