Heroes at Odds (14 page)

I hated to ask, but I needed to know. “The people injured in the village—”

“They will all live,” Fiona said. “In time, they will all recover fully.”

“Does anyone know who the riders were? Where they came from?”

Fiona shook her head and poured herself some wine. “I have a couple of men looking into it. They’re very clever.”

“Can I help?” I had no idea what I could do, but it never hurt to ask.

“Lokian—he’s the clever one—he’s pretty obnoxious. He enjoys Bon’s help, but he considers everyone else a useless interference.”

“Ah,” I said, and then couldn’t think of anything to add. I wished I were the type who could cheer people up. I looked at Taro. When he looked back at me, an expression of inquiry on his face, I tried to tell him silently to flirt with her. People usually enjoyed it when he flirted with them.

Then again, she was his cousin. That would be weird.

Mika and Dias were in next, Mika carrying Radia. He seemed to have no trouble doing so. Radia was a small woman, but carrying her down all those stairs couldn’t have been easy.

“Are you all right?” Dias asked me, putting an arm around my shoulders. “Taro said channeling makes you very weak. You look well, though.”

Annoyance at Taro for making me the weak one in the Pair rose up again and was firmly stomped down. “I am. Some events are more difficult than others, that’s all.”

“No one’s ever told me channeling is painful,” Mika said as he helped Radia into a chair. “Why do they keep that information away from us?”

“You’re making it sound nefarious.” Thank you very much, Taro. “Sometimes it’s difficult. It’s not painful, though.”

“I don’t like it,” Mika declared.

Aw, he was being protective. That was so sweet. “Trust me, all right? I know what I’m doing.” I tapped him lightly on the cheek.

He grumbled, but he sat down. Not as stubborn as certain others in my life. That was kind of a relief.

My mother came in. She looked at me and said, “You look lovely, Lee,” making me wish I’d dressed in my shabbiest clothes and left my hair uncombed.

I could be immature at times.

And then Tarce entered the room. He scowled at Dias, who was seated on one side of Radia, and Mika, who was seated on the other. I wondered if my brothers were deliberately trying to aggravate him. It was a little mean-spirited of them. And yet, I thought it good for him. I had the feeling he had been overindulged in the past.

Foiled in any hopes he’d had of sitting beside Radia, he chose to sit exactly across from her. “I imagine you miss your loom, Wind Watcher,” he said. He seemed awkward, but at least he wasn’t trying to act the cool inscrutable lord.

“Very much.” Radia sighed.

Radia had had a lot of spare time even before her tower and wind rock had been destroyed. She had spent some of that time weaving the most astounding tapestries. So beautiful, Fiona had used them in trade with other titleholders. So beautiful, I was reminded anew how much I envied people who could create things with their hands.

“I have arranged for a loom like the one you had to be delivered here.”

Interesting.

Radia looked shocked speechless. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. Then she cleared her throat and said, “Thank you, my lord. That is exceedingly generous.” And then she grinned beautifully.

“You are an essential person to the people of Flown Raven, and we owe you a great deal. It pleases me to bring you pleasure.” And he smiled.

Who was this man?

I noticed a slightly smug expression on Taro’s face. That made me suspicious. Something was going on.

“You’re right, Tarce,” said Fiona. “I should have done that myself. Thank you for catching my lapse.”

Tarce nodded. He seemed embarrassed. He shouldn’t have brought it up at the table if he hadn’t wanted attention.

The meal was served. It was, as usual, excellently prepared. It involved, as usual, fish.

We were in the final course when Bailey came into the room and whispered into Fiona’s ear. Fiona scowled and nodded and Bailey left. No one asked her what Bailey had said, though I wanted to.

Once the final course was finished, Fiona announced, “Traders Cars and Marcus Pride request our attendance in the front room.”

Damn it, not again. Hadn’t they marred my day enough? Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? “Who is ‘our’?” I asked.

“They said everyone in the house, but I don’t think we need to disturb the servants.”

“Actually, no one needs to be disturbed. Mother and I will go and deal with them.”

“I’m going,” Taro said firmly.

