The Black Rose
Author's Note: Okay so in this chapter we meet someone who changed the lives of several people in the story. He's nicer than he first seems so give him a chance, Raden's had a hard life.
The darkness of Briar's hair seemed to melt into the black of the sky until her pale face and angry dark eyes were set like a jewel in a sea of midnight. An ironic twist pulled at Sebastian's mouth. That he still noticed how lovely she was even when he was furious with her was just one more sign to him that he adored the woman before him.
"I will not be set in a lavish cage in the palace like a kept woman!" Briar snapped at him furiously. "How you could even think such a thing of me makes me wonder where your mind is these days Sebastian!"
By pure force of will Sebastian kept his voice even and controlled. "Briar I only offered because I thought you would be more comfortable as a guest of the royal family." He replied. "I never intended for you to come alone, certainly I expected Dragon would remain at your side, and all the proprieties observed. It would be too much even for someone of my reputation to house his supposed mistress under the same roof as his mother and sisters. And no," He held a hand up to forestall any darts in that direction. "You are not my mistress nor are you seen as such, which was why I felt it entirely appropriate to offer a suite of rooms to Dragon and yourself."
"We can take care of ourselves." Briar returned shortly.
"Yes, so you keep telling me." Sebastian returned. "You refuse to accept any help from me, as if it keeps your virtue safer to be crowded into a tiny room. You act as if to be my friend, to accept help is something to be ashamed of." His fury at her continuing determination to keep him at arms length seemed to spiral through him. He had enemies that could easily decide to strike at her on a whim, a shot in the dark to see if her death had any effect on the prince. At the palace he could protect her from the consequences of his regard. On the other side of the city as far from the palace as one could get, Briar and Dragon were in greater danger.
"I am not ashamed of your friendship." Briar struggled to keep her voice low, mindful of the fact that open air surrounded them on the inn's rooftop. "But I cannot give the appearance of more than that, no matter how closely the proprieties are observed. If people believe or begin to believe that I am your mistress, they will wish me to perform for that reason, not for my music."
Sebastian sighed wearily. He couldn't explain to her the reasons he wanted to keep her close, not the more dangerous ones anyway. It would only worry her and there wasn't anything she could do. "All right. I just wish you would let me help you, discreetly if not openly."
Briar shook her head. "Sebastian it is very important to me that I do things on my own."
"Yes, as if my coin is tainted with my reputation." He said quietly. "You wish to keep to the fiction that I have only friendship in my heart towards you. That I do not have other desires and so I am content to leave things as they stand. Someday I hope you admit that you want more as well."
Briar looked at him, her eyes glowing green like a cats in the darkness. "I am sorry Sebastian."
"Selena's smiles and Nicodemus' tears!" Sebastian swore fluently. "Don't tell me you're sorry!" He turned and stalked off outrage proclaimed by every line of his body, yet his footsteps still made no sound.
Briar sighed and almost as quietly made her way to her room at the inn beneath her feet.
Raden sat at his desk in his shadowed study and looked at his protégé. As golden as his mother with a wicked air about him that only served him well in his disguise Sebastian would make a great Spymaster some day. That the boy was lovesick and still managed to do his job said even greater things about him. "You know that she is endangered simply by your association with her." He said seemingly offhandedly.
Sebastian nodded soberly. "By all appearances she is simply a talented bard whose voice and company I enjoy now and then. I have taken great care to not appear otherwise when in public with her."
Raden nodded. "And you've done well. No one believes she is anything other than a passing fancy of yours. This will keep her safe for a while." He nodded at Sebastian's raised eyebrows at the qualifier. "No doubt in an attempt to prevent her pride and heart being bruised you've ceased your attentions to other women except for dutiful social obligations. Sooner or later the enemies you have in the court, simply because of your position, will come to the conclusion that she is more to you than she appears."
Sebastian's jaw set firmly. "I'll be damned if I'll bed five different women a week when I've no desire for them just to set the rumors flying again." He retorted evenly. "She won't let me keep her at the palace, under the dubiously protective status of my personal bard. She won't accept money so she can afford a better, more secure, inn. She won't even acknowledge my feelings for her."
