Leisha frowned, annoyed she did not understand military tactics better. “Why? Can’t they just chase us until we’re out of places to run to?”
Catching his meaning, Symon smiled. “Because they can’t come too far inland without taking some land. If they continue just to march after us, they’ll be surrounded, cut off from their supplies and the beaches at Lida.”
“They’re trying to draw us into a conflict before we’re ready. We’ll refuse to play their game and retreat until they’re forced to show their hands. They didn’t come here just to kill you. They’re here for conquest, and the lords will learn. When we retreat far enough, the Deojrin will attack and the lords will come running to us. You’re the only other choice because there are no other legitimate Tahaerin heirs. No cousins to turn to, no one else in line to take the throne.”
Leisha looked unhappy and doubtful. Tahaerin nobles demanded strong monarchs who did not flinch from battle. For eight years, she managed to avoid any armed conflict with her lords through skillful manipulation and economic growth. Still, her nobles were restless, eager to agitate and scheme against her if they saw any vulnerability to exploit. As Symon once told her, they were a pack of dogs, ready to turn on her if she did not keep them in line. “My concern is they’ll say I’m weak—no better than my father. That’s what got him thrown overboard in a storm.”
“Davos lost his life because of his mismanagement of the kingdom and because he left himself unprotected,” Symon said from the far end of the table. “You aren’t Davos. Retreating allows us time to build our army. Any lord who wants to say you’re weak will have plenty to think about in another few weeks when Gerolt takes their lands.”
“So long as it doesn’t appear we’re disorganized or panicked, I’ll go along with this. It must be clear we have a plan.” To Leisha, it seemed like they had anything but a plan.
“Of course,” Andelko assured her. “Armies are expensive things, and no monarch wastes theirs on pointless battles. We always have to consider when to engage. This isn’t some new strategy we’ve come up with. This will be a deliberate, controlled withdrawal. We’ll be announcing to the Deojrin and the nobles that we’ll choose the location of our confrontation, not the other way around.”
Twisting her hands together, Leisha hoped no one saw. Her crown protected her from Gerolt. If she lost it as her support eroded, who would save her?
***
All the talk of her father and his failure as king left Leisha feeling pensive and introspective throughout the afternoon. Thoughts about her legacy, what she might leave behind, followed her as she paced restlessly through the castle hallways. Aniska and Zaraki shadowed her, keeping their distance and taking pains not to intrude on her private ruminations.
As the last member of her family, there were no heirs to take her crown if Gerolt succeeded in killing her. The thought that further misfortune might befall her kingdom as a mad scramble for her throne erupted in the midst of a foreign invasion plagued her conscience. There would be no heirs from her, though only Zaraki knew her reasons why.
That left naming someone as an heir, which she also resisted doing. An heir apparent became someone for the nobles to court, someone to curry favor with, someone to imagine as king or queen instead of her. It drove a wedge between the crown and the lords, and if she chose poorly, her heir might decide to rebel and attempt to take the kingdom from her. But if she chose well, it would mean a painless transition to a new king or queen.
“Ani,” Leisha called out to the smaller of her two shadows. “Would you find Andelko and ask him to meet me in the chamber by the dining hall?”
***
The room had only a single, small window, but bright afternoon light filtered in and her Lord Constable stood silhouetted against it. “Andelko, thank you. I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”
“Any time I can steal you away from your husband is time well spent,” he said playfully.
Leisha grinned at him, pleased they could still talk like this, even in the middle of a war. Then she sobered, remembering why she asked him here. “I wanted to ask you something. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and I want to ask you to be my heir, to take my crown if something happens to me. I want to know something of what I’ve built will survive my death if it comes to that.”
Instantly, she felt his anger, felt him withdraw. He hid something, but she would not pry and took special care not to hear his thoughts.
