Indomitus Oriens (The Fovean Chronicles)

by Robert Brady

  “They seem to think very highly of themselves,” Melissa said. She didn’t know how much was safe to say.

  Shela nodded. “Dey used to run everything before my husband came,” she said. “Now dey just hate ever’thing.”

  Melissa nodded. It jibed with what they’d seen of them.

  “Mama! Mama!” the two older children stuck their heads back into the wagon.

  “Yes, my darlings,” Shela said in Uman.

  “Papa’s coming, and grandfather is riding with him on Little Storm!” Lee said.

  “They’re coming fast, mama!” Vulpe said. “I think Little Storm is going to beat Blizzard.”

  Shela’s eyes widened and she scrambled through the wagon door with a breast exposed, her baby almost forgotten in the crook of her arm. Melissa might be eager to see them, too, but she didn’t intend to flash the world to do it.

  She exited the wagon and Nina already held the whimpering Chawny. Shela fought her bodice closed and moved as fast as she could to the gates on the other side of the stables. The children already waited there, Glynn with them.

  Vulpe and Lee leapt up and down with their little fists in front of them. Wolf Soldiers and Men and Uman in varying finery formed a circle near the children, wary not to step in their way. Some had already begun to shout.

  “Bother!” Shela said, and stopped. She waved her hand in a wide sweep before her, and the air shimmered. The center of the city wall seemed to vanish, to be replaced by the image of Bill on black Little Storm and Lupus on white Blizzard.

  Melissa ran up along side Shela, and helped her with the laces of her gown. They both watched the wall as the two men raced.

  “I can’t believe it,” Nina said. “No horse is as fast as Blizzard.”

  Melissa knew what she saw, and that turned out to be Bill grinning like a ten year old, urging his mount on, and a look of determination on Lupus’ as he raced to catch him.

  “There, you see?” Shela said. “Blizzard is catching him. This will be very close.”

  “Very close,” Melissa agreed, as they cinched up the last of Shela’s laces.

  “Your man keeps a nice seat,” Shela said, nodding appreciatively. “Keeps his arms in, leans forward. I think he is tired, though. See him bouncing?”

  “Hasn’t ridden in long time,” Melissa said.

  “Ah, look—Lupus catches him!” Shela announced. Melissa nodded. They ran neck and neck, Little Storm perhaps an inch or two ahead, as they vanished from Shela’s image on the wall and raced past the gates.

  The men roared a cheer, the children leaping in the air. Being males, they fell to the inevitable arguing and the exchange of bets.

  And, past them, in the plains grass, did Melissa see those serpentine eyes again? Could it be a trick of the sun? She couldn’t tell for sure. However, she saw a swish of grass where no wind blew, and she watched something like a whisper through the winter hay move away through the city. Once again, there and not there.

  “Come with me,” Shela ordered her absently, and lifted the front of her skirts up to race for the gates. Melissa shook her head to clear it and followed the Empress. They arrived just as the men turned their horses around.

  * * *

  “Wow,” Lupus said. “You’re in trouble, Mountain.”

  “I am?”

  They trotted back to the gates, both horses snorting, their heads bobbing. Little Storm’s whole body quivered—or could that be Bill’s?

  “You forget where my wife is from,” Lupus said.

  “Andoran, yes?” Bill said, ready for the bad news now.

  “Yuh, huh!” Lupus said. “Do you know how I got her?”

  “Melissa told—oh, I get it,” Bill said.

  Of course! They traded Shela to Lupus for Blizzard’s stud service. “She is going to want this horse. Well, it is yours, after all.”

  “Where’d you get that idea?” Lupus asked him.

  “What?”

  Lupus smiled and looked forward. “Man needs a horse in this world,” he said.

  “Your Imperial—” Bill began.

  “Skip it,” Lupus said in English. He turned and looked at Bill. “You know how many couldn’t tame that stallion? A lot, that’s how many. I put you on him to see how long you would try to stay on. There you went and freaking solved the problem.

  “That’s your horse. You earned him.”

  Bill didn’t know what to say. “Um—thanks,” he said.

