She’d always pictured the kingdoms of Arvin as backward, horrible places, completely uncivilized, with innocent people constantly being murdered in the streets while fighters ran riot. It was the reason she’d never before visited here in Meersond even when her father, mother, and brother did, but so far she’d seen nothing like that.

  The inside of the palace was as calm and peaceful as the outside, with male servants in black trousers and red tunics hurrying past on errands. Female servants wore black skirts and red tunics, and oddly enough many of the skirts in sight were shorter than what was considered proper. It was possible to see the ankles of the girls wearing those skirts, and faintly shocked surprise turned into musing consideration for Elissia. Shorter skirts would make going up and down stairs much easier, a benefit Elissia had enjoyed while wearing breeches. Who would have expected to find an intelligent innovation here, in backward, savage Arvin?

  “If you’ll step this way, Your Majesty, I’ll show you to your apartment,” Listan said, gesturing toward a wide set of stairs not very far away. “I’ll also have your trunks brought up, so you can have access to any of your possessions you might want.”

  Elissia wasn’t particularly interested in having her trunks brought up, but rather than say so she simply followed Listan up the stairs. The only thing of interest to her right now was finding the man behind the assassins and then being able to go home, but that very pleasant end result was hardly likely to be immediately possible. She would have to be patient, but patience had never come to her very easily?

  The apartment Listan showed her to was large and very beautifully furnished. In the mood Elissia was in she would have been happier with squalor or at the very least stark unloveliness. A moment after they entered the sitting room three servants appeared, one of them pushing a cart loaded down with food.

  Listan had them leave the cart near a nicely set round table, and then he dismissed them.

  “I think that His Majesty will be taking lunch with King Almis, but I’m not certain,” Listan said once the servants were gone. “I’ll go and find out for sure, but since you must be hungry I know my king would not want you to wait even if he means to join you. I’ll return as soon as I know what his plans are.”

  Listan gave her a bow before leaving, but Elissia did nothing to acknowledge the courtesy. She might be looking forward to the end of that laughable marriage she’d been dragged into, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed having her savage of a husband going off without telling her what he was doing. It made her feel like an unimportant piece of furniture, and she’d never let people treat her that way. Now she had to put up with it from a savage, but happily not for much longer.

  Elissia felt a small amount of hunger, but instead of going to the food she went to the room’s terrace doors and through them to the balcony. Below the balcony was a beautifully laid out garden, a riot of colors that seemed to go really well with the calm gray, light blue, and light green of the sitting room behind her. The air was also sweet and warm, so Elissia stood looking at the garden as she lost herself in dark thoughts of how this piece of Arvin ought to look.

  Hearing someone entering the sitting room brought Elissia back to where she stood. Turning showed her that it was Listan who had come in, probably with the word he’d promised to bring.

  “Your Majesty, the servants have your possessions,” Listan said as soon as he’d stepped out onto the terrace, gesturing behind himself. Inside pairs of men could be seen, struggling to carry the obviously heavy trunks. “I’ve told them to put the things in the main bedchamber, but if you’d prefer to have them somewhere else I’ll countermand the order.”

  “The main bedchamber will be fine,” Elissia said, not really caring one way or the other. “So what have you found out about the plans of your king?”

  “My king is definitely lunching with his father,” Listan answered, obviously dismissing the subject of her trunks. “As I understand it, they mean to discuss which of my king’s followers might be behind the attack so they prefer to have you elsewhere. If their opinions give you a false impression of the men involved, you might be misled when it comes time to decide which of the kings really is guilty. If the miscreant isn’t discovered sooner by another means, I believe my king means to have all of his subject kings introduced to you.”

  “And then I’ll be able to form my own opinions without someone else’s prejudice getting in the way,”

  Elissia murmured, more impressed than she cared to admit. “All right, the reason for excluding me is a good one so I won’t mention it again. Is there anything else?”

  “Only one thing, Your Majesty, and that’s a favor I’d like to ask,” Listan came back without hesitation.

  “Would you mind if I joined you for lunch? Once I go back to the men there will be a thousand things people will want me to take care of, and I’ll be lucky if I get to eat before sundown. If I join you in the meal before I leave, I won’t pass out from hunger in the middle of all those jobs.”

  “But if you pass out from hunger, you just might wake up to find that someone else has taken care of all those jobs,” Elissia couldn’t keep from suggesting with a straight face. “Wouldn’t that end be worth a little hunger?”

  “Speaking from experience, Your Majesty, I’d wake up to find that the job load had doubled,” Listan answered dryly, clearly aware of the fact that he was being teased. “It pains me to say it, but once we’re home you’re likely to find out exactly what I mean. The tasks my king means to set your hand to aren’t ones that can be done by others, otherwise others would already be doing them. Shall we go to table now?”

  Elissia let Listan urge her back inside and over to the table, where he seated her before taking a chair of his own. The men who had carried in the trunks were already gone, so it was only the two of them in the apartment. The urge to ask Listan exactly what those jobs he’d mentioned would be was strong, but Elissia forced the words to stay unspoken. It wasn’t as if she would be doing anything in Arvin for long, after all, so why waste time thinking about them?

