The High King: A Tale of Alus (35 page)

The morning air came in through the open window of Alyanna's quarters, forcing the women to retain their silk robes long past their normal morning's pattern. Serra, in a blue, silk robe still hanging untied about her shoulders, walked to where the hazy light of the morning's sun shined into the room. Even though the fog, created by the unseasonable cool air, hindered the sun, the light still brought warmth to her skin.

The girl smiled.
The crowd wasn't receiving their typical show of flesh this morning. Her breasts were hidden by the robe, while the wide blue scarf tied about her waist covered to her legs for a certain amount of decency from all but those within about ten feet of her. The girls and their queen had taken to masking themselves with the partially transparent scarves for nearly a week. It came from a nearly instinctual need to cover their bodies at least slightly.
The scarves really did little to conceal any of the women, but she had noticed that the men seemed to water at the mouth from the teasing cloth. Serra shook her head. Men were strange animals. She considered the word, animals. It seemed to fit. The opposite sex was nearly animalistic in their need for a sight of the unusual women. The five of them had created so much nervous tension within the castle and city that it amazed her.
The strangest thing was that Serra got the feeling that many people liked the idea. Shaking her head again, she returned to the queen's side where Alyanna sat before her makeup table. The other girls were already off doing errands of the menial sort.
"I hear that some of the wizards returned from Maris yesterday," Serra stated quietly.
Alyanna nodded without answering. She held up a pair of topaz earrings and looked at Serra
questioningly. Taking a moment's look, the girl shook her head.
The little blond with the bright green eyes continued on, "The rumor is that the enemy has formed a magical army that even the gargoyles and dragons couldn't defeat this time. What do you think Merrick's wizards will do about it?"
The queen chose a pair of ruby earrings and nodded her own approval. The woman had a necklace that would go perfectly with it and drew the piece from its drawer.
Serra started to pace. The queen got like this at times. Quiet. She didn't mind normally, but the servant girl was in the mood to talk about what she had heard today. "So what do you think?"
With a sigh, Alyanna replied, "I don't know and don't truly care. Whatever they try, I hope it fails. Merrick deserves to lose."
Groaning at the answer, Serra moved back to the window. She was getting bored. The weather was still drearily grey, though the sun was trying to push its way through. Maybe she should ask to take a walk. Spying was fun and a challenge when your appearance was easily noticed among the halls of the stone castle. A naked girl in the queen's finest jewelry was usually hard to miss, especially since normally one guard or another was following her for protection.
Serra was consciously about to sigh again when the noise of voices raised outside the queen's door was suddenly heard. Containing her sigh, the girl moved towards the door. There would probably be a knock soon enough. The queen didn't get that many callers and most everyone was let in eventually.
Sure enough, there was a rap on the door. Aban pushed the door open a crack and stated, "Visitor to see the queen. He says he's her cousin."
"Lieutenant Baitrum?" Serra asked before realizing that the queen should be the one to speak. "Yep."
"My queen?" the girl asked in her official tone when others could hear.
Alyanna rose to replace her violet robe over her shoulders. She tied the waist concealing all her most private parts, though they hadn't been private often lately. The queen nodded.
"Allow him to enter, Aban," Serra answered.
The door opened allowing first Aban, who held the door and then Lieutenant Baitrum. The soldier's uncovered eye looked at Serra still mostly covered by the robe and scarf and seemed disappointed. "You're dressed, such a pity."
Serra smiled tightly and replied, "A girl gets cold."
Baitrum nodded. Turning to look at the queen, the man bowed gracefully. Serra thought that only a nobleman could bow so beautifully. "My queen, it is good to see you again, even if it is only with one eye that can do so."
Alyanna bowed her head fractionally, as a queen must by protocol. She looked at Aban, still holding the door at attention. "That will be all. I am safe enough with my cousin."
The guard bowed and exited quietly.
Baitrum had watched the man go as well. Turning back to the queen, he asked quietly, "How many can you trust now, Alyanna?"
Serra stepped back towards the window to give them as much privacy as she could in the fair sized room. The queen nodded in the girl's direction. "Not many besides Serra."
That brought the girl's head around in surprise. She hadn't thought of how few people the queen really did seem to trust. A smile tugged at her lips as Serra blushed lightly from the praise.
Baitrum caught her blush and echoed her smile with his own. "And no other?" the nobleman asked as he turned back to face Alyanna.
The queen shrugged and sat back down at her table. The robe slid to reveal much of her legs without her thought. Serra noticed as did the lieutenant, but he ignored the flesh. They were family after all.
"I trust the other girls to a point. I fear that most would fall to gossiping should I trust them too far. I think that Laith might be trustworthy as well, but he seems almost too quiet at times, as if he is actually watching to see if I do something too treacherous." She looked at Serra for her opinion. The girl shrugged unsure. "I've just been able to get one of our Cadmene soldiers as one of my guards recently. I believe we can trust Gellor not to fail his people."