  “You’re welcome,” Lupus said. “But don’t go thanking me too soon. Everyone is going to want that horse now. I can breed more—rest assured, I will. Be a hell of a lot easier to take it from you than me.”

  Bill nodded. “Hey, while we’re alone,” he began.

  “Kids calling you grandfather?” Lupus interrupted him.

  “Yeah.”

  “Heard it. They are dying for grandparents. They can’t have mine and barely see hers—that’s a long story.”

  Bill nodded. “Okay,” he said.

  “Let them call you grandfather, alright?”

  Bill nodded again. “I've been missing my grandkids, anyway,”

  ***

  J’her and the three Wolf Soldiers rode up to the stable gate just as Lupus and the Mountain returned to it. The Empress and the new woman already waited there with Glynn and the royal family.

  Karel of Stone remained on the back of the carriage with Xinto of the Woods. J’her sent the guards to take charge of Xinto, under direction of Karel.

  Karel would know how to keep a man that dangerous.

  “Don’t tell me you won,” J’her said to the Mountain.

  The old Man smiled. He dismounted, wincing as his feet hit the ground, and J’her imagined he heard joints actually creaking.

  “Tell you the truth, I think it was a draw,” the Mountain said, as his woman ran to his side and give him a wet kiss.

  “I guess that is one truth,” Lupus said.

  “You think you took me?” the Mountain asked him. He’d become excited and forgotten whom he was talking to.

  “It was a draw,” Shela said. She already knelt in front of Little Storm, inspecting his fetlocks and hooves. As always, five minutes in the stables and she’d covered herself in horsehair.

  “No, mama,” Vulpe said. “Little Storm won. I saw it.”

  “Blizzard won,” Lee said. Probably defending her father like a good daughter.

  “Looked like a tie to me,” the new female said, returning to the Empress’ side. Seeing them together like that, J’her would have believed they could be sisters.

  “If I may, Lord Emperor?” Glynn said to Lupus.

  “Please,” Lupus said, dismounting. “I can’t think of any party more disinterested than the Uman-Chi.”

  She smiled politely. “And so,” she said. “My interest aside, I think there is no doubt that Uman-Chi eyes are sharper than those of Men and Uman.”

  Many people nodded. J’her knew it to be true. Of course, you never knew where those eyes might be looking.

  “If your mark is the beginning of the gate,” Glynn said, “then the victory is to the black. If it is the gate’s far side, well then the white finished victorious.”

  Lupus looked at the Mountain. “Well, we didn’t say, now, did we?”

  “I was only guessing we were racing here,” the Mountain said in Uman. He had an odd accent but J’her could understand him.

  “Call it a draw,” Lupus said. “The Emperor has spoken.”

  There followed a good deal of swearing from those gathered outside of the royal party, the stable help being notorious gamblers.

  “He is perfect,” Shela announced. Even she wouldn’t inspect Blizzard. And after a race like that, the stallion would be particularly excited. She went right up to the Mountain, the focus on her face almost terrible to those who knew what she was capable of. “How did you get him to do that?”

  “Before you answer,” Lupus said, placing a hand on the Mountain’s shoulder. “An Andaran takes talk o
f horseflesh seriously.

  “We will walk and talk,” he added. “I am hungry and I am sick of Uman-Chi fare. I want steak and potatoes and plenty of beer.”

  “Uck!” Shela complained. “You eat like the wolf you are.”

  “Why change what works?” Lupus said.

  “He had the wrong bit,” the Mountain said.

  J’her listened as he sent two Wolf Soldiers to alert the house staff. He sent two more to ready rooms for the Men, and walked up next to Glynn.

  “Baroness,” he said, “will you be shown to your rooms?”

  “An it please you, Sirrah” she said. “I must meditate.”

  “Your brother is in the city,” J’her informed her. “Ancenon now calls himself an Escaroth? He asked I let you know he’ll meet with you.”

  Glynn nodded, her face expressionless.

  A squad of ten escorted her. She left without a good-bye.

  “Who had the wrong bit?” Shela demanded.

  “Little Storm,” Bill said. He picked up Vulpe and put him in the stallion’s saddle. Lee immediately started bouncing up and down, and he reached for her beside him.

