“After you sent the riders to tell them to drive the herds into the mountains, I came up with a better plan. I sent my own rider to intercept yours. We snuck the horses across the border into Trillinae. They spent the spring and summer in the Vrata valley and then as soon as it was safe, our men brought them back here. They’ll move them to Ola whenever it’s ready.”
“You saved them?” Wonder filled his voice. He never expected to see them again.
Touching his thoughts delighted her. She felt gratitude and awe at what she accomplished in the middle of a war. “I knew how much you loved them and I knew they would be too attractive for the Deojrin not to plunder. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“But how?” he marveled. Horses cost money to house and feed, and his stock numbered nearly fifty animals when the Deojrin came ashore.
Leisha grinned at him, pleased to spill her secret to him after so many months of guarding it. “I never told you because I worried every day that they would be found in Trillinae. I didn’t want to get your hopes up that they would be saved. But your men were wonderful. They sold the geldings and riding stock to pay rent for pastureland. And no one ever suspected they were boarding the king of Tahaerin’s horses in their fields.”
He reached for her, and taking her face in his hands, he pulled her close. It did not concern him at all who saw him kissing his devious and brilliant wife.
***
Leisha ordered the army to pass near Otokar so they could see what Gerolt had left. Though the walls still stood and the castle appeared largely intact, they could all see where the fires devoured the buildings around the town square. Blackened, charred ruins jutted into the sky and, all around the looted remains of the buildings bore witness to the massacre that occurred here. The old city mirrored Lida in many ways, and Leisha despaired, thinking of what might wait for them in her lovely capital.
Over dinner, conversation turned to rebuilding Otokar and how it might be accomplished. With Lovek and his family dead, there was no one left to oversee the work. Nearly all the inhabitants had fled, and enticing people to return might take a long while given what occurred there.
Sarika rarely spoke up in these gatherings, still feeling out of place eating and socializing with royals and nobles and important members of court. As the discussion meandered from offering a reward to people for returning to abandoning the city altogether, a thought crossed her mind. Forgive me, Your Highness, but I’d like to make a suggestion. If that’s all right.
She saw Leisha turn dark eyes on her. Of course, she encouraged.
You could settle the Cursed here, Your Grace. I’m sure some of them won’t want to live in Lida, and frankly that’s a lot of mind readers in a town that previously had one.
That’s a wonderful idea. I hadn’t considered their numbers.
Heartened by the response, Sarika continued, Perhaps we could invite the people from the valley Eamon and I grew up in. I’ve always wanted them to stop hiding themselves away. Maybe we can encourage them with a town full of mind readers. Show them there’s nothing to fear any longer. She stopped when she noticed feelings of intense curiosity ebbing and flowing on the air between them.
Please, go on, Leisha said, watching her closely.
Well, Your Highness. Sarika felt herself warming up to her topic. I’ve always thought that we could be useful, offer services to people. Arbitrate disputes, serve in criminal cases, be witnesses to contracts. Our kind can do things others might find helpful. Instead, my people hide away when no one has offered us any threat in nearly a hundred years. Maybe promising them safety would encourage them to come here.
She watched as Leisha considered her suggestion and then nodded, an odd look crossing her face. Yes, perhaps it would encourage them.
***
Following the mountains north, the army stopped a final time on the grassy plains south of Lida. They spent one more night on the road and the next morning Zaraki watched as Leisha bounded out of bed, eager to be on the way and to see her city.
By early afternoon, the walls appeared in the distance, and they could see the soldiers sent ahead to secure Lida. Men rode out and conferred with Andelko while Leisha watched, vibrating with anticipation.
“They’ve swept the city clean and we’ll be able to sleep in the old keep tonight,” Andelko said after receiving their assurances the city was safe.
Leisha danced from foot to foot as servants brought Evka and Capar around. When they approached the southern gate, Zaraki saw her lean over the pommel of her saddle, straining for her first glimpse inside the walls. “Are you excited, by chance?” he asked.
