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

by Alessandra Clarke

  "Me, Sayel. You know me. After all these days can you honestly believe that I would be with Tarum like that?"

  He shook his head. "I don't know what to believe, my dorana. Balor is a friend and mentor. He says he killed Tarum and subdued you."

  "How? How did he subdue me, Sayel? Do you see any marks on my body? Did he have any marks on his body? I'm a trained warrior, Sayel. I wouldn't be taken without a fight."

  When he looked skeptical, she said, "Did you know that I've fought the Daliph? That I'm his equal?"

  He swallowed, stepping back. "You fought the Daliph?" For a moment he was once more the disapproving father figure, shaking his head in shame. "Oh, my dorana. What am I to do with you?"

  His eyes narrowed as he studied her. "You fought the Daliph?"

  "Yes."

  "And you were able to match him?"

  "I landed a few blows even wearing the dress of a dorana."

  Sayel's eyebrows drew together. He paced the room, tilting his head first to one side then to another, before finally turning back to her. "The Daliph is one of the best fighters I've ever seen. But if Balor lied, what did happen and why won't Herin believe you?"

  K'lrsa shook her head. She'd never understand Herin if she lived an eternity. "Herin said she doesn't care about the truth, she cares about perception."

  She shrugged. "There's something else I don't understand, Sayel. Tarum cut me twice last night, but my wounds are completely healed."

  "What?" Sayel grabbed her arms, his fingers leaving bruises in her flesh.

  She showed him the two long-healed scars. "See?"

  Sayel gasped as he ran a trembling finger along the scar on her arm. "Those weren't there yesterday."

  "No. I told you."

  Sayel stumbled away from her, shaking his head, clutching at his chest.

  "What?"

  He shook his head again and stared into the distance. "Rumors. There were always rumors. But…"

  "Sayel! What is it?"

  He met her eyes; it was the first time she'd seen him scared. "Death walkers."

  "What are death walkers?" She grabbed his arms and shook him. "Sayel? What are they?"

  He glanced at the two guards who continued to stand as still as statues and whispered, "Those who worship the death god. It's said they can heal any wound." He traced her scar once more. "It's even whispered that some can bring the dead back to life."

  K'lrsa shivered. "And you think they're the ones who healed me?"

  He nodded.

  "But why? Why not just let me die?"

  Sayel shook his head. "I don't know."

  K'lrsa paced the room, trying to figure out what to do next. Sayel watched her, alternating between wide-eyed fear and hand-wringing uncertainty.

  The door swung open and Herin strode into the room, Garzel at her heels as always. Herin glared at her. "Time for your trial. Sayel, help her get dressed."

  Garzel handed Sayel two small pieces of pale brown baru hide, but before K'lrsa could ask what they were, Sayel turned on Herin. "You lied to me."

  Herin barely spared him a glance.

  "Herin. Death walkers healed her," he hissed.

  Herin snapped at the guards, "Leave us. Now."

  They hesitated, but at a nod from Garzel, both stepped into the hallway.

  She turned on Sayel as soon as they were gone. "Of course I lied to you, you fool. You're as bad as the boy when it comes to your dorana."

  Sayel glared at Herin. "What about the death walkers?"

  She waved her hand, shooing away his concern. "Dealt with."

  "How?"

  Herin studied him for a long moment until the silence in the room was almost painful. "Tell me something, Sayel. Would you do anything you could for your Daliph?"

  "Of course."

  "Would you give your life for him?"

  "Yes." He stood straighter, holding his chin high. "It's part of the vow I made as a poradom."

  "Then stop asking questions and serve your Daliph. Shut up and die like the good little soldier you are."

  Sayel shook his head. "I don't understand."

  Herin pinched the bridge of her nose and glared back and forth between K'lrsa and Sayel. "Must I always explain myself? Fine. K'lrsa must die. And she must die at the hands of the Daliph. If she doesn't, the court will turn on him."

