by Anna Kashina
Egey Bashi’s face darkened. “You, I’m afraid.”
“You must be joking.”
“On some level, I wish I was, Aghat. Even though I cannot help feeling that this turn of events would take us a long way in achieving our goal here.”
“What in the world do you mean?”
“If you assume the Shayil Yaran throne, there will be no question anymore about gaining the Queen’s unconditional support in our war.”
“Assume the Shayil Yaran throne?”
“Yes.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “This is, by far, the most insane thing I’ve ever heard, Magister. One would think it wasn’t me, but you who had been recently knocked out. Unless of course I am delirious and you didn’t say anything at all just now.” She wished it was the case as she watched Egey Bashi exchange another glance with Mai. The sight of their forlorn expressions made her feel nauseated. She swallowed forcibly, ignoring the lightheaded feeling, as if she was about to faint. I’m still recovering. And, he couldn’t possibly have meant what he just said. There’s no way. She refused to give in to this nonsense.
“I’m afraid you heard me right, Aghat,” Egey Bashi said quietly.
Her lips twitched. “Let me make sure I understand this correctly, Magister. You found some bloody spot at the back of my neck and now you are suggesting that I… I…” She paused. She simply couldn’t make herself pronounce it out loud.
Egey Bashi shook his head. “Not just ‘some bloody spot’, Aghat. It has a perfect crescent shape. You may have noticed one like this on the back of Queen Rajmella’s neck too, except that she normally highlights it with a golden dye.”
Kara paused. She did notice a very small golden crescent in the nape of the Queen’s neck, visible because of the way Rajmella wore her hair piled up on the top of her head. It looked unusual, but she took it for some form of a decoration.
She glanced at Mai. “Is this true?”
“Yes.”
She trembled, clenching her teeth to suppress a sudden surge of weakness. “Very well, Magister. However preposterous it sounds, the fact that I may belong to the Shayil Yara’s royal family doesn’t mean I can just waltz in and assume the throne.”
The Keeper frowned. “I’m afraid it does. You are not just any family member. You are Aljahara, the lost heir. Your claim to the throne supersedes that of Rajmella.”
Kara’s eyes widened as she met the Keeper’s gaze, the truth of what he was saying finally settling in. Aljahara, the lost heir. Bloody hell.
She knew she should be thinking about their campaign, about destroying the Kaddim. She should be glad that this turn of events was giving her an opportunity to be in charge and ensure that the Majat got the support they needed within Shayil Yara’s borders. Instead, only one thought dominated her head. If she was truly Shayil Yaran royalty, there was no way she and Mai could ever be together. He couldn’t possibly have anything to do with a woman whose allegiance and bloodlines threatened the highly protected political neutrality of the Majat Guild.
Mai’s expression told her he was thinking exactly the same thing.
She met his gaze. “What do you want me to do?”
He shrugged. “By now, they all know who you are. I see no choice but to take advantage of this situation and secure Shayil Yaran forces to our side.”
She took a deep breath, then nodded.
“I will get Queen Rajmella here,” Egey Bashi said. “I think we all need to have a nice, quiet talk.”
The Queen carried her head high, but Kara could tell by the tense set of her shoulders that her defiance was only skin deep. When she stopped in front of Kara, her narrowed eyes held so much fear that Kara almost felt sorry for her. She had to remind herself that this was the woman who ordered her abduction, even if she was also the first family member she had ever encountered.
“Rajmella,” she said. “What the hell were you thinking, when you ordered your men to detain me?”
Rajmella lifted her chin. “What the hell was I supposed to think, when you entered my palace at the head of the crowds chanting your name, with a small Majat army at your back? Did you actually believe I was going to fall for your crazy stories about some phantom enemy hiding at the north of my lands?”
Kara’s eyes widened. “Did you believe I came to usurp your throne?”
“What else was I supposed to believe? The tales you told me to gain your way in? And yes, ‘usurp’ was the word on my mind, at least until Hamala had a chance to examine your tattoo and see that it’s genuine. That’s when your Majat friends showed up.”