“Yes, very,” she said eagerly.
***
It would take weeks for workers to clean and prepare Branik for them. For the duration, Leisha and her household crammed themselves in the old keep where two years before, her uncle tried to murder her. Symon sent servants into town to scavenge what they needed from abandoned homes. Beds and linens, pots, plates and other essentials appeared by the armload.
Members of court reappeared as well, clerks and bookkeepers, stable hands and falconers. They moved into the keep or in houses in town and set about fixing what the Deojrin destroyed. Lida’s residents that had fled slowly returned to fill the town again. Anyone in need of a job found themselves pressed into service cleaning Branik and making it habitable.
Once Symon declared it fit and Ani declared it safe, Leisha could barely wait to see her castle again. Riding up the wide street, she took it all in, her town, her castle, her home. Capar and Evka clattered into the courtyard along with Ani and Andelko, guards and servants. Dismounting, Leisha took Zaraki’s hand, and together they went inside.
As she expected, the damage was extensive. The grand old fortress had seen better days, with windows broken out, art and objects smashed or stolen, paintings ripped. As the Deojrin fled, they pried out the geometric tiles from the floor of the great hall and ripped the carved wood paneling from the walls in spots. Strangely, the carvings on the wall in Velika Hall had been defaced, though the masons said they could repair the damage.
Leisha did not care. Zaraki watched as she wandered from room to room, running her fingers over her castle, her walls, her beautifully carved doors. And he understood because, like her, he had no place else to call home and because his life with her started at Branik.
***
Ani sniffed as she pushed open the doors to her rooms. They smelled awful, but with the windows flung wide, the fresh air would help. The Deojrin left her beautiful, old desk largely unmolested, though she found a few words carved into the wood. She would have to ask Leisha what the words meant, and hoped they were new curse words. Andelko set down the crate of papers he had carried up from the courtyard for her.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” he said, sounding oddly cheery.
“Where are you off to?” Ani asked as she unpacked her meager belongings.
“I’m going to go see Leisha and ask her to let me marry you.” Andelko spent the months after Dabrova remembering the feel of her lifeless body in his arms and thinking he did not want to risk losing her. He thought how best to bring up the subject of marriage with Aniska and finally decided this was safest. She appreciated directness, and he felt like springing it on her would work in his favor.
Ani stiffened and stepped back, looking briefly like a dog cornered with a stolen leg of lamb. The book in her hand thudded on the desk as it fell from her fingers. Then the trapped expression faded to one of rebellious resignation. He would not be talked out of this, but she would not go quietly. “No one will ever want me at their fancy parties.”
Arms crossed over his chest, Andelko shrugged. “That’s fine, because I’m not going to any.”
Ani stuck her chin out. “I don’t own any dresses and I’m not wearing them just because I’m married to some lord.” She waved her hand, dismissing his title.
“I like my beard, and I’m not shaving just because I’m a lord again.” Technically, unde
r Tahaerin laws, he counted as a prince, as he was directly in the line of succession. Only if Leisha produced an heir would he ever be called a lord again. Tahaerin society had never produced enough stratification to require multiple noble and royal titles. Usually, they killed each other off and absorbed their opponents’ lands and titles. Andelko did not think Ani would appreciate the subtleties at this point in their negotiations.
“I don’t want children,” she said, beginning to sound desperate.
“I’m not marrying these nonexistent children you’re suddenly so concerned about. I’m marrying you.”
“I’m never going to be a proper noblewoman,” she said, gesturing at her cluttered desk and dirt-caked clothes.
True enough, he thought. But you’ll be an amazing wife. “I wouldn’t like you as much if you were.”
***
Fifty-four of the former Cursed traveled north and east with Vially and Ladvik to confront the Deojrin army. They talked strategies, adapting Leisha and Avrid’s methods, making improvements, coordinating their efforts better and providing escorts for the freed mind readers.
