Start with the First of the Midlands Chronicles, The Slave Warrior if the Web Mistress' marketing brought you here.
There were times when Laun was not sure why the Gods had left her alive when the Keep of Salam-Dir had been raided, the household not at the Festival killed around her. Then she remembered the mission, the Geas that her Lord had given her before he died defending her.
Revenge.
It was not worded as such at the time. She had not known the ins and outs, the intricacies of the world outside the household. She had been unknowingly sheltered as she was taught and grew. She thought she only knew the dance that she had been doing for Lord and Lady Salam-Dir as a slave. She had been scared, but determined and had been able to bring the decimated household back together, the Kingdom back together, as she found who had been behind the killing of her family.
She now was Princess Laun Dresden, Mistress Hawkwell, Lady Salam-Dir, Duchess Pearl and Ruby, Second Heir to the throne of the Midlands. That was the faceted face that many saw in court, when she traveled to the Capitol City from her lands to the North. There were also the many faces she had that were now whispered about in the outlaw underworld just known as the greyworld. She was part of many yet not part of any of the guilds and brotherhoods that traveled in the twilight beneath the law of the land. She had been trained, had taught herself and now had brought together a group that was part of her household, her family, that were getting a reputation.
“Mistress Peach...?”
Laun turned, the thick robe on her heavily moving and continuing to move around her legs after she stopped. Her hand was still on the railing at the bow of the ship, the light spray from the ocean they were going through clinging to her brown hair like small jewels in the morning light.
“Verat, what has happened?”
He was dressed in the Salam-Dir dark green and black, the household badge of the raptor claws slashing through embroidered on the shoulder, the blood drops off the talons picked out in a coppery thread. His face would normally not show anything but a bored amusement, even in the deepest of turmoil. Right then, Laun saw the frown, the creased brow that looked out of place on his pale skin.
“Laun... The Captain said that there is a storm that we will have to go around.”
She nodded to her man and smiled. “I thought I felt something in the air. My head started to hurt when I got up.” She brought her eyebrows together and tilted her head. “But why would you use...”
Verat took in a deep breath and looked over her shoulder past the close waves and to the moving horizon. “Mistress... We only have another two days before we know she will be moved.”
Laun looked back over the bow and felt the sharp droplets of the salt water on her face. “I would rather track her than have Beau’s ship damaged.” She looked down at her hands on the railing, loosening her grip as she tried to relax her posture.
Verat came close to her, leaning into her as the ship moved beneath them. “But... Mistress. If she gets to the Mainland...”
“I know the dangers, Verat. The weather cannot be controlled.” She sounded testier than she really wanted to over the sound of the wind and waves. Laun turned to her apprentice and put a slightly swollen hand to his cheek. “Thank you.” There was more she wanted to say, but she knew he had heard all of it before.
Gem was behind them and spoke up, her voice hoarse over the sound of the ocean. “We have people at the port. If she slips by us, they will find her,” she croaked out.
Laun smiled at her assassin and nodded. The blonde had insisted on coming, bringing her girl child with her even as Laun had left her new boy and the twin girls at the Salam-Dir lands. Gem was doing better on this part of the voyage, the straights between the mainland and the Island Principality being somewhat smoother. She hated boats, had made that clear several times over the last three years. But Gem knew much of the underlying Rosemond kingdom politics, even though she had not been there for years, and had convinced Laun and the others in the Peaches that she would be invaluable.
Gem had proven herself when she took lead at the dock at the port city they had just come from. She had the blonde hair and the blue eyes of the ruling class, some baring that she had to force to project her authority. She knew the language of the lower classes to the point that she smacked the face of one of the harbormen and swore at him after he made a low comment about a ship of whores coming in from the Midlands. They had not had to pay docking fees for the hour they were in their slip, apologies from the dockmaster to the royals before him. Laun was still fuzzy about who he thought was the royal of the ship was, but it made unloading half the group easier and faster to get back out to the open water once they found that Lady Engrid Pearl had not been picked up from the Island Principality, yet.
It was that ‘yet’ that had most of the rest of the people there for the mission on edge.
Laun turned from the railing and felt her nipples rub on her halter, a flash of pain from the re-pierced holes catching her again. Colby had stopped nursing after only three months, starting on spoonfood earlier than anyone had seen in the household. He still would take some cow or goats milk once in a while, but did not like to nurse.
Liam had been in the Capitol City when she was visiting the other Hawkwells, his reason obscured but Laun knew that he was smuggling something for someone. She had mentioned that the boy had stopped nursing. Liam did not dance around the subject and asked if he could have the honor of putting in new rings for her.
It had taken Laun almost an hour of talking and thinking for her to decide to do it again. The first time, he had her under his hand, her body to do with as he wished. The rings had gone in, a reminder to Laun to always negotiate. She had taken them out about a month from when Colby was to be birthed because the pain was unbearable with her swollen nipples. It was time for Laun to have the jewelry again, for different reasons.
“Laun, I would like to go over the plan, again,” came from someone else who had just come to the bow of the ship. Laun turned and smiled, one of the reasons for the gold rings through her nipples standing by her.
“Edgar, nothing has changed...” She saw the look in his eye and nodded, smiling.
They took each other’s hands and he kissed her on the forehead. “The margin is close. I heard that the Captain wants to go around a storm we cannot see.” He started to rumble towards the end and Laun felt it go right through her.
She smiled and looked at him through her half-closed eyes, saying, “Yes, My Lord.” She pulled at his hands and they went below decks.
Chapter two - Launs' ship escorts Her Excelency from the Island Provence to the Mainland
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