Rider's Revenge (The Rider's Revenge Trilogy Book 1)

by Alessandra Clarke

  She shook her head and stepped away. "I'm chained to your side, Badru. If you love me like you say you do, free me and let me go home."

  She wanted to turn and walk away, but she remembered Herin's caution about turning her back on the Daliph.

  Badru shook his head, his nostrils flaring, his lips pressed tight in anger. "Fine. I free you." He practically spat the words at her.

  "What?"

  "I free you. You're not a slave anymore." Badru turned to the crowd of courtiers. "Nesbit, come here. I need your assistance. I want to free this dorana from slavery. I need you to prepare the writ."

  At Badru's words, a young man cried out in shock, stumbling backward. The rest of the crowd of courtiers started whispering amongst themselves, some gesturing urgently and shaking their heads. One sent a young runner off towards the palace.

  An old man, the one in yellow robes, made his slow way towards Badru, his face carefully neutral.

  Herin darted killing looks at K'lrsa as she stepped forward. "Most honored leader, is that wise? Perhaps you should take time to consider this."

  "No." Badru barely even glanced at her as he waited for Nesbit to reach them. "You know how I've always felt about slavery, grandmother. It's time I did something about it."

  Herin pressed her lips tightly together, swallowing a barrage of words. She glanced towards the courtiers, and finally hissed, "Think, Badru. I can't protect you from yourself."

  "I never asked you to, Omala. Remember, I'm the Daliph not you."

  Herin licked her lips, preparing to argue, but Garzel stepped forward and rested a hand on her shoulder. She backed away, glaring back and forth between K'lrsa and Badru.

  The stooped old man in the yellow robe finally reached them.

  "Nesbit. You will see that the proper documents are drawn up to free this slave."

  The man coughed—a loud, wet, phlegmy sound that made K'lrsa's skin crawl. "Most honored leader, I beg your pardon, but that's not possible."

  "Not possible? I'm the Daliph."

  "Yes, but the law states that any man, woman, or child once made a slave can never be freed." He bowed his head. "It is believed that any person who has sunk to that level can never again rise above it." He darted a glance at K'lrsa and then back at the ground.

  "I know the law, Nesbit. Change it."

  "Most honored leader, each slave has been made so through poor thought or poor action. If you free even one, chaos will follow."

  Badru laughed. "I doubt that very much. As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, I don't want to just free K'lrsa."

  The old man's eyes bulged as he stared at Badru. Garzel physically restrained Herin from stepping forward once more.

  Badru continued as if he didn't notice. "I think that any slave owner who wishes to free their slaves, should be able to do so. It's their property, let them dispense with it as they will. What do you think? A written proclamation signed by the owner and witnessed by two free witnesses? That should suffice." He waved a hand at Nesbit. "Amend the law accordingly."

  The old man braced himself against Fallion, not even realizing what he was doing as he swallowed heavily. "What of the other Daliphana, most honored leader? Perhaps you should consult them first?"

  Badru glared at him and Nesbit flinched backward. "No. The Toreem Daliphate is mine to rule as I see fit. If they want slaves, let them keep them. I do not."

  Nesbit bowed low, but K'lrsa could see the uneasiness in his eyes as he did so. "As you wish." He was shaking so hard he could barely stand. He glanced towards Herin, but she shook her head slightly.

  As Nesbit turned to leave, Badru called him back. "I'm not done, Nesbit."

  K'lrsa stepped forward and rested her hand on Badru's arm. "Don't you think that's enough for one day, most honored leader? I believe your people will need time to adjust to this new law of yours."

  She was grateful for what he'd done. He'd freed her! He'd really freed her. But watching Herin and Nesbit's reactions, and seeing how the courtiers had reacted, she realized that freeing her wasn't as simple as she'd thought it would be. There were undercurrents here she didn't understand and she didn't want Badru to ruin himself for her.

  She'd just wanted to be free.

  Badru shook off her touch. "No. This change will mean nothing unless another change is made as well."

  Nesbit eyed him warily. "And what change would that be, most honored leader?"