  When K'lrsa stepped forward to protest, Herin held up a hand to silence her. "Hear me out. The rumor of K'lrsa's infidelity has spread throughout the palace. Everyone believes it." Again Herin held up a hand to silence K'lrsa. "It doesn't matter if you weren't, girl. What matters is what people believe.

  "And the people believe that you are tribal trash that would open your legs for any man. Not only that, they believe you did so."

  K'lrsa clenched her hands, wanting to punch each and every one of them, but let Herin continue.

  "It doesn't help that just yesterday the Daliph sent the whole palace into chaos by freeing you from slavery. You, the lying, cheating whore."

  She turned back to Sayel. "What do you think happens if Badru believes her story? If he spares her and ignores the word of one of his senior poradoma?"

  She looked back and forth between them. "What will people think of their Daliph if he takes the word of some plains savage over the words of an honored member of his court? Do you think people will believe he knew better than them?

  "Or do you think they'll see a weak, love-blind fool willing to sacrifice his entire Daliphate for what's between a woman's legs?"

  K'lrsa gasped at the crude description.

  Sayel rubbed at his chin as he thought about what Herin had said.

  Herin continued, "The only way to save Badru now is to let him be seen as a strong leader that hasn't been seduced by a pretty face. He must do this. "

  Sayel sighed. "Is there no other way?"

  "No."

  K'lrsa stared back and forth between them. Were they really going to do this to her? To Badru?

  "Enough." Herin nodded at the baru hide in Sayel's arms. "We need to dress K'lrsa for her audience."

  Sayel held up a small piece of baru hide, barely bigger than his hand, an eyebrow raised.

  "What's that?" K'lrsa asked.

  "Your top."

  She stared at Herin. "I can't wear that. That's…there's nothing to it."

  Herin smiled, the expression so uncharacteristic and strange it was more frightening than anything K'lrsa had ever seen before. "I know."

  K'lrsa held the baru hide against her chest. "No tribe member would wear this, Herin. It's impractical. I'd be better off naked."

  "If you'd rather, that's fine, too. But if you intend to wear clothing, this is the clothing you'll wear."

  K'lrsa met the old woman's gaze for a long, long moment.

  She wanted to refuse, but what did it really matter? Too much clothing, too little. It was all the same. Just someone trying to play tricks on her mind, but it didn't change who she was at her core.

  She sniffed. "Alright. Give it to me."

  Chapter 79

  As K'lrsa walked down the hallways of the palace towards the audience chamber, Herin and Sayel ahead of her, two of the Daliph's guards behind her, she finally understood the difference between the atrocious garb of a dorana and what she was wearing now. She might hate the layers and layers of clothing that dorana were required to wear, but it told others a story. That she was special, important, deserving of care.

  What she wore now told them that she was a savage. Beneath them. Other.

  Men didn't even try to hide their leers as she passed, making suggestive comments about what they'd like to do with her body. Women turned away in disgust or made biting comments about where a piece of trash like her actually belonged.

  K'lrsa held her head high and stared straight ahead. She refused to let these people shame her. She would not bow her head before them, she would not blush in shame.

  Her hands twitched as she walked, longing to tug the top that barely covered her breast
s a little bit higher or to pull the skirt that barely covered her butt down just a little more. She didn't do it, though, because doing so would be a sign of weakness. It would let the men and women who mocked her know that she heard their comments and that they mattered to her.

  They didn't.

  She was a Rider and that was something inside her, something that had nothing to do with what she wore or how she looked or what anyone else thought of her. That was at the core of who she was and something no one could ever touch.

  (Or so she told herself as her hands once more itched to adjust her top.)

  There was one advantage to Herin's choice of costume. For the first time in weeks, K'lrsa could walk down the hallway at a normal pace, her feet no longer tangling in her skirts at each step. And, fortunately, the outfit fit amazingly well. If she did have to fight, she thought it would actually stay in place.

  They reached the doors to the audience chamber and K'lrsa took a deep breath, knowing that as bad as the walk there had been, it would be a hundred times worse inside. She stood tall, proud, staring towards the dais and Badru as the doors opened before her.