Kara continued to stare, feeling as if she was trapped in a very bad dream.
“So, what was your plan, once you found out?”
“We weren’t sure. Killing a usurper is one thing. Killing my own niece and the rightful heir to the throne…” Rajmella spread her hands in a wordless gesture.
Kara’s skin prickled. The rightful heir to the throne. It was just starting to sink in, like poison, seeping in slowly and spreading all the way through her suddenly heavy limbs.
“I choose to believe you were planning to spare my life,” she said. “For now. I hope for your sake you never lead me to think otherwise.”
Rajmella peered into her face. “You look surprised. And shocked.”
“I am, actually.”
“Why?”
Kara shrugged. “I had no bloody idea about any of this. Not until right now. I was telling you the truth from the start. The enemy I spoke of is very real, and is the only reason for our visit here. I couldn’t even tell what the crowds were chanting, or why. I came here only as a negotiator for the Majat Guildmaster.”
Rajmella laughed. “Yes, that was one of the most ridiculous things you said. Everyone knows the Majat Guildmaster is an old man. If you wanted one of your companions to pose as one, you should have chosen the older man that came with you. He is the only one who looks the part, even if only remotely.”
Seldon. Kara looked at her serenely. “Come now, Rajmella. You cannot possibly be this stupid.”
The Queen lifted her head sharply, as if she had been slapped. Kara knew she probably wasn’t used to anyone addressing her this way, but right now she didn’t give a damn.
“Aghat Mai is the Guildmaster,” she said. “If you took this fact, and everything else we said to you, at face value, we wouldn’t be trapped in this situation right now. You would still have your throne.”
Rajmellashook her head. “If I took anything at face value, my rule as a Queen would be extremely short-lived.”
“Shorter than now?”
Rajmella spread her hands again. “You are the rightful heir. Now that you are here, the game has changed. No matter what you originally intended, or what I believed at the start, you cannot change your birthright.”
My birthright. Up until now, Kara never realized she had one. And now that she discovered it, she was finding it too hard to deal with the burden that came with it.
Rajmella looked at Mai thoughtfully. “The real Guildmaster, eh?”
“Yes,” Kara said. “Not that it really matters right now.”
Rajmella continued to stare, a slow appraisal in her gaze. “He does have the commanding presence, I must admit. And his men do seem to listen to him unconditionally, from what I had a chance to see. Was sending them to entertain my women part of your plan all along?”
Kara sighed. “I thought it was all your idea. I tried to refuse, remember?”
Rajmella’s gaze wavered. “Yes, that was my mistake, I admit.”
“A mistake?”
Rajmella glanced away briefly. “I thought these men were your attack force, not that I believed even for a moment that they were really top Majat Gems. No one could possibly afford to hire this many. But since you seemed to place such faith in them, it seemed like a good plan not only to scatter them, but also to tame them, bond them to our women. Men tend to think differently right after they’ve enjoyed good sex. I hoped it would sway t
heir loyalties, at least somewhat.”
Kara frowned in disbelief. “You didn’t consider the opposite possibility, that you were placing a top-ranked assassin next to each of the important ladies at your court?”
“I didn’t imagine the men could possibly turn on the women they’d just been intimate with. Not so easily.”
“No one said it was easy,” Mai said.
Rajmella looked at him with curiosity. “Yet, you had no doubt they would, did you? Thinking back to the way they talked to you before accepting the ladies’ invitations, you encouraged them, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “I told them they could, if they wanted to. And yes, I had no doubt they would follow orders.”
“I guess I just learned something new about the Majat.” Rajmella hesitated. “One thing still puzzles me, though, about all these ladies you are now holding captive out in your common room. They have all been treated brutally – dragged out of their beds, kept at swordpoint, fearing for their lives. My sister Nelimah, so impressionable and delicate that I tend to think twice even when I frown at her, has been deliberately sliced with a dagger and threatened with mutilation, for Shal Addim’s sake. Yet the only thing they all seem to be able to talk about right now, Nelimah included, is the sexual prowess of your men. In fact, spending the past hour in their company has been… educational, if I try to put it politely. It’s as if they have all been bewitched.”
