There was relief on several faces in the steamy Great Hall as Hunter carried Laun in from the storm. They both had blankets around them and warmed honeyed wine in their hands as room was made at one of the benches.
Laun was not going to argue with Disa as her maid stood over her to make sure Laun drank what she was given. It did taste good and warmed her core as the wool blanket first sucked up the water from her and then warmed with the steam created from her body, relaxing her back and legs.
The rain outside was leveling off to a steady rate after the first of the storm had pushed through. They had been able to prepare, but the mud was still up to the knees on some people in the courtyards, not quite that far on Hunter. He had carried Laun most of the way from Hellon’s Hill, against Laun’s wishes at first. It meant that he was coated with the splash and mud up past the top of his breeches.
Disa, taking the emptied mugs, looked at the mud on the legs sticking out from under the blanket wrapped around Hunter. Laun caught the look right before Disa handed off the mugs to another kitchen staff.
“You need to strip.” Disa had been practicing her Matron stare and even Laun cringed as Orgia’s second crossed her arms while waiting for the large man to do as she said.
Hunter looked at Laun. She nodded and said, “She means it. I wouldn’t go against her.”
The boots were slick but finally came off. The blanket hardly covered his bare chest and he looked around as he tried to hold the blanket over his shoulders and undo his breeches at the same time. Laun started to giggle and knew that she was going to need to strip down, too. She was not as muddy, but the few layers she had on were almost transparent from the rain.
Laun pushed the blanket to the side and started to try to wiggle out of her soaked tunic and skirt. It was crowded and it took a bit of effort to do so without pushing too far into the others around her. But soon, Laun was down to just the blanket and sat back down on the bench, looking at the stunned Hunter who had not even gotten the first buckle on his breeches undone.
There was a tilt to Laun’s head and a smile on her lips as she saw Hunter think very carefully and then make a decision. He dropped the blanket and within seconds, had his breeches down and off. Disa’s eyebrow went up as she took the sodden garment, but there was no other comment before the blanket went around where the breeches had been.
More people were pushing through the Great Hall. Laun thought there were about a hundred people in there and if more really needed to come in, they were going to have to stack them or anchor them to the walls somehow. Edgar pulled back his hood and looked around. He saw Laun and made his way through, a not so happy look on his face.
“Love? What’s wrong?” Laun pushed herself back up to her feet, her belly sticking out from the blanket.
Edgar took her face and kissed her. It was not deep and somewhat perfunctory, but there was love and concern in his motions. “We have someone who is outside the barricade asking to come in.”
Laun’s mind changed flows and became serious as she said, “Have they identified themselves?”
Edgar nodded. He stood very close and looked into her eyes. He was using his rumble of a voice to cut through the noise in the room as he said, “She says she is the daughter of Lady Beatia, a Selene... Damn. I forgot the surname.”
Laun blinked. It was the girl that had been enamored with the acrobat and the rest of the troupe. “Is she alone?”
Edgar nodded and then stopped. He scrunched up his face and said, “A horse and a servant. She seemed intent on coming through and finding someone.”
His voice was affecting her and she was thinking very inappropriate things there in the Great Hall. She had to close her eyes and mentally shake herself as the noble’s daughter had just put a rat in the grain of the gathering there in Salam-Dir. Laun opened her eyes and looked up into Edgar’s. “She can’t really come in while the rain is coming down. The barrier...?”
Edgar shrugged. “We can get it apart, but back together can be a problem in the rain. We will have a hole in our defenses.”
“Even with the two of them here, I don’t trust that we are safe, yet. Not with Lady Engrid still out there.” Laun sat and leaned against Hunter as she thought. Her blanket slipped and she did not notice as she was thinking of why the girl was there and how she could be turned away without having her catch a fever from the rain. Edgar knelt and pulled the blanket more around her and Laun did not notice the looks between Hunter and Edgar.
Edgar knew that Laun had to think things through. She had been gone for months, had changed, but still was very deliberate in what she said when it effected the household. “Love... She is too close behind Falmir to have been able to get to the Capitol City with her mother and back. I think she ran away to be with the acrobat. She doesn’t know what ripples she just created.” Laun looked at Edgar and frowned. “We need to get her inside where it is warm. She is not used to being out in the weather. We will need to have something to block the gap. You know that already.” Laun smiled.
“I will bring her here. Her timing was awful,” Edgar grunted. He kissed Laun and she pressed forward into him as she sat on the bench.
He worked his way back through the crowd and out to the storm again. Laun let the rush of his voice and the taste of his lips wash over her after he was gone. Her eyes were closed and she had a smile on her face. The smile faded. He had been there, but he had not been with her. Not since she had been back from the Capitol City and the manor. So many other people had been vying for her time that his absence in her bed had not been noticed until then.
