by Mind Guest
Bellna experienced coursing through my body. Fallan's threat had
panicked her, but I knew better. If he had been going to do anything it
would have been in the heat of anger, not after he'd had a chance to
cool down. Bellna the princess was safe from Fallan the mercenary.
He growled again at my very innocent lack of understanding, but this
time wordlessly as he began to guide me away from the table by the arm
he held. If Clero's men took long enough finding me, I'd have Fallanbaiting
down to an exact science. It was obvious the man could threaten
me as much as he liked, but rousting me around by one arm was as much
as he could do. The game should keep me from getting bored again, and
should also go some distance toward diverting Bellna from the way she
was reacting to Fallan. The presence in my head was sending ripples of
excitement through me, more strongly than she had done earlier, a
little-girl-crush reaction to Fallan's being so close. I raised the
bottom of my dress with my left hand and tried to ignore those
feelings; would have ignored them even if they were my own. The only
thing infatuation can do for you on an assignment is end your life
rather abruptly.
It wasn't long before the four girls and I were in the coach, the men
were mounted, and we were on our way again. I kept my eyes open and my
mind intent on the scenery we passed, but a couple of hours went by and
no one jumped out of the shrubbery or fields to attack us. It seemed
strange that Clero's men weren't all over us yet, but they might have
had some delay we hadn't counted on. I was trying to calculate latest
time for them to reach me, when the coach began slowing down. There
wasn't much around, just the road through a forested area, with no inn
or other building in sight. . Being the suspicious sort, I immediately
began to wonder, but we left the road and came to a full stop and no
one came by to mention what was going on. Fallan's men dismounted and
began messing with something ahead of the coach, where I couldn't see
it. I craned around half out of the window for a minute or two, got
absolutely nowhere, then noticed that Fallan was on his way over to me.
He had dismounted along with his men, and when he reached the coach he
pulled open the door next to me.
"The next point on our itinerary has been reached, Princess," he said,
grinning faintly as he held his hand out. "You must now leave the coach for a few moments."
"Must I, indeed?" I murmured, making no effort to take the offered
hand. "And for what reason would I do such an otherwise unnecessary
thing?"
"For the reason that you are told to do so," he answered, all
friendliness gone as he reached in and took my arm. "We may not halt
here long, else it shall be noticed. We shall make haste, and then we
shall once again be on our way."
Being pulled out of a coach is not the same as being pushed into one;
if Fallan hadn't taken me around the waist as soon as I was in reach
and lifted me out to set me on the ground, I probably would have
tripped over those idiotically long skirts. Bellna was confused and
frightened and flustered and outraged all at once, a reaction I found
dizzy-making on top of my own reactions. I don't like being dragged
around and told what to do without explanation or reason, and if it
happens I tend to grow short4empered. If I hadn't been on assignment,
Fallan would have had a serious problem; since I was on assignment,
there was almost nothing I could do to show my annoyance. As soon as he
let go of me I fought those stupid skirts out of the way, then kicked
him hard right in the shins.
"How dare you treat me in so cavalier a manner!" I hissed, showing the
fury Bellna would have shown if it had been anyone other than Fallan
manhandling her. "When my father hears of this, your company will be
disbanded and you yourself ended horribly! Men will shudder at your
fate, and women will grow faint! You will be. . ."
"Silence!" Fallan roared, interrupting me just as I was really getting
rolling. He'd flinched faintly when I'd kicked him, but aside from that
he showed no reaction to my girlish attack at all. What was getting him
angry was all the threatening I was doing, which, spite and all, was
pure Bellna.
"I will not be silent!" I huffed, ready to climb back on the high horse
he'd shouted me off of, but Fallan wasn't about to give me the chance
to remount.
"You will be silent," he growled, looking down at me as he rested his
left hand on his sword hilt. "You will also obey me, for I mean to see
you safely to your destination in the most effective manner. We now go
to the tent which has been erected to protect your sensibilities.
Should you attempt to disobey me, your sensibilities will be sorely
bruised. Leave that coach, you wenches, and follow us quickly."
He took my arm then, and began leading me toward the vair at the front
of the coach at a pace faster than I could manage without half running.
At that point I could see the medium-sized green tent that had been put
up among the trees, a tent that blended into the greens and browns all
around us. Fallan's men were all very busy away from the tent they'd
put up, but it wasn't hard to tell they were watching closely to see
what would happen. I was more than curious myself about what was going
on, but sputtering indignantly was what the role called for right then,
and I was stuck with it. I squeaked in outrage as I was hustled firmly
toward that green tent, and couldn't even enjoy the faint breeze that
tickled its way through the trees.
