by Jaide Fox
Silo nodded wisely. “How clever! Ladies love gardens. They are very fond of flowering things.”
“Ah,” Talin said, nodding and settling back in his chair. “You think that is what this means?”
Silo blinked several times. Mayhap the king was right, he thought. Mayhap he could not hold his drink well at all. He was certain he had had no more than two pints and in general he thought he held it well, but he could scarcely make heads or tails of anything the king was saying. “Uh … yes?” he responded hesitantly, having decided that it would be best to agree with King Talin, whatever it was he was talking about.
Doubt shook him when Talin’s expression turned grim. “I thought as much. And we do not have one.”
“I am certain we can remedy that, Sire,” he said hastily, trying to soothe the brewing storm.
Talin glared at him. “You have magic that will make green things grow here? For I am certain it would take that. There are no trees so high up and no plants.”
Silo gaped at the king, his mind scurrying around frantically for something to appease the man--whom he’d begun to think had been bitten by more than a touch too much to drink. “She misses her garden?”
“You said she did,” Talin bellowed impatiently. “Why else would it be the first thing she thought of?”
“Oh. OH!” Silo exclaimed, everything suddenly becoming clear. “Oh!” he added when he realized that Talin was right. They had no garden in the palace because they could not grow things so high up. “I have no magic,” he added a little uneasily, for he could see it was going to be all his fault that he could not perform a miracle to help Talin please his lady.
To his relief, Talin settled back in his chair, however, draping one knee over the armrest as he had before. Frowning, he glanced around the great hall as if seeking a new target for his wrath. Spying a servant, he bellowed for another pint of ale. Silo had just decided that he’d been dismissed when Talin focused on him again. “She will not smile for me,” he said morosely. “Mostly, she will only stare at me as if I am a monster.”
Silo gaped at his king, wishing Talin hadn’t been inspired by drink to confide in him. He sincerely hoped that Talin would not later regret it. A happier thought occurred to him directly after that, that if Talin drank enough he might not recall the conversation at all.
He could see Talin expected a response, though, and he wasn’t at all certain what sort of response would work to his advantage. In his experience, no one wanted the truth if it conflicted with what they wanted, and, unfortunately, he could see the lady’s point. She was not the same as they, and she had been stolen from her home. No doubt she had been brought up to believe, as most man children were, that the man beasts were all monsters--more beast than creatures of intelligence. “She was not pleased with the shutters?” he asked finally.
Accepting the mug of ale the servant handed him, Talin took a draught. “She is not so terrified now. I can not see that she is especially pleased.” It occurred to him that he hadn’t done it to please her. He’d had it done to keep her from taking a fatal leap in order to escape his clutches. That realization didn’t help his feelings a whit.
Silo nodded. “She was fearful of the height,” he said wisely. “Not surprising, for she is only a man child after all and can not fly as we can. Naturally, she would fear falling.”
Talin stared at the man in surprise for a moment. “You knew this?” he demanded.
Silo gaped at him. “I thought that was why you ordered me to affix shutters and doors.”
Talin felt heat rise in his face. He averted his gaze to the liquid in his mug. “Aye. I was only surprised that you had figured it out when you had not had the opportunity to observe her.”
Silo shrugged. “I was not certain. I say only that I am not surprised.”
Talin frowned. “She did not seem particularly pleased when I told her I would send for her belongings. You seemed to think that would please her,” he growled accusingly.
“I--uh--I only suggested that, perhaps, that would help her to grow accustomed--if she was surrounded by things familiar to her,” Silo said, uneasy about disputing Talin, but certain that he would otherwise be blamed if it transpired that the princess was not pleased.
“Do not hedge, man!” Talin growled. “The situation is dire! The mating is upon me and my beast grows harder to quiet daily. How am I to go about gaining her acceptance?”
Silo gaped at him. “Sire! You can not claim a mate unless she is willing to be claimed! It is … not done!”
Talin ground his teeth. “I know this, but my beast does not care!” he growled.
“You only think that now,” Silo retorted, greatly daring. “If she does not feel as you do, then she will turn from you when her true mate appears. And you will go mad.”
“I am going mad now,” Talin growled testily, beginning to drum his fingers on the armrest again.
“This is a very bad situation,” Silo said thoughtfully. “You are wise to keep your distance from her just now,” he added after a moment. “Allow her time to lose the worst of her fears and then she will be more receptive to the courtship.”
Talin felt his face redden again. It wasn’t wisdom, precisely, that had made him keep his distance. It was more the fear that he would go too far too fast and bungle the entire courtship. “I have reason to believe she does not find me completely distasteful,” he muttered.
Silo brightened. “Well, and that is a start!” he said bracingly, but then frowned. “Of course, she is not one of the people. But I am sure it is a good sign if she does not try to shred your hide when ever you are around her. I am convinced you are on the right track. Certain of it! Once you have brought her belongings, she will be more comfortable. And she will see you are eager to find favor with her. I will put some thought into the garden you wish to give her.” He frowned again. “Statuary, you think? I could not help but notice there were figures of women in the drawing.”
