Noble Beginnings (14 page)

Dorran felt several allies surge up behind
him, covering his back, and a quick glance over one shoulder showed
that they now outnumbered their visible attackers. Making a
split-second decision, Dorran dove straight past the next three
fighters he encountered, trusting to those behind him to engage
them, and sprinted straight for the door.

He managed to slice Edith's brother's sword
through most of the spine at the neck of the man who had been
pushing through the door; then there was a long, ghoulish moment in
which he couldn't disentangle the man's limp limbs from the
wreckage of the door enough to push through himself. When he did,
though, he saw a sight that made his heart turn over: his mother
and Adhara with hands covered in ripped sheets, armed only with
still-hot braziers from the walls were being attacked by three
men.

Dorran yelled as loudly as he could as he
charged for the man nearest Thea. All three men started and turned
around, which was all the opening Dorran needed to slide his sword
into the first man's ribs and feint away from the second as he
pulled the blade free. Adhara helped to make the remaining man's
target more distant by getting behind Thea and pulling her quickly
out of the way, brazier still raised in her free hand. As Dorran
fought, strike for precious strike with the man, who seemed more
talented than the last, another one loped straight for Adhara and
Thea, who broke for the now-disheveled bed in the corner in the
hope of gaining some distance. In the meantime, Dorran heard more
men forcing through the wood of the door, and could only hope that
they were allies and not more enemies.

A few moments later, as he caught sight of
the ragged edge of a training tunic, his hopes were confirmed. He
swung wide in his relief, and his enemy got a cut in, scoring
almost lightly against his ribs. He heard a woman's scream, and the
panic it caused fueled an incredibly quick swing that bit through
the leather in the man's shoulder, scraping and then cracking his
collarbone. He screamed raggedly in pain and collapsed to his
knees, his sword dropping from nerveless fingers to cradle
uselessly at the bleeding and broken bone.

Dorran was already in mid-swing when a sharp
voice commanded, "Stop!"

Recognizing the voice, he immediately stepped
back, raising his sword to ensure it did not connect with its
target. He scanned the rest of the fairly small bedchamber for any
other assailants, but all he saw were dead, grievously injured, or
men at the sword point of one of his fellow fighters.

"Keep an eye on all of these men," he called
out. "If you've got them at your mercy, call someone to help tie
them up and don't take your eyes off them! We don't want any
unnecessary casualties because we were careless after the fight."
He raised his voice slightly. "That means any free fighters out
there, get in here! We could use some extra hands." He waited for a
minute, until Tam and a man whose name Dorran didn't know relieved
him of the task of watching the man with the broken collarbone.
Only then did he turn to his mother and sister.

"Are you all right?" he asked breathlessly,
pushing his sweaty hair back from his face in an unconscious
movement.

"Fine," Adhara answered, just as Thea said
"We're unhurt." He scanned each of them from head to toe,
automatically distrusting their words, but they seemed to be
telling the truth; aside from some ripping to the hems and sleeves
of their dresses and a general appearance of disarray, they seemed
unhurt. He did, however, notice a hint of red near the edge of
Adhara's arm.

"Let me take a look at that," he said,
hurrying over.

"What…" Adhara said, then hissed suddenly as
he took her arm and twisted it to see a thin gash down the back
fortunately it was in the soft meat of her arm, where it would do
little more than scab over uncomfortably and possibly scar. "I
didn't even realize that was there," she said numbly, watching him
examine it. Then she added, "But, Brother..."

"My wounds, right? In a minute," he said
briefly. "What happened?"

He caught the movement of Thea shaking her
head out of the corner of her eye. "We should move this to a more
appropriate venue," she said, glancing pointedly over the room and
the dead and prisoners inside it. "I would like to gather
information in as organized a manner as possible. Shall we adjourn
to the main council chamber?"

"Maybe the second one?" Dorran suggested
quickly. "It seems slightly more defensible, in case this wasn't
the only group roaming the hallways."

