"Where have you been?"
Arshes Nei pulled the chair back opposite Gara and settled into it. He already had a bottle of wine half consumed and his stomach rumbled eagerly for the meal he had been postponing till her arrival. They met at an inn in the east side of town. It was easier to get a private moment there without the sharp eyes and loose tongues of all the castle staff absorbing everything that went on within their domain. It was just a little safer to engage in an intimate moment without the danger of Schneider happening by and blowing Gara to bits. Even Arshes, despite her bravado, was just a little intimidated by thoughts Schneider's reaction to the fact that she was sharing Gara's bed. So better safe than sorry.
Arshes pulled of her gloves a finger at a time -- Gara was fascinated by the methodical way she accomplished it -- and lay the soft leather gloves beside her on the table top afterwards. Her hands were long fingered and slim, strong despite the fragile bone structure. She could wield a sword better than most men with those hands. He had bruises to prove it.
"Kall-Su proved particularly restless. He decided to go riding. All the way to the northern forest line and him woolgathering the entire time. More than likely Darshe was right in keeping an eye on him. I've known him to be lackadaisical on occasion -- mostly when we were younger -- but now -- I think he's just lost his focus and that's not like him."
"I can understand it. That much hurt can change a man."
She waved a hand, uncomfortable with the subject. "Well, here's an interesting tidbit. Before I got dragged out into the wilderness, he made a stop to see that little slave you brought back with you. He removed her slave tattoo."
Gara lifted a thick brow in surprise. "Really? I think she tried to help him out when he was there. She damn sure went to lengths when the place was falling down about our heads. Did he say anything about her to you?"
Arshes snorted. "He didn't say a word to me the whole afternoon."
"Hummm. Well, if she did try and help him I think she deserves more than a job in the laundry."
"What? Some reward?"
"It wouldn't hurt."
"You are so generous, Gara." She smiled lazily at him. A smile that promised so many different things. He thought of the room upstairs he had bought and paid for. The smells from the kitchen divided his attention. His stomach was a harsh mistress.
"And famished." He said mournfully. "I was waiting for you to have supper."
She laughed. "Ah, a man not ruled by his head -- or his other head -- but by his stomach. How refreshing."
He gave her a dour stare. Not quite appreciating the off hand complement. Her laugh turned to a chuckle and she reached across the table to squeeze his fingers. "I'm so happy to have found you, Gara. Supper is a wonderful notion."
Supper was quickly consumed. And the hour's dalliance afterwards an ample dessert. Neither Gara nor Arshes Nei were much on lying about in too much indulgence though and were on their way soon after, walking through the dusk shrouded evening of Sta-Veron. They were both too seasoned and wry to hold hands like young lovers on an evening stroll, but they savored the company and the brushing of shoulders and he occasionally wrapped an arm about her waist just to feel the curve of her body against him, still amazed and flabbergasted that she allowed him to do it. That she allowed him to worship her in a way he heretofore only dreamed about.
They found their way back to the castle, the gate guard letting them pass with a nod and a word of greeting to Gara. Supper had already been served in the main hall and now only a few of the servants sat at the tables along the side of the hall taking a late supper. Gara thought he saw the girl from Angelo's fortress among them. He could only tell because with her head lowered, concentrating on her stew, her dark hair fell almost completely over her face. All he could seem to remember of her was that shield of falling hair. He touched Arshes' arm and motioned towards the girl. She nodded at him, and stood against the wall while he walked along the hall towards the girl.
Silence was second nature to him and he was standing behind the girl, Lily, was her name, he believed, without a single servant being aware of him. When he spoke they all started and looked back at him in shock. One of them made a religious sign against ghosts and the like and Gara smiled. Lily looked up at him warily and he could just see the large round orbs of dark eyes behind the hair. Pretty girl, he thought, if she'd only push the hair out of her face.
"A word, if you don't mind." He asked. The other girls at the table stared at her, curious and not a little envious. Twice in one day, he thought that this girl, a slave -- or a former slave, since her hand was now free of blemish drew the attention of the powers that be. He felt a little sorry for her, figuring she would be the object of multitudes of speculation as an aftermath.
Lily was thinking the same thing. She had already been questioned mercilessly about Kall-Su approaching her in the kitchen yard. Every servant in the castle was whispering about it. What had she done to warrant such a gift from their lord? How had she known him? What was it like to have such a magic performed on her person? A hundred questions about the Place Without Windows and her time there that they had not cared a whit about before she had been placed at the fore of their attention. A few wary ones about their lord, but not many. They feared to gossip too much about him. They feared him as much as they respected him and other than the mere fact that he was a wizard, Lily had yet to see why. She thought the silver haired one deserved much more fear, and the girls all giggled and blushed when he was around, not afraid one bit. Well, unless Yoko was with him, then they all turned their eyes away and went about their business, but Lily thought that had more to do with Yoko than Schneider.
