Bounty (19 page)

“
I shall,” he agreed, stricken by a humble ache at his raging luck. He swallowed, and the princess considered him once again. When she did not remove her eyes, he finally grew self-conscious and looked at her. “What?”

Concentration creased her eyes. “I find I’m struck by a strange sense of familiarity about you,” she told him, then laughed. “But that’s silly. Of
course
you’re familiar to me, seeing as you are the one I kissed in the middle of the town square.”

He laughed in turn, but pulled his face away, cautious of her recognition. He prayed it would blow over this easily, wishing she would stop scrutinizing him.

Letting it go, Catris rested her chin on her knees and gazed through the branches. A silent minute passed between them as they sat on the wall. Godren was hounded by a voice that insisted he take up the silence, that he was wasting a priceless opportunity with every idle second, taking it for granted. Here he was with the princess of Raven City, and what was he making of it?

The breeze died, and music reached his ears once again. “What’s the occasion?” he asked, tilting his head in the direction of the palace.

“
My extended birthday celebration,” Catris said with a roll of her eyes and a bit of a sigh. “The nobles have outdone themselves again. It starts with one of them organizing a perfectly legitimate, congratulatory event, and then it turns into a competition as everyone else tries to throw a better party. They’ll take any excuse they can get their hands on to indulge in festivities, but of course there’s no point unless they endeavor to outdo the preceding event.”

“
What do they think of you skipping out on an event in your own honor?”

“
My honor,” the princess said, “is merely the best excuse floating around the palace grounds. One must only declare their actions are ‘in my honor’, and they’re met with heartfelt approval and enthusiasm.” Suddenly her serious, dry manner turned woefully dramatic. “I am used,” she lamented, voice full of despair.

“
Does it bother you?” Godren wanted to know. “Really?”

Her drama fell limp, and a grin tugged at her mouth. “If I let myself be a victim to it, it would. But I have ways of holding my own.”

Godren could imagine. Catris did not strike him as a damsel prone to much distress.

“
You haven’t called me Cat yet,” the princess pointed out, still intent on it.

“
To be honest, I can’t quite make myself,” Godren admitted. “I would not want to pay you any disrespect by using anything less than your esteemed title, but aside from that I rarely call new acquaintances by name until we’ve gotten to know one another a little better anyway.”

“
Are you trying to say relationships are something you approach with care and take at a discretional pace?”

“
Absolutely.”

“
Hypocrite.”

“
I beg your pardon?”

“
You kissed me on our first meeting,” she reminded him.

Curse him, she had a point. He had smoothly trapped himself with his own words. Blinking, he looked for a way to smooth it over. He had no defense, though. She was absolutely right. “Not that it justifies it, but I never dreamed there would be any relationship,” he said at last. “But I had the opportunity, and – what can I say? Youthful high spirits; they’re a curse.”

“
So at what stage will you start believing in our relationship?”

Godren thought. “Now, I suppose. We’ve been introduced…held two conversations…learned a bit about each other. And there are tentative meetings planned in our future. Sounds substantially established enough to me.”

“
I agree. What does that make us? Acquaintances at this stage?”

“
I suppose. Though circumstances do seem a little abnormal, seeing as we have kissed and I already know I’d die for you. But we don’t have to count the kiss. And I suppose you could count on most anyone pledging to die for you. So yes, acquaintances. If that suits your Highness.”

“
Cat
,” she stressed. “And yes, it suits me fine.”

“
Do your other acquaintances call you Cat, my lady?”

“
Some of them. The ones I like. The others don’t have permission.”

“
I’m…flattered by the privilege.”

“
But still not tempted enough?”

“
Tempted, surely. But it still feels wrong.”

“
Must I remind you I’m the princess of Raven City?”

“
Yes. It gets hazy with you always insisting I call you Cat.”

She cocked a dryly quizzical brown at him, appreciating his humor but not willing to tolerate it. “Very smooth, Cleversticks. But you
will
call me Cat. I don’t like all the flowery alternatives.”

“
What about in public?”

“
Our relationship is taking place on a dark wall behind a secretive veil, with no one but the drugged guards to bear witness. When and
if
we are ever seen together in public again, you may use your discretion. But don’t flatter yourself too much – I never said anything about being together in public. You’re dreaming
now
, Ren.”

Her sudden shielding attitude surprised him a little, but he was glad to see it. At least she showed some evident trace of using discretion when it came to fraternizing with strangers. When she was so common a target and tempting a victim, she ought to practice some caution and illustrate some limits. Who knew what assassins and general opportunists would jump at the areas she was leaving open in the situation she had granted him? Godren wasn’t about to complain about the openness she was treating him to, but in truth she was lucky that he wasn’t a more corrupt criminal. Because when it came right down to it, she shouldn’t even be with
him
. Regardless of allowing the temptation in the pending relationship to influence him, he did not approve.

“
Of course. I didn’t mean to imply anything,” Godren said. Then, curiously, he inquired, “Do you know well how to defend yourself, your Highness?” Perhaps it was not a tactful question, and he didn’t know what she would make of it, but it was a concern he felt compelled to look into.

“
How do you mean?” As was to be expected, there was a twinge of sudden caution, of wary vigilance, in her voice.

“
You do well enough proving you put your own discretional limits on pursuing relationships – that is, by calling me on prematurely suggesting we might ever be seen together in public – yet do you not think it is a more intimate state to meet in secret like this? In the dark, with music weaving fantasies in the background? It does not seem to bother you that I am a stranger, my background questionable, and that the drugged guards could never hear you scream.”

