All that Glitters (Stavin DragonBlessed Book 1) (6 page)

"I didn't want to hurt you," Stavin whispered. "I never want to hurt you." He was almost in tears as he thought of his passion causing her pain.

Sharindis hugged him fiercely and held him as he tried to pull away. "Only the first time, Stavi. You might call it a rite of passage from girl to woman. Maybe not tonight, but soon you'll see that the pleasure later is worth the pain now." Stavin stopped trying to pull away and she eased her grip enough to let him lie down beside her again.

"Shari, I—There are stories, things boys say behind their hands. Things that get them a trip to the woodshed if their parents hear them." He had to chuckle at that memory. "I never knew what they really meant. Now I begin to see why mothers get so upset and fathers seem so—disappointed."

Sharindis found his lips with hers and silenced him with a kiss. "You are a man now, not a boy. Don't let such silliness concern you until
our
sons start saying it. I'm not sore here," she whispered as she moved his hand to where she wanted it. Sometime later a crowing cock announced the dawn. Sharindis immediately squirmed away from Stavin and started getting dressed.

"Where are you going?" Stavin asked sleepily.

"To the kitchen to help with breakfast, of course," Sharindis replied.

"She won't let you help, Shari."

Now Sharindis rounded on him. Her posture almost screamed her anger, but her voice was low and intense. "Just because I can hardly see doesn't mean I'm useless!"

Stavin held his hands up instinctively to ward off her anger. "I didn't mean it that way. She won't let you help,
Mistress
Sharindis, because it wouldn't be proper for her to."

Sharindis froze with her blouse half on. Her stunned whisper was barely audible as she asked, "I'm not even allowed to help make breakfast for my husband on our first morning?"

Stavin's voice was as sour as his expression. "If I know Sahrena, and you know her better than I do, I doubt you're going to be able to do much of anything around the house unless you make a fuss about it, and you
know
how she'll react to that."

Sharindis reached out with both hands, feeling the air in front of her for the bed. Once she found it again, she sat on the edge and stared blindly into the room. "I can't even help in the kitchen," she whispered. "You're right about Sahrena.
Her
honor demands that she be a dutiful servant, no matter what I might wish."

Her tone made Stavin let loose a bark of humorless laughter. "
Hah!
And did you ever think having servants would be so objectionable? Kar started on me yesterday. He wouldn't let me help pick up my clothes after Zahri tripped." He gave a sardonic smile. "I'm used to being put in my place, but not the place I'm being put
now
."

Sharindis chuckled. "I have to write that down for Master Kel'Zorgan. He loves little quips like that."

"Now
that
is something you can do. Let's get dressed and explore our library." He swung his legs out of bed and dressed quickly, then came around the bed and helped Sharindis with her shoes.

The two went to the library and Stavin brought a burning splinter to light the lamps. Sharindis said, "I know this library, Stavin. Sahrena let me come over and read a few of her books. She likes histories."

Stavin looked around. "There are a lot of empty slots, Shari. I figured they were books that were special to Barvil and Sahrena. It looks like she took about twenty books when she cleared out their personal things. I didn't say anything about it. They are entitled to keep their personal belongings."

"Thank you," Sharindis said softly as she trailed her fingers across the spines of the books. "You're really a very nice man, Stavin."

Stavin was saved from having to answer that comment by a knock at the door. Before he could answer, the door opened and Zahrinis stuck her head in. "Mom says to tell you that breakfast is ready, Master and Mistress."

She stepped aside as Sharindis and Stavin walked toward her. Once they had passed, she blew out the lamps and closed the door, then hurried after them.

Breakfast was traditionally the largest meal of the day, but this late in the year even this meal was small. There was a thin slice of salted venison, two pickled eggs, and a large bowl of barley boiled in meat stock for each of them. Stavin led the blessing, and Sharindis led the traditional response, smiling at the thrill she felt to be responding to her husband on their first morning.

A
FTER BREAKFAST,
S
TAVIN AND
S
HARINDIS RETURNED
to the library. "I want to write down what you said this morning, as well as the story of your encounter with the dragon."

