Heroes at Odds Read online

  “Roshni,” Taro greeted her warmly. “It’s lovely to see you downstairs.”

  Her smile was indulgent as she let him kiss her hand. “It’s lovely to be here. No matter how attractive a room is, it can be tiresome to see nothing but those four walls for weeks.”

  Tarce was scowling at Taro. He resented Taro’s ease of manner. Taro knew this, of course, so to aggravate Tarce further Taro sat on Radia’s other side. I shouldn’t have found that as entertaining as I did.

  “Have you finished with the books yet?” Taro asked Radia. “I’d be happy to bring some more.”

  Now Tarce looked surprised as well as resentful, because he hadn’t thought to do something like that for Radia himself. And if I could see that just by looking at him, so could everyone else. I was terrible at reading people.

  “Those books didn’t involve flighty stories needing only an evening to completely finish, Source Karish,” she responded. “I am still well occupied.”

  My Source nodded. Tarce glowered. Radia, well, her eyes were gleaming just a bit.

  My mother and brothers came in before anyone was compelled to say something unfortunate. I quickly introduced everyone.

  Dias approached Radia and, like Taro, kissed her hand just before she could slip her hand away with a look of disapproval. “My sister said you are called a Wind Watcher,” he said.

  “That is correct.”

  “And what does a Wind Watcher do?”

  Dias was merely being polite. Or something. I’d written of Radia in my letters.

  “The wind in Flown Raven can get so fierce that it blows people and livestock off their feet,” Radia explained. “It can kill. It is my task to watch the wind and warn everyone when it looks like it will get too strong.” Her words were dry but her tone was warm. She was a person who felt true affection for her occupation. Pride in protecting people. I could empathize with that.

  “I’ve never heard of such a position in any other place,” Dias said. “It sounds romantic.”

  Radia raised an eyebrow at him. “It is merely a job that needs to be done.”

  Dias looked ready to ask another question, but my mother cut him off.

  “Take a seat, Dias,” my mother told him in a manner that I thought would be more appropriately directed to a child. If it annoyed Dias, though, I couldn’t tell it from his face.

  A light green soup was served as the first course. I found the food most commonly eaten by the people in Flown Raven a little strange, and not always appealing, but the soup was tasty.

  “How long will you be with us, Holder Mallorough?” Fiona asked.

  “Well, that will depend on certain circumstances, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable staying beyond a couple of weeks.”

  “That is a long way to travel for such a short visit.”

  It certainly was. My mother had stayed much longer when she’d visited me in High Scape, and High Scape was closer to Seventh Year, where my family lived.

  “It is,” my mother agreed, “but it’s necessary.”

  Necessary. A disquieting choice of words.

  “Were your travels uneventful?”

  My mother chuckled. “Is travel ever uneventful?” And she proceeded to entertain the gathering with stories of a landlady so entranced with Dias that she tried to sneak into his bed, a livery that tried to sell her a donkey, and an incompetent thief who’d tripped over his own feet while trying to snatch her purse.

  It was interesting. I would have considered such incidents aggravating. My mother seemed to find them hilarious.

  The next course was fish. Fish was a frequent dish in Flown Raven. I could deal with less fish.

  Daris, Fiona’s older sister, drifted in. I could smell the odor of whiskey surrounding her. Like Fiona and Tarce, she was tall, slim and blond. Like Tarce, she was fairly useless. Her most unique characteristic, besides being perpetually drunk, was fierce bitterness over the fact that Taro had chosen to pass the estate to Fiona instead of her. And a good thing he did. Daris would have been a disaster.

  She smiled nastily. “Well, if it isn’t the Shield’s slip serving family,” she sneered. “Come to bask in the significance of their connections.”

  Slip servers. One of many not so nice names for members of the merchant class. I wasn’t sure why this one was supposed to be insulting. What was wrong with giving people pieces of paper detailing what had been bought and sold? I looked at my mother and brothers. None of them seemed disturbed by the term.

  Fiona sighed. “Must you always make a fool of yourself?”

  “I’m not the one breaking bread with a bunch of pot shiners.”

  That was a new one. Still didn’t bother me. Or my family.

  Daris directed her bloodshot eyes to my mother. “I bet you thanked your long bones when your daughter hooked Lord Shintaro Karish.”

  “We have come to feel grateful for it,” my mother said calmly. “He treats her well. We’ve heard how some Sources can be.”

  And I’d seen some of them first hand. Sources were people, after all, and some of them were rapists and murderers and every other kind of criminal one could think of. I was well aware of how lucky I was.

  “And no doubt your connection to our family has done your business all sorts of good.”

  “Beg pardon, but is your name Karish?”

  “It is not.”

  “Then we have no connection to your family.”

  Daris’s nostrils flared. I didn’t know why she was so offended. Did she want to be thought of as a Karish?

  Then again, common sense was not a trait I had seen her display.

  I did find it interesting that Mother didn’t deny that a connection to the Karish name was helping business. Did that mean it was? I felt uncomfortable with the idea of my family using the Karish name to increase their wealth. It was just good fortune that I bonded with Taro, nothing that I or my family had earned. They shouldn’t be able to profit from that.