With stiff formality, he took a step away, retreating physically from her, and bowed deeply. “Your Highness, you asked me the same thing two years ago when we were stuck in the keep in Lida. I ignored you then. Now, I’m telling you, I won’t discuss this. I won’t agree to this. I won’t entertain this.”
His hostility and reluctance surprised her. “I know no one wants to think about it,” Leisha said.
Staring at her for a moment, he looked as though he wanted to say something. Then his face shuttered, leaving whatever he intended unsaid. “And we all have our own reasons for that. You don’t know mine and you don’t need to. Please, don’t bring it up again. Choose someone else.”
Curiosity tugged at her, but she would not violate his privacy. Everyone deserved to keep some secrets from her. “I won’t, Andelko,” she promised, not angry or even disappointed. She understood asking someone to shoulder the responsibility of becoming her heir was a huge, life-changing request, and not everyone would be willing to accept the risks or rewards. If anything, she appreciated him being honest and not just saying yes to make her happy.
As Andelko watched her walk out of the little chamber, he hung his head, hating the hard words, hating himself for being such a coward. He wanted to say more, to say something else. He wanted to tell her that if she died, there would be nothing to tie him to Lida or any Tahaerin lands. But he feared the questions that might result, and no good would come of a confession now. It was far too late for that.
***
A week after arriving in Tolmein, they packed up and traveled north and east, adding their thirty men who guarded the keep to the army. Despite the fatigue everyone felt, Andelko and Ani both fretted over the nearness of their enemy and wanted more miles between them and Lida.
Savne
The land changed as they trekked up through the mountains near the border with the Wilds. They rode through narrow valleys as the land rose and welcomed them into the heart of the Violet Mountains. Andelko said they would eventually reach a proper castle, Savne, which guarded the far side of mountains. Two weeks after leaving Tolmein, they descended through several passes and found a fairy tale drawn from stone waiting for them.
As a girl, Leisha loved stories about princesses and their fantastic castles. Now, faced with one, she thought the tales could never do this justice. She drew Evka to a stop and looked out over her castle.
Unlike her other holdings that served the master of function and utility, this stronghold pleased the eyes. Set on a rock promontory overlooking a verdant, green valley, Savne floated above the trees. Two large towers framed a bridge leading across a narrow break in the rock to a second set of towers and a gate. The shape of the hillside and rocky outcropping meant the curtain wall sloped down and away from the castle and sat considerably lower than the small courtyard.
Because of the small amount of land available, the buildings did not sprawl, massive and brooding as Branik did. Instead, they rose up gracefully from the ground, looking light and airy. Topped with sloping, pointed spires, the many towers and parapets reached into the sky. Below them, a steep-sided valley fell away. Leisha could make out the sound of the river racing along the floor to the small lake visible to the south.
She sighed as Zaraki and Aniska paced up next to her. “It’s beautiful,” she said, struggling to imagine such a thing could exist.
“Very different from Lida, isn’t it?” Ani asked, wonder filling her voice.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Zaraki said, thinking of the many strange turn
s his life had taken. Mountain valleys and elegant, charming castles felt as far from his childhood as it was possible to get.
From up ahead, Andelko turned and laughed, seeing their expressions. “Close your mouths and stop staring. You look like goggle-eyed foreigners. Even if that’s what you all are.”
***
Spies following their enemies reported the bulk of the Deojrin had decamped from Lida and begun marching north, leaving perhaps a fifth of their army in the city. Scouting parties said Gerolt stopped at Moraval and finding it abandoned, took control of the fortress. They moved on, ignoring Tarnow as most of its troops had left to join Andelko’s army. Marching on, Gerolt made clear his intent to capture Leisha rather than subduing the northern lands. The lords in the area held their collective breaths, refusing to engage either side, waiting to see what might happen.
Between coordinating the activities of her agents and reconciling the intelligence they brought in with information coming from Andelko’s scouts, Ani found herself overwhelmed. After days spent huddled over whispers and rumors and scraps of information, she threw up her hands in disgust. Though it pained her to admit she needed help with the piles of paper that sprouted everywhere, like weeds in a garden, she brought up her frustration over dinner.