Raden's mouth quirked in a smile. "If you want to protect her, you should give exactly that impression. You have the skill to make sleep potions, use it." Sebastian grinned appreciatively as his nimble mind effortlessly followed Raden's line of thought. The older man rubbed his jaw. "I have a spy in the academy, waiting for field work. He resembles you in build and coloring to the extent that in the dark and with a slightly intoxicated and drugged woman he will be you. Act the lover in public, he will take the part of the lover in private, satisfying the need for physical evidence of a night with the young prince." Raden regarded the prince sternly. "And he will not make the mistake of falling in love with any of the women." His voice was slightly reproving.
Sebastian grinned at the plan Raden outlined, his mentor was truly devious, but his eyes darkened dangerously and he leant forward all of his lazily relaxed airs falling like bricks. "I won't apologize to you or anyone for the demands of my heart." He hissed out sounding to Raden's ears nostalgically like his mother. "I love her, I will protect her by whatever means I must, but I am not you Raden, I have a heart that insists on the love of a woman."
"Like your mother." Raden smiled. "Relax Sebastian, let your ire subside." He rose and walked about the room. "I am aware of the fact that you're in love with this girl. I congratulate you on at least knowing what you want. Many men don't. But you are next in line for this position and it has dangers. Most folk don't know of my existence, personally and professionally. You cannot avoid the first, but you must avoid the second. No one can know that you will be the next Spymaster and the head of the assassin's guild. That is the only thing that will protect you and your lady from the dangers that come with this appointment. Nothing can prevent the dangers inherent with the title you bear by heredity."
Sebastian looked at him challengingly. "Briar knows." He said quietly. "I told her, because she is just as intelligent as you or I, and she knew there was something I was concealing. She would have learned of it eventually. And her blood brother Dragon knows as well. Neither of them would betray me."
Raden sighed. "It's your neck Sebastian." He said quietly. "I wouldn't have advised it, but then I've never been concerned with the integrity of a woman's heart."
"Liar." Sebastian scoffed. "You value my mother's opinion and that of Lady Shen very highly."
Raden narrowed his eyes at the prince. "Don't let your familial relationship to the goddess of luck lead you to gambling your life on chance remarks Sebastian." He said in a quiet voice. "I could kill you with a word right now."
Sebastian shrugged. "You could, but you won't." He said carelessly. "I know you pretty well Raden. You do care about a few people. Lady Shen and my mother, and me, and even my father. You would never hurt a member of the royal family. Your loyalty is too great."
Raden scowled at his protégé. "How can you be so sure?" He asked coldly.
"Because I know you." Sebastian said rising from his chair. "And because if you wanted me dead, you could have killed me a thousand times over in the past few years." He snapped into a near military stance and bowed his respect correctly. "You will send your new agent to me in Aeliara?" He inquired. Raden nodded and Sebastian turned and left the room.
Briar looked around. The Rose Theatre was astounding. She'd never seen a theatre of this size or of such incredible beauty. Everything about it was graceful as if it had grown from the stone on which the city rested. It was considered to be one of the jewels of the city and an honor to tread the boards of its stage.
And now the owner of The Rose was holding a contest the prize of which was for a single performer to hold the stage for a night. Any bard could enter, but the contest was of three parts and the competition in a city known for being a metropolis of culture was intense.
Briar took a deep breath and sought a place where the press of bodies was not so fierce. Finding a slightly shaded spot with only a few other folk she leaned against a post and sighed in relief.
"I wouldn't relax just yet." A lazy drawl came to her ears. "You've yet to perform, wouldn't want to lose that aura of anticipation now would we?" A saturnine appearing man across from her grinned with false intimacy.
Briar regarded him with coolly curious eyes. A goatee carefully shaped to a point, narrow eyebrows and dark eyes and black hair gave the impression of a satyr. Olive complexioned skin and a fine regard for fashion were her next observations. A fellow bard, with a predilection for aping a courtier she concluded as she took in the violin case he carried. He spoke as if imitating Sebastian's careless lazy tones.
"You're the Black Rose." He continued. "I'm Malachi."