“There were no statues,” Talin said musingly and then brightened suddenly. “Her ladies! They are devoted to her and vice versa, I am certain. Mayhap it is not the garden she misses at all, but her ladies?”
Silo nodded. “No doubt! She is very alone now and not at all accustomed to being alone. I will study over this matter of a garden and see what I can come up with,” he added, hoping the promise would be sufficient to appease Talin, for the moment anyway.
Talin nodded, flicking a hand at him in a shooing motion. Grateful to have the interview at an end, Silo scurried away. He was tempted to stop for another tankard, but after a very little thought decided against it. The king might decide he wanted to speak with him again and the conversation they’d already had had agitated him enough. He rather thought he would make himself scarce for a few days--more than a few if he could not come up with a solution to the problem Talin had presented him with.
* * * *
The more Talin considered the matter, the more certain he was that Silo was right about Aliya. A great part of Aliya’s unhappiness was her loneliness. It would not be enough merely to lose her fear. She must be happy, comfortable. She needed people who were familiar to her, not just things.
Talin was beginning to think the elder’s wisdom was of far more use to him than that of his council, for they were never in agreement over anything. In any case, he would not have wanted to approach them with this particular problem. For once, they had united--in disapproval over his actions. Not that they were against the war, or avenging the slight. They had, in fact, demanded that something be done. He had been more inclined to simply ignore it. After all, it was not even acceptable for him to take a mate outside his kind. What did he care if the man children comforted themselves in their weakness with the mistaken belief that they were somehow better than their superiors, the man beasts?
They had not been satisfied with merely ignoring it, however. They had gathered for weeks to argue over the best way to teach the man children a lesson, working themselves up to a fever pitch
until he could see he would have no peace if he allowed the slight to go unchallenged.
In truth, he had found that he was intrigued after a time by the tales of the princess. Not one report indicated that she was less than perfection and the more he thought about that, the more indignant he was that he had not been considered suitable and the more certain he became that, if she truly was so exceptional, then she was far too great a prize to end up in the bed of some wizened old lecher who had the coin to hire the best warrior to compete.
He did not regret his decision. If the council members were less than enthusiastic over the manner in which he’d provoked the war they had been clamoring for, then that was their problem.
His beast had spoken. From the moment he had set eyes upon her, he had known that she was the one and that no other would do. He was willing to bow to tradition and choose a queen among their own people to produce the heir to his throne, but he would give no further. Aliya would be his concubine, the mate of his heart and soul. It could not be otherwise. His beast did not make that sort of mistake. Instinctively and inexorably, it was drawn to the female most perfect as his match.
Unfortunately, as a man child, she did not understand her own instincts. She relied upon emotion and logic to guide her when there was nothing at all logical about choosing the perfect mate.
He decided he would lead his men in the raid to retrieve those things she felt she had lost. He would know what was most important to her, after all.
Besides, his gift to her might not be as appreciated if he merely sent others to do his bidding. He wanted to be able to bask in the fullness of her joy and appreciation.
Chapter Ten
Princess Aliya would have liked to blame her restless night on most anything except the true reason she’d had so much difficulty sleeping, but she was not prone to trying to delude herself. She’d grown restless and achy every time she recalled the things that Talin had done to her and that strange neediness had invaded her dreams when she’d finally drifted to sleep.
She felt no better when she woke and wondered if there was any real reason to get out of bed as early as she customarily did. She was still tired and it wasn’t as if she had anything of interest to occupy her time.
That thought promptly resurrected the incident with Talin and she flopped back on the bed, dragging a pillow over her head.
She didn’t know which was worse, her reaction to Talin, or the fact that he’d been well aware that he’d stirred her blood.
He’d been well pleased with himself, too, she thought irritably, wishing she could have thought of something clever to give him a set down.
After a time she drifted to sleep again. When she woke the second time she felt considerably better. She saw when she tossed off the covers and sat up that the maids had been in, removed the breakfast tray, which she’d ignored, and left fresh water, and her gown!
Delighted to discover they’d returned it at long last, she slipped from the bed and went to examine it. It was a little the worse for wear, having lost a few of the tiny pearls sewn to it, but she saw it had been laundered and the wrinkles carefully ironed from it.
Settling it on the bed, she went to the basin to wash up. The maids returned as she was struggling to get into the gown by herself and moved to help. Removing it again, the younger of the two straightened her corset and tightened the laces, then drew the gown over her head again and laced the back up.
“Would you like for us to bring your noon meal up, or would you prefer to go down to the great hall?” the other maid asked.
She had a choice? She was heartily sick of her own company, but she felt a little uneasy at the thought of mingling with the unnaturals. Finally, she decided to have a tray brought up.
To her surprise, once she’d finished eating and the maids returned to retrieve the tray, they offered to escort her to the courtyard to enjoy the sun and fresh air. She was still a little uncomfortable about the unnaturals, but she discovered the chance to get out was just too tempting to pass up.
