“Lord Mott, I hope your journey was quick.”
The older man nodded. His face worn by years under the sun, his skin was nearly as leathery as Mariah’s boots. “It was, M’lord. Despite the cold.”
His voice was rough and gravelly, which seemed to suit his appearance. He was the Lord Governor of Salva, the southernmost province and border to the Southern Territories. His people lived a hard life in a sparsely populated land dense with forests and swamps. Hunting and trapping was what his people knew best.
“It must be quite a deal cooler up here than you’re used to.”
He hummed agreement and nodded. Cold ‘n’ dry ‘n’ windy.
“I understand you wished to request soldier reinforcement.”
Not wish . . . need help. Desperate. “Yes, Sire.” Cursed thieves. “More and more bandits are coming up from the Territories.” Hate that I’m here. Should’ve been able to do this myself. Don’t want to ask. Have no choice. . . . “My own militia is starting to be out matched, even in my own swamps.”
Mariah didn’t need magic to hear how angry Lord Mott was. It bled through in his stilted words. For years, Micah’s family had been trying to get Mott to allow them to send soldiers down to help secure the border. Every time they were denied. He could handle it, he said. His militia will deal with them, he’d say. It was his problem to fix, he’d growl. His family was a proud one. Nearly as old as the first clans, they protected what was theirs. It truly must be getting bad if he was here asking for aid instead of waiting for it to be offered when he could begrudgingly accept.
“You know I am more than willing to aid you in any way. How many soldiers would you require?”
“Not many, not too many.” Gods, I’ll take the whole army. Thieves. Murderers. Taking my women. “Perhaps a . . . a few dozen?”
Mariah twitched her hand and Micah turned to her. “Yes, Captain?”
“My Lord, what are the bandits doing that has prompted this? Have their raids increased that much?”
The weathered man glared at her and she felt his anger seething in him. “Before they just stole crops, looted merchant trains.” Piss poor excuses of men. “This last year they started hunting our alligators. This I could handle.” Slit their throats myself. Hunting my gators. Taking my meat. “But then they started plundering villages. First there were few casualties but then they started murdering men and raping my women. This—” he took a breath to control himself. “This I do not stand. This I do not tolerate. Because of this I come asking for aid I would never have considered before.”
Micah leaned forward. “When did this start?”
“Spring, Sire.”
And you’re just coming for aid now? Foolish. Stupid. Proud. Foolish man. I could’ve stopped this so long ago. Should’ve sent soldiers last fall. My fault. Should’ve forced my rule. My fault. Micah took a deep breath and Mariah had do give him credit for hiding so much of the anger from his voice. “You should’ve come for aid sooner; your pride be damned.” He held up his hand when the Lord opened his mouth to argue. “You will have fifty of my soldiers to secure your border as well as food and medicine for your injured.”
Lord Mott nodded. Good many. More soldiers. He didn’t make me ask. Beg. Look a fool for my boy. “Yes, Sire.”
“I want regular reports on the progress, Lord Mott. My soldiers will know to do the same. If your reports don’t match my men’s I will take control of this situation, do you understand?”
Take my land. Yes, I understand. I will not give you a reason to take what is mine. “I do, M’lord.”
“Then if there is nothing else, My Lord, have a safe journey home. My soldiers will follow you shortly. And Mott,” the king’s voice was harsh. “Hold something like this from me again and I will not be kind.”
Lord Mott’s cheeks flashed red and his hands clenched but he bowed. His skittish son echoed the bow and hurried from the room. Micah waved at the doors and his steward closed them behind him as he left. Mariah came around to face him.
“This is not your fault.”
Micah just glared at her and clenched his jaw. Not directly, but the fault is the same. “If they are raping women, Captain, what do you think they are doing to the children?”
Mariah tried not to blanch, but the same thing had occurred to her. “They are getting bolder.”
Yesyesyesyesyes. What do I do? How do I stop them? What do they want? “Yes, but why now? For years, the clans in the Southern Territories have been more or less harmless. They hardly crossed the border and when they did it was never this catastrophic. What has changed?”
Mariah didn’t know and didn’t have anything comforting to say.
“The timing is a bit odd, though. Wouldn’t you say?”
“How so?” Mariah asked.
“Within months of us learning of a plot to overtake the throne, a possible military coup, the border clans start acting up; causing such problems I’m forced to send a large number of my troops south. That doesn’t seem odd to you?”
“Now that you say it like that. Do you think it is a plot to thin your ranks?”
Micah rubbed his chin. “I do not know. It seems I am suspicious of everything now. Is Lord Mott in on the coup? Or is he an innocent bystander and the Territory clans are the ones in league? Or am I just crazy and this is nothing more than the gods being cruel?”
Mariah stood and let him talk out his thoughts, his mind moving so fast and in so many different directions she couldn’t keep up.