As Chancellor, Von had taken over for Gerolt in the north when the Kirous Visarl went south to capture the Tahaerin whore. When word of Gerolt’s death reached him, Von tried to order a retreat to the coast. But he faltered, and plagued with doubts, he lost all control over the army. The Kirous Visarl spoke the words of their god. How could he lose this war against the very thing their god loathed?
Sensing blood and a chance to curry favor with the ascendant queen, nobles in the north marched men to join Ladvik and Vially. Broken and confused, the tattered remnants of the mighty Deojrin army clustered in small bands in the valleys near Tolmein. They clung to their Cursed slaves, but Hanne and Edvard turned those weapons against their masters.
When the last of them fell, Edvard and Hanne counted nearly two hundred and fifty Cursed freed.
After putting the remainder of the Deojrin to the sword, Ladvik and Vially turned south and marched down the coast. As they traveled, small groups of men peeled away from the army, returning to their homes as the marshals released them from their obligations.
Convocation
Skilled craftsmen poured into Lida as word passed that the king and queen had returned to the city. As they arrived, Symon and his clerks set them to repairing damaged stonework and defaced plaster walls. Several rooms and suites of apartments needed new decorative doors carved. Glaziers appeared to replace broken window panes and to repair the stained glass window in Velika Hall. Someone took a dagger to the wood paneling in Leisha’s receiving room, carving a number of colorful insults. She chose to remove it all and commission new paintings of scenes from the battle at Dabrova.
After sitting and talking with Leisha, Avrid and two of the Cursed they freed, an artist named Cyrilan produced a small folio of drawings. Leisha and Zaraki approved four for her to reproduce on their walls, and soon painted frescoes appeared to replace the damaged paneling and older paintings. Scenes of the black-robed men and women fighting, being saved by Sarika and Eli, and finally reappearing on the hill to finish off their former captors emerged from Cyrilan’s talented hands.
Jewel crafters came once they heard the royal household had settled in, eager to meet the needs of court. Leisha immediately found a use for any skilled in metalwork and enameling.
Every three years, Tahaerin nobles traveled to Lida to meet, air their grievances and ask their monarch to settle disputes. The war fell between the normal years for a Convocation, but Leisha called for one to be held five months after their arrival in the city—a bit ahead of schedule. When invitations went out under the hawk and horse seal, sixteen contained a small enameled black horse pendant. On his back rode a jeweled hawk clutching a sword in his claws. Made from gold melted from several of the crowns that once belonged to Leisha’s father, they were true works of art and precious symbols.
The timing of the Convocation required the lords to travel in winter. Lords of the north mostly kept their complaints about snow-covered roads and cold fingers to themselves. In the south, the three new nobles reluctantly left their holdings and began the trek to Lida with no understanding of this uniquely Tahaerin custom. Once encamped outside the walls of the city with their tents and armies, all the lords mingled with each other, but few of the sixteen mentioned the strange badge they received from the king and queen.
***
The night before the Convocation, Leisha and Zaraki called all their friends together. Symon, Irion and Avrid, Sarika and Eamon, Jan, Eli, Ani and Andelko.
“We had these made for all of you.” Leisha opened the small chest on her desk and began pulling out small, paper-wrapped bundles and passing them around to everyone. “They’re the same as those the lords received with their invitations, except that your horses have tiny golden reins.”
Around the room, their friends gasped and poked at the little jeweled Auleron with the hawk riding on its back.
“Without your help,” Zaraki said, “we would have lost everything, and we’re so grateful to each of you.” Under the desk, he took Leisha’s hand and held it tightly. “We owe each of you a debt we can never settle.”
They had discussed these gestures for days, and still Leisha felt unsure if they truly captured what she felt. “You’re all so dear to us, and there should be no ranks or titles between us. We are all friends and family. We promise that you and your children will always have a place here with us. Always. This badge will open the doors of any of our castles to you. If you ever need anything, ask, and if it’s in our power to do so, we’ll help.”