  "I want you to also draft language for the return of property to each freed slave."

  Nesbit choked, coughing until his eyes watered; he bent over in half, hacking up what seemed like a lung.

  Herin stepped forward. "Most honored leader…"

  Badru silenced her with a look. "As I said, there is no point in freeing a slave only to leave them destitute and without means. For every slave that is freed, I want the property that was seized at the time they were taken returned to them."

  Herin and Nesbit exchanged horrified looks as K'lrsa tried to think through what that might mean. Who owned that property now? What would that mean to them to suddenly lose what they'd purchased or acquired? Could someone now buy a slave and free them in order to harm an enemy who owned that slave's property?

  She opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again at the look in Badru's eyes.

  "As my first act under this new law, I give back to K'lrsa dan V'na of the White Horse Tribe her horse, Fallion. She is free to ride him whenever and wherever she wishes." He bowed his head towards her. "As much as an Amalanee horse can belong to anyone, he is yours once more, my love."

  She stared at him. Whenever and wherever she wished? So she could just ride Fallion through the gates and never come back?

  She could go home.

  He'd well and truly freed her.

  But when she thought of traveling alone on Fallion back through the Daliphate, she realized how impossible that really was.

  Her freedom was still an illusion.

  At least it was a start, though. K'lrsa threw her arms around Badru. "Thank you!"

  Chapter 72

  Herin pulled K'lrsa away and hissed, "You are still a dorana. Act like it."

  She then turned to Nesbit who had finally started to recover from his coughing fit. "Nesbit, there are obviously many complex matters to consider in drafting such an important law as this one. Allow me to assist you in this while the Daliph and his dorana go for their ride."

  Nesbit nodded, letting Herin guide him away towards the group of courtiers. Herin glanced back at them once, her expression pure venom.

  "Badru, was this wise?" K'lrsa asked, stepping close to him so only he could hear her.

  He shrugged. "Probably not. But you were right. I am the Daliph and it is in my power to change things." He shook his head. "I've always hated slavery. Ever since the day I learned that Lodie was my great aunt. I watched how she was treated and…" He shook his head. "No. It wasn't wise, but it was the right thing to do. Now, come. Let's find out whose horse is the fastest—your Fallion or my Midnight."

  They left K'lrsa's poradoma in the stables. Sayel tried to object, but Badru didn't even pretend to listen.

  He led K'lrsa and a party of six soldiers and five courtiers along the narrow path by the city wall and over the bridge. Everyone in the streets stared; they whispered and pointed, but none attempted to bow or call out.

  She realized how useful it was for Badru to be able to shed his identity as Daliph simply by dressing in black.

  She shuddered at the thought of how restricting it would be to have people bowing to you everywhere you went, demanding attention or favors or just watching what you did every moment of every day.

  As they rode onto the large grassy area outside the city wall, K'lrsa's tension eased. No more people. No more walls. No more city stench. Just unending grassland and open skies.

  She took a deep breath, inhaling the smell of freshly cut grass.

  They were only a short distance from Toreem, but if she closed her eyes she could pr
etend that she was back home, alone, surrounded by nothing except the sky and the land as far as she could see.

  A breeze blew against her face and without even thinking about it, she reached up to unbind her hair, letting it fall down her back and dance in the breeze, relishing the feel as it tugged her hair first one direction and then another.

  As they rode forward, she sighed. "I miss my home."

  "What's it like?" Badru rode beside her as the rest of the group fell back to give them privacy. "Grandmother never speaks of it. Lodie used to tell me stories of the great desert storms and sands that never ended."

  "You knew Lodie when she was in the palace?"

  Badru glanced back to make sure no one could hear them. "Yes."

  "Did you know she was Herin's sister?"

  "Everyone knew. The old Daliph reveled in the fact."

  K'lrsa tilted her head to the side, catching something dark in the way he'd answered. "How so?"

  Badru shook his head. "It isn't really my story to tell."

  "Please, Badru. I need to understand. Why were you all so upset the day I arrived? What happened here between Herin and Lodie and the old Daliph?"

