(We've come to be the rulers of your world)
(Vienna 1683)
"Wasn't the last time enough for you?" Four startled faces looked up at Katniss and the expressions nearly made her laugh. But she didn't. No point in unnecessarily making them mad. Perhaps it would be useful sometime to make them mad, because angry people lose their judgment and sometimes their heads. Four to one is never odds to take lightly and she didn't have Kyra by her side now.
Since nothing was going to happen at this particular moment since she was not only inside the secure and guarded walls of the central citadel but also some thirty feet above the fuming foursome she let her mind wander. She wondered how Kyra was doing.
(France 1662)
The pair of them had remained in the Queen's service for over twenty more years. Things had been much quieter after the passing of the King and Cardinal Richelieu but it still hadn't been boring. During the Queen's long regency for her young son and several years after Louis XIV officially took the throne there had been many plots and one serious revolt among the nobility. When the Queen finally decided to retire to a convent, where she would die a few years later the country was calm though, even the war with Spain having been brought to an end.
It was then that Kyra had surprised her by announcing that she was getting married. To a mortal. To a mortal who now knew of the existence of Immortals.
Deirdre had mentioned this happened. Fitzcairn boasted that he had successfully avoided any attempt to "tie him down". Duncan had been a little more circumspect but admitted he was well aware of the practice. His cousin and mentor Connor McLeod had enjoyed a long and happy marriage to a mortal but had admitted to being devastated by her death from old age while he lived on.
"It just seems so, so," Katniss groped for the words.
"So futile?"
"Yes."
"It may seem like it but consider this. We're Immortals but there is no guarantee that either of us will live to see tomorrow. We might. We might see centuries. But a sword stroke could end either of us at any time. So Katniss my dear friend, take love when you can find it. I have been here before. If I outlive him it will hurt but I will always have the memories of our time together. The only way to insulate oneself from all sadness is to never allow any one in to your heart. Don't do that. It's an empty existence."
When Katniss had met him she had been force to admit that her friend's about-to-be husband was indeed quite a catch. Handsome, charming and with a smile that lit up a room and beyond he was as obviously smitten with Kyra as she was with him. He was gallantly courteous to his lover's friend, showering her with compliments but never steeping over the line or showing that his real attention was focused anywhere but on Kyra.
It turned out that they were leaving Paris. They had not decided on a destination except it would be someplace warm and preferably on the ocean.
"It's time for you to move on too Katniss," Kyra reminded her. "It's been too long really. Had we been a pair of Ladies-in-Waiting or even uniformed guards far too many people would know us. This is the time though. The rest of the Queen's attendants have moved away with her and frankly she no longer needs our services. So slip away."
Kyra was right of course. The two women had embraced.
"Until we meet again." Her eyes strayed to the man next to Kyra. "Be good to her."
"Never fear Cherie," he promised.
The pair left in a carriage immediately after the wedding ceremony. Two days later Katniss mounted her horse and rode east having returned control of the estate to the successor to the original advocate handling Deirdre's house and monies. She left a letter behind for her mentor, telling her of her adventures so far.
(Vienna 1683)
Cato was steaming. Marvel was furious. Glimmer was embarrassed. And Clove? The English Immortal found that the hardest thing she had to do was to keep from laughing. The twinkle in the dark-haired girl's eyes was visible to her all the way down here. The muttered threats and vows of revenge the rest of her group were indulging even seemed even more ridiculous to her. What were they going to do? Climb the citadel's walls? Storm the gate?
No, they ended up doing pretty much exactly what Clove expected. They grumbled, got even angrier and then stalked off, no doubt to find a tavern where they would sit and drink and brood about avenging the slight. Clove was even pretty sure which dive they would head to. So when the other three stalked off she remained, calmly looking up at the other Immortal. Calmly on the outside anyway; on the inside something was quivering that she could not explain or understand. Then her green eyes connected with the blue ones looking down and the quivering stopped.
