by R. J. Price
Merkat stood at the edge of the dance floor, held back by Laeder. Para stepped up beside the two as Aren and Av disappeared into the crowd. Frowning, Para looked around her.
The entire court was at a standstill, staring at a single spot on the dance floor. She ventured to open her senses, as her mother had taught her to do. Any could open their senses to detect things like a queen's anger, or rank in general, if only they knew what to look for.
Like reading a book.
What she sensed was a strange, flushing heat. Her heart pattered in her chest and a warmth spread throughout her body. Para shielded herself and watched, startled, as the lords and ladies turned to one another and began pairing off as if nothing had happened. Some filtered to the floor, dancing as the musicians began playing. Many shifted away, leaving the ball room entirely.
“What just happened?” Para demanded of Laeder. “Why are you holding your father back? Your intended just went off with another man!”
Laeder let his father go and turned to Para. “With all due respect, Lady Para, I wouldn't mate your daughter if she were the last woman on this world. And before,” he raised his voice over Para's, “you get angry at my insulting your daughter, you ought to know that I wouldn't sleep with any woman, even if she were the last woman on this world.”
“This is ridiculous. Where is Jer?” Para snapped. She stepped forward, almost stepped onto the dance floor and recalled Mar's words.
She had no idea what the young woman's reputation was. Telm made threats that were promises. Aren and Mar made statements others followed for fear of trying the queens, of finding out just what they were made of. Para wanted to try Mar, to challenge the woman to a fight and see who won.
She had no desire to give Er a reason to pull his blade on palace grounds.
Marching around the dance floor, Para caught sight of her mate, eyeing a young maid who was flirting with several men. She grabbed him by the ear and dragged him off.
“Our daughter just left her engagement ball, with Lord Av,” Para snapped, thrusting Cerlot away from her. “Get your head out of your ass and help me fix this before it breaks to the point of no longer fitting back together.”
She kept walking, without stopping to see if Cerlot was coming to back her. Stopping at the doors, Para found Telm and Jer. The lord glanced at Para, then finished his hushed command to Telm. Turning to Para, Jer gave her a tight-lipped smile.
“Lady Para, Lord Cerlot.” Jer looked behind Para to greet her mate. “Why don't you enjoy the ball? You did, after all, spend a great deal of time planning this festivity.”
“I am going after my daughter,” Para said to Jer, moving to walk around him.
Jer produced a blade, which he wasn't allowed to have at a ball. Palace law stated as much. Para's heart skipped a beat as Jer raised the blade and looked at it, surprise playing over his features. The warrior turned and handed it handle-first to Telm.
“Took that off Uncle Er. He claimed to be unaware of the laws,” Jer said to Telm before he turned back to Para. “Lady Para, as I said, why don't you enjoy your daughter's engagement ball?”
“The engagement has been called off,” Para snarled at Jer. “Or did you not notice her leaving with Av?”
“I am aware that Aren's arranged mating has been called off. After all, what man would be stupid enough to approach her? Especially tonight?” Jer held up a hand as Cerlot moved forward to simply leave. “Seriously, man. Besides a few issues with conflicting complaints from your mate and daughter, you've done fairly decent work with reports and debt. I'm warning you as a warrior to a commoner. Tonight is not a good night to try Av's temper.”
“What's he going to do?” Cerlot asked. “Kill me?”
Para saw the look on Jer's face and knew it to be true. She recalled a story her mother told her about the court. About the warriors all chasing the one who sat the throne, the first in a very long time without a warrior chosen to sit beside her.
The stronger the queen, the more a warrior acted like a warrior. The more they snarled, growled, and even bit people. Literally, the warriors had tumbled over one another, biting and scratching for one damned queen.
“She needs to be brought under control,” Para said. “Do you even understand what this is, what you are doing right now?”
“I am standing as warrior to the mate who sits the throne,” Jer said.
“What?” Para asked. “They aren't mated!”