There was a sense of loss that went through Laun. There had not been time to just talk. The time to be in bed, touching each other... Laun looked down at her belly not covered by the blanket. Perhaps he was repulsed by her body now. He knew what she had been like and Laun missed that body. She had not known how good her body was until she was laden down with the babies and all the swelling and aches and pains they entailed.
She was starting to think irrationally, and she knew it. It was hard to pull herself out of her self-made hole and she tried to keep herself from sinking into it by thinking of the next thing she had to do in regards of the girl. Laun looked around and saw one of the strongmen from the troupe. She motioned to him after getting his attention and he worked through the people to stand in front of her.
“How is the camp doing?”
He shrugged and his eyes went sideways several times. “I came in when it started to rain.”
Laun made a point of looking in the direction that the strongman flicked his eyes and caught the eyes of another of the troupe. Laun motioned with her head and he came to in front of her, too. The two of them stood, pushed together in the crowd of people, but looking as though they were trying not to be guilty about something.
She looked at them and took in a deep breath. “We will get to what you are up to in a moment.” There were shocked looks on their faces and they seemed to be sulking like caught children as Laun continued with, “The noble girl is here and looking for Lin.”
The strongman blushed and the other man’s eyebrows went together. The strongman said, “I think Lin is with the shaman lady right now.”
Laun nodded. “I will catch up to her in a bit. Now-” Laun drew herself up and felt Hunter next to her watching her as she looked the men over. No mud or evidence of water on them at all. A newer pair of boots on the one man than she had remembered from before, and it looked like a pair from the Salam-Dir supply. There were a few other things on them that she recognized as from the household and not from what they had come in with. They would not look directly at her, just next to her or at her chest.
She put her hand out, palm up and waited. The other man’s eyes went wide and the strongman bumped him. Their eyes and faces looked to the floor as they could in the close space. Laun kept her hand out and was quiet, her head starting to tilt to the side. Several of the household around them saw that Laun was focused on the men and they also grew quiet.
“Wh... What do you want, Lad... Highness?” The strongman was trying to look her in the eye but still was having problems.
Laun was quiet and kept her hand out, palm up. “I offered you hospitality. I will offer you the hospitality of the Chamber of Death if you don’t come clean.”
Other troupe members had noticed the quiet center to the noisy Great Hall. Several more of the entertainers came through and watched as Laun cut through the layers and went straight for the core of the men.
“We... What are you talking about?” His tone was getting stronger, but there was still something about his demeanor as he looked at all the eyes that now were on him.
Laun sighed. She did not like doing this in front of everyone there, but she had seen something, pulled on the loose string and had found that the men had something unraveling as she tugged. She half-closed her hand but still held it out to them. “Outfitting yourself from my stores. I understand that. But the other...” She shook her head slightly.
The look of fright on both their faces was increasing as the strongman bumped the other before he could speak. He shook his head and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Laun closed her hand and kept the loose fist still out in front of her. Her arm was starting to ache from holding it like that for so long. But she needed to make a point. “You have lost. The trust I had for you and your troupe is now gone.” They both looked up at her. “Yes. What you have done reflected on your people. You will be the ones to tell Adelmar that you will all be leaving as soon as the rain stops.”
The strongman was pushed by the other, a look on his face that Laun was reading as a mixture of fear and guilt. Laun pulled her hand back slowly and the strongman reflexively reached for it. He put his hand over her fist and said, “We thought things wouldn’t be missed. You have so much here...”
Laun relaxed her hand and they went into a thumb over thumb hand hold. “Do not think generosity is based on wealth. I am giving you another chance, but you will have to give back or replace what you have taken. And make amends to those you have taken it from.”
He nodded and with an elbow in his ribs, the other man nodded, too. “I am sorry, Highness. Please don’t punish the others because of us.”
Laun straightened up. “In some ways, I’m sorry you didn’t resist more. I am out of practice in my torture-” She stopped and laughed at the look in their eyes. “I expect things to be back where they were found by the end of the rain. Except for the boots. Keep those-you will need them.”
He looked down and then back up to her, almost a bow. “Thank you, Princess.”
Laun saw the others from the troupe who had seen the small scene come in and punch the other two in the ribs to make them move, as well as to show their disapproval. Laun saw the others around them, visitors and residents who had seen what had happened, the Salam-Dir household people nodding as they approved and recognized Laun’s justice and mercy. Others who had not seen her way of leading before had something to think about and a few whispers started in the small quiet right before the wave of sound from the rest of the Great Hall crashed in around them.
Laun saw the look Hunter was giving her. She turned slightly to him and looked at him, blinking slowly. “You have some sort of power of the gods or something.”
She shook her head. “Just something I have been trained to do, I guess.” She looked at her hands holding the blanket to her. They were slightly swollen and felt like someone was stepping on them, but not as much as her back. “At least I still have my mind, what there is of it.”