“If it truly is part of the plan to overthrow me, then I can’t risk sending many troops. However, if I am wrong and I don’t send enough soldiers to aid Lord Mott, I am sentencing women and children and men to cruel deaths at the hands of marauders.”
“I do not think Lord Mott is part of any ploy that may exist. He was honestly relieved to have your soldiers aiding him. He is furious at what is happening and he blames himself for not being able to protect his own people.”
Micah nodded at that.
“How do intend to treat this?”
Micah looked out the window and Mariah waited for him to shift through his thoughts. I wonder what Rose’s take would be. She always seems to have such interesting insights.
A stream of emotion and thoughts bombarded Mariah, then. She had to block her magic at the flow of thoughts and feelings that flooded her mind. She pictured her ocean where she’d grown up as a girl and the towering wall of water that blocked out all the noise; the water rising up from the rocky coast in a giant wave. Up and up it moved until all she could see was a towering wall of water.
It took so much effort to put up this wall that silenced her magic she rarely bothered with it. But the flooding of emotion from Micah and the chaos of thoughts that burst from the king was overwhelming. It created a problem she didn’t want to deal with.
Mariah held her walls of water, her hearing silenced, until she saw Micah turn away from the window. She let her water crash back into the ocean, and the steady hum of ambient noise/thought returned.
“I will treat this as it is. If it truly is a ploy to weaken my forces, fifty men will not make that large a difference in the end. If it is just a plea for aid then I am duty bound to help. I cannot turn that plea aside if it is a ploy or not.”
Mariah felt a bit a pride for her little king. He knew what he was doing, and he was proving to be a just king. His grandmother would’ve been so proud of him.
Micah reached into his desk drawer and pulled out an envelope labeled with gold ink and his seal on the back. “Please deliver this to Miss Trewin.”
Mariah took the fancy letter with its heavy paper. “Her invitation?”
He nodded.
“Do you really think she’ll be able to . . . .” Do anything? She finished in her head.
Micah stared out the
window.
“You told me once magic calls to like magic. If Rose is correct and this assassin has magic similar to hers, I hope she will find it.”
“We are putting a lot of hope in a woman we know little about. She has a past and we do not yet know if that past will be a problem.”
He frowned just as hard and a flurry of angry contradicting thoughts swarmed her. Yes. No. Cannot pass up the opportunity. Do not want her to attend. Want to see her. Do not want to use her. “She has been helpful thus far. Perhaps it will, but I think it’s worth it.”
“I understand.”
“Thank you, Captain, for sitting in on that meeting.”
“I am always at your service, Sire.”
He rubbed his eyes and pulled out another stack of parchment. “I do not think I’ll need you any more today.”
Mariah nodded. “Good day, Sire.”
She retreated from the audience room and turned back toward her wing. Now that she had the time, a promotion was in order.
“Me?” Erik stared wide-eyed at her.
“Yes you, Erik. You’ve been here nearly the longest; well, you have been here the longest now that Nico is gone. You are the most senior officer I have.” Her heart ached but Mariah had to keep a straight face.
Erik’s face dropped. “Yeah, I am now, aren’t I?” Sadness that had no words rippled from Erik and Mariah struggled to keep a straight face against the onslaught.
“I have needed a First Lieutenant for a long time and you are more than qualified for the position. You do half the work as it is now.”
“Does that mean I’m going to get paid for all that now?”
Mariah clucked her tongue a bit louder than she meant. “Yes, your pay will go up. But your responsibilities will as well.”
Erik straightened in his seat. “Yes, ma’am. I know that, ma’am.” You’re not just the groundskeepers’ kid anymore.
“Relax, Mr. Tulig,” Mariah laughed at his cringe. Mr. Tulig had always been his father’s name. “You’ve called me ma’am more just now than I think you ever have in your tenure here. Besides you have not been the groundskeepers’ boy for a long time. You’ve carved out your own place.”
Erik gave her a sheepish nod.
“Very well then, First Lieutenant, I’ll run the paperwork past the king tomorrow for his approval and then we’ll start settling you into your new place.”
Mariah saw the concern in his eyes before she heard his thoughts.
The king needs to approve? Does he even know who I am? He doesn’t know who I am. He’ll never agree to this.
Mariah reached over and gripped his chin between her thumb and finger. “Erik Tulig.”
He froze, thoughts and all.
“There is no reason the king would deny you a promotion because of what your parents did for a living. Besides there was nothing wrong with what they did or have you forgotten Micah’s grandmother’s love for her Rose Garden?”
“But—”
“Who do you think helped her build it? Certainly, not her by herself. Your parents did, and the king knows this.”
Erik’s eyes stayed wide but he nodded against her firm grip on his chin. Mariah released his chin and sat back in her chair and pointedly ignored his mangled stream of thought. She pretended to read through reports on her desk while he gathered himself together. When he finally looked back at her she dropped the papers.
“Oh.”
“Erik, Micah is not his parents.”
Thank the gods for that. “Yes, ma’am. This he isn’t. Thank you, and . . . thank him for me as well.”
