The Way of Things: Upper Kingdom Boxed Set: Books 1, 2 and 3 in the Tails of the Upper Kingdom (45 page)

“What
happened?” he asked again.

“Not
out here,’ said the Captain. “Let’s get her inside.”

His
brother nodded and together they led the woman to the hatch, Kerris sliding
down first to take one hand, his brother going through last, keeping the other.

Leaving
the Scholar alone on the roof under the last of the purple sunset.

***

“Where are you going?” Ursa shouted
down the dark stair.

 
He didn’t answer, but he was headed to
the lower level, she knew. Where they kept the horses.

So,
she stopped when she came there and watched as he moved with swift, angry
motions. He found his saddle, snatched it up. Then the bridle, then the horse
he had ridden since that third morning so long ago at
Sha’Hadin.
He
threw the reins over the great wide neck of the beast and led it out of its
stall.

“Where
are you going?” she asked again.

“Away.”

“That’s
not your horse.”

And noticed with some satisfaction
that she had given him pause.

“It does not belong to you. It
belongs to the Empress.”

She
knew him well enough now to know he considered this. He did not look at her,
rarely did when his temper had the better of him. She could tell by the
stiffness of his spine. Could see his shoulders relax, then reset.
Discomposure,
amendment, decision.
He released the rein and pushed the horse back into
its stall. Methodically, he put the tack back where he had found it and finally
swung to face her.

“I
shall walk.”

“All
the way home?”

“Why
not?”

He threw up his hands, let them
fall to his sides with a slap, and brushed past her towards the door, towards
the last level of the stair.

“You
can not leave,” she called.

“You
can not stop me,” he called back.

He was at ground level now,
striding toward a uniformed leopard guard. The guard would stop him, she told
herself. At night, it was against orders to open the outermost door to anyone,
save a lion.

The
guard opened the door.

He
was outside now and she had to move quickly to catch him. With a singing sound,
her sword left its scabbard and when she had finally caught up, she ran in
front of him and turned it into his chest.

“I
can not let you leave.”

“Stop
me as a soldier, then, or join me as a friend. Either way.”

His good eye flashed at her. And
with remarkable constraint, he grasped the blade in one gloved hand and pushed
it out of his way. Stunned, she staggered a little as he brushed past, and she
stared at the steel, now glistening with a smear of bright red blood.

She
slid it back where it belonged, and scrambled to catch up.

***

She should be doing something,
Fallon told herself. Making tea, fetching water, something. Something other
than standing here, watching the three of them navigate these muddy waters on
their own. She tightened her grip on her ribcage and puffed. Not that she would
be much help in this area.
She
didn’t even have the courage to step off
the shore.

Kerris
sat beside the Alchemist, holding her hand in both of his. Kirin was standing
behind them, hands on hips, staring out the window. The city of
KhahBull
glittered in the distance. His tail, normally held poised and still, rapped the
stone floor of the tower keep in agitation.

“Tell
me again,” he growled softly.

Sherah
nodded. She was composed now. She had lit an incense stick and placed it in the
brazier. Water was boiling for tea. A candle was burning in front of her, and
she kept her gaze locked on it. Composed.

“I
went to the roof. I wished to do my divinations there. It is better to be
private, away from curious eyes.” She did not look up. “The Seer was there. Meditating
I presume. It
was
the posture.’

She
paused, ran a tongue across the crust at her lip.

“I was leaving, not daring intrude,
but he began to speak to me, and I thought…” Now, she did look up, but at
Kerris. “We have not got on well, the Seer and I. He has not hidden his
contempt of me or my Order, so when he approached, I was, I was hoping...”

“Hoping?”
prodded Kirin.

“For
better.”

Sitting
by the door, Fallon Waterford frowned, realizing with a rather quick, quirky
thought, that she had been doing that a lot lately. She remembered how her
father had insisted her face would stick that way if she did it too much. But
there was cause for frowning, for mixed in with the baiting airs and calculated
phrases, there was something else, something not quite as tangible. Perhaps,
though, more disturbing.

