Green Wild (Thrones of the Firstborn Book 2) (26 page)

K
iar announced
, “A troop of soldiers spotted us from one of the hills. They’re coming this way.”

It took a moment for the words to penetrate Tiana’s fog of worry about Fai and the green light. She blinked, looking around, remembering where they were.

The cleared woodlands in what used to be the duchy of Biaxin looked abandoned but wasn’t quite the case. Faces peeped from the windows of cottages and farmhouses, but people never came out to greet them. Kiar borrowed a trick from Jerya and crafted her eidolons into birds, sending them into the sky to scout the surrounding area. Many companies of soldiers, in a few different tabards, patrolled the countryside.

“Which kind?” asked Tiana.

There were other kinds of companies, too, ones far less human. Cathay’s cats spied at least two of them, hidden in underbrush and in a bit of remaining forest, hiding from the sun peeking between the scudding clouds.

Kiar gave her an exasperated look. “The human kind. I’d be giving more of an alarm if Ohedreton found us again. They’re moving quickly; they’ll be here soon.”

“Well, we’re not exactly hiding. We’re on a road,” Cathay said. “It was bound to happen sooner or later.”

**They’re nothing to worry about. Ordinary men.**
Jinriki paused for a moment and as the hoof beats of the soldiers’ mounts grew louder, added,
**They’re apprehensive about us. How clever of them.**

Tiana furrowed her brow. “Why would they be worried about
us
?”

But worried they were; when the other group came around a bend in the road, they were moving cautiously and they had crossbows out. A man with ornamental armor and a plume in his helmet commanded the rest of the troop to halt while he rode close enough to shout, “Declare yourself!” He had a personal crest painted on his shield, which marked him as a local knight; Tiana couldn’t remember enough heraldry to tell which Count he served.

**Look at how careful they’re being,**
sneered Jinriki.
**That’s so sweet. Forty of them, terrified of sixteen men and a handful of girls.**

Tiana pulled her mouth to one side and glanced around for Slater. When she met his gaze, he nodded at her and rode over to meet with the knight.

The conversation started out calm, but the plumed knight didn’t seem reassured by Slater’s quiet statements. After a moment, his expression became belligerent and Slater’s shoulders stiffened so much his horse danced backward.

Then Slater whirled his mount and galloped back to Tiana, his face so hard that Tiana watched the crossbowmen anxiously to make sure none of them would shoot him in the back.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“They don’t believe it’s you,” said Slater bluntly.

Tiana looked past Slater, astonished. The plumed knight stared back at her, fear and bravado both showing in every inch of his carriage. “Should I
show
them?”

Slater shook his head, short and sharp. “Not yet.” He glanced at Kiar and Cathay, then said, “But you may as well come to speak with him, if you can fend off any stray arrows. I’m not getting anywhere.”

“We can,” Tiana said, and sent Moon into a canter across the intervening space.

The plumed knight waited, holding his horse steady with an absent skill that reminded Tiana of Jozua, although she couldn’t imagine Jozua showing the same apprehension. None of her own soldiers had been raised as horsemen; this knight clearly had been.

“Do you really doubt I am Tiana, Princess of the Blood?” she said, as Moon came to a halt only an arms width from the knight. Slater stopped behind her.

“I don’t know what to think, ma’am,” he said. He had a thin mustache and young eyes. “I
know
Benjen the Black’s been spotted with the main of the darkling army, or at least his standard has. And I know good men have been tainted by the darkling magic and turned against us.”

“Benjen’s dead,” said Tiana, automatically.

“Yes. And he’s not the only dead man walking, either,” said the knight. “So if you are the Princess Tiana, I hope you’ll forgive my prudence.”

“Of course,” Tiana said uneasily.

He went on. “But we can’t be thoughtlessly trusting anybody with the darkling powers these days, and—”

“Darkling powers?”

The knight plunged on over her interruption, doggedly, “—and so I have to insist you allow me to escort your party to my commanding officer, so he can verify your identity.”

Hesitating, Tiana asked, “Where is he?”

“Northeast of here. Will you come peacefully?”

Tiana thought fast. The seat of Sunasin was to the southeast; allowing this knight to escort her to his marshal would be out of the way. On the other hand, surrounding Fai and Cinai with an army would only make it easier to protect them. Maybe once this marshal had recognized her, she could have him move his whole army south.