  “And you.” Daris nodded at her brother. “Panting after the Wind Watcher. You’re ridiculous.”

  Tarce flushed. I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or embarrassment. Radia was concentrating on her fish with great intensity.

  “Appreciation of the beautiful is never a cause for embarrassment,” Taro said lightly.

  Mika smirked. “I think that comment might be a little self-serving.”

  Taro widened his eyes in feigned innocence. “What can you mean?”

  “Tell me, my Lord, how long do you spend examining yourself in the mirror each morning?”

  “It’s the duty of all to ensure they look their best when they are to appear before others.”

  He’d tried to convince me of that when we’d first bonded. He’d given up pretty quickly. He was a smart lad.

  The rest of the meal passed with Taro and Mika bouncing comments back and forth. Daris drank goblet after goblet of wine and muttered under her breath. Everyone else just ate. I wanted the meal to be over. I wanted to find out why my mother and brothers were here.

  When the bowls for the vanilla mousse were scraped clean, my mother said, “Your Grace, we would like to speak to Dunleavy. We have important family business to discuss. Is there someplace where we can talk without being disturbed?”

  Aye, I’d been right. Family business that needed to be discussed with me? Someone was dying. Or they were all sliding into destitution. It could be only bad news.

  “More ideas on how to make money off our name?” Daris asked with a decided slur.

  Everyone ignored her.

  “Of course,” said Fiona. “Use my office. You’ll be assured of privacy there. None of the servants will enter without your permission. Bailey will show you.”

  This time, Taro chose not to follow us. I wanted him with me. I felt he belonged with me. If this was a family discussion, and Taro was part of my family, as my mother and brothers seemed to think he was, should he not be part of our discussion?

  On the other hand, it might be best if I he
ard whatever was coming on my own, so I would have the chance to rephrase the news to better suit his ears.

  Fiona’s office was the size of the sitting room in the suite I shared with Taro, and it had the largest desk I had ever seen. The ceiling, walls and floor were built in shades of brown, and when Bailey closed the door upon leaving, the room felt like it was cloaked in silence. It was a restful place. I knew Fiona spent very little time in it.

  Although there were enough chairs for all of us, none of us sat.

  “I’m going to get right to the point,” Mother said, rubbing her hands together in a nervous gesture that seemed unlike her. “Do you remember the Prides?”

  “The Prides?”

  “Specifically, Cars Pride and his son, Marcus.”

  I thought a moment. “No. I’ve never heard those names.”

  “They are on the way here to see you. I’m surprised we managed to get here first.”

  “Why?” What was so important they couldn’t just send me a letter? What was so awful my family had pushed themselves over half a continent to reach me first?

  Mother took a deep breath. “Because you’re betrothed to Marcus.”

  I snickered, because that had to be one of the most ridiculous things I’d ever heard.

  But no one was snickering with me.

  “I’m being serious,” said my mother.

  “Please. No one does that anymore.”

  My mother seemed to contemplate that for a moment. “It isn’t surprising that, given your upbringing, you might not be as aware of certain realities as—”

  “I live in the real world,” I snapped. Yes, I’d spent seventeen years protected in the Shield Academy, but I would wager I’d gone through more extraordinary things in my years since leaving than anyone in my family could imagine. “This does not happen.”

  “It does, actually. It is much less common now than it was when you were born, and even then it was more the custom to arrange marriages between adults rather than children, but it was done then, and it is still done occasionally now. I could give you some examples, if you wish.”

  I stared at her. She looked back at me with grim determination. My brothers didn’t appear amused. Dias, in particular, looked like he pitied me. This was not a joke. How could this not be a joke? “You betrothed me to someone?” I couldn’t believe those words were coming out of my mouth. It was farcical.

  “They are a merchant family and—”

  “I don’t care who they are, how could you—”

  “—we were experiencing some—”

  “—take such an important—”

  “Dunleavy Mallorough!” Mother snapped. “You will show me the respect of listening to me without interruption.”

  I clamped my lips together and crossed my arms. But I was furious. Oh, I was furious. This was the most idiotic thing I’d ever heard. How was I supposed to show respect to someone who had dredged up such a ridiculous obsolete tradition?

  “Our fortunes were at a low ebb. The lowest we’d suffered in generations. The Prides had only recently established their enterprises, but they were doing well. They were new and fresh, and they created so much produce that some suppliers began to deal only with them, needing no one else. You are probably unaware of the practice, but many suppliers to the markets would prefer to deal only with one source rather than many. So we lost some of our connections, which cut down greatly on the markets our produce reached, and our income flow sank so deeply we were facing the possibility of being unable to support our staff, even our own family, without selling off assets we couldn’t afford to lose.

  “The Prides approached us. They wanted our name. We were established; they were new. They had resources; we had experience. They felt combining our lines would benefit us both. You were an infant. Marcus was only slightly younger. They knew we wouldn’t agree to his marrying Kaaren. She was our firstborn; she would be responsible for our enterprise when your father and I were too old to carry the business ourselves. And she was nearly ten. I believe the combination of her status and her age would have given her an advantage over their son that made them uncomfortable. The boys weren’t yet born, of course. You were the only suitable child. And we were sliding too close to the edge to refuse their offer.”