Hunter heard the wistfulness in Laun’s voice. He thought for a moment and was not sure what to do. “Highness... Do you...wish for dry clothes?” It was the best he could think of right then.
Laun seemed to pull the blanket further around her. “Others need the dry more than I do. I do need to get Geralk or Gismer to me, though. I need the list master to...” Laun stood and took a step and then turned to Hunter.
Her face was calm, but she seemed older than when he had been holding her in the rain. She stepped back to him and leaned over to give his cheek a kiss. “Now is not the time, but we need to talk more. I hope that we will be able to get more things worked out.” Laun looked like she was going to say more, but she just smiled a little smile and turned.
He found that his hand was on his face where she had kissed him. He was elbowed by the man next to him, a wink and slight hiss from him. Hunter glared and the man turned away with a shrug. Disa was working her way through the people to Hunter and had clothing for he and Laun over her shoulders.
“Where...?”
Hunter pointed generally towards where Laun had gone. “She needed the list master.” He took the tunic and breeches from Disa’s hand and pulled the tunic over himself. He looked at the breeches and then to the maid.
“They were about the same size as the ones you took off. I hope all of you can fit in there.” Disa smiled and then was jostled into Hunter as people tried to go through behind her. His hands went out and supported her for a moment. She smiled broadly and sat on his blanketed knee. Disa leaned in and said into Hunter’s ear, “If you hadn’t brought her in, there were others who were about to go looking for her. Since you did bring her in, and you are in...one piece, I am assuming that whatever happened last night is better?”
Hunter nodded. He took a look at the woman on his knee and found that she was pleasant to look at, but there was a disapproving air about her that made him think of the chaperones that some of the noble houses had to keep the girls and boys apart in the wardings. He heard concern in her voice, in her attitude. “She brought out a part of me that I don’t like... Not because of her. Because I was with her.” He closed his eyes. “Crap. I’m doing it again.”
Disa looked into his eyes as they opened and said, “I have known her for about a year. She is the most forgiving person I have ever known. Don’t take that as her being weak. I have seen her kill and I have seen her break people. But, I have seen her need the people around her to be strong for her as she works things out. Last night was not as bad as I have seen her with the ghosts of the household, but she was heart broken.”
Hunter looked away over the heads of those around them and back to the woman on his knee. “I know.”
Disa was breathing her words into his neck as she said, “She is forgiving. I am not. Break her heart again and you will not live to see another day.”
His eyes were big as the maid stood up. She smoothed out the apron over her skirts and put the clothes she had brought for Laun over her shoulder again. Louder so others around her could hear, Disa said, “I’ll go find her and make sure she has her dry clothes. You take care.”
Hunter nodded and tried not to cringe under her stare. He took a few moments and then pulled the breeches on. They fit, perhaps a little snugly, but they covered what the tunic did not. It had been years since he had worn anything but his uniform clothes and leathers. The linen and cotton on his body should not have felt different, but the very nature of it being the first civilian clothes on him since he had resigned made him feel the cloth heavy on his skin.
He left the blanket on the bench, damp but drying in the heat the fires and bodies were producing. He needed to get away from all of the eyes, the stares that he felt were in his direction. He pushed through to one of the inner doors and into a cooler and quieter corridor. He was barefoot and did not want to go back for his muddy boots. He walked down the way, the rain tapping on the windows and showing where there were small leaks in the leading around the panes of glass.
He was angry. At himself, but also at Laun and Falmir and Helmic and Fount. In many ways, mostly Fount. The boy had Laun’s love. Hunter was not used to having something after his brother. Never a woman after.
What was it with this woman? She was smart and learning more every day. She could look through someone, but she still had an edge of innocence in many things she did. She had captivated him. All he wanted to do from the first time they had traded lines over the table was to be with her. Not to conquer her as he had done with most of the other women he had been with since he had stormed away from Nestwood. She had seemed frail in her condition. He had wanted to hold her and protect her.
He stopped and looked out one of the glass windows into the dark, rainy day. That she could flick her wrist and have a knife at a throat or take down an assassin with little more than raised breath had come from nowhere. There had been rumors, and he had found how talented she was in bed confirming those. Hunter thought of the small, scarred hands he had held in his own. They had strength, but also pain. They could be so gentle.
No. Fount did not deserve her. The little rat had always been grubbing around after something good and had found it. Not just a Lady but a Princess of the Realm. Fount... Had grown up. He was no longer the dirty faced kid Hunter remembered. He was a man. A man who had been able to attain a rank in a household with his skills and knowledge. Hunter could see where his little brother could have caught her eye.
Her eye had been on him, too. Hunter started down the corridor again, thinking of another darkened corridor they had been in the first night they were together. She had almost glowed in the moonlight, those scars tracing along her body making her look like she was wearing an etherial harness. He had touched her and wanted her. They had gone inside again, into the lamplight and he had hesitated.