"How do you do?" Briar bent her knees in a slight curtsey, her black skirts rustling slightly.
"Ah, well enough." He replied with a grin. "Better now that I have had occasion to gaze on your fairness. 'Tis a wonder Prince Sebastian never brought you to court."
Briar's eyes opened slightly wider in a study of surprise. "His highness simply enjoys my music on occasion and conversation about such even more rarely. He would have no reason to bring me to court."
"Your face alone would be reason enough." Malachi returned. "But if you have no liking for court then perhaps 'tis best he has turned his attentions elsewhere."
"Indeed." Briar replied in a tone that could be interpreted several ways and an indifferent expression on her face.
"Though I must grant," the malicious bard continued, "he hasn't favored any of his current ladies as long as he did you. Escorting ladies to various social events. A night spent with them, here and there and then he seems to lose interest when he leaves them sleeping at dawn. Perhaps you've spoiled him for all others." He suggested slyly his black eyes gleaming.
"Since he has never spent a night in my company, I don't see how it could be so." Briar returned sweetly. "His attentions were only for my music."
"Ah, well then we will all be privileged to hear what the prince favors so greatly." Malachi observed. "I believe that they are calling your name."
"So they are." She smiled as she left while her heart trembled within her. She didn't know if she was angrier with Sebastian for exposing her to such speculation, with herself for letting it matter what people thought, or with Malachi for telling her such stories. All three she decided impartially as she climbed the steps to the stage.
The first part of the contest was purely instrumental music and she lifted her flute to her lips thankful that she'd had so much practice in improvising music according to her mood. The sweet notes soared over the heads of the spectators and contestants alike in a plaintive beautiful call.
Sebastian was waiting for Briar in her room when she returned. Sick with the thought that she hadn't done well Briar merely looked at him when she entered.
"Are you all right?" Sebastian asked in concern. "You look upset."
Briar shrugged carelessly. "I'm fine. I've never been in competition before."
Sebastian nodded. "I'm sure it can be unnerving." He rose from his seat on Dragon's bed and took her hand, kissing the back of it in a courtly salute.
Briar snatched her hand away in ill temper and scowled. "And how are you? Getting enough sleep?" She asked pettishly.
Sebastian sighed. "That's what I came to talk with you about Briar." He looked at her. "As a member of the royal family, who is officially unattached, I am expected to escort members of the nobility, members of the court, to social functions. It is one of my duties. I have resumed those duties since my family returned to the city in an attempt to keep my enemies from learning how important you are to me. Even if they believe you to be a friend, they might try to hurt you, to get to me."
"So that is why you are squiring those women about?" Briar inquired slowly. "To protect me?"
Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief that she seemed to understand. "Yes. I discussed it with Raden, and we came up with a plan." He explained what Raden had suggested and how it was being implemented. Briar listened silently, her green eyes almost black and unreadable. "Since I have no intention of bedding some woman I don't give a damn about this seemed the best thing to do." He finished.
"Well you certainly seem to have covered all your weak points." Briar said quietly. "You've done a thorough job of convincing everyone that your interest in me is strictly musical. What I heard today reinforces the rumor that you are no longer interested in me personally."
Sebastian looked at her and heard the wooden tone of her voice and knew something wasn't quite right. "I only want to protect you Briar. I'd never forgive myself if you were hurt because of me." He crouched down in front of her, where she sat on her bed and grasped her hands. "I want you safe, and this is the only way I know to keep you so."
Briar summoned up a smile and nodded. "I know Sebastian. And I understand. From now on when I hear the rumors I'll just smile and laugh and tell folks as I did today that you have only ever been interested in my music. Say something often enough and folk believe." Inwardly she wondered how long it would be before the impression Sebastian was so carefully giving became the truth and he was no longer interested in friendship with her. Noblewomen made a career of appearing dazzling, witty, and charming. How long would it be before Sebastian found one of them more enticing to be with than her own, common, company?
