The Queen's Blade V - Master of the Dance

by T C Southwell

  The Queen's Blade V

  Master of the Dance

  T C Southwell

  Published by T C Southwell at Smashwords

  Copyright © 2010 T C Southwell

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Prologue

  In her endeavour to end the Endless War that had raged between her kingdom and the Cotti for more than seven centuries, Queen Minna-Satu, ruler of the Jashimari, heeded the advice of Shamsara, Idol of the Beasts, who said that when a child who was neither Jashimari nor Cotti sat upon the Jashimari throne, there would be peace. After scores of her soldiers failed the task, Minna-Satu sent an assassin to slay the Cotti King and bring his son to her, alive. Blade succeeded, and thus the Master of the Dance in Jondar became the Queen's Blade.

  As soon as she was certain that she bore his child, Minna-Satu sent Kerrion back to his desert kingdom. Before the Princess was born, however, the kingdom of Contara invaded Jashimari, which, weakened by war, could not prevail against two foes. When the Cotti King reached Jondar, Minna-Satu took the Queen's Cup, a painless poison, to make Kerrion's daughter the Jashimari Queen and save her people. Kerrion, however, went to Shamsara and got the antidote for the Queen's Cup. He honoured his daughter's heritage and drove out the Contara, then gave Minna-Satu and Blade the antidote and took them to Cotti.

  The elder Jashimari Queen was in grave danger in Jadaya, and the King needed Blade's skills to keep her safe. The assassin's hatred of the Cotti, however, ensured that he was not a willing cohort in that endeavour. Kerrion imprisoned him, but Minna-Satu persuaded Blade to obey her, and he slew several princes at her behest. The Cotti King found Blade’s only surviving sibling, his older sister, but a prince murdered her. Blade returned to Jondar and retired, moving to his estate. Prince Armin tracked him down and tried to force him to claim Kerrion as his employer before judges, thereby condemning Kerrion and Minna-Satu. Blade refuses, even though his is tortured, and Chiana sends soldiers to free him.

  At the palace, Blade foiled Armin’s attempt to kill the infant Queen, but was mortally wounded himself. Shamsara rushed to save him, claiming that Blade’s destiny was not yet fulfilled, and if he died, the streets of Jondar would one day run with blood. In order to heal Blade, Shamsara gave him many years of his life. Furious, Blade vanished for fifteen years.

  Then, Prince Trelath and Endor kidnapped Minna-Satu and tried to force Kerrion to allow Endor to rule Jashimari, but Blade took Queen Kerra into hiding and, after striking a bargain with Shamsara for the rebirth of his familiar, journeyed into the desert and found Minna-Satu, returning her to Kerrion in Jadaya.

  Chapter One

  The morning sun burnished Queen Kerra-Manu's tawny hair as she trod the path that led to the hidden garden within the Cotti King's palace. As the daughter of the Cotti King and former Jashimari Queen, Kerra's complexion was paler than a full-blooded Cotti, and remained so despite the tendays she had recently spent in the desert. Her immature features held the promise of a beauty that would one day rival her mother's.

  Queen Minna-Satu strolled beside her, a slight smile curling her sensual lips, her azure eyes, which Kerra had inherited, alight with excitement. Her complexion remained pale even after sixteen years in the desert Kingdom of Cotti, for she stayed out of the sun. Time had taken its toll upon her beauty, however, as had her recent ordeal at the hands of Kerrion's younger half-brother, Prince Trelath, and faint lines bracketed her mouth and wrinkled the corners of her eyes.

  The queens entered the lush tropical garden, where a slender, black-clad man stretched on the paving stones beside a fountain. He turned at their entry, and Kerra allowed her eyes to linger upon him. Short jet hair framed his sculpted features, whose fineness set him apart from the usually coarser inclination of his sex. His narrow nose and sensual mouth gave him an aristocratic look, and his level brows were drawn together in a slight frown.

  Like Minna-Satu, he possessed the pale skin of a full-blooded Jashimari, a little tanned now due to the tendays he had spent in the desert. He radiated an air of subdued menace, and the pale grey eyes he raised to meet Kerra's held the freezing chill of a midwinter blizzard. A ring of darkness encircled the ice-pale irises, like storm clouds bordering a grim sky. Although older than Minna-Satu, he showed little signs of ageing, his skin as smooth as a young boy's, a legacy of his castration as a child. Most people, Kerra reflected, would fear him, for he was the deadliest assassin in all of Jashimari, and, in all likelihood, the Kingdoms of Cotti and Contara too. Few would not be uneasy in the presence of the Queen's Blade, and fewer still had survived a night time visit from him.

  Kerra would have gone forward to greet him, but Minna drew her aside and bade her sit on a stone bench nearby.

  "Watch," the Elder Queen advised.