“Not by palace law,” Jer responded. “By palace law this is an engagement which can break any other engagement, giving Telm her mating ceremony, which the court would vastly enjoy, but also honouring Av's blood. I'll allow my uncle to explain the process, as I'm not entirely certain about most of it. Except...”
When Jer trailed off, Telm stepped forward. “On a normal day Jer has no problem coming to blows with Av—good spirits know they did it many times while Em was on the throne—but tonight Jer isn't willing to risk life and limb. Nor is Ervam. Perhaps you should ask Lord Er, here he comes now with Merkat and the other barons in tow.”
“And there's my father,” Jer said under his breath as Ervam suddenly appeared at Para's side. “Good evening, trainer.”
“Warrior,” Ervam grumbled. He turned to the barons as they pulled to a stop. “Ladies, gentlemen, we've a court that's on the edge of their seats and our angry words will set them to riot. Let us remove ourselves to one of the sitting rooms and attempt to discuss this like the adults we are. Telm, fetch Mar and bring her to the room, along with Perlon and Laeder, if you find them on the way.
“Lady Para, if you so much as squeak before we get into the sitting room, I will make good on Mar's promise to you. Er here will help.”
“With pleasure,” Er growled out.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Mar watched Url stand behind his father. Her second cousin, by rights, yet it was difficult for her to make the links and truly see the bloodline they shared.
The other seats were occupied by Telm, Mar, and the commoners. The two queens had been given seats out of deference. The barons stood, besides Er, who sat whenever possible.
A possible weakness, Mar wondered if it had anything to do with Ervam fetching a chair just for his brother. The baron had made no comment on a possible injury and asked no special treatment even though he did seek out a seat.
Mar wondered if anyone else had even noticed that he tended to sit when the other barons stood.
Er spoke to those gathered. “The barons, until the south broke away from the palace and their line died out to be replaced by the Emmeret bloodline, can only be baron if the mated pair is a warrior and queen. Once that was all the throne would accept, the north carried on the tradition and the others followed our example.”
“The Brotherhood gathered before the north broke off,” Url said, as if he had practised the words and committed them to memory. “They backed a queen, a strong one, but were denied her by the court. Outnumbered by strong commoners, they had no choice but to submit. She mated a man from the south, who then convinced her the palace wasn't good enough.”
“So the Brotherhood came together again,” Ervam said in the same inflection as Url. “They split the land. To the north would go the palace. The throne would stay at the heart, with the east taking the trade routes to the far lands. The west would take the marshes and the remains of the stone circle. The south could flounder, but one of the Brotherhood inserted himself there, for the time when the south would finally break off.”
“What is the Brotherhood and why do we care?” Para snapped.
“What's a stone circle?” Mar asked.
“That's a tale for another day,” Van responded quietly before looking to Er.
“They were brothers,” Er said. “Five brothers. The one who stayed in the palace lands reported to the rest, but has since gone into hiding. The one to the north took the palace with him, literally. The renovators wanted to throw away the stones or break them down for smaller estates. We built Castle Gre
y out of the remains. Generations passed and the barons, far removed from the brothers and each other, called each other the Brotherhood.”
“And what does this Brotherhood do?” Telm asked.
“Bide our time, mainly,” Er said. “We also ensured that palace lands always have ranks. At no point were any of our lands to rejoin the palace if one of our women was stolen to sit the throne.”
“The other lands have always slipped in queens,” Telm said quietly. “Yet thirty years ago you sent us Mirmae. Why? Why her?”
“Ervam killed my father,” Er said. The man adjusted in his seat, hand drifting to his left leg. “By all rights what he did was honourable, but you must understand, the law is very clear and one sided. If you kill the baron, you forfeit your life unless you are of his rank. You had a need for the ranks, I had a need to rid myself of my youngest brother so his blood wouldn't soak my hands.”
Jer turned to his father. “You killed grandfather? You said he died of natural causes, that you came down here at his insistence because his new mate didn't like mother.”
