Ravenmarked (The Taurin Chronicles) (16 page)

“Will you stay? Have more wine and a bit of supper?”

“Not tonight. I have plans.”

Unexpected jealousy stirred. “Plans?”

Again, the tilted smile crossed her mouth. “Plans. Good night, sire.” She left his rooms in a swirl of silk.

He sat down again and thought of the Lady Aislinn. He did need to make a match soon, and there were ladies of wealthy, noble houses who could give him sons and bring money and allies to the crown.
And she would be eager to please. I could show her that all Mac Corin men aren’t so reluctant to please a woman. She wouldn’t refuse—she’d see it as a way to secure her position.
He shook the thought away.
I won’t play her like that—not a child like her. But there was a time when I wouldn’t have thought twice about pleasing myself with a young woman, no matter her age or station. Have I grown up, or am I getting weaker? Besides, affection would be nice. At least compatibility. Someone I can talk with—someone like Igraine.
But Igraine was impossible—a foreign princess with no desire to have children and a tongue that would drive away more allies than it would win.

He wondered about Igraine’s evening plans.
She has no qualms about teasing me. She can’t be chaste. Does she have a lover somewhere? Maybe Logan would know.
He finished his supper and went to bed early.

He was dreaming of his time in Culidar when he awoke to shouts, cut-off curses, and banging doors.
Is the camp under attack? Logan—Aiden—one of them will get me if they need me.
He pulled a blanket over his face.

“—to Aliom, and if I wish to see him, I’ll see him even if he’s seducing a goat!”

Braedan blinked as someone pulled the blankets off his head. He looked up into emerald eyes surrounded by unruly red hair. Igraine’s hands were on her hips. “How
dare
you! How
dare you
, Braedan!”

He blinked himself awake.
My bedchamber—Torlach—I’m the king, this is Igraine.
“What’s wrong?”

Logan stood nearby looking embarrassed and faintly amused. “Forgive me, majesty. I couldn’t stop her. She insisted on seeing you, and there was nothing for it.”

“What time is it?”

“Just after dawn, majesty.”

“Damn.” He sat up and rubbed his face. “You can go, Logan. Apparently her highness needs to speak with me.” Logan bowed, stepped out of the bedchamber, and closed the door.

Igraine folded her arms and fixed him with a steely gaze. “Explain yourself, Braedan.”

He adjusted the blankets to cover himself and tried to clear the fog of sleep. “I don’t know what you—”

“You ordered kiroks seized and searched and Holy Scriptures burned. You created dozens of homeless kirons who just ended up in the castle courtyard looking as though they had been dragged through the first mud of creation. I had to hear about all of this from Logan. Explain to me, Braedan, why you treat me as some plaything rather than an ambassador. Any other ambassador would never—”

“Wait. Stop.” He rubbed his face again. “Igraine, I’m at a disadvantage here. Can’t we discuss this later?”

“We’ll discuss it now,” she said, and she pulled the blankets off him.

“Damn it, Igraine.” He scrambled to pull on breeches.

She scoffed. “Unless it’s covered in some kind of foreign pox, it’ll not shock me.” The gaze fixed on his face. “I’m surprised to find you alone. Could you not find a virgin kitchen maid to indulge you, then?”

“I haven’t had time to even consider—” He stopped himself. He went to the stand near his bed and poured water. “What was it you wanted?”

Anger flared in her eyes. “Did you not hear a word I said, lad?”

“You caught me off-guard. I’m not an early riser.”

“The kiroks and kirons. Nearly forty men arrived at the castle gates this morning begging for help from the king, and I had to hear from Logan that the king was the reason the men were there.” She lifted her chin. “How dare you, Braedan—how dare you not tell me what you ordered? How dare you let me find out this way, when we have almost forty men standing homeless at the front gates? Would you have treated any other ambassador this way? Or do you withhold information from me because I’m a woman?”

He drank again, composing his thoughts. “What were you doing up so early?”

“I often rise before dawn. I was reading Taurin law and composing letters to the kirok elders and—”

“Don’t you sleep?”

“I’ve not the same need for sleep as you,
majesty
.”

He wanted to curse again, but drank instead. “All right. Are you angry because of my orders or because I didn’t tell you?”

“Both. I told you my first night here that it was foolish to risk angering the kirok. When we agreed that you would keep me here as an ambassador, you should have told me everything. If I had known then about your order, I would have insisted you stop it immediately. But I’m also angry because in the three weeks that I’ve been here, you’ve had much time to tell me this and you haven’t. I had to hear it from Logan. I don’t ever want to hear about anything that concerns Taurin relations with Aliom from the mouth of a guard. Do I make myself clear?”

He tipped his head and ran one finger around the edge of the goblet. “I should have you taken to the dungeons for insolence.”

She tossed her head and scoffed. “Best be about it, then. And I’ll be writing my father the moment you do.” She held out her fists as if waiting to be chained. “D’ye have the shackles here, or will ye be calling a guard?”

He stifled a grin.
The way this woman talks to me. I should be angry, but gods, I can’t be.
He inclined his head. “Put your hands down, my lady. Please forgive me. I was remiss. I should have told you, and I should have rescinded my orders. In all honesty, I simply forgot. I’ve been busy with other things, and it wasn’t important enough to—”

“
Wasn’t important enough?
”

“Poor choice of words. It was already ordered. I didn’t give it another thought. I ordered it done the first night. By the time you took your position, my thoughts had turned to other things.”

Her voice lowered. “Can I trust you will rescind the orders now?”

He swirled the water in his goblet. “Yes,” he finally said. “This morning. Now can I go back to bed?”

“No. I want full authority to care for the men at our gates and any others who may show up before your messengers reach your men.”