**He won’t. Armies are where they are for a reason. But he might be able to offer you respite from any more of these ridiculous interruptions.**

“I’ll consider your offer,” Tiana told the plumed knight. “In the meantime, you and your men are welcome to have luncheon with us.”

“That’s a kind offer, ma’am, but not necessary.”

Tiana nodded and turned Moon to return to her companions. As she did, the knight said, “I hope you understand, ma’am, that if you don’t accept our escort, we can’t allow you to travel further through the Counties.” He was apologetic.

**Terrified he hasn’t made himself understood. Poor chick.**

“Yes, I understood. I hope
you
understand how foolish you’re being.”

Hooves clattered behind them, and Tiana turned to see Jozua pulling his mount up a few yards ahead of the rest of the group. The foul-tempered twist of his mouth was a startling change from his usual indifference. He called, “Princess, can I talk to you? Privately?”

“Excuse me,” she said to the knight, and tried to keep her irritation off her face until she turned away.

“What?” she snapped as she approached Jozua.

He was just as blunt. “I overheard a bit of your little chat. I’m not going anywhere with that knight, and neither is Cinai.”

“What? I thought we’d settled this!”

“No,” he said flatly. “We settled that I’d stay with you as we escorted Cinai home again. I’m not letting her anywhere near any County representative who isn’t either her father or her future father-in-law. The rest of them would be all too happy to complicate my pay purse.” He lifted his gaze to look coldly over Tiana’s shoulder. “Besides, I don’t much like knights.”

Tiana regarded him, her irritation fading in the face of her curiosity. What exactly was going on here? She vaguely knew about the Counties from her lessons: they were the remains of the shattered duchy of Biaxin. They bickered a lot. As for Jozua’s dislike of knights... She’d have to set Lisette to find out; she didn’t think he’d tell her anything she didn’t drag out of him.

“I am not going to argue with you about this right now. We may be riding with them in the future, so don’t do anything I’ll regret.” She stared at him, and then said, “I’ll hire you. You’re for sale, right? Keep Lisette and Fai and Cinai safe for tonight, while I visit the knight’s Marshal with Cathay. I’ll return tomorrow. You can set your price.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You have no idea how expensive I can be.”

Impatience stole her tongue. “I don’t care! I’ll escort you myself into the treasury!” Why did the Firstborn favor the hard-headed?

He regarded her another long moment and then said, “Oh, fine. I’ll go inform my men. You’d best be back tomorrow.” He turned his horse and rode away before she could respond.

Tiana stared at his retreating back. “Was that a good idea, Jinriki?” she asked softly. “I had to come up with something. I don’t want to fight my own people again.”

**I wish you’d insisted he swear on me. I want to look inside him and he’s far more resistant than most soldiers. We should know why.**

“I don’t think I can make that man do anything. I could leave you behind, though, to keep an eye on things. Lisette could hold onto you, or Kiar.”

**You will not.**
Jinriki’s voice was flat.
**Not even for a night, not while you ride away. No.**

“Everybody’s so stubborn,” she complained, but her heart wasn’t in it; she hadn’t been sure that was a good idea either.

She held her mount still, waiting until Lisette and Kiar came up beside her. Lisette was pale, her arm swathed in her cloak. Her brow knitted in a frustration reflecting Tiana’s general mood these days, but otherwise, she appeared healthier.

“What did you say to Jozua?” she inquired mildly. “He looks like he swallowed a live rat.”

“I asked him to guard you tonight while I go to visit the local Marshal, so the Marshal’s men won’t dog our heels for the rest of our journey.”

Lisette looked puzzled and Kiar displeased, so Tiana quickly went into more detail on the situation. She ended with, “Cathay and I will go, since we’re the obvious Blood and it’s the Blood he’s so worried about. I’ll take Slater and Berrin. Jozua will be in charge of the camp, but I’d like to leave you in charge overall, Kiar.”

Kiar’s eyes widened. “You mean Lisette, right?”

Lisette sighed. Tiana thought she saw a rare flash of temper in her Regent’s eyes, but if so, she held her tongue. It didn’t matter, though.

