The Twelve Kingdoms: The Mark of the Tala (27 page)

How hard could it be?

I
, of course, had never attended a war strategy session before. As I sat at Rayfe’s side and listened to the debates on troops, defenses, and guerrilla tactics, I fervently wished Ursula could be here to take my place.

It turned out the others shared my impatience to make plans, however. They proposed various strategies—including storming Ordnung again—some sliding suspicious looks in my direction. Rayfe let them spin through their ideas, sitting back and watching. The ideas grew grander and, to my ear, more and more unlikely. When Terin suggested letting Uorsin’s army assemble and then surrounding and slaughtering them like rabid sheep—his exact words—I finally stepped in.

“Unless the Tala have a far larger army than I’ve been led to believe”—I flicked a glance at Rayfe, who watched me with the same equanimity he’d given everyone else—“we cannot withstand a direct conflict with Uorsin’s forces.”

“
We
, Princess?” Terin hmm’d with fake surprise. “Have you so easily traded sides then?”

“Do you question my loyalty, Uncle?”

“I do, yes.” Terin stood and set pointed fingertips on the table, addressing them all. “I would say your loyalty is, at best, not yet tested and, at worst, deeply questionable, given how easily you forsook your family and kingdom for, what? A good rogering? What happens when the next sexy man comes along?”

“Terin,” Rayfe growled. I laid a hand on his forearm, the muscles twitching under my touch. He looked surprised but gave me a slight nod. I stood also.

“You say, Uncle”—I used the title deliberately, again—“that my loyalty has not been tested. I would put forth that none of you has faced a test of loyalty such as I have.” I surveyed the group around the table, the older generals, the young angry captains, the platinum-haired woman I recognized from the law group who assessed me with keen blue eyes, a priest of Moranu. “I venture that none of you knows what it’s like to be born of two enemies, to wed who you were told was a worse enemy, to make a real choice to be loyal to what seems right.

“Have I forsaken my loyalty to my father and my King? Yes. Yes, I have.”

They shifted, not meeting my gaze. Except for Rayfe. With his hair pulled tightly back, his face looked all fierce planes and angles, but his eyes held something softer and I wondered if he was remembering last night.

“I don’t know what loyalty means to you, but I don’t believe it’s blind. It’s not something you offer and never reconsider. Loyalty, like love, is based on trust and belief. I will always be loyal to my homeland and to the people who live there. There is good and bad, true, but they are worthy of my belief. Rayfe, my husband, has proven himself worthy of my belief. Outside of bed, as well.”

Several of the men chuckled at that, and a glimmer of approval lit the woman’s eyes. The priest studied me, as if he looked right through me.

“Uorsin means to attack a kingdom that has never done him wrong. He has committed crimes against his people and my family.”

“Can you prove these crimes?” The woman from the law council spoke up, her gaze a shrewd challenge.

“In a court of law? I don’t know. But in my own heart, where I decide—” I realized I’d clenched my fists and slammed them on the table. In slow consideration, I unfolded them, Rayfe’s ring gleaming on my finger. “In my own heart and mind, where I decide my loyalty, Uorsin has lost it. Rayfe has won.”

Suddenly weary, I sat. Rayfe’s fingers twined with mine under the table.

“A fine speech.” Terin hadn’t moved. “But what of your sisters, the noble Prince Hugh, whom you so admire—will you turn your back on them so easily? Would you sacrifice them to preserve Annfwn?”

“I don’t know.” I could give nothing but that honest answer. “If you could have Salena back, with a healthy child, your niece on the throne, would you wish Rayfe away?”

His face flooded with ruby rage. “Don’t you dare question my loyalty. I would never take any action that—”

“But you might feel it, wouldn’t you, Uncle? Isn’t that what you’re asking me—to imagine how I might feel if something terrible happened?” I shook my head at him, slow and measured. “No. I refuse to play that game. I am here. I’ve declared my intention to support Rayfe and protect Annfwn at all costs—for my sake and to honor my mother, who sacrificed her own happiness. As you know better than most, Uncle.”

