the Leathermines

Back to Chapter 53 - If you have made it this far, consider becoming a paid member or sending something in Tribute to the Web Mistress.

 

 

Morning.  It had been a quieter night, only a few extra bodies in the room with Laun.  Her habit of getting up early had popped her eyes open as the morning light was brightening outside the window.  She heard breathing, snoring.  And the door opening and then closing, very quietly.

She heard movement and could follow it around towards the window.  She pulled the covers back and saw Silar warming up.  He had not been in the room the night before.  Laun had asked to have food brought up to her and the people who were with her had come to her with the food.  Some of it was for her own sanity, as the number of people who were asking to share her bed were far more than she was feeling comfortable with at the moment.  And she had needed to talk to some people about the information she had gotten from the prisoner.

But that was last night.  Silar was there this morning.

Laun made her way past Ali on the floor mat and to the rug.  It was her time to startle him.  He was naked, his clothing in a pile at the end of the rug.  He turned from the window and stopped.  She heard his breath catch, but more than that he did not show his surprise.

“Lady, I was hoping to help you with your workout this morning.”

She wished she could even fake a smile.  She touched him on the shoulder.  “Falion Silar Khan.”

He tensed. “Yes.”  He had not used his full name since he had gotten to the Capitol City.  Not before he had joined with the loyalists.  Not at the keep.

Laun stepped closer and put her hand gently on his cheek.  She tried to look into his eyes in the dark.  She could see little, but thought she saw panic, even through his usual haughty calm.

She stepped back.  It was early, the few social filters she had were not engaged.  She did the first thing that came to mind and backhanded him across the face.

As she felt her fist hit him, she expected him to retaliate, was readying herself to move or be hit.  He did not move.

His blood was on her hand and she raised the smear to her lips.  She licked it off and dropped her arm to her side.  “You will tell Dougal.”

Without waiting for a response, she turned and went to the arming tree to get the practice swords.  She clicked her tongue and threw one through the pre-dawn light.  He caught it.

She stepped beside him and started the dance.  The sweeps and lunges and turns.  Silar followed, seeing the focus, the discipline, even though she obviously was seething inside.  They came to the end of the dance, both breathing heavily.

He needed to know.  “How-?”

Laun’s eyes glittered in the low light.  “More to the point, I know.”  She stood and went to first position again.

Silar stood beside her and they went through the dance, just a little faster.  Laun was flowing and watching how her steps were placed as carefully as she could.  She also saw how he was placing his footing, seeing a difference.

“Again.”

Just a little faster, and Laun wished she had her skirts on for the turns.  Her hands started to cramp as the wooden sword spun around her head.  She stopped in mid step, Silar continuing for another step before stopping.  Laun was rubbing her hands together to try to loosen them up.  Silar heard the crack of knuckles as she stretched her fingers.

He was in conflict.  His original mission had been over long before he had chosen this side.  He would not be able to go home.  That had always been a possibility.  A personal challenge had been presented to him in Laun, Lady of this household, and he thought he had conquered that.  Surprisingly, she was turning into much more of the woman he had been looking for when he had come to this continent.  But... If he went with the offer he knew was still there, the woman before him would be betrayed.  

And she knew his name.  Few outside the greyworlders who had brought him over knew that name.

Silar went to one knee and held out his hands.  She paused and held out her hand.  He massaged and found a tender spot that went down her forearm.  He touched in the dark, feeling her response until her muscle was loose under his fingers.

“If I had known I was in bed with a prince, I would have been more...reverential.”

His head went up and saw the humor in her eyes.  “Lady, you would have treated me the same.”

“Perhaps.”  Laun put a hand on his cheek, drawing her fingers down to his mouth.  She leaned over and caught at his lip with her teeth, slightly biting and tasting the blood that had already been brought out.  She pushed in and kissed him as he knelt before her.

As Laun pulled away, she quietly said, “We all have our secrets. Your name should not be one of them.”  She stood up and paced back.

Silar nodded and stood. He felt the hot flush of the adrenaline going through him from her just saying his name.  However she found out about it, she now knew.  He just hoped that she didn’t know that his slip of the tongue the morning before was an oath.  He knew that she was ready to take his blood whenever she wanted it.  He moved his jaw and felt along his split lip as proof.

Laun moved into position and said, “Again.”

There were others who had gotten up, gone to the privy, dressed, had sex and other things while Laun and Silar went through the dance over and over.  She wanted to feel her body burn.  Having the man beside her, mirroring her, forced her mind to keep her body moving.  Her stamina was almost up to what she wanted, but her hands kept failing her.  Almost every other time, she felt that she was about to loose control of the weapon and stopped before she lost the wooden sword.  Her weakness was starting to frustrate her.