  Listan took covered dishes from the cart, removed the covers, then offered them one at a time to Elissia.

  She hesitated very briefly before taking the first, then decided not to make a fuss. If she refused to eat then Listan would probably go hungry as well, and he’d pester her nonstop to change her mind. Better to take a few tastes of the food and avoid a scene?

  The various dishes were really tasty, much better than the inn food they’d been eating, and Elissia found herself swallowing more than she’d intended. Well, she did have to keep up her strength until the man behind the assassins had been discovered, so eating the meal couldn’t be considered a setback to her plans.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty, that was really good,” Listan said when he finally pushed his plate away.

  “One more cup of tea and then I’ll be on my way.”

  “Listan, what do your men who aren’t right next to us eat when we travel?” Elissia asked, something she’d been wondering about. “It would take forever for the inns to feed five hundred men, wouldn’t it?”

  “It certainly would, so they don’t eat at the inns,” Listan answered with a chuckle as he poured the last cup of tea he’d mentioned. “Each man carries a supply of dried meat and vegetables, and the inns capable of doing it are paid to bake as much extra bread as they can. Some of the men also hunt while they’re on the move, so there’s usually fresh venison or sometimes pork available for dinner. We also change around the twenty-man escort twice a day, so if we’re out long enough all of the men get a chance at an inn meal and a real bed.”

  Elissia nodded her thanks for the information, surprised at a small revelation that had come. Men might be in charge of her world, but that was only some men. The rest weren’t even in charge of their own lives, not if they were fighters employed by one of the high ones. No one, no man would expect a woman to live like a wagonless nomad, but for other men to live that way was considered nothing unusual. Maybe some day it would be possible for women and men who weren’t in high positions to step forward together to demand their rights?

  “It’s time for me to leave, Your Majesty,” Listan said as he stood, drawing Elissia out of her thoughts.

  “Thank you again for letting me share your meal.”

  “I should have made you stand there and watch me eat instead of letting you join me,” Elissia said, remembering how she really felt about Listan. “Next time I just might do that - if I haven’t thought of a better way to show you how I feel about people who don’t mind making me angry.”

  “I’m willing to apologize as often as you like about that incident, Your Majesty,” Listan said with a bow -

  that probably hid his amusement. “I assure you that I’ll never do the same again, and now I really must leave.”

  The man turned and hurried out of the apartment, obviously getting out while the getting was good. Listan had “assured” her that he would never drug her food again, but if he really meant to keep to the assurance he would have given his word instead of offering empty, meaningless gestures. Listan would need something to teach him not to consider her someone to mess around with, but so far she hadn’t been able to think of a decent punishment.

  With her cup still mostly full of tea, Elissia stayed at the table and thought about what it might be possible to do to teach Listan to mind his own business. An unnoticed amount of time passed, during which time she still couldn’t think of anything really effective or fitting, and then a servant knocked and entered the room.

  “Excuse me, ma’am, but I was told to clean up the remnants of lunch from the High Queen’s apartment,”

  the man said in a hesitant way as he slowly moved closer after closing the door again. “You are the High Queen, aren’t you?”

  “I suppose so,” Elissia agreed. She expected the red-shirted servant to look confused over the oddness of her answer, but the man just smiled and nodded and then turned to the cart. Instead of clearing the table he began to do something with the extra teacup and pitcher of tea still standing on the cart, an action that made Elissia immediately suspicious. She’d grown up surrounded by servants, and none of them had acted the way this one did. That could mean? It might be a good idea to prepare for the worst even if it never came?

  The night before, Elissia had used strips cut from the bed sheet to fashion a makeshift sheathe for the dagger she’d used to kill the assassin. This morning, after the inn girl had helped her dress and then had left, she’d tied the sheathe and dagger to her right leg, arranging the dagger hilt down and held in place with a simple slip knot.

  Now Elissia raised her leg and gown skirt without bending, pretending that nothing was wrong as she opened the slip knot with a single pull and took the dagger hilt into her hand. Putting her leg down again and letting her gown skirt fall back in place made it possible for Elissia to hide the presence of the dagger in a fold of the skirt. If the servant was a real servant, she’d let him clear up the mess without trouble. If he wasn’t a real servant?

  “Ah, here we are, Your Majesty,” the man said as he suddenly turned away from the cart with a cup in his hand. “A nice fresh cup of tea for you. All you have to do is drink it, and then I’ll be able to leave.”

  “I already have a cup of tea,” Elissia pointed out in as calm a voice as she could manage. “Since I don’t need another yet, you can just finish cleaning up and go now.”

  “I’m afraid I’ll have to insist, Your Majesty,” the man said, stopping only a couple of steps away from where she sat, his expression not in the least servant-like. “My ? employer would be very unhappy with me if I didn’t watch you drink this tea with my own eyes. It’s a kindness you would do well not to argue with, girl. Take the tea and drink it.”

  “Your employer,” Elissia repeated, not nearly as calm as she was pretending to be. “You’re not talking about King Almis, I know, so how about telling me his actual name.”

