the Leathermines

Back to Chapter 9

 

The Great Hall was full for morning meal and meeting.  It was hot and stuffy even before the over one hundred people crammed into the room.  The rain that had come the day before had wet down everything but had gone without giving enough water to feed the fields.  It had been just enough to make a little mud and then float back into the air making the heat worse with the humidity.

The messengers were being sent back out that day.  Not all of them, but the ones that had been kept overnight in the outlying tent, a squad of the soldiers on duty to keep them...safe.  

The false king’s men were being sent back out with scrolls denouncing the false kings and copies of the documents reinforcing Falmir as King of the Midlands with Dreng as the Council Commander.  The noble was not happy, but he was doing his duty to the man he thought was the right King, as appointed by the three people left of the Kings’ council.  It had been pointed out to him that not only was the council not Mildands people but the man they had appointed was himself half Rosemond on his mother’s side with only a shade of Midlands nobility in him.  He left, much to think about on his journey back.

The other false king’s man was not surprised when he was given the scroll to take back.  He had been a servant pressed into the role of a messenger and he had not thought it was a good idea.  He did it and he was happy that he had his own life, and his own horse, as he passed the night and readied himself for the journey back.  He even confided in the Princess that his master had heard rumors that his son was of Hawkwell blood, but now that the servant had seen the Hawkwells, there was absolutely no resemblance.

The Ambassador’s man was sent out with a token payment of a gold coin.  It was a Rosemond struck coin and he saw the irony in it.  A message to the current Ambassador from Rosemond asked for just a little time to sort out the problems with the other claimants.  A hint was dropped about the massing of the troops and the man was surprised when it was mentioned.  He seemed apologetic and said he would bring it up with the Ambassador as soon as he was back at the Embassy.

The man sent for the Bishop was chastised by the sect leader, but forgiven for doing as he was ordered.  As a new initiate, he did not know any of the politics and had not gone through any of the big ceremonies to become one of the order.  He was sent on a vigil in the top of the tower, kneeling on the landing next to the pigeon coop.  The archers stationed up there were very amused.

Laun had been up for several hours before the meeting.  There were so many details of household life that nagged at her, and her body was making it hard to sleep more than a few hours at a time before she had to visit the privy or eat something or find a healer for a pain reliever.  Her back had a constant throb to it and she found that she needed to sleep in particular positions or her body would not work right for a while after she was awake.  It did not lead to good sleep most nights.

Laun seemed to have a bit of a crowd around her at most times.  Household members who were there to help and support as she sat in the Great Hall with papers spread before her.  Nobles who wanted to see how she was running things, and to get a bit closer to the King through her.  One or two of the troupe that would distract her for a few minutes and then fade in the crowd to wait for another opportunity.  Soldiers who were there to protect, but also had a respect for her that just a title would not have garnered.

Laun only stood when she needed to at the daily meeting.  Announcements were done by the various leads and heads.  A recap of the messengers was gone over.  The need to harvest and glean from the woods and verge to keep the keep and guests fed.  A new duty roster that included patrols of the Grey was put out.  The knowledge that there were Rosemond troops in Nestwood was discussed.

The mood after things broke up that morning was mixed, but most of those going out to tell the rest of the people on the land the morning’s news were grim.  No one really wanted to admit it, but there was still war in the air.  With supplies starting to already run low, it was not the best time to be celebrating.

Gyrip had been able to bring quite a few things that they needed.  The message from Marie was a way to get the gemstones from Salam-Dir to buyers she knew.  It was the only thing they could trade as all the fine goods from the needleworkers were being used and the cooking fires were taking whatever wood the carpenters were not using to keep the Salam-Dir lands maintained.  He was sent off with many of the stones that Laun had in the chests in the hidden space in her room.  A trip to the Grey was on Laun’s agenda for that day to see what could be quickly found, but with everything else happening, Laun was not sure if it was going to happen.

Yet again, a mission to Nestwood was stopped.  The Great Hall had not been the place to discuss such a mission so Laun and the people who were most involved went up to her room with the door closed after Gyrip had the stones in hand.  Both Falmir and Dreng were against putting anyone in danger, and between the two, they could not be convinced otherwise.  Dreng pulled on Laun’s heartstrings when he brought up the mission she had sent Kelly and Ben on, Ben not to return.  Laun became very quiet and just looked at him.  She left her own room so that she would not blow up at them.  There were things she wanted to say, but did not want to drag things out any further than it needed to be.