Terin gazed at me, fulminating.

The priest spoke, asking me a question in the Tala language. His tone was gentle, but the challenge in it unmistakable. I glanced helplessly at Rayfe, but the woman from the law council translated.

“Is she even truly one of us? Can she shift, can she speak to the heart, or is her blood too weak?”

“You know full well we do not demand any such thing for citizenship.” Rayfe’s words cut like a cold blade. The priest understood his words, I could see.

“And you know full well that many of us think we should.” Terin’s jaw worked as he spoke. “We have too many part-bloods—that is why the magic grows unstable.”

“It’s true, though,” said the judicial woman, “that our queens must be able to speak to the heart.”

The priest spoke to her in Tala and she replied to him in the common language, casting a sideways glance at me.

“Yes, if she cannot shift, she will be of no real help to Annfwn. Not as queen.”

“She can shift—I’ve seen it myself,” Rayfe inserted.

“Excellent!” The woman beamed at me. “Then if Princess Andromeda would simply demonstrate for us, we can settle this question and proceed with making her queen in truth.”

Two dozen pairs of eyes fixed on me, intent. I forced myself not to quail.

“I would not subject her to such indignity.”

“She can’t perform on command?” Triumph, tinged with something else—disappointment?—radiated from Terin. “Or perhaps you’re not speaking the full truth, King?”

“Are you calling my honor into question?”

“No—your judgment. You wouldn’t be the first to be swayed by a pretty face and a comely figure.”

Rayfe stood, the wolf growl coming out in his voice. “First you accuse my queen of poor choices for love of my bed; now you question my honor for want of hers?”

“I would put forth,” one of the older generals inserted, “that this is not the subject of our meeting, but rather time-sensitive strategy planning.”

“This is about strategy,” Rayfe replied with strained patience. “Andromeda is key to our defenses.”

The general huffed. “Ridiculous. We have you. Have had you lo these many years and all is fine. Salena’s time is over. There’s no reason a king can’t do what our queens have. We don’t need this child, pretty though she may be.”

Rayfe opened his mouth, black guilt shadowing his face. And I knew he meant to confess his supposed failures to them.

I stood, again laying a hand on Rayfe’s arm. “It’s all right. Please excuse me, my husband and king. It seems as if the discussions might go more smoothly without my presence. You can stick to the very important subject at hand.”

He looked up at me, the harsh lines around his lips softening as he searched my gaze. “You need not go. This is your rightful place.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “But I have something important to do.”

He picked up my hand and kissed it. “I shall fill you in on everything discussed when we meet later, my queen.”

In truth, Terin’s words ate at me. What would I do if it came down to saving my sisters or Annfwn? I could only hope to Moranu I wouldn’t be asked to make such a choice. And it seemed I’d have to prove I could shift. Do it reliably.
Then
find this heart and somehow talk it into doing what I wanted. If I could connect to this magic, maybe all of it would be moot. I could bring the exiled home, keep Uorsin out and Rayfe intact.

I only had to voluntarily turn my skin inside out.

I nearly went to find Fiona, to take that ride on the beach I’d been yearning for. A big part of me wanted to. But that was the old me, riding off instead of tending to things. And now I recognized that much of that urge had been me, looking for a way to Annfwn. I sympathized with all those part-bloods stranded outside in a way that the others couldn’t. They didn’t know how it felt, to have Annfwn calling and not heed the answer.

Even Uorsin, though he’d given up the dream of following his blood to his ancient homeland, had built his seat as close as he could get.

I made my way up the cliffside, looking for the stone arena. I figured, if you can find your way out of the hills by following the water downwards, then I could find the cliff top by following the roads upwards.

Really, I should have gone back to the house to change clothes, but I wasn’t sure exactly which road to take. With a sudden rush of gratitude, I realized Rayfe had left me to my own devices. No attendants, no escort. A subtle vote of confidence that meant more to me than any vows.