“I think it would be best if I went, as a witness to what happens,” said Fiona.

“You’re not getting rid of us, Sister,” said Mika.

So I just had to reconcile myself to the fact that I was about to be humiliated in front of an audience.

Marcus was standing in the middle of the front parlor. Cars stood a little behind him. Marcus was holding a large bronze platter in his left hand, a rapier in his right. I heard Taro’s quickly indrawn breath and had a feeling I really wasn’t going to like what happened next.

Once the door was closed behind Dias, Marcus hit the bronze platter with the rapier three times. “I challenge you to the Suitor’s Run,” he said to Taro.

Aye, I hated the sound of that. I’d never heard of it. I spent the space of a breath hoping it was something Marcus had just made up.

“That is a challenge between two High Landed,” said Taro. “Of which you are not. That’s why you’re using a plate instead of an emblem.”

And there went that faint hope.

“There is no law against the challenging of a High Landed by those of a different class. I’ve checked.”

So they had come planning to do this? Well, yes, they must have. Why else would they be carrying a bronze platter around? “Explain this ritual to me,” I ordered.

“What it sounds like,” Taro spat as he glared at Marcus. “Two people seeking to marry a third. The two compete in three tests. Whoever wins marries the . . .” He hesitated.

Aye, it was as bad as I’d thought. “The what?” I demanded. “The prize?”

“Technically, the person sought is called just that. The Sought.”

“But surely the Sought doesn’t actually have to marry the winner.”

“Well, no, he or she does. It’s the purpose of the Run. Usually the Sought is trying to get out of a prior obligation.”

“I don’t have a prior obligation.”

“Ignoring the truth doesn’t make it any less true,” Cars announced.

“That’s assuming the false premise that there is only one truth,” I countered.

“Oy, philosophy,” Mika muttered, and I glared at him.

“If we don’t do this, they’ll keep after you,” said Taro.

I stared at him. “Tell me you aren’t taking this seriously.”

“They’ll ruin your family.”

“They can’t.” Surely my family was stronger than that.

“You said yourself that Marcus had tried to connect with other merchant families and they wouldn’t have them. This is probably their only chance.”

Cars frowned at his son. “Why are you telling her our family business?”

Marcus didn’t respond. He didn’t even look at Cars. He was watching Taro.

Hey! This was about me. “Mother? They can’t actually ruin you, can they?”

“Of course not,” she said heartily.

Too heartily. I didn’t believe her.

Ah hell. This was getting more unbelievable by the moment. Why were all these crazy people pulling these outmoded formalities into the real world? There was no longer any place for them.

“When I win,” Taro said to Marcus, “you’ll accept that the contract is dead.”

“When I win,” Marcus responded, “every clause in the contract is to be satisfied in full.”

“Stop this!” I snapped. “I’m not going to marry anyone, no matter who wins what.”

“Then we will ruin your family,” said Cars. “We can do it, you know. We’re an example. We made the mistake of allying our very successful business interests to the Mallorough’s ailing enterprise. We’ve done nothing but slide further and further into debt while the Malloroughs rise and shine, having accepted the benefits of our contract but giving nothing in return. We will make sure everyone sees the contract, make copies and have them mailed to everyone we know and nailed to posts in every market we can find.” He looked at my mother. “It will add to the ill will created by Trader Fines’s words of your family. Anything we say will merely confirm everyone’s growing suspicions.”

No one claimed this was impossible.

“Excuse me,” Taro said before leaving the room.

I didn’t stare after him, but I couldn’t believe he deserted me. I was aware this whole discussion was infuriating for him, but still, to just leave like that.

I looked at my mother, at my brothers, waiting for one of them to say something to stop this nonsense. My mother met my gaze; my brothers could not. No one said anything.

“I don’t care what the circumstances are,” I said. “I’m not marrying anyone.”

But, and I couldn’t believe this, I suddenly felt less certain about that. This was stupid and old-fashioned, but the idea of my family being ruined was awful. How badly would I regret not marrying Marcus once they were left with nothing?