  K'lrsa fought the urge to cover her ears and flinch away from the wall of men's voices that assaulted her.

  She was a Rider. These men were nothing to her.

  Only Badru mattered.

  He sat on the central dais, his dorana arrayed one level below him in their cacophony of color. The blue pillow she'd once sat on was gone, her space filled in as if she'd never been there.

  Poradoma in their green robes—some so old they looked ready to die at any moment, some so young they probably hadn't even reached their tenth summer—filled one entire section of the room.

  Lawkeepers, their yellow robes as bright as the sun, filled a smaller area next to them, followed by the punishers in their robes as red as freshly-spilled blood.

  Guards in white stood shoulder to shoulder around the entire perimeter of the room.

  Men in brown with hints of color here or there filled every single space in the room, practically sitting on top of each other.

  The only empty space was a small area in front of the dais and the narrow path between the doors and that space.

  K'lrsa struggled to breathe as the walls closed in around her. She'd never been near this many people, this many men, all hostile. There wasn't a kind face in the entire room.

  Not even Badru's.

  Nesbit rose from his seat, shuffling forward as he coughed his skin-crawling phlegmy cough.

  The room fell silent.

  Herin and Sayel stepped aside and K'lrsa walked forward through the narrow pathway to the area of judgement before the dais. They'd added so many tables for the occasion, they'd barely remembered to leave enough space for her to reach it.

  Sayel followed a step behind her. They were joined by Morlen as they reached the small area where Nesbit waited.

  At least they'd left enough room for Badru to behead her without accidentally striking one of the witnesses at the same time.

  Barely. Those in the front rows would receive more than just a close-up view.

  She looked to Badru, ignoring the rest of the room.

  He held her gaze, never looking away, never betraying a single emotion.

  Nesbit cleared his throat and spoke so all could hear him. "Most honored leader, before you stands the one formerly known as K'lrsa dan V'na of the White Horse Tribe, now a dorana of the Toreem Daliphate."

  He cleared his throat; K'lrsa winced at the thought of what he spit into his handkerchief before continuing, "This one is accused of consorting with a man other than her Daliph. Namely, her poradom, Tarum Alavane. They were discovered together in her chambers by senior poradom, Balor Lenivano."

  He nodded towards an older man whose muscular frame had long since gone to fat. Where Sayel was large but clearly strong, this man was simply large, his neck full of fleshy folds that gathered under his chin.

  "Tarum Alavane was killed on sight. This one was held for your judgement as is proper."

  Badru's jaw twitched as he glanced at Balor, but that was the only emotion he showed as Nesbit read the charges. She wished he'd give her a sign, any sign, that he believed her. She stared at him, willing with every bit of her being for him to realize that this was a lie and a travesty.

  But she wasn't blind to the hatred in the eyes of the men behind her. Their anger was like a palpable thing prowling the edges of the room.

  Herin was right, these men believed her guilty. Even if Badru knew she wasn't, what could he do?

  "Balor, stand." Badru leaned forward, watching the man like a desert cat studying its prey.

  "Most honored leader." He bowed as he stepped forward, wheezing slightly from the effort of walking the five steps from where he'd been seated.

  This was the man who was supposed to have subdued her? She wanted to laugh, but didn't.

  "Tell me, how did you discover the two?"

  K'lrsa held Badru's gaze as Balor described coming to her door in the middle of the night to check that the Daliph's orders, that K'lrsa be protected at all times, were being followed. He played to the crowd as he described how shocked he was when no one was there outside her door and how he heard noises coming from inside the room.

  "Animal noises," he said, looking out at the crowd with a meaningful glance at K'lrsa in her barely-there clothing. "The savage screams of a wanton woman. I entered immediately and…" He widened his eyes, licking his fat little lips as he paused for effect. The crowd hung on his every word, eager to hear what he'd found.

  "Stop."

  Balor turned back to Badru, his open jaw nestled into his fat little neck.

