by Mind Guest
considered that the only decent way to appear in public, but I couldn't
help wishing there was some way to be indecent yet stay in character.
The blazing fire was making me sweat, and outdoors would hardly be
better. The nights grew cool around there, but the days were pleasantly
warm.
After my hair had been combed to Bellna's satisfaction, I led the way
out of the room. It was useful being able to leave some of the small
details to the Bellna presence, but I had to be careful not to do it
too often. Something like that could get to be a habit, and habits like
that I didn't need. The girls followed after me down the stairs, trying
not to step on my skirts in their hurry, even more upset that I was
still taking my time. At the bottom of the stairs the redhead, who was
carrying my cape, squeezed past me and got to the door to the outer
room first, then held it open. I knew she was telling the men I'd
finally gotten there, and when I reached the doorway I found two sets
of eyes on me.
Grigon stood in the same conservative dark trousers and white shirt he
had worn the day before, stood shouldered and narrow-faced, his faint
air of disapproval covered by the small bow he performed. As far as
being the center of attention, though, he could have been jumping up
and down and waving his arms and he still wouldn't have made it. The
second man dominated the room completely, despite the fact that he was
doing nothing but standing there. He was taller and broader than
Grigon, brown-haired and brown-eyed, square-faced and almost handsome
in his ugliness. His pants and knee-length boots were black, but his
shirt was a bright, blazing red, telling everyone who looked at him
that he was a mercenary. The long neck-scarf he wore was a light blue,
showing that he was employed by Prince Havro, whose main color was
light blue. My information told me his neck scarf was black when he was
unemployed, and also that the length of it ~ claimed him captain of his
group. His left hand rested on the hilt of a plain, workmanlike sword, which was sheathed in a well-worn brown leather scabbard belted around
his waist; his eyes, piercingly direct and without any trace of
backwardness, rested only on me. Bellna unfluttered in my mind at the
impact of those eyes, impressed despite herself, sharing the sense of
excitement that crackled among the four girls behind me like static
electricity. Fallan was the sort of man whose attention most females
tried to attract; it seemed only fair to let him know where he stood
with me.
"I hope, Lieutenant, that you and your men are prepared to depart," I
told his stare as I moved briskly into the center of the room. "The
journey before us is lengthy, and there is little sense in standing
about here."
"In standing about here," he echoed in a deep voice, watching without
expression as I approached him. "You are concerned as to whether or not
we are prepared to depart?"
"My Princess, allow me to present the leader of your escort," Grigon
hastily interposed as Fallan began drawing himself up to the explosion
point. "This is Captain Fallan, leader of twenty, engaged by your
father the Prince to protect you from his enemies at all costs. Where
your safety is concerned, the Captain has been authorized to speak with
your father's voice. I feel quite sure, Captain, that my Princess will
afford you full cooperation."
"I will be pleased to give the - captain, did you say, Grigon? - the
Captain's planned itinerary my personal attention," I answered as I
adjusted the sleeves and skirt of my dress, not looking directly at
either of the men. "It will undoubtedly be acceptable with only the
most minor corrections."
Grigon looked as if he wanted to close his eyes in pain, and the four
girls behind me gasped in shock; Fallan, surprisingly, showed amusement
rather than anger
"My - itinerary - has already received the approval of your father,
Princess," he said with the smallest bow it's possible for the human
body to perform. "It is therefore unnecessary for you to concern
yourself with the matter, save in compliance. As sufficient time has
already been wasted in awaiting your appearance, you may now take
yourself to the coach which stands without. My men and I seek to
complete our commission before we have attained too great an age to
attempt others after it."
"How dare you!" I gasped, using only a small part of Bellna's shocked
indignation at the way he'd spoken to me. "Perhaps it has escaped your
notice that you address someone other than a peasant, Captain! I assure
you my father will hear of your impertinence!"
"Your father has already heard of my impertinence," Fallan grinned,
moving a step closer to me. "It is undoubtedly the reason I was given
this commission. You may inform his Highness that all proceeds apace,
Lord Grigon."
"It will be my pleasure to do so, Captain," Grigon agreed with the
ghost of a smile on his narrow face. "Now, if I may have a moment alone
with the Princess before your departure.
"You may not," Fallan said, finality in his voice as his big hand
wrapped around my arm. "The Princess has expended more moments than her
share; yours must unfortunately replace one of them. This moment is the
one we depart."
