Miami Days and Truscan (10 page)

“So she’ll have me?

“Seems so.”

“What’s her name?”

“Officially, she doesn’t have one. Only their master or mistress names a falton.”

“Unofficially? You had to call her something.”

“Guess.”

“Andromeda,” I said.

He laughed. “Of course,” he agreed. “And now that she has a mistress, what’s her name?”

“Andromeda,” I said firmly.

He laughed again. “Of course.”

He turned swiftly, and as he turned, I heard the steps behind us. He had obviously heard them first. It was Johnny, and the men exchanged quick greeting in Truscan, too rapidly for me to take any guess at all as to what they said.

Johnny approached me and hesitated. Then he bit his lip.

“Tess—”

“Good morning, Mr. Arnold,” I said in a clipped tone. “As in Benedict.”

“Tess—” He broke off and looked helplessly at Dalph. Dalph backed off from both of us and crossed his arms firmly.

“I won’t have this,” he said. “You’re both additional limbs for me. Another right arm, another left. One’s limbs must work in harmony, or they serve no purpose. I’ll go check on the guards. When I return, you will have made peace.”

“When Prians fly,” I said.

“Then you will have at least reached a workable relationship. I won’t have one of my arms cutting off the other for spite.” I knew that was directed at me. Dalph continued on. “Johnny did nothing to you or against you out of spite. What Johnny did, he did for me. For Trusca. And for you, though I know you don’t think so yet. You must at least listen to him, you owe him this much.”

He turned on his heel and left us, striding rapidly through the stables.

I glared at my traitor.

“Okay, I have my orders. So talk.”

“Tess—” He broke off again, and then took my arm, which I jerked away. “Okay,” he said, with a sigh, and then pointed over to some bales of hay which stood near the faltons’ stalls. No one but us stood in this portion of the stables. “Can we sit down?”

I moved and sat, but I didn’t relent. As incredulous as I was to realize it, I did understand Dalph’s actions. And as we are all what we are and what we are raised to be, and as he had been raised to rule this country, I did not condemn him for acting like the absolute monarch that he, in fact was. But Johnny McKay, that was different. Or I wanted it to be; even as my hard-core of common sense tried to send out the message that Johnny had known me less than a week and that he’d helped raise Dalph from the age of seven.

“You ain’t goin’ make this easy, are you?” he asked, sitting down beside me.

“You made it look pretty easy,” I said, “when you left me there, getting carried down to a king’s private chambers by a man I knew nothing about! I didn’t know he spoke English, I didn’t know his mother was American! I didn’t know
anything
!”

He closed his eyes and sighed. “I know. But I also knew some other things that you haven’t had time to figure out yet. And I didn’t think we could afford the time it’d take for you to figure ’em out.”

“Such as?”

“Such as it takes more than a few days for any American to come to terms with the fact that this is an absolute monarchy and that nothing else will work. Not to mention that you’re an American
woman
and can’t even conceive that you might not be able to take care of yourself. And you can’t, Tess. I could see Baka’s mind working the minute he laid eyes on you. So could Dalph. Besides all that, Dalph is absolutely the very best you could do here. The only man you’ll ever
begin
to be happy with, who’ll have any idea at all who you are. It’s lonesome, being one of a kind. Works out otherwise, too, I guess he explained all the political ramifications?”

“Yeah.”

“And that’s all true, but still, I’d have been upfront with you, Tess, if I’d thought you could have handled it. Or if I thought we had time for you to learn to handle it.”

“And what’s the big rush?”

He hesitated. “I’m not sure, really. We don’t have anything concrete. It’s a feeling in the air, more than anything. I don’t
know
anything, but I smell it. Kruska’s been quiet for too long. I don’t like it. And Baka’s smile, it just gets oilier and oiler.” He shuddered slightly. “Snake Oil City,” he added, just to make sure I got the point. “I don’t like that, either. Not worth a damn. But besides that, Tess, it’s not just that you need Dalph. You do. You don’t know how much. But I love that boy and I know. He needs you, too.”

I snorted. “Haven’t noticed he needs anybody.”

“Yes, he does. And I don’t mean politically. He’s an abnormality in his own country. He wouldn’t admit it, even to me, but politics ain’t the reason he plunged straight into this marriage. It’s you. Who you are, where you’re from. He’s lonesome, and there’s not another woman in Trusca’ll ever hope to understand him the way you’ll be able to. You’re a connection. To his mother. Hell of woman, Madeleine; you remind me of her. A lot. A connection to his mother’s country. To a country that’s partly his, too, one that he’ll never see.”

I repressed the urge to laugh that rose in my throat as I considered the consternation which would follow in his wake should Dalph ever make his debut in my world. I think I had visions of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian strolling through a formal garden party.

One analyzes the situation and does the best one can. Sound business practice. I just wish I didn’t feel so manipulated.

“Johnny, if I am ever, ever going to trust you again, and I don’t say that I ever will, don’t you
ever
screw me over again.
Ever.
You both got what you wanted. I’m committed to Dalph and to Trusca for the most binding of all possible reasons, self-preservation. And if you and Dalph really intend to make me a part of this management team of yours, if that’s not just a bunch of bull—”

“It isn’t,” he said quickly.

“Then I have to know what’s going on. None of this ‘need-to-know basis’ attitude. Not ever. Not again.”

He nodded slowly. “Not ever again. With one stipulation.”

“Which is?” I asked warily.

“Which is that Dalph, like any man, has his own past. And his own secrets. Some of which I know. Some of which I’m sure he’ll tell you, and some of which, he won’t. Or won’t for a while. I won’t tell you. I don’t want that classed in the same category as withholding information, because such things are his right, his choice. Not mine.”