  "Did you knock or in any other way announce your presence before you barged into the room of my dorana?"

  Balor choked at the look of fury on Badru's face. "N-no, most honored leader. There was no time. I entered immediately."

  Badru frowned at him. "It didn't occur to you that she might be with me?"

  "With you, most honored leader? Why would you have been there?"

  Badru raised one elegant eyebrow as Balor mopped at his sweaty forehead. "She is my dorana."

  The crowd whispered like a late spring storm wind.

  "But…she's…you'd never…" Balor looked around the room, but whoever he was looking for either wasn't there or refused to meet his eyes.

  Badru leaned back in his chair, but no one was fooled by his casual pose. He was as relaxed as a desert cat on the prowl. "K'lrsa, my love, have I ever visited you in your rooms?"

  Herin hissed under her breath, but K'lrsa kept her gaze focused on Badru. "Yes. More than once."

  The whisper of the crowd grew to a raging gale that swirled around them.

  Badru raised his hand and they were once more silent. "At night?"

  "Yes."

  He glanced towards Balor who looked on the point of fainting. "Did I ever tell you or anyone else when these visits might be?"

  "No." She didn't dare hope, but she felt a small fluttering in her stomach. He believed her and he was going to show everyone, show them that she'd never betray him, that Balor was lying.

  Badru stood and glared down at Balor, his voice as soft and bright as a dagger. "And yet I'm to believe that Balor found you consorting with one of your poradoma in the middle of your rooms for anyone to see?"

  He slowly looked around the room, stopping here or there for an extra moment. K'lrsa didn't recognize most of the people he looked at, but he finished with a long, angry glare at Herin.

  She glared right back at him, their eyes meeting like locked swords.

  "Interesting." Badru once more lounged in his chair. "Please continue your tale, Balor."

  Balor trembled, barely able to force the first few words out and then continued in a mad rush as he described leaping into the room and finding them naked in the middle of the room. He said he grabbed Tarum's hair and slit his throat before the man could react and then hit K'lrsa, knocking her out as she cried over her l
over's dead body.

  He tried to play to the crowd, but no one was willing to anger Badru by responding and he ended up rushing through to the end and standing before Badru, head down, sides heaving as he breathed heavily.

  Badru nodded slowly. "So she was easy to subdue then?"

  "Oh very easy, most honored leader. She is a woman after all. Barely more than a girl."

  Badru almost smiled at that, but caught himself in time to smooth the expression from his face again. "And you say she was naked when you found her?"

  "Yes, most honored leader. Naked and entwined with…"

  Badru waved him to silence and glared at the crowd who were once more whispering among one another like scandalized grandmothers.

  Badru pursed his lips. "And you subdued her?"

  "I did, most honored leader."

  "Easily?"

  "Yes, most honored leader." Balor mopped at his forehead again, the underarms of his robe now stained a darker green from his sweat.

  Badru shook his head. "Are you sure it was K'lrsa you found?"

  Balor stared at him, confused.

  "I've seen K'lrsa fight. And I've seen you walk five steps to the middle of this room." He leaned forward. "And if I were a betting man, my money would be on her."

  Balor stood up straighter, puffing out his chest. "How dare you."

  Badru waved him to silence. "Nesbit."

  The old man shuffled forward with a slight bow. "Yes, most honored leader."

  "What is the penalty for giving false witness to the Daliph?"

  Balor sputtered and choked, but couldn't manage any words. Badru glared at him until he went silent once more.

  "Nesbit?"

  "Death, most honored leader."

  Badru nodded slowly as the sound of the crowd whispering and arguing blew around the room like the first hints of a desert sandstorm.

  "She confessed," Balor shouted, swaying on his feet.

  "To whom?"

  "To Herin." Balor turned to look at Herin.

  She met his gaze and then looked up to Badru, her expression flat.

  Badru shook his head. "Don't bother, grandmother. I'd rather not have to kill you today."

  Herin made a slight choking sound, but otherwise didn't react to his comment.