Stavin led her over to the desk and had her sit down. "Where is your crystal?"

"In my pack, on the bedside table."

Stavin hurried into their bedroom and brought her the whole pack. "Here you are," he said as he placed it on the desk beside her.

Sharindis pulled a piece of thin parchment from the desk and located the ink well and quill by feel. She brought out her crystal and tried, but she couldn't make out the one glyph that she wrote. "I still can't see. It's too dim. I need my sunlit desk at the archive."

Stavin considered the matter for a moment, then said, "Maybe so, but maybe not. Put your crystal away for a little while. I'll be right back." He was out of the room before she could ask what he was going to do.

Stavin returned a few moments later with Barvil; he was saying to him, "—so what I want to do is move the desk to the bedroom window."

Barvil looked at the desk, then shook his head. "I don't think we can, Master Stavin. I tried moving it once before, but when the founders built this house, they built the library as it is."

"That means that it's mage-bound in place, like the walls of the fortress," Sharindis said sadly. "It's no matter, Stavin. I can write at the archive."

Stavin regarded his wife and, in spite of her words, he could see her disappointment written clearly in her posture and hear it in her tone of voice. "Barvil," he said, "is there another table in the house that could be used as a desk? Something we
can
move?"

Barvil thought for a moment, then smiled. "There is indeed, Master Stavin. And I think Kar will be delighted to give it up." Stavin was puzzled by the barely controlled laughter in Barvil's voice, so he simply nodded and waved for Barvil to lead the way.

Barvil led Stavin to the boy's bedroom, which Karvik had had to himself since the death of his older brother four years ago. Stavin knew the room well, having spent many winter hours with Karvik making plans, and was puzzled when Barvil led him to the table in the corner. It was covered with an old blanket, and Karvik had once explained that it was just an old table that the cobbler had thrown out. Barvil uncovered it and Stavin could see that the side toward the room was solid almost to the floor. Barvil grasped one end, then glanced meaningfully at Stavin. Stavin took the hint and grasped the other end.

"Lift gently, Master Stavin. It's somewhat fragile." What they pulled away from the wall had never been cast off by anyone. It was an elegant lady's dressing table. Its legs were slender and ornately carved, and the carving continued up the sides and around the drawers. A top-piece and mirror sat on the floor against the wall.

"It's beautiful," Stavin breathed.

"It was a given to my great-grandmother after she'd had her seventh daughter. Girls run in my family. I understand that everyone was quite relieved when my grandfather was finally born. My father and his brothers covered it up, but used the mirror. My brothers and I turned it to the wall and made up the cobbler story. Kar knows what it really looks like, but prefers the cobbler's cast-off story. I believe this will make a fine desk for Mistress Shari. It's a pity about the mirror."

"Father, what have you done?" Karvik asked from the doorway.

"Mistress Shari needs a desk by her window for the light, Kar. I didn't think you'd mind giving up the cobbler's table for her," Barvil answered with more than a hint of humor.

"I'll take this end. Step aside please, Master Stavin. We can't keep the mistress waiting." All three of them laughed as Barvil and Karvik carried the table out of the room. Stavin paused, then picked up the mirror and top-piece and followed them through the house.

Sharindis was standing by her window with a book in one hand and her crystal in the other when they arrived. "Mistress Shari, please step over to your dressing table," Karvik said as he backed into the bedroom.

Sharindis did as she was asked, cradling her crystal protectively against her breast. "What do you have there?" she asked, seeing the large dark object between the shadows of the men.

"A desk for you, Mistress Shari," Karvik said as he and his father set the table down. They spent a few moments clearing the space, then slid the table in. It took some huffing and puffing to do it, but the new desk fit snugly between Sharindis' bedside table and her dressing table, and was almost centered under the window.

Barvil saw Stavin with the mirror and cocked an inquiring eyebrow. Stavin answered the unasked question. "I thought we might be able to angle it to cast more light on the desk, but it won't work. I'll just put it in the armory."