She had visited the prisoner the night before, a silent man keeling in her presence.  Word was that he was civil to the staff, had used the offal bucket, with some difficulty, and had been just kneeling and being quiet under the cloak.  He had not been fed yet.  No water.  He would be thirsty and hungry.  Laun had to remember that breaking Hazalam was a fluke.  She had been lucky to have little shards of information to poke him with and garner more.  This one, she did not have the same advantage.

Laun made her way through several knots of people on her way to the Chamber of Death.  It reminded her very much of the people who would seemingly just stand in the hallways and corridors of the Palace, waiting for an opportunity to catch someone’s eye and ear.  It annoyed her.  She dealt with the pleasantries and questions as quickly as she could and went to the privy before down to the bottom of the tower.

This one was older than Hazalam.  She had not seen any reaction to her when she was standing next to him, other than taking him down with a touch of her warm hand.  He was not going to be broken with sex.  He most likely was not a virgin as her man had been.  The cold had done it’s job to make him vulnerable, the room secure to keep him available and alive.  Laun was just not sure how, or if, she was going to get information from him.  And this one, she could kill.

The guards opened the door for her and she stepped in.  The door clunked back into it’s frame and the room was silent again.  She saw the candle was about halfway down.  It was needed to keep light in there for checking on him, but they were down to very few actual candles.  Some of the hallways had been lit with reed-stalks for the last few nights just to save the candles they had. Orgia had been eyeing one of the cows that was not producing as much milk and they had discussed a slaughter, the tallow to be used in more candles as well as other needed goods.

Laun looked from the candle to the figure on the floor.  The cape was not quite all the way on him, but he was not shivering as he had been the last time she had seen him.  She stepped forward and he brought his head up.  He straightened and the cape fell from his shoulders.  The rope around his midsection was still secure and as Laun walked at a calm pace around him, she saw that his hands were still tied behind him.

“I am told that you have been good.”

He nodded.  Laun saw that his eye went to the hem of her skirt and back up to her eyes several times.  It was not as if he was lusting after her, there was no indication in his manhood of that.  He was looking for something.

“I give choices.  There is always a choice.  When you were brought into the guild, you made a choice.  There was a choice when you made your life sacrifice to your first master.  You made a choice when you took this mission.  You made a choice to forfeit your life.”

He blinked and his eyes went to the floor.  His breathing was slightly fast and he had to focus to control that.  It showed emotion and emotion was weakness.

“I give you a simple choice right now.  Your hands have been bound for several days.  I am sure they are not in the best condition.  I am going to unbind you.  It is your choice what you do after that.”  Laun stepped to him and motioned.  “Head to the floor, please.”  She sounded like she was asking for more tea.

He paused, looking at her before he leaned over and put his head to the floor.  The place where he had slammed into the stone still hurt and he winced when he touched, but the cold of the stone made it feel better.  He felt her hands untying the rope around his chest first, the slither of the sisal dragging on his skin as it fell to the floor.  The hands he felt her try to untie, but she was having problems.

He heard a blade being pulled from a sheath and then the cold of the blade along his forearm.  “Hold still.  If I want to draw blood, I’ll do it in other ways.”  His heart raced slightly and he stayed as still as possible.

The blade was sharp and cut most of the way through the rope in several places with only a little pressure.  Laun stepped back, the knife going back into the forearm sheath.  “Sit up.  You should be able to pull and break it, if you wish.”

He sat back on his heels and felt a little blood coming through to his hands, the fire of the blood moving through to his fingers hurting more than he thought it would.  He tried to pull his hands apart but found the pain too intense.  He made a whimpering sound that he did not catch and his eyes went to the floor with a flash of shame.

“Don’t try to hide your pain.  I know it is there.  Try to hide it and you will just make it worse.”  She stepped around to the other side and he could feel her eyes on him.

With his jaw clenched, he pulled against the rope, the agony of the rope burn mixing with the feeling coming back to his hands excruciating.  He cried out as the rope broke and his arms swung out with the force he had to give it.  He did not pause and tried to stand and reach her, to complete his mission even though he knew he was dead.

His legs failed him.  He tripped on the cloak and his hands would not work.  She had a light hand that guided him back to the floor, his shoulder hitting with the sound of something breaking.  His cry out made the guards open the door, large figures next to the Princess.

She sighed.  “I gave you a choice.  You did this to yourself.  With Blue Master giving you this contract, I had been hoping for...more.”  She stood and he could see her shaking her head through the red that had colored his vision.  “I am disappointed.”