The queen looked intently at her cousin. The other two could almost see her thoughts twisting with an idea. "Perhaps I should see if I could get you to join my guards. That eye might give you problems in the field; don't you think so, Serra?"
Baitrum grinned and looked to Alyanna's trusted advisor. The girl blushed before his gaze. Looking away, she shrugged.
Alyanna smiled at the shy girl. Shy? The girl had walked the castle and city unclothed before all, but in front of the lieutenant she fell silent. The queen wondered at that, but said nothing. "What do you think of the idea, Baitrum? You have a career to think of, but how is your eye?"
The lieutenant moved to face the mirror behind his cousin. Gently, he pried the covering away enough to slide it above his eye and ear. A red scar ran from cheek to temple. The eye looked intact though the scar was less than an inch beside the orb. "I can see nothing with it right now, though the doctors think that I might with time. The nerves were still mostly attached. It might heal enough to see, but personally I am resolved in the belief that my sight is gone from it.
"You might be right in what you said, even if you thought of it as a lie to tell my superiors. Until it does heal, I doubt that I'll be able to fire an arrow accurately."
"Could you before?" Alyanna asked with a smile. "I seem to remember a hunting trip where you couldn't even hit a tree because it moved at the last minute."
He shook his head and chuckled. "I was young then, Alyanna. My aim has improved." The man wagged a finger under her nose and added, "I still say it moved at the last moment though."
"Damn amazing trees we have down in Cadmene," she added with a wink to Serra who giggled with the thought.
"Two against one?" Baitrum asked of the air ruefully. "I can see why you trust this girl, my queen.
"Back to your question, Alyanna. If you wish my protection as your guard, I will gladly serve here."
Alyanna smiled, "Because of me or my servant girls. You had a reputation at court, my cousin. Maybe they'll need guards to be safe from you."
His attention strayed to Serra briefly before taking the queen's hand. "I was never that bad," he assured the woman and kissed her hand.
He looked at the girl beside the window again. "I do have a message for you though, my dear cousin. Are you sure that I can speak in front the girl?"
Alyanna frowned at the idea of betrayal. The man nodded. Again he looked around as if there could have been anyone else hidden within the room. "Stay quiet for this will shock you, Alyanna."
"I can take any news that you might have, Baitrum," the queen answered dryly.
He nodded. "Your father came to me only a few days after your Serra visited me. Terris wanted you to know that he is still alive and with the resistance from what I gather from his words."
The woman's face had turned white from the shock of the news. "He is alive? You are sure of this, Baitrum?"
The man nodded. "I may have just the one eye but I would know your father, cousin. He wanted you to know, since he feared that you might have come unhinged from the marriage to the demon king himself."
"Unhinged?" She started and then looked down at the robe under which she was naked. "I see. You can tell him that I am not unhinged, cousin," her voice was tight with some anger. Whether towards the insinuation or the fact that even her father doubted her sanity, Serra did not know.
Baitrum nodded and looked at Serra again, "I gathered as much from the girl." He grinned at the queen and stated proudly, "Giving the appearance of the insane queen is one thing, being insane is another entirely. I have only been here two weeks, but I can feel the tension in the castle.
"Did you know that the peasants love it? I think even they can see that you fight Merrick in your own way. I assume that your idea is to ruin from within?"
The queen smiled coldly.
Baitrum stood straight and started to turn. "I should probably leave. If you want me as your guard, you'll need to send word to my commander. Send one of the girls if you really want to cause him some
discomfort." He stopped and snapped his fingers. "That reminds me. Your father said that if you could send out one of your girls every few days, he'll send other messages through them."
"Thank you, Baitrum," Alyanna inclined her head slightly in dismissal, though the man was already halfway out the door.
Aban pulled the door closed once more after a quick look inside to check on their wellbeing. After both men were outside once again, Alyanna looked at Serra and asked, "What do you think, Serra?"
Looking at the window, the girl found the sunlight coming in much stronger. The fog had nearly dissipated. Shrugging off the satin robe, she laid it upon the bed and strode over to the light. Taking a seat upon the window sill, she picked up her legs and placed her feet on the sill as well. The stone sill was nearly a foot wide and, the pretty blond perched there quite comfortably, Serra replied, "I think that it's turning out to be a nice, warm day."
The queen shrugged away her robe and walked towards the window and the sunlight as well. Her laughter was musical and her face had regained its color after the initial shock of the news. She looked at the girl in the window and asked, "After those looks from Baitrum, I'm sure you are warm, Serra."
The girl hoped that the light was bright enough to conceal her newest blush.

