by Radu Aldea
That was most likely true. Aleyna continued her conversation with Albert. Since the attack she didn’t find many things funny. “What if there isn’t a male senator in the lineage. Or if the son of a female senator isn’t yet an adult.” The examples were real and were standing next to her. Sarah didn’t have any male blood-relatives and Christian had only Marcia. The rest of his relatives had died before he became an adult.
“Then they are under the guardianship of the head of the family. They are organized in families, you know.” Aleyna had to admit he had all the answers. She didn’t know if he thought about this for a long time or was making it up as she asked the questions. She couldn’t help being a bit impressed. To have all the answers and every one of them wrong was quite a feat.
“Boy, don’t you see she is mocking you. She thinks you don’t know what you’re talking about and I can’t say I disagree.” This comment didn’t make Aleyna like him more. In fact, her dislike of him only grew. She was mocking Albert and hoped the idiot wouldn’t realize it. Everything was just fine until the bearded man ruined that.
“I wasn’t,” Aleyna lied. “I just didn’t want to miss an opportunity to learn about senators and it’s not every day that I meet someone who is related to one.”
“Sweetheart, I’ll be happy to tell you everything you want to know. Why don’t you join me for a private conversation?” Albert wasn’t giving up and she wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if she had been pleasant. She had been prickly and annoyed with everyone. And taking a lover was not a taboo to her. She had done that on occasion. Aleyna subscribed to senatorial ethics, which didn’t forbid female members of the Order to take lovers if they were of age, regardless of being married or not. And very powerful women senators were rarely married. Some, like Julia, had consorts, but they were human. A husband or a wife to a senator was by law a senator. Otherwise, they were consorts, which was just as good. Humans would call them promiscuous, if not whores, if they got an inkling of their sexual mores. Some of the women senators had just as many lovers as the men, if not more.
“That little liar,” Sarah whispered to her. “He has never met Julia. He is too scared to do that and Amanda wasn’t forthcoming with senator secrets.”
That explained that. “Why does he keep trying to get me in his bed?”
“Isn’t it obvious? He thinks you are incredibly attractive, which is very true, and he still thinks he’ll succeed, which is very wrong as far as I can see,” Christian answered her.
Aleyna knew Christian could be charming, but he never tried it on her. He knew she regarded him as a little brother. He wasn’t trying anything now either, he just did it automatically. This was why so many women swooned over him. That one didn’t need to command them to his bed, they fought to jump in. There was probably a waiting line.
“I don’t think so! But if your cousin ever asks, tell her… maybe,” Aleyna told Albert.
That got her a lot of snickers, including from Sarah, Christian and Thea. Aleyna was well aware this was like throwing oil on a fire and some people thought she and Kara were lovers. That rumor wasn’t true, but she had had enough of Albert and just wanted to shut him up.
“Sugar, you must’ve not met a real man, that’s why you like women.”
Again the bearded man was provoking her, which worked in her favor. “You think so? Are you sure you’re up to the task because I would love to be alone with you.”
“I promise you, you will know ecstasy unlike anything you’ve experienced before.”
Aleyna smiled. That’s what she wanted, but maybe she could think of a better solution.
“I’ll consider it,” she answered in an attempt to gain more time.
“I know what you are doing, Aleyna,” Sarah said to her. “He’s a master and you should let me deal with him.”
“That’s right! He is a master and you are not. We cannot betray our presence and he might have missing memories. Why don’t you check if that’s true?”
It was a hunch. Maybe it was the sorceress connection that kept popping up lately and the fact a duke from Suttland hired someone from so far away, but she wasn’t going to let Sarah risk her life or reveal their presence. The senator was more important. And Aleyna was the better fighter, taught by senators. She wasn’t going to lose a duel.
The men kept talking, but Aleyna didn’t really pay attention. Ilan was saying something about the power of the Sun God, she had heard it all before, and Gerick spoke of the need of a strong human leader in Suttland. He didn’t name himself, that was implied and everyone understood. She became interested again when the duke addressed the old man directly.
