Griffin's Shadow (32 page)

“Sonoe, I saw you with my aunt. What happened?” Jelena asked in a low voice. She stared at her friend’s profile and waited.

With an explosive sigh, Sonoe relaxed. She opened her eyes, turned toward Jelena and smiled. “It’s nothing that I haven’t had to deal with many times before, pet,” she answered. “The princess and I have…old grievances. Grievances which I have long since put aside, but she seems unable to move past. I try to live peacefully with her, for your father’s sake, but, well…” She shook her head and reached out to gather Jelena into her arms. “I am sorry if you were worried,” she whispered.

Jelena felt Sonoe’s warm, comforting energy envelop her like a soft blanket.

“I…I wasn’t worried, not really,” Jelena fibbed. Sonoe chuckled. The baby jumped and both Jelena and Sonoe gasped, then burst out laughing.

“That little one of yours… she grows stronger every day,” Sonoe said. “I can feel her Talent, Jelena. It blazes like the sun. She will be a great beauty and an even greater mage one day.”

Jelena looked down at her bulging belly and tried to imagine what her child would look like. “I pray every night, Sonoe,” she said, “to Hani, the Soldaran goddess of Beauty. I ask her to let Ashi’s face come again into the world when our daughter is born.”

“Eikko!” Sonoe called out.

“Yes, mistress?”

“The princess is ready to go to the bath house now.”

Eikko disappeared into Jelena’s bedroom and emerged a few moments later carrying a heavy cloak of fine, golden brown wool and fur-lined leather boots. She flung the cloak over the top of Jelena’s robe and bent to assist her mistress with the boots.

“Now you’re ready to go out into the cold,” the maid pronounced after she’d done up the last bootlace.

“I’ll wait here for you,” Sonoe stated. “Don’t dawdle. Your father is expecting us for breakfast.”

Jelena smiled. “I have an announcement to make that he’ll want to hear. I’ve decided on a name for my daughter.”

Sonoe beamed with delight. “I won’t ask you to tell me now, because I know you’ll want to tell your father first,” she said. Her emerald eyes shone with affection. Jelena wondered anew how she could have ever been afraid of her father’s Companion.

Jelena waited for Eikko to pull on her own cloak, and then the two young women descended to the courtyard and hurried toward the bath house, their breath swirling in gouts of steam about their heads. As they walked, Jelena glanced over her shoulder to see Sonoe standing in the sitting room window, looking upward, head cocked, as if listening to something.

That’s odd,
Jelena thought as she followed Sonoe’s line of sight to the peak of the roof directly opposite the window. The enormous raven she had seen earlier still clung to the frost-slick tile. The bird opened its beak and uttered a harsh cry.

The sound sent an icy finger of dread trailing down her spine, and she shivered. Why the caw of a raven should affect her so, she couldn’t fathom. She looked back toward the window, but Sonoe had disappeared.

“Princess! Do come along, you’ll catch your death out here!” Eikko pleaded through chattering teeth.

“Coming,” Jelena replied. She glanced once more at the roof. The raven remained motionless, a black form silhouetted against the blue sky.

Many Soldarans believed that ravens harbored the souls of executed criminals, bent on mischief and mayhem. Claudia had always discouraged such thinking, believing it to be nonsense; nevertheless, ravens had always made Jelena uneasy.

Pulling her cloak tighter around herself, Jelena turned her back on the bird and followed Eikko’s retreating form. From behind, she heard the flap of wings and a heartbeat later, the raven swooped by, low and fast, then angled up over the roof tops and disappeared. A single, blue-black feather floated down to touch the ground at Jelena’s feet. She sidestepped to avoid treading on it, her gut twisting in irrational fear.

Ashinji would think her silly, and in her mind, she could hear the sound of his good-natured laughter, sweet and mellow. A sharp pang of sorrow opened the ever present wound in her heart as fresh tears wet her cheeks.

I’ve got to stop crying every time I think of you, Ashi. I know you’d want me to get past the pain and move on, for our child’s sake!