“We need a captain for the scouts, I think,” Andelko said, looking apologetic. “He’ll handle all the information coming in from the army and you can manage reports from your spies. Then you two can coordinate better. I think I’d like to promote one of the men from Tarnow. Vially.”
“Is he Ladvik’s man?” Leisha asked, wary about allowing the former Lord of Tarnow any opportunity to build a power base in her army.
Andelko laughed. “Give me a bit more credit than that. I’ve checked, and he arrived with Fridrick, well after Ladvik had been imprisoned.”
And just as Andelko predicted, Gerolt’s advance stopped as they withdrew to the lee side of the towering peaks. Pursuing them this far would place his forces out of reach of the beaches and put several armies between him and his beachhead at Lida. The Deojrin could not advance without attacking Vaja. If they marched past the city, Rickard could slip out behind them and attack Moraval and Lida.
When the messenger arrived bearing a letter from Lord Rikard, full of apologies and begging for assistance as the Deojrin threatened, Leisha ordered him detained. Selecting runners of her own, she crafted three letters. The first would be delivered to the mayor of Vaja, advising him that no help would come and ordering him to evacuate his city. It might reach them in time to save some citizens. Under her hawk and horse wax seal, the second letter addressed the captain of Vaja’s guard and advised him to march his men to join her army because no aid would be forthcoming. Also under seal, the final letter told Lord Rikard he would find no shelter with her. If he survived the slaughter to come, he should flee Tahaerin lands before she came for him herself.
At their regular lunch meeting, Leisha threw the sealed letters down on the table and told them all what they said. Symon counseled a more measured response, but she would hear none of it. “I’m fed up with their attitude that they’re islands unto themselves. We will act as a kingdom united, instead of a pack of dogs squabbling over a bone, or I’ll let the Visarl tear them all apart.” With that, she closed discussions for the day and stormed out of the chamber.
When the door slammed shut, Andelko’s shoulders shook with quiet laughter. “Gods, what a woman you have there, Zaraki.”
***
He found his wife still fuming, stalking along the battlements, as guards hastened to move out of her way. When Zaraki first asked a soldier if he had seen the queen recently, the poor fellow just pointed up along the wall, still looking shocked and uncomfortable. He could only imagine what she had said and done when the man tried to speak to her. Climbing the stairs, he trotted after the slight, dark-haired tempest raging down the wall walk.
“Can I join you as you terrorize the men, my lady?” he asked when he caught up to her.
She jumped in surprise but did not slow. His longer legs allowed him to keep up easily, which annoyed her. “I’m not terrorizing anyone,” she snapped. “It’s my castle. If people don’t like it, they can leave.”
Zaraki knew better than to be offended and let her rant. The mood would pass.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said, sighing and waving a hand. “I’m on edge. I have no right to take it out on you or anyone else here.” Two years after dropping her guard and allowing herself to become friends with those around her, apologies still felt unnatural. They never came out sounding sincere enough, and she regretted that.
Slowing her steps, Leisha stopped to stand against the wall, peering out through one of the crenellations. Leaning with her chin in her hands, she looked out over the mountains and once again wondered why she never made time to visit more of her lands before this.
The view here stole her breath. Tall mountains towered over them, seeming just out of reach. As this part of the kingdom slid towards summer, the peaks remained cloaked in snow. Leisha loved looking out and seeing the trees racing up the sides only to stop abruptly at the tree line as the mountains thrust steeply upward. But then, she remembered that Gerolt still hunted her, waiting to torture her to death because of a fluke of her birth. She shivered, thinking of the nameless woman with the rope around her neck being dragged by a horse through the streets of some foreign city.
Seemingly possessed of infinite patience, Zaraki came to stand behind her and placed his hands on the wall, on either side of hers. He rested his chin on her shoulder and looked out at the mountains. “How long will you hold Rikard’s man here?”