“Gunnar, we all have to contribute and you’ve accumulated quite a bit of gold.”
So Gunnar was the old man’s name. Somehow, it fit him. Sarah had been right. Gerick wanted the gold and his first move was to ask for it. He must’ve not been confident about his strategy, hence his back-up plan. Aleyna saw in the duke more than the need for gold. It was a demonstration of power and the unending desire to acquire more.
“I can’t do that. That gold does not belong to me. I’m only its guardian.”
“You are waiting for someone who has been probably dead for a very long time. And the senators who protected those lands are also gone,” the bearded man said.
This was not welcome news. Gerick and his friend obviously had knowledge about senators. They knew who had taken Aleyna, but mistakenly thought the senator protection was gone. And they may’ve been right if Aleyna had died on that field. Marcia and Reyna would have more important things to do than watching over her lands.
“Until I know for certain, I will continue keeping the gold safe,” Gunnar answered.
“You know,” Aleyna intervened, “those lands might still be protected by senators.”
“They’re not. Senators have better things to do than to watch over the lands and gold of a dead human,” the bearded man answered. “This is your last chance, old man!”
“It’s easy to be a big, strong man when you are threatening someone who is too old to defend himself. You are a coward. You won’t fight anyone who could pose a challenge.” Aleyna’s plan was simple. She just hoped the man was arrogant enough to fall for it.
“And you, a stupid woman, think you are good enough to fight me?”
“I think you wouldn’t last ten seconds in a duel with me?”
“Care to make a wager?”
“Sure. The first one to draw blood wins. If it’s you, I’ll be your slave for a week. I will obey your every order. Is that enough of a prize for you?”
“A month! You will be my slave for a month. What do you want in return?”
“All I want is to win and wipe that smirk off your face.”
“Sugar, that will never happen. If you win I’ll be your slave for a month. That seems fair.” That obnoxious man was grinning and Aleyna shrugged. “So when do we start?”
“Now is good!”
He agreed and Aleyna took out her two short swords. Sarah pleaded with her. “Aleyna, don’t do this. He is a master and I think he might have missing memories. I won’t be able to help you. You are too important to risk your life like this.”
“I’m important only if I’m alive. If I’m dead, I’m completely replaceable. I want a fair fight. They will know if it isn’t. Please, don’t interfere in any way.”
There were other people trying to stop the duel, but the voices melded into an unintelligible raucous. Aleyna couldn’t hear them. As always before a fight she was emptying her mind of all distractions. Somehow, Albert managed to reach her.
“Are you going to offer the same terms to me? I am a pretty good fighter and soon to become a master. Olav can testify to that.”
“Albert is good. I trained him myself, but he is not a master yet.”
Which meant Albert was one of those spoiled sons of lords who trained for an hour if it suited them and then went hunting or indulged in other activities that brought them pleasure. They didn�
��t listen to their tutors because they thought they knew better. “I can’t offer you the same opportunity, I’m afraid. Your cousin would not like it much.”
“You’re not accepting my challenge because you’re afraid of my cousin.”
Aleyna laughed. “I’m one of the few people in this world who are not afraid of her.”
“Then what are you afraid of?”
“Nothing! All my fears died on a field where I lost everything, drowned in blood and slaughter. I hope you’ll never know what it’s like to not be afraid.”
Her comments silenced the room and Aleyna could continue with her preparations for the duel. They probably should’ve gone outside, but they were both too impatient to delay this. The man’s weapon was a two-handed sword. She saw his pose. He was going to use the dancer on clouds combination. There were only a few moves in swordplay but they could be combined in a myriad of ways. Some of these attack or defense combinations had names. Dancer on clouds was an attack very difficult to defend against, but it demanded a high level of ability from the user. Unfortunately for him, the man didn’t know that dancer on clouds had a weakness, which she knew how to exploit.