“We’ve been through this before, Kiar! I’m not asking you to make speeches to the assembled. I just want you to watch the situation and make decisions. You’re going to be as good at that as I am, maybe better! You’re smarter than me, anyhow.”

Kiar flushed and looked away until she found her voice. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking. But now I am. I think you shouldn’t leave the rest of us behind! And if you put me in charge, I’ll move us as fast as possible until we catch up with you. That’s what my so smart thinks.”

Tiana stared at her, incredulous. “You can’t. Fai... Jozua... I just explained why I’m going alone, Kiar. It’s going to be bad, bad like in that alley if they try to stop us, and Jozua—”

“Then don’t go.” Her flush had faded, and Kiar was calm now. “Ohedreton will take advantage of the split and attack. You must assume he’s always watching us, Tiana.”

“We might be able to remove your need to be concerned for Fai, anyhow,” said Lisette, but Tiana hardly heard her, barely noticed Kiar’s expression of veiled fury. She’d been trying so hard to manage things, but everybody,
everybody
argued back. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. She didn’t have the skill to convince them any better than this. She wanted to lash out, to make them obey, but everything went wrong once you did that. Her breath came rapidly. She didn’t want to lose her temper, but where could she go to hide? Somewhere, anywhere. Away.

She pulled Moon violently around, the gelding half-rearing in protest, and kicked him into a gallop, away from the column and off the road. In the ruins of a field, she half slid, half fell out of the saddle, and stumbled away from Moon.

Frustration leaked from her skin, made manifest as emanations, lifting the twisted and dried remains of the harvest to spiral around her. In a previous time she would have given herself to the phantasmagory, fallen into the darkness and let its imposed detachment mute her rage. She would have talked with Lisette through the detachment to make better choices. It would have
worked
.

But now, she didn’t know what to do without it, except flee before she snapped, picked up every single one of the people frustrating her and bashed their heads together. How did her uncle and father command armies? How did they command their own kin?

Did
they bash heads in? She’d seen a play once, where a commanding officer won respect by demonstrating his strength of arms. That couldn’t be right, not against common people without the benefits of the Blood, though. It was only a step away from being a Blood Blighter.

Digging her fingers into the loam, she tried to recall if she’d heard any stories of something productive coming of battles between the Blood, if it ever led anything but tragedy. Thinking back over stories, even tragic stories, leeched away the edge of her raw emotions. It didn’t lead to any answers, but after a moment she was calm enough to try again to think of ways to work with Kiar that didn’t lead to temper tantrums.

She failed. All she could do was tell them what to do. If they refused to listen, what then? The dust whipped around her as her frustration rose again. Jozua and Kiar, Kiar and Jozua—and Lisette had too much, finally, on her shoulders to delegate the problem to. And that
wretched
knight and his forty men and his ridiculous fears. Benjen!

Someone shouted from the road. Kiar, and Tiana looked over in time to see her falling off her startled horse, a shield curving up from beneath her to enclose her.

**Hah,**
said Jinriki.
**She was fast, but I am faster.**

“What did you do?” asked Tiana, her frustration turning into alarm for her cousin. She yanked her emanations under control again.

**I wondered why she was so afraid all the time. Why she was so certain Ohedreton would strike. So I investigated and found out. She’s been talking to him.**

“What? When?” Tiana flew back to the road.

**In the forest.**

Kiar crouched in the center of a silvery translucent sphere. Berrin held the reins of the horses, while Lisette kneeled at the side of the sphere, her glowing hand carefully wrapped in her cloak. Tiana skidded to a halt and Kiar glanced up, her eyes bloodshot and savage.

“I
hate
that sword, Tiana! I wish you’d let the Citadel destroy it. It went into my
head
and it ripped and tore.”

**I was in a hurry. She can push me out...**
Jinriki’s voice paused, and then his voice took on the timbre that meant he spoke to others along with her.
**I have discovered the truth. She has been speaking privately with the enemy.**

Kiar’s look brimmed with hatred. Tiana knelt outside the bubble beside Lisette, Jinriki’s scabbard a dragging burden in her hand. Every time she dismounted now, she unhooked him from the saddle, a habit he certainly had reinforced. He didn’t have any sense at all that minds were more than... libraries. “What happened, Kiar?”