Breathing heavily, Laun finally stopped for the day.  She was sweating, her legs were shaking and her right shoulder was telling her that it was still trying to heal.  She sat on the rug and then lay back panting.  Silar went down beside her, legs splayed out and leaned back on his elbows.

Laun looked at the wood of the ceiling in the morning light as she tried to catch her breath.  There was reflected light from outside dancing on part of the dark wood.  She watched it for a while until she could talk without gasping.

“Thank you.”

Silar still was breathing heavily and answered, “For... What?”

Laun turned and looked at him.  “For your expertise.  For the push you give me in the workout.  For choosing to be here.”  She lifted her hand and made a sweeping motion.  “And more.”

He nodded.  “Before...”  He swallowed and took a breath in.  “Before you showed me you knew who I was, I had been hoping for a different workout.”

“You men!”  Laun smiled at him, seeing the humor in his face.  She shook her head and said, “No time, now.  Time to get cleaned up and go to morning meal.”

He looked up to the window and made an odd face.  “We have been doing that damned dance for over an hour.”

Laun nodded, feeling the rug push into her shoulders.  “I hope to get up to what Dance Master would call ‘bare minimum'.  That is about three hours.”

He looked back with disbelief on his face.  “With everything else that needs to be done in the household... I knew he wanted more time for the training, but I did not realize he was like that.”  Silar went to touch Laun but stopped short.

Laun moved her hand and touched his.  “Before this, I was a dancer for the household.  Our work was our bodies.  Two sessions a day and then performances for the household or guests several times a week. I-”  A tear caught at the corner of her eye.  “I miss that.  Not having to be anything but a dancer.”

“You are much more than a dancer.”  He smiled.  “But keep your dancer in you.  This is selfish, but your body is quite enjoyable and I would hate to see you lose your core.”

Laun sat up and looked at him.  “You have also been enjoyable.”  Her smile went slightly wicked.  “We do not have time for that.”

They both got up and pulled on clothing after washing some of the sweat from them with the water bowl.  Laun could tell that she would be attacked by Orgia if she got too close and dunked in one of the tubs.  Not that it would be a bad thing.  Laun’s back and shoulder told her that a hot bath would be nice, but her head told her that there were other things that needed to be done.

Ali followed behind Laun and Silar as they went to the privy and then to the Great Hall.  It was still early, but with the winds smelling of snow, most of the people who were going to have to work outside were itching to get things done before the weather changed.

Laun was ravenous.  She had finished several pieces of bread and an orange before she took control of herself.  She washed out her mouth with hot tea and stood.  She was not in the center this time, and she had stepped up onto one of the benches by the one lit fireplace.  It took a moment, but the gathered people quieted and looked to her.

She looked at all the faces before her.  The eyes she knew, the ones she should know better.  The names that slipped in and out of her memory.  The people she had lived with all her life mixed in with people she had just met.  Talents that were obvious.  Hidden resources that still needed to be found.  They were her household right then.

“It seems that the wind has changed.”  Many people nodded.  “I have been told that we may be frozen within a week.  The harvests are done, except for the winterberry after the first snow.”  A few smiles were on faces.  “Our defenses still need work.  The carpenters have done a wonderful job on the garden and the tents have been useful already.  Every time there is a chink found, we need to plug it.  Come to Dreng, Edgar or myself if you find anything, and I mean anything amiss.”

Laun took another sip of tea and used it to collect her thoughts.  “Because we were observant, we have a prisoner.”  Most of the faces did not change, only a few showed surprise.  “He is still useful in the information he has and I am hoping he chooses to live long enough to give more.  Some of the information was very hard to hear.  Falmir-”  She saw Dreng shake his head and frown.  “Falmir and his people are strong, but only because he is being supported by our Eastern neighbors with money and troops.”

Laun scanned the crowd, looking at the faces.  Over one hundred and thirty faces.  “It is believed that if we can hunker down and not have any conflict with Falmir’s people before the snows come that we will be safe until spring.  I see the point, but there are too many factors we do not know.  We will not be safe until Falmir is kneeling in front of our King in submission or his head is stuck to a pole at the gate of the Capitol City.”  Laun heard an ascension in the growl coming from some of the people around her.

“Now-”  She took a swig of the tea.  “The priorities for work today-”

The meeting was over quickly.  People went to their jobs or to bed for the day.  Laun stayed in the Great Hall and talked to people, directing the smaller matters that came to hand.  

She pulled Orgia to the side to ask directly if she had known of the uncut stones.  Orgia said she had a suspicion over the last few years as a chest or two she had not packed would be in the carts as they left and more supplies would come in than she had ordered.  Laun accepted it at face value and hugged the chatelaine before going to the next person waiting for her attention.  The people were there to not just talk to her for household things, but to make sure that she was well, that she knew they also were well.  Some missed her the evening before and went to her just to greet and have a shoulder touch.