I made my way, taking any road or path with an incline. Surely over time I’d build better leg muscles for this. Instead of weaker, I now grew stronger every day. Soon I’d be downright athletic. Here and there people seemed to recognize me, offering polite nods. Mostly they didn’t, and for the first time in my life, I was just another woman, walking along, tending to her business. Even my coloring blended with the Tala.

I loved the feeling.

Eventually I saw a young boy bringing a herd of little black-and-white goats down a winding path. The afternoon was declining into evening, so I thought he must be bringing them down from daytime pasture. Sure enough, I soon found the low wall that bordered the plateau and a gate carved with roses.

The arena, though, was filled with children. I heard their voices as I approached, like in the practice yard when the youngest ones came to first swing their blades, raucous and filled with uninhibited joy. I leaned my folded arms on the low stone gate and watched.

A man in soft brown clothes lined up the children, as if to kick a ball in a game. He made them all settle and wait, then yelled what sounded like “Go!” The first child stepped forward and—
snap
—changed into a rabbit and went bounding off, running a rapid circle around the arena, to the back of the line, and popped back into his human shape, slapping hands with his buddies.

One after another they did this, skipping, cantering, and flying about, transforming as easily as the moon rises and sets.

So simple for them.

Some of the children tried on different forms, challenging one another to be a different animal each time. A couple complained to the teacher that the lack of water meant they couldn’t be fish. They all seemed to be using the common tongue, more city children, then, than the rural ones.

“You shouldn’t be watching us,” a high voice accused. “It’s against the rules, you know.”

What had been a songbird lighting on the wall next to me was now a little girl with black ringlets.

“Thalia!” The teacher strode over, lifted her, and set her down. “This is Queen Andromeda, and she may do as she wishes.”

The girl’s rosebud mouth formed an astonished O and she bobbed a curtsy. “My apologies, Queen Anderom . . .”

“Andi,” I told her. “Princess Andi is fine. And I’ve only just arrived, so I don’t know all the rules yet. My apologies to you.”

“That’s okay,” she confided. “I don’t mind if you watch. Look!” With that, she burst into songbird shape again and flew in giddy circles, singing. The teacher laughed and sent her back to play with the other kids.

“I am sorry,” I told him. “Rayfe mentioned this was meant to be a private place. I’ll move along.”

“No need, my lady,” he replied with an easy smile and a light bow. “I’m Zyr. We’re cousins, actually. The family is greatly looking forward to meeting you. When things settle down a bit.”

Zyr. I recognized that name. “Were you a prisoner at Ordnung till recently?”

He winced. “I did have that pleasure.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Why would you apologize?” He looked genuinely puzzled. “I don’t recall you turning the key in the lock.”

“Yes, but my father—”

“Is a different person.”

“Well, and you were all there for me.”

“No, we were there for us, for Annfwn. People don’t really do things they don’t want to do, Queen Andi.” He winked at me. “I suspect you have an exaggerated sense of responsibility. No wonder you and Rayfe have hit it off so well.”

He laughed, delighted at my blush, and offered me a hand, clasping mine in both of his. “We are so happy for you both. Welcome home, Andromeda. May you flourish here.”

Zyr clapped his hands three times, and the teeming circus of animals resolved back into a group of rosy-cheeked and grinning children. “We’ll be on our way and you can have the arena.”

“Oh, no—I didn’t mean for . . .”

I trailed off in the face of his easy grin. He shrugged one shoulder. “They’ve done well today. Never hurts to have an extra hour’s free time, just to play.” He rolled the stone away and the kids took off, running down the hill with whoops, not unlike the little goats going home. “Besides, you likely have practicing to do.”

“I don’t—” I chewed my lip. “I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

“You saw the kids.” Zyr tugged a lock of my hair, the irreverent cousin I’d never known to miss. “Do what comes naturally.”