  "And Garzel." He pressed his lips into a tight frown.

  "And Garzel."

  Badru stared ahead, thinking. Finally, he nodded to himself. "Very well. But remember, this isn't my story. It's theirs."

  "I understand."

  He shook his head, but he continued. "When my grandmother was newly married, she accompanied her husband here to pay tribute to the then Daliph. She was very beautiful then, the type of woman that all men saw and immediately wanted."

  K'lrsa tried to picture that, but he was right. At some point in her life Herin had been very beautiful before the ravages of time and anger replaced that beauty with something darker.

  "Well, the Daliph saw her and he was no different. So he took her."

  "Took her?" She stared at Badru.

  His jaw clenched. "Took her. Dragged her from her husband's side and had his way with her." He shook his head, nostrils flared in anger. "Can you imagine? Coming to the court for the first time, excited and happy, a honeymoon with your new husband, and the Daliph drags you from your new husband's side to rape you?"

  K'lrsa shivered, suddenly noticing the dark storm clouds on the far horizon and the chill in the air. "I'm so sorry."

  "Don't apologize to me."

  K'lrsa tried to imagine apologizing to Herin and knew she never would, that she'd never even mention what she'd learned.

  Badru continued. "It gets worse. The Daliph took her husband as well."

  "He wasn't killed when she was taken?"

  Badru grimaced. "No. Herin was the Rider. Her husband was an artist, a gentle man, good with his hands, but not a fighter."

  "What happened to him?" Watching Badru's face, K'lrsa knew she didn't want to hear it, but some part of her wanted to know every nasty, dark detail.

  "They cut his tongue out and made him her poradom. He was forced to attend his own wife. To dress her and feed her. And to escort her to see the Daliph every time he wanted her. He was forced to watch as…" Badru shook his head. "I hated that man so much. I'm glad he's dead."

  "Her husband?" K'lrsa stared at him, surprised.

  "No, the Daliph. Garzel was, is, Herin's husband."

  "Garzel?" She thought back to the way he was always with Herin, always by her side. She remembered that small moment they'd shared on the day she was captured. To think what they must have been through together…A lifetime of watching the one you love tortured…

  "Why didn't they fight back? Why didn't they run?"

  Badru shrugged. "Garzel would never leave without Herin. And Herin could never break free. The Daliph watched her too closely." He smiled weakly at her. "Now you understand why she doesn't care much for the notion of love."

  "But Garzel stayed with her all those years. He saved her, supported her."

  "Exactly." He nodded as he studied the clouds on the far horizon. "If he hadn't loved her, he could've saved himself. And she could've killed herself and been done with it. But because they loved one another, they both held on."

  "A Rider would never kill herself."

  He quirked an eyebrow at her. "No?"

  They rode in silence for a long time before Badru continued. "They almost jumped one night."

  "Jumped?"

  "Out of the window of her room. The slaves forgot to latch the window tight and it was banging in the wind. They stood there, holding hands, staring down at the cobbles below, ready to die together."

  "So why didn't they?"

  "They weren't sure it would kill them."

  "And Lodie? How was she a part of this?"

  Badru glanced behind them once more, but the courtiers had fallen even farther behind. Two guards still rode close enough to reach them quickly, but not so close they'd be able to hear. "Lodie came to rescue them. She, too, was once a Rider. It was about five years later."

  He smiled. "No one knows how she managed it, although there were plenty of rumors of murder or seduction, but she was eventually sold into the Daliph's household as a slave. She thought she'd pass unnoticed until she could rescue them, but the Daliph knew who she was immediately."

  "What did he do?"

  "Used her to torment Herin. And Herin to torment her." He glanced at her briefly before continuing, a bitter smile on his face. "Oh, he had great fun with it before they realized he knew. He'd have Lodie wash the floor of the great room naked in front of everyone while Herin sat next to him pretending not to notice. Or he'd rape Herin while Lodie was there."

