Derek called for a meeting of the three sergeants and of course Master Richard was with them. Jabone watched as Kasiria walked away.
How long am I supposed to wait? My need grows daily I just want her so badly. I wish I could talk to my mother, have her tell me what Kasiria expects of me, because my mother would know the rules even if she broke all of them. After all you have to know the rules to break them.
Ufalla was at his shoulder then, "Have you . . . "
"Not yet. I wish I knew . . . Well do you know how they court?"
"Wait for it to dry up and shrivel so that it has to be pried open with a stick I imagine."
Jabone laughed. "You're terrible. I love her, Ufalla. I know she loves me and I just want to make love to her. Does that make me so awful?"
"I'm not the one to ask advice of. If she was holding me as she holds you and kissing me as she kisses you I would have already had my way with her or moved on . . . "
"Oh, yes, as you have so easily moved on from Jestia," Jabone said and added, "hypocrite."
"Do not, I beg you, pour salt into that wound," Ufalla said seriously.
"I'm sorry. So have you forgiven her as well?"
"I forgave her even before I forgave him." She sighed. "Perhaps I will learn in time but so far . . . I don't know how to not love her."
Jabone patted her back. "If it's any consolation she's said a couple of things that—well they didn't make much sense—but I think she thought that by sleeping with Tarius she could change the out come of her dream."
Ufalla sighed. "She's a whore—not a common one, a royal one—but a whore nonetheless, and she thinks sex is the answer to everything."
"Right now I can't say I disagree with her. I wish I could talk to my mother for ten minutes. She would be able to tell me what this woman expects."
Ufalla popped herself in the forehead with her palm. "Why not talk to Eric? He, I mean she, should know all their customs."
Jabone slapped her on the back hard enough to rock her whole body. "You are a genius!" He kissed her forehead and ran off to find Eric.
* * *
Kasiria looked at Derek in disbelief. He had no idea what he was doing with her unit, but how could he? He didn't understand the dynamics of their unit and she couldn't very well say who had slept with who and who was in love with who and what was likely to cause them fighting again like huge idiots. At least he had teamed her with Jabone.
"Excuse me Captain Derek, but a better pairing would be Jestia with Ufalla," Kasiria suggested.
"In all respect, Kasiria, I don't want two women paired together in the woods alone," Derek said. This made Kasiria's blood boil. How much more did they have to do to prove themselves?
"I am one short a pairing anyway," Kasiria said. "Perhaps the three should ride together."
"Of my unit Eric was left over. You said he could serve here as guard, but I think Eric would be better in the field. She can have Eric," Thomas offered, and Kasiria immediately assigned ulterior motive to his action and cringed because she just hated everything that "Eric" stood for.
"Good. Then Kasiria your teams will be you and Jabone, Jastia and Tarius, and Eric and Ufalla."
"Why not team Ufalla with her brother and let Eric ride with Jestia?" Kasiria asked and thought,
Old fool you are teaming two women either way, but it's all right because you don't know Eric's a woman and that's why she so irks me.
"Kasiria, must you question me at every turn?" Derek said, anger slipping into his voice, "Just two days ago I watched as that woman threw herself into a raging river to save her brother. On a mission such as this you must have your partner's back but you must also have a sense of self preservation. When it comes to her brother she obviously has none."
How could she damn him for all he didn't know about them?
He's making decisions based on what he knows. I admit it he's right about not pairing Ufalla with Jestia because Ufalla is much more likely to throw herself on a pike to save Jestia than she would her brother. But Jabone and I we're likely to be so distracted because we're alone together that we'll be useless as a team. Jestia and Tarius barely speak to each other now and are likely to do more bickering than actual looking, and just by them riding together there's a good chance Ufalla and Tarius will start fighting again. Were I teaming the groups the right way instead of just to keep myself near to Jabone knowing all I know . . . Jabone would ride with Ufalla. I would ride with Tarius, and Eric would ride with Jestia.