By the time she reached the bath house, she had stopped crying, but she felt like the hurt would never truly end.

The Power Of A Name

"Keizo, Jelena has something important to tell you,” Sonoe said as she slipped into her accustomed place at the dining table, to the right of the king. Almost without conscious thought, she arranged her robes to artful effect and settled into the attitude of seductive attentiveness she always adopted when in the presence of her royal lover.

Jelena came to her father and accepted his paternal kiss, then took her place across from Sonoe. The two of them had Keizo all to themselves this morning, for which Sonoe felt greatly relieved. The thought of having to face Taya again, after their run-in earlier….

The old bitch is getting suspicious,
she thought.
I must tread carefully, very carefully, indeed. Things are at a crucial stage, now. I can’t afford any mistakes!

“What is it you want to tell me, Daughter?” Keizo asked. His voice, as usual, was calm and measured, but the sparkle in his eyes betrayed his eagerness to hear Jelena’s news. Before she could speak, however, the servants arrived with the meal.

Sonoe watched Jelena surreptitiously as the servants laid out the food. The magic of the Key within Keizo’s daughter bled through every pore of her skin, as beautiful and bright as the sun. Sonoe felt intoxicated by its energy. How could any serious mage not wish to possess such power?

The Nameless One thinks he controls me, and that I will meekly assist him in obtaining the Key! I’ll let him believe he has the upper hand, for now. But when I turn the tables on him…then we’ll see who controls whom!

“Shall I pour you some tea, my dear?”

“Uh… yes, please,” Sonoe answered, turning her attention back to Keizo and smiling as he filled her cup. He always seemed to derive pleasure from serving her with his own hand, and she derived enormous satisfaction from letting him do so.

“Now, Daughter… Tell me your news,” Keizo commanded after he had poured tea for them all.

“I’ve decided on a name for your granddaughter,” Jelena said, smiling. “Ashinji and I didn’t have much time to discuss names before he... left for Kerala. I’ve picked one that would please him as well as me.”

She lowered her head for a heartbeat, and when she looked up, her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “Ashinji’s grandmother, Lord Sen’s mother, was named Hatora. I’ve decided Hatora will be our daughter’s name.”

Keizo nodded in agreement. “Hatora is a fine name. I’m sure my old friend will be well pleased with your choice. It is fitting that you should honor the memory of your husband in this way.”

“Thank you, Father,” Jelena said.

“Jelena my pet, I thought we might go riding after breakfast…that is, if you feel up to it,” Sonoe suggested.

“That sounds like a fine idea. My daughter needs to get out and get some fresh air,” the king concurred. Jelena looked hesitant.

“You need to get out,” Sonoe insisted. “You’ve been in seclusion for long enough. We’ll ride down through town and go out beyond the gates for a little way, just to the Meizi Road.” She looked to Keizo for support.

“Yes, excellent. I’ll send for a pair of guards to accompany you.”

Sonoe cursed inwardly, but knew better than to argue. Keizo usually allowed his mistress to come and go as she pleased, unescorted.

He must feel Jelena needs extra supervision due to her fragile state. No matter; I’m more than a match for a couple of guards.

“Yes…yes, it would be nice to get out. I’m sure poor Willow is going crazy for lack of exercise,” Jelena conceded.

“It’s settled, then.” Sonoe lifted a sweet bun to her lips and took a bite.

“What are your plans for today, Father?” Jelena inquired.

“After breakfast, your uncle, your father-in-law, and I will meet. We must finish the last details of our strategies for the upcoming war. A full council is scheduled in two days, and the plans must be ready by then for presentation and review.” Keizo sighed and the benign cast of his face hardened into grimness. “I know it doesn’t seem so now, but spring will be upon us before we know it. We must be prepared for what is to come. Our very survival as a free nation depends on how accurately I and my advisors can predict the Soldarans’ tactics.”

“We have one big advantage over the humans… our magic,” Sonoe added.

“Yes, we do,” the king replied. He reached over to brush a finger along her cheek. “As a member of the Kirian Society, you will play an important role in the planning and execution of our magical defense. I hate to think of you in danger, my love, but there is a good chance you will find yourself on the front line when this conflict begins.”

