the Leathermines

Back to Chapter 12

 

The start of this epic story arc is in The Slave Warrior, here, if you want to start from the beginning.

 

Laun started to move into the hand placed on her shoulder.  Ifahyd gripped and held her steady, stopping her.  His voice was low as he said, “Do not move.”

Something moved over the covers, the thin silk moving with the scales of the snake as it settled between them, warming it’s self on their legs.  Laun felt the strength in Iffy’s hand, and the fright.  He lightened his grip and slowly moved his hand up her and past, reaching for a small bell among the trinkets set at the head of the bed.

A single clear ring sounded through the room.  The snake moved slightly and settled again before the door was quietly opened into the King’s room.  The lantern light was soft and stopped when Ifahyd whispered, “Serpente...”

People quietly came into the room and looked at the red and orange snake twined around it’s self between the two royals.  A few words that Laun did not know were breathed between the people.  One of them paused and said in Laun’s direction, “We will take the fabric from you.  When we do, move away.”

Laun understood.  The low bed was easy to roll off of when she felt the light layer of silk lifted from her.  The snake was wiggling within the bagged sheet, the person taking charge of it keeping as far away from the moving part as possible.

Several hands were on Ifahyd, checking him to see if there were any marks to show he had been bitten before he had alerted them.  It looked like he was used to the routine and Laun moved through the room to give them space.

The assassin part of her pushed through her tiredness and thought of where the snake could have come from.  The open door was too obvious and many people would have assumed it had come in from there.  Except there weren’t any marks in the soft sand that had been brushed away from the door by a servant Laun had seen as they had come in from the evening meal.  Laun started to look around the room, finding a black bag under a low table that smelled of herbs and the snake.  She pulled it out from it’s hiding place and stood looking at it.  She was not sure what to do now that she had the bag in hand.

“Bella, Laun...  What did you find?”  One of the nobles that had come in at the alert saw that she was holding the bag.  He went to her, taking the bag and then looking at her naked form, wanting to see if she had been bitten, but not knowing how a noble woman from the Midlands would react to being searched.

The King waved his attendants away and went to Laun.  He saw how quiet she was, her calm a little eerie.  He was not used to his companions being so focused after such things happening.  “My Midlands Rose.  Were you struck?”

She shook her head and glanced into the darkness of the courtyard.  The doors were open, the curtains showing that there was little air movement from outside.  “Just disappointed that our night was interrupted so.”

Ifayd blinked and held his hand out to her.  “You are well?”

Laun nodded and took his hand.  There was a weak smile on her face as she stepped towards him, a look of concern flashing over him before he led her back to the low bed.  A new top sheet was being unfolded after the bed had been searched to make sure nothing else was hiding in it.  Laun knelt on the bedding before Ifahyd.  He stood for a moment, looking down at her before kneeling next to her and taking her hands within his.

“Laun, are you sure you are well?”

She nodded but did not say anything.  It was almost as if the snake had not been there, that they had woken to a knock on the door.  It had not mattered that it was a deadly snake.  It was not concerning her that she could have died a violent, agonizing death.  She was just tired and wanted to go back to sleep, with or without the ruler of Rosemond beside her.

Ifahyd pulled back.  “Please, Laun, let my people look to make sure you were not bitten.  You do not seem...right.”

Laun stood again, yawning and trying to focus.  Her head felt a little stuffy, perhaps a hold from the dreamscape she had been in keeping her...

The taste on the back of her teeth.  What had she last had?  The sweet that Silar had given her from a small box that had appeared and then was gone.  She pushed her finger in along her gums and felt the slight puffiness she had learned to recognize along with the taste.

Laun rubbed her hands over her face and let the men look closely at her for signs of being bitten.  She did not feel anything else off, other than the slight soreness of having Iffy between her legs earlier.  She smiled and turned to the Rosemond monarch.

“I believe that this was an attempt on you, but to implicate me, Iffy.  I think I was drugged at dinner.”

His eyes narrowed.  “You are doing well for being drugged.”

Laun turned to let the men check more of her, but she kept her eyes on Ifahyd’s in the moving lamplight.  “I have a resistance to certain substances.  It has been handy on occasion.”  The men looking at her seemed satisfied that there were only healed scars, no new marks on her.  Laun turned to the noble men and said, “Thank you for your diligence.  I am grateful for your attendance.”