They were all somewhat put out with her that she would not answer more than a soft yes, or no. Or a simple refusal to speak of it at all. They thought her withdrawn and shy, which was probably better than thinking her contemptuous of their petty curiosity. In truth she was a little of both. Not comfortable talking with these outgoing women and most certainly uneasy with the thought of spreading things that were painful or dear to her heart for all to hear.
She bore their attention as she rose and meekly followed the Ninja Master along the wall, under the hanging tapestries and towards the quietly waiting figure of the elvin lady. Arshes Nei was her name. Lily had heard it said in the wake of Kall-Su's benediction of her. Her hand still tingled from the feel of the magic. Or perhaps it was merely from the touch of his fingers. She recalled the latter more clearly than the former. She could not quite erase the brief moment when his eyes had focused upon her. Oh, gods help her, but he was so beautiful, her whole afternoon had been spent daydreaming about him and all her practical self-advice had not been able to stop it.
"So, little girl -- Lily, isn't it?" Lord Gara looked down at her. Lily had to blink to regain composure and drive away thoughts of this hall's lord. One had to realize how silly she was being. Every girl in this hall had probably looked at him and had a fantasy or three and none of it would ever come to fruition. Only, he'd never trekked through the mud and removed a slave mark from any of them.
Gara was looking at her and she shook her head slightly in irritation at herself.
"Yes, my lord. Lily is my name."
"How long have you been a slave, Lily?" The elf asked.
Lily blinked at her. Close up the woman was exotically stunning. "As -- as long as I can remember, lady."
"What will you do, now that you no longer are?" The lady was blunt.
"I -- I don't know. My options are limited -- my lord. My lady."
Gara waved an impatient hand at the honorariums. "That's what we're here about. I know you helped out Kall-Su -- as much as you could at any rate -- while Angelo had him. It was a selfless thing to do. You deserve some repayment for your trouble."
She stared at him, not comprehending. "My trouble?"
"Ask for something and if it is within my power, I will see you get it. Little enough payment for the life of a friend."
The life of a friend. As if she had saved his life. As if she had done it expecting anything but punishment from the Master. Yet, they were asking and she could not quite stop from thinking of an answer. What sane person would not?
What did she want? Kall-Su, she thought. But one doubted they would give gifts of that extravagance. So she said the only other thing that came to her mind.
"A lyre. So I can play again."
"You're a minstrel?" the lady elf lifted a brow in curiosity. Lily nodded.
Gara shrugged. "All right. If that's what you want. I'll see that you get one."
"Thank you." She whispered it. Lady Nei turned away, finished with the conversation. Gara nodded his head once more, then patted her shoulder as if she were a favored hound who'd performed well. He even went so far as to say, before leaving her. "Good girl."
Lily almost laughed. She didn't know what else to do.
A wrapped package was waiting for her on her narrow cot in the room she shared with three other girls the next evening. She sat on the edge of the cot and held it over her knees for a long time before carefully unwrapping it. It was not a lyre, but a lute. Pear shaped body, graceful bent neck and fretted fingerboard. Used, she thought from the wear along the neck, but of good craftsmanship. She supposed it was the best they'd been able to do, in such a place as Sta-Veron, so far from the beaten track of civilization. The sounds were not quite as lyrical as those of the harplike lyre, but she supposed it was more practical for a traveling minstrel. Easier to swing over one's knee to play. More versatile in some of the bawdy songs the common folk preferred to hear. Alone in the room, she dared to run her fingers over the strings. A cascade of notes ensued. Almost perfectly tuned. She adjusted it until it was to her liking and realized as she finished that she was grinning broadly. Her face hurt from it, it had been so long since she'd had anything to smile about.
It was not so late, she thought, that she might not venture out into the city and find a willing audience to practice on. There was always a tavern full of patrons that might part with a coin or two for a song. She had plied enough of them with her various owners. She knew the profession well. She pulled her apron off, and hefted the instrument. She was almost down the stairs to the second level when Setha came tromping up.
"Ohh, what have you there?" the girl asked, eyeing the lute.
It was so plainly obvious that Lily did not offer an answer.
"Where'd you get that?"
That one was not so obvious and Lily thought it best to answer to avoid rampart speculation. "Lord Gara and Lady Arshes Nei."
"Really?" The girl looked surprised. "Well, where are you off with it?"
