Dynasty: The Glorious Strategist (Dynasty Saga Book 3) (2 page)

She started to lean back up but Lymee reached out grabbing her collar and pulled her back in for another kiss. Grabbing a noble like that was not something anyone was supposed to do regardless of who they were. But Rin did not complain and instead returned the kiss with the same passion and intensity as Lymee.

Yunna was standing off to the side holding Lymee’s clothes in her arms, rolling her eyes at the sight but smiling all the same. Bai on the other hand looked like she was about to swoon from the shock of it all.

Scandalous, Lymee was sure.

The kiss was ended when Kitsune flicked her tail across the side of both of their faces as her way of telling them that was enough. Rin smiled as she pulled back looking over at the fox. “If anything, it is her I should be worried about,” Rin stated as she reached out and petted the fox’s head. Kitsune seemed to beam from the attention she was getting and leaned forward to make it easier to pet her.

“Well I always did have a thing for redheads,” Lymee smiled looking down at the fox laying on her chest. “If she had green eyes instead of her creepy yellow demon eyes then you might be in real trouble.” Kitsune blinked at Lymee narrowing her gaze at the comment about her eyes, absently flicking her tail across Lymee’s bare stomach.

“A green eyed, red haired woman,” Rin stood up straight shaking her head in disbelief as she looked down at Lymee. “You come up with the strangest things.”

“Oh they are real. Trust me,” Lymee smiled gazing off into the distance. “And if they have a Scottish or an Irish accent.” Lymee quivered at the thought.

*** 

Lymee rotated her shoulder as she walked along the outside walkway of the Palace doing her best to get loosened up for her upcoming training bout with Gea. All the while doing her best not to push Kitsune off of her shoulders as she did so.

Off in the distance Lymee heard a sharp whizzing sound and immediately tensed up, ducking her head slightly in fear. The sound was followed by a soft thud of an arrow hitting a target and Lymee let out a sigh of relief.

Being nearly assassinated by an arrow four months prior had given her a bit of PTSD. Not to mention a bit of an existential crisis on life considering how close to death she had actually come. Now she would tense up whenever she heard the sound of an arrow if she was not ready for it.

Lymee looked over the training grounds trying to find the source of the sound. Archery practice had become commonplace in Hu Palace after they had established an advanced archery training regiment, but that was supposed to be held on the other side of the Palace, closer to the barracks. Not here in the noble’s wing of the Palace.

So who was the one practicing?

“Good,” a woman’s voice praised. “Though you still seem to flinch your wrist every time you shoot, and it is throwing off your aim ever so slightly. How many times have you been snapped by a bow string?”

“Too many to count,” a man laughed notching another arrow in his bow. He was tall and well-toned with short black hair, his face ruggedly handsome in a sort of soft innocent kind of way. “About a year ago, Lord Lymee once started a fight in a tea house we were staying in. I didn’t have time to put a wrist guard on and was only wearing my undershirt, which didn’t have long sleeves. By the time the fighting was done my wrist was so red and numb I couldn’t use my left hand for the better part of a day.”

Lymee snorted as she listened to the man talking across the training grounds. Voss was being a little flavorful with his telling but considering the company he was keeping Lymee would let it slide. Lymee looked over at the woman Voss was talking too. She was short and thin. She had long black hair that fell down to her hips. The ends of her hair were tied together so it did not flail around as she practiced. She was fairly plain looking but there was nothing particularly unattractive about her either.

The woman’s name was Shan. Lymee had first been introduced to her by her common name, Omie and she was the aforementioned assassin that had nearly killed Lymee during her birthday celebration four months back. Shan had been forced to do it by someone from the imperial capital who had kidnapped her daughter, Ling, and had threatened to kill her if Shan did not obey.

Lymee had been able to save Ling and reunite her with her mother but it turned out that the arrow that had only grazed Lymee’s shoulder had also been coated in a very deadly poison. The only reason Lymee was still alive was because Shan turned herself in to the guard and gave them the poison so they could make an antivenin from it.

