The Devil's Concubine (17 page)

Aliya managed a faint smile, but in truth she didn’t find the threat particularly

amusing. She felt a blush heat her skin in spite of all she could do, in fact, for she had found the threat rather distressing. It was not as if she felt that she could not live without his lovemaking, but he
had
pleasured her and she rather thought she would enjoy it even more the next time. Besides, in spite of everything, she had felt a wonderful sort of closeness afterward that she had liked almost as much as the other.

She
was
angry with him, and she not only felt that she had every right to be when he had deliberately deceived her to seduce her, she also felt that she was the one who deserved an apology.

Unfortunately, she had had time to discover that Talin was pigheaded. Now that

he’d announced the threat to half the palace, he was going to be very reluctant to back down, even if he did come to accept that it was his fault and he should be the one to apologize.

She
certainly wasn’t going to, though it wasn’t altogether because she felt that she was completely right and he was totally wrong. As difficult as it was to accept, she knew she had been guilty of bad behavior as well. Only a few moments ago he had provoked

her until she had yelled at him and thrown things like a common fishwife instead of

behaving with the dignity of her station.

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He was an infuriating man! There was no doubt about it. He brought out the very

worst sort of character flaws in her, faults she had not even been aware of having before.

She was not going to apologize for her own behavior, though, unless he

apologized for provoking her to begin with.

She had a feeling that meant that there were going to be a lot of cold, lonely

nights ahead for both of them.

* * * *

By the light of the setting moon, Talin and Solly left the palace, turning toward

the valley where they had last seen the army of the man children. The moon had set long before they reached the location, but neither had any real need of the moonlight to see that the valley was now empty. Where before there had been many men, horses, cattle, wagons, tents--all the things the man children deemed necessary to make war--now there was only trampled grasses and mud from their passing.

After flying around the area in wider and wider circles for a time, they finally

spotted the bulk of the army many miles east of their previous encampment. Leaving

them for the moment, Talin and Solly struck off in search of the nearest hamlet and

settled there, shifting into their man forms. When they’d managed to locate and ‘borrow’

clothing that would help them blend in, the left the village and found a place in a wooded area to spend the remainder of the night.

By sunrise, they were headed cross country toward the army. They emerged from

the woodlands onto a narrow track before they came within sight of the encampment and followed that until they reached the spot where they had seen the army.

The encampment itself, they discovered to their surprise, had already been

abandoned save for a handful of servants and guards. They had not even reached the

guards, however, when the mystery was solved.

The army had moved off to engage an enemy.

Still puzzled since Talin had been under the impression that the army was

marching on his own kingdom, Talin and Solly approached the guards to offer their

services. After looking them over suspiciously for several moments, the guard finally addressed Talin. “You have experience in warfare?”

“Some. We are mercenaries.”

“What engagements?”

Talin searched his mind for some of the battles fought in the past five years and

claimed experience in a half dozen he thought were remote enough the likelihood of

running into other participants was remote.

The guard frowned at him suspiciously. “I was at Medenhallow myself,” he

muttered finally.

Talin lifted his brows in surprise he didn’t have to feign. “Were you fighting for

King Mervin? Or King Anslar?” he asked.

“King Anslar.”

Talin nodded. “We were fighting for King Mervin. One would think we would

have met on the field.”

The guard shrugged. “As to that, I suppose it would be unlikely given the size of

the armies on both sides,” he acknowledged grudgingly. “Well, as you can hear, you

have missed the first battle, but we can use every man we can get. Find a place to bed down and be sure to speak to the pay master this evening.”

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Talin nodded. “Who is the enemy?”

The guard grinned. “Today? The clan of the wolf. When we have wiped those

devils from the face of the land, then we will be marching once more.”

Talin and Solly exchanged a speaking glance as they strode through the

encampment. Once they were out of earshot of the guards, Solly spoke. “What do you

make of that?”

Talin frowned. “Princess Aliya said something to me, but I will admit that I had

my mind on other things and did not give it much credence anyway. She said that she

feared she was being used as the excuse everyone had been looking for for many years.”

“Excuse for what?” Solly asked in confusion. “To start a war with the clan of the

wolf? I can not even see a connection.”

Talin shook his head. “To begin a great war between the clans of the man

children and the clans of the man beasts,” he said grimly. “I had thought it odd that they had stopped to gather so far from my borders. Now it begins to make far more sense.

They are certainly marching upon Goldone to make war, but they mean to do their best to wipe out every clan of the man beast between. And, if they succeed, they will turn from Goldone and march on the others.”

Solly looked stunned. “Sire! You speak as if you think they have some chance of

success.”

Talin shrugged. “They have always outnumbered the man beasts, for they breed

like rats, but I am certain there is something beyond their usual arrogance and the

numbers they’ve mustered that makes them believe they can succeed, else they would not have launched such a campaign. I think, before we return to Goldone, we need to

discover what has given them this sense of invincibility if we can.”

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Since they had no intention of remaining for any length of time, they did not

follow the guard’s advice and find a place to settle. Instead, they walked through the encampment and out the other side, following the sounds of battle.

The sun was high overhead by the time they finally reached the first signs of

conflict. A man beast of the wolf clan lay dying amongst the bodies of his foes. Blood dripped from torn flesh, coated the ground liberally, and even dripped from the foliage of the trees and bushes nearby. Grim faced, Talin knelt beside the man.