“Mainly true,” Er said. “Only one fact altered, at my behest. If the palace knew Ervam had killed my father...”
Telm filled them in. “...We would be required, by treaty, to return the murderer to the north. Failure to do so would cause war, a war that would decimate the north's ranks and destroy ours entirely.”
Er nodded. “That was thirty years ago. The mate is dead. I don't care. If the information gets out, so be it. But back to my point, we send ranks to the palace lands, but we've never retrieved any who have been stolen. We've never sent one of our own before.”
“I haven't passed it onto the boys,” Ervam said. “I've been passing on knowledge from Mirmae's bloodline, the Hue's.”
“What about them?” Gamen, the eastern baron, asked. “We have no knowledge that we have kept from the Brotherhood.”
“Aren is infected,” Ervam said. “Mirmae's bloodline carried the knowledge of queen's stone. The east is the only land to actively pass on that information.”
“The information of the mines and how they work, not how the stone works,” Gamen protested.
“They don't know,” Er said quietly. “Let us not bother them with the details. We sent Mirmae here.”
“You did,” Gamen stressed. “I could have taken them in on the coast and sent a weaker line, a voluntary line, to palace lands. The north sent Mirmae to palace lands along with her man and her two sons. When she took the throne she sent letters out to the Brotherhood. Each of us received one.”
“Yes, I am not of this group,” Merkat said. “I received one of these letters. Because of it, when Para introduced me to Aren last year, I knew. But learning she's an Argnern, Mirmae was obviously mad.”
“To those who have no faith, it will seem madness,” Er said. “There is no Aren Marilton. Aren is not a name we would give a queen of the north. Only warriors have shortened names, not all the ranks, as you would know, if you bothered to look to Ervam.”
“Gamen is a long name,” Merkat snarled out. “Is he even a warrior?”
“My full name is Gamueniem,” Gamen growled at Merkat in a tone with equal annoyance. “My mother was a foreigner who blessed me with the name of a strong spirit from her lands. When it was discovered I had rank, my father and I made a concession to her. If you want an answer, try asking politely next time instead of making accusations!”
“Is he a warrior?” Mar asked, motioning to Van, who immediately went bright red. She saw it and, thanks to her months with Aren, saw the shift as magic was diverted to the cloaking. Van almost disappeared entirely to her eyes. She gave her head a shake, not wanting to press the matter in front of Para and Cerlot, who surely would call for the man's death. “Never mind, we're off topic. Besides Laeder saying the engagement is off, why is it that we are in a room whispering to one another in hushed tones?”
“According to the traditions of the north, Aren and Av are now mated,” Er said. “Palace law dictates that you can mate through the traditions of the birth land of either mate. In the north it is still tradition for a claiming to be seen as the same as mating.”
“Not without a ceremony!” Mar snapped back.
“Which is why I'm not pushing the matter, yet,” Er responded soothingly. “You may, of course, have your ceremony. They are, after all, for those in attendance, not for the couple. It's become a tradition to prevent us from killing commoners over arranged matings.”
Van grumbled. “The north actually arranges matings they don't think will take in order to drive a warrior into claiming a queen.”
“When this happens, what has just happened in the ballroom, we say the couple are engaged or plain mated, depending on the temper of the warrior. Calmer warrior, we can say they are engaged, give both the time to adjust, and allow their parents to stomp their feet and go on. With those who are not calm, or those who are... Are... What did the archivist call him?”
Er turned in his seat to look up at his son.
Startled, Url seemed to stumble over the answer. “A true warrior. With them we typically say mated, but we believe Av will submit to a ceremony in order to please the women Aren calls friends.”
“He's a what?” Telm exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “I've got to stop them. Stop them right now.”
“No you don't,” Er said.
“Yes,” Telm snapped back. “I do. She's not on any potion for contraceptives. You people breed like damned rabbits as it is! I've heard the stories about the last one. Nearly a dozen children, half-brothers ruling the lands, ranks only belonging to the one bloodline for three generations. She's barely eighteen, Er.