“Here. Try holding it like this instead,” Shan suggested, moving in behind Voss and resting her hands on top of his as she pressed her chest into his back.

Lymee perked up when she noticed the way that Voss stiffened as Shan touched him.

“Clever little devil,” Lymee mumbled shaking her head in disbelief. “And here I thought he had no game.”

“He can be quite charming when he wishes to be,” the sound of Yoni’s voice suddenly behind Lymee made her jump in fright. “Sorry my lord. I didn’t mean to startle you.” 

“Yes you did,” Lymee gasped placing her hand over her racing heart. Yoni just smiled as she took up a spot beside Lymee where she could watch her older brother practice.

“So how long has this been going on?” Lymee gestured with her chin at Voss and Shan as the two continued to practice their archery together.

“Every morning without fail since we arrived here from Su Province two months ago,” Yoni said.

Upon noticing Yoni, Kitsune rose from Lymee’s shoulders and jumped into Yoni’s arms. Yoni caught the fox as if she was expecting this, cradling her to her chest.

“Traitor,” Lymee sneered at the fox as Kitsune snuggled into Yoni’s embrace looking very pleased with herself.

“I tend to give her food,” Yoni stated, running her hand down Kitsune’s neck and back.

“So your loyalty can be bought,” she wrinkled her nose at the fox. Kitsune let out an unconcerned breath as she closed her eyes enjoying Yoni’s affection. “Still,” Lymee went back to watching the two practice. “I’m glad to see Voss take an interest in someone. I was starting wonder if maybe he played for the other team as well.”

“Amusing isn’t it?” Yoni said absently stroking Kitsune.

“No, I could see it. I always thought he was to well-toned to be straight,” Lymee said crossing her arms watching as one of the servants launch two targets into the air, Voss doing his best to hit them both before they hit the ground.

“No,” Yoni rolled her eyes. “I mean it’s amusing that all those women who practically threw themselves at him while we were wandering and my oblivious older brother never even noticed. And now that there is someone that he is actually taking a liking to, it is she who doesn’t notice his affections.”

Lymee watched as Shan put a hand on Voss’ back taking the bow from him. Moving him to the side she grabbed four arrows and held them all in her bow hand not notching any of them. Signaling to the servant, two more targets were launched into the air. In a blink of an eye Shan loaded, drew back, aimed and fired all four arrows putting two in each target before they had even started falling back to the ground.     

“Is it that she hasn’t notice or that she chooses not to?” Lymee asked solemnly as she watched the demonstration.

“What do you mean?” Yoni frowned glancing over at Lymee.

“Shan is a slave,” Lymee reminded deciding not to meet her gaze.

If she looked hard enough at Shan, Lymee could just see the tattoo sticking out from under her shirt on the back of her neck. The multi colored tattoo that marked her as a slave for the rest of her life. Lymee had never seen the full thing but she had seen parts of it that reached down to her elbows and was fairly certain that it went down the rest of her back if not even her legs. Lymee would not have been surprised if it covered her chest and stomach as well.

“Her family is forever subservient to the Su family as her punishment for trying to kill me,” Lymee said crossing her arms as she watched the woman. “While this was her choice, I know the last thing she wants is to pass that burden on to anyone else. It was hard enough for her to accept the offer knowing that her daughter would be forced into servitude along with her. And if Shan doesn’t want that for her daughter then she will have to disown her at some point. I think the last thing Shan wants is to burden anyone else.”

“You think she is trying to protect Voss,” Yoni said mulling it over, seeming to agree with Lymee assessment. “If only she knew that our family was bound to yours in a much harsher way than hers ever will be.”

Lymee nodded. Yoni and Voss were former nobility doomed to the headsman’s block if it had not been for Alia giving them new identities as vessels to the Su family. But as there were no actual records of their new family ever existing and no linage that they could call their own, they served at the good graces of the Su Family. And they would never be able to break away from that fate.

