Love Without Boundaries (8 page)

Lord Oryon should have gotten rid of her
years
ago,
after she presented him with a second male,
for
after that,
there was no reason to keep her. If he had, Kaspar might have been able to secure a female of his own but no female would consider him, no matter what he had to offer, because
she
was in this House.

Returning to the hall, Kaspar forced a benign expression on his face, one that he had perfected over the years that masked his inner rage because he knew that the time would come and this female would pay for all the lives she had ruined.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Isis smiled as her gaze traveled around the entrance hall. The windows now sparkled, letting in so much light that the energy crystals set in bowls along the walls could be conserved for night use only.

Betelgeuse’s sunlight revealed every scratch and scar left on its ancient floors by generations of warriors crossing it to warm themselves at the freshly cleaned fireplace. Isis loved every
imperfection
for it showed this room was used, not just a decoration.

Turning her eyes to the furniture that had been polished to a high shine her smiled turned into a frown. Moving to the closest
chair,
she inspected it closer.

“Master Kaspar!” Isis shouted over her shoulder. “Come
here,
please.” While she added the please no one doubted it as an order, including Kaspar.

“Yes my Lady?” Kaspar forced his voice to remain pleasant.

“Why is this furniture in House Rigel?” she demanded pointing to the array of furniture that had just been cleaned.

“My Lady?”
Kaspar gave her a truly confused look.

“This furniture isn’t solid adhmad. Why?”

“Of course it is!” Kaspar argued.

“No. It is not!” Isis gave him an angry look, if there was one thing she knew it was adhmad. Her manno had taught her how to recognize all its different varieties in his shop along with what it looked like finished. What she was seeing here was low quality adhmad covered with a thin layer of high quality adhmad to fool the eye that it was of higher quality. “This,” Isis touched the grain of a worn spot on the arm of
the chair,
“is peine from our southern region. It is not used in furniture such as this because it is easily damaged. Someone has covered it with a thin layer of dair,” she touched the darker grain that has not been worn away, “to make you believe it is solid dair.”

“You are
wrong,
” Kaspar argued back. “I personally inspect every piece of furniture made for House Rigel.”

“
Well,
you shouldn’t be Master of House Rigel if you are this easily fooled.” Isis fired back. “Jael, tip this chair back.”

Jael hustled to do his Lady’s bidding as the others silently watched.

“Do you see this?” Isis pointed to the underside of one of the chairs legs, the two different colors of adhmad were easily seen by all. “Who ever made
this,
left it this way, so you would
know
it was not solid dair. If you had ‘inspected’ this as you claim you did, then you would have known this wasn’t solid dair. I want every piece of furniture in this room tipped.” Isis ordered looking at the other males. “
I
want to inspect each and every piece.”

“You are questioning me!” Kaspar couldn’t believe it. No one questioned him.
“Questioning my abilities!”
He took a threatening step towards
Isis,
who quickly took a
step
back.

“One more step and I will end you Kaspar.” Vali’s low growl had every male in the room freezing. Turning, they found Master Kaspar’s eyes bulging and a thin trickle of blood running from his neck as Vali pressed his sword against Kaspar’s throat.

“Vali,” Isis spoke to her second male in a
soft,
calm voice. “Ease back.”

“
No one
,” Vali continued to growl, pressing harder against Kaspar’s throat, “threatens my mother and lives.”

“Vali.
Please.” Isis tried again, carefully placing a hand on his sword arm. She’d never seen her offspring so enraged. Vali was her calm, steady one but right now, he was vibrating with rage.

“What in the name of the Goddess is going on?” Oryon demanded storming into the entrance hall.

Oryon had spent the morning dealing with the dozens of decisions that had been left undecided in his absence. Some were important, such as training schedules, and which young males he would be willing to accept for training. Those were decisions that only the Lord could make. Others, he wished others could, such as from which farmer they would get their vegetables from this month and where the replacement linens would come from. As
midday
drew near, he decided it was time to see how things were going in the entrance hall. Finding Vali with his sword at Kaspar’s throat wasn’t what he had been expecting.

“This
male,
” Vali spat out, his eyes never leaving Kaspar, “threatened my mother.”

“He
what
?!!”
Oryon growled lowly and was quickly at his Isis’ side, framing her face with his hands, his eyes searching hers. “Isis?”

“I am
fine.”
Isis told him, putting a reassuring hand over his.

“What happened?” Oryon demanded.

“Master Kaspar became… upset when I questioned his ability to distinguish quality furniture from inferior.”

“Furniture?”
Oryon’s eyes flew to all the tipped furniture in the room.

“Yes,” Isis told him.

“You do not believe these are worthy pieces to be in House Rigel?” he asked then looked to Vali. “Lower your sword Vali.” When Vali didn’t immediately do as he had
ordered,
Oryon growled at him.
“
Now Vali
!
I want to hear Master Kaspar’s response.”

Slowly Vali lowered his sword but he did not sheath it.

“You questioned my Lady’s ability in judging furniture Master Kaspar?” Oryon asked in a deceptively calm voice.

“Sire,” Kaspar croaked out, his hand going to his injured throat. “I was merely trying to explain to your Lady that she was mistaken. I was only moving towards her to point out why. Warrior Vali overreacted to my move.”

“Really?”
Oryon eyed his offspring knowing Vali
never
overreacted. If he sensed a threat, there was one.

“Yes my Lord,” Kaspar said.

“You question my Lady’s knowledge of furniture?”