Sebastian stared up at her and he knew something was wrong. Her eyes were nearly black with some emotion or thought. But until she told him what was bothering her he could do nothing about it. "I'm going to be working a great deal in the coming months. Raden believes there is something going on that needs my particular touch. I will try to visit you as often as I can Briar Rose." He lifted a hand to her cheek and felt how cold her skin was. "As often as I can." He repeated. Rising, he left soundlessly for the roof and the route across the rooftops that he habitually employed to reach her inn secretly and return from whence he came.
Briar arrived at The Rose along with dozens of other bards the next day to see the results of the first part of the contest. To her delight her name was read as one of the semi finalists. So, she heard dismally, was Malachi's. The bards also learned that the next part of the contest was to be held in a month's time. This would give the bards ample time to come up with new material for the second part, which was to be an original composition of a ballad.
Briar shrugged resolutely and began the walk back to The Lark In the Morning. She had no doubt she could write an original ballad in a month. The way she felt these days she could write a dozen.
"I don't like to admit it, but I'm getting worried about him." Lorelei carefully selected a practice blade from the wall and swung it experimentally. "He's not acting right."
"Since when has Sebastian ever acted in a manner you considered 'right' Lorelei?" Her twin retorted as he practiced his sweep with his own long sword.
"I mean worse than usual." She said patiently. "He's not eating enough, at least not at meals with the family. He disappears until all hours of the night, he's paying attention to women as if they were bon-bons and he a lunatic for sweets. And he's not going near Briar at all."
"You think she told him to leave her alone?" Andreas asked soberly, his expression of concentration never wavering.
"No, he'd be more miserable I think." Lorelei said consideringly. "Its as if he's trying to…I don't know…if it were anyone but Sebastian I'd say working himself to death."
Andreas looked at his sister. "Perhaps he is doing that. But in his own rather lunatic fashion." He ran a hand through his sweat spiked hair and grimaced slightly. "What would you like to do?"
Lorelei shrugged. "That's the problem. I don't know what the problem is so I don't know how to solve it. I only can tell that something is wrong."
Sebastian looked at Raden and nodded wearily. "I can do it. It will take about three days." His concern for his next assignment dismissed he didn't rise immediately as usual. Dark blue eyes closed slightly and then opened again.
"Do you need some time off?" Raden asked in concern. "I know you have other duties and I'd rather not burn you out. I can send someone else."
"No." Sebastian shook his head. "I need to keep busy."
"You've been very much so." Raden returned in his thoughtful voice. "My watcher tells me that you've been disappearing at night."
"Yes." Sebastian nodded. "What of it?"
"The point of having spies on the royal family is to ensure their safety." Raden said with some asperity in his voice. "If you intentionally elude your watcher then the exercise is rather pointless is it not?"
Sebastian sighed. "As we discussed previously, I've been avoiding Briar's company. I told her our plan, about misleading the gossips and our enemies, and I told her I would be working constantly for a while. She knows that I can't come to see her publicly."
"So you've been seeing her privately." Raden surmised.
"Not that she knows of no." Sebastian shook his head.
"Then what are you doing?" His teacher's eyebrows rose curiously.
"I come into her room each night." Sebastian said quietly. "I enter by the window, and sit on the sill, and I watch her sleep." His voice softened and he smiled slightly. "She is so lovely, when she sleeps, so peaceful. It rests me, to watch her sleeping."
"And if someone saw you?" Raden inquired. "What of our carefully laid plans then?"
Sebastian sent him a pained look. "Please, Raden, you of all folk should know that no one will see me unless I wish them to."
Raden raised his hands in apology. "All right all right, but it still is not the wisest of moves."
Sebastian slammed his hands down on Raden's desk. "I do not care for wisdom right now." He said in a low angry voice. "She is in danger so I must avoid her publicly. I cannot speak to her, write to her, I can't hear her voice, her music. Everything that makes my life bearable, is being denied to me. To see her, is more necessary than breathing, so I go to see her. No one will ever know."
Raden regarded him with displeasure. "Your watcher also says that you watch her, in disguise you watch what she does. This is eerily close to stalking." He commented.
"Yes, I do. Its good practice, it isn't done all that often, and in this way, I protect her as much as I am able." Sebastian returned, not bothering to deny it.
Raden shook his head in resignation and sighed. "You can't protect her constantly." He pointed out.