What had compelled him to ask to be with her? He needed permission somehow. No other woman had made him do that. She had not shown her deadly side and he had taken other noble women easily without the hesitation. She had been so free with herself and had given herself to him that he needed a barrier to cross.
There were voices ahead flowing down the stairwell. Hunter recognized Laun’s voice and stepped towards it and then stopped. He wanted to know what she was doing, to help or protect if he could. He stepped forward again and heard a negative male grunt from the landing above.
“There is less than nothing we can do until we can get out a messenger, Laun.”
There was a pause. “Geralk, it is in the preparation that we succeed in anything. You are the Master that taught me that. You need to make the base scrolls. Details can be changed, but it needs to look right. And with what goes to her mother... Gods. What took her to travel by herself?”
Hunter heard a shuffling of feet. “You had less with you last year. And you only had the love of your Lord and Lady in you, not of an actual lover. Come here, Lady. It will work out.”
Hunter came to the bottom of the stairs and could see some of the landing above around the curve of the central pillar of the tower. The short, balding man had his arms out to her and was comforting her as a father or brother would. She had the blanket draped over one shoulder and was otherwise naked. They held hands and then Laun leaned in and hugged the man, a decisive nod from her as she stepped back from him.
“Thank you. I would not be able to do this without you. I just hope that we can get them to agree.” Hunter saw a flash of despair go across Laun before she smiled at the older man again. “For the Kingdom. It has to work.”
Hunter stepped back and found that there had been someone behind him. The dark figure stepped easily to the side as Hunter backed up and turned. Hazalam stared at Hunter and made the larger man nervous. Hunter stepped to the wall to let the servant past, but the man stayed.
“Mistress?” the man called up the stairs.
“Yes, my quail?” Laun came to the head of the landing and looked down.
The man in black went up the stairs to his Mistress, leaving Hunter to watch as they went beyond the landing and presumably to the room Laun had. Hunter wanted to be with her, but the dead eyes that her servant had looked at him with made him pause. Another person who would not hesitate to cut him down if she was hurt. Such loyalty was hard-won.
The soft sandal sounds of Disa were coming towards him. He looked up and she nodded to him as she went past. She was carrying the clothing from earlier, but also a tray with a pitcher and several mugs. Hunter stepped forward and she slowed but did not stop.
“May I help you?”
She did stop and turned to him. “Yes. Thank you.”
Hunter carried the tray and walked behind the lieutenant chatelaine as she went to Laun’s room. The door was open so there was a small scratch on the doorframe to announce as Disa walked right in.
“Finally found you, Laun. I swear, I am going to bell you so I can find you.” There was a smile on Disa’s face if not in her voice.
“There was a bell. I should replace it... Hunter.” Laun was sitting in a chair in the corner, a sheaf of papers in her hands and a few more in Geralk’s hand in the chair on the other side of the table. She smiled and waived the platter to the table. A book was moved and the milk and mugs were unloaded.
Laun was still naked, the blanket a wet pile on the floor. Hunter stepped back and stood near the door. He was about to step out again when Laun looked up and caught him with her eye. She smiled.
Laun could see he wanted to leave. She smiled at him and he paused. “Thank you for bringing the milk up. The wine gave my heartburn a push.”
Disa poured some of the milk and handed it to Laun. “The warm wine was to warm you up. A little doesn’t hurt the babies.”
“I am glad I could help, Highness.” Hunter again tried to turn but her eyes glinted and he felt like she was holding him there with her stare.
“You look like you have someplace to go, Hunter. Will I see you tomorrow?”
He nodded and followed Disa out of the room, followed and passed by the master of the lists. They walked to the stairs and Disa stopped. She turned to Hunter and motioned back to the room. “She is in her planning mood. Let her think and in a few hours, she may be in a mood for something else.” Disa smiled and it was very wicked to Hunter’s eye. “I hope you don’t mind rough. She has the look.”
“I think I will come back tomorrow.” Hunter motioned Disa before him down the stairs.
Back in the room, Laun was sipping on the milk in the mug and looking through papers that Geralk and Gismer had brought together for her. She had the journal from Lady Hellon propped on the pitcher of milk. She was paging through, a clean piece of pulp paper and a charcoal stick in her hand as she made notes. She was connecting times and people and places.
Something had caught in her mind before she had been kidnapped. Now that she had been in one of the largest libraries in the kingdom, she had information in her brain that needed to get out. The nobles daughter coming pushed something almost up to the surface and Laun had to go through the information.
Then it came to her. It was not what had been in the journal. It was the ring.
Laun motioned and Hazalam closed the door to the corridor. She stood and went to the far window. The latch to the secret panel was slightly loose and she opened the swinging wall section. She tried to pull the wooden caskets out, but her belly and back worked against her.
“Please... all the chests down to here on the right hand side. Out here.” Laun pointed to the floor next to the arming tree with the red velvet dress on it.