  The Mountain didn’t see the dagger appear in Nina’s hand. J’her intervened discreetly, pulling the Aschire body guard back from the group and informing her of Lupus’ orders. She just snarled. Even Wolf Soldiers didn’t touch Lee without Nina’s permission. Certainly no strange Men could be allowed.

  Shela had the headstall off of Little Storm, and the Mountain guided the stallion by a fist full of mane. Little Storm stood almost as tall as Blizzard, and had that same arched neck, the difference being Little Storm didn’t rip the Mountain’s arm off at the shoulder for touching him.

  “Draft horses use this bit,” she said. “You can’t control him with this, he won’t know when to turn.”

  “I think he would prove you wrong,” Lupus said. “We took three turns and he beat me every time.”

  “With this?” Shela’s expression told J’her where this would end. He would have an Empress in bloomers and no top shortly.

  “Get the Empress’ riding gear, and double time,” he told Hennethen, an Uman Sergeant. Hennethen could run a daheer in four minutes. He left before J’her could explain why.

  “He gagged on the straight bit,” the Mountain said, “and took it in his teeth. I thought he was just mean, but he was confused by it.”

  “We want to ride him, mama,” Vulpe said.

  “I will be the next to ride him,” Shela informed him.

  “You better ask his owner first,” Lupus said. That surprised even J’her. Lupus casually led Blizzard into his private stall, with the reinforced walls, and the ceiling high enough for him to rear, which he did frequently.

  “What?”

  “You were going to geld him,” Lupus said. “The Mountain earned him. It’s the Andaran way, and you know it.”

  “I’m the only Andaran here,” Shela said. “I’ll decide what—”

  Lupus turned on his heel. He stared her down, his eyebrows knit in anger. She stopped as if she had been pole-axed.

  “Was I unclear?” Lupus asked his wife.

  “No, my Lord,” she said, and lowered her head.

  J’her had been married once. She’d left with his family. He had been married only four years, but he’d never struck her. Not so, Lupus the Conqueror. From a pat on the bottom to a backhand that spun her completely around, Lupus thought nothing of striking the Empress.

  The Empress had blown the gates off of Outpost IX when Lupus had sacked the city—J’her had seen it with his own eyes. A Bounty Hunter had broken into the Imperial nursery and Shela had caught him. J’her had ordered the man cleaned up with a dustpan. If Shela didn’t see eye-to-eye with Lupus, as he often put it, there wouldn’t be enough left of the Emperor to bury.

  But this one thing he wished Lupus didn’t do.

  * * *

  “Bill, share,” Melissa said, trying to make a joke of it.

  Mike had never hit her, but Melissa knew it had been close. She had discussed this with Shela; she knew the Empress felt that Lupus not only had a right, but a responsibility to hit her. Melissa still didn’t want to see it.

  Bill grinned, his beard bristling. He had just led Little Storm into a stall opposite Blizzard. The mood had gone quiet and everyone seemed uncomfortable.

  “If it is my decision, your Imperial Majesty?” he said, deferring to Lupus. That was smart, Melissa thought. She would have just said, “Of course you can,” and possibly made matters worse.

  Lupus nodded to Bill and turned his back on all of them, unbuckling the cinch and pulling the saddle from Blizzard’s back.

  “Empress Shela,” he said, “I ask that you please ride my horse, and give me your opinion, if and when it is convenient for you.”

  “I am hardly dressed for it,” Shela said, and slapped at the skirt of her dress, already covered in horsehair. “Of course, it isn’t like I am going to ruin this outfit.”

  “Your riding apparel is on its way, Empress,” one of the Wolf Soldiers said; one so big and strong, he could almost be mistaken for a Man, Melissa thought. She’d seen him leave with Lupus and Bill.

  “J’her, you know me well,” Shela said, and smiled. Right on cue, another Wolf Soldier ran up to them all, made a fist over his heart, and handed the Empress a pile of neatly folded clothes, and boots.

  “He didn’t forget the shoes,” Shela noted, looking pointedly at her husband.

  “That’s it,” Lupus said, and reached for a riding crop in Blizzard’s stall.