“What
did he say?” asked the Captain. He had still not turned round.

“He
began to call me
Shakuri,
the name of
his late wife. He said how he had missed me, how he was sorry for causing my
death, and then…”

Now,
the Captain turned. “Then?”

“He
kissed me.”

“He kissed you?”

“Yes.”

“And
you did nothing?”

“He
saved my life, that day in the storm. I owe him.” She pouted, raised her brows.
“It was a good kiss.”

Oddly
enough, the Captain’s tail lashed at this.

“And then?” he growled.

Fallon thought he was doing a lot
of growling lately. She wondered if his voice might stick that way.

“Then he hit me.”

“Once? Twice? What?”

“Once,
and he left the rooftop. And then... you came.”

Fallon
was waiting, waiting,
there!
She shook her head, for in an execution of
flawless timing, the Alchemist finally turned those golden eyes upwards. Had
they been swords, they would have delivered the killing stroke.

Fallon
sat forward. “So when did you scream?”

All
eyes turned now, for the first time tonight, to her.

“What
does that matter?” asked Kerris. “A woman screams when the scream wills, not
the woman.”

Again,
Fallon shook her head. “But when? I mean, before he hit you? After?”

The
Captain looked down at the cheetah, inclined his chin like a hawk.

“Well?”

“After
,
sidi.
I believed he was going to strike again but the falcon flew in
between. He stopped and left the rooftop.”

Kerris stood up, releasing the long
speckled hand, and placing his own on his hips. His brother’s gesture. Fallon
had never seen him do this.

“Well, that makes two for three,
doesn’t it? I mean, first he hits Ursa, now Sherah. Perhaps,
sidalady
tigress should be very careful.”

“I’m
not afraid of him.”

“Perhaps
you should be.”

She
shrugged, tugged at a well-tugged lace, but said nothing.

In
fact, no one said anything for some time. The water began hissing in its pot,
and Sherah moved to tend it. Kerris stopped her, however, catching her hands,
and moving them aside.

“No,
no,
sidala.
Let me tonight.”

“Actually,
Kerris,” said the Captain. “I will do this.”

Fallon’s
heart thudded.
There! There! Oh no, please don’t!

“Oh,
it’s quite alright, Kirin. I’ll do—”

“No,
Kerris. I want you to find the Seer.”

Why
couldn’t he see?

For within that heartbeat,
everything changed.

Kerris’ head snapped up.

“Why?”

“Because
I need to speak to him.”

Something
glittered in Kerris’ blue eyes.

“Isn’t that what we have Ursa for?”

The
golden lion felt it, Fallon knew he did, but he gritted his teeth and continued,
nonetheless.

“And, I need to speak with the
lady, alone.”

“Alone?
Really?” Kerris rose very slowly to his feet. “Why alone?”

“Kerris,
please.”

Reinforced with a rap of the golden
tail on the floor.

Oh,
it was terrible, those next few moments. Fallon very carefully had begun edging
herself towards the door. Despite her natural and boundless curiosity, this was
not something she wanted to see. Finally, Kerris looked down at the Alchemist,
eyes still strangely glittering.

“Be
gentle with him,
sidala
. He is a sensitive soul. Accustomed to mothers
and courtiers who love him and protect him and tend to his every whim. He has
no experience with women like yourself.”

“Kerris!
Enough!”

But the grey lion executed a very
formal bow, and spun on his heel, out the door and down the stairwell before
his brother could thrash him for it.

Fallon
slipped from the room, unnoticed. A fact that did not surprise her.

***

The night was perfect and cool, if
a little strange. There were no torches lining this road, no guards or
sentries, and she thought it odd. The road itself was cut between small red
mountains, squared by nature and rounded by wind. It was in reality, not a
road, but a simple dirt path. All the way from the Wall to
KhahBull.
Unlit. Unguarded. Ursa shook her head. It was nice enough however, she thought,
to walk on something other than stone.