A few of the women came to her and started measuring her.  Laun remembered at least one of them had been in the tower room looking intently at the red dress.  Laun wanted to ask, but the secretive looks in the smiles made her just stand and accept their actions.  Laun knew that whatever they were doing was making them happy, and that was good.

It was close to mid day when Laun was able to finish dealing with the little things that were being presented to her attention.  She found a cape and went to the stables.  Ali had been there for a while after morning meeting, the leather she had been oiling bright and supple in her hands.  Grace excitedly pulled against her lead tied to the post and Laun was only distracted for a moment by her boy against a wall before mounting and riding her palfrey out.

The continuing emptying of the privy tank was a good thing to see, though Laun could see that the people who had pulled the duty that day were not pleased.  They had boards across the wheelbarrows to help them when they got to the area they were dumping that day.  A section that was criss-crossed with ditches big and small.  When you looked through the trees, you could not tell that the low underbrush was hiding pitfalls.  They were going to be much more treacherous with the crap filling them in, and help the fruiting trees the next year.  Laun liked that it was both a trap and food for the trees.

She followed the men with the wheelbarrows out until she was at the main road.  There were many people out today and she saw horses and mules and even a cow being used to haul and carry pieces of the defenses to where they were supposed to go.  Laun turned Grace towards the woods again and they went through one of the plainly marked safe trails.

Laun felt something more in the wind than just the coming winter.  She felt an expectation of what was ahead.  The First Feast of the winter would be in just over two weeks.  It would be the first that she would lead.  She hoped that she remembered the ceremony that she had seen every year, but led by someone else.  

And then there was the looming of war always over them, even though it seemed that they had been missed by the brunt of it.  The assassin was a dire warning, but it was also a good display of what they could do.

Her mind went to the Winterberries.  She loved the tart-sweet jam that was made from it every year.  It took a full week of cold and snow for the husks to open for gathering.  She was trying to find the one grove of the bushes that she thought she had spotted along the trail while they were harvesting other things from the woods.

Grace stopped and would not go any further.  She blew several times through her nose.  She tossed her head and turned slightly to be able to see something.  Her ears were flicking back and forth and Laun could feel the breathing between her legs get slightly panicked.

There were shadows under the brightly colored leaves, but Laun could not decide if it was just the wind making the foliage move in swirls or if there really was someone there.  There was not enough room to turn Grace, but as Laun dropped the lead in her hand, she used the pressures and signals to make the palfrey back up along the dirt trail.

She whistled.  She did not hear a response.  She whistled again.  She heard a snap of a twig.  Her heart jumped.  A third whistle, and she heard a faint response.

Grace stopped and would not move.  Laun only had a small knife with her in her boots, she pulled it out and palmed it, blade along her wrist.  She scanned the underbrush around her and saw a flash of...something.  The horse started to paw at the ground, stepping from front hoof to front hoof.  She felt something that Laun could not.

A man stepped out from behind a large bush.  It had been his dark blue headcloth she had seen.  He had a sword in one hand and a nasty smile on his face.

“Wrong path today, girl.”  He started forward and Grace lashed out.  Laun had to grab a handful of the horse’s mane to steady herself as the palfrey reared and kicked.  The man backed up a step, but he dived into the underbrush and came back in at Laun from the side.

His hands were on Laun’s leg and tunic, trying to pull her down.  She lashed out, bringing the pommel of the small blade down onto his cheek.

“Shit!  Fucking bitch!”  He pulled more and even with her legs hooked into the saddle and Grace trying to pull away, Laun found herself in the leaves, the wind knocked out of her.  The angry challenge sound that Laun barely remembered from the nightmares came from Grace as the horse started to try to bite and kick at the man.

He pulled Laun through the scrub and Grace could not follow, though she was trying to find a way to.  Her cape tore at her throat as the bushes caught at it, the fabric finally tearing away in the underbrush.  They stopped and he roughly threw her to the ground.  The man’s sword was out in his hand and was threateningly close to Laun’s belly as he had his hand pressing down on her chest.  Laun could feel the pain of the fall and she was having problems breathing even without the Dark man pressing into her.

“I just was going to take your horse, but now-”  He went to thrust his sword into Laun and she turned her hips, making him unstable and go sideways.  Laun felt the slice into her side, but the pain just told her that she was alive.  The pain was intense.  The pain made her see red.

He tried to restrain Laun with his one hand, but it was not working.  She had started to fight back with everything she had.  The knife had fallen out of her hand and she seemed weaponless.  Her hand found a stick, not big, but big enough that shoved into the man’s eye, he let her go.