Grigon's mouth opened in protest, his faint amusement gone, but he
wasn't given a chance to get any words out. Fallan was already hustling
me toward the door, his pace and effort easy enough to pretend to be
assistance, his grip solid enough to really give me no choice. Bellna was having a screaming fit in my head, furious over the way Fallan was
treating me, but I glanced back at Grigon feeling disturbed. My fellow
agent had clearly wanted to tell me something, and was just as clearly
not going to get the chance. I sputtered indignantly at Fallan just to
stay in character, but inwardly I was cursing at him in a way that
probably would have shocked him if I'd done it aloud. Missing inside
information was hazardous to the health in my line of work, and I was
missing it because of Fallan.
Apparently the information Grigon had wasn't important enough to cause
him to make a fuss over Fallan's decision. I heard him trailing along
behind with the four girls as I was taken through the door into the
early dawn. At the foot of the porch steps was a large, ornate
carriage, light blue trimmed with gold, Prince Havro's sigil on the
door facing us, six brown vair harnessed to the front of it. Vair were
tall, doe-eyed draft animals, four-legged and soft-coated, maned and
tailed and usually even-tempered. Fallan's twenty were also mounted on
vair, though not at the time we left the lodge. Right then they were
standing around looking bored, but when they saw us they immediately
perked up.
"Your four wenches must accompany you in the coach," Fallan told me as
I hastily lifted my skirts to keep from tripping down the steps. "I
lack sufficient vair to mount them among my men, and would not wish the
distracti
on even had I the vair. They will ride with you."
"They are not mine, therefore may they be left behind!" I snapped,
annoyed at the way he was treating me, but even more frustrated by his
suggestion. When Clero's men caught up with that coach, I wanted to be
the only one in it. If attackers become confused about who the target
is, they tend to wipe out everyone in sight just to be on the safe
side.
"They will not be left behind," he answered, more interested in
reaching for the handle of the coach door than in arguing with me. "It
is necessary that they accompany you, and they shall do so. Allow me to
assist you into the coach."
His hand on my arm forced me up the narrow steps and into the coach,
letting me go only when I made the obvious choice between standing up
all bent over and sitting down on the right-hand seat. The seething
Bellna was doing bubbled through my mind and body, involving me more
than a little. Fallan was making an occasional, casual attempt to treat
me with the respect a princess was supposed to be given, but only if
the attempt didn't put him out any. I pulled angrily at my skirt to
straighten it under me, fighting off the urge to tell Fallan exactly
what I thought of him-in terms guaranteed to make him come after me. A
boot in the face would teach him to watch his mouth when he spoke to
me, not to mention how personally pleasant I would find-I shook my head
hard, making sure that line of thought was cut off cold. Bellna's
frothing was beginning to affect my annoyance, and I couldn't let that
happen. I needed Fallen to help me spring Clero's trap, and even if I
didn't, beating up on him would be somewhat out of character. I could
sit there and scowl at the back of his head, but that was all I had
better do.
At Fallan's gesture the four girls hurried to the coach, then climbed
inside wearing harried expressions. They weren't about to disobey
Fallan and not enter the coach, but my very obvious displeasure was
making them uneasy. The first three to scramble inside made sure to
take the opposite seat, as far from me as possible, but that left the
fourth one, the redhead, out in the cold or at least out of a seat.
There just wasn't any more room on the other side, and I was sitting in the middle of my seat. Another man had come up to join Fallan at the
coach door, this one wearing a light blue neck scarf of his
lieutenant's length, and when the redhead hesitated, half in and half
out of the coach, he decided to take advantage of the situation.
"Should there be no room for this one, Captain, I will gladly take her
with me," he said with a grin, then slid his hand up under her cheap
print skirt. "Her presence will pass the time quite pleasantly."
The girl gasped and reddened when the mercenary's hand reached its
target, but she still had nowhere to go. Her left arm clutched my cape
to her body as both mercenaries laughed, and then her widened eyes
closed in misery. She couldn't climb in and she couldn't climb out, and
Bellna was smugly pleased to see her like that. What happened to
peasants was of no concern to a princess, the two men were enjoying the
girl's discomfort, and even the other three peasant girls were
snickering to themselves. No one felt the least amount of pity for the
victim caught in the middle, but I've never been bright about things
like that. I reached out and took the girl's right arm, hauled her past
me to the seat to my right, then turned my head toward Fallan.
"I had thought grown men would be more difficult to divert from their
duty," I observed in Bellna's sleekest, nastiest tone. "Apparently, my
father's enemies will need do no more than dangle some pleasant wench
before you, and you will be theirs. I now see the necessity for the
presence of these peasants: to allow you to retain memory of your
commission."
