Toman noted a few feelings flit across her face. He was pretty sure that the wizard didn't really want to answer the lord's question, but in the end Itan was a lord and she his guest.
"I've always had instincts that the masters couldn't quite explain. They have questioned whether I have the gift of foresight, yet I never have visions like I hear the fortune tellers speak about; so I can't say that is true.
"My air spell let me feel the castle and look for motions that would be unusual. By day, there would be too many people moving to use it; but at night I could sense where movement was strange. The assassin's climbed in from outside, which drew me here.
"I had to use my gift for suggestion on your guards to get them to enter, so please don't punish them for entering without being called, my lord. They didn't give us permission of their own accord."
Shaking his head, Itan walked towards the two by his door. "I wasn't planning on punishing the men who just saved my life or the wizard who led them to do it."
He appraised the pretty wizard in front of him and stated, "I guess that I am lucky that Xerese brought you with her when she did. Perhaps I should hire you away from her to help protect this castle?" Itan chuckled at the idea, though Toman thought maybe it was more than just a joke after seeing what Quela could do.
The petite wizard smiled and shook her head before saying, "I go where Toman goes and he follows Lady Xerese. I am sorry, my lord, but I would be glad to teach your wizards the spell I used to monitor the castle; if they don't already know something similar."
Toman realized that being from Tseult, Quela might know magic spells that no one in Malaiy would know. Their schools of magic didn't share knowledge with each other the way Eirdhen and the wizards' school there did. Offering to show the spell might get her in trouble with her king, if it ever got out that she was teaching their spells to Malaiy.
A bell rang outside, a warning bell. Voices rose at the sight of the fallen assassin. They may have snuck past the guards, but the men had seen the man in black quickly enough once he fell, Toman thought.
"Well, if you are sure that it is safe, you may take your leave. I think my guards have these two in hand. The bell will bring more here and the lady might wish to be more covered up with so many men around," Itan said letting Toman know that the lord hadn't missed the fact that Quela was underdressed for a walk in public. The guard, however, noticed Marquess Rianne frown at her husband's attention to the detail in turn. "I will send someone to gather you after breakfast. You should at least try to get some sleep before then.
"You two can explain more after I've slept, if I can even get back to sleep myself," the lord finished with a chuckle that belied the worry in his eyes.
Toman realized that Xerese was essentially unprotected in her room and walked at a slightly accelerated paced forcing Quela to nearly run to keep up.
"She is safe, Toman. There were only the three assassins. Besides I doubt anyone outside of the castle knows that she is here," the woman stated as she reached for his hand again.
Frowning at her touch because she proceeded to slow his step a bit for her convenience, the guard was ready to rebuke her for it; but looking at the woman's face made him sigh. Her eyes held confidence in her words.
"How do you know? If there were assassins outside the castle, it might make it easy to sense them climbing the wall. What if there are more inside the castle already?"
"I left a protection spell in the room just in case, but my intuition tells me that was it also. Marq Itan might have to worry more in the future, but for tonight the assassins have failed," the wizard assured him. "You know that I will protect her, because I serve whoever you serve."
Her final words made the big man frown again and he stopped. "Why do you say that?"
Mild confusion crossed her face and she answered, "Because it's true."
"But why? Why do you serve me and why did you force the link in the first place?" he demanded without raising his voice.
A look of chagrin replaced the confusion and Quela took a deep breath. "Losing Fethwer hurt, but I didn't just take you because you killed him. Like I told the lord, part of my magic is instinctive. It wasn't trainable. It just is.
"When I saw you attack him, something told me that you would win before your swords even crossed. I felt Oywen place her magic in you temporarily to make things even between you two and you won."
"That still doesn't explain why you did that."
"Intuition," she replied with a wince at the thin excuse. "I felt that you and I were supposed to become bonded and... more."
Realizing that he was unlikely to get a better excuse from the woman, Toman led the way back to Xerese's suite. Lamps were on in the common room. Nico stood ready in the middle of the room with his sword belted to his hip and fully dressed. His sister wore a simple robe, but remained barefoot. Her look at her protector said that she thought that he was overreacting.
Xerese lay on the sofa with her head on a pillow. As if she hadn't a care in the world, the girl had been nearly asleep again until Toman opened the door to the room.
"What is happening?" Nico questioned before they had even made it through the door.
"Quela sensed assassins going after Marq Itan and his wife," the guardsman stated succinctly. He had debated on saying nothing, but the word would spread through the castle by the time daylight had come, the guardsman thought hearing the bells would make others ask the same question.
Xerese sat up completely alert from his quick summation of the night's excitement. Wearing a lightweight night dress that looked more like a slip one would wear underneath a dress, Toman guessed that the lady had become less shy than she had been before having to spend weeks wearing clothing that didn't fit properly and was often less than adequate by court standards.
"Are Itan and Rianne alright?" she asked worriedly.
He nodded. "We got to his room just in time."
His eyes strayed to the wizard beside him still holding his hand as well, he realized belatedly.