Mariah nodded and Erik quietly slipped through the door.
Mariah turned to the invitation sitting on her desk. With a sigh, she picked it up and headed in search for Rose. This day was stretching on and on. Her head pounded, and Mariah wanted nothing more than to sleep.
She found her sitting in the Common Room, papers all over the center table. Rose was sitting on the floor with more papers scattered around her, with a few more behind her on the beat up old sofa.
“What is this?”
Rose looked up at her and glared. “Your books.”
Ah. Mariah held back a chuckle at the mess and the scene before her. “I have something for you.”
Dear gods let it not be something to add to this disaster. “What is it?”
Mariah walked around the table and sat on her overstuffed chair across from Rose. She held out the invitation to her. Rose looked up from her numbers and stared at it a moment before taking it from her. She watched as Rose held it almost daintily and turned it over and over in her hands.
“To the Ball, I presume?”
Mariah nodded at her. Rose nodded back and tucked it into her inner breast pocket.
“Rose, I wanted to talk to you about that evening, and what to expect.” Rose set her pencil down and finally gave Mariah her full attention. Mariah took a deep breath and continued. “There is a chance that you will be targeted since he’s come after you once already and—”
“He can find me with my magic,” Rose interrupted. “There is quite the chance he’ll come after me first. I know.”
Mariah stared at the girl longer than she intended. “Why do you think that?”
Because I would. “Seems likely,” she said with a shrug.
Mariah eyed Rose but held back pressing her about the thought. The girl had a bloody history. Just how bloody, Mariah was still trying to figure out, but pressing her would get Mariah nowhere. For the time, it seemed best to watch her and listen. There were many things Rose said when she wasn’t speaking.
“If you wish to change your mind, the king will understand.”
Rose just shook her head and went back to her numbers and scattered pages. Mariah stayed and watched her for a few seconds before leaving. The girl had more steel to her than Mariah had first thought. She shook her head and headed to her next task.
Chapter 27
Rose?”
Rose looked over her shoulder. “Yes, Clara?”
The little girl walked into the grotto and heaved herself up onto the bench next to Rose. “Whatchya doing?”
“Thinking, listening to the birds sing.”
Clara looked around then back at Rose. “What are you thinking about?”
Rose twirled her fingers in the end of her braid. “Where I’m going after the Ball. If I’m going.”
Clara pounced on Rose and she grunted as Clara’s knee jabbed her in her stomach. “You’re leaving?”
“I don’t know.” She wheezed and eased the angry child off her. “I might stay. I haven’t decided.”
“Oh,” the girl pouted. “Well I guess you have to go back to your family.”
“No.” Rose watched the flowers. “No, if I leave I’m not going there.”
“Doesn’t your family miss you?”
Doubtful. “My father might. But I don’t miss him.”
Clara sat back, her feet barely hanging off the edge of the bench. “I miss my mum.”
Rose looked down at the little girl who was staring at her hands in her lap. “The captain is here, and your father. I hear Archie has been very excited to have you helping him. And I hear your mother is coming eventually.”
Clara stared at her lap. “I don’t know da. He left a long time ago.”
“He didn’t leave you. He went to work and now you can get to know him. Don’t think he left you. There’s a difference.”
Clara stared at her. “What’s the difference?”
“He came back for you,” Rose said. “He wants to know you.”
Clara frowned. “How do you know?”
Rose leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Because my mum did not come back.” Rose leaned back and smiled, albeit a l
ittle sadly. “Give your da time. You will be happier for it.”
Clara nodded, a frown creased between her brows. “Okay. I’ll try. But he’s weird.”
Rose chuckled. “A little bit.”
Clara jumped down and wandered off through the bushes without any word or warning.
“That was nice.”
Rose turned around to see Erik walking up to her. “Would you have said something different?”
He sat next to her and crossed his legs at his ankles. “No.” He bumped her with his elbow. “Still nice, though.”
Rose smiled sadly. “I know what she’s feeling. It’s difficult to have a parent disappear.”
Erik watched the side of her face since she refused to meet the question in his eyes. “You’re not going to explain, are you?”
“Nope.”
“All right.”
She chewed her lip a moment. “You’ve been here your whole life, right?”
He nodded and leaned back. “Yes.”
“Do you remember when Luci joined the Light Horse.”
“Sure. A few years ago, I think.”
She leaned as well. “You must know a lot about her, then. Does she miss her family?”
He frowned and looked at her. “No, not that I know. I don’t think she has much of a family left. She came after a summer fever killed most of her family. The Light Horse really became a bit like her new family.”
“And Nico?”
“Oh, she was taken with him, there’s no doubt. She mooned after him. Nico was a kind soul. He let her moon and treated her like his little sister, but everyone knew he had someone else. No one knew who though.” He sighed and there was sadness in it. “He was a secretive bastard when he wanted to be.”
Rose nodded and let the silence come back for a time.
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