Lioness Rampant (12 page)

Rachia was a bustling trade city, her streets packed with things to see. Even the many soldiers present
couldn't put a damper on people's spirits. The children wriggled in their saddles, trying to look at everything. Buri stuck to Thayet, scowling at anyone who came too near. Alanna found it difficult to breathe and was dismayed to think she was more used to desert and woodlands than to crowded cities. How would she feel when she returned to Corus?

They had crossed the marketplace when some instinct warned her—she looked up to see an archer on a nearby rooftop. Alanna yelled, “Thayet!”

Liam was afoot, leading his Drifter. Hearing Alanna, he dragged Thayet and the baby from their saddle as an arrow sliced past their heads. A second arrow followed; Liam grabbed it from the air.

Buri dismounted, dark with rage, and ran into the building where the archer stood. Dismounting, Alanna saw that the building supported a sturdy flower trellis reaching from ground to roof. She tested it and started to climb, trying not to think about rotten wood or loose anchorings. “Coram! Get them to the convent!” she yelled as twigs showered onto her face. She didn't look, but she heard Liam and Coram bellow orders.

She vaulted over the roof's edge, keeping low. The assassin—swathed in headcloth and scarf—shot at
her, then leaped to the next building. Alanna dodged, unsheathed her sword, and pursued. Behind her she heard a rooftop door crash open, and another pair of running feet. Wary, she glanced back to find Buri catching up. The K'mir was a faster runner than Alanna. She drew even within seconds, with her dagger in her hand. “Don't kill him!” Alanna panted. “We need to know who pays him!” Buri nodded.

They raced from roof to roof, Buri and Alanna closing the gap. The assassin's breath came harder; his steps faltered. The next roof was a story lower than the ones they ran on—the assassin jumped and landed awkwardly. Rising, he stumbled on.

Buri jumped and fell, her left leg twisting under her, but she ran on, sweat pouring down her face. Alanna jumped and rolled, as Liam and her wrestling teachers had instructed her; she got to her feet without any hurt. Buri shook her head when Alanna hesitated. “Don't wait for me,” she hissed. “Get him!”

Alanna raced on. Finally their quarry was forced to halt—he'd run out of roofs.

Alanna stopped, afraid to scare him. “Talk to me!” she called. “I just want to know why—”

He jumped. When Alanna came to the roof's edge, he lay in an alley below, sprawled and broken.
Cursing, she returned for Buri. Ignoring the stares of the building's inhabitants, she and the hobbling K'mir went down to the street and into the alley. No one else had noticed the assassin's fall, Alanna was relieved to note. She didn't want a street urchin or his older counterpart stealing the dead man's belongings before she and Buri got the chance to examine them.

Buri knelt beside the body, turning out his empty pockets. “He could be anybody.” She kept her voice low as she lifted the assassin's headcloth. The face, sickeningly misshapen after the fall, was male and coarse, the cheeks filled with a drunkard's broken veins. “Tavern scum,” she said flatly. “You can buy a killer like this for one gold piece. He probably drank his money already.” She covered the dead man once more. “Someone wants Thayet dead.”

Alanna nodded. “She has enemies.”

“Her
father
has enemies,” Buri snapped, standing shakily.

“Does it matter whose enemies they are? They
want
Thayet.”

You can discuss this at the convent,
Faithful told them from the alley's mouth.
You're needed there, too. Now.

When she and Buri entered the convent visitors' court, Alanna smelled trouble. Their company should have been placed in a temple guest house immediately. That was the Daughters' policy everywhere in the Eastern Lands. Yet their party was here, outside the convent proper, watched by a Daughter Doorwarden. No other priestesses—a temple this size housed at least two hundred—were to be seen. Thayet was puzzled; the children were nervous.

“What's going on?” Alanna asked Liam quietly.

“I don't know.” His eyes were blue-gray, revealing nothing. “Some Daughters came out, gabbled like geese, and vanished. The Doorwarden says we wait. I want Thayet out of sight.”

Buri scowled. “Is this the honor given a princess? I should teach these lowland hens some manners.”

“Save your anger for Thayet's enemies,” Liam advised. “You'll serve her best if you're careful.”

“Hens,” Buri muttered rebelliously.

Like Buri and the Dragon, Alanna wanted Thayet in a safe place, not this open courtyard. She went to the Doorwarden. “Please bear a message to the First Daughter of this House.”

The Daughter nodded. Coldly the knight said, “I am Sir Alanna of Trebond and Olau, Knight of the
Realm of Tortall, a shaman and rider of the Bloody Hawk Tribe of the Bazhir. Why are we kept outside the curtain wall? Why have we no explanation for this lack of courtesy? The children are tired and hungry, we are tired and dirty, and Princess Thayet is being shot at. The Daughters of the Mother of Waters owe a duty to travelers as servants of She Who Rules Us All. Why have you not performed that duty? I will be forced to report such a lapse to the Goddess-on-Earth in the City of the Gods.” Her violet eyes dangerous, Alanna nodded. “Please deliver my message.”

The Daughter bowed and hurried away.

