The Making of a Mage King: White Star (39 page)

Turning to the smith, he asked, “How much do I owe you?”

The man snorted. “After what I just saw, my wife would run me out of the house with a broomstick if I took money for that sword. It’s an honor.” He bowed and started to leave, ushering his employees before him back into the smithy.

“Who’s your wife?” Sean called after him.

“She runs the kitchen at the inn,” replied the smith over his shoulder, grinning.

Sean grinned too and led the way back to the inn. He had no problem at all identifying the woman in charge of the kitchen, as she supervised the supper cleanup. Nearly as round as she was tall, which wasn’t very tall at that, it was obvious she ruled the kitchen; even the rotund innkeeper jumped at her bark. “My dear lady,” said Sean, as he bowed deeply to her.

She turned to him wondering who would venture into her domain uninvited. “Who are you?” she asked.

Sean stepped forward and clasped her hand in his as he gave her a peck on the forehead. He left a gold coin behind in her hand when he let her go.

“What’s this for?” she asked, coming near to being alarmed.

“That’s for being married to the greatest man in the world,” said Sean, as he skipped out of the kitchen before she could think to return his gold or raise her spoon.

“That was sweet,” said Jenny, as she handed him a beer.

Since Sean had slept the entire day away, it wasn’t too surprising that he wasn’t quite ready to sleep again just because it got dark, and Larry was positively bursting with questions, so he, Jenny, Clayton, and Mattie gathered in Sean’s room to talk. Elias, who hadn’t gotten near enough sleep in the past twenty-four hours, moved into the room Clayton had been given to catch up on it. Four o’clock would come around all too soon.

The first question out of Larry’s mouth was, “What is the ‘hand’? You asked that man if ‘the hand still stood’.”

Sean was into his answer before he thought about it. “My first command was five brothers…” Then he began to listen to what he was saying. “
Soran’s
first command. Each of the brothers had about twenty-five or thirty men, and…and Soran had another fifty, more-or-less. W…
They
all had their families encamped here, so they were desperate to hold the pass. If they fell, none of what we all have now would have existed. I…
Soran
was able to move himself and those five commanders so efficiently that, even though they were grossly outnumbered, they succeeded in defeating the Aarauians soundly, and the hand has remained undefeated to this day.” Sean sighed. “They were so effective that they earned the moniker ‘the hand’.
The hand
striking a bug,
the
hand
striking a horse, it didn’t matter where or what they hit, they hit so fast and so sharp, they caused a reaction that was always in their favor.” Sean chuckled softly. “It was the Aarauians who gave them the name.”

“If they had someone like you moving them around, I’m not surprised,” said Larry.

Sean looked at Larry. “Soran
was
like me; where do you think I got it from?”

“Oh, yeah, right,” said Larry. “What’s this patrol we’re going on in the morning?”

“By the time the Aarauians were broken… That’s why the pass is called ‘Broke Back Pass’; the battle for the pass broke them so badly they never recovered. By the time they were driven back, the five brothers were left with only five to ten men each, but the system had worked so well that…
Soran
left them where they were. He rebuilt their numbers from his own men, as well as men and boys who had stayed here, either because they had been wounded in earlier battles or because they had been too young. Each of the five units patrol overlapping strips through the pass, and they each have a watchtower at their disposal, but it wasn’t just a watchtower.”

Sean could picture the labor that had gone into building those towers. Whole trees had been stacked in a vast pyramid three or four stories high, then covered with pitch. “They weren’t constructed only as  stationary posts. They are all tall, built to be used as a lookout for sure, but also to be set ablaze as an alarm, should the patrols encounter any trouble. Enough men are kept stationed at the stockade to hold the pass until reinforcements can arrive from here. We’ll be visiting each of those towers, where we will meet the patrols. I’d be surprised if it isn’t a ‘changing of the guard’ as well. We could be out there for a couple days.”

Jenny plucked at her dress. “If we’re going to be riding, we should have our riding clothes. Elias was in such a hurry, I didn’t have time to grab anything.”

“You don’t have to go, Jenny,” said Sean. “You girls could stay here and explore the city if you like.”

“No, Sean,” she said, with a tone that said he wasn’t to argue the issue.

“Fine,” he said with a smile. He closed his eyes. A few moments later, their gear began to arrive. Jenny’s leathers were folded in a neat pile that appeared on the foot of the bed she and Larry were sitting on. Larry’s gear involved pieces of plate armor and he kept it on a stand much like Sean did; that stand appeared in the middle of the floor. Elias’s gear appeared a few minutes later, followed soon after by Clayton’s. Mattie’s bundle was much like Jenny’s, and it appeared next to her on Sean’s bed. Armelle didn’t have any leathers; Sean could make her whatever she wanted later. He opened his eyes to see the small room now quite crowded. “If I missed anything, just let me know and I’ll get it for you.”

“What about you?” asked Armelle. She reached over to touch the spot on his chest where the gem crest she had made for him would be if he’d been wearing his armor.

His heart did a skip and he nearly shooed everyone out of the room on the spot.

“That reminds me,” said Larry. “I haven’t seen Laon. He’s your bodyguard. It wouldn’t be right for you to ride off without one. You know I’m not good enough.”

Sean’s romantic mood was plunged into cold water so far and so fast that he didn’t even take the time to shiver. He turned to Mattie with a hard look. She ducked her head, which reminded everyone that she had been very quiet since coming here. “Would you like to explain why they’re not here?” asked Sean, the chill dripping from his voice brought everyone’s eyes back to him.

Mattie looked up at him; her eyes were wide and brimming with tears. “But…” she said, then closed her mouth again.