Her man did as she asked. She was able to get to the loose stone and pulled at it. The oilcloth was in it and she carefully took it out and replaced the stone. Hazalam went to replace the chests and Laun shook her head.
The oilcloth was opened on the bed and Hazalam’s eyes went wide. “Mistress? Is that...?”
Laun held up the assassin’s blade with the jewels in the pommel. “From my Lady Hellon. It should look familiar.” She took the signet ring that was with a perfume bottle with the dried remnants of an old rose scent still clinging to it. She looked at the ring and held it in her fist, feeling the cold of the metal and the edges of the faceted rubies.
She closed her eyes and thought back to her time in the Palace. So many people, so many nobles. But it was the night at the Embassy with... Ithian. The painting. The only painting in the huge hallway on the ground floor. It was there that she had again seen the ring. It was not a ring with the rose for Rosemond. It was the family crest of the family who ruled Rosemond.
Laun went back to the papers and Journal. None of it was going back far enough. It was all too bland. Too mundane and usual, except for the slight dotted notations in some of the entries with the names of people. The ring and assassin’s knife came from before the journal. The current Lady of Salam-Dir wished the last Lady was there to explain things.
Hazalam’s eyes were glued to the glittering handle of the royal warranted assassin’s blade. “Mistress... You really are...?”
Laun looked at her man and saw the awe and envy going through him. “I was trained by her. Not brought through the usual tests, but-My Lady did not see what was coming and did not have time to complete the training she had for me. I am her surviving apprentice and my true trials came when I went after Harcem and the bandits. I do not think I am ready to claim the warrant for myself.”
He glanced up at Laun and nodded. His hand went to where the blade had nicked him the night she had taken him as her own on the Altar of Death. He felt a flash of arousal at remembering that first time with her. “Your training may be incomplete, Mistress, but you are more than ready.”
Laun smiled. She walked over to the arming tree and moved the drape of one of the sleeves of the red velvet dress. A belt with many daggers on it was there and she unhooked the belt. She turned and his eyes went to two of the blades in the group.
“I still have your blade. You have proved more than once that you would wield it for me, not against me. Do you wish to have it back?”
He stepped forward and went to one knee. “You are the one who took it from me. You are the one who can return it, Mistress.” His head went down and he looked at her feet on the thin carpet around the bed.
Laun pulled the two assassin daggers from the belt and looked at them. The one with the scar on the sheath was his. “I do not know the usual or right words for this. I give this back to you with trust. I do expect you to use this blade when needed and appropriate. Do not hide it, but do not display it, either. It is a part of you and was before you were under my hand.” Laun held out the sheathed blade and his head went up to look at her.
“Mistress, I thank you for your trust and I hope that I keep earning it as I wear the blade you are giving me. As you command, I will do.” Hazalam’s hand went under the blade and Laun placed it in his palm, their hands touching and clasping slightly.
Laun stepped away and leaned on the bed. She saw him think about how to put it on himself as he knelt. There was a small smile on his face and he looked up and there seemed to be a completeness about him that Laun saw.
“Thank you, Mistress.”
Laun inclined her head sightly at him and then straightened. “I happen to have a second one. Do you think our Gem would like to have a blade with her?”
He vigorously nodded. “She has told me that she almost took her own life after Blue Master took the blade from her, even after ordering her to your side. She has grown past the need, but if I have mine-”
“She would see it as favoritism. Though, I have to admit, you were a challenge and are a favorite of mine.” Laun held out her hand and he took it, kissing the back of her hand and then getting drawn to her for a real kiss.
Both of them would have liked to have gone further, but there was a knock at the door. Laun laughed into Hazalam’s mouth. “Just a moment, please.”
The door was opened to a few people waiting to come in. Laun had pulled on the dry tunic and was re-hanging the belt with the daggers onto the arming tree. The oilcloth was wrapped around what needed to be hidden, but was still on the bed. Hazalam stepped back from the door and stood near the wall as people came in.
“Sweeting, it seems that there is little to do inside but talk. Your man Gismer brought me something-”
Falmir continued the thought as he interrupted his father with, “And it looks like you have already decided what we are going to do.”
Matching papers were in their hands. Laun turned from the arming tree, the blazing red of the dress behind her as she looked at the two men. “Father, the only reason I allowed you on the lands and let you see your own father was to make you two work this out. Grandfather, you have been a good guest, but it is time for you to leave and take a position in society again. Since neither of you seem to have a clue how to smooth the waters without drinking yourselves to oblivion on my last barrel of ale, it is up to me to make sure it gets done.”
“Well, I don’t like it!” It was Dreng who threw down the paper on the bed between them, not Falmir.
“Old man, if you aren’t in charge and bossing everyone around, of course you don’t like it!” Falmir turned and shook his paper at his father, crumpling it in his fist.
