Tales of the Golden Judge: 3-Book Bundle (Books 10-12)
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2015 by Melissa F. Hart. All rights reserved worldwide.
No part of this book may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written consent of the author/publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
http://www.melissafhart.com/
Books in the series
In Darker Shadows- Volume 1
A Place in the Dark - Volume 2
To See the Dawn - Volume 3
By Moonlight Bound - Volume 4
Only Your Touch - Volume 5
Broken Bird - Volume 6
Flying High – Volume 7
Deep Waters – Volume 8
An Eternal Love – Volume 9
Innocent Days – Volume 10
Dangerous Quests – Volume 11
Judges Ascendant – Volume 12
Woman of the Storm – Volume 13
Wandering the Wilds – Volume 14
Across a Thousand Years – Volume 15
***
Table of Contents
Innocent Days
Dangerous Quests
Judges Ascendant
Innocent Days
***
Synopsis
Tonna, the daughter of the fox clan of shape changers, and Ulfrik, prince of the wolf shapechangers, have been nursing a romance for three years. At every annual festival, they flirt, they feud, and now perhaps they are ready to take the next step. Their romance is troubled, however, by the dark shade of Ulfrik's father's advisor, and the curse that he carries. Tonna and Ulfrik are drawn together, but can they make their way through the dark machinations that this man has in store for them?
***
The autumn day was bright and clear, and when Tonna smelled the wood smoke, she knew that they were close to the moot.
Every year, the moot was held to bring all of the shape-changing people to the same area, to meet, trade, and simply be among their own kind. It was a time for conversation and for the sharing of tales. In many cases, it was the only time they would see shapechangers who were not of their own clans.
Tonna straightened up and settled her pack on her shoulders more comfortably. She knew that she was smiling, but even when her mother, Rivka, shot her a questioning look, she couldn't hide it. Aeson, her older brother, saw it, and he fell into step beside her.
“You're looking awfully pleased with yourself, sister.”
“Shouldn't I be?” she answered innocently. “It's a beautiful day, and we're going to the moot. I think that's a fantastic time to be smiling.”
“Well, there are smiles intended for happy children, and there are smiles intended for cats who have idiot mice between their paws. I think your smile is really meant more for mice.”
“I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about,” she said, though the smile remained the same.
“You're thinking of him, aren't you, Tonna?”
Tonna frowned in an exaggerated fashion, flashing her brother a disapproving look.
“Who are you talking about? You know that I love everyone at the moot!”
Aeson rolled his eyes at his sister. “I'm talking about Ulfrik of the wolf clan,” he said sternly. “I'm talking about the wolf prince you've been teasing and fighting with and flirting with for the past three years.”
“I'm sure you're thinking of someone else,” Tonna said with a toss of her head. “I'm never anything but pleasant.”
Aeson threw his hands into the air, shaking his head. “I give up,” he said. “Fight with him, flirt with him, see if you two make it to the wedding tree to say your vows this year. Nothing would surprise me about the two of you any more.”
Tonna was going to reply quite tartly to that, but their mother growled at both of them.
“There's no time for foolishness from either of you this year,” she said. She wasn't old, but she was gray, and when she took her vixen form, her muzzle was quite grizzled. She had led the fox clan for longer than either Aeson and Tonna had been alive, and she had kept the peace as much as she could.
“We know, Mother,” said Tonna, at least a little contrite.
“You'd better know,” her mother said. “It's been rough enough with the two bear clans at each other's throats and that man Bors agitating the wolf clan.”
Tonna's ears perked up at the mention of the wolf clan. Like her own fox clan, there was only one wolf clan in the area.
“Bors, who's he?”
Rivka reached out to tweak her ear, but Tonna was too fast, dodging away.
“You should listen longer and harder, daughter,” her mother said. “Bors is the old wolf king's adviser, and he's one of the red wolves from the west. He's no family to any of the wolves, but he's like a tick burrowed in the old king's ear. Rumor has it he's been whispering of war to the old wolf king Kiernan, and well, that's no good. When the wolf clan goes to war, it's always nasty.”
Tonna nodded slowly. Some of the animal clans were quick to war, and some of them, like her own fox clan, stayed clear as long as they could. She valued peace as much as her mother did, and contritely, she reminded herself to behave this year.
Tonna had just begun her twentieth year, and she was a lithe woman with bronze skin and black, black hair. Her hair was straight as a stick, and she braided it in a plait that fell halfway down her back. Like most fox women, she was slender rather than curvy, but she walked with a swagger to her step that called the eye. All of her clan were known for their trickster ways, and ever since she turned seventeen, the only person she’d had an interest in teasing at all was Ulfrik, the only son of the wolf king.
Still and all, moots could be as tense as they were enjoyable, and she resolved to make sure she behaved herself. Then she thought about Ulfrik's face, his broad shoulders, and the incredulous look he could get when he realized that his waterskin had been filled with salt water, and she wondered how in the world she could ever resist.