But she wanted to ride with Jabone and she couldn't very well explain why she would disperse the group differently. So in the end she just nodded her head silently.
She left the meeting with visions of the fighting between the three starting up all over again. She looked across the camp and saw Jabone and Ufalla engaged in conversation with Eric, and she smiled.
Then again maybe the old coot has done us a service, maybe Eric and Ufalla have more in common than that they are both just women fighters.
She gathered clean clothes and went down to the creek where they had hung a piece of tarp in the trees. There were actually two on the creek. One for the men and one for the women and she was sure that this too had caused much bitching and moaning among the men because they'd never had to have this before there were women in the service. No doubt a tarp was just a huge deal. Behind the tarp she sighed and looked at the water. She wanted a bath, but the creek swelled from the recent rains was doubtless cold. Still, in the field you had to take every opportunity to bathe that you got because you never knew what might happen.
She wasn't supposed to be bathing alone and thought about going to get Jestia but then decided against it. She could take care of herself and she didn't like being naked in front of well . . . Anyone, let alone someone with a body like Jestia's.
The water was every bit as cold as she thought it would be and she dried quickly and dressed. She washed out her dirty clothes, wrung them out and then headed back to camp. She had just stepped out from behind the tarp and got her sword situated correctly when she looked up and saw them. The sun was still up and the field where the camp was set was still lit, but around the creek in the shadows of the trees it was already starting to get dark so she was looking at them through the dark into the light. The four of them were walking together across the camp talking and laughing, their black cloaks blowing in the breeze the setting sun glinting off their metal knee cops, their palderons, and off their banded-metal vambraces. For a second her breath caught in her chest as a hundred things they'd said poured through her mind catching like bits of sound in her ears and she realized for the first time what she was seeing.
She felt him at her back but didn't turn because she had nothing to fear from him and she was too caught up just watching them.
"What do you see Kasiria?"
"The Marching Night," she answered him breathlessly.
Behind her the old wizard chuckled, "And what do you think that makes young Jabone, who has one mother who is a Kartik fighter and one who is a Jethrikian noble woman?"
Her blood ran cold with the realization, and her voice came in a gasp. "He is the son of Tarius the Black."
"A prince among his people."
"And the others?" she asked.
"Tarius and Ufalla are the children of Sir Harris and his Kartik fighting wife, Elise. Jestia, Queen Hestia's own whelp. You should have known by all the piercings. Remember I told you the Kartiks wear gold rings as a sign of power and wealth?"
Damn that's what it was. "What . . . What are they doing here?"
"The same thing you're doing."
Kasiria finally turned to face him. "Why did you not tell me?"
"How would that knowledge have changed things?"
"I wouldn't have let myself fall in love with him."
"You let yourself do that then? You could have stopped it happening?"
"It's impossible," she said miserably. "My own father tried to kill his mother."
"He also saved her life."
"So what? She saved him twice and she never tried to do him any harm. You know the stories the Kartik's tell. They don't forgive him. In every story they tell he is an idiot or a villain. I'm the child of her curse, you said so yourself."
"But Tarius did forgive him," Hellibolt said. "Keep your head, girl. This isn't the time to dwell on the future. Live in the moment; that's the only way you will live at all."
Then he was gone, but at least this time he had told her something of value.
Kasiria tried, she really did, to just watch the woods before them looking for any clues that might help. But she kept just looking over at Jabone. He was Tarius the Black's son, he was Jena's son. There was so much she wanted to ask him about them. He had fathers, too, but they didn't interest her.
He is the Great Leader's son. He is a prince to his people, and no doubt known to the Kartiks. He couldn't hide among his own people as I hide among mine, a completely forgettable princess in a land where I could never take the throne. Like Jestia, because if she was heir to the throne she wouldn't be here now. To my horror I find I have more in common with her than any of the others. No wonder she went on and on about clothes and shopping and always wants someone to do something for her.
