Burn (Dragon Souls) (22 page)

Vadik wrongly assumed the youth carried a weapon.

Blocking his attack, viper-quick with her thrusting arm to knock him back, Marina smoothly accepted the pretty bloom and sent the brave, if somewhat shaken, youngster off with a kiss to his cheek.

Most of the afternoon passed uneventfully.

Then Marina spotted a group of Citadel soldiers harassing a group of beggars. She wandered closer, particularly worried at the rough treatment a guard dolled out to a scraggly child whose clothes were more rags than coverings.

The solider grabbed the urchin by the scruff of the neck as the others scattered like roaches.

The waif squirmed trying to break free. “I
did not
steal it.” The high voice identified the dirt-encrusted urchin as a girl. She kicked the soldier’s shin. “Let go.”

“Give me that.” The solider grabbed for the bundle the child clutched to her flat chest. “You are lucky I do not haul you in for thievery.”

“They gave it to me. Alms included food this morning.”

“Liar.” The soldier snagged the edge of the napkin and yanked. A bread roll, a bruised firefruit and a slice of meat tumbled to the floor. “None of the Houses give away fresh food.”

Wailing in distress, the girl dropped to her knees to gather up the humble meal.

Seeing the emblem on the napkin, Marina knew exactly where the food had come from. Before she could arbitrate, a husky voice demanded, “What happens here?”

The hairs on the back of Marina’s neck rose. The otherness gripped her tightly as it crouched, urging caution. Shivering, her skin goose pimpled, and for once she listened to the inner presence without hesitation.

After all, the otherness was just a manifestation of her more primal instincts.

She retreated to watch from the shelter of a jewellers stall. Humming in irritation, she impatiently waved a vendor aside when he tried draping strings of pearls along her neck.

The belligerent soldier spared a heated glance up, clearly pissed at the interference of his assigned duties.

He sneered threateningly until he spotted the broad shouldered Dragon Lord addressing him. His surly expression was replaced with thinly veiled intolerance.

“Catching a thief,
my Lord
.” He emphasised the last two words with more than a touch of sarcasm. “Be on your way.”

Marina blinked, stunned, and more intrigued.

She’d never seen such disrespect to a member of the gentry, especially not from one of the Red Citadel guards, from who she’d seen only blind loyalty and consummate deference to the Dragon Lords.

“Is that what she supposedly stole?” The Dragon Lord pointed to the now dirt speckled food. The fringe of his straight, spiky hair fell into his eyes, and the ice-white tail of his mohawk fell to middle back in a lustrous stroke. “Because she did not.”

“Look, this is none of your affair, snake tail.”

Tensing, Vadik hissed. The Dragon Men of House Ryu muttered angrily between themselves, and Marina guessed a severe insult had been dealt.

The Dragon Lord tilted his chin and narrowed his eyes to foreboding slits of luminous silver. “I make it mine.”

Disgruntled, the soldier looked about but found no support from his fellow guardsmen who watched warily from the sidelines, mingling with the inquisitive crowd. “Move along. I deal with this scum daily.”

“No.” The Dragon Lord crossed his arms and his armour reflected the dying sunlight brilliantly. It was tarnished, dented, but still awesome in its glory. “I want to know what you will do with the youngling. How you will repay her for the lost meal?”

The soldier’s eyes bugged. “Repay her?”

He shifted aggressively and the Dragon Lord surged forward to get in his face. The two men squared off nose to nose. Dangerous tension crackled between them.

The urchin squirmed until she slumped and glared at them with equal fury, not caring that one championed her. She was out a day’s worth of wholesome food that would have let her live to see another week.

Curious as to what would happen, Marina stilled Vadik with a lifted finger as he opened his mouth to thwart the confrontation.

She shook her head and hooked her thumb over her shoulder, ordering him back.

Vadik and his warriors knew the male, but she too recognised the voice. Marina didn’t want her memory tainted with new information and strained her mind for the elusive memory to solve the mystery.

The otherness remained wary.

Where did she know his voice? The male himself was not familiar to her, but she
knew
him. Perhaps she’d seen him at the feast, or one of the functions she’d attended? Her body was on alert, and she was not ignorant of the fact her instincts readied her to flee or fight. Was he a threat to her in some way?
How
did she know him?