Thea considered this for only a moment before
nodding her agreement. Dorran went to the destroyed door, unlocked
it, and swung it open. It creaked open on newly crooked hinges to
show an anxious Nora hovering at the door with several fighters
clustered protectively around her.

"Are you all right?" she asked, quiet but
intense. "Dorran, you're injured, put pressure on your side. We
don’t need you bleeding out just because you want to show how manly
you are."

"Yes, I know," he told her without heat,
beginning to rip the side of his ruined tunic away from the wound.
"What about you?"

Nora shook her head. "They never even came
close to touching me. Mother, Addie?" She asked her voice slightly
rushed.

Thea shook her head while Adhara showed her
sister the small wound on the back of her arm. Nora raised an
eyebrow at that, but was obviously relieved.

"It looks like most of your fighters are more
or less unscathed," she said to Dorran, "though I'm not sure about
all of them." Her eyes darted to a darkened corner, and he was
dismayed to see Den leaning against the wall with Marcus squatting
beside him, talking continuously to him in a low voice as two more
fighters tried to stop the bleeding from what looked like a deep
stab wound in his right leg.

He swore under his breath for a long moment
as he scanned the rest of the room. There were a few more knots of
people scattered around bodies, but most of these seemed to be
those of the enemy; he could also see a few knots of people around
the more severely injured, but many of these were already on their
way to the infirmary, leaning on the arms of their comrades.

"Well, it looks like it could have been
worse," he said finally. "A great deal worse, actually. Do we have
any idea how they got in?"

"None yet," Nora said tersely, "but I've got
a lead or two." That was all she said, however, as the leader of
the guard on duty came up to Thea and apologized for the failure of
the guards on duty to protect Thea and Adhara during their private
lunch together in one of the council chambers.

Thea shook her head, face grave. "Three of
your men are dead today, Halvor," she said. "I do not think any of
you have been remiss in your duties. You came up against a great
and unexpected force. That is not your fault; indeed, if anything,
it is mine." The man tried to protest, but Thea raised a hand.
"Look after your men, Halvor, and see to their families. I assure
you, you will have your work cut out for you in the future, but for
now, I'm sure that there are guards aplenty for myself and my
family."

With a final, reluctant nod, the man vanished
down the hall, and it wasn't until they began to set out for the
second council chamber that Dorran realized that Nora had vanished
in the interim. If Thea or Adhara had noticed, however and he was
sure that they had they made no mention of it, and so he decided to
leave the issue be for the moment.

They relocated to the chamber room with a
straggling cloud of fighters following them and without further
incident. Within minutes of their arrival, the servants began
arriving requesting their orders, asking the duchess for advice,
sending reports about what they had or had not discovered as the
scoured the hallways in teams, and, in one specific case, bringing
Dorran a new shirt and a wad of bandages, which he put to immediate
use outside at a side door so as not to alarm anyone else. He would
have to go to a healer within a few hours, to have his wounds
cleaned before they could fully close, but in the meantime there
was no reason not to look presentable. He also took the
opportunity, now that he was away from prying eyes, to use his
ruined shirt to clean Edith's brother's sword and return it
carefully to its sheath. It looked none the worse for wear, and
Dorran felt the same affection and awe he had always had for the
blade only increased now that it had helped save his life and the
lives of his loved ones. He resolved to thank Edith as well as
apologizing when he returned the sword, then squared his shoulders
and reentered the hall.

In the brief period he had been gone, the man
with the broken collarbone had been brought before Thea for
interrogation. He refused, for the moment, to give any information
about leaders or employers, glaring balefully at Thea while she
asked her questions and looking as though he were ready to spit at
her feet. In the end, though, she had him sent away to the dungeons
to cool his head.

"He tried to kill me not half an hour ago,"
she said to Dorran by way of explanation at his questioning look.
"He may well become more respectful with time, when he accepts that
his attempt has failed, especially if he turns out to have been a
mercenary. The most important concern is that he is not allowed to
escape without being questioned. Anyway..." She raised her voice in
the hall, and the rest of its inhabitants quieted to listen. "I
believe there are other lines of inquiry that may prove more
useful. Let us wait for the present."