Sharindis moved forward cautiously and put her book on the brightly lit surface of the table, then tried her crystal. "I can read," she said happily, and Karvik quickly brought her a chair from the library. Barvil went and gathered up the inkwell and blotter and soon they had her desk set up exactly as she wanted it. There were tears in her eyes when she looked up at the men that surrounded her and said, "Thank you. Thank you so very much."

Barvil and Karvik bowed and said, "Our pleasure, Mistress Shari," in unison, then left the room.

"I have what I need now, Stavin. I have dreamed of having this for so long, and now that dream has come true. Come over here and sit down. I want to write your story while it's still fresh in your mind."

They spent the day like that, with Stavin reciting the story and Sharindis asking questions as she wrote it down. They only stopped for the mid day meal, then again for the evening meal. They had returned to their room to continue when there was a knock at their door. Stavin said, "Come in."

Barvil came in and stopped three paces from the door. "The Elders Council's messenger was just here, Master Stavin. He brought the names of the members of the mercenaries draft for this year. As expected, you and Kar are both on it, as am I."

"You?" Stavin asked, standing and stepping toward him. "But you're exempt! You're an—"

"I am no longer an Elder, Master Stavin. I have no exemption, nor would I wish for one. Only through battle can I regain the honor of my name, and only with the expedition may I find that battle."

Stavin looked at him and sucked in a deep breath, then let his eyes fall. "You're right, of course, and it is your right to go even if your name wasn't on the list."

"Just so," Barvil said, nodding his head deeply. "The expedition leaves in three days. Good night to you, Master and Mistress."

Sharindis touched Stavin's shoulder and he turned to embrace her. "Only three days, Stavin. Only three days to be married before we are parted." She pulled his head against her breast and sighed. "You have a horrid sense of timing, my husband."

S
TAVIN LAY AWAKE AFTER
S
HARINDIS HAD
gone to sleep and thought about the reasons he had to leave his new bride and the duty he owed his people.

The valley had been found in the early days of the old Empire of Luxand. It was the caldera of an ancient volcano that had filled with a lake until an earthquake had cracked the wall and let the water out. Animals had found the valley and grew large in its protected environment. Thermal springs kept part of the valley clear of snow, and grass grew year-round, saving the animals trapped within its walls from starvation.

The emperor at the time, Farind Zel'Varsal, had made it his own private hunting preserve as soon as he heard about it. The region was annexed by the empire and called the Land of Farind, and a fortress had been built across the crack to keep the animals in and everyone but the emperor out. After the fall of the Empire of Luxand, the men who became the Kings of Farindia claimed it for the same purpose.

The original fortress had been called Kel'Kavin, and King Alev Zel'Kanis had kept that name, applying it to the whole valley. He had staffed it with members of his Royal Guard, scions from some of the most powerful Cat Clans in his kingdom. When King Alev died, his daughter took the throne. She distrusted the men who had sworn eternal fealty to her father and replaced them all. Since she had no basis for condemning them, she transferred the entire Royal Guard, all five hundred of them and their families, and ordered them to settle the valley. For her lifetime and the lifetime of her son, they had remained there, maintaining the discipline and fighting skills that made them so dangerous.

Civil war erupted under the corrupt rule of King Haran Zel'Vordan, and word reached the valley with the first refugees. The old fort had been maintained, but a new fortress and the settlement that they called Kavinston had been built twenty dragon-lengths away, where there was better land for the women and servants to farm.

The first refugees to reach the valley were wealthy friends of the king. They told of the unrest and riots that had consumed the capital. They told of how they had fled for their very lives while the Royal Guards had fought a rear-guard action to try and save the king. They died on their knees, condemned as traitors and cowards for leaving the king to die at the hands of the mob. Their wives and children became servants in the households of honorable men.

No refugees were allowed into the valley after that. General Kel'Vardil, the commander of the garrison, ordered his men to prepare to march, anticipating orders that never came. After two years, word came that the kings of Farindia were no more and the kingdom had dissolved into anarchy.