Gerid would have sent his men back to the Vengeance after the battle, but they refused to leave his side. Battered as they were, none of the men could truly trust King Tadmin any longer. The king seemed calm enough when they returned to the throne room once again, but, Gerid thought, appearances were often misleading.

He passed over the pair of scrolls to the king, the first from King Colona and the other from Admiral Koort. Tadmin read his admiral's message first and made no attempt to hide the fact from Gerid. In most courts, reading the words of a noble, or a king in this case, first would be the proper etiquette, especially before the ambassador of that country. Tadmin didn't follow too many rules of etiquette from the apparent lack of respect he had shown Gerid so far.

The king chuckled slightly as he read the message and soon began to laugh wholeheartedly. As his laughter began to subside and he tugged at the seal of Rhearden to unroll the next scroll, Tadmin looked at Gerid and said, "Perhaps I should have read that message sooner, I think. Koort warned me that you and your men had saved his fleet. He also warned me that you almost singlehandedly defeated a pirate killer from Kloste. With that knowledge, I would have most likely saved Brisal the beating he received from the famed White Haired Demon."

Gerid stood unmoved by the admission. He wouldn't even smile more than the painted on smile the commander had affected since returning to the palace. The king hardly noticed and read the scroll from Colona. It took him a few minutes to finish as it was a long scroll.

"Your king has sent you to reaffirm the alliance between our countries and to ask for our help against Kloste," Tadmin confided finally. "Colona says that he thought that I would like to meet the strongest warrior from his country. He also implies that you will become a knight when you return or, more to the point, if you survived you would be knighted." The king grinned, "You survived our best, so it looks good for you, commander."

Gerid nodded without saying a word. He cared little enough for knighthood or titles. His life wasn't based around such things. When Merrick finally paid his debt to the Aramatheas' with his life, the young man believed that he could settle down and live happily with Catiya and any more children that she could provide him. He wouldn't even have to sail often after that, though as a father he might take his family on voyages for the fun of it at times.

Looking at this king before him, Gerid knew it was better to leave such things unsaid. Rulers seemed to live for titles.

Smiling, King Tadmin turned to his wife and said, "I think that we should give our honored ambassador a banquet, don't you, my dear? He is the new champion of our nation's arena after all."

The queen smiled slightly and nodded at her husband. Her quietness seemed odd to Gerid and it seemed unusually cold for a person greeting an ambassador. He quickly ignored the thought knowing that such things were also best left undisclosed.

The king seemed to think that her answer was warm enough, however, and grinned at the men in front of his throne. "Good, good," he crowed. "We celebrate too seldom around here, I think. You will come, commander? You are the guest of honor after all." The king's words sounded as if he had a choice, but Gerid knew better than to believe that.