  Puzzled, Kerra sat down and gazed at the assassin. Blade bent to press his forehead to his knees, then straightened and raised his arms. He tapped a foot, looking pensive, then, to her amazement, he spun and leapt, landing lightly, his shoes tapping out a distinct cadence on the stones. Her mouth dropped open as he leapt again, seeming to hang in the air as he kicked his heels up behind him, then landed in a running set of fast foot-crossing taps. He made another mighty leap, lashing out with stiff legs that crossed in mid-air, striking together with a sharp report.

  Again he landed gracefully, and performed a set of stamping steps, floating over the ground on blurring feet. He spread his arms and executed several forward kicks, flicking his lower leg sideways at the knee, his boots striking together each time with sharp clicks. Sweat gleamed on his brow as he set off on a series of graceful leaps that carried him high into the air, clicking his heels together at the pinnacle of each jump and landing in a rhythm of tapping that defied her eyes to follow his feet. He added a high forward kick, using his arms to aid his balance, his sweeping gestures adding to the strange beauty of his dance.

  Kerra had never seen such an enthralling display of grace, agility, speed, stamina and strength. The years of practice that must have gone into the performance brought a fresh rush of admiration and respect for the taciturn assassin. The dance entranced her; she could not tear her eyes from him as he whirled and le
apt, his feet beating out a perfect tattoo on the stones. No flaw marred his dance, no hesitation or loss of rhythm, even though the feat clearly taxed him.

  When it seemed impossible that he could keep up his exertions any longer without collapsing from exhaustion, he made a final leap, falling to one knee as he landed, then rose and stood panting. Sweat streaked his cheeks and dripped from his chin, and he turned away to strip off his shirt and splash his chest and face with water from the fountain. After wiping himself dry with his shirt, he donned a clean one and walked over to the women, bowing to Minna-Satu.

  "My Queen."

  "My Lord. I have missed witnessing this spectacular dance of yours all these years. It is good to see it performed again. And you appear as good as you ever were."

  "A little out of practice, I am afraid. I have had no chance to exercise for some time now."

  She stood up. "Here is Kerra, as you wished. I shall leave you to whatever it is for which you have asked her here."

  Blade bowed to the Elder Queen. "My Queen."

  He turned to Kerra as Minna left, eyeing her gown. "It would have been better if you had worn trousers, but I suppose you will be dressed this way if you ever have to use the skills I am about to teach you. Stand up."

  She obeyed, and he raised a hand to tap the centre of his chest, just to the left of his breast bone. "This is the best place to stab a man, through the heart. If you get it right, he will drop dead on the spot. If you miss, he will be badly wounded, and should die within a few time-glasses or minutes, depending on what you hit. Remember this spot. The neck is another good place, although it is messy, and you are likely to get covered in blood. Here, on the side, where you can feel a pulse in your own."

  Blade waited while she fingered her neck, found the pulse and nodded. Drawing a dagger from his belt, he held it point upwards, as one would hold a flower or hairbrush. "This is the correct way to hold a dagger, not with the point down. You thrust it in like you were poking a stick, and you need to do it fairly hard. Hold it firmly, because if you hit a bone, you could hurt yourself."

  Putting the dagger away, he stepped closer to her. "If you choose to sleep in my room, you will not be in any danger from an assassin, against whom you will have no chance anyway. There is no point in teaching you how to fight; you do not have the strength or the temperament for it."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Your instincts are all wrong. You have never been in danger, and if someone attacked you, you would be indignant or outraged, maybe startled."

  She raised her brows. "And what should I be?"

  "Afraid. Fear is something else you have not experienced. That is what makes your heart pound and speeds up your reactions. Without it, you will be far too slow, and that is something I cannot teach you."

  "I disagree. What do you think made me ask you to guard me, if not fear?"

  "That is not true fear. Mild trepidation is more like it. Anxiety would also be accurate, but it is not the sort of fear I am talking about. What did you feel when those thugs grabbed you in the inn?"

  "I was terrified!"

  He smiled, shaking his head. "Describe your physical reaction."

  "I fought them. I grabbed the sheets and screamed."

  "That is not fear, it is outrage and struggle. Fear makes your stomach knot and your heart pound. It makes you hair prickle and your hands sweat. You knew those men were not going to kill you, or at least that is what you assumed, is it not?"

  She frowned. "I suppose so. I did not have time to think about it."

  "Exactly. Fear is not an instinctive reaction for you. If you have to think about it, you will be dead. You have been raised surrounded by guards and nannies who would have given their lives to protect you, and you knew it.

  "You would, of course, experience it if you had enough time to realise that your life was in danger, but by then it would be too late. It would take months to teach you to react violently to an attack. If struck, a fighter's response would be to hit back, but you would probably be too shocked to do anything at first, and then you would either run or scream for help."

  "What would you do if someone hit you?"