Aleyna saw him begin his attack and it seemed to her he was moving in slow motion. She slid under his sword, deflected his blow with the blade in her left hand and stabbed him through the neck with the other one. She even managed to avoid most of his blood. By the time he hit the ground, and he was already dead by then, she was behind him.
The room was still silent or maybe now it was stunned. Nobody except Christian, Sarah and maybe Thea knew this was going to be a fight to the death. She managed to get a glimpse of Sarah and what she saw was awe. She had been right and the fight lasted less than ten seconds. Maybe it had been all over in one or two. She couldn’t tell. “First blood, I win!”
“She cheated,” Albert broke the silence. “This was not a fight to the death.”
“It was a duel and she obeyed the rules. She didn’t cheat,” Olav answered.
“She didn’t use two sides of twilight. Everybody knows that’s the counter to dancer on clouds,” Albert continued. Aleyna understood he was still shocked. One good thing that came out of this was that he didn’t want her in his bed anymore.
“Two sides of twilight is recommended against dancer on clouds, as it was thought to be the only viable defense. I never saw the combination she used before. That move means hundreds of hours of training. He was really good, but she was better. Who taught you?”
“Nobody. I practice about ten hours every day and pick up moves from anyone who is willing to teach me anything,” Aleyna answered him.
“What did you think, boy? That this is a pretty dance choreographed for your pleasure. This is killing. And as these things go, they’re always pretty fast. I’ve seen a few neophytes who thought they were good enough to challenge a master go down in a few seconds, but I’ve never seen a master taken down so quickly. And that man was a master. The way he moved and his speed proved it. Once he was committed to the attack it was too late for him to change anything, faced with the unexpected counterattack. She would’ve won anyway, she is better.” Then Gunnar turned to her. “You should be a master. Find two more to accept you and you’re one.” Aleyna was already a master, but the old man’s words warmed her. She felt the affection.
“You need one more master. I’ll vouch for you too,” Olav told her. “I’ve seen many warriors and sword-masters, but I don’t think any of them were quite that fast.”
When she returned to her friends Thea spoke. “By the goddess, that was so amazing. You were lightning-quick.” Faced with her questioning looks Sarah explained. “I’ve trained with masters, but that man was right, none are that fast. Can anyone defeat you?”
“Kara was just as fast and she usually won because she cheated by reading my mind. Julia is faster. You really don’t want to fight that one when she has her favorite weapons.”
“Lady Aleyna, very impressive, as always!” She didn’t recognize the voice and then she saw a face she really didn’t want to see so soon. Or maybe she did.
Chapter thirty
Maya pushed her horse to exhaustion. Soon she would have to change this one too. The mare was going to last less than the previous one. She would either stop or the horse would die and it would be a shame to lose her. Maya liked the black horse. They both blended in the night. She had been riding more than twelve hours a day and got little rest. Her destination was not far away. If she was lucky she would make it today, but the mare had to rest.
This time Maya didn’t cross the mountains, she went around them. As ravens flew the distance was greater, but she was sure she had gained time. This way she traveled faster and she could not risk any delays. She was going to be late and what really pricked at her was the feeling she was only going to be late by a few hours. Therburg was out there, just beyond her reach. It might as well be hundreds of miles away. If she got to a high vantage point she could probably see it. The hill baited her. Just one more climb, one more hilltop, her inner voice whispered. She tied her horse to a tree and started her ascent.
It was more time and energy consuming than she had thought. The climb didn’t seem so difficult when Maya looked at it. Soon, she regretted she didn’t have the endurance training of the other senators. She had heard the stories about some who went for days without sleep. She had stamina, but it didn’t come from endless hours of training.
The top came as a release. She breathed heavily, knowing she couldn’t have gone much further. In the distance, she saw Therburg with its walls and towers. The city didn’t look that far away. Her eyes could be deceiving her, mountains or cities sometimes appeared closer than they actually were. From what she was seeing she could be there in a few hours.