“These,” Zaraki said as he handed each person a folded parchment, “are our gifts to you, to thank you. They’re deeds or promotion or, well, you’ll see.”
Mouths fell open and voices rose in protest.
Leisha held up a hand and smiled. “Zaraki and I spent a great deal of time thinking about how best to thank each of you. Our efforts feel inadequate and in some cases, Sarika and Eamon, our choices are a bit self-serving.” She laughed. “And you may decline and ask for something else if you like.”
“Your Highness, I can’t do this,” Sarika said, sounding shocked and staring around the room in a near panic. “I can’t. I’m not the right person for this. I can’t be.” Next to her, Irion tipped her letter to see Rebuild Otokar just like we talked about, Lady Sarika, written in neat script.
“You can and you are,” Leisha assured her. “You’re a natural leader. People defer to you without even realizing it. This will be hard, but we’ll be there to help you.”
Irion looked back down at his promotion to Guard Captain at Branik and an annual grant of funds that meant he never needed to work again. “Can I request something different? Please?”
“Of course,” Leisha said, inviting him to continue. “Anything.”
“If she wants it, can I go to Otokar with her? To handle her guard there? We work well together as a team.” Irion and Andelko could have been cut from the same cloth. Usually brash and outgoing, he looked suddenly shy and unsure.
Still in shock, Sarika nodded before saying, “Please, yes.” They did work well together.
Leisha beamed at them both. “Certainly. It’s a wonderful idea.”
Turning to Eamon, Zaraki said, “We wanted to give you a home. I’ve been a rootless orphan. I know what it means to own something for the first time. You’re smart and loyal and you can stand working with us.”
The young Ostravan stared down at the hand in his lap where the letter lay open. Welcome home, Lord of Adrojan.
“It’s not a large holding,” Leisha admitted, “and you’re welcome to refuse. But like Sarika, we think you’re perfect. Lorant and his family plundered Adrojan and mismanaged it for years. It needs stability and a gentle touch.”
Eamon could only nod, but Leisha saw his thoughts as he imagined a future that seemed out of reach just moments ago. She would miss Danica terribly.
Finding the right rewards for
Jan and Eli had plagued Leisha. Neither man sought promotions or titles. They enjoyed their work and wanted to stay close to their families. For eight years, they had served as spies and bodyguards, quietly risking their lives for her and for her kingdom. Leisha remembered seeing their faces across the fire the first night in Embriel, remembered Eli patiently combing her hair and remembered Jan’s fierce protectiveness.
“Jan and Eli, you and your families are part of our family now. You’re all welcome to live here in the castle forever if that’s what you want. But we thought your wives might like to have their own spaces, and we wanted you to have something to pass on to your children. The deeds to your houses come with an allowance to furnish them and hire staff. Welcome to the Lida minor nobility.”
Zaraki turned to his oldest friend. He knew Aniska would not give up her position as spymaster, but she had to become a noble. After discussing it, he had penned a cryptic message to her. It’s not as scary as it seems. Now she watched him, eyes narrowed, probably guessing what he meant.
“Ani, you’ve always been like a sister to me, and you need a title if you’re going to marry a prince,” he explained as she pressed her lips together. “You’ll be the Lady of Moraval now, and it means you get the castle. But you can make your new husband manage the training grounds there.”
Which brings us to Andelko, Leisha thought, smiling as she saw her cousin leafing through sheets of parchment, a confused frown on his face.
“What are these?” he asked.
“After your half-brothers died along with my father, it looks like no one kept track of what belonged to your father,” she explained. “When I became queen, the properties just rolled into my demesne, because he had no living heirs. Symon has been kind enough to dig through our books, and we think we’ve located a great deal of what your mother brought into the marriage. Those are the deeds. You’re a landed prince again.”
As Dragons from Sleep (The Tahaerin Chronicles Book 2) Page 48