  "Duck. I have taught you to sense the presence of someone you cannot see, so use it. Always be alert, even when the guards are around, for they will not stop a Prince. Keep a small dagger hidden where you can reach it quickly, and do not be afraid to use it. The Princes will not expect you to defend yourself, so that gives you an advantage."

  Blade turned away, and Kerra protested, "Is that all you will teach me?"

  He faced her again. "What more do you want?"

  "Show me how to stab someone, let me practice it. Teach me to throw a dagger."

  "I have shown you how to stab someone, and learning to throw a dagger would take too long."

  She followed as he went to the fountain to gather up his wet shirt. "Let me practice on you then."

  "Tomorrow. I would like to bathe now, and have my breakfast."

  Kerra stood gazing after him as he strode from the garden, then followed, returning to her rooms for breakfast.

  Chiana sat before the dressing table mirror and gazed at her haggard, dull-eyed reflection with a heavy heart. As she had trained herself to do over the last several tendays, she did not dwell upon the atrocities and humiliations Prince Endor had heaped upon her. Instead, she concentrated on the business of running the country, keeping hot-headed lords in check and reassuring others of her continued well-being, while attending to her everyday duties. She had heard nothing from Kerrion, but then, Endor intercepted all of her messages. Her only joy was her husband's continued freedom, which brought a warm glow to her heart whenever she thought about it.

  Endor raged about it often, and spent time-glasses venting his drunken spleen, shouting insults and threats at her. He kept her familiar as his hostage, so she dared not speak in her defence. Recently, he had started drinking more, abusing the servants and even his men, so that many of the serving maids had fled. She wondered when this terrible situation would end, praying it would be before she snapped under the pressure. Only two of her handmaidens attended her this morning, and they worked silently, their faces glum.

  Chiana was surprised when the maid who was arranging her hair bent closer and whispered, "The Cotti guards are gone, My Lady."

  "Gone?" Chiana looked up at the girl. "Where?"

  "We do not know, but they are not in the palace."

  "None of them?"

  The girl shook her head. "We did not see any on our way here."

  "What about Endor?"

  "No one has seen him today either."

  "He could be sleeping off last night's binge."

  "But his men are gone."

  Chiana fought to quell the surge of delight that swelled her heart. "Go to Endor's room and see if he is there. If he is not, go to the barracks and summon Redgard. Tell him to bring his men."

  "Yes, My Lady." The girl put down the hairbrush and left.

  Almost half a time-glass later, the maid returned with Redgard, whom Chiana had not seen since Endor had forced her to order her men to their barracks. She sat in her day room, and Redgard stopped before her to bow, then sank down on a cushion when she gestured to it. She wasted no time on niceties.

  "Where is Endor?"

  "As far as I can tell, he is gone, Regent. My men are searching the city now, but he is not in the palace."

  A wave of joy rushed through her, warmed her cheeks and curved her lips. "Then Kerrion has found his wife, and it is over."

  Redgard smiled. "It would appear so, My Lady."

  "Send a message to Kerrion by bird, asking for confirmation. I do not want to go after Endor unless his wife is safe."

  "I am certain she is, Regent. Why else would Endor have stolen away in the night?"

  "Why did Kerrion not inform me, then?"

  "He probably did, and Endor got his message."

  Chiana looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap. "Where is my familiar?"


  Redgard's expression became mournful. "We cannot find her or the cage she was in. I think Endor took her with him."

  "To stop me from sending men after him. But I do not believe he will release her."

  "He may."

  "You do not believe that any more than I do, Redgard. Be honest."

  The guard captain shook his head. "He is not the sort of man to give back what he has stolen."

  "He will kill her, once he is far enough away. It will be his revenge for the failure of his plan." Chiana covered her mouth as it twisted with grief.

  "What shall I do, Regent?"

  "Find me the assassin who was once Blade's apprentice. If he can reach Endor before he kills Inka, perhaps she can be saved."

  "You are going to order Endor's death?"

  She nodded. "It was the price Blade demanded for hiding Queen Kerra, and I was not reluctant to grant it. Now, I am happy to do it."

  "Do you know this assassin's name?"

  "No. But if you ask for Blade's apprentice, I am sure you will find him."

  "I hope he is as good as his mentor, My Lady."

  "I wish Blade was here to do it."

  "Indeed." Redgard inclined his head. "Is there anything else?"

  "Replace your men at their posts. Everything is to return to normal."

  Redgard rose and bowed. "I shall see to it, Regent."

  Chiana ordered a bottle of wine and drank a cup to settle her nerves, trying not to think about the danger her familiar was in. Now that Endor's plan had failed, he would have no more use for Inka, and killing her would undoubtedly give him a great deal of satisfaction. She went to her study at the usual time, glad to find her men back at their posts and the servants smiling. As soon as the news spread, Armelin and Insash came to see her, offering advice and comfort. They agreed that Endor would kill Inka as soon as he felt he was a safe distance from the city, which added to Chiana's worry.