Mai grinned. “I am glad my men left an impression.”
Rajmella’s expression turned wistful. “If I live through this, I will definitely pay a visit to your Guild one day. I must admit, I had a completely wrong idea about your warriors before.”
Kara didn’t like the way she eyed Mai, with a mix of longing and lust that reminded her of the mood that dominated her earlier visit to the Queen’s chambers. It was a relief to think that at least one privilege of her royal status lay in the fact that no one could ever again try to force their attention on her. Given the local customs, she was likely going to go down in history as the Untouchable Queen.
She met Mai’s gaze, seeing the encouragement in his eyes that she knew was meant only for her. This new turn of events had just shattered all hopes for happiness she ever had. But these thoughts had to wait. They still had a deadly enemy to defeat, and it was now up to her to take the next step.
“I believe,” she said to Rajmella, “you must surrender your bracelets of station to me.”
Rajmella slid them off her arm, leaving behind a fading snake-like imprint. Kara looked at them curiously, two long winding contraptions crafted of solid gold, connected by a chain that draped over the elbow, and another one to fasten them up at the shoulder. Once donned, they lay over her arm heavily, like armor. Fighting with these on would be a chore, even though if push came to shove they would likely be useful as protection against a sword slice.
“I will get dressed now,” she said. “And then we will go out to your ladies together and announce the news.”
Rajmella looked at her solemnly.
“I must admit,” she said. “From what I remember of your mother, you are the spitting image of her – not just the looks, but the small things, like gestures and expressions. You definitely have her regal bearing. Older people remember her well – perhaps this was how the crowds have recognized you so easily. We all still miss her very much. She was a great Queen. I hope you can be one too.”
A great Queen. Kara glanced at Mai again. At the moment, she didn’t feel like a great Queen at all, only like a very exhausted woman who could barely stand up on her feet. But even in her tired stupor, the enormity of what was going on had finally dawned on her. She had found a family, and not just any family, but one of the most ancient and noble ones in the entire land. She was among the people who had known her mother, and felt that she could potentially, one day, achieve the same greatness. She hoped to be able to live up to the responsibility.
34
Golden Lions
The crowd’s roar floated up in waves, booming against the stone walls of the palace at her back. Kara distanced herself from it as she looked over the plaza below. Five hundred soldiers stood in perfect rows, so still that the only movement she could detect was the golden gleam of their lion-shaped shoulder plates and the shifting of their crimson cloaks in the light breeze.
Aljahara, Aljahara, Aljahara…
She shifted her gaze to Prince Jamal standing in front of her. He wore the same uniform as his soldiers, but the golden lion over his left shoulder also bore a crown. His face was set into a still mask, his narrowed eyes watching her with apprehension.
My twin brother.
In another life, they could have been close. They could have learned to walk and talk together, grown up playing games. It made sense that he, her flesh and blood, shared her physical prowess, prompting his nation to hold him as a great warrior and put him in charge of their elite troops. Like everyone else here, he was now hers to command. But would he ever become her ally?
“Prince Jamal,” she said. “I hear you have been doing an admirable job as a commander of the royal Golden Lion battalion.”
He briefly inclined his head. “Thank you, my Queen.”
The resentment in his voice sent her heart racing. Was he prepared to accept her, or was he an enemy in disguise? Would his attitude force her to do something terrible to her very closest kin? She knew Mai wouldn’t hesitate in making the call in this kind of a situation. She longed for his advice, but with the way he was standing, three steps behind, she couldn’t even see his face. Worse, even if everyone here told her Jamal was trouble and needed to be removed, she knew, deep in her heart, that she would not consider it until she had exhausted every other option. She wasn’t about to lose her brother just after she found him.
“We march in three days,” she said. “The Golden Lions will use this time to train with the Majat warriors.”
