Blackmark (The Kingsmen Chronicles #1): An Epic Fantasy Adventure Sword and Highland Magic

by Jean Lowe Carlson

  * * *

  Conversation had turned to argument, had turned back into conversation, had yielded to a break for food, which had morphed back into argument. Tempers were frayed, everyone was worn from a long night. Ghrenna was able to pace about the grotto-room now, stretching out her tight limbs, while Luc lounged on her bed, his dusty boots carelessly up on her blankets.

  “What would we tell the Consortium?” On his back, Luc stared up at Ghrenna’s frayed canopy, hands laced behind his head.

  “Fuck the Fhouria Thieves’ Consortium.” Gherris growled, slouching against the bedpost. “We’re paid up. They get more from us in one night then they do from the other guilds in a month. I say we go to Lintesh to find this Olea woman and find out about the Kingsmen. And we can do some thieving while we’re there.”

  “If it means adventure, I’m in.” Shara quipped reasonably, picking through some cheese on the bureau. “Besides, thieving comes easy in any city. As long as we stay together.”

  Luc eyed her, and Ghrenna thought she saw a glimmer of anger there. “Lintesh is not just any city. You wanna tangle with Palace Guard? Be my guest. Only the best thieves work Lintesh, and their Consortium is a tight-knit bitchfest.”

  Ghrenna paused to lean on one stout canopy post, her strength flagging after the pain and useless talk. “You grew up in Lintesh, didn’t you, Luc?”

  He nodded, still staring at the frayed lace. “I left when I was twelve. I’m not going back.”

  Shara sighed with irritation. “We go together or we don’t go at all. Split up, we’re useless to work the jobs we work. Luc can’t climb for shit, I can’t hardly lockpick, Ghrenna can’t work a party, and Gherris has no restraint. Unanimous vote, or we don’t go.”

  Gherris threw a small knife to the stone without a moment’s hesitation. “I’m in.”

  Shara paused, then threw her knife in also. “I’m in, too. The gentry are beginning to recognize me too easily here in Fhouria. They’re suspicious. I gotta move on.”

  Ghrenna took a long draw on her pipe as her head lanced. Going to Lintesh would mean facing Olea, but this vision had been too important. If there was one person who was in a position to consider such an important vision, or to provide a current context for the political machinations of the Crown, it would be the Captain-General of the Guard. But going to face Olea would mean diving back in, deep into memories long made still within Ghrenna’s heart.

  Ghrenna drew her knife, flipped it, put it away. “I have to think on it. Give me the night.”

  “Luc?” Gherris was all tension.

  Luc hadn’t moved on the bed, hands still laced behind his head. “Nope. I told you, I’m not going back to Lintesh.”

  “Fucking ghennie!” Gherris snarled. “Throw your knife in, or so help me, I’ll gut you!”

  “Nope. And your threats aren’t helping me change my mind.”

  “Come on, Luc,” Shara wheedled. “We’re getting played out in Fhouria. You know it as well as I do.”

  “Nope.”

  Ghrenna sighed, exhausted, her mind constantly drifting to Elohl. Threllis helped her focus, but sometimes that focus turned to obsessiveness. And Elohl was not what she needed to be obsessing over right now. She took a long pull of her pipe. “Let’s discuss it again tomorrow. We all need sleep.”

  “Fuck that.” Gherris’ eyes were wrathful ink. “I’m going out.”

  “Going to go kill somebody to feel better?” Luc was still staring up at the canopy.

  The tension between the two men snapped like a bowstring. Gherris was a flash of motion as he surged from the bedpost, but Luc was faster. His knifepoint pricked the hollow of Gherris’ throat mid-lunge, before the younger man could raise his own. Livid with rage, Gherris was frozen, not even a hair of his short-cropped black curls moving, breathing hard and trapped. Luc had only risen halfway from his reclining leisure.

  “Back off, boy,” Luc growled, all trace of humor gone. Ghrenna was reminded suddenly of the killer that lived beneath Luc’s merriment. She had seen it before, and each time it was like Luc had ripped a mask from his face, to reveal a demon beneath. He was a man who rarely angered, but Gherris had just pushed his limit. Gherris lowered his knife, turning it slowly and sliding it back into his harness.

  Ghrenna stretched out a hand, placing it on Luc’s knife, slowly pushing it away from Gherris’ throat. “Let’s just get some sleep.”

  “Fuck that.” Gherris snarled, using the moment to pull away, hulking off towards the entrance to Ghrenna’s section of the grotto. She watched him go as Luc slid his knife away. Shara turned towards Ghrenna with a wry smile.

  “Better to let him go work it out. Do you need anything, Ghren? Should I sleep in here with you tonight?”

  Ghrenna shook her head. Her headache had dulled some, and the searing after-flashes of her vision were fading. “No. I’ll be fine. Go get some sleep in your own chamber. We can talk more in the morning.”

  Shara gave an understanding smile. “There’s cheese and fruit over here on the bureau, if you need something.”