For the first time, her sly eyes turned guarded when she looked at him. He regretted that he might have just taken things too far and scared her away, but he did not regret planting due caution in her mind. He felt a tension rise as the princess considered for the first time that his advice could apply condemningly to him as easily as anyone else, that the warning might be doubly significant under the surface of his words.

The princess looked him up and down, and when her eyes returned to his, there was a sly light creeping back into them from their edges. She sat there collected for another two moments, drawing out her composure. Then she flung her forearm solidly into his throat, knocking his balance backward and canceling his wind. Reactively, his hands clamped down on the wall to catch himself, and he found his unprotected face bashed in with an elbow, followed by the sound of a blade being scraped swiftly out of its sheath. Recovering his balance, Godren’s hands flew up to deflect the knife, his vision still battered by black spots. What he received was not in the form of the sharp thrust or slice he was expecting, though. Suddenly he was under assault by the weight of grappling limbs and surprising brute force, progressively burdened until he was driven mercilessly over the edge of the wall.

The next thing he knew, he was dangling on the inside of the wall with his feet a few meters from the ground, clinging to the ledge where the princess knelt over him with a knife in her hand. Playfully, she trailed the weapon at the edge of his fingertips, as if she were going to use the blade to peel his fingers from their grip on the wall.

“
I don’t make a habit of needing my guards,” Catris said from above him, leaning down on her elbows so she was closer. “Depending on others can prove frightfully inconvenient.”

Godren grunted as his wind came back to him. He hadn’t realized he’d lost it a second time; there must have been quite an impact between his body and the wall on his way down. Doubtlessly he would discover the bruising all down his front tomorrow. Craning his neck to better his view of the smug princess, he peered up at her silhouette. “It was…just a question,” he managed, feeling his bruised breath rattle in his chest.

Catris shrugged. “Not my fault you didn’t realize what you were asking for.”

Godren felt like he was growing heavier by the second, and his injured hand strained with the effort of holding his weight. Inwardly, he cringed, anticipating a fresh tear.

“
So what…now?” he wanted to know, trying to ease his grip on the right side, but only ending up swaying right along with the willow branches.

Removing one of the pearl pins from her hair, Catris held the decidedly wicked sharp end just above his hand. “How would you like to go adventuring across the palace grounds?” she asked. “The guards should be waking up, and you could catch up on a few thrills.”

“
I’d…rather not. Thanks.” Godren swallowed as he watched the pin hover over his skin. The tip gleamed ever so slightly – poison, he thought. He was decidedly wary of poison these days.

“
But it would be fun,” Catris insisted. “Nothing to worry about – the king’s men are just fellows. You’d get off the hook after I explained things to them, easier than if you were caught down those dark alleys of yours.”

Justice is what I’m afraid of,
Godren thought, but couldn’t say it. “You would have to give away your secret,” he pointed out persuasively instead. “And you would lose your privilege of escaping to the walls. Trust me, your Highness, no one would like me any better after you explained.”

“
Hm. Then I suppose you’ll just have to get away,” the princess shrugged. It was the obvious solution. “And call me Cat, curse you,” she growled for the last time, and dug the pin into his hand.

The numbness so recently cured from his hand spread right back into it, fogging his bloodstream. His grip on the wall faltered, then slipped, and the rough edge dug into his other strained palm until, with urgent resignation, he grimly let go and dropped to the ground, suddenly alighted on enemy territory.

“
Have fun,” Catris bade, and replaced the pin in her hair.

Cursing, Godren rotated to survey the grounds through the sheltering willow branches. The music had stopped inside the palace, and he could hear voices exchanging a report somewhere nearby.

Suddenly he was not so sure if he was really very fond of the princess. Instinct kicked in when the gravity of the situation suddenly intensified to a matter of him, as a wanted criminal, thrust into the midst of his most dreaded enemy, endangered on the grounds that were the very source of his condemnation. Of course Catris could not know, but what if she had just doomed him? Godren tried to keep his composure, and tried to forgive her in advance. His eyes were grave as he watched through the branches, though, and noticed movement next to the palace for the first time. There were guards on the balcony. It was unlikely they could see him in the dark from this distance, but he was afraid to break from the cover of the trees.

Then the voices he had heard piped up again, closer this time, and he moved up against the willow trunk to let them pass. Their conversation proved they were the guards Catris had drugged, waking up and agreeing to check the grounds for trouble. And like the princess had guessed, they didn’t want to risk treading too close to the subject of sleeping on the job, sheepish about slacking, and so decided not to mention the incident to the king.

“
I should have them reassigned to the mines,” the princess said from the wall once they were past. “They’re a risk to have on duty here.”

Ignoring her, Godren took his chance and forsook the trees, staying low as he swept along the inside of the wall. Rustling willow branches, and the princess’s light, musical laugh, sounded in his wake and saw him off as he sprinted into the foreboding, lawful dark.

17:
Ravens

H
alfway through slinking off to escape the royal grounds, Godren regained his composure and found a trace of his skittish sense of adventure. It was as he was stepping over the dark, pooling formation that turned out to be the princess’s abandoned skirt that he suddenly rethought his strategy of tucking his tail and escaping as quickly and as harmlessly as possible. Pausing, he hovered over the garment before stooping to gather it up. Then, overriding his wariness completely, he stepped into the cluster of the princess’s original trees and ignored the wall behind him, no longer so anxious to climb it.