Would it really be so terrible if I were married, if I could still move about as a Shield and didn’t have to sleep with my supposed husband?

I was appalled by my own thoughts. I was going insane. All this absurdity was pushing me over the tipping point.

Taro returned with a dinner knife. He tapped Marcus’s bronze plate with the blade three times. “I accept the challenge.”

“Taro! No!” I hissed. Why was he giving this farce legitimacy by accepting the challenge? All I had to do was keep saying no. Marcus couldn’t afford to hang around until I said yes, which I never would, no matter what he claimed.

Unless he managed to find himself some kind of employment. I hadn’t thought of that. If Linder thought he could find a position in the area, maybe it was possible that Marcus could, too.

“It’s done, Dunleavy,” Fiona said.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Were they all drunk? “Nothing’s done. It’s just words.”

“Words are all it takes,” Fiona said.

“I’m doing this, Lee,” Taro told me. “Nothing you say can talk me out of it.”

“This is my life!”

“It’s my life, too.”

Never before had I so longed for the gift of rhetoric and persuasion. I looked at everyone in the room. No one was prepared to speak up for me. I was almost numb with bewilderment. I had to get out of there. “I’m disgusted with all of you.”

I had no memory of leaving the room, climbing the stairs, or entering my suite. I became aware of my surroundings only as I paced in our sitting room, my thoughts racing. I couldn’t help but talk to myself, repeating demands of how they could do this, swearing every other word.

This was just foul.

Taro came in, and I was alarmed at how much I wanted to hit him. Not just a tap on the back of his head or a swat on the shoulder. I wanted to really hit him. It scared me.

“They’re settling the fine details of the tests,” he said.

“Then we should be there.” Not that I wanted that, to have any part of shaping this fiasco, but it would be less degrading than letting anyone else determine what was going to happen.

“No. That’s part of their role. The contract is between your mother and his mother. Well, his father now, as his mother is dead. It’s not between you and him, or me and him.”

“That’s not right. This is about me.” About Marcus, too, but I didn’t care about him. Maybe that made me selfish. Right then, I didn’t care about that, either.

“That is how the Suitor’s Run works.”

“How do you even know what a Suitor’s Run is? I’ve never heard of it.”

He shrugged. “A couple of the professors at the Academy were ’ristos before being sent in. They felt those of us from High Landed families should know all of the traditions. They were remarkably thorough.”

Oh, what did it matter, anyway? I sighed and sat on one of the settees, holding my knees to my chest.

Really, how was this happening in my life? It was absurd.

Taro sat beside me and took my hand. “I’m going to win,” he said.

“You have no way of knowing that.”

“Do you have no faith in me?”

“Don’t even try that.”

“The first two tests are physical, Lee. I’ve been spending over two years running and riding and lifting things. What has Marcus been doing?”

I was not reassured. “We have no way of knowing. Maybe he runs three leagues every morning before breakfast.”

“Trust me. Have I ever disappointed you?”

“No,” I admitted sullenly.

“And I really think the Prides know what they were talking about, when they said they could ruin your family. Your mother acted like it was true. I don’t want that to happen to them. They’re your family.”

I didn’t want them to be ruined, either, but this was all so unfair.

Life was unfair. I would whine about it no more. But I was not going to marry anyone. I didn’t care how the tests worked out. Making me marry a stranger to save the family business was prostitution, even if no sex was involved. Not that there was anything wrong with prostitution, if that was what someone wanted to do. I didn’t.

Taro put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a gentle squeeze. “It’ll be all right, I promise.”

I leaned my head on his shoulder.

We sat in silence for a long while, long after the sun had sunk.

Someone knocked on the door. I groaned. Taro got up to answer it.

“Good evening!” I heard Mika exclaim. “Where’s our sister?”

My brothers, both of them dressed in their nightgowns, walked into the bedchamber. I’d had no idea it was so late. Mika was carrying a flask of wine and four mugs, and Dias had a small sack. He snagged up a lit candle from a side table. Taro and I followed my brothers into our bedchamber and watched them climb onto our bed. “What are you doing?” I asked.