  “Thanks.” A warm fondness for her guildmate’s thoughtfulness made Ghrenna smile. Shara always mothered, but sometimes it was welcome. Shara nodded, and with a pointed glance at Luc, something between a warning and reproach, finally turned and slipped silently from the cavern. Turning, Ghrenna found that Luc had settled to the bed, his boots back up on her covers.

  “Are you going to be my keeper tonight?” Ghrenna murmured around her pipe, trying to tease.

  He glanced over. Luc tried to grin, but it was tight, worried. “Your bed is a haven of comfort, milady. There is no place I would rather be.”

  “You can go back to your chamber, Luc. Really. I’ll be fine.”

  “Not with a problem like you have. Nope. Sometimes people who have seizures stop breathing when they sleep, after an episode. So I’m sleeping here tonight.”

  Ghrenna blinked. “How do you know so much about seizures?”

  He gave a wry smile. “No reason.”

  “What are you hiding? Were you apprenticed to a physician, once?”

  “Trying to pick into my past isn’t getting you sleep, Ghren.” Luc patted the coverlet next to him.

  He was right. It was a query for another time. Already, Ghrenna’s limbs felt like lead, and her headache had rolled back enough that sleep was possible. Ghrenna picked through the cheese and fruits upon her bureau, having a few bites before she moved towards the bed, knowing hunger would make the headache blossom again. At last, she shucked her gear and leathers, everything down to her silk undergarments and crawled under, exhausted. Luc reached down to unbuckle his boots, then kick them off the bed finally. Ghrenna scooted backwards and Luc reached out, pulling her close, his front spooning her back. They didn’t often sleep together like this, for comfort, but every now and again Luc had nights he wanted her company not for sex, just for closeness. But this time, it was Ghrenna who was grateful. Pushing away stubborn images of Elohl that tried to surface, Ghrenna burrowed into her pillows, breathing in the warm scent of Luc’s sandalwood musk.

  Taking it from her lips, Ghrenna set her pipe upon the bedstand, leaving it lit so she could breathe the last of the smoke as she fell asleep. She was nearly there, just drifting off to dreams, when Luc shifted with a sigh. He sat up. Ghrenna heard the clatter of his leather harness hit the grotto floor. Then his leather doublet followed, then she felt him shuck his shirt. He flopped back to the pillows, winding his arms about her middle again.

  “Ghren? You awake?” One hand caressed her ribs.

  “You’re being noisy.”

  “Sorry.” A long pause. “I can’t go back to Lintesh, Ghren.”

  Ghrenna blinked open bleary eyes, rolling a little to see Luc’s green gaze by the steady light of the lanterns. Frowning with an unusual moroseness, all his regular merriment had fled. As she gazed at him, he sighed in an irritated fashion and rolled to his back, staring up at the rotten canopy.

  “You’re neve
r this stubborn about anything, Luc.” Ghrenna murmured, rolling over to face him, worried about the way he was acting. “What’s got you so worked up about Lintesh?”

  “My family will find me.”

  Ghrenna blinked. “I thought you grew up on Lintesh’s streets. That you didn’t have any family.”

  His grin was sour in the lamplight, more of a grimace. “Partly. My family didn’t have a lot of time for me, we’ll put it that way. I escaped to the streets whenever I could… to get away from them. Ever heard of the Lhorissians?”

  Ghrenna rose up to one elbow in sheer surprise, ignoring the vicious throb in her head. “King’s Physicians. Are you saying you’re of the line of the King’s personal doctor? That you grew up in Roushenn Palace?”

  “Yeah, don’t remind me.” His hard smile was pained. “But I’m not the firstborn son. Firstborn sons become King’s Physician. Second sons don’t get much. An apothecary post in some obscure township, sometimes a post in one of the bigger cities. I wasn’t the favored son.”

  Ghrenna blinked at him, trying to take in the truth of the man lounging upon her bed. It made sense now, Luc’s haughty manners, his teasing demeanor that wouldn’t have been out of place in a court. His gambling, his strange idleness that ran undercurrent to everything he did, his more than competent ability with weapons. All habits he would have picked up young from living in a palace. “But the King’s Physician is knighted. And so are his sons, even if they don’t ascend the post. You are a lord…”

  His chuckle was sad. “Yeah, Lord Luc after all… some lord I turned out to be. But I can’t go back there.”

  “So your family will find you. So what? You don’t have to become King’s Physician.”

  “Oh, but you’re wrong.” Luc rolled towards her, gazing at her with a bitter humor. “My older brother Arlas died four years ago. And a messenger came to find me recently, from Lintesh. He was nosy, asking around. Someone told him about me, described me. Sent the fellow to a tavern I gamble at. The messenger found me, told me my father died a number of months ago, just a few weeks before the King himself. I had to take him to a quiet alley and kill him, so he wouldn’t send word back about me.”

  “So your father’s dead. What about your other brothers?”