“You little bastard! I’ve been running this kingdom since before you were born to make sure you HAD a Kingdom to-”
Laun clapped her hands together, the sound loud and startling both of the men. “Both of you. Let’s get some more chairs in here and Dougal so that we have the whole remaining family for the discussion. He is in the document, too.”
“I’d noticed,” Falmir mumbled.
Laun had the chairs from in the corner moved to center them, the table placed between. Chairs from the library were brought in and Gismer sat on the floor next to the windows, paper and ink and charcoal at his hand. Dougal was easy to find in the Great Hall and he and Edgar came to attend the men in their negotiations.
More lamps and water and tea were brought in, Gem and Hazalam standing by the open door to become decorative statues as the nobles started to talk. The assassins held hands lightly and Gem found her thumb was being trailed over the hilt of a dagger under Hazalam’s tabard. She smiled at him in a sideways way as she understood what he was showing her. He signaled quietly to her that Laun had one for her, too, as the heated discussion started to pick up in the room. She turned to face him more and mouthed, “One for me?” He nodded and she had to suppress a giggle as she turned back to watch the people in the room.
“...have already been King for a year and I will not give up-”
“Any of the paperwork or stress or management like you were your own seneschal. You need the help that your picked council was not giving you.” Laun leaned back, her hand over her eyes as the headache was starting to form.
“Sweeting, if he doesn’t want to let me help, I’m not going to force him to take it. I don’t want this Council Commander King Emeritus thing. It is all of the Midlands or none of them.”
Falmir was loud as he said, “That has always been your problem, old man! No room for anything or anyone but yourself. For years, I was trying to learn how you had the Kingdom running and you would send me off on fools errands to keep me out of your hair. If you hadn’t sent me off with Dresden to install him, I would never have had the chance to think for myself.”
Dreng stood, fists planted on the table and leaning over to try to intimidate his son. “If I hadn’t sent you to fucking Rosemond, they wouldn’t have gotten their claws into you!” He seemed shocked in himself and turned to Laun and said as he sat again, “I apologize for my language.”
Laun took her hand from her face and said, “Grandfather, fuck you. And you, Father.” Dreng looked shocked and Falmir laughed.
“I was a bad influence on you, Thorn.” Falmir took a mouthful of water. He glared at Dreng and then looked at his nephew.
Dougal saw the look and held up his hands palm out. “I had nothing to do with this. It’s all Laun.”
“You trick me into signing the alliance scroll and now you want me to make my own father, who I deposed, the head of my army and council? Bitch, what the hell are you up to?”
Laun put her hands out to them and the two Kings each took a hand. “I am trying to make it so that the kingdom is strong again before Rosemond decides to ride through and visit Myrned’s borders.”
Dreng shook his head and said, “What the hell...?”
Laun turned her head and said, “The book with the transcriptions.”
Gem bounced to where the correspondence and other documents had been put and pulled out what Laun had asked for, along with a few other pages that may be needed. The leather bound book that said “Decomposition and Reclamation” on the cover was carefully put into Laun’s hands. Gem took the pitchers off the table and Laun put the volume down.
There were many pages she had been able to reclaim from the fireplace in Bregnan’s old suite. They were not complete, but they were information the men did not know. Mostly. One of the letters had Falmir’s signature and Laun did not show that one as she carefully pulled the pages layered in the book out to show the men.
“Where the hell did you get this?” Falmir lifted the transcription to look at the burnt letter from Lady Engrid to Bregnan. It had some of the plan to kill the heirs on it.
“You do have one of the most complete libraries in the Midlands in the Hawkwell manor.” Laun sat and put her hand on the book closed in front of her. “When we found the dead girl in the suite Bregnan used, there were these hastily burned pages. I did what I could to get the words transcribed so they would not be lost to time. There is proof here that Bregnan was working with Lady Engrid-”
Dreng’s face fell and he pulled back, leaning into the back of his chair as though he was trying to distance himself from a nightmare. His one eye focused on his son. “She’s back in the Midlands?”
Falmir looked away and said in low tones, “She would only back me at the Rosemond council if I allowed her to come to the Midlands. She’s been in the Palace for most of the year.”
Dreng rubbed his palm on his forehead and looked like he wanted to cry. “You fucking idiot,” the old man said into his wrist. “I banished her fifteen years ago for a reason.”
Laun was seeing parts of history come out that she had not known. That Dreng and Lady Engrid knew each other, and hated each other. That Falmir had probably known, but would not know how deep or badly.
“She’s a powerful old bitch who wants to have some pull in the Midlands-”
“Boy, you don’t know who she is.” Dreng stood and put his arms crossed over his chest. “She is the Great Aunt of the King of Rosemond. She is looking to rule a kingdom for herself having been passed over for her younger brothers when their father died forty years ago. I have known her for almost all of my life and if she had not been found as an assassin, that damned jeweled blade in her hand as she came for me, she could have been Queen Ruler of the Midlands.” Dreng turned and walked from the table and looked into the rain patterned glass.