Sonoe saw genuine love and concern for her in his storm-gray eyes. Her heart skipped a beat and she berated herself for her weakness. She had never intended to allow any soft emotions like affection to cloud her judgment when dealing with the king. But despite her intentions, she found, after so many years living with him, that she had grown extremely fond of Keizo.

Which makes what I ultimately intend to do to him and his daughter all the more difficult,
she thought.
But not impossible. Any sacrifice will be worthwhile if it means I gain the power of the Key.

She noticed that Jelena had pushed aside her plate. “Are you finished already, Jelena? You’ve hardly eaten a thing,” she chided gently.

The girl glanced at her half-eaten breakfast and shrugged. “I’m just not very hungry right now,” she said in a small voice.

“Well, a nice ride in the fresh air will do wonders for your appetite,” Sonoe replied. “Shall we go?”

After a round of farewell kisses, Sonoe and Jelena left the king to finish his own breakfast in solitude. Two guards waited for them at the stable entrance, as expected. In a very short time, they were mounted up and heading into the town, Jelena astride the gray mare she called Willow, and Sonoe on her favorite bay gelding Susei. One guard rode at the fore to clear the way, the other followed behind his two charges.

The streets bustled with morning traffic. A few of the townsfolk paused to watch as Sonoe and Jelena rode by, but most continued with their business, either uninterested or oblivious. Sonoe often went abroad in the town, so her presence incited little attention, and very few of Sendai’s okui population could identify Jelena by sight. To most observers, Keizo’s daughter looked like just another hikui woman—a bit more well-to-do than most, but otherwise unremarkable.

They had to keep a tight rein on their mounts as they moved through the busy town, but once the little group had passed through the outer gates, the horses eagerly picked up the pace. Sonoe and Jelena urged their mounts forward, and the guards both fell back to a discreet distance.

The two women rode for a time in companionable silence.

Eventually, Jelena spoke. “Sonoe, I know it’s probably none of my business, but why hasn’t my father married you? You’ve been with him for so long, it seems…well, somehow unfair.”

“It’s simple really, Jelena, love. Your father won’t marry me because I’m common-born,” Sonoe replied.

“Oh…I…I couldn’t tell. You’re so…so refined, so noble!”

Sonoe laughed, secretly pleased. “I’m really just a farm girl from Ayame. When I was still quite young, my parents sent me off to work as a servant on the estate of a local mage. My mother recognized that of all her children, I had the most Talent. I think she hoped my master would see my potential and decide to take me on as an apprentice. Lucky for me, he did.”

Of course, I helped things along by letting him spread my legs whenever he wanted!

“My first master taught me all he knew, but I soon realized it was only the tip of a vast mountain of knowledge. I needed to get to a place where I could receive more advanced training,” Sonoe continued. “Master Bansa recognized that I had surpassed his abilities, so he arranged for me to travel to Sendai where I could enter the mage school run by his order, the Kan Onji, also known as the Red Order.”

Sonoe basked for awhile in the glow of nostalgia. Bansa had been quite elderly when she had come to him, but that hadn’t stopped her from seducing him. He had taken her virginity with surprising vigor, and had proved to be a skilled and imaginative lover as well as a kind master.

“Master Bansa paid for my first few months at the school, but he was not a wealthy man, and so I had to start working for my lessons.”

“As a servant?” Jelena asked.

Sonoe burst out laughing.

“Did I say something funny?” Jelena sounded a little miffed.

“Jelena, my sweet girl. You are just so…so innocent in many ways,” Sonoe replied. “I earned my keep flat on my back! Or on top… or on my hands and knees… however it was required of me.”

“Oh,” Jelena answered in a small voice.

“Don’t look so shocked. There’s no shame in what I did. I chose my first profession freely, and it allowed me to pursue my true vocation. Now, I’m a well-respected member of the Kan Onji, a Kirian,
and
King’s Companion. I’ve done quite well for myself, and I did it without having the power of a noble family behind me.”