He swore loudly and held his face with his empty hand.  He rounded on Laun who was trying to get up onto her feet.  She had made it to her knees when the sword came at her head.

She fell back into the bush behind her, the sword barely missing her face.  She saw an opportunity in the way he was wildly swinging and tried to roll forward into his legs.  It almost worked.  She had her shoulders against his armored shins and he was fighting to stay on his feet.  She kicked out and felt the cut rip as she turned and rolled away from him.  Her shoulder screamed, but Laun could not stop.

Laun was low, not on her knees, but crouched close to the ground.  Her eyes were on the man who was far too close, but not able to move well with only one working eye.  He spotted her and went towards her, sword raised.

Her floor work training kicked in.  She swept a leg out while pivoting in place, catching him behind the knees.  He fell forward and Laun rolled, almost getting out of the way.  She kicked at him, with the leg that had not been caught in his fall, feeling something crunch under her foot in the second or third kick to his back.

He screamed, some pain, some anger.  He tried to turn, but she had kicked and snapped his shoulder blade and he could not support himself on that side.  He collapsed in his effort, trapping Laun’s leg.  She continued to kick, striking as hard as she could until she had rolled him partially off of her.

She pulled back and tried to get a breath so she could whistle.  It would not come out in time as he was on his knees, the sword still in his hand and pointed at her.

He just screamed as he swung randomly at her, barely missing far too many times.  Laun tried to push herself away, kicking at him and the ground until she came to a tree at her back.  Her workout earlier was catching up with her and she felt the energy in her legs failing, the pain in her back shooting up and almost paralyzing her.  But she had to survive.

She heard the animal scream come out of her as she drew her legs to her chest and made one last kick out.  It connected to his leather-clad belly and made him fall back.  Laun tried to get up but her legs were not working, so she scrambled onto the man and started to use her forearms and elbows to hit him in the chest and face.

Laun felt his jaw break, saw the red-shot eyes roll up and he stopped moving.  She did not.  She continued to strike at him until she heard a shout.

There were protectors around her, staying out of the way.  Laun was still seeing red, but at the shout, saw that the man under her was not fighting back any longer.  She rolled off of him and lay on the ground, panting and feeling her body cry out in so many forms of pain that she just did not want to move.

Fount pushed his way through the Protectors and knelt at Laun’s head.  “Laun!  We heard the whistle, but you didn’t answer!”  His hands were on her shoulders, her arms, her chest, looking and checking for damage.

Laun knew he had to do it, but every touch hurt, not just when he found the cut and came away with her blood on his hand.  Several of the protectors helped to roll her over and they looked at the cut.  A cloth came from somewhere and was pressed to it, the pain making her cry out.  She was suddenly cold.

“He’s still alive.”  Jeso was kneeling next to the man.  Laun saw the bad angle his jaw was in, the blood, the bruising.  She could also see her first strike on his cheek, an imprint of a raven holding a sword raised in purple on his cheek.

Laun was able to gasp out, “Strip him.”  There were a few odd looks, but they started unbuckling the light armor the unconscious man had on.

Fount was focusing on trying to find any other wounds on Laun.  She tried to tell him that the cut he found was the only one, but every time he touched her, something hurt and she gasped or moaned.  She was helped up against the tree and sat there as he continued to check.

“Laun, he hurt you bad.”  Fount’s voice had an edge to it.

She shook her head.  “That is the only cut.”  She had to take in a breath to continue.  “I fell from Grace...”  She started to laugh at the notion, stopping after it hurt too much.

The one dressed in Falmir’s colors was down to a loincloth by then.  His limp body showed where she had kicked him, the odd angles of his back, the bruises on his stomach.  Laun knew that he would not be any good in giving information.  With a firm lip, she rolled to her knees next to him.

“Did anyone see my knife on the path?”  Jeso nodded and handed the bare blade to her.  She put her hand over the man’s eyes and pulled the blade across his throat.

He made a few wet sounds through the hole that was now there, the blood from his windpipe mixing with the blood from his arteries.  And then he was still.  Laun watched the blood pulse out of him a few times, mixing with the yellow and red leaves beneath him before it just thickly flowed and fell onto the ground.

Her hands had the knife.  It had the blood.  The blood covered her hands and trailed down her arms as she lifted them.  The smell was warm and metallic and slightly sour.  She fumbled slightly with her trembling hands, but put the knife back in her boot sheath.  She was trying to hold herself up, but her body hurt and her arms were weak.  A hissing was starting in her ears and she could not hear the people around her anymore.

Fount supported her and put his arms around her shoulders.  She leaned into him and the cold was worse.  She felt him hold her and she was slipping into the dark.  She started to shiver from the cold and the dark took her over.

 

Next, Chapter 55.