Chapter 4

Lord Maru lead Leonardo through a couple more gardens, a green house, and checked if the door on a quant building by the east gate was locked. All the while checking to see if Leonardo was sure he wanted to meet the older daughters.

"My daughters are kind but I assure you they are not easy women. There is a reason they have not married yet and it is not because of their appearance, as they are lovely…" Lord Maru led Leo down a flight of stairs that took them below the keep. "But they have a tendency to… be…unruly, opinionated and state their thought on things they have no business having thoughts on."

"Like what?" Leo inquired as he took in the surroundings. This part of the keep was not as cheerful and colorful as the rest of the keep. It was dank and water could be heard dripping. The torches that lit the hall were few and far between giving it an ominous feel.

Lord Maru stopped and looked at the younger man for a moment as he considered Leonardo's question. "Everything… they have thoughts on everything they question everything. If one doesn't the other does." He started down the hall again. "I was warned against teaching them to read. I expected them to be interested in poetry and stories of fancy."

"Didn't go as planned?" Leo had to stifle his annoyance with the absurd expectation of women not being expected to read and that that reading should be censored.

"No." Lord Maru stated flatly, turning down another hall. "Where would we be with women questioning our every move? We would be questioning ourselves and making decisions in uncertainty while dragging along an uncooperative woman." He stopped and looked at Leonardo again. "And that sir is the problem with an educated woman."

Leo considered Lord Maru for a moment before speaking. "Why not educate the woman in why you are making the decision? Give her reason to trust you."

Lord Maru looked at him as if he were insane. "As a leader you have time for that nonsense?"

"Not always." Leo admitted. "However, I have found if taking the time, when I have it, such as in training, instills trust and confidence in those I am leading."

Maru grinned then laughed. "They are not soldiers. They are women. And Women are an entirely different beast all together." He walked forward two paces then paused. "Except in the case of two of my daughters. So, perhaps you are on to something."

"I guess we will see." Leo followed the Lord down another hall.

Guitar music was skipping its way up the drippy hall followed by giggling. A silly song about a none too bright soldier trying to gain the attentions of an unattractive bar maid, echoed down that hall softly. Every few words followed by laughter. The potent smell of gonja getting stronger as they came closer to the end of the hall.

They rounded the corner and a pair of twins, indistinguishable at first glance, sat on either side of a heavy wooden door. The one to the hinge side of the door was wearing a bright yellow and orange flowered, cotton dress, laughing as she picked at a guitar. Her green eyes, bright like a lush open field, sparkled with a captivating joy. Her twin was the singer of the silly song, dressed in brown hakama pants and a long green and brown tunic. Her voice strong and sweet as it rolled from her lips with the smoke of her joint. The words cut short with a fit of laughter and coughing. Tears ran from her, darker, forest green, eyes and streaked her face, crossing a couple of thin scars that cut through the swell of her cheek.

The laughter and music came to an abrupt halt when the two noticed there father and his companion. They Jumped to their feet and bowed. The scarred twin still coughing and feebly attempting to put out the joint with her thumb and hide it in the folds of her hakama pants.

Amused, Leo couldn't help but raise an eye ridge at the antics of the two before looking to Lord Maru, who did not seem to find the situation funny in the least.

"Where are your sisters?" Lord Maru asked the twins.

The two looked each other then back at their father.

"All of them?" The one in the yellow dress asked.

Lord Maru didn't get a chance to answer. The door, the girls were flanking, burst open. An aggravated woman stormed through. Pulling a bulky pair of leather and glass goggles and stuffing them in the pocket of her heavy apron. She reminded Leo of some version of the mad hatter. Only instead of sewing things and hat pins she had little bottles and pouches and gardening sheers hanging off her apron or sticking out of pockets. She slammed the door closed behind her and turned on the twins in turn. "Must you make so much noise? I am trying to concentrate! Dosage is important in these things."

"I thought you were making dye for Espin." The twin in brown stated.

The odd mad hatter pinched the bridge of her nose as if trying to center. "Still requires proper dosage."

The yellow dressed twin nodded in agreement.

Lord Maru cleared his throat drawing the girls' attention back to himself.

All three looked at him and then to Leo.

"Is he sick?" The odd mad hatter asked.

"He doesn't look sick." The twin in yellow said after all three girls gave Leo a once over.

The blush that flushed Leo's cheeks at the sudden attention of his entire person only deepened when all three sets of eyes met his own. He wasn't used to such thorough female scrutiny. "No, I'm not sick."