"No, but you can." Sebastian said with a gleam in his eye.
"I beg your pardon?" Raden looked at him as if the prince had lost his reason.
"You have a spy on me, for all the good it does you. I don't need one. Set him on Briar. Protect her for me. It will do me more good than a weeks worth of sleep." Sebastian said fervently. "With as much as I'm working I can't watch her as often as I'd like. Your spy can do it for me."
"Spying on the royal family is something of a reward for exceptional service. It's an honor." Raden protested slightly.
Sebastian grinned. "Tell your spy that Briar will be a member of my family if I have anything to say about it." Raden just looked at him. "Come now Raden, surely you are aware of my family predilection for getting our way. Especially when it matters so much to us? My father married my mother didn't he? Before her heritage and suitability were known?"
Raden nodded. "I'll do as you suggest." He agreed. "Do your parents know of your intentions?"
Sebastian shrugged. "If they don't then old age is making their brains soft." He grinned, the first genuine smile to touch his lips in a fortnight.
Raden rolled his eyes. "Somehow I doubt that has occurred." He said dryly.
Briar sat on her bed, her back against the wall busily scribbling in the book Sebastian had given her. She had only a little over two weeks until the next part of the contest and she still wasn't satisfied with her efforts for an original song.
"Let me see Briar." Dragon said in his rasping voice. He regarded her from his place at the small table with his oddly compelling gaze. "You can't be objective about what you've written anymore, you've worked at it too long."
With a sigh Briar uncurled her legs and leaned over to hand him the book. Dragon frowned over her scribbles for a few minutes until he deciphered her arrows and musical instructions. "It is to be sung accapella?" He asked quietly.
"I hadn't decided." She admitted nervously. "I'm still not sure its good enough."
Dragon looked at her. "Briar, it's one of the best you've written yet. But…"
"But?" Briar asked hopelessly.
Dragon shot a glance at the door and said quickly as he shut the book. "Don't show it to Sebastian."
"Why not?" Briar asked as a knock sounded on their door.
"He won't know how you mean it." Dragon told her as he rose to open the door.
"I don't-" Briar began but cut her words off as she saw Sebastian standing in the doorway.
"Well met." Dragon said dryly as he tugged a tunic on over his shirt. "Sebastian." He nodded inviting the prince in.
Briar snatched at a quilt, covering her bare legs as Sebastian entered the room, his sapphire eyes gleaming appreciatively at the sight of so much of Briar's skin. "Dragon." He shot the other man a grin and leaned against the table looking at Briar's pink face with a wicked smile. Dragon rolled his eyes and left the room.
"Hello Sebastian." Briar said with an edge to her voice. "Are you satisfied?" She snapped as he kept glancing down at her legs, now completely covered by a quilt.
"Hardly." He growled the word out. "But then you could stand bare as the day you were born before me and I would not be satisfied if you had no desire for me, and no wish for me to touch you." The golden prince made a slashing movement with his hand and for a moment utter frustration and longing twisted his face into something beautiful and terrifying to Briar. Shuddering he pushed his hands through his curly hair and visibly regained control of himself. "I apologize." He said in a quieter tone. "You do not deserve such abuse."
"I'm—" Briar began and was cut off as he directed a furious look at her. "All right I won't say it." She shrugged. "I don't know what you mean when you speak of desire Sebastian. I am…" She looked down and mumbled something that the young man couldn't hear but could guess at.
"You're an innocent." Sebastian said it for her. "I'm aware of the fact that young girls don't feel desire as intensely as young men. It is part of their bodies defense against physical love before they are ready for it." He muttered something under his breath that drew Briar's gaze to him sharply.
"You want to what?" She asked slightly louder than she had intended so shocked was she.
Sebastian looked straight into her eyes and repeated his words. "I'd love to awaken you. To give you pleasure until your body is wracked with it and your lovely voice is wordless with delight." His eyes were so hot that Briar felt her face flushing in reaction and she shivered. The habitual lazy drawl of his voice lost none of its sensuality as he spoke with such intensity. "That would satisfy me. To awaken you to love."