“Full authority? What does that mean?”

“I want to find them a place to stay and be certain they are adequately fed and clothed. And they will not be tortured—do I have your word?”

“Yes. Fine. You have my authority to treat them as you see fit.”

She pointed to his study. “Go write the orders, Braedan. Now.”

He laughed. “You presume to order me, highness? You forget your position.”

“I know my position quite well. I am your ambassador to Aliom, and I will not leave your rooms until the orders are in my hands.”

He finished the water in his goblet and walked out to his study to sit down at his desk. He rubbed his eyes again. “Gods, it’s early.”

She sat across from him. “I’m happy to wait until your majesty has cleared his head of drink enough to form coherent sentences.”

“It’s not drink. It’s just early.” He picked up a quill and parchment and scrawled orders giving her authority to care for the kirons. He then picked up fresh parchment to write new orders for the men he’d dispatched across the island. He gave them both to her to read. “Will these suffice, ambassador?”

She read each one and placed them back on the desk. “They’re adequate.” She stood. “Sign them, and I will see to it that the scribes enter them into record and that messengers are dispatched to the men in the field.”

“You’ll see to it? It is my seneschal’s job.” He signed both papers.

She smiled. “Why bother Cormac with such triflings, Braedan? I can take care of it right now and allow him to sleep.”

Braedan leaned back in his chair. “All right. Go ahead. You’ll see to it that he’s aware of the orders?”

She inclined her head. “Of course.” She picked up the parchment and folded both pieces. “Perhaps this is your first step, majesty.”

“Toward what?”

“That history you’ll want written when you’re old and gray—the one that forgives you for killing your rival.”

He stood and walked around his desk to stand next to her, realizing for the first time that she wore only a light blue, silk dressing gown. Her hair was tied with a loose ribbon and drawn over one shoulder, and he folded his arms to control the temptation to touch it. “You don’t believe I should be king.”

“No, I don’t. You stole this throne—I’ve made no secret of my opinion.”

“And yet you’re helping me.”

“Whether I like it or not, you are the ruling authority in this country. Without some kind of rule, chaos will descend. I have no wish to see Taura fall into ruin. I’m protecting the interests of Eirya as much as I am protecting your interests.”

“I didn’t think you were such a pragmatist.”

“Perhaps I am. Does that bother you?”

“No. But if the saying is true that a man should keep his friends close and his enemies closer, he should perhaps keep the pragmatists in his service closest of all.”

She dropped her eyes in a seductive gaze that had no hint of submission in it. Her cheeks colored, but she shifted her feet toward him. “I look forward to that, majesty.” Before he could respond, she turned and left his chambers.

He let out a long breath when the door closed.
This woman can play me. This woman can play anyone. I hope to gods she’s on my side.

***

Igraine walked with a purposeful stride toward the chambers where scribes transferred the king’s orders into record. Logan fell in step next to her. “Did you get what you wanted, your highness?” he asked.

She stopped and turned to him. The brooding features, the dark curls, the haunted eyes—none of them could hide the smile that twitched the corner of his mouth. “Do I amuse you, Commander?”

“No, my lady. The situation amuses me.”

She put her hands on her hips. “You didn’t have to help.”

“That’s true. I didn’t. But I confess—I wanted to see what would happen if you caught him unaware.” He held out his hand. “May I deliver these for you, my lady?”

She looked down at the parchment. “They just need to be transcribed into record and then I need a copy taken to Cormac. I had thought to wait and deliver them to Cormac myself.”

Logan took one step closer to her. “Let me, highness. You can gloat to Cormac when all the kirons are safely ensconced and fed.”

Her eyes jerked up to his. “You were listening!”

He laughed. “It’s my job to listen. And if I may be bold, highness, it wasn’t hard to hear you. Some of the servants are even now being treated for bleeding ears.”

She opened her mouth to retort and then thought better and closed it. She gave him the parchment. “If I ask later and discover these weren’t delivered—”

“You won’t.”

She nodded. “Very well. Then I’ll go see to the kirons.”

Logan bowed. “Good day, your highness.” He strode down the stone corridor.

Igraine frowned. Logan confused her. He seemed to want to be her ally, but when she had flirted with him, she had been met with everything from lack of interest to outright derision. Yet he’d also shown her kindnesses that she never expected from one of Braedan’s loyal men, and he had let her into the king’s chambers when doing so could have meant punishment.
He risked his own safety for me.

She started in the direction of the castle gates and then stopped. She turned toward the sound of Logan’s footsteps. “Commander.”

He stopped. “Yes?”

She caught up with him and folded her arms. “What are you about, lad?”

“Highness?”

“You left a skin of Eiryan oiska on my desk this morning.” He started to speak, but she held up a hand. “Don’t be denying it was you. I asked my guards. They told me you’d been in my study.”

He shifted his feet and cleared his throat. “I thought you might like a taste of home, highness. Nothing more.”

“Hmm.” She bit her lip. “I’ll not be carousing with men beneath my station, lad.”

“Of course not, highness.”

“And yet this isn’t the first kindness you’ve done.”

“Highness?”

She stepped closer. “Eiryan lace? Threads in my father’s colors? Even lamb chops for my supper one night? I know you’re after bringing these little bits of home to me.”

He frowned. “No, your highness. I only sent the oiska.”

“Then where did the other things come from?”

He shrugged. “I can investigate if you’d like.”

Braedan. Does he think he’ll be seducing me with gifts?
“No, thank you. I think I know where they came from.” She paused. “I do thank you for the oiska.”

“I meant nothing improper by it, my lady. I just thought you might miss the Citadel.”

Her irritation faded. “I do miss it, aye? Sometimes. The oiska will remind me of nights around my family’s table.”