The Shadow Queen (45 page)

She waited until he’d eaten three-quarters of his steak. Then she reached over and snagged the rest with her fork.

“Hey,” Theran protested. “I wasn’t finished eating that.”

“Yes, you were,” Cassidy replied, setting that piece and the one she’d kept from her own meal on her bread plate.

“What . . . ?” Theran stared at her as she put the bread plate on the ground beside her.

“There you go,Vae,” Cassidy said.

Theran’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped as the Sceltie dropped the sight shield and gave him a tail-tip wag. She sniffed the steak and wagged her tail with more enthusiasm.

“When did she get here?” Theran asked.

“She caught up to us when we left the carriage park,” Cassidy said, giving him a wide smile.

“How’d she avoid being stepped on when no one could see her?”

“Grf.”

Guess Vae is still sulking,
Cassidy thought.
At least where Theran is concerned.

“She can air walk,” Cassidy said. “She was trotting above us.” She fiddled with her spoon and wondered how to ask a question she knew wouldn’t sit well with a warrior. Especially a Warlord Prince. “You weren’t aware of her, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t. Were you?”

“Yes. But kindred have a different feel from the human Blood, and it takes practice—and awareness—to detect their presence.”

“If they’re sight shielded and not yapping, they’d be hard to find,” Theran said.

“Grf,” Vae said, finishing the last bit of steak.

“They don’t have to sight shield to go undetected,” Cassidy said. “If there were twenty Scelties in a yard, could you pick out the one who was kindred? Especially if you weren’t aware of the existence of kindred? Kindred Scelties and horses lived around humans for a lot of years with no one realizing they were Blood. They don’t reveal their presence unless they choose to, Theran.”

She watched him absorb her words. Someone who wore a darker Jewel could have gone undetected and followed him, but he should have sensed a Purple Dusk witch who had been trailing him for hours.

A lesson the Blood in Kaeleer were still learning when it came to the kindred.

“Coffee?” he asked.

“Yes, please.”

She wanted to linger a little longer, since it was a lovely summer day. And now that Vae’s presence was acknowledged, she thought the two of them could persuade Theran to show her a particular part of town.

 

How did I get talked into this?
Theran asked himself. He knew how. Sure he did. Two females yapping at him. One of them even growled at him when he’d refused to do this, and it wasn’t Vae.

So here he was, driving the pony cart into the landen part of the town.

“Landens usually have their own villages,” Cassidy said.

Theran nodded to the guards who patrolled this part of Grayhaven. Two nodded back and mounted their horses to provide an escort.

“Most still do,” Theran replied, “but some landens were resettled as part of Blood villages after their own villages burned during the uprisings.”
And making them live so close to the Blood kept them on a very short leash.

That didn’t mean the Blood liked having a landen slum attached to their town.

Bitterness laced his voice as he looked at the shops they passed and the people who watched them. “Damn landens are nothing but a boil on the town’s backside.”

“They’re people,” Cassidy said. “They belong to this land, same as you.”

“They would have driven us out if they could. Took us two years to crush the uprisings.”

“How many died in those two years?” Cassidy asked.

“More Blood than we could afford to lose.”

“And how many landens?”

“Not enough.”

She sighed. “All the more reason for me to see this part of the town.”

Exactly the reason she
shouldn’t
be there. But it was pointless to argue now that they’d crossed that boundary, and there were other Blood wandering these streets.

Market day, Theran realized. When power—and the unspoken threat of its being unleashed—was another marker on the table, a few coins could buy a Blood family provisions for a week at the landen markets.

“What’s that?” Cassidy asked, sitting up straighter.

“A craftmen’s courtyard,” Theran replied, glancing in that direction. “Potters, weavers, and others of that sort put out their wares. Some even work on a piece to—”

“Stop,” Cassidy said. “Theran, stop the cart, I want to—”

“No.”

*Theran? Theran!*

Shit. The little bitch would yap at him for the rest of the day. And Cassidy wouldn’t be much better.

He gave the guards a psychic tap to alert them as he reined in.

Cassidy and Vae were out of the cart and walking back the way they’d come before he could set the brake and tie off the reins.

One of the guards dismounted and came to stand at the horse’s head. “I’ll keep an eye on the cart, but you’d best shield those packages. Lots of quick fingers here could lift a package and be on the next street before you know you’ve been robbed.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Theran put a Green shield around the back of the cart, then hurried to catch up to Cassidy. If the packages were stolen, it would give the Blood a reason to shake this part of town. If the Queen was injured . . . Well, he wasn’t sure who would be going to war with whom, especially once Sadi andYaslana heard about it, but no matter who stepped onto the battleground, a lot of the town would burn before the fighting was done.

Cassidy had stopped before a weaver’s table.

Family group,Theran decided. Man, woman, adolescent boy, and young girl. The man had a hard face and a look in his eyes Theran recognized.

Fighter.

“This is lovely work,” Cassidy said, smiling at the girl. “And this is yours?”

“Y-yes, Lady.”

Cassidy stepped closer to the loom and the unfinished piece—and the girl.

The man stiffened.

Theran descended to the depth of his Green Jewel and prepared to rise to the killing edge.

But Cassidy pointed at the loom, not touching child or work.

“What kind of pattern is this?”

“It’s a traditional pattern, Lady,” the woman said. “Dena Nehele has traditional patterns for each season. The girl is weaving a summer pattern.”

“Lovely colors,” Cassidy said, directing her remarks to the girl. “Did you choose them?”

The girl nodded.

“You have a good eye for color.”

By now the other merchants and their customers had stopped their own bartering to watch this exchange. A few had even sidled closer.