The second man was as pretty-handsome as Fallan was ugly, and he hadn't
liked the way I'd taken his toy away. My speech turned his frown into a
scowl, but before he could vocalize his displeasure, Fallan's big hand
was on his shoulder.
"It is long past time to depart, Ralnor," Fallan said in a strangely
even tone, his eyes unmoving from my face.
"Have the men mount up." he waited for Ralnor to move away with a curt
nod, then closed the coach door with a slam. "As for you, Missy," he
continued in a lower tone, looking up at me through the window,
"Princess or no, injured sensibilities or no, you had best learn to
curb your tongue. Should I find it necessary to remonstrate with you
for impertinence as your father has given me leave to do, you will find
the occasion less than pleasant."
With that he turned and walked behind the coach, undoubtedly to get his
vair, leaving me to cope with the painful resonance of Bellna's shock.
My uninvited guest was finding it impossible to believe that her father
would have given Fallan permission to keep her in line, and was
scandalized at the mere suggestion that he had. For my own part I was
fairly certain Fallan was exaggerating if not lying outright, a
possibility supported by the uncertain look on Grigon's face. The
Absari agent was still standing on the lodge porch, watching the
goings-on but not joining them; when he saw me looking at him his
expression turned determined and he started down the steps, but he was
too late. Fallan shouted an order, another voice echoed it, and the
coach lurched briskly away from the lodge.
"I cannot fathom the reason you have placed yourself in jeopardy for
me," a faint voice said from my right. "You are a Princess and I am no
one."
I turned my head to see the red-haired girl, backed as far away from me
on the seat as she could get, still clutching my cape, vast confusion
in her big blue eyes. At the same time I became aware of the fact that
the other three girls were also staring at me, all of them practically
shouting that I'd stepped out of character. They weren't far wrong, but I didn't want them to go on believing it.
"I, placed in jeopardy?" I asked with brows raised high, pulling my
skirt away from the redhead as though she might contaminate it. "You
speak foolishly, girl, for you know not what you say. Think you that
lout toyed with you? As you say, you are less than nothing and I am a
princess. To put hands upon the servant of a princess is to offer
insult to the princess herself, and that I shall not allow. That fool
of a captain is now aware of it."
"And yet he promised you punishment," the girl whispered, still hugging
my cape. "You cannot know what punishment is at the hands of one such
as he."
"Nor shall I know," I smirked, waving the point away with one hand. "He
attempts to frighten me with child's tales which I shall not, of
course, believe. Have no fear, girl. You stand beneath my protection."
I turned my attention to the forest we rode through, pretending I
didn't see the looks exchanged among the three girls opposite me. They
were now probably considering me no more than a pompous brat, which was
jus
t the way I wanted it. When the attack came, their first thought
would be to put as much distance between me and them as possible -
which just might keep them alive.
It didn't take long before our party reached a wide road through the
woods, and shortly thereafter the real boredom began. Although the day
was beginning to be pretty, there's just so much you can get out of
forests and fields and more forests. My mercenary escort rode all
around the coach, their neck scarves streaming out behind them, their
eyes constantly in motion in all directions. The four girls in the
coach untied their shawls from around their waists and retied them
around their shoulders against the early morning chill, then began
discussing in low tones the various mercenaries they could see from the
coach, possibly to take their minds off how cold they still were. In
all the layers of clothes I'd been stuffed into, cold was the least of
my worries; once the sun came up for real, I'd be sweating like a metal
bucket filled with ice. I moved in discomfort, silently cursing the way
my layered underwear made it feel as if I were sitting on something
lumpy. Only chains could have tied me tighter than those clothes, and I
didn't like the feeling. I stared out of the window on my left
morosely, trying to block out the giggling of the peasant girls, and
suddenly a beautiful red bird flashed out of the trees, pacing us with
lazy wing-beats for a moment before turning away back to the forest. I
watched the bird until it disappeared, delighting in its beauty and
freedom, not realizing that I was being watched just as closely until I
noticed Fallan. The mercenary captain rode his vair not five feet from
the coach, and when he saw my eyes on him he urged his mount closer.
"I had not known you had a smile of such beauty, Princess," he said,
looking at me in a way that made Bellna shiver in my mind. "A pity it
is so often displaced by a pout."
He grinned then and sent his vair on ahead and out of sight, leaving
behind a deep silence in the coach. All four of the girls were staring
at me wide-eyed, their faces reflecting the thrilled excitement Bellna
was sending racing through my bloodstream. Fallan had actually shown a
faint interest in me, and Bellna was almost ready to consider it a
promise of undying love. All of the girls, Bellna included, were