Falmir would not look at his father, but he did say, “I remember that summer. She was with you all the time and it looked like you two were in love. I thought...” Falmir looked at his hands on the table. “I thought you had forgotten your wife, my mother.”
Dreng was not actually seeing what was beyond the window. He was seeing the summer he had spent with Lady Engrid. The night he proposed. The secret marriage and then the knife in his hand as she struggled against the guards. It had not been consummated so the Bishop had annulled it, for a price. She had been packed up and sent back to Rosemond that very night.
“Lady Engrid seduced me and almost had a Kingdom for herself.” Dreng closed his eye and tears started to flow and could be heard in the strain in his voice as he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she had been the one to kill your mother, too.”
Quiet descended in the room. Edgar was sitting on the bed and caught Laun’s eye. He signaled, “Changes things?” and Laun shook her head.
Laun let the thinking time only go for another few breaths. She stood, her hands on the table. “Gentlemen, I am not happy that we now know who is truly behind all of this, but it makes some things easier. It also makes it easier to ask both of you how much more you know of Lady Engrid, Council General of Rosemond?” Dreng sighed and turned from the glass, a shake to his head. Falmir also shook his head, not knowing what Laun was trying to ask.
Laun stepped away from the table and said, “In the greyworld, there are different guilds and clans. I am sure both of you have had the pleasures of the top grade Red Scarves.” There were a few chuckles and sneers. Laun walked towards the bed, the oilcloth bag still sitting there. “There are many more, from the obscure to the well known and well used. Each Guild or Clan has those who teach and control things, usually called Masters. I have known and learned from several in the different guilds and groups.”
“What does this have to do with...” Dougal saw the glares from both of the Kings and quieted.
Laun picked up the oilcloth and had a grimace as she faced the men again. “It has everything to do with the noble known as Lady Engrid.” She went around the bed and picked the belt of blades off the arming tree again. She pulled at the leather and buckle and had the plain assassin’s blade in her hand as she said, “Once she was found to be an assassin and let to live, she could not take warrants any more. But she could do what she had been doing for a while. Teach.”
Dreng stepped towards Laun and held out his hand to her. Laun put the hand with the oilcloth in it and withdrew her own hand. He looked confused and held the oilcloth pouch.
“Gem. I believe this is yours.” Laun tossed the sheathed blade to the blonde, the arc going over Falmir’s head. Gem handily caught the blade and curtseyed. “Tell them who your last Mistress was.”
Gem’s slight smile disappeared. “Yes, Mistress. Lady Engrid Pearl.”
Laun heard the reluctance in the assassin’s voice and saw it in her posture. Laun’s voice deepened and all heard the command tone in Laun’s voice. “What else is she known as?”
The girl in black looked at the blade in her hand and clutched it to her chest. “Blue Master.”
The men all had a start and there was a rumble through them. Falmir swore. Edgar stood from the bed and looked like he wanted to pace. Dreng leaned against the window.
Falmir spoke first, saying, “I’ve heard of the Blue Master. He... She is one of the nastiest assassins out there. I didn’t know...”
Laun went back to her chair and sat. She motioned to Dreng who also sat. “Lady Engrid has been hiding in plain sight for years. Her servants are her apprentices. The finds others she can make do her contracts for her and then discards them. She may be old, but she is deadly with her claws into too much, even here in the Midlands.” She motioned to the oilcloth.
Dreng opened it and the scent from the perfume made him smile. Falmir had the same smile as the scent came to him. Dougal looked slightly confused and then reached into the oilcloth pouch without warning or permission.
“That smells like... Gran’s garden.” Dougal sniffed at the dry perfume.
Dreng’s face turned hard when he saw that there was an assassin’s blade in the pouch. A jeweled assassin’s blade. “What the fuck is this?”
“How did Colleen die?”
Dreng held the blade by it’s sheath and looked at the jewels. “At first, we thought it was a bad heart, but then, when she was being dressed for the vigil, a raven and sword was found on her.” He looked at the silvery black stone in the pommel and traced the design in the onyx with a finger. “She was poisoned.”
Laun held out her hand and the bottle was placed there by her cousin. “Her favorite perfume, the one that smelled of her rose garden, was never found.”
“How did you know?” Dreng put the blade back in the oilcloth and handed the pouch to Laun, a look of disgust on his face.
She took the pouch and took out the blade, placing it on the book with the burnt documents. She rolled the bottle in her hands and placed it on the book, too. She then took the little journal of Lady Hellon’s and put it on the bigger book, grey ribbons with clapperless bells marking different places in the writings.
She remembered when she was a child. She remembered her mother and Lady Hellon in the tower room. She had not understood, but she remembered.