Clove found herself still, very still as she lost herself in those eyes. They seemed like pools she could submerge herself in and never need to come back up.
"The third time will be the charm," she remembered thinking. But what kind of charm? Whatever is was she saw the same confusion mingled with something that called to her in the eyes above her. What kind of call? Was it simply that she saw someone who would make a better friend, a truer friend, than the ones she had associated with for so long? Or was there something deeper? That was silly. Wasn't it?
How long the two female Immortals looked at each other neither could tell later. Finally the archer girl shook herself, bringing Clove to her senses as well.
"Meet me at the Eastern postern gate at dusk." The figure on the wall turned and disappeared.
Clove made her way to the tavern she was sure where the others would have gone. She was right. The trio was sitting around a scarred table, the guys nursing jacks of ale while Glimmer sipped on what must have been really foul wine judging by the looks of disgust she often shot at her glass.
"Where were you?" grumbled Cato.
Clove started to make up some story of following a possible mark but then realized that none of the three was paying the slightest bit of attention to her. Instead they were busy making grandiose plans of revenge against the other Immortal as well as wild ideas for enriching themselves in the process.
As they debated Clove watched, listened and thought. Grandiose schemes were all those ideas were ever going to be. She had drifted aimlessly with them for a century now and it was time to get out. Muttering some excuse she slipped away from the table. She ducked behind a pillar and slipped back to listen.
"How much longer are you going to let Clove travel with us?" asked Glimmer, laying a hand on Cato's arm.
"Not much longer. She's been helpful but I think she's outlived her usefulness. Besides, she's starting to get moody and she might try to leave us. Better to take her head now while she's close at hand." The idea must have made the hulking Danish Immortal happy for he smiled and ordered another round.
"Just in time," Clove thought. She darted out of the dive and hastened to where the foursome had been lodging. She gathered her things, surveying the room as she did. Her nose wrinkled. This place was nearly as squalid as the last place she had lived with her family. What was the point of being Immortal if this was all there was? Maybe with this new, well, hopefully friend but companion anyway, things would be different. Maybe so.
Only a tiny sliver of the sun still showed when Clove arrived at the designated gate. Massive, tightly barred and heavily guarded theere was a small gate set into the wall that exited on to a narrow pathway that curled around to the main road. It was set so that siege equipment such as rams could not be brought to bear on it. The dark-haired woman stood by it along with several men wearing chased back and breast armor. They were studying a scroll. The woman looked up.
"Ah there you are. Gentlemen this is an old acquaintance of mine who has arrived to assist with the defense of Vienna as well as to help to help me scout the enemy positions."
"An honor Madame." The grizzled officer in plain armor bowed slightly to her. "Any friend of Katniss Everdeen is welcome." He gestured to one of the others. "Please ensure that..." he paused for a moment with a lifted eyebrow.
"Clove Honor my lord," she replied, bowing deeper in return.
"That Clove Honor is enrolled on the pay list as a scout with commensurate remuneration." He went on briskly "now Katniss I want you to look in particular for the following units and for any shifting around of the field guns from your last foray."
A few minutes were spent arranging details including their safe return through the pickets and other defensive lines. The older man, whom Clove recognized now as having been pointed out to her before as the garrison commander, directed yet another officer to take Clove's few things to Katniss's rooms.
"Rooms?" Clove thought. "As in more than one?" She and her now former friends, acquaintances rather, had all huddled together in one which by the way made things damn uncomfortable when Cato and Glimmer were feeling amorous. And the one time they had invited Clove to join them had not been any kind of compensation at all. Thank God she was getting out of that and with a new start.
"I will expect you to report as soon as you return," the commander told Katniss.
"We should be back by daylight or shortly after My Lord Graf," was the reply. With that the postern gate was cracked open and Clove followed the dark-haired girl out into the enfolding darkness. Clove's heart beat faster than it had in decades as she entered into a new journey that promised adventure and even real friendship.
And who knew what else lay in wait? The third time was definitely the charm. How much she wouldn t learn for some time.
(To be continued)