“My
Lord,
I know I shouldn’t have because of her position but when she was so obviously
wrong,
I felt it was necessary to correct her. It is understandable of course, I mean she is female.”

Oryon silently stared at Kaspar before speaking. “Did you know, Master Kaspar, that my Isis’ manno was the Master Cabinetmaker for House Tornio?”

“I…” Kaspar’s eyes flew to Isis and found her staring back at him, standing tall and proud. “No my
Lord,
I didn’t.”

“He was a rare male, was Master Geb, he believed that his female offspring should be knowledgeable and educated. He taught her many things. One of those things was his own craft, that of working with adhmad.” Oryon let his words hang there before turning back to Isis. “Show me what you have discovered my Lady.”

Isis looked at Oryon for a moment then turned to
the piece
in question. “This chair is made from peine, covered with a thin layer of dair.” She pointed to the different woods as she spoke. “I don’t believe the maker of this ever intended for someone to believe it was solid dair. If he had, he would have put a thick piece of dair on the base of every leg so no one inspecting it would know.”

“Yet there isn’t,” Oryon said.

“No, it isn’t.”

“The other pieces?”
Oryon let his eyes traveled around the room.

“I haven’t inspected them yet.”

“Please do so Isis, I need to know what we are dealing with.”

Nodding, Isis turned and carefully began to inspect each piece that filled the entrance hall of House Rigel and felt her anger grow. Every piece in this room was the same as the chair, substandard furniture. Why?

Oryon crossed his arms over his chest and silently stared at Kaspar as Isis inspected the furniture.

“My Lord,” Kaspar began.

“Silence!”
Oryon ordered. “We will wait to hear what my Lady discovers.”

“But my Lord!”

“Do you want to meet
my
sword Kaspar?” Oryon growled gripping the hilt of his sword. “Because I promise you I will draw more blood than that pitiful trickle that my male did.”

Kaspar stiffened at Oryon’s words knowing that when Lord Oryon drew his sword he would strike true and Kaspar wasn’t ready to meet the Goddess this day.

Seeing Isis approach, Oryon turned his back on Kaspar.

“What did you discover my Isis?” Oryon asked in a strong but gentle voice.

“It is all the same, peine covered with dair but I also found a craftsman’s mark.”

“Who?”

“A Master Bard.”

“Bard?”

“Yes. You know him?” Isis asked.

“He is my Master Cabinetmaker.
Kaspar?”
Oryon’s eyes pinned the male he had trusted to run his House.

“Sire, I have no knowledge of how this could have happened.”

“Are you not the Master of House Rigel?” Oryon demanded.

“Yes my Lord,” Kaspar responded.

“Are you not in charge of running and obtaining the furnishing for this House?”

“Yes my Lord.”

“Yet you claim no knowledge of this.”

“
No,
my Lord… I mean yes my Lord,” Kaspar stumbled over his words. “I have no knowledge.”

“Gather your accounts Master Kaspar and meet me in my command center in twenty minutes.”

“Yes, my Lord.” Spinning around on his heel, Kaspar all but ran from the hall.

“Get this crap out of my House!” Oryon ordered the remaining males who quickly rushed to do their Lord’s bidding. “Vali, escort your mother back to our chambers and remain with her.”

“Yes manno.”

“Oryon.”
Isis put a gentle hand on his arm, frowning.

“I want to know where you are and that you are safe while I sort this out Isis. Something isn’t right.”

Isis wasn’t sure what Oryon was
sensing,
but she trusted him. “Alright, but may we take several of the trainees with us? We can use this time to sort through the furniture in my old chambers and have the appropriate pieces sent down for the entrance until replacements can be made.”

“Isis…” Oryon couldn’t believe what she was saying.

“I think my manno would be extremely honored to have what he built used in
your
entrance hall.” She looked around the room. “He used to tell me stories about the hunts he had here as a young warrior.” Moving, she allowed her hand to caress the silky texture of the mantle, knowing her manno had done this exact same thing sometime in the past. “How he loved to sit in front of this fireplace with the Emperor’s manno before he was Emperor and tell their stories…”

Isis, lost in her memories, was unaware of the effect her words had on the other males in the room. Their Lady’s manno had once sat here? He had been friends with the last Emperor? Their respect for her grew.

“The honor is mine
Isis,
” Oryon told her quietly.
“For your manno was a truly fit, worthy and a talented male.”

“He was.” Isis felt her eyes fill as she remembered her manno, remembered all he had given her and it was so much more than furniture. He was the one that had told her, she had the right to stay with just one male, if that was what she wished. He told her that he would support that decision, no matter the offspring she
presented
if her male made her happy.

Isis’ own mother had wanted to stay with just him but when her first offspring had been female the pressure from
her
manno and the promises of what other males would offer for sharing her ‘gift’ with them, had become too great and she had left. Isis didn’t think her father had ever truly recovered.

Years later when her mother came to help Isis present Ull, Isis discovered her mother had always regretted that decision. It had changed her, she was no longer the gentle female her manno had always told her about; she had become a spiteful and bitter female that after each offspring Isis presented, had encouraged her to leave Oryon. By the time Isis had conceived Zev, she had
refused
to allow Oryon to contact her, preferring to stay alone and have a Healer assist her.

It had been a difficult time and her presentation had not gone well. It is why Isis believed she had never been able to conceive again, even though she was still young enough too. It hadn’t mattered to
Oryon,
but she’d always wanted to give him a female.