  “I think not,” the man answered, an odd smile turning his lips. “And if you’re waiting for members of the High King’s guard to rush in here and save you, I’m afraid it won’t be happening. Only King Almis’s guards are on the floor, and they’re too far away to hear you even if you scream. I admire your attitude of bravery, but if you don’t drink the tea I’ll have to use less pleasant means to end you. You’re very much in the way now, and that can’t be allowed to continue.”

  “I’m afraid you’ll just have to put up with the inconvenience,” Elissia returned, her heart beginning to thump instead of beat. “I’m not going to drink that tea or anything else you may have, so you’d better run for your life right now.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way,” the man said with a sigh as he put the teacup down on the table and gave her full attention again. “I’ll try to get this done as fast as possible, but it won’t be as pleasant as simply falling asleep. Don’t forget that whatever pain and anguish you experience is your own fault.”

  And then he raised his hands as he came toward her, obviously intending to use strangulation instead of poison to end her. Elissia tried to ignore her pounding heart as she braced herself, a silent prayer occupying most of her thoughts.

  Please don’t let me hesitate with the dagger, she whispered inside her head. Please let me strike at once -

  and hit what I’m aiming at. If I don’t?

  As inexperienced as she was with edged weapons, if she missed it would certainly be the end of her?

  Chapter 9

  Elissia watched the assassin move closer to her, her fist tight around the hidden dagger hilt, her heart thudding loud enough to be heard on the other side of the palace. She had to wait until the man actually put his hands around her throat, otherwise she ran the risk of his jumping back before she could use the dagger on him. But she couldn’t wait too long, or the man might break her neck instead of strangling her, and then -

  All the clamoring of possibilities her head rang with suddenly stopped when the assassin reached her and began to take her throat in his big hands. Just as he touched her she brought the dagger out from behind the fold of her gown skirt and thrust it with all her strength into the middle of his stomach and then cut upward. Most of the dagger didn’t move but the point did, and the assassin’s mouth opened to let out blood instead of words. The man looked terribly shocked, and then all expression disappeared from his face as he simply fell to the floor in front of her.

  Elissia sat shaking and staring down at the body for an unknowable amount of time, her hand still tightly wrapped around the dagger hilt, a faint dizziness threatening to turn all of her weightless. Once the dizziness faded, though, she was able to start pulling herself together - and notice that her gown was covered in blood. A good thing the traveling outfit wasn’t hers, then?

  “All right, now you have to decide what to do next,” she muttered as she stood up, feeling less shaky by the minute. “You definitely have to call someone, but you want to make sure that it isn’t the wrong someone you use as a messenger. The next time you won’t have surprise on your side? “

  There were supposed to be palace guards on the floor, and calling them might be the best idea. Elissia considered that as she moved slowly toward the hall door, hoping the background of guards would be looked into more closely than that of servants. The man she’d killed hadn’t simply been paid to attack her, so -

  Before she could reach the door it opened suddenly, and the savage strode into the room. He seemed the least bit preoccupied, but as soon as he got a look at her he turned downright pale.

  “Seea, what happened?” he almost screamed as he rushed over to her, the look in his eyes wild. “How badly are you hurt? Who - ?”

  “The blood isn’t mine,” Elissia answered, struggling to sound calm as the savage’s big hands came gently to her arms. “That man back there? He wasn’t a servant he was an assassin, but he didn’t know I had this dagger? “

  Elissia held up the dagger to show what she was talking about, and oddly enough its blade was also covered in blood. Obviously she’d have to clean it before she put it back into its sheathe?

  “Thank all the gods you did have that dagger,” the savage said as he held her to him, paying no attention to all the blood. “Come over here and sit down while I get a few things taken care of.”

  He walked her to a chair and made her sit in it, then strode back to the hall door. Instead of going out, though, he bellowed for the guards, then gave a large number of orders when the men ran up. After the guards hurried away again he came back to the chair Elissia sat in, then perched on its arm to hold Elissia close.

  By the time people began to arrive, Elissia had realized that she’d been in shock. Her hand ached from the death grip she’d had on the dagger for so long, and her stomach was beginning to protest the presence of blood all over her. And she’d been leaning against the savage and soaking up the feeling of his arm around her, just as though he really cared about her. He’d been upset when he thought she’d been hurt in his father’s house, but other than that?

  “Derand, what’s happened?” King Almis demanded as he strode into the room only a step ahead of Listan and a group of the savage’s fighters. “Has your lady been hurt?”

  “Happily, she was the one who did the hurting,” the savage answered, a touch of satisfaction coloring his words. “One of your servants tried to kill her.”

  “One of my servants?” Almis echoed, now looking shocked. “Most of my people have been with me for years. Let me take a look at him? “

  The savage’s father stalked over to where the body lay and stared down for a moment, then he turned back to them.

  “I’m glad - and disturbed - to say that I don’t recognize this man,” Almis said as he moved closer to where Elissia sat. “Just how certain is your lady that the man really meant to harm her?”