Briar shuddered and her mouth fell open in amazement. Her dark green eyes were like the bottom of a forest well, huge and deep with surprise. "But…I… I couldn't…"
He looked at her and smiled, shaking his head slowly. "I never said I would take your virginity. Some of your innocence yes…but I would leave you whole."
Briar stared at him in shock and couldn't speak. She was trembling, Sebastian saw, with fear or cold or desire, he couldn't be sure. But if her eyes were dark with desire and her skin flushed with it, fear also shimmered in those depths. The realization was like a wave from the icy waterfall. He couldn't feel shame, or regret that he had told her what he wanted, but he wanted to protect her from all the dark shadows of the world, even the desires that smoldered within himself.
Slowly he moved towards her and as her head jerked in a slight surprised flinch it felt as if he'd been struck. "No, Briar, I won't. It's all right." He said soothingly. Sitting down next to her he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and tucking her quilt about her gathering her up against him. Resting his head on top of hers he sighed. "I never would, unless you wished it." He said softly. "Never, my black rose, never would I take advantage of your innocence." His hands rubbed her shoulders gently and he felt something so unfamiliar rise in him. Contentment. Never had he felt so content in his life as when he was simply holding this fragile strong girl. This was the closest she'd ever allowed him. He suddenly understood his father's need to cradle his wife in his lap so very often.
Sebastian rubbed his cheek against her midnight silky hair and breathed in her scent. He didn't know how long he sat holding her and he remained there, cradling her against him even as he heard Dragon's familiar step in the hall. When the warrior mage opened the door Sebastian simply looked up at the scarred man and smiled slightly. Rubbing his cheek against Briar's hair one last time he whispered softly. "My time in paradise is over it seems. Your brother is here my Rose."
Briar sighed and snuggled into him even more fully for a moment and then slowly straightened up. Huge dark eyes stared into bright blue ones and Sebastian smiled down at her. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head he rose from his seat and took a deep breath. He carefully tugged his clothing into place and with one last glance at Briar hurried from the room.
Dragon looked at Briar and said nothing, but then he didn't need to speak. His eyes said volumes.
Briar shrugged. "He said something that shocked me so much he felt bad. So he was trying to make me feel better."
"What did he say?" Dragon asked curiously. Briar blushed fiery red and mumbled. "What?" Dragon asked not understanding her.
"He said he wanted to awaken me." Briar spoke more clearly and then glared at Dragon daring him to make something of it.
Dragon sat down heavily and stared at his adopted sister. "He said what?"
"I'm not going to repeat it again." Briar warned him. Huffily she rose and took her book off of the table. "I have to practice."
Dragon nodded absently. "You do that."
A few days later as Briar was exiting one of the city's larger music shops she bumped into an annoyingly familiar face. She supposed that she couldn't be truly surprised to see him since all bards sooner or later needed new strings or other supplies for their instruments. "Malachi." She nodded as she stepped out of the doorway to let him pass.
"Ah, the lovely Black Rose." The dark man made an elaborate bow. "How is the day finding you? Better I'm sure, now that those rumors of the reason for the prince's interest in you have been laid to rest?"
"I beg your pardon?" Briar returned coldly. "I was unaware of any rumors."
"Ah…well, they were mostly flying around court, and might not be of general knowledge in the city." Malachi said in a smooth thoughtful tone. His black eyes gleamed with malicious intent.
"Yes, that would explain the reason for my ignorance." Briar agreed. "I have very little interest in the nobility."
"Its just as well." Malachi agreed with suspicious sympathy. "Therefore those who did believe those idiotic tales of a bet wouldn't be the ones whose opinions mattered to you anyway."
"Precisely." The green eyed bard agreed. "Honestly. Doesn't the court have anything better to do than talk about me?" She asked dryly.
"Well these days the talk is still focused on Prince Sebastian, and therefore the talk of you and the wager is slightly peripheral. But now and then it pops up in conversation." Malachi informed her with a slight smile. "I for one don't see how it could be true. His highness would have more than enough reason to seek out your company simply for your talent and beauty, not merely to satisfy the demands of a wager he made with his…uncle, I think it was?" He broke off as if trying to recall accurately. "The elf he keeps so much company with on his rounds of the various night spots." He said snapping his fingers.