"I -- I thought to go into town and perhaps find a tavern keep willing to let me play a song or two."
"Ooohhh, are you good? I know a place. A beau of mine works there."
One could hardly find a better offer. She sighed and nodded. Setha grinned and scrambled up the stairs, calling over her shoulder. "Just be a minute. Have to make sure I look me best for all the available men about the town."
Yoko had decided that, yes, she preferred the act of lovemaking on a bed rather than on a pine needle covered ground. Sharp little sticks and burrs were such a distraction when one could be concentrating on so much more interesting things. The bed was very nice, she also found -- and this appalled her stridently devout sense of propriety to no ends -- that there were a variety of other places and positions that were equally thrilling. Rushie was so diligent a teacher and plainly ecstatic by her wholehearted foray into the education. She had a particular fondness, she had discovered, for being on top. She rather thought it was because it gave her some small portion of control and that was so hard to find with him. He hardly complained.
They had barely left her rooms for the last few days, save when he reluctantly drifted off to take his turn watching Kall-Su. When she went down to find a bite to eat, Keitlan gave her a worried look and asked if she were feeling sick.
Why no. Why do you ask?
And of course the woman remarked that she had been closeted in her room, not even coming down for dinner or lunch and what was the matter. Yoko blushed and couldn't quite come up with a thing to say until the old cook blurted out who else had been conspicuously absent during said meals. Keitlan's brows shot up, and she got a bit of a rosy blush herself, before hastily murmuring that a girl needed to eat if she were to keep her health. The cook said something a little more crass -- the old woman had an absolutely blatant obsession with Rushie. Yoko hurriedly took her bread and bowl of stew out into the hall to consume. While she was trying to fight the blush down -- her mind kept recalling what she had been doing before he had left her -- her father and his attendant priest came in from the main courtyard. Goddess, one just did not need to dwell on certain things when one's priestly father was approaching with a smile of greeting on his face.
"Yoko, you look well this morning." She lifted her cheek for a kiss of greeting.
"What have you been about so early?" she asked, knowing she sounded guilty. He did not seem to notice.
"There's a small temple at the edge of the city. The only one to Eno Marta in Sta-Veron. It sees little patronage, and its priest is an elderly man who can barely keep the maintenance up by himself. We've been helping him out."
"Trying to drum up business?" she asked wryly, then almost gasped at the sacrilegious flavor of the question. Rushie was getting to her in more ways than one. Geo Note lifted a brow, not offended and she smiled weakly.
"There are not a great deal of pious men this far north. To most of them the gods are little more than names to utter in a curse. But there are a few. So, I missed you at dinner last night. Were you well?"
Oh, he had to ask that. Learning a new trick, oh honored father. You'd be proud of me, goddess knows Rushie was impressed. She took a sip of cider and said. "I had a headache, so I stayed in."
Geo Note waved a hand and released his aide from duty to him. Then sat down beside her, folding his big hands on the table. She felt a certain amount of wariness at the serious look on his face.
"What is it?" she asked, never one to hold her tongue when curiosity beckoned.
"I feel I should return to Meta-Rikan soon. Trading convoys will be traveling south soon. I need to see the state of affairs. I've been derelict from my duty for too long."
"You haven't been here that long." She said. "Hardly more than a month."
"Too long, considering the situation. You should come with me."
She blinked at him in surprise. "Me? But Larz banned me from the city."
"Before he knew fully of the Prophet's deceptions. When I return I shall shed more light on the man's activities and we will convince him that your actions were just."
She bit her lip, torn. Thinking of all the warm memories of Meta-Rikan. All the childhood reminiscences that held a place in her heart. She had grown up in the cathedral dormitory. Had lived most of her life in the delicate gardens and ornate passages of the palace grounds and yet it seemed so distant now. So empty of the things that made a home feel like a home. This less refined, cold place was more of a home to her than she could convince herself that Meta-Rikan could ever be again. All the politics, all the posturing and the courtly intrigue -- none of it held the simple allure of being welcome in amongst the servants, sharing in all their gossip and simple ways -- of not having to bow and practice courtly manners, of not having to be wary not to offend the godly men who shared the dormitory with her less than godly ways. And of course Rushie wouldn't be there. Rushie would never be there because too much had passed. And Kall wouldn't and probably not Gara or Arshes, though the last two might not be as adamant about it. And without all the people she loved around her, she couldn't abide the thought of returning.
"I can't." She said softly. "Even if Larz welcomed me with open arms, I couldn't go back. Not to live there."
"Because of him?" Father said dourly, almost accusingly. "You have already come to harm because of him and I fear you will come to more."