“You know, I’ll admit,” Lymee sighed staring at Shan as she readied another arrow. “I had figured that when Shan was to be branded as a slave she would actually, you know,” Lymee brought her fist down into her palm, “be branded. Presumably with something hot and metal. Instead she gets a really sick looking tattoo out of the deal.”

“Some are branded in such a way,” Yoni nodded. “However the more valuable slaves are instead given tattoos. The more valuable a slave is the more intricate their brand is. Shan is considered an extremely high value slave. In all actuality her standing guaranties her more rights and privileges than many of the people in Su Dynasty.”

Lymee snorted in amusement. “Sounds about right,” she said.

Given how upside down so much of the thinking in this world was. Of course it would make sense for them to treat slaves better than non-slaves. Lymee was not one for slavery in the first place but if she was she would think it would be a much simpler class structure. Meaning slaves would be at the bottom and everything else would work up from there.

Voss was now doing drills of some kind where he fired his arrows as fast as he could at a stationary target. He was faster than Lymee would have thought possible and his aim was spot on but there was apparently something wrong with it as he would grow frustrated with himself and try again.

“How are you guys by the way?” Lymee asked glancing over at Yoni. “You settling into palace life okay?”

Yoni’s fingers stopped scratching Kitsune for a second as she hesitated to answer. “It’s been harder than I expected.” She looked down deeply considering her words. “I was ready for what life would be like as a wanderer and knew that such a life would not be what I was used too. But here in the palace,” she looked up staring off into the distance. “I never realized how hard living as a palace servant would be.”

“Well you’re more of a retainer or attendant than a servant,” Lymee pointed out trying to lighten the mood. “Had any problems of mistaken identities?”

“Not as of yet, my lord,” Yoni smiled looking down at Kitsune as she rubbed her fingers through her fur. “It would seem that many of the attendants that work in the Palace now were not present when Lords Cia and Arn were visiting. And as the two stayed for such a short time, keeping mostly to themselves, it would seem that none were able to get a very memorable look at them. More than that however,” Yoni let out a breath, her gaze seeming to wander someplace into the far off distance. “I think the two of us have change so much over the past two years that it would be impossible to confuse us any longer.”

“I still think you’re pretty,” Lymee joked nudging Yoni with her shoulder.

“You had better say that,” Yoni smiled, her face genuinely warming up a bit. “I will say that this has given me the opportunity to reevaluate my opinion on servants. More importantly on their appearance and how attractive they truly are.” Yoni gave Lymee a devilish grin. “A fact that I am more than making up for now.”

Lymee rolled her eyes. “Just remember what we talked about.”

“I know,” Yoni assured, nodding her head in understanding. “No using my spirit to help ‘sway’ them.” Yoni rolled her eyes like the whole thing was just an annoyance.

Lymee shook her head recalling how upset she had been upon learning that for over two years Yoni had been using her minor spirit ability to manipulate Lymee’s desire for her as a way to get Lymee into bed.

“Are you really still bitter about that?” Yoni asked noticing the sour look on Lymee’s face.

“Wouldn’t you be? To learn that one of your only friends has basically been hypnotizing you since the very first day that you met?”

“I don’t know what hypnotizing is,” Yoni closed her eyes, giving a slight shake of her head.

“It’s a way of,” Lymee searched for the words to best describe it. “Mental suggestion to make someone do something.”

“I can’t make you do anything with my spirit,” Yoni pointed out. “I can only increase the desires that are already there. We call it enthralling.”

“Yeah that’s what they say about hypnotizing,” Lymee puffed out her cheeks. “And enthralling sounds way worse.”

“All joking aside,” Yoni put a reassuring hand on Lymee. “I only did it because you needed the comfort of another and I feared that was the only way you would let me in after ‘it’ happened.”

The ‘it’ she was referring to being the time that Lymee had been taken by slavers and brutally raped by them as a way of breaking her in. It had lasted only a few hours but it had nearly broken Lymee and she was still feeling the effects of it to this day. She knew that her recovery thus far over the past year and a half was in no small part to the comfort and skinship that Yoni had provided.