"His uncle, Anakin Moonflower Craulnober?" Briar queried icily.
"Oh, yes that's the one." Malachi nodded in satisfaction.
"Hearing the supposed source of the bet I find it even more difficult to believe." Briar said quietly. "I'm sure you have far too much discernment to give any amount of attention to such foolish rumors." With a slight nod of her head she began to move away. "Good day to you."
Seething she returned to her room at the inn and put quill to parchment.
"Dear Sebastian,
The most disturbingly stupid rumor has come to my ears. Since the source of this information is a fellow bardic competitor I take the words with more than a grain of salt. But I felt you should know if it in case something of a similar nature is imparted to you.
Someone is spreading the rumor that the only reason you sought out my company to begin with was to win a wager.
I am of two minds on this. If, as I suspect, this is patently false I am sure you will take pains to correct this faulty impression. On the other hand, I am well aware that you are trying for some reason to distance yourself from me. If you are the one spreading this foolishness about with all the lavishness of manure on a failing garden I can think of very little to explain it.
If you are trying to break off your friendship with me, through roundaboutation and trickery, I would that you have done with it.
If this is some malicious prank on the part of another, I ask that you find the source of it and put a stop to it.
No matter. For all intents and purposes, your aim of distance is achieved. I do not wish to see you until you have dealt with this one way or another. I am tired of deception and guile. Give me truth, or do without my company in public and in private. I cannot deal with a fight on two fronts.
With affection and sincerity,
Briar"
She closed the parchment with a seal and still fuming went down to the taproom to make arrangements for its delivery. The grim set of her mouth and furious dark eyes forestalled any well intentioned hails in her direction and she retreated back to her room.
Angrily she threw herself down on the bed and growled in her throat. The gall of that malicious son of a misbegotten orc Malachi. Imparting these rumors to her, with all the delight of an evil cook poisoning the soup he planned to serve. And the fact that these rumors could only be heard at the royal court didn't improve her temper. Beyond that one private performance Sebastian had never invited her to court. He had not said in so many words, she admitted honestly, but had she accepted his offer of a suite at the palace he might have thought to bring her to attend the court with him.
Briar flipped over onto her back and sighed. Sitting up she tried to calm down and finally thought things out reasonably. She had been an utter fool. Why had she written such harsh unkind words to him? And to offer such an ultimatum. If Sebastian had spread that rumor himself he had a reason for it. But she had offered him no way out if he had done. Gloomily she looked at the angle of the shadows and shook her head. The innkeeper was in the habit of sending her messages immediately since he knew that she and the prince corresponded. There was no way to take back the words she had written.
The bard sighed and looked at the basket Sebastian had sent her. His gifts had been thoughtful, chosen with the care of someone who wishes the recipient to enjoy them, not simply be impressed with the expense. Opening the bottle she sniffed the perfume and wished he had sent a bottle of the cologne she occasionally scented on his skin. In his embrace a few days before she'd felt warm and safe, the spicy scent of his cologne and skin under his clothing and his hands gently rubbing her back.
Carefully replacing the perfume Briar picked up her book and held it to her chest sighing again even more deeply. If Sebastian stopped speaking with her she didn't know what she'd do.
Sebastian broke the seal of the letter and eagerly unfolded the page. His eyes scanned the script quickly and then reread it more slowly. A groan of dismay arose in his throat and he bit his tongue to keep from voicing it.
There was nothing he could do. He had to make his enemies believe that he felt nothing for Briar. That his treatment of her was due to whim and wager, and his partiality only temporary and no concern.
His mood was bleak as he mentally reiterated the reasons he'd spread such a rumor and he hoped Briar would reconsider and consent to meet with him privately eventually. He couldn't expect her to enjoy being the target of such maliciousness though and admitted that were the tables turned he would be much less patient.
Grimly he wondered how long it would take before she relented, if at all, and who among the court was whispering these rumors in her ear. He read the letter again and his eyes narrowed as he took in the phrase 'fellow bardic competitor'. There were a finite amount of bards who were entered in the competition and also had invitation to court.
TBC