It would have been dark inside the tent without the small lamp that
hung on the far wall. Fallan pulled me inside and released me with a
small push, then turned to watch the four peasant girls hurry in behind
him. Bellna was storming back and forth inside my head, half furiously
injured dignity, half flashes of romantic fantasizing; one minute she
wanted to see Fallan executed by her father's soldiers, the next she
wanted Fallan to throw the peasant girls out, tear her clothes off, and make violent love to her. I shook my head hard, trying to push away the
ringing in my ears and the faint flashes of golden haze in front of my
eyes, but didn't get anywhere until I turned to see Fallan right behind
me. He'd pulled closed the tent flap behind the last of the girls, and
all five of them were staring at me. Bellna froze in mid-tantrum,
suddenly convinced that something horribly final was about to happen,
causing me to take an involuntary step back from the big mercenary.
"You need have no fear, Princess," Fallan said at once, his deep voice
unusually gentle and reassuring. He stayed right where he was, his
thumbs hooked into his swordbelt, his eyes on me with more concern than
I would have expected.
"A princess feels no fear," I answered, the quaver in my voice all
Bellna's doing. "Murder me if you will, yet know that my father shall
avenge me. And I shall die as a princess should, with head held high."
I flinched inwardly as I raised my
chin to match the words forced on me
by the Bellna presence, but I wasn't the only one to consider my speech
of bravery more ridiculous than dramatic. The four peasant girls
snickered among themselves and Fallan closed his eyes with a deep sigh,
both reactions startling Bellna enough to let me grab a corner of
control again. Bellna's fear and my own suspicions had let the presence
in my mind take the reins for a while, but no more than a short
struggle got them back for me. I thought about wiping my damp forehead
on the back of my sleeve, then rejected the idea. It wasn't something
Bellna would do, and it was too close in the tent for anyone to wonder
why I might be sweating.
"There is to be no murder, girl," Fallan said with thick patience,
speaking slowly and clearly. "I have brought you within this tent so
that you might give up your clothing with the privacy due your
station."
"Give up my clothing?" I echoed as I stared at him, every bit as
confused and dumbfounded as my mind-guest. "For what reason am I to
give up my clothing?"
"For the reason of your safety," Fallan answered, still heavy-voiced
with patience. "The enemies of your father must be expected to know
that you travel now to your nuptials, and must also be expected to
attempt some manner of interference. Should they descend upon us, there
will be no easy victim for their blade, shall we say, no proper victim.
The princess will not stand in her own shadow."
He ignored the way I was staring at him, totally speechless, and turned
to gesture at the redhead. She left the others and approached him, and
they both met my stare.
"This wench has been sold by her father into slavery," Fallan
explained, putting one big hand on the shoulder of the girl who now
stood in front of him. "The Lord Grigon purchased her before she might
be given over to the training of a slave, and she has been given this
vow: should she comport herself in so adequate a manner that the
enemies of the Prince believe her to be you, and should she survive
whatever attempts are made against her, she will be given her freedom
once more, and adequate gold to assure her retention of that freedom.
You must now take her clothing as she takes yours, and quickly, so that
the journey might continue. I will, of course, await you without the
tent."
So that was why the girl had hovered around me in the inn! To learn the
way a princess behaved in public! I was still staring at Fallan in
disbelief as I tried to figure out where Grigon fit into all of that,
but the big mercenary began turning away before even the faintest hint
came through. I still didn't understand what they were all up to, but one point I was crystal clear on:
Fallan was trying to replace a decoy with a decoy!
"Hold, Captain!" I said, stopping him before he could head for the tent
flap, not about to stand still for that nonsense. "My clothing will
remain in its proper place with me!"
Fallan turned back to me impatiently, but this time the jump was mine.
"Do you think me craven enough to set another to die in my place?" I
demanded, making no effort to keep the outrage from my voice. "My
father is a Prince who will never hide fearfully from his enemies; his
daughter may do no less."
There was no way I was going to let that little girl be set up for the
slaughter, no matter how eager they'd made her to give it a shot. Her
eyes were wide and pleasing as she looked at me, begging me to let her
take her chances, but she didn't know what she was asking. Even I had
no guarantees about surviving, and if she had even half the training I
did, I'd eat that tent. Without salt.
"Do you think my company so incompetent that her death is sure to be?"
Fallan demanded in turn, but gently. "Attackers, should they come, will
find no easy access to her, for that you have my word. It is our
Intention that she shall survives shall you. Remove the clothing."