“What means this?” he ground out, grasping the man beast’s jaw and shaking him

slightly when he saw the man was hardly aware of him. “Why have you not healed?”

With an obvious effort, the man beast focused upon him. “Can not,” he managed

to rasp hoarsely. “Poison.”

Talin shook the man again as his eyes glazed, but he could not rouse him to speak

again.

“Poison?” Solly echoed, dismay evident in his voice. “There is no poison to do

such a thing.”

Talin studied the dead man and then glanced around at the men he had killed

before he had fallen. He saw nothing to explain the situation. It had been a vicious fight.

To a man, including the man beast, all were torn and bloody from head to toe. “I am not at all certain the man knew what he was saying,” Talin said slowly. “He was grievously wounded. Mayhap it is only that they attacked him so viciously, and dealt him so many wounds that he bled out before he could recover?”

Solly sent him a speaking glance. They both knew that that was unlikely,

possible, but not probable.

Finally, without another word, they moved onward. The sounds of battle did not

become louder as they progressed through the wooded area, although the signs that at

least a part of the battle had taken place in and around the edge of the forest grew

progressively more evident. They saw why when they finally emerged on a small knoll.

The battle had moved off beyond the smoldering ruins of what had once been the

palace of the king of the clan of wolves but it was also obvious that the fighting, for the day at least, was mostly done. The dead and dying lay everywhere, crumpled, curled into fetal positions, sprawled bonelessly.

Among the man children were the man beasts--many of them.

Feeling vaguely ill, Talin glanced at Solly. Solly’s expression was one of

disbelief. “They are everywhere,” he muttered. “The man children have slaughtered the clan of the wolf. I would not have believed this if I had not seen it myself.”

For a time, they merely stood watching the battle still raging in the distance.

Finally, Talin began to scan the full scope of destruction. On a rise to the west, he saw a group of men on horseback. One held the standard of the King of Anduloosa.

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He struck off in that direction, picking his way around and over the fallen. Solly

joined him after a few minutes. “It would be easier if we flew,” Solly commented after a few moments.

“Mayhap,” Talin said grimly, “but then they would be warned and would either

flee to protect the king, or, more likely, attack, which would make it difficult to speak to King Andor.”

“Sire! You will speak to him of peace over the bodies of so many man beasts,

only because the princess demanded it?”

Talin sent him a furious glare. “I will speak to him of peace because my

concubine asked it of me,” he growled. “As sickening as this is, it has nothing to do with us. The clansmen of the wolf are not our brothers. But
he
is her father. She cares for him. If I can make peace for her sake, I will.”

Solly frowned. “Do you think he will consider it?”

“No.”

“Then I do not know why you would risk your life for a cause you know is lost

before you even try. King Andor started the war by insulting us. I do not believe it was an oversight, whatever the princess thinks. I think it was very deliberate.”

“It was. We were baited. They knew we would be too proud to ignore such a

blatant insult.”

“They?”

Talin glanced at his captain. “King Andor may or may not have devised this

entire scheme on his own, but he is not alone in it. If they had gathered an army such as this, do you think it would have gone unchallenged? The neighboring kingdoms would

have seen it as a threat and they would have moved to stop it before they amassed an

army of this size. He used his daughter. By announcing far and wide that a tournament was to be held to settle her in marriage, he made certain that the heir of every kingdom had an excuse to gather that seemed unthreatening. And at the same time he saw to it that those who were deliberately slighted could not be unaware that they had been singled out for insult--the man beasts.

“He wants this war. He will not consider peace for the sake of his daughter,

because he had intended to use her to make war from the beginning.”

“If you are so certain of this, we should go. We should gather our army and

prepare for war.”

“We will, but first I will speak to him so that I can tell her daughter with a clear

conscience that I tried.”

“It is not worth your life!” Solly exclaimed. “Your people will need you.”

Talin’s lips curled faintly in a wry smile. “I do not intend to die.”

“One never does.”

By the time they had reached the foot of the hill the riders sat upon, they had been

noticed. The men guarding the kings moved to block their path as they reached the

summit. “You have no business here. Be gone!” one of the men growled when Talin and Solly had halted.

“I have come to speak with King Andor.”

The man looked Talin over with obvious contempt. “Commoners do not address

the king.”

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Talin barred Solly by extending his arm to block his path when Solly surged

forward furiously. “It is as well then that I am not a commoner,” he retorted.

King Andor nudged his horse forward. “You are brazen. What are you called?”

“My clansmen call me king.”

Andor looked him over speculatively. “I do not know you,” he said dismissively

and began to turn away.

“I am husband to your daughter.”

Andor stopped abruptly. Leaning over his pommel, he very deliberately spat,

narrowly missing Talin’s foot. “I have no daughter!” he growled.

Talin’s face hardened with anger. “She will be devastated to hear that,” he

murmured menacingly. “She asked me to come to you and tell you that she has accepted

… me and she wishes for you and I to make peace.”

His face contorted with rage. “Accepted? No daughter of mine would
accept
a creature such as you, Talin. You are an abomination of nature. And I can not accept a whore of such as you as a daughter. She is dead to me. Would that she was dead in

truth! It would be far better than what she has become!”

Talin’s lips curled into a snarl. As quick as a snake strike, he shot upward,

grasped the old man around the throat, and dragged him from his mount, shaking him.

“Watch your mouth, old man! She is my concubine.”