Eyes darted to Ifahyd and back, one of the nobles voicing their confusion and acceptance with, “It is our duty, Highness.”

Ifahyd motioned the men out of the room and went to Laun.  “My sweet...  I remember seeing a certain knife when I was in your father’s Palace...”

Laun tilted her head and thought slowly through the residual fog of the drug.  She put her hand on his arm and let herself be pulled into his embrace.  “Knife...”  She raised her hand to his throat where she had rested one of her blades when he had first tried to kiss her.  Then she remembered the clothing that had been shed in the bathing chamber, including her boots with her assassin’s dagger.

There was a small smile on her lips and she looked closely at his throat.  “I never was good at hiding such things.”

He moved his arms and brought a hand up to her neck, moving her head so that he could see into her eyes.  “I have only seen a few of those knives and all of them have been within the last two years.”

Laun blinked as she tried to think about what he had said.  “You saw mine.  Did the hand that held the other live more than a few breaths?”

Ifahyd smiled and kissed Laun gently.  His hand supported her head and he pressed himself into her as they stood there.  He slid his face along hers, knowing that he needed to shave, but not wanting to break contact.  He whispered into her ear, “Your hand is the only one to hold such and live, my blossom.  I have guards around me all the time, even if it does not seem like it.  I have tasters for my food.  I have different people dressing me every day, all trusted nobles.  The attempts are not every day, but enough that I have had to become...cautious.”

Laun moved her head along his jaw and down to his shoulder.  “I am sorry that has happened, Iffy.  If your Aunt had not been captured, it would be even deadlier.  I and my Pea-people are here, and I will try to keep you from harm.”

He pulled back and looked into her slightly uneven eyes.  “My sweet, we are surrounded by the Royal guards.  Tonight was an exception.  Usually nothing comes this close.  You are safest at my side.”

Laun smiled and nodded.  “As you say, uomo dolce.”  Laun saw a flash of humor go through his eyes.  She waved her hand once, making a signal of ‘one’ towards the open door.

A figure in dark clothing stepped into the room through the open door.  The hood was pulled from his head and the blonde hair of Daffyd shone in the lamplight.  The King was startled as the man knelt and bowed his head to Laun.

Laun put her finger to Ifahyd’s lips to keep him quiet.  “Dolce, I too am never unprotected.”

“Bella!”  Ifahyd pulled Laun to him and kissed her firmly.  He held her head between his hands and looked deep into her eyes.  “You surprise me when I thought I could not be.  You are...”  He paused and smiled broadly before saying, “You are more than my equal.”

Laun did not have too much time to think or react before Ifahyd had her in a full embrace, his passion from earlier coming back.  She kissed him fully, pressed herself into him as he pulled her into himself.  She stilled herself and he pulled back, looking into her eyes again.

“Iffy, if I may have a word with my man?”

The monarch nodded and let his arms drop from her, though he caught one of her hands and brought it up to his lips before she turned and walked to her turned Rosemond officer.  She put her hand on his head and he looked up, his face stony.

“Did you see the bag being placed?”  There was a shake to his head.  “The servant who was sweeping out here as we entered the room...?”  He nodded.  “Track and trace.  Inform my Lieutenant.  Tell Edgar I am well, but that I will need some of the orange antidote in the morning.”  He nodded, an eye flicking to the other man in the room.  Laun smiled and tapped the large man on the forehead to get his eyes back on her.  “Thank you.  If I could, I would fuck you right here, but this is urgent.  Bring me the assassin or her hand.”

Daffyd’s head went down, a small smile at the corner of his mouth.  “For the Flesh and Stone, Mistress.”

Laun smiled.  “For the Color and Fruit, my strength.”  She watched him stand and step back out into the night, the courtyard seemingly empty of anyone within a flash.  She had a remembrance of his breaking, and how he solidified how she formalized the ranks within the Peaches.

The King came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.  “Laun, you are such a mystery.  I think you are one thing and I find you are something else, and more beyond.”

Laun leaned into him and enjoyed his presence.  “We all have our layers, Ifahyd.  Most we do not expose to those who do not need to see.  You have seen some of my layers but until now, my Love,” she felt him tighten his embrace at the word, “you did not know what you had seen.”

Chapter 14 brings chaos as Lady Engrid is on the verge of death.