An uneasy silence fell at this, but was
repeatedly chased away by the ever-growing crowd of people
trickling back into the in and out of the chamber in ones and twos,
all of them unsettled and milling about like ants with their nest
overturned. Thea stood at the center of the chaos, pale but
dignified, speaking to a number of people but never for more than a
few minutes at a time. He wondered if she wished she could retire,
and then wondered whether she would feel safe doing so, even if it
appeared that the force that had attacked her had been smaller than
he'd initially believed.

Shaken, he eyed the bodies until they were
dragged off by teams of the stronger. He recognized Tam and Marcus
as well, but both of them only glanced at him briefly, and he
couldn't find anything to say to them, not today.

Someone tried to kill my mother, he thought
numbly. Probably my sisters, as well. He should have felt rage and
a thirst for vengeance, or at least a feeling of overwhelming
protection, but the realization hadn't penetrated that far yet.
Another question came before they could, somehow stranger than all
the rest: Were they also coming after me? He didn't have any
answers, though, and sensed that now was not the time to ask his
mother.

He had resolved to give his doubts time to
settle when a brown-and-gray blur suddenly stumbled into the room.
He didn't recognize the graceless stride for a second, but as the
figure straightened, he recognized Nora. He hadn't seen her look so
clumsy since she had been a girl. It occurred to him that he hadn't
noticed when she left the room, and his blood went cold for the
umpteenth time in minutes. How had he failed to keep track of her?
What was she thinking, running off like that?

She straightened from her stumble and scanned
the room for a long moment. When her eyes met his, she opened her
mouth, but he was halfway across the chamber towards her before
she'd figured out what to say.

"Where did you go?" he asked quickly. "Were
you safe? Have you seen anyone else?"

"All the assassins were in a group," she said
automatically. "I think." Then she blinked and frowned. "You were
right, I should have brought more people with me. But...but I had
Edith. She followed me out. And I had this," she added, pulling a
knife from a fold in her dress and brandishing it with surprising
skill.

He stepped well out of the range of the
blade. "Well, that's something. But where's Edith now?"

"She..." Nora pursed her lips, and Dorran
noticed for the first time how pale she looked, how it highlighted
the shadows under her eyes which were usually so carefully hidden.
"You need to come with me. The assassins..." She shook her head.
"No, it was probably the conspirators….they had another victim.
Alive, thankfully, which I think the assassins wouldn't have
bothered with, but...she's not in good shape." Nora's eyes scanned
the room. "I need to report to Mother. After that, will you come
with me? I think it might be best if you hear what she has to say
firsthand."

Dorran nodded, and Nora hurried over to the
Duchess, waiting patiently but insistently to be given her turn.
Dorran watched from a distance as she began to speak; Thea raised
her hand to her mouth, but then lowered it and leaned forward as
she spoke quietly with her daughter. While she always stood
straight and looked at her other children straight-on, Dorran
reflected, she still bent down and turned her ear slightly towards
Nora, just as she had to all of them when they were very small.
Dorran thought it might be because she was the youngest, but
suspected that it was actually because out of the three of them,
Nora was the most likely to be telling her mother important
secrets.

Finally, Nora was dismissed. She curtsied
deeply from the waist instead of bowing, a sign that she was in a
hurry. She threw Dorran a quick glance before sweeping out of the
room. He followed her as quietly as he could. Tam, who was manning
the door, gave Dorran a serious look as he shut it behind him.

"This way," Nora said unnecessarily over her
shoulder, leading him out and down the hall. "I think she's going
to be fine, but we'll need whatever information she has as soon as
she can give it to us. The conspirators could well be very, very
close, and even if the ones we've defeated are all the force they
could muster, we're going to need to move quickly if we want to
prevent them from getting away to act again. Ill-wishers running
around everywhere are the last things we need on top of everything
else..."