“Fair enough, I suppose.”

“But I will tell you that Dalph’s more American than you can possibly know. He recognizes that circumstances have given him knowledge and education, through his mother, that Trusca wouldn’t otherwise have had for years. Maybe never. He feels that gives him the responsibility to keep her safe. He has a dream of a free Trusca, a mini-America, even, not in his time, not in Dal’s, maybe not in his great-great grandchildren’s’ time, but one day. And he knows he’s the only chance Trusca has at it. He’s raising Dal the same way. Ain’t got nothing to do with holding the throne for his bloodline. It’s got to do with holding the country until the country can hold itself. You see what I’m saying?”

“For real?”

“Oh, yeah. And I hope it won’t take you too long to appreciate Dalph for what he is. I think the two of you could be really good together, give each other a lot. I can’t tell you how lonesome I was until I married Kiera. And even then, there’s things she’ll never understand,
can
never understand, why I think the way I do, why I act the way I do. You can have that, Dalph will understand so much about you nobody else will or would or would even want to. I’d hate to see you holding back—”

“Cutting off my nose to spite my face?”

“Exactly. Tess, he’s the very best this world can offer you. Don’t hold this against him or me for the rest of our lives. Please.”

Pegasus snickered in his stall at Dalph’s approach.

“So,” he said. “Acceptable truce terms have been reached?”

“Workable truce terms, I suppose,” I said.

He knew when to back down, I’d give him that much.

“Good.” He called out over the length of the stables, and two of the stable workers hurried over, lifting the Truscan saddles from their pegs, and moving into the faltons’ stalls. The faltons were saddled quickly, and Dalph put Andromeda’s reins in my hands. We led them down the length of the stables and out into the Courtyard.

I paused when I cleared the door, and stared, infuriated, at the new banner which hung from one of the posts.

“Oh.My.God!” I exclaimed, glaring in fury from the sheet which had draped my “marriage bed” over to Dalph and back again. The blood stains were most prominent.

Even Johnny must have caught a glimmer of my soul as it cringed, and spoke on my behalf.

“Dalph, did you have to do that?”

He shrugged. “It’s the custom, Johnny. For all of Trusca. I see no reason for you to question its wisdom in this of all marriages.”

“Dalph, she’s not used to all this, it’s like having somebody watch her undress. Now, you got to bend a little here, too—”

Dalph turned and drew himself up into his full, straight height, which was considerable. Each word he spoke was measured, and proclaimed the fact that no matter how much he valued anyone else, he and none other was the ruler of Trusca.

“I do not require instructions as to the proper treatment of a woman as my queen or as my wife. This custom is a necessary reassurance for the people. If my queen’s tender sensibilities are wounded, they’ll recover. I might remind you that my
wife’s
tender sensibilities have not, as yet, been touched.
That
is how far I have bent.”

“It’s all right, Johnny,” I said quickly, sensing that Dalph had bent absolutely as far as he was going to bend for the moment.

“How gracious of you, my Queen. I was not aware members of my inner Council required your approval.”

Bad move on my part. His face was dark, and of all things I didn’t need, I didn’t need for him to worry that the resident Americans were ganging up on him. Some levity was required here, that was obvious.

“Oh, chill out, dude,” I said lightly, and swung up into the saddle.

He glared at me with a raised eyebrow. He could raise an eyebrow like no other man I’d ever known.

“Lighten up. Relax. Take a deep breath. I didn’t mean to create an international incident. Let’s ride.”

He laughed. “There are rides, Green Eyes, and then there are rides. You’ll see. Eventually. Johnny, you might meet with the Captain of the Western Guards while we are out.”

He mounted Pegasus in one smooth, fluid motion, and wheeled his head around. I turned Andromeda and followed him out of the courtyard.

Chapter Ten

The gates lifted automatically at our approach. The guards did not keep Trusca waiting to pass. We shot through into the countryside. He brought Pegasus’ head up and the animal danced impatiently as he stood. I reined in beside him.

“Care to race?” he inquired casually.

“Race? You’ve got to be joking, I don’t know the terrain and Pegasus is three hands higher than Andromeda—”

“We head south,” he said, pointing past Trussa, in a direction that I had certainly never explored. “It’s flat country until you enter the woods.”

I followed his pointing finger and indeed, Trussa lay in the middle of a plateau, surrounded on all sides by those deep, dark, primeval forests that began perhaps two miles out from the fortress walls.

“And you’ll see the road. It’s well-kept and well-maintained and a few miles in, you’ll come to a stream clearing, much like the one where we stopped on our way in to Trussa. Remember?”

I nodded.

“Finish line. I will, of course, take a handicap.”

“How much of one?”

“Until you are a quarter of the distance to the woods.”

“Half.”

“A third,” he countered.

“Half. Her stride is much shorter.”

“Not that much shorter.”

“Yes, it is. And anyway, I don’t trust you.”

“Why does that not surprise me, I wonder? All right. Half.”

I made no answer, having already moved surreptitiously into position in the saddle, and took off. The falton mare seemed to skim the ground, and I gave myself up to the movements of the gallop, the rush of wind against my cheeks and through my hair. We ran into the woods, and the trees threw cool patterns of shadow onto the path. So great was the speed of the faltons that it seemed the race was over almost before it began, and I eased up on the reins, pulling Andromeda in. She seemed to protest, as though she would have liked to have jumped the small stream and continue further.

I heard Pegasus behind us, and he danced impatiently in place at this curtailment of what he obviously considered to be his sole reason for existence. Dalph dismounted, wrapping the reins loosely around a small tree, and approached, holding up his arms to indicate that I should alight.

“You’re very good!” he exclaimed with a smile, one that I thought conveyed genuine pleasure.