The Gathering Storm (Crown of Stars 5)
Not this.
V
SORDAIA
1
IN the morning Zacharias slept late, having made a bed for himself in blessed solitude in one of the little chambers. By the time he stumbled bleary-eyed into the hammer of the late morning sun, all men, beasts, and belongings were accounted for, Captain Fulk had posted guards at the gate and lookouts on top of the wall, and the men were assembling on the open ground in front of the gates. Lord Wichman, Lord Druthmar, and the other nobles watched from beneath the shaded luxury of spacious awnings, lounging at their ease while they sipped wine and played chess and listened to one of their number playing a lute.
Fulk’s speech to the soldiers was stern.
“You will not go into the town unless you have been commanded to by myself or by Prince Sanglant. No markets. No brothels. No taverns. Is that understood?”
Dismissed, they sulked in the dusty fort, having nothing more to look at than each other and nothing more than sour beer to drink. “No wonder this place looks like prison,” said Surly. “That’s what it is.”
“I always wondered what Jinna women look like,” mused Lewenhardt. “Is it true they dance naked through fire to worship their god?”
“You might wish,” laughed Johannes, “until you had to do the same thing. And then the fire would burn off your—”
“Hush,” said Den. “Here comes the captain.”
“Brother Zacharias!” Captain Fulk nodded at his soldiers and they moved away. “The prince wishes a small party to investigate the market, to scout what’s available for provisions and guides for the journey east. You’ve lived in the grasslands, Brother. You’ll know what kinds of things we must look for.”
“Wagons.” He remembered wagons too well.
“You’ve said so before,” said Fulk with the skepticism any westerner might show who did not understand the grasslands. “We don’t know how long we’ll be delayed here. We’ll need supplies and plenty of ale or wine to drink, with this hot sun. Wolfhere will go with you, as will Lady Bertha’s healer, Robert, who can speak somewhat of the Arethousan language.”
Their departure was delayed at the gate when Blessing ran up. “Take me with you! I hate it here!”
“My lady!” Matto arrived, huffing from the exertion in the heat. “You must come back to the tent now. You know what your father the prince told you.”
“I don’t want to stay here! I want to go see the governor’s palace. I want to see people with big ears like tents. Maybe they have a phoenix in the market.” Matto started, looking guilty, as the girl crossed her arms over her chest and glowered. “I want to go with them.”
Wolfhere softened as that glare was directed at him. “What harm if she comes with us?”
“Has the sun cooked your head?” demanded Zacharias. “There’s a slave market in this port!”
“I want to see the slave market!”
Anger made him clench his jaw, but he struggled to remember that she was only a child. “It’s no merry thing to be sold in a slave market, my lady, as I should know. What’s to stop some Arethousan thief from seeing what a proud, fine noblewoman you are and stealing you away and selling you to the infidels?”
“I’d bite him!”
“He’d slap you so hard you’d lose your wits,” retorted Zacharias, earning himself a sharp glance from Fulk.
Blessing was hopping from one foot to the other; she hadn’t heard. “I’d bite him five times, until he let me go!”
“For God’s sake, Wolfhere, dissuade her from this foolish notion!”
“A day of freedom would not harm the child,” muttered Wolfhere irritably. “I don’t like the heat and the dust any better than she does. This is an unnatural place.”
“Unnatural, indeed! How can you think it safe for her to go wandering in the market when we don’t even know how we’ll be greeted by the townsfolk?”
Blessing screwed up that adorable face and put her fists on her hips; she was steering hard for a big storm.
“My lady.” Captain Fulk motioned for Matto to step back. “I will personally escort you into the market, but not today. Any disruption may harm your father’s negotiations with the governor. You would not want that.”
Captain Fulk was the only person besides her father she truly respected. Everyone else she either ignored or had wrapped up tight on a leash like an adoring dog. Her frown was so terrible that Zacharias was surprised that it didn’t draw in clouds to cover the heartless sun.