"Never," I answered in as final a way as possible, meeting his eyes to
let him know I meant it. Under other circumstances the idea of hanging
on doggedly to clothes I would have loved to be rid of would have been
funny; under those circumstances, funny didn't enter into it.
"Then there is nothing for it save that I do the thing for you," Fallan
said, with the same finality. "Should this be other than that which you
wish, your own efforts must be made upon the moment."
Slowly he began to close the four or five steps between us, the calm
expression in his eyes saying he sympathized with my stand but had no
intentions of letting me keep to it. I felt a flash of burning hot
resentment behind my eyes, the sort that comes from someone who isn't
used to not getting her own way, and quickly wiped away the annoyance I
was feeling. If my reactions merged with Bellna's I would be the loser,
and if I was stupid enough to forget that, I deserved whatever got. I
didn't like having Fallan telling me what to do, but there was more
freedom of option in that situation than in having Bellna take over.
Fallan was two steps closer and just beginning to reach a hand out when
the grip of my control over myself stopped slipping enough for me to
raise the bottom of my skirts and try to make a break for it.
Fallan stood between me and the tent flap, but there was enough room in
the dim tent for a lot of dodging and fancy footwork. I ran three full
steps to the left then dodged right, avoiding Fallan's grab by a wish
and the rustle of skirts. The mercenary cursed in a low voice at the
miss, but I was already past him and on the way to the tent flap. The
four peasant girls looked and gasped and drew back from the chase but,
unfortunately for me, in the wrong direction. They clumped up in front
of the flap I needed to get out of the tent, and Fallan was too close
behind me to let me take the time I needed to plow through the girls. I
moved to my left again and darted away, and again Fallan cursed when
his hand closed on empty air. He was faster than a man his size had the
right to be, and Bellna was silent and shocked inside my head. She'd
expected to be able to get away from him easily, and now that she-Ihadn't,
she was starting to get worried.
I led Fallan around the tent, avoiding half of his grabs by sheer luck,
trying to work my way back toward the tent flap, but this time from the
right. From that direction, along the front wall, the four girls ought
to scatter to the left, away from the flap, giving me clear running room. Fallan tried cornering me against the side wall we were near,
watched carefully as I bobbed back and forth in front of him, saw the
feint I made to my right, then lunged to my left, where he thought I
was going. To his disgust I continued on to my right, turning the feint
into real motion, and blasted at top speed right toward the flap. I was
so covered with sweat that it rolled down my forehead to burn my eyes,
but I couldn't let that stop me. Once I was outside I would lose Fallan
and his friends fast, backtrack to the inn we'd stopped at, then burst
&nb
sp; hysterically in, telling everyone that my escort had tried to
assassinate me. That would keep Fallan away if he managed to follow,
and also spread the word with the departing. travelers as to where the
Princess Bellna could be found. If Clero's men didn't show up after
that, I would throw in the towel.
The four girls squeaked again, and began scattering like a flock of
ducks in hunting season. I took a chance and swiped at my eyes with the
back of my sleeve, trying to clear my vision, and because of that
didn't see the slim leg stretched out directly in my path. I did notice
it, though, as soon as I tripped over it, tried to recover, and didn't
quite make it. The grassy ground the tent had been pitched over came up
to knock the wind out of me, but as soon as I could I started to roll,
silly enough to think I still had a chance. I'd forgotten about those
stupid skirts again, and Fallan was on me before I could fight them out
of my way.
"No, no, you will not again take to your heels," Fallan panted as I
struggled to avoid his reaching hands and scramble to my feet. "Timely
assistance has brought you down, and I will see that you remain so."
As his hands closed on my wrists I felt Bellna's panic, and an instant
later my own panic joined hers. She was flowing toward my store of
unarmed aggressive techniques, determined to use them on Fallan the way
I'd used one of them on Valdon! If that didn't send every-thing sky
high nothing would, and instead of having just Fallan to struggle with,
I found myself in a double fight. Fallan forced my arms away from
between us and pinned my body with his, drawing a scream of rage from
Bellna and an increase in her struggles. I say her struggles because
I'd lost that much control, finding myself dragged along as most of my
power of denial covered the one file of information I couldn't afford
to let Bellna have. My body writhed and twisted on the ground, my feet
kicking the way my mind kicked, and then the Lord of Luck came to my
rescue again. Bellna's struggles had brought Fallan's arm close to my
face, and by timing the effort I was able to make my teeth close on
that arm. Fallan bellowed and pulled away as Bellna froze again in
fear, and then I was all alone and hack in control-just in time for
Fallan's open-handed slap. My ears rang from that slap and my cheek