"I can't hide all the time. I love you, Father. You know I do, but I've got other obligations now. Meta-Rikan does not hold my allegiance anymore. I would never wish it harm, but I've other priorities."
He sighed. His shoulders slumped slightly - in disappointment? -- Acceptance? She reached out and covered his large hand with her small one. Leaned against his shoulder.
"Papa. Please understand."
"I do, daughter. But, I had to ask."
Schneider was daydreaming in the window sill, one knee bent and resting against the glass the other leg dangling, boot almost brushing the floor. Kall-Su was flipping the pages of a disinterestedly. He had a stack of them sprawled across his desk and no one of them seemed to hold his attention. Schneider ignored him. Schneider was immersed in the rather lurid recollection of Yoko's lips and mouth performing the most erotic acts upon his person. For a novice she was mind numbingly talented. Or perhaps it was merely because it was Yoko. She had the rather amazing ability to drive him to distraction. Just thinking about it was enough to make his blood pound and he brought the dangling leg up to obscure the physical evidence.
Kall was looking at him with crystalline and very serious blue eyes. Schneider scowled, wondering if he was that obvious.
"What?" he snapped, not particularly liking being dragged out of his reverie. It had been a very nice two days. The best two days he could easily recall.
"You don't have to be here." Very soft, very level statement. "I wish that you would cease this."
Schneider lifted a brow, meeting Kall's eyes with shrew assessment. Nothing wild there. Nothing dangerous brewing under the surface. Sanity, even though it was touched with a certain lack of concentration. A certain tendency to drift away in the midst of a line of thought, which was most patently not a trait Kall-Su had ever evidenced before this. But it was not a self-destructive one.
Kall broke the stare first, looking away to hide whatever emotion flickered across his eyes. But that was nothing new. Schneider had always been able to stare him down and Kall had always tried to hide the disquiet that he could so regularly do it. But he wasn't sure. He had just gotten things under control to a degree. Everything that mattered was safe and mostly sane and he was skittish enough -- rightfully, considering the past month or so -- not to take chances.
"I don't know. Tell me why I should."
Kall sighed, shut his book and rested both palms on its leather bound cover. "What would you like to hear? I don't feel the need to sacrifice myself in hopes of alleviating my sins. I don't hear the voices in my head anymore -- at least when I'm awake. I don't know what to tell you. But if I cannot enjoy a moment's solitude without someone hovering over me I shall go mad."
"Hummm, I thought that's why we were hovering to begin with."
Kall cast a baleful stare his way.
"Listen, I have better things to do than waste my time sitting here too. You can not imagine how much better --"
"Then go and do them." Kall snapped in exasperation. "The lot of you are bothering me."
Schneider laughed at the rebuke. He was not usually on the receiving end of Kall-Su's tempers. At the moment he found it amusing. It was heartening to see the flash of temper after too many days of glazed distance from the world.
"Tell you what, I'll go and talk to Arshes and see what she thinks."
"Oh, by all means go and confer about me." Kall waved a hand at him and Schneider tossed him a warning look. One would only tolerate so much imperiousness directed at one's person. Of course it would be nice not to have this draw upon his time. He got up. Sauntered past, not wanting it to seem as if Kall had chased him out.
Down the hall to Arshes' room, thinking seriously about granting Kall's wish for purely selfish reasons. He opened the door without benefit of knocking and Arshes and Gara separated like children caught groping in the chapel. He stared, his hand on the door, the breath he'd drawn to blurt out a question to Arshes caught in his throat. Her eyes were wide, her ears twitching. Gara looked pale, but he straightened his tunic and said in a strained voice.
"Well, good practice this morning --- in the sparring yard."
Schneider's eyes narrowed. Gara moved past him with a mumbled.
"Schneider."
Schneider let him go. Glared once at his back before turning his gaze upon Arshes Nei. "What was that?" He hissed.
"What did it look like?" she hissed back. "What do you want? Don't you ever knock?"
He didn't answer. He was too busy trying to fight down the jealous rage that gathered power like a sieve, wanting very badly to expel it back out in some vastly destructive manner. She must have felt it. Her head came up like she was tasting a scent in the air and her eyes narrowed. She took a step backwards and cried at him.
"What do you want? Should I go and join a convent while you content yourself with her? You've made it painfully clear her wants are more important than anyone else's. Why should I deny myself? What right do you have to ask?"
His fingers dug into the door knob. He kept trying to focus on the promise he had made to Yoko. It was a chore to tame the coiling power. If he stayed there, poised in her doorway he didn't know what he'd do. He turned away from her, said over his shoulder in a low, seething voice.
"Kall wants out from under our watch. Leave him be, if you think it wise."