"How did you know?" was Xerese's follow up question which led to a brief discussion of how Quela's magic worked. Even Oywen looked surprised to hear of her rare magic.
With a few hours to go before sunrise and even more before Xerese had been getting up since arriving to enjoy the luxury and hospitality that her cousins provided, they soon returned to their rooms; but Toman lingered while Quela had moved to sit in a chair. He had watched the woman with her bare legs crossed daintily. The more he watched her, the more the man realized how pretty she was and how attractive, which were not always the same thing.
Her green eyes would glance to him occasionally as she explained to the others what she could of the discovery and defeat of the assassins. Now she only looked at the man waiting on what he might say or do.
When the others disappeared into their rooms, Toman didn't say anything as he moved towards his room. The dark haired wizard followed him and closed the door behind her as she watched him looking at her seeming slightly confused at her brazen action.
"You also have suggestion magic, don't you? Mind magic of some sort," the guardsman questioned the wizard after catching more than one spell used. He had become sensitive to magic, at least when Quela used hers anyway.
She nodded.
"Have you used that on me?"
Shaking her head, Quela replied, "Not intentionally, but I think part of the command spell to make the guards enter the lord's chamber may have spilled onto you a bit. You should be somewhat immune to my magic as long as we are tied together."
"You make it sound like the bond is temporary, but it isn't, is it?" he said with a frown demanding the truth.
Again she shook her head and Toman found himself watching the movement of her ponytail as it nearly mesmerized him. Her green eyes seemed bigger while a hopeful smile touched her lips. "It can be broken with enough wizards with the knowledge of how to do so, or if I were to die, of course. Is it so bad to be tied to me?"
She
took a tentative step towards him and he backed up towards the bed keeping the distance between them.
"What do you think you are doing?"
Quela tilted her head coyly and affected an appearance which pretended to question his meaning. "I'm not doing anything. You know that I've slept here. You can feel me when I come to sleep in the chair and can tell when I leave again so the others won't talk as much."
The fact that she used 'as much' proved that she knew that the others spoke of this odd relationship behind their backs or when they thought that he couldn't hear at least. Sometimes Toman swore that his senses improved randomly letting him catch their questions about how Quela followed him around and how he seemed to let her. They didn't even believe that he was trying to ignore the wizard. It was their consensus that he actually liked the attention of the pretty girl.
"I just didn't feel the need to kick you out. You just sleep anyway and go back to your room in the morning," he replied feeling a bit nervous in front of Quela for some reason. His forehead was warm and beads of sweat started to form.
She took another step towards him and asked, "Since we both know that I find it comforting to sleep near you, should we try sleeping in the same bed tonight? The night is more than half over anyway, so it won't be as long of a test."
"I don't think that is appropriate," he said backing up only to find his legs touching the foot of the bed. With nowhere else to go, the man moved to his left slipping around to the side of the bed; but Quela continued to approach one slow step at a time. He couldn't help looking at her slim legs bared to the moonlight. No lamps were lit in his room and the door was closed to the lamps left on in the other room, but he could still see her vividly from her magic.
"I only asked to sleep in the bed. It would be inappropriate only if you sought more than that. The chair isn't as comfortable and sometimes my back hurts because of it.
"You don't really mind if I sleep next to you instead, do you?" the woman probed. Her green eyes seemed to shine brighter in the reflection of the silver moonlight.
"Are you trying to use your magic on me now?" he worried.
"You know when I use magic. I can't hide that from you either," she assured him.
Maneuvering herself to make the much bigger guardsman sit on the side of the bed, his head lowered just below hers and Toman took in the view of the woman from a different angle. He reevaluated Quela to being quite beautiful and knew that it wasn't magic making him think that; but he might be falling under her spell even so.
When he moved back towards the center of the bed, the young woman climbed up and he continued to watch as her body moved unable to look away. Lying on the pillow on the other half of the bed, Quela moved to follow. Placing her hand on the other side of him, she prevented him from moving for a moment before kissing him on the lips. To his surprise, Quela merely lay on the other pillow facing him. Her eyes closed; but not before placing her hand on his chest. She let out a content sigh and Toman thought that she fell asleep almost immediately.
Looking at her pretty face only inches away from his, her breath falling on his arm with each exhale; Toman couldn't help a little smile before closing his eyes to sleep.
Chapter 32- Shifting Winds
Philip strode into what looked like a war room within the king's castle. Though Malaiy wasn't technically at war that was how it felt as the man looked at multiple tables with maps. Sheets detailing supplies, troop commands and fortress ledgers listing Malaiy's defensive capabilities were scattered across the tables in some form of organization that he couldn't understand at a casual glance.
"Good you are here," Orlaan stated spotting his friend.
"I came because you said that you have important news, though I would have come even if you had just wanted to talk. Perhaps you have grown more dramatic in your old age, my king?"
Laughing as he shook his head the king fended off Philip's teasing words answering, "This from the man who is decades older than I am, even if you don't look it.