"Are you sure. You look a bit warm." The odd mad hatter's coffee brown eyes examined his as she quickly approached hand out stretched, intent on laying rest on his forehead, to check for fever.

"This is Leonardo." Lord Maru stated. "He is not ill, Min."

Min stopped, her ink stained hand hovering in front of Leo's forehead. She looked at her father. "Then what brings him to the door of my pharmacy?"

Lord Maru and Leonardo both opened their mouths to answer.

A foamy popping sound followed by a yelp came from the other side of the door. For a long moment everyone stared at the door intently.

"Is someone going to check on her?" The twin in brown asked.

Everyone looked at each other expectantly for a moment, before the door swung open again.

This woman was….blue. Her entire upper body, except where her goggles had sat, was blue. The blue woman walked up to min and placed a blue stained jar in her hand. "Don't ask. I don't know."

The blue woman then turned to her father bowed respectfully, did the same toward Leonardo then, passing them, began walking down the hall.

"Still interested?" Lord Maru asked Leonardo as they watched the blue woman walk away.

Leo turned to Lord Maru and smiled. "Most definitely."

Lord Maru shook his head as if to shake off his surprise. "I would like to present to you my daughters, Lyra." The blue girl stopped her striding down the hall and turned to look at her father, who looked back at her expectantly. Then, remembering herself, she bowed to Leonardo.

"My twins," He continued. "Emery…"

The Girl in the Yellow dress bowed.

"…Rayen,"

The twin in brown and green bowed.

"and Min." Lord Maru finished as Min, the odd mad hatter, bowed. bottles tinking together in her apron as she moved.

"Lyra is 26, Emry is 24, and Min is 22. As you can see they are outside the marriageable age.."

"Marriage?" Lyra asked as she approached her father.

"This is Leonardo." Lord Maru explained to his eldest daughters as Leonardo bowed at his introduction. "He has traveled far on my invitation, to choose a wife."

"What does that have to do with us?" Min asked looking between her father and Leonardo.

Leonardo tried to keep a straight face as he regarded the women before him. One of them blue with bright golden eyes, two obviously a bit buzzed as they tried to follow what was going on, and the last looking like someone out of an old novel about magic or mad science. He couldn't help but smile at the odd women in front of him. "Where I am from we do not marry anyone under the age of 18. Which brings us to the four of you, if you wouldn't mind us getting to know one another."

"Getting to know one another?" Lord Maru chuckled as he slapped Leo on the shoulder. "There is a life time for that."

The smiling father turned to his daughters. "Go prepare your selves to be presented properly. And Lyra, for the love of everything, don't be blue."

Lyra nodded bowed and headed down the hall followed by Emry and Min. all of which kept looking back that Leonardo until they rounded the corner, their surprise evident.

"Come I will give you a proper tour of the area while they prepare. It is a beautiful place." Lord Maru headed down the hall but stopped at the turn when he realized Leonardo had not followed him.

Leo's attention was on Rayen, who had not followed her sisters, but instead was now trying to light her joint with one of the torches that lit the hall. It was just out of reach and she had to stand on her tip toes.

Leo walked up to her and pulled out a bright colored lighter and flicked it on.

Rayen stared at the colorful little fire holder for a moment. "I have never seen anything like that…How does it make fire?"

Leo lifted his thumb off and let the flame go out. "Well, there is lighter fluid in it… fuel. And see the mettle wheel?"

Rayen nodded.

"Well it is rough and when you spin it, it rubs against a piece of flint." He spun the lighter wheel with is thumb igniting a small flame. "The sparks light the fuel. As long as you hold this lever down it will keep feeding fuel."

Rayen smiled. "That is pretty crafty." She leaned in and allowed Leo to light her joint. "You should show Min. she would like it."

"Why aren't you joining your sisters? No interest in being a wife."

Rayen's smile faded. "My interests have nothing to do with it. I would fall short… of expectations."

Leonardo couldn't say that he had any idea what she was talking about but it was obvious she had decided herself unworthy for one reason or another. "Maybe my expectations aren't what you think."

She looked up at him but didn't say anything. A parade of emotions swept across her face till she decided on apprehension. "I really don't think…"

"I might surprise you." Leo looked toward Lord Maru then back at Rayen. "I have been on a role with that today."

A small smile crept across Rayen's lips. She had to admit the personal invitation was flattering. "I do like surprises."

"Then I hope to see you in a bit." Leo gave her a dashing smile before he bowed and followed Lord Maru out of the halls beneath the keep.