She was so close, but he could not push himself up with his hands and one of his shoulders now did not work properly, even trying to use it through the pain.  There was a rushing in his ears and he heard her speak to the guards, but the sound was muffled.  She turned to him and knelt.  He saw her leg under the skirt and there was a blade but not the one he had seen before.  He tried to reach for it but could not move.

She put her hand in his hair and pulled his head up.  She looked into his eyes and he tried to move for her again.  She dropped his head and the pain of his shoulder moving like gravel under him made him stop trying to reach for her.  He could not stop the tears, the sobbing.

“I reward for being good.  Messenger, you are not being good.  The next time I see you, you had better be good for my patience with Blue’s ineptitude is starting to make me short tempered.  When I get cross, I get sloppy.  With my pregnancy, I already don’t have enough clothes to cover me.”

He tried to stop sobbing and it turned into irregular gasps.  The cold of the stone was leaching what body heat he had and he was wondering why she still had not killed him.  What did she want from him?  What type of torture was this where she hadn’t even questioned him?

Laun stood, her hand supported by one of the guards.  “Get Kell.  She should have the bedside manner he needs.”

She was not sure if he had really fainted or if he was just being still.  He had stopped sobbing and his eyes had glazed over slightly.  Either way, he was no good to her.  Hazalam had been much more sturdy, and that was after being in the Salam-Dir grounds for at least a week.

Laun left the Chamber of Death to the guards and made her way back up to her room.  Only a few people approached her as she made her way up and she was feeling much less like being pleasant to any of them.  She tried to be kind, but she had to tell the last man to approach her that she was not available for anything at the moment, no matter what he promised.

The door to her room was open.  She waddled in and found Silar and Hazalam near the window talking.  Some of the household staff were changing and rearranging things to keep it fresh in the room, but they left soon after Laun sat in one of the chairs when they saw the look on her face.

Her men knelt where they were by the window, facing her and waiting for her.  They were so wonderfully attentive.  She looked at them and her mood lifted, but all she really wanted was a foot rub and a nap.

“Well, I broke him.”

They both looked at her with worried looks on their faces.  “Mistress?” Hazalam asked.

“Really.  I broke him.  Actually, he tripped and fell.  His shoulder, I think.  Much more delicate than you, my quail.”  Laun smiled.

The assassin smiled and ducked his head in a bow.  “Thank you, Mistress.”

“But,” Laun started to move forward to try to get up, but she stopped.  “Now I am tired and just want to nap.  It isn’t even the middle of the day.”

The men stood and helped her to the bed, taking the tunic and skirt from her to make her more comfortable in the humid heat.  Laun did not want to talk to anyone, but several people stopped by as she was relaxing into the bedding, pillows and rolls of blankets keeping her on her side so her back would not scream at her.  A light linen sheet was draped over her to keep her somewhat decent, and by her own request.

Kell came in and saw Laun trying to sleep and almost backed out.  Laun motioned for her to stay.

“He snapped his collarbone.  If I had a place to cut into him and pin the ends together, he would heal better, but as it is, I can do some immobilization.  And keep him drugged so he doesn’t move for a while.”

Laun nodded into the pillow.  “How do we take care of him while he heals enough?”

Kell got a stern look on her face.  “You are just going to hurt him again.”

Laun pushed herself up slightly from the bedding.  “He hurt himself.  If I had hurt him, I would have told you so.”

The two women looked at each other for several moments.  Kell backed down and nodded.  “Laun, I believe you.  I can get him immobilized, but he can’t stay in the Chamber.  He is already bordering on the edge of severe hypo...  He is going to get a chill.  It could kill him with the broken bone.  Pillar is with him right now and I am sure we can bring him back to health.  It will take several weeks.”

Laun laid back down.  “Talk to Orgia.  We may need to use one of the storage rooms or even build a shed for him.”  Laun pulled the sheet more over her shoulders as she said, “Kell, thank you for being here.  And not just for the messenger.  For the babies and everything else.”

Kell stood straight and nodded.  “Laun, I am glad for the challenge.”  The healer nodded, as much of a bow as Laun had ever seen from her, and left.

“Mistress, should we close the door?”  Silar was poised to do just that.

Laun thought about it.  “No.  I am cranky, but lying here seems to make things feel better.  I’ll rest between interruptions.”  Laun smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Her dark man smiled back and went to talk to Hazalam more at the window.  Laun could hear the murmur from them, becoming a white noise that helped her mind float above her.  She was not sure if she was really floating, but it was pleasant and it led her into a deep sleep.