“I warned you, Mattie,” said Sean. “However, you present me with a problem. You see; I value you highly. I need you far more than you can understand, so I can’t punish you like I want to. Because of that, and because of Cordan, not to mention the fact that you’re pregnant, I elected to take myself away from the others. So, what
can
I do to you to convince you not to step on my toes anymore?”

Tears were streaming down her face now. She shook her head and opened her mouth, but excuses she could come up with were just that, excuses. “You needed rest. Lyra said you looked horrible, she said that you fainted, I didn’t think…”

“Of course I was tired. I finally figured out what Sace had been doing with that valley. You remember my concern for you and Jenny? Sace had fooled with the seasons. Somehow, he had managed to make it so that he could get two full harvests off one summer. With double the harvest, he could rake in twice as much in taxes and profits without paying any extra to the crown. What he didn’t realize, or didn’t care about, was that his spell affected the animals and people too. Girls as young as six and seven years old were making babies because their bodies were old enough, but they were dying in droves because, instead of the pregnancy lasting nine months, they only lasted four or four and a half. Their bodies barely had time to adjust for the growth, let alone the delivery. Meat on the table had become almost nonexistent for the same reason. I broke that spell; the backlash killed Sace, but I get ahead of myself. After breaking the spell, I
did
faint; it’s hard breaking a spell that size, and things changed because of it that pulled at me too, things I didn’t expect. When I woke, the day was shot and I was tired. When have you known me to move camp late in the day? But following your orders, Lyra made a cup of chamma for me, a
special
cup. I don’t like chamma, but you said I needed it. Laon said I could use the caffeine, and Ferris sat there at the table ready to catch me when I fell. Them, I can punish…and I will, after they stew on it for a while. I had to get away from them. You were already away and I could leave you there, but what do I
do
about you now that you’re here?”

“I’m sorry,” said Mattie in a small voice.

Sean went over and got down on his knees in front of her, bringing them almost eye-to-eye. He gripped her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him directly. “I have
way
too much of my uncle’s blood running in my veins.
Please
don’t push me anymore,” he begged, but it was quiet enough that she was the only one to hear. She blanched; he’d wanted to put that fear into her, but he hated doing it. “Go to bed. Four o’clock will come early.”

Sniffing, she pointed mutely to the bed where Clayton, Larry, and Jenny were sitting.

“Not tonight,” said Sean, as he climbed to his feet. “Bed,” he said to the other occupants in the room, and they all filed out quietly, taking their gear with them. He watched down the hall until they had disappeared into their different rooms, then he moved Mattie’s bed into the hall across from his door. “Bed, Mattie,” he said, pointing. She hung her head and went without a word, clutching her bundle to her chest.

He closed the door, then stood there hanging his head numbly, wishing fervently that he
didn’t
have his uncle’s blood running through his veins, wishing he could be someone else for a while, just for a while. His wife was sitting right there, and his mood was so black, he almost didn’t want to touch her.

Armelle stepped up to him and nestled into his chest with her hands resting gently on his belly, rather than wrapping around him like she wanted to so badly. “You seemed to have a little trouble talking about Soran and ‘the hand’,” she commented.

Her scent, her voice, her touch, was pulling him out of his mire as nothing else could, and his dark mood was beginning to melt away. “There are a lot of powerful memories connected to this place, and I have to fight to remember that I’m Sean, and not Soran. I have to remember that nearly a thousand years are lined out between us, and those years belong to other men, other kings; they are not mine. I should never have known any of that stuff about the pass, about ‘the hand’. I can’t afford to lose myself here.” His hand touched a curl of her golden hair that rested on her bare shoulder.

Somehow, his sash came away and his shirt was no longer tucked into his pants. Her warm hands traced the contours of his stomach muscles, counting his ribs up, and combing through the hair on his chest until they met his neck and shoulders, then they slid back down just as languidly, finding the tremors left behind by their first passing. She chuckled softly and started to loosen the laces that held his pants.

Sean groaned. His hands came to rest on her bare shoulders. The pearl buttons were out of reach without putting too much distance between them, and he couldn’t concentrate to remove the dress by magic. Just now, he couldn’t have lit a candle.

“I hope Mattie isn’t listening,” Armelle said, softly.

“I don’t care,” Sean hissed.

Sean pulled his head up from the perfumed pillow at the sound of a knock on his door. “What?”

“Clayton says you have my armor in there,” said Elias. “It’s time to get up, anyway.”

Sean groaned.
Already?
I could stay like this forever.
“Close your eyes and come in, but don’t expect to stay,” he called back. He nuzzled down into the perfume again until he found the warm flesh underneath.

Armelle giggled and squirmed, coming up for air in time to see Elias leaving with his armor. “Get up, my king. You must meet your troops,” she said, then squawked as his fingers found a delightful expanse of smooth skin over sensitive ribs.

Sean was grinning; he couldn’t seem to
stop
grinning. Armelle squeaked and squirmed so well when he touched her just right.

She squeaked again. “You have to get dressed. You really shouldn’t miss this,” she said. He had places that made him jump, too. The bed was too narrow; he was on the cold floor with a thump anyone downstairs would have heard.

“Oh…” He complained from where he sprawled. “That was cold.” She threw the pillow at him.

It was cold in the room, so Sean sat up and lit a woodless fire in the hearth, then reached for his pants. “Are you coming?” he asked when he saw that Armelle was still cocooned in the warm covers.

“You still have to get me something to wear. I’m not wearing that red dress to go visit a bunch of female-starved bush crawlers.”

“Bush crawlers? First they were my troops; now their bush crawlers?”

“They are still female-starved, what do you want to bet? Besides, it’s cold.”