  “No!” Shela protested and, grabbing her clothes from the Wolf Soldier, took off down the row of stalls, her husband right behind her.

  Melissa could hear her giggling, even when she heard the crack of the crop.

  Vulpe looked at Lee. “Do you think she’s telling him about the plums,” he asked.

  “You’re stupid,” she answered.

  “You’re stupid,” he countered.

  “Enough,” Bill said. Again, he reached for them, and again they leapt into his arms, allowing themselves to be lowered to the ground.

  “Stay away from behind him,” Bill warned. “He’s excited still. He might kick you.”

  “That is the second time you did that,” Nina said, stepping up to face Bill.

  “What?”

  “Don’t touch the Princess,” she said, her eyes flat, looking right at Bill. She held Angry at the Sun in the crook of one arm, but left no doubt in Melissa’s mind that Nina could have one of her daggers into Bill without dropping the baby.

  “Nina,” J’her said. “You may not touch him.”

  “No one touches the Princess,” she said, and didn’t take her eyes off of Bill. “I won’t have it.”

  “Lupus asked me to treat them like my own grandchildren,” he said. “Grandfathers pick kids up. You don’t like that, take it up with him.”

  “Chose your words better, Mountain,” J’her warned him.

  “I’ll take it up with the priest at your funeral,” Nina said, and raised her left hand, glowing with some light that seemed to come from within it.

  Without thinking, Melissa took her by her shoulder. She had meant to spin her around, to tell her to think, to ask her to let the Emperor handle it.

  She had no idea what happened instead, but the glow died out of Nina’s hand, and the young girl fell to her knees. J’her snatched the baby from her arm as she fell face-first into the straw.

  They all stood there, stunned. Even the kids went quiet. Melissa’s fingers tingled like her hand had fallen asleep. She stood there looking at her hand like it had done something and forgotten to tell her about it.

  Shela emerged from a stall, dressed in brown leather riding pants, boots and a laced-front, red leather top. She had a grin on her face and a hand on her butt, accentuating her walk.

  Everyone turned to look at the Imperial couple, except for Nina, who still lay face down on the floor.

  “Now, what?” Lupus asked.


  Chapter Thirteen:

  A Hero, Fate Foretold

  Ancenon Escaroth met with his new sister and his Daff Kanaar ally in the suites assigned to her. Glynn looked a little thinner but she’d been through much. Black Lupus looked like he always did.

  “You’re well, my sister?” he asked her.

  “I am, brother,” she informed him. She’d dressed in her white Caster robes to receive him. She forewent the usual Uman-Chi greetings—Lupus was abnormally aware of such things and no one wanted him affecting their traditions.

  “His gracious Majesty has seen fit to bestow upon me the rank of Baroness, and the duties of a villain,” she added.

  Ancenon raised an eyebrow at the Emperor.

  The latter’s lips twitched in a smirk, the scar shifting under his eye. “Your sister—which I don’t understand—decided to smart off to the Empress, so she’ll be cleaning dumpsters tomorrow.”

  Ancenon sighed. “Black Lupus,” he said, “this is intolerable.”

  The Emperor raised his hands, palms up, and said, “Take it up with my wife if you don’t like it. She made the decree and I’m not going to undercut her.”

  “Surely you’d need not resort to violence,” Ancenon argued.

  Black Lupus sighed. Ancenon was familiar with the term, but it irritated Lupus no end when he made these comments and they were misunderstood, and Karel of Stone had affected the practice of tormenting him this way. Ancenon didn’t care for Karel of Stone, but Lupus was due his share of unprovoked torment.

  “Perhaps if we traded services…,” Lupus said, turning his eyes to one side.

  Eyes—the weakness of all other races. Ancenon knew that Uman-Chi eyes were unreadable to any but other Uman-Chi. The eyes of Men were imminently readable, however, and usually betrayed them. They did Lupus now.

  “Which services?” Ancenon asked.

  “First of all, for all who care to ask, she’s out cleaning dumpsters tomorrow,” Lupus said. He regarded Glynn, who stood by with her hands holding one-the-other at her waist. “However if only one Wolf Soldier guards her, then I don’t imagine she’ll get to very many.”