  “There are no more sons.” Luc murmured. “I’m supposed to ascend the position. And they’ll keep sending fellows after me, until they haul me back to Roushenn. When this messenger doesn’t return… the Chancellors will send someone more capable…”

  Ghrenna pursed her lips in thought. “Could you do it? Do you know what you need to, to ascend the post of King’s Physician?”

  Luc chuckled roughly. “Oh, I know it, all right. A thousand and one remedies for all the worst diseases. Drummed into me since I was three years old, usually at the end of a switch. But that’s not the reason I’m slated to follow my father’s line.”

  “What is?”

  “This.” Luc reached out, splaying his fingers over Ghrenna’s face in a light dance. And where they went, her headache rolled back to a dull pounding. She closed her eyes in rapture, drinking in ease for the first time in memory. Luc’s long fingers roved her head, stroking her hair, played along her jawline, smoothed tension from her brow, and traced gently over her closed eyelids, removing pain from her eye sockets like drawing blood with leeches. Ghrenna couldn’t open her eyes. It was bliss to be this relaxed, to have her head humming with peace. There was still a trace of pain, just a reminder, but it was far away, stuffed under pillows.

  After a few minutes, he ceased. “Better?”

  “Gods, Luc… what did you do?” Ghrenna sighed in a floating bliss.

  His chuckle was wry. “What I was born to do. Only one person in three generations of den’Lhorissians has it. But the King keeps track of us, just in case one of us develops the healing gift. My gift showed itself when I was eleven. I escaped Lintesh shortly thereafter, but every now and again, I’ll get a messenger like the one who found me this time. They’re good with weapons, Ghren, and they don’t take no for an answer. What I did for you tonight will wear off, but every healing will make your headaches better and better. I’ll do it for you, but swear to me you won’t tell anyone. I’m not the King’s pet. And I never will be.”

  Ghrenna’s eyes blinked open, no pain behind them for the first time in ages. “I swear, Luc. But… the King’s dead. The Dhenra is supposed to ascend the throne in a few weeks.”

  Luc’s green gaze was fierce, mirthless in the lamplight. “I’m not her pet, either.”

  Ghrenna was silent a moment. She reached out, touching Luc’s bright blonde hair. “You’re a lord.”

  His gaze snapped to her, incensed at first, but then lit with humor. “Yeah, yeah, Ghren. Don’t rub it in, alright?”

  And Ghrenna felt herself smile, for the first time in ages. “I always thought there was something peculiar about you.”

  “I’m not peculiar.” Luc grumped, though his lips smiled now. “I’m handsome.” His hand settled at her waist, kneading her skin, stroking. His face went from teasing to stern suddenly, touched by fear. “You scared me tonight, Ghrenna. I thought I was going to lose you.”

  “I’m not yours.” She murmured, their regular routine. Though in this moment, after what he had done for her, Ghrenna felt her stillness recede. Luc was a good man, for all his ways. And in his fierce gaze she saw what he’d never say. That he adored her. That he loved her. That he would do anything, including throwing himself into danger, just to keep her safe.

  “Would you come to Lintesh?” Ghrenna murmured at last, half to herself.

  His body tensed. But then he gave a sigh, and it seemed like the fight drained out of him. Luc rolled to his back, staring up at the mildewing canopy. “I guess I have to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I can already tell you’re going.” He murmured. “I can see it in your eyes. You won’t be able to let this go. Not after tonight. I’d had my suspicions about your health for years, Ghren, but this? Visions?” He lifted his hands in a helpless gesture and let them fall. “I have to go. I have to go to keep you safe.”

  “You don’t have to do anything for me.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” Luc rolled to face her again. Reaching out, he trailed his fingertips down the side of her neck, slid them behind her neck to cup her nape. A blissful heat seeped from his fingers, deep into Ghrenna’s skin, down to her muscles, up into her skull. It was so thorough, so ecstatic, that Ghrenna found herself melting to his touch. Her head arched back until he held her, soft and firm by the neck. Her lips had fallen open, and she breathed softly, ease in every pore.

  And hunger. Luc stared at her with a need she could never match. But tonight, soothed by his gift, her heart opened in an answering need. She reached out, stroking his jaw, smoothing her thumb over his lips, which parted to her touch. His green eyes burned, hard upon her, steady. He pulled her close, cinching her tight against his body, his hand where it touched the small of her back radiating bliss. Slowly, he lipped her thumb, sucked it deep into his mouth. Pleasure ripped through Ghrenna, partly a hot flare of his gift, partly his own nature, seducing her. Making her need more.

  She came to him, languid and ardent, desiring something solid. Needing someone here. Right now. Pushing Elohl’s face from her mind, she melted into Luc, letting him draw her into a deep, radiating kiss. He licked pleasure into her mouth. He bit pleasure gently into her lip. He kissed it hard into her, and Ghrenna arched for him, needful, and far from still.

  CHAPTER 17 – OLEA