She cautiously stepped closer; overriding the otherness’ snarled anger at the decision. “May I be of some help?”

Both heads snapped in her direction. The Dragon Lord blinked rapidly obviously recognising her.

The guard rolled his eyes. “Carry on, my Lady.”

Disregarding the order, she knelt and looked the urchin in the eye. “Where did you get this food?”

“It was given to me.” The girl’s chin jutted mulishly and her eyes dared anyone to call her a liar. “The servants toss scraps every morning not eaten at the Lord’s fine table.” She waved the cloth the food had been held in, embroidered with House Zar’s symbol. “The last few weeks they have been throwing us fresh meat and bread every morning.” Her face creased in satisfaction. “I put on some weight.” She scowled at the guard who still had hold of her. She shook a grubby fist at him. “I am not a liar, and not a thief.”

“Okay,” Marina said with grave respect. She stood and looked the guard in the eye. “Let her go please.”

“On whose authority?”

“Mine. I wouldn’t question it.” She sighed when the man swelled with indignation. “Not because I’m looking to cause trouble, or undermine you, but because certain people who care about me don’t take offense to me lightly.” Her eyes fell on the skinny child gazing at her lost meal forlornly. “You will give this girl a coin to buy the food you ruined.”

The guard turned crimson. “
Damn
you interfering nobles
to hell
.” His eye twitched crazily.
“
You come here from your bountiful lands during Aver and act so high and mighty thinking you must know better than us, the ones who actually care about the citizens who must survive when you are finished eating and drinking everything in sight. I will not pay this creature. She will likely slit your throat to steal your purse the next time you venture near because you are fooled into thinking she is tame.”

Marina’s mouth fell open.

“I keep this city safe from vagabonds,” he raged. “Not you. I take my orders from the Imperial Captain. Not some scruffy looking ice bitch.”

“Ho!” This time Vadik was heard. He pushed Marina behind him and shoved his brawny body in the guard’s personal space, towering over him. “Address the High Princess as Your Majesty, and curb your filthy tongue, or I shall cut it out.”

“Majesty?” At the stone like expressions of her protectors, the guard paled. “High Princess,” he whispered, eyes darting side-to-side. He shuffled back dragging the child he seemed to forget he was holding with him. “The King will throttle me.”

Vadik snorted. “Burn you alive is far more likely”

Following the conversation with half an ear, Marina peered at her clothes. The simple outfit was rumpled and stained from everyday living. She brushed crumbs off her chest and picked at something dried on her leathers. Scruffy? Marina knew she didn’t compare to the Court women who dressed in ostentatious robes and glistened with fist-sized jewels. She didn’t even try to outshine them regardless if she had the means to or not. But
scruffy
?

“Enough.” She valued what the gruff guard said, his caustic delivery notwithstanding. “Give the girl her coin and move on. We’ll forget this ever happened.”

The Citadel soldier fumbled for the worn leather pouch at his side. He grabbed a coin and without looking chucked it at the girl and bolted.

Cursing, Vadik shifted to go after him.

“No.” Marina clamped a hand down on his forearm. “Let him go.”

“He was disrespectful. He did not even excuse himself.”

“Let it go.” She patted his arm. “You’ll find I’m not one to stand on ceremony. He did what I asked, so we’ll leave him in peace. It’s not a crime to have an opinion.”

The Dragon Lord who’d originally intervened on the urchin’s behalf silently begun to blend into the shadows.

The urchin wasn’t far behind.

“Not you two.” Marina didn’t bother turning around, merely nailed them to the spot with a voice unexpectedly profound.

Vadik remained stubbornly resistant to letting the Citadel guard go with impunity until she lifted a brow and finalized her will with a hard look unnervingly piercing.

Something else stared from her eyes and grabbed the man by the proverbial throat.

Eyes dropping, he stepped to the side, feeling a little like he’d been blinded-sided by a typhoon.

Turning to the child, fully expecting the Dragon Lord to wait, Marina studied her with a critical eye. “Will that be enough to replace what was lost?”

“Yes.” The girl clutched the coin to her sunken belly. She stared angrily. “I did not need help. I care for me.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Mamma died having me and Papa was killed last year during a border fight.”