Jamal bowed his head again, the resentment in his face so poorly hidden that even the soldiers on the plaza must be catching it by now, even though they were standing too far to hear any words. His jaw tightened as he spoke. “The Golden Lions don’t need this training, Your Majesty.”
She raised her eyebrows. “What makes you say so?”
“No foreign warriors have anything they could possibly teach my men.”
My men. She lifted her chin. “They are my men too.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” His gaze became wooden.
She shifted from foot to foot, regarding him thoughtfully. Even without extensive command experience she could see that Jamal was going to be a problem. If Mai was in charge he would have probably removed him on the spot, replacing him with a more compliant battalion leader. Yet, a stubborn side she didn’t know she had was driving her on. Could she overcome this challenge in a different way?
“Since we haven’t had an opportunity to get to know each other, Prince Jamal,” she said, “I’d like to give you permission, for now, to speak freely, so that we can resolve our differences – if indeed we have any.”
Jamal’s jaw knotted again, but she did catch surprise in his eyes before he forced his gaze into blankness. “To what end, Your Majesty? If you want to relieve me of command, you hardly need my words to give you the excuse.”
She smiled. “You are correct. I need no excuse to relieve you of command, or throw you in a dungeon if I please. I am also aware of how you seem to be driving our conversation toward this kind of an outcome. I’d like to avoid it, if we possibly can.”
“Why?”
“I see you as a talented commander who inspires trust and devotion in his men. Can’t we build on this to achieve a workable relationship?”
Jamal squared his shoulders. “If you leave me in charge, you will be forcing me to lead my men into a war we were not planning to fight.”
“Your planning has nothing to do with it, Prince. The enemy we are after is fighting to restore the Old Empire. If the Majat can’t stop them, their next step would be to obliterate ev
eryone standing in their way, starting with the closest lands. Shayil Yara. Do you really want to see this happen when we can preempt such an outcome?”
His eyes narrowed. “And I suppose we have only your word to prove it, Your Majesty.”
“Yes.”
“Not good enough.”
She sighed. “I’m curious, Jamal. If I take your bait just now and throw you in a dungeon, what could you possibly gain from it? Your men will march into this battle anyway.”
“Reluctantly.”
She glanced at the troops, at the people lining the far end of the plaza chanting her name. She had a good feeling they would follow her willingly if it came to that, even if Jamal’s imprisonment would certainly shake things up.
“Are you trying to become a martyr to your men?” she asked. “To prove a point to them by forcing a punishment upon yourself?”
He kept his silence, but his uncertain look told her that her words had hit the mark.
“I will not play this game with you,” she said. “Not only because you are my closest family, even if you may not feel this way, but also because I know you are a good man, loyal to your country.”
His lips twitched. “What could you possibly know about that?”
“Do you believe I’m wrong about you?”
He receded a bit. “I don’t judge my qualities the same way, Your Majesty. I’ve been a good commander to the Golden Lions, yes. But up until now, our Queen has never doubted my ability to train my men.”
She smiled. “I am not doubting it either, Jamal. The Golden Lions have a unique opportunity to train with the Majat’s top warriors, whose skill is far superior to anything you’ve ever seen. Any good commander would beg for a chance like that – not try to push it away when it’s offered freely.”
The smile playing on Jamal’s lips taunted her with a challenge. “Far superior?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know, sister?”
Sister. Against reason, the word filled her with warmth. She never had any kin, never thought it was even possible for her. And now, despite all the defiance Jamal was showing her, despite the fact that he had recently participated in her abduction, she couldn’t help feeling a bond with him. The feeling took her by surprise as she looked into his face, recognizing some of the features she had grown used to seeing during her very rare glances into a mirror – the line of the eyebrows, the high cheekbones, the pale golden hair lying against his neck in a smooth wave. His face looked manly where hers was feminine, but now that her lineage was uncovered, it seemed strange to her that no one had spotted the resemblance as soon as she entered the palace. Or maybe they did?