But not too close. One slashing look from him was enough to have them reconsidering the wisdom of getting
too
close.

“Are you planning to sell this piece when it’s done?” Cassidy asked.

Tension flashed through the landens, the emotion so strong it surprised a growl out of Vae in response.

“Why?” the man asked roughly.

“Because I’d like to buy it,” Cassidy said, looking confused. “As I said, it’s lovely work. The traditional design would appeal to my mother, so I’d like to buy it for her as a Winsol gift. If you think it would be completed by then,” she added, once more addressing the girl.

The girl nodded.

“We would be pleased to make a gift of it,” the man said.

If you were any more pleased, you’d choke on the words,
Theran thought, hearing the man’s anger and bitterness from being obliged over the years to provide a good number of “gifts” to keep his family safe.

Bristling, Cassidy straightened to her full height. “You’ll do no such thing. If the piece is being made to sell, then you should make a reasonable profit on it. Besides, it’s not for you to decide. This is between me and the young lady. When she delivers the piece to the Grayhaven estate, we’ll sit down and discuss the price.”

But Theran saw the man’s face turn white with fear, and he wondered what had happened to other landens who had gone up to the estate.

“Is it a bargain?” Cassidy asked, holding out a hand.

The girl glanced at her father, confused enough by the tension to hesitate.

*You are supposed to shake hands now,* Vae said. *That is what humans do for bargains.*

Stunned looks all around as the people stared at the Sceltie.

*I like this human puppy,* Vae said, wagging her tail. *She has good smells.*

The woman clapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were bright with laughter. The man looked like he’d been whacked in the head.

“I know the feeling,” Theran muttered.

A flash of humor in the man’s eyes.

Seeing the change in her father, and intrigued by a talking dog, the girl shook hands with Cassidy, sealing their bargain.

And that, thank the Darkness, would end this visit.

After bidding them all a good day, Cassidy headed back to the pony cart. She smiled at him as he fell into step beside her, as if nothing unusual had happened.

It hadn’t, he realized. Not for her. This wasn’t the first time she had purchased something from a landen.

What kind of place was Dharo that a Queen would shop in a landen village? Or was it that, wearing a Rose Jewel, Cassidy didn’t feel as different from landens as the darker-Jeweled Blood?

He didn’t have answers. Wasn’t sure he wanted any. But he had to let the rest of the First Circle know about their Queen’s potential for doing the unusual.

Vae growled. That was the only warning he had before he heard a child scream in pain and a man roar in outrage.

Theran spun around to meet the threat. When he saw the two adolescent Warlords standing a few paces away from the weaver’s table, he hesitated.

Cassidy didn’t. She ran back to the landen family.

He—and the guards—felt the punch of Rose power and saw one adolescent Warlord get knocked off his feet. The other young Warlord staggered under the punch, but he wore a Summer-sky Jewel and was able to absorb most of Cassidy’s strike.

Rose shields went up in front of the landens. Rose shields went up around Cassidy as she called in a round-headed club and settled into a fighting stance.

“You bitch!” A man old enough to be the Warlords’ father ran toward them. “I’ll teach you a lesson, bitch.”

Hell’s fire.

Theran took a step toward Cassidy, intending to yank her out of a fight she shouldn’t have gotten involved in, since it wasn’t Blood against Blood.

Then Vae launched herself at the man, and Theran saw a small dog who knew her Craft yank a full-grown man off his feet.

And heard bone snap as jaws enhanced by Purple Dusk power closed on the man’s forearm.

The Summer-sky Warlord launched himself at Cassidy. Theran received another shock when Cassidy bared her teeth and met the attack, using the club with enough savagery to break through shields stronger than her own and drive the Warlord back.

By then Vae was beside Cassidy, Purple Dusk shields around them both.

*Theran? Theran!*

*Prince?* one of the guards said. *What should we do?* Damned if he knew. They shouldn’t have been in this fight in the first place.

*I smell blood,* Vae said.

Of course you do, you little bitch,
Theran thought.
You bit a man and tore up his arm.

But Cassidy looked behind her, then screamed, “SHIRA!”

The Craft-enhanced sound probably wouldn’t reach the estate, but it was going to shake up the Blood closest to this part of town.

“You hurt my boys!” the older Warlord shouted as he got to his feet, cradling the broken arm.

“They hurt the girl,” Cassidy snarled.

“Landen slut,” the Warlord snarled back.

“
Girl.
I am the Queen here, and that makes her one of mine. And
no one
lays a hand on one of mine.”

“Queen, is it? Rose-Jeweled bitch, you don’t have the power to be a Queen.”

“Try me.” Cassidy shifted her stance. “You want a fight?
Draw the line.
”

The Warlord hesitated. Theran felt the guards recoil in shock.

And he saw everything he’d hoped for going down in ruins because of Cassidy’s foolish actions.

And he saw Gray breaking under the pain of losing her because she wouldn’t survive this fight. Cassidy and Vae against those three Warlords? Even wounded, the males would rip the witches to pieces.

He hated her. In that moment, when he knew what he had to do and choked on the knowledge, he hated her.

But making a choice, he stepped across the boundary of that small battleground. “If you want to draw the line, you do that,” he told the Warlord. “But you won’t be meeting her. You’ll be meeting me on the killing field.”

“And me.” Ranon dropped the sight shield as he moved to guard Cassidy’s left side, his Shalador blade flashing in the sun.

“Us,” Archerr said, flanking the three Warlords.

More sight shields were dropped. More blades flashed in the sun.

Except for Powell and Talon, the whole First Circle was there.

*How . . . ?
Theran asked Ranon.