Warrior Read Online Free Page B

to where the Palace Guards were remounting in preparation for their return to the palace.

    The captain in charge of the detail, Elezaar noted with interest, was Cyrus Eaglespike. Alija’s son.

    “I’d think what?” he prompted, doubtful Cyrus could hear them.

    The young man shrugged. “I don’t know . . . that she’d be a little more grateful, I suppose. I mean, it’s not every day Aunt Marla offers to take in someone’s baseborn child and give them a name.”

    Elezaar smiled. Xanda had a rather romantic outlook on life that no doubt had much to do with the fact he was only seventeen. “I’m not sure Luciena Mariner would see your aunt’s actions in quite the same generous light, Xanda.”

    They had reached the main building. Xanda opened the door for the dwarf and then followed him to Marla’s study on the ground floor. Elezaar knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for a reply.

    Marla was sitting on the cushions by the low table, sipping a glass of chilled wine, a thoughtful expression on her face. She was twenty-nine years old now, in the prime of her life, confident, beautiful and sure of her power. Her fair hair hung straight and trimmed to shoulder length, a fashion the princess had inadvertently set last year when, in a fit of pique on a particularly humid day, she had chopped off her long hair, annoyed by the time she wasted having it dressed each morning. Within a month, there was barely a woman in Greenharbour who hadn’t followed suit.

    Looking at her now, at how she had grown from a foolish girl into the most powerful woman in Hythria, the dwarf felt a surge of affection for his mistress. He had never been so fortunate in an owner and knew he would never be so lucky again. For that reason alone, he would have committed cold-blooded murder for her, if it meant staying by her side.

    “How did it go?” she asked Xanda as he and Elezaar crossed the large room to the table where she sat. Marla’s townhouse was barely a stone’s throw from the High Prince’s palace and his garden on the roof of the west wing, where he indulged in most of his perverse pleasures. There were no murals here, or statues of couples caught in improbable embraces. Just a long, carved and gilded table where Marla worked, a stack of documents awaiting her signature and the comfortable low table with its bright cushions where Marla was sitting. The only item in the room that gave any hint of the power this young woman wielded was the High Prince’s seal, which sat on the table next to a candle, and a half-used stick of red sealing wax.

    “Luciena Mariner refused your invitation, your highness,” Xanda told her, sounding a little peeved. “She was pretty snide about it, too.”

    Marla was unsurprised. “I imagine she thinks I broke my promise to her father. How did she seem?”

    “Angry.”

    “Was that all?”

    Xanda took a moment to reply. “I think she was frightened, now I come to think of it.”

    “Of you, Xanda?” Marla asked with a smile. “Good gracious, boy, what did you say to her?”

    “It wasn’t anything I said, your highness. I think she has other problems. I only saw one slave in the house and the walls were missing a number of paintings. Most of the rugs and quite a bit of the furniture were gone too.”

    “Debt problems?” the princess asked, turning to Elezaar.

    “I’ll look into it,” the dwarf promised.

    “Do that,” Marla said, taking another sip of wine. “And if she is in debt, find out who holds the promissory notes. How did your meeting go with Tarkyn Lye?”

    Tarkyn Lye was the court’esa belonging to Alija Eaglespike, the High Arrion of the Sorcerers’
    Collective, and the most senior member of the High Arrion’s household. As Elezaar’s counterpart in the enemy camp, the blind court’esa could be relied upon to provide as much misinformation about his mistress’s movements as he could possibly manage.

    “He assures me the High Arrion will be