"Seriously though, we have a problem... well several actually," Orlaan finished waving the Master of Coin towards the desk he and several others surrounded. Commander Ilius, Lord Denefar and High Chancellor Berivan were among the other military leaders and lords gathered for this conference.
"What is going on, your majesty?" Philip questioned more sincerely.
Sighing at the question, Orlaan started by pointing at one of the maps. "Denefar's men have been keeping an eye on the temple and many other places that seem to be under the brotherhood's control. Of late, soldiers, monks and many others have started disappearing from Yalan only to wind up resurfacing at Edrin's Crossing. They've taken over many of the buildings there. The town has been suffering in this economy lately and apparently many warehouses were empty. Now they are not."
"What kind of activity are they seeing there?"
Lord Denefar spoke up at a glance from the king. Apparently the lord of spies knew the facts of the situation better than Orlaan so far. "Horses and supplies including weapons have been brought in. There are soldiers training recruits apparently. It would be easy to believe that they are starting to build an army."
"So close to the city, we can only assume that they plan to attack Yalan," Orlaan stated grimly. "Ilius has begun to work on fortifying the southeast of the city. If they want a war, we will be ready."
Commander Ilius stated confidently, "They won't have the numbers needed to do anything more than give our defenses a scratch."
"The other problems?" Philip asked assuming that going over the defenses and other plans would take quite awhile. The way Orlaan had answered earlier gave him the idea that there was a larger picture that he had yet to see.
"Shipping had been dangerous north of Tseult. A few have made it past after seeing ships with red flags flying. We know from the reports that the some ships have been attacked. Malaiy merchants have seen an increase in their ships missing and that number increases every day it seems."
Orlaan's face suggested sympathy, but Philip said, "The Zephyr and Sea Dragon may or may not have had run ins with those ships. I haven't given up hope that they will return, so go on. What else don't I know?"
"Rumors of a revolt happening in northern Tseult have me worried, since those rumors also say that the Brothers of the Blood may have something to do with them also."
"Does that mean that these brothers have changed from helping the poor to creating a war against both King Tylus and Malaiy? It is one thing to turn against one kingdom, but two would be pretty audacious for rebels."
"If they take northern Tseult simply by getting the people to turn against the king, there will be little bloodshed until Tylus manages to get a fleet and his armies in position to retake those cities. It won't be easy when his capitol is so far away from the conflict though. Marching an army or shipping it by sea will take about as long either way."
Commander Ilius added another issue of waging a war against the northern cities, "Tseult's supply lines will be long and vulnerable. He will have to call on a lot of his resources just to try and take a single city. We don't know how strong their defenses can possibly be, but most of them have strong enough walls to require a siege. That will take months and be a massive drain on Tseult."
The king nodded. Philip understood the impracticality of waging war over such great distances and waited to hear the other possible tribulations that the king could foresee so far.
"Pherena is another problem," Orlaan complained about his sister the duchess ruling in his name in the southwest with her sons. "She's threatening to pull her support if I don't send an army to drive out these enemy units supposedly raiding her towns and villages."
"Your sister is an idiot," the high chancellor stated with a shake of his head. "She threatens to pull support because she can't take care of the problem herself. As if we couldn't just send our armies there to pull her out of her castle instead. If she doesn't have the strength to take care of her duchy herself, then why threaten you?"
Orlaan frowned. Insulting a duchess, his younger sister, should have resulted in some sort of rebuke or worse; but Philip could see that the king couldn't see defending someone making such a useless threat.
"Do you think that she would really pull her support? In truth she holds about a tenth of your standing army, which means Pherena should have the forces to withstand anything short of an invasion," Philip asked calmly.
"She is most likely just blustering in an attempt to get her way," the king stated letting out a sigh. "Pherena has always been a bit childish. Wedding her to Lord Famel was supposed to taper most of that, and it has worked for nearly forty years. Those were easy years, of course, now she is folding because things aren't going exactly her way."
"What will you tell her?"
Chancellor Berivan suggested, "I would ignore her for now. The woman is just throwing a temper tantrum and we have enough to worry over without her childishness."
Other heads were nodding. The duchess had never been popular with any of them and was only in her place of power because of Orlaan. She was family and he was putting faith in those who shared his blood.
"Send her a letter telling her of the unrest in Tseult. We are watching our eastern border in case there is trouble. Ask her how much support she believes she needs. That will at least buy us the time between messages. By that time maybe Famel and his sons can take care of the problem."
Philip waited a moment before asking, "Have you sent any of the navy to respond to these ships with the red flags?"
"I can have them patrol near the border; but if we don't have permission from Tylus, we can't jeopardize starting a war with Tseult as well. Maybe we can send three or four warships to Solan to reinforce the marq? Itan is nearly our first defense against anything happening there anyway."
Philip nodded. He wasn't in charge of the navy, though he could request protection for their merchant lanes. Trapped by Tseult on either side, their trading partners west of the Talmoth Sea couldn't make up for the losses if King Tylus couldn't settle his country's troubles soon.
The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus Page 46