It suddenly occurred to her that resisting might be the best trick ever, and her grin grew wider and wider.
***
Ulfrik had thought that he was prepared for anything after last year, when he found nearly a hundred slugs in his sleeping roll. Afterward, he had been impressed by the patience that must have gone in to collecting so many slugs alive for the prank, but when he discovered it by crawling into his sleeping roll, all he had been able to do was dance around in horror, shaking them off of his body.
One of his father's men had dutifully warned him when the fox clan arrived at the moot, and then he had looked at Ulfrik with a grin that was surely far too familiar. “Planning on having some trouble, Prince?”
Ulfrik's growl was nowhere near as loud as it would be some day, but it was still enough to send the man on his way. The wolf clan was among the most respected families in the north, and it did not suit to have their prince being made into a fool by a slip of a fox girl.
However, as was pointed out to him after every single one of Tonna's pranks, it was no shame to be tricked by a fox, and bearing it well was a sign of favor and luck. He couldn't think of how it might be lucky to take a gulp of saltwater, or to sleep with slugs or to find the handles of all his weapons dipped in lard, no matter how lovely Tonna herself was.
He shook his head, making his way to t
he square at the center of the moot encampment. It was where the traders set up shop, and he needed a distraction from his thoughts. If he were going to meet Tonna of the fox clan soon, he needed to be as calm as he could be.
He had met her three times now, each time at the moot. From the first moment Tonna laid eyes on him, it was like she had made it her personal quest in life to make him miserable. Less than four hours after their first hello, he had found stones in his shoe and a live bird had been secreted in his purse.
As he wandered from merchant to merchant, however, he found he couldn't take his mind off of the woman who bedeviled him every autumn.
He had his pick of the wolf girls of his own clan, and there were plenty of women from the other clans who had cast their eyes on him as well, but there was something about Tonna that caught his eye and held his attention. Maybe it was the sparkle in her golden eyes, or perhaps it was her easy gait as she strode from one joke to the next. The wolves were often known for their lack of humor, but perhaps for her, he would learn to laugh.
He was striding by a silversmith when one ring caught his eye. It was set with a golden citrine that reminded him of Tonna's bright gaze, and he hesitated over it a moment.
He could imagine it on her dark hand, he imagined presenting it to her, and then he sensed a presence by his elbow.
“That's a pretty one, isn't it?”
He started, and there she was. Tonna, dressed in a long red wool dress and with a late autumn primrose twisted into her braid, looked up at him with those disconcerting golden eyes, and he felt himself blush like a twelve-year-old boy.
“I...”
“That would look quite fair on the hand of your girl. Now who is she?”
“Girl? What do you mean?” he blurted.
“You know. Girl. Maybe it's that beautiful tall girl from the bear clans? You know, the one with the blue eyes? Or maybe it's the eldest daughter from the falcon clan. She's got a figure to turn heads all the way around.”
“I don't know what you mean,” he said defensively.
She shrugged, a touch of merriment still in her gaze. “Well, you know, I'm just being friendly, seeing as we're all here to meet and make friends. It's nice to see you again, Ulfrik.”
“Fine to see you as well, Tonna... you look well.” Ulfrik cursed himself for sounding as timid as a young boy. He had killed men in battle, he had wrestled down a stag with his bare hands, and now he was blushing and stammering like tongue-tied squire.
“I am well,” she said, and there was something solemn in her voice that made him look twice.
“Are you? You seem... a little different.”
“Ah yes, well, I suppose I have come to repent of my childish actions toward you over the past few years. I was hoping we could make a new start.”
“Of course we can,” he said automatically, and then he flinched when she stuck her hand out.
“Shake on it?” she said, a little touch of hopefulness in her voice. “I would feel better.”
He took her hand, but before he shook it, he held it up, examining her palm carefully.
“I'm not palming a slug, I promise.”
“I didn't think you were,” he lied, and they shook.
She took her leave with a cheerful wave, and he found himself looking after her a lot longer than he should have.
“Sir?”
He looked up, frowning automatically at the silversmith, who had a sly smile on his face.
“Perhaps you would be interested in the ring for a particular young lady of your acquaintance? It can be resized to suit.”
Ulfrik thought for a second, and then he nodded.
“Yes, first let me buy the ring, and then I am going to ask you if there's anything stuck to my body or my back where I cannot see it.”
***
By the second evening of the moot, Tonna's lip was bitten raw from holding in her laughter, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep it in. Even her own clan wasn't wise to her antics, though both her mother and her brother knew something was up.
“There's nothing going on,” she swore. “I'm just enjoying myself and acting like a polite young woman should.”