Maya returned to her horse. She couldn’t ride her, but she could walk beside the mare the rest of the way. And that’s how she approached the city two hours later. She knew before she reached the gates something was wrong. Usually a city was bustling in the middle of the day. Therburg greeted her with an eerie silence. Nobody was going in or leaving.
Soldiers were guarding the gates and she suspected there were more of them than usual. And then Maya saw their crest. It was Nestor’s, the head of the only senatorial house in Riffland. She knew a few things about him. What he lacked in power he more than made up in cruelty. Things were changing and not in Nestor’s favor. Riffland was caught between the giants, Suttland and Cuttland. To the south, separated from Riffland by the Nerulian Mountains, was Wessland. Usually Maya would be the first to disregard Wessland, the peninsula some believed should not be considered part of the empire or thought about as an unimportant appendage, at best, but they did have a Circle of Five member. And someone who was Circle was a very valuable commodity, worthy of an alliance. As she saw it, Nestor was living on borrowed time. Riffland acted as a buffer between the three provinces. That was the only reason it had some autonomy. But war was coming and someone would win it and whoever did, Cuttland or Suttland, would extend its dominion over Riffland. There were other aspirants, namely Essland, yet Maya was sure it lacked the resources and manpower.
“I am Maya, an emissary of Lord Robert Castus. I want to talk to your master.” The guards eyed her carefully. She had sent word she was coming, but that didn’t mean anything. Nestor could meet her or send her on her way or try to kill her. Sure, the last outcome seemed highly unlikely, he had nothing to gain, yet there was always the possibility Maya would annoy him enough and make him resort to desperate measures. She knew she had a gift.
A guard took her to the square of the city. Therburg was not that large, it only had the one. She could’ve found it without help, some inexplicable force was drawing her there. Therburg was one of the few planned cities, rectangular-shaped and with parallel and perpendicular streets. Finding her way to the square was not that difficult. It was practically impossible to get lost in a city like this.
If she hadn’t known any better, she would’ve though
t she was walking in a ghost town. All the windows and doors were firmly closed. None of the shops or taverns was open in the middle of the day. In fact, the only other humans she saw were soldiers. They too wore crests, mostly of other Riffland senators. Maya reckoned half the battle-senators of the province were there, even though she saw a few other emblems and guessing the rest had other sectors of the city to control, which was why the soldiers were patrolling the streets.
She was not surprised by what she found in the market. A large crowd was watching a podium. They were separated from another group by more than a thousand soldiers. And she had been right, half of Riffland’s battle-senators were in that square, including Nestor.
Maya knew something bad was happening, but she was not sure what. The people in the smaller crowd looked downtrodden and pitiful. It wasn’t until she got closer and saw the bodies at the base of the podium that she understood. The people in the smaller crowd were all condemned to death. Nestor was insane. He was going to kill hundreds of people. Tens were already dead. As she walked through the crowd assembled there she could feel the smoldering anger in their quiet. This place was about to blow and if it did, a lot more people were going to die. There were too many senators here, the humans could not win. And if they revolted in mass, which was very likely, the Order would kill all of them, tear down the buildings and salt the ground. This was something senators haven’t done even during the Great War.
Maya heard Nestor speak. “Do you think this is Suttland? That you can defy us openly? This is the price you pay for your disobedience. This is our message for others who share similar thoughts. We are the only power in this world and we will not be challenged.”
Another ten people walked up to the podium and threw down the bodies that were already there. They picked up daggers and stabbed themselves in the stomach. Maya was stunned for a moment by the gruesome scene. Seemingly, nobody made them kill themselves, although that might take a while – stomach wounds were fatal, it just took a while and were incredibly painful – but Maya knew better. She had seen the terror in their eyes. There was nothing they could do, a senatorial command had to be obeyed, even if it cost a human his life.