* * * *
Impatient to present Princess Aliya with the gift he’d thought of for her, Talin gathered a squad of men the following day and set out for the kingdom of Anduloosa. There was a possibility, he knew, that King Andor had not yet moved his army, but that too was something he needed to do--learn what he could of the enemy.
They spied the unwieldy army little more than a day’s ride, by surface beast, from the Andor’s royal palace. A little surprised to see that they had not yet even crossed the border of their own lands, Talin circled above them for a time, dropping lower and lower to better see what was going on.
They were camped. As it was in the middle of the day, Talin found that circumstance peculiar. He could think of no reason for it save that they were waiting for others to arrive. Climbing the air currents once more to a higher altitude, he considered the matter. Finally, summoning two of those he’d brought with him, he sent them to try to infiltrate the group gathered below, to see what they might learn from the talk of the soldiers.
Three others, he sent to scour the countryside for the soldiers they were no doubt waiting for, with instructions to meet him at King Andor’s palace once they had gathered whatever information they could.
The castle was closed up tightly, which he had expected. It was also well defended, which he had also anticipated.
He hadn’t entirely foreseen the ferocity with which the defenders seemed determined to guard their king’s holdings. The moment he and his men began to circle lower toward the battlements, they encountered a hail of arrows and spears. Withdrawing to a little safer distance, he considered the situation and finally instructed his men to gather stones for a bombardment.
It had the desired effect of driving the soldiers inside, but the moment he and his men ran out of stones to drop, the man children rushed back onto the battlements and commenced to lobbing spears and arrows once more.
He was a little disconcerted to discover the task he’d set for himself was proving to be a bit more difficult than he’d expected. There was nothing for it, he finally decided. They were simply going to have to accept that they could not crack this nut without a few casualties.
The only alternative that he could see was to draw them out until they’d exhausted their supply of weapons, and he had a feeling that would take longer than he was willing to devote to the project.
Withdrawing again, he waited until the three he’d sent off to reconnoiter joined the fray. Taking three men with him, he set the others the task of a relay bombardment with stones to keep the defenders occupied while he and the others breached the lines to gather what they’d come for.
As he’d hoped, most of the soldiers had gathered to defend the side of the castle under attack. Nevertheless, they did not manage to gain the roof top garden without detection. A fairly determined assault was launched by the men still guarding the other side of the castle. He, himself, had a narrow miss, and one of the men took a direct hit, an arrow piercing one thigh.
The most dangerous time, however, came once they had landed, for they needed to shift in order to complete their goal. The wounded man, slowed by his injury, caught yet another arrow as they settled in the garden, this one in the chest.
He was too wounded to shift. In his current condition he needed to remain in his beast form to heal or he would die. By the time they’d managed to drag him to shelter, all of them were wounded and bleeding.
Talin’s own wound was fairly superficial. An arrow had grazed his throat, but it closed almost at once and the blood ceased to flow down his shoulder and chest.
Leaving his men to remove the arrows they’d caught so that their wounds could close, he headed toward the door that let out into the garden.
It was a stout door, and well fortified from what he recalled of his first visit to the palace. His memory served him. It was heavily barricaded. Using his shoulder as a battering ram, it still took three heavy hits before the wood splintered and the heavy timber bar o
n the inside split. Summoning his men, he shoved the broken door out of the way. The only warning he got that the corridor was manned was the whistle of an arrow. It embedded itself into a fragment of door next to his shoulder. Wrenching what was left of the door from the hinges, he used the stout wood as a shield and rushed the men crowded at the top of the stairs on the opposite end of the corridor. Those at the top fell back before his assault, creating a domino effect and bringing down the men behind them.
Tossing the shield after them, he whirled and raced back the way he’d come to the only interior door that opened off that particular corridor and slammed a shoulder against the panel. The interior door wasn’t nearly as stout as the exterior one. It caved in with the first blow and his impetus took him inside to a chorus of feminine screams and a barrage of missiles that included everything from pillows to pitchers, bowls, vases and even a small chest.
“Cease!” he roared when he’d tired of batting the missiles and dodging them.
They stopped, but he thought that was more because they’d run out of anything to throw than because of the bellowed order. ‘Weaponless’ now, the half dozen women in the room scurried to the farthest corner to cower in fear as his men dashed inside behind him. After looking around a little wildly, the men dashed across the room and grabbed a large armoire, carried it back to the now splintered door and covered the opening before the castle defenders could regroup and launch another attack.
“I’ve come to gather the princess’ belongings,” Talin announced, planting his hands on his hips and fixing the women with a stern stare. “Make haste and gather her most prized possessions.”
The women merely gaped at him as if he’d spoken to them in a foreign language.
“Now!” he bellowed.
The yell evoked another chorus of shrieks, but the women only covered their ears, hid their faces, and crowded a little more tightly together. Uttering a growl of impatience, Talin stalked across the room and looked them over. The one with the dark mahogany hair looked vaguely familiar, as did the one with pale blond hair. Grabbing the first, he hauled her to her feet. “Your lady has need of you. Will you do nothing but cower in the corner like a frightened rabbit?”