She was acting so politely that it was quietly driving the wolf prince mad. Whenever she came by, and she admitted that it was more often than she strictly needed to, he tensed. He always greeted her kindly, and he was always polite, but with every meeting that passed without some kind of prank or insult, he was growing more and more nervous.
Tonna had to say that there was more fun to it than she ever would have thought, and it would never have worked without years of pranking beforehand.
She was just thinking about walking by the wolf encampment again when an unexpected visitor showed up at her family's tent.
“Tonna? Are you there?”
It was the wolf prince himself, and she found her heart beating faster for some reason. So he had come to seek her out? Well, he certainly wasn't going to catch her unawares.
“Yes, Ulfrik? Are you looking for me?”
She stepped out into the sunlight, smiling at him sweetly, but to her surprise, he only shoved a small wooden box in her hand.
“For you,” he said stiffly, and while she was still looking at the box, he turned and walked away swiftly.
She was left staring after him, eyes wide, and by the time she remembered the little box in her hand, he was already gone.
When she opened it, she gasped. It was a beautiful little silver ring set with a small slender yellow stone, and as she turned it in the sunlight, it sparkled.
“That's pretty,” Aeson commented, walking by. “What's that for?”
“I don't know,” Tonna said, “but I'm going to find out!”
***
Finding out was easier said then done. For the next twenty-four hours, she found that there was no way in the world for her to get close to Ulfrik. She had heard that the wolves were masters of stealth, but she never knew that it would count for social situations as much as it would count for the woods and mountains where they lived and hunted.
Every time she thought that she was getting closer to the wolf prince, he disappeared again. Oftentimes, she would turn to catch him talking with this woman or that. She frowned when he was bowing over the hand of the blue-eyed bear girl, and when she saw him leaning in to whisper in the ear of the girl from the falcon clan, she gritted her teeth so hard she was surprised she hadn't snapped a tooth.
She lost him in the crowd, she just missed seeing him at a fencing lesson being given in the common area, and every time she thought she had him, she heard his voice from another spot. Whenever she thought she was going to give up and slink back to her camp, the golden stone in the ring she wore winked at her, and she pressed on.
Sometime around mid-morning of the next day, she caught him padding softly into the woods. It was the first time she had seen him alone in what felt like hours, but instead of calling to him, she slipped into the shadows behind him. Wolves were known for their stealth, but foxes were known for their slyness, and in a short moment, she dropped down to her fox form. She was small and delicate in her fox form, beautiful in her russet autumn coat, and slinking through the dappled fall shadows, she was nearly invisible.
He walked for a while, seemingly just out to enjoy the day, and soon enough he came to the small river that cut through the woodlands like a knife. He approached a tree that stood on the river bank, an ancient river oak with twisting roots, and suddenly, by taking just a step around the broad trunk, he seemed to disappear.
Tonna nearly barked with surprise, and she hesitated for a moment. Then the idea entered her head that he had been hurt, and she dashed over to where he had stood. Her mother always said that a wise fox looked before she dashed, but Tonna had never been terribly wise.
When she came to the spot where Ulfrik had disappeared, she realized two things nearly simultaneously. The first was that the ground gave way to a shallow beach directly below the tree, bordered on
three sides by the oak's ancient roots with the fourth side facing the water. The second thing she realized was that Ulfrik was directly below her and reaching for her with quick hands.
She yipped with fear, and she nearly bit him, but when she realized that she was being held with care, she looked up, tilting her head to one side with suspicion.
“You're a darling fox, but I think it's time to admit that you've been fairly caught,” Ulfrik said gravely, but it was plain for her to see that there was a sparkle of love in his eyes, of something humorous and wanting and desiring.
Hmmmph, we'll see about that. In the blink of an eye, he was holding a lithe young woman instead of a little vixen. Ulfrik was descended from a line of the most powerful wolves in the northern countries, and he didn't even stagger for a moment. Instead, he grinned, and he only held her a little tighter.
“You're lovely as a fox,” he said gamely, “but I'll admit to you that I much prefer this form.”
“You're up to something,” Tonna replied, her mouth set in a stubborn line. “Don't try to fool a vixen, sir, you will only have yourself to blame when something terrible happens to you.”
“I've only been honest,” he said, and the sly look on his face was worthy of the old fox that stole the moon and hid it in his granddaughter's ball.
“Honest?”
“You're wearing my ring,” he pointed out. “That was all I wanted.”
“What does it mean anyway?” she demanded. If she had a tail, it would be twitching with concern and testiness. It wasn't displeasure that she felt with Ulfrik, certainly. It was instead a tickle, a prickle of tension and a low curl of something in her belly that she couldn't quite name. Perhaps she was afraid to name it, but that was foolishness, wasn't it? She was a beautiful vixen descended from a long line of tricksters and fools. There was nothing to be afraid of.
Tales of the Golden Judge: 3-Book Bundle - Books 10-12 Page 1