When Laun woke several hours later, soft tin whistle music was playing in the room.  Laun had not heard it for months, but knew that Ali was there.  Laun moved slightly and the music stopped.  There was a shuffling sound and someone was on the bed behind her.

“Laun?  Are you awake?”  Ali’s voice was wonderful to hear.  The warmth of Ali’s body along her back was pleasant, even in the heat.

Laun reached back and found Ali’s leg.  “A wonderful way to wake.  We haven’t had time to talk.”  Laun rolled back slightly and said over her shoulder, “I missed you.”

There was a light kiss on Laun’s cheek.  “I missed you too, my Lady.”

Ali put her arm around Laun and they talked a little.  About the time Laun was away.  About when Ali started wearing longer tunics and not breeches.  About the people in the household.

It was comforting to catch up with Ali, but Laun really wanted to ask other things.  But it was Ali’s life.  It was not Laun’s place to push into who and when Ali had a man.  She thought that Silar was right and that it had been Fount.  It still nagged at the back of her brain.  More for missing it than who it might have been.

Ali’s face was next to Laun’s ear while they were talking, the deepness of her voice and the breath across Laun’s ear making parts of her more than willing to play.  Her back was keeping her from seriously thinking of doing anything active right then.  Ali didn’t know about Laun’s back hurting.  Laun realized that Ali’s hand had gone from over the cover to under the cover, a hand stroking along Laun’s hip and bottom.  It felt good and her lower regions seemed to want more attention, a pulse and a matching rocking starting in her hips.  But her back tensed and Laun had to put her hand on Ali’s to stop her.

“Love, I want your touch, but my back is hurting badly right now.”

Ali’s breath had a slight sigh on it that went past Laun’s ear.  “It has been months, Lady.  My own body is just now letting me do what I want.  I was hoping...”

Laun moved her hand up from Ali’s on her hip to Ali’s face behind her head.  “I want to.  I need you.  It just would be very painful right now.”

“I understand.”  Ali started to move away and Laun felt a twinge of anger and fear go through her.  Laun let out a sigh and dropped her hand from Ali’s face.

Laun took in a breath and hoped she sounded at least calm as she said, “I am glad you found others to be with while I was gone.”

Ali stopped moving.  “Lady, we all needed someone when you were gone.  It started to fall apart when you were kidnapped.  Edgar went looking for you and couldn’t find you.  Edgar and Fount didn’t talk to each other for close to a week.  Dreng...  He tried to take over and Orgia told him off in the middle of meeting.  Bett even stood with the chatelaine against him.  I tried so hard to get them to talk.  That’s when I-Fount...  I was with Fount and then I was with Edgar.  I got them to talk after that.  And they...”

Laun listened.  She waited.  Laun quietly said, “I am glad they had you and you had them.”

“All the household was like that, Lady.  We try to show you that we were in control and worked without you.  If it hadn’t been for the supplies you sent back with Silar, we would not have survived.  He told us that he had taken you, but that you had sacrificed yourself for us.”  Laun heard tears in her stablehand’s voice.

Laun thought about the difficulties she knew they had when she had been able to get back from the Hawkwell manor.  Low food supplies were the least of their problems in some ways.  There were just too many people and Laun had read some accounts of a small chill for one person spreading through a crowded group and becoming a plague.  The water they had was being brought to the keep from the clear fishing stream now, not just from the rain water.  Then there was the friction between people.  The household was just too full.

“I stayed in the Capitol City because I promised Silar I would not run away.  I did scare the piss out of him when I didn’t kill him.  Ask him about it.”

Ali’s voice was low.  “Lady, he scares me, now.”

Laun tried to roll but her back flared.  She sucked in her breath and tried to relax through the pain.  She could breathe again and sighed.  “What about him scares you, love?”

“He hasn’t been practicing his fighting.  Now that you are back, he is in here all the time and his intensity is all focused on you.  He only talks about you when he does talk.”

“He is obsessing.  Still.  I have no idea how to deal with that.”  Laun thought and said, “Well, perhaps he needs to start with his fighting again.  Are the protectors still practicing?”

“Yes, Lady.  Though it is difficult with all the new people.”

Laun nodded to herself.  “Then we should bring it into the open.  Next time I can, I will mention it.”

Ali gently put a hand on Laun’s covered shoulder.  “Thank you.”  Ali started playing on the tin whistle again, a light and happy tune as Laun relaxed back into dozing in the summer afternoon heat.

 

Chapter 11 - The beginning of the Chronicles of the midlands starts with The Slave Warrior .