“My Mistress, Lady Hellon, held that blade. It is now mine, as I was her apprentice. The royal warrant that goes with it is not from this kingdom.” Laun pulled the signet ring out and put it on the book.
“How the hell...? I knew Hellon since she was a child. She could not have been...”
“I remember you telling me that you knew her when she was a child. Before her parents went to Rosemond. Before you sent her to Rosemond and Lady Engrid got her claws into her. They were part of the envoy escort. I looked it up in the library. She was caught there when her parents were killed, the Rosemond royal family, mostly Lady Engrid, took her in until she was of a marriageable age and she came back to the Midlands.”
Dreng shook his head. “No. I don’t believe any of this.”
“You do not have to believe. I have evidence. I am happy to say that Lady Hellon had tried to quit that part of her life. Unfortunately, it is what killed her in the end.” Laun pointed to a passage from Ithian’s letter to Bregnan. “She would not turn and Bregnan killed her. Just like he killed Lady Tressa.”
Dreng’s tears started again. Falmir brooded. Dougal covered his face with his hands and tried to turn so no one could see his tears. Laun sat and just looked at her hands on her belly.
“This is not getting who is to be King of the Midlands sorted out,” Laun said in a calm voice. “You needed to know. We need to get past this.” Laun felt the tears behind her eyes, stinging and threatening to flow. She could not let them out. Not right then.
“You are a heartless bitch, Thorn.” Falmir glared at her from under his eyebrows.
“Fuck you, too, Father. We need to work this out. The more time we give Her, the worse for the Kingdom it will be. If you have any other ideas than what I have presented to you, bring it out now. Otherwise, you don’t have too many other options.”
Laun glared back at Falmir. Dreng rubbed his hands on his face, smoothing his tears into his skin. Dougal still could not look at anyone else at the table.
“Fine. Let’s look at this crap again. Whoever thought letting you into the library was a good idea should be hung.” Falmir picked up his wrinkled copy of the proposal and started to read it again.
Laun picked up the book and the objects balanced on it and Hazalam had his hands under it as she turned from the table. It was placed on the floor next to the stunned Gismer, the scribe trying to take notes of the meeting and not be too affected by what he was hearing. The transcriptions and extra papers were also put next to the merchant’s son, only a glance to them as he kept writing what they were saying.
It took a good several hours for them to come to an agreement on the way things were going to go. A base scroll was written out by Gismer and everyone in the room, including Gem and Hazalam, signed it as either active participants in the agreement or as witnesses. Everyone was tired and as soon as Laun saw everyone’s signature on the draft, she headed out the door to hit the privy.
The door had not been closed while the arguments and negotiations were going on. A few people would come and listen, stay or go as it suited them. As Laun was at the doorway, applause came from the corridor. It was made obvious where she was headed, but those who had been listening touched her and smiled at her as she went to relieve herself.
Edgar caught up with her, leading Gem and Hazalam. “I didn’t think that it was going to work. But you made them listen.”
Laun had a warriors grip from yet another man as she passed. “I had to. They were treating each other like drinking buddies, not rivals. And as soon as the rain lets up, we need messengers to go out and get the word to the people.”
Geralk caught up to Laun as she was almost to the privy. “The young Lady Selene is in with the women protectors and dancers. Orgia made sure she was cleaned and dried and fed. I had her write a missive to her mother as you instructed.”
Laun paused at the privy door and said, “I hope Lin was worth it to her.”
There were more updates given to Laun as she let her body take it’s time in the privy. Another of the pregnant women was showing signs of labor and all the healers were concerned that Nan was still weak and could not be moved from the nursing bed. The rain had caused many of the crap pits along the roadways to overflow and the last of the protector teams to come in were covered with more than just mud. Several of the soldiers tents had been flooded and one had collapsed. The nobles were not doing too much better, but with more space, there had been more channels able to be dug to get the rushing flows away from their tents.
Fairly typical, Laun thought. Things were always happening. She had come to the realization that she could not fix everything, but she had others around her who could fix more things than she could. If she let them, they would take care of things for her. She just had to make sure that they all knew how important they were to the household, as well as to herself, for their work.
After being in the meeting with her father and grandfather, having reports about rain and babies was light stuff. It took her body most of half an hour to complete it’s movements and by that time, those people who needed to find Laun had. Edgar and her assassins had stuck with her, being a filter for things that just were not appropriate for right then.
Laun stepped back out of the privy and the corridor was mostly clear. She smiled and leaned on Edgar. She looked up at him and said, “If you are not too busy tonight, may I spend some time with you?”
He smiled and kissed her on the forehead. “I would be honored.”
Laun started walking and Edgar moved with her, his arm around her shoulders. “Honored? I am happy you feel that way, but I would hope it would be more than that. We haven’t...been together since I came back. I’ve missed you.”
The rumble was there and Laun let out a little gasp as it went through her when he said, “You are worth waiting for, My Lady Love.”
Onto Chapter 5
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