Uncertain, Marina glanced over her shoulder.

Vadik stepped forward to murmur, “Battles of honour are commonly held at the boundary line between Drackai and Wyvrae. Territorial disputes between Dragons and Mages also create collateral damage.”

“I don’t understand. Fights between Dragon Lords and Mages break the treaty.”

Vadik quieted, uncertain. His tone was reluctant as he answered. “Oftentimes these skirmishes do not reach the ear of the Regent.”

She shot him an alarmed look. “And why not?”

He averted his face and shrugged his armoured shoulders.

Disturbed by what she’d learnt, Marina crouched, one hand on the ground to steady her. She made a point to look the girl in the eye. “Do you know who I am?”

Eyeing her up and down, the girl nodded. “Dragon King’s whore.”

As the Dragon Lord sucked down a shocked gasp, Vadik hissed.

This opinion wasn’t a surprise. Rumours of how she skirted around the traditional purity affirmation would be circulating the general populace. They were unlikely to die until she assumed a throne. Even then fictitious anecdotes would linger to cast a shadow of doubt over her character.

The truth was often harder to weather than a lie. This was the path she’d chosen, and she felt more than able to handle it.

This encounter was her baptism of fire, condemnation from the mouth of a child.

Understanding the girl parroted what she heard in passing, Marina’s face softened. “Am I now? Tell me, what’s your name?”

“None of your business,” Her sweet voice was mischievous.

“Oh, you wicked thing.” Marina grinned, elfin, loving the girl’s enduring sprit. It was unquestionably the reason she was alive against horrifying odds. “And where do you sleep, Madame?”

“Anywhere.” Her dirt-streaked face tilted towards the heavens in the unfathomable contemplation of youth. “I most like the caves in the jungle.” Her arms opened wide. “They are
huge
.”

“May I ask why you go there? Isn’t it filled with dangerous animals and dark at night?”

She shook her head, underfed, heart-shaped face serious. “Not really. There are more of us, and it’s safer than the city at night.” She looked around, leaned forward conspiratorially. “Bad men do nasty things to little girls like me. So we hide with the nice older boys.”

“I see.”

Abruptly bored, she pouted. “Can I go now?”

Sickened by the blatant oversight by the Houses in its care of unfortunates. Marina stood. “Of course.”

“I do not think you are a whore.” The urchin patted her arm comfortingly. Her attention was already fixed elsewhere. She scanned the crowd for trouble with bright eyes, keenly attuned to living on the streets if her jaded reaction to her prior circumstance was anything to go by. “I know where the whores work and you act nothing like them. If it helps.”

Marina knew the Fire Kingdom was essentially a city like any other, but this was the first time she’d been exposed to its harsher realities, and it depressed her.

“Get something to eat and stay away from the guards,” she said tersely. She hoped one day she didn’t look down and see this girl dead in a gutter. “Alright?”

Sniffing with grave distain the urchin spun and disappeared into the steady throng of people milling about the marketplace.

G
aston grumbled and crossed his arms. “Filthy little whelp did not thank you.”

“Manners are not a priority to that child. Survival is.” Marina clapped her hands together ridding her palms of dust. “Who sees to the Kingdom’s orphans, Captain?”

“I do not understand the question.” Vadik rest a gauntlet on his hip. “There are Alms for the destitute at sun up and sun down outside the fortress gates. Many orphans get food and cast off’s on the charity of the Dragon Lords. Is this what you mean?”

“It’s the same in your homeland?”

“There are no beggars,” Dmitri answered offhandedly.

Marina looked between the men who seemed unconcerned with what she perceived as a major problem. Her voice and air turned optimistic as she spoke. “There’s a system caring for those who find themselves in need in the Realm then?”

Sanguinity died at their grimaces.

“Ah, no.” Vadik itched his head. He picked up on her distress and was uncomfortable because of it. “Rarely do unfortunates survive the cold. Our city is nestled on a plain of ice, shielded by a desert wasteland on one side.” He motioned with large, scarred hands as he spoke, eyes hazy in memory. “Icy water is on another, and perilous mountains that are home to the Realm’s wild ones on the other.”