“Please, if they were having sex, we'd know it with how frustrated Av's been,” Er said back.
“Then nothing's been ruined, we can still salvage this engagement,” Para said.
“Why?” Laeder asked. “Because if one of the engaged sleeps with another person, the engagement is off?”
“It would be argument for dismissal,” Url said. “If you can't stay faithful for the engagement period, how are you going to do it for the mating period? You would be able to dismiss the engagement no matter how far the court demands it be taken.”
“Fair enough,” Laeder said with a nod. “Before anyone else protests…” the man dragged in a loud breath and sighed it out as he spoke, “…I slept with Jer.”
“The lord she was engaged to?” Ervam asked Jer. “You must have known the engagement wouldn't survive long, why couldn't you wait? Is that why you brought him to me so early in the morning?”
“We went out for a good sociable time,” Jer said in response. “Honest to goodness, that's all. Then one thing led to another and, having had nothing to drink whatsoever, somehow we ended up in bed. I'm sorry I'm a disappointment.”
“It's not disappointing,” Ervam responded. “It's surprising. Of the two of you, I figured you'd be the one to keep it in your pants longer than Av.”
Mar watched as Ervam grumbled, digging out a coin to toss to Er. The coin flew across the room and was caught neatly from the air.
“You did not bet on who would sleep with who first,” Jer said.
“We did,” Er responded, turning the coin over the back of his fingers. “He also thought it'd take you a year to come out of your anger. I figured you grieved a long time ago and were only waiting for the body to die along with the relationship.”
“But how did you know I'd sleep with Laeder?” Jer asked.
Er turned to Laeder, looked him over, and then turned back to Jer. “That is one fine-looking scribe. Also has magic. Focusing his research on the lady's fair rank. Who was overheard telling Aren he had no interest in her. What sort of magic scribe says he wants nothing to do with the woman who is of the rank he's decided to study?”
“Which makes him a perfect companion for Aren,” Para stated sternly, standing. “I will never recognize a Marilton, not as the one who sits the throne, not as the one who is mate to the throne, and
certainly not as mate to my daughter.”
“That's fine, it's your choice,” Ervam said, pushing off the wall he had been leaning on. “But you are one to be talking about my bloodline and my history, lady, when yours involves burning a young girl at the stake whose only crime was trying to educate your daughter on her rank and responsibilities!”
“She was a witch, she was trying to steal my daughter from me,” Para shouted back. “I did not save her then, only to have her stolen by a northern bastard.”
“Av is not a bastard,” Ervam responded.
“Then why do both your children have different names?” Para demanded. “The man comes first in the north, that's why you think my daughter will become a Marilton, why your woman is referred to as your woman, and not as your mate.”
“This is not the time!” Jer roared, causing the room to go still. “Now if I catch your meanings, this is a mating that you older generation folk have arranged. And not told the warrior,” he motioned to himself, then to Mar, “or the queen, who stands at the couple's side. The couple I can understand, Father used to tell us stories about how this couple had an arranged mating with other people and ended up together and everyone was surprised even though it kept happening.”
“You talk too much,” Ervam said.
“And why not me?” she asked.
“In many ways you are your father's daughter,” Ervam said. “Also, you're mated to their good friend, who talks too much. The court mainly accepts it as true. When it comes right to it, they don't really care who Aren mates. Especially when they don't expect her to live long, just like all the queens of the past.”
“Only those in this room question it,” she said calmly. “Well then, let me be very clear. Aren has made her choice and if you try to stop it, I will test the limits of what a rank is allowed to do. We'll see just how far I can take this before Av or Aren steps up and asks me to stop.”
“That's not the only reason I agreed to this discussion,” Er said quietly. “The barons are here, the two who stand by the couple are. I'd like to talk about this while it is fresh in our minds and while everyone is present. Surely most will be leaving by morning.”