Chapter 1 coming home
Sandry/Briar also includes Tris and Daja. Set after the will of the empress. Briar, Sandry, Daja and Tris experience some changes in their lives and what they get up to back at Summersea.
Sandrilene Fa Toren, great niece of Duke Verdis IV ruler of Emelan, rode in silence alongside her foster sisters Daja and Tris and her foster brother Briar lost deep in thought. She had tied her hair underneath a sheer grey veil to keep it out of her face as a brisk wind wipped about them playfully tugging at anything that was loose. Her cornflower blue eyes snapped beneath a small furrowed brow. In a lesser bred person the look on her face would have been a scowl.
I hate being treated like a doll! How can they expect anyone with a brain to appreciate that sort of attention.
2 days out of Summersea the group had met up with Duke Verdis who was visiting a local province. His servants had not let Sandry escape there gaze or gossip, especially that about the impropriety of travelling with only one maid who could not be counted as a chaperone.
'Something's got Sandry all knotted up' Briar said to Tris and Daja trying to sound casual.
'Hmph' replied Tris who's nose was buried in a book as it had been all morning.
Daja didn't reply as she was deep in conversation with Duke Verdis about a particularly intricate copper inlay shed seen at the house in which they'd stayed last night. Briar could tell that she was itching to pick up her tools and start working in the forge again.
'The servants wouldn't leave her be this morning' came Tris's reply although she barely even lifted her nose from the pages.
'Im surprised she didn't roll them up in cocoons' both Briar and Tris had heard about Sandrys reaction when she had not been allowed to see the Duke after his heart attack.
Tris chuckled at this and looked across to Briar as the grin left her face.
'You know she takes his graces opinions seriously, and she's supposed to have servants.'
'But she has Gudruny' Briar said puzzled
'At her standing she should have more, they were just trying to do things properly, but she hates being treated like that'
'Who Wouldn't?'
Tris shrugged and went back to her book.
Briar returned back to staring at Sandry a worried look still on his face. He worried about her ever since they left Namorn she hadn't been sleeping well and kept waking up with nightmares. Who could blame her after all she went through at the hands of Shan and Fin. It was enough to make his blood boil thinking about it.
Sandry glanced up and saw that Briar was looking at her. She gave him a weak smile.
'Im alright Briar just being silly is all.' Sandry sighed 'at least I won't have to put up with this when I'm married. The servants won't watch my every move commenting on my consequence and virtue.' Then a strange look crossed her face and a wry smile appeared
'Ill have a husband to do that instead.'
Till Sandry had said about marriage and a husband Brair had felt better. He hadn't thought so much about those two things till this summer at Namorn. Of course he'd been involved with girls, in fact he'd tried to keep one in his bed most nights to stop him from having nightmares about gyongxe. But that was until this summer and there circle reforged. When the empress tried to force Sandry to marry he hadn't been thinking about himself, well not really, only about the fact that no one should be put in that position. Especially not Sandry Briar thought to himself she's too independent and Berenene had not respected that. Well she got what she deserved. A grin flashed across his face only to be replaced by his own scowl. Shakily Briar reached out his magic to stroke his shakkan. He always got angry whenever he thought about the Namornese treatment of Sandry as a trophy to be won and put on display. They didn't appreciate her for her kindness, willingness to listen to anybodies problems or the gentle patience she showed her occasionally unruly student Pasco. The empress of course had then tried to stop the four from leaving Namorn, she had not succeeded. The will of the empress is strong but our stubbornness is stronger. Especially those girls, when they get something in there head there's no stopping them. Briar chuckled as he felt his shakkan's calm wash over him. Sure his foster sisters could be stubborn, but he knew not to cross them.
A quick glance at Sandry showed that she was looking much happier, the morning gloom cast aside. She was joining in the animated conversation of Daja and her uncle. The smile on her face gave her eyes a twinkle that could melt your heart. The grey veil that covered her sun streaked light brown hair bound underneath it could not diminish her beauty. She had grown over the summer and emerged as a full grown woman ready to face the world, and it hadn't gone unnoticed from any of the men in the company, not even Briar.