In minutes they were shown to a guest house well inside the thick convent wall. Servants came to look after the young members of their group as the Doorwarden took the adults and Buri to a meeting with the leader of the Mother of Waters. Passing through a long courtyard, they entered a room where two Daughters sat at a long table. One was dressed in the black habit of the Hag, the Goddess as Queen-of-the-Underworld; the other wore the cloth-of-gold habit that marked her as First Daughter of a wealthy convent.

“I am First Daughter
jian
Cadao,” she said when everyone was made comfortable. She avoided looking
at Thayet. “Princess—Lady Thayet, we were … unprepared for your arrival. We want to extend every courtesy …” She stopped, looking flustered.

“There are problems.” The woman in black was young, but she spoke with authority. “More than we could have foreseen.” Buri stirred, thinking the Daughter was being rude to Thayet. The Hag-Daughter nodded to her. “Forgive my bluntness—I never learned to soften my words. Princess, your father—the Warlord—is dead. May the Black God ease his passing.”

Thayet's ivory skin went dead white. “How? And … when?” she rasped.

“Illness,” the Hag-Daughter replied. “Sudden and painful. We suspect poison, of course. But no one is anxious to prove it.” After hesitating, she added quietly, “Forgive me if I am too abrupt. I was told you and your royal father were not on speaking terms.”

“We weren't, not after my—mother,” Thayet whispered. She tried to smile. “Still, he was all I had. Go on, please.”

“Try to understand our position. His end places a different meaning on your presence in our Houses.” Her eyes, unlike those of the First Daughter's, had been fixed on Thayet. Now she examined Liam; the
Dragon shifted in his seat. “The rebel leader,
zhir
Anduo, is frank about his need to talk to you.”

“Kill her, ye mean,” Coram rumbled.

The Daughter's eyes went to him. “Not under our roof,” she said coldly. “No priestess of ours will betray the princess. Our House is a holy sanctuary; we will not be profaned.” She glanced at the First Daughter, who looked away. “You say assassins already have made an attempt. We are not proof against them or against traitors.
Zhir
Anduo is not the only one to find the Warlord's child interesting.” She met Thayet's eyes again.

“I understand,” Thayet replied softly.

“The children are welcome,” added the First Daughter. “Except … except for your personal guard …”

“Buriram,” Thayet whispered.

Jian
Cadao avoided Buri's glare and continued, “She is K'mir and closely linked to you. We cannot promise her safety. The children who were students at the Mother of Mountains we shall return to their families. We understand the infant is an orphan. He will be reared by us. But we dare not shelter you. I can give clothing, horses, whatever you need. You must go soon, before
zhir
Anduo knows you are here.”
Now she looked at the princess. “I am truly sorry, Thayet. I have no choice. Already I have disobeyed orders to report your arrival. It won't be long before a spy sends word to the rebels.”

Dismissed by the priestesses, they went back to the room Thayet was assigned. None of them were surprised to find packed saddlebags at the door. “They don't waste time, do they?” Buri sneered when she saw them.

Alanna combed mud and stickers out of Faithful's coat, a process the cat loved (and made difficult by wriggling in joy). “I liked the Hag-Daughter,” she confessed, working on a clump. “She was honest.”

“The First Daughter left a bad taste in my mouth,” Coram remarked.

“Don't be hard on
jian
Cadao,” Thayet said quietly. “She's a cousin on my father's side. It wasn't easy for her.”

“Your own
family
throws you to the wolves?” Liam's eyes turned an intense green—he was furious.

“We prefer ambition to loyalty,” Thayet replied. She fingered the arch of her nose. “And she's in trouble herself. It'll be easier for all my family if I'm gone. With my father dead …” She looked away from
them, swallowing. “Any power I had was through him. Now I'm a pawn.
Zhir
Anduo can strengthen his claim to the throne by marrying me. The ones who don't want him will use me to oppose him, because I'm
jian
Wilima—although a
jian
Wilima female.” She started to pace, her hazel eyes stormy. “Where can Buri and I go? Please—I need advice.”

“They can come along,” Coram whispered to Alanna. “They're no hindrance—we saw that comin' here. The Roof can't be worse than what they face now.”

Alanna looked Thayet over, fingering the ember-stone. Thayet was dependable. She was a good archer, a necessity when they hunted to feed themselves. If she was nervous, Alanna had yet to see it. She never complained, never cried, never fainted. She never shirked her watch. Thayet and Buri would be an asset to an expedition like theirs.

Alanna looked at Buri and was surprised by a pleading expression in the girl's eyes. She replaced it with her usual scowl, but this time Alanna wasn't fooled.
Buri must be worried sick,
she thought.
And she knows Thayet will be safe with us. Besides, I'd miss them.

“Thayet,” she said aloud, “you know where we're
going. We're on—a quest, I suppose. When I find what I'm after, I'll return home. If Liam and Buri don't object, why don't you ride with us?”

“Mind? Gods, no! Thayet's a better cook than you are,” said Liam.

“The Roof of the World,” Thayet whispered. Her face brightened.

“Leave Sarain?” Buri grinned. “Just show me the way!”