“Until I’m sure he can’t catch up to my riders. No more. I’ll be magnanimous and won’t lock him in a cell.” He felt her chuckle. “He’ll be fed and can stay in a guest chamber.”
“You know you’re gorgeous when you’re meting out punishments to our nobles?” His breath was warm on her neck and he pressed himself along the length of her body, trying to take her mind off this setback.
Leisha felt her breath catch and she turned around, tired of looking at mountains and worrying about Gerolt. She wanted to think of something else. Here on the wall, in front of anyone who happened to see, she wondered how much he dared. “Oh, am I?” she asked, tracing a line down his jaw with one finger.
“Yes, you are.” Zaraki reached up and pulled a few pins out of her hair, watching as a curtain of it fell around her shoulders.
Scandalous, she sent to him, and felt a rush of excitement.
Leaning in, his lips brushed over one ear and he challenged her. “How brave are you?”
“Brave enough,” she answered, unwilling to let him win this time. They had played this game before, in the library at Branik.
Putting his hands around her waist, Zaraki lifted her to sit in the crenel. He saw her pause to consider and then open her legs so he could move in closer. “Brave indeed,” he conceded. One hand tangled in her hair, as the other traced around the neckline of her gown.
Once, Leisha would have put a stop to this, afraid to let people see her as anything other than a stern, reserved monarch—a persona she cultivated and tended carefully for years. But now, she refused to be ruled by what others thought. As queen, she would do as she pleased, and right now, it pleased her to be seduced by her golden-haired lover.
Leisha pushed her breasts forward against the fingers he slipped under the fabric at the front of her dress. She ran her hand under his tunic and over his chest. Zaraki gave her an appreciative nod, impressed with her boldness. His counter move, though, stole her breath away.
The hand in her hair gripped tighter while the other moved to the small of her back. Holding her fast, he bent her backwards, pressing his lips to her neck. He moved to kiss her collarbone and then the hollow of her throat, using the hand in her hair to tilt her head out of his way.
“Brave,” she panted, almost giving in, wanting desperately to do so. Move and counter move. When he
r hand traveled down his chest and slipped under the waist of his trousers, he lowered his head to flick his tongue across the tops of her breasts. But how far? she teased, as her fingers continued to stroke up and down the length of him, and she used her teeth to nip gently at his ear. When he moaned and shivered, she knew she had won.
Though he had sworn he would not, Zaraki broke. He wanted to lift her skirts and take her there on the wall, in front of guards and servants and any gods of the mountains who watched. Raising his head, he met her eyes, hungry and eager to have her. Then, glancing over his shoulder, he saw the little tower that stood not far from them. They usually had beds for the sentries as they came off duty. Still looking in that direction, he asked again, “How brave are you?”
Seeing his intention and feeling his need, she took his hand and pushed off the crenel. They were almost running as they headed down along the wall walk.
Opening the door to the tower, she found three guards inside. From their surprised expressions and the way they looked at the cards all over the nearby table, their duties did not include lounging inside at this time of the day. “Get out,” Leisha commanded, pointing the way she had just come. “Wait. Is there anyone else here?”
Three sets of eyes opened wide to stare at her. “No, Your Grace,” the older of the three stammered.
“Good. Guard the doors and we’ll forget this ever happened. Agreed?” Seeing their king and queen appear in the doorway, alone, flushed and disheveled, the men could not agree fast enough. Two went out the door on the other side of the tower while the unlucky one sidled past her.
Before the last guard shut the door, Zaraki reached for her. His hands traced her spine, finding the laces on the dress and loosening them in a near frenzy. Leisha worked his coat off his shoulders and helped him pull one hand and then the other out. Then, she turned her attention to his shirt. Over his head and onto the floor.
As Dragons from Sleep (The Tahaerin Chronicles Book 2) Page 10