What hateful thing had Jabone said Ufalla said to Jestia when she'd been mad at her? That her parents were just glad to be rid of her because she was nothing but trouble. They had an heir; she was just an extra. But even being an "extra" in the Kartik, being female, didn't mean you could never take the throne even if every sibling ahead of you died like it did in the Jethrik.
Jabone was sniffing the air again. He said he could smell the Amalites, that they smelled differently. She would have to take his word for it.
She had talked with Derek and the other sergeants about their theory last night. She told them what her unit thought had happened to the people in the village, and explained why they thought it, the lack of any sign of bodies. They had all reluctantly agreed. They also all agreed that the lair must be no more than a few days on foot away, but they were nowhere near close enough to hear the actions of the troop or they would have already fallen on them.
They left nothing here alive, they aren't worried at all about being found and they won't be back here to check because they know they left this area dead. These raiding parties . . . They have probably been butchering people for years. A few here and a few there, who would notice. They have gotten confident that we won't find them. They are religious fanatics they probably believe their gods are protecting them from detection. After, all it has worked so far. They aren't worried in the slightest and unless we fall by accident onto their doorstep we'll not see them.
Her anger flared inside her. They were probably way too busy preparing their "harvest" right now to even stick their heads out of their hiding place.
She was looking, looking for smoke, any sign of the Amalite lair, any clue which might tell them in which direction they had gone. That was what she was looking for—all those things—when she could take her eyes off Jabone.
How would he feel about me if he knew my father was the bastard who shot his beloved madra through with an arrow, with wood that is poison to us? Why didn't he tell me who he was? Why did they all lie to me about their parentage? Because what I told Jabone is the truth and the more people that know a secret the harder it is to keep and I'm just protecting myself but they are holding each other's secrets.
Derek knew who they were, of this she was sure. She thought about it and decided it wouldn't open up a whole wave of questions she didn't want to answer.
"Jabone, does Derek know you're the Katabull?"
If he was surprised at all by her question it didn't show. "Yes, but he doesn't know Jestia's a witch."
Kasiria nodded and thought,
So he has put us together for a reason, because he doesn't know what I am except for the king's daughter and he knows you're the Katabull and therefore I'm safer with you.
She gave Derek points for that because obviously he was worried more about her safety than her virtue. Then she frowned taking the points away.
He knows Jabone is Tarius the Black's son, too, because they're old friends. In fact, she probably sent Jabone to that garrison because Derek was her friend. The same reason my father finagled for me to be stationed there because Derek is his friend. And Derek knows who I am—what my father did to his mother. What did he hope to gain by putting us together? Is her friendship more important than serving his king?
But Persius would be glad to have her riding with Tarius's son, and Hellibolt said Tarius had forgiven her father.
It was all just an odd coincidence and Derek was just putting all else aside to protect her and what better way to protect her than to put her with Jabone, Tarius's Katabull son?
Because of course a woman can't take care of herself.
"Kasiria we'd best turn back now," he said, looking up at the sky.
Kasiria nodded. "Let's stop for awhile and stretch. My back hurts."
"So is that what you call it here," he said rubbing at his own rear.
Kasiria smiled and said, "That's what a lady calls it."
Jabone reined Lex in and dismounted, and Kasiria had a moment of amusement. They must look funny from behind—the big man on his small horse her much smaller frame astride the much larger horse. Kasiria dismounted as well and they tethered their horses and unbridled them so that they could eat whatever they could reach.
Jabone sniffed the air. "There are none of them near."
Kasiria nodded and didn't have to ask why he'd told her that as he took her into his arms. He started kissing her. This time her lips parted under his and she felt his tongue in her mouth and a stirring deep within her that no longer wanted to be denied. When their lips parted he looked at her and she could see the hunger in his eyes.
And what she most wanted to do right then was unquestionably, reprehensibly, irresponsible, but it wasn't like anyone could sneak up on them without Jabone knowing it.