  K'lrsa shuddered, imagining how horrible that must've been. She almost wished the old Daliph were still alive just so she could kill him for what he'd done to Lodie. And to Herin. And to Garzel.

  "How do you know all this? You weren't even born then."

  Badru glared at the space between Midnight's ears. "Because he continued to toy with them like that until the day he died." He shook his head, lost in memory. "Herin and Lodie hated each other by then, or at least it seemed like they did."

  He turned to her. "You really met her? She's really alive?"

  K'lrsa nodded. "I think so. That's who she said she was. She has a birthmark on the base of her neck in the shape of a cactus flower and her left ear is cut like a slave's."

  "That's her, alright." He shook his head. "I can't believe my grandmother hid that from me."

  "Hid what?"

  Badru took a deep breath and glanced behind them again. "Lodie is the slave who poisoned my grandfather. He'd made her his taster—I think because he suspected Herin had tried to poison him the year before and he thought she wouldn't poison Lodie no matter how much they seemed to hate each other."

  He glanced at K'lrsa, a slight smile on his face. "Did you know, each finger joint Herin lost was for a time she tried to kill the Daliph?"

  "Really?"

  He nodded, smiling. "My grandmother is nothing if not persistent. Anyway. Lodie was his taster. And one night, in the great hall, in front of everyone, she tasted his food, told him it was fine, and handed it to him." He shrugged. "She coughed a bit as she did it, but that was the only sign that anything was wrong.

  "It was his favorite—dates stuffed with goat's milk cheese drizzled in honey—so he immediately shoved one in his mouth. Meanwhile, Lodie was holding her arms across her stomach, trying not to cough.

  "When the Daliph started to choke, she laughed at him. 'Did you really think my life mattered more to me than killing you you sick bastard?' she asked, and then she collapsed.

  "Dead. Or so I thought. And then he collapsed. Dead."

  K'lrsa stared at him, rapt. "But she lived?"

  Badru shrugged. "I didn't think she had. No one thought she had. The room erupted into chaos; I had to act."

  "Act?"

  He glanced at her and away, biting on his lip. He was silent for a long time as they rode across the plain, watching lightning from the distant storm st
rike the ground. "By the time my grandfather died, there were only two potential successors—myself and his youngest son, Kalel.

  "Fighting for the position had started a few years before when the Daliph had a fainting spell. He told everyone that the last man standing would be his heir. Unleashed a bloodbath. He loved it, the bastard, watching us kill one another."

  Badru grimaced. "He'd tell us stories at dinner of the moves his various heirs had made towards one another, praising the winners, shaming the losers. Kalel, he was the worst. Or best, according to my grandfather.

  "He didn't just eliminate his rivals, he tortured them and betrayed them in the worst possible way he could imagine. He killed more of his brothers, and later his nephews, than any other."

  Badru laughed. "Kalel's actually the reason I was a potential heir. He killed so many of his brothers that my grandfather had to make all his grandson's eligible, too, or risk Kalel coming at him directly."

  "So what did you do when your grandfather collapsed?" K'lrsa watched him, wanting to know but not wanting to know at the same time.

  Badru squared his shoulders and met her eyes. "I killed Kalel. While everyone was swarming around my grandfather, I stuck my eating knife in Kalel's neck."

  K'lrsa flinched. She'd know he was going to say it, but to picture the man she loved cold-bloodedly stabbing another was too much.

  Badru held her gaze. "I don't regret it. He deserved to die. He was as bad as or worse than my grandfather."

  K'lrsa tried to shake away her disgust. Murder was almost unheard of in the tribes—life was too precarious for men to kill one another for no reason. But in the Daliphate it seemed to be a common occurrence. "So what happened to Lodie?"

  Badru shook his head. "I don't know. By the time I made it to my grandfather's side, he was dead. Lodie and Garzel were gone. My grandmother said she'd sent Garzel to throw the body on a trash heap somewhere. No one dared question her."

  He smiled. "Seems she survived somehow after all. Maybe she had the antidote?"

  K'lrsa frowned. From what Lodie had told her, she'd expected, even wanted, to die.