  What I was hearing made no sense. I had been betrothed my whole life and I’d never even known about it? It was impossible. They hadn’t told me anything about it. Surely, if this were true, they would have told me at some point. It was a pretty significant fact.

  Seriously, this couldn’t be happening.

  “Papers were drawn and goods were exchanged. But a few years later we learned you were a Shield, and as you know, once that happened, you belonged to the Triple S and the contract was invalidated.”

  Yes, that was right. Relief unclenched the panic balling in my chest. Of course I wasn’t actually betrothed to anyone. The very idea was ludicrous. My knees felt weak. I wanted to sit down. “Then why are they coming here?”

  “They don’t consider the contract invalidated. We didn’t return the payments. The paperwork hasn’t been revised. We still use the connections the agreement garnered us.”

  “Why didn’t you return the payments?” I demanded.

  “It wasn’t required, under the circumstances.”

  I was appalled. “I would think decency would require it.”

  “I didn’t realize trade was part of the curriculum in the Shield Academy,” my mother said coolly.

  I felt like I’d been slapped. It hurt. But that wasn’t the important issue right then. “They can’t expect me to actually marry this man.” Of course I wouldn’t do it. I didn’t care what contracts had been signed. I hadn’t signed anything, and as far as I was concerned, I was the only one who could and have it stick.

  If these Prides had just sent me a letter, I would have reminded them that, as a Shield, I couldn’t be held to obligations created by my family. I would have saved them the trip. And the fact that my family had thought to trade me off like a sack of grain wouldn’t be made known to everyone in Flown Raven.

  Because it would be made known. To everyone. That was the nature of a small place like Flown Raven.

  This was going to be so humiliating.

  Taro was going to lose his mind.

  “The Prides are desperate, Lee. Things have been going very badly for them. They’re in textiles, too, but much of their money was tied to land they owned in the south. Nacin worms have spun in their trees for decades, but a blight has killed almost all of them. The Prides haven’t been able to honor all of their trade agreements and their name has started to acquire tarnish. A marriage will make the connection between our families undeniable to the rest of the world. We could act as a form of security for their ventures. And, of course, there is money and goods that we would then have to settle on their family as part of the wedding process.”

  Perhaps it was callous of me, but I could give a broken stick for whatever troubles the Prides were going through. “And this Marcus fellow, he’s just going to go along with this?” Had he no spine?

  “Cars has informed us that Marcus is obedient.”

  Not feeling good about Marcus. “I won’t do it. You do understand that, right?”

  “Of course. We came to warn you of their coming and to offer our support against them.”

  “Oh.” Couldn’t she have started her announcement with that? Something to tell me that she had some odd news to deliver but not to worry because nothing would come of it all? I would have been spared all the anger and panic.

  Though my emotional responses were my own fault. It was my responsibility to remain calm in all circumstances. My training in that area had been slipping further and further over the past couple of years.

  So just be calm. I was making a fool of myself. “All right.”

  And the crazy thing was, this wasn’t even the first time someone wanted to marry me. What was it with people? I had no title, no land, no business interests. There was abs
olutely no reason for anyone to want to marry me.

  I couldn’t believe my parents ever thought to marry me off. They’d negotiated over me like they would a cow. They’d signed paperwork.

  “Kaaren’s doing well,” my mother said. “She was quite upset she had to send Deacon away, but she is recovering her equanimity nicely.”

  I couldn’t help staring at her. She had nearly capsized my emotional equilibrium, and now she wanted to sink into gossip?

  Who the hell was Deacon?

  I cleared my throat. “If that’s all to be said about the Pride matter, I suggest we let Fiona have her office back.” Sometimes, when one doesn’t know what to do, fall back on strict civility.

  So we retired to the suite I shared with Taro, where my mother proceeded to tell me all about what was going on with the family and the business and a bunch of people I’d never met and probably never would. I tried to look as though I really cared, when all I wanted to do was ransack Fiona’s library for law texts. Maybe one would clearly state that Shields couldn’t be forced to honor family obligations. I could stand before these Prides with the text, show them the relevant section, and send them on their way.

  My brothers said nothing. I didn’t know them as well as I would have liked, but their ongoing silence struck me as uncharacteristic. It was disquieting.

  In time, Mother started yawning, her eyes watering. “Time for us to bed down, boys,” she announced. “We’ve had a hard day.”

  Dias and Mika didn’t appear tired, and I expected them to demur. I was surprised when they didn’t. They were too old to be going to bed just because their parent told them to, but they got up and left with her.

  Interesting.

  I sat alone by the fire and tried to settle my mind. Thoughts were jumping in and out and bouncing against each other. It was so hard to focus. It was impossible to remain calm.

  What if I hadn’t been a Shield? Would I have been already married? Having grown up with that expectation, would I have accepted it with equanimity, or would I be as bitter and resentful as I was feeling right then?