She
had no idea where he was going, nor for that reason, how she was going to get
him back to the Wall. She did know, however, that wherever he went, she would
follow. She was his protectress, his very own Imperial guard, and she would die
before she let him slip away. And at the pace he was walking, she would be earning
her salary tonight.

“What
did she do that you should hit her?” she asked as she strode very swiftly at
his side.

“It
is none of your concern.”

“I
didn’t say I was concerned.” He did not respond, so she pressed him. “I will
ask and ask and ask all night until you tell me. I am good at that.”

His
tail lashed and she could hear him growl under his breath. She lifted her chin,
stared defiantly into the night as she walked even more briskly.

“I
will ask and ask and ask and ask...”

“She kissed me.”

She stopped, dead in her track. He
did not pause, but kept on walking, right through those red mountains. The way
he was feeling, he could have walked forever. Until he heard it, and it stopped
him,
dead in his track.

Major
Ursa Laenskaya was laughing.

Laughing so hard, she was holding
her sides. Laughing so hard, she was bent over double, her thick tail lashing
from side to side. Laughing so hard, she was actually wiping tears from her
cheeks. It infuriated him.

With a swirl of his robes, he
marched back to her.

“It is
not
funny, Major!”

“No,”
she gasped. “No. Not at all.”

“Then
why are you laughing?”

“You hit her for kissing you!”

“Yes!”

“That is something
I
would do.”

Try
as he may, he could not keep it, not in the face of this irony. In her skewed,
pragmatic view of the world, it had to be more than amusing. And so after
several moments, he too smiled.

“It is
not
funny,” he
protested weakly. “And I am still leaving.”

And so he did, turn his back and
walk away, but this time, much more slowly. She fell in at his side, grinning
in the moonlight.

“So,
then. Do you always hit women who kiss you?”

“Try
me.”

“Pah!
No wonder there are no women at
Sha’Hadin.”

But he noticed with some
satisfaction, that she was still grinning.

***

Kirin had never been good at this.
His hands were too big, his grip too tight. He was accustomed to holding sword,
not teapot, and the steaming brew splashed over the rims of both cups. He would
have failed
Chado
, he knew this with
certainty. Good thing it was not a requisite in the training camps.

“I may have let it steep too long,”
he said, passing her the cup. “But it is a good blend.”

 
She accepted it with
lowered eyes. “No one has ever made me tea before. I am honored.”

“Try
it first,” he said. “It may not be such an honor.”

They
struck him now, her eyes did, with the force of the sun. She could kill with
one look.

“Your kindness is the honor,
sidi.”

He sat beside her, around the
charcoal brazier in the center of the room. He held the tiny cup with both hands,
but did not drink. There were matters. He cleared his throat.

“One
more question, please.”

“Of
course.”

“He
called you a name?”

“Shakuri.”
She smiled into her tea. “It is a lovely name.”

“Yes.”

“From
Lan’Lahdesh.”

“The
name of his late wife?”

“Yes.”

“How
did you know?”

There
was a sudden sharpness glinting within those golden orbs. He could see her
thinking and rethinking and thinking again. She had slipped and he had caught.
It had only been a matter of time.

“I
did not know,’ Kirin continued, the ropes of his net tightening around her.
“Even, that he had been married, let alone the name of the woman. It disturbs
me that you know so much more.”

“The
First Mage is not valued counsel for nothing.”

“You
have said so before.”

Not the first time on this journey
had Jet barraDunne, the First Mage of
Agara’tha
, made a veiled
appearance. Their Seventh rider, perhaps? He shook his head. Yet another road
best not traveled.

“What else has the First Mage seen
fit to tell you?”

“The
histories of the men sitting—“

“Sitting on the Council, yes you
have said.
Sidala,
I will not ask you to betray your lord. Nor will I
ask you to betray his confidences. But this I must know. Is there anything that
can affect the course of this journey?”