The Warrior King (Book 4) Read online

  He rose and turned as he peeled off his robes and then tugged at the drawstring around his small clothes. All this talk and the proximity to Daria had left him aroused, and he was embarrassed to have her see.

  “What do I say to make us married?” he asked as his small clothes fell to the brick floor.

  “You don’t say anything,” she said. “You come down here, and we make love. Don’t tell me you don’t know what making love means.” He turned, and her eyes widened as she looked down at his crotch, and then she gave a mischievous grin. “Your body seems to know what to do. I’ll show you the rest if you don’t know how. Not that I’ve ever been married before, of course, but I know. People have told me what to do.”

  And now he understood exactly what Markal had meant when Darik insisted he would not take advantage of the beautiful young griffin rider.

  Sure, you say that now. Wait a bit until she’s feeling better.

  “Is there something wrong?” she asked when he remained standing above her.

  “Let me be clear. If I get in the water, you want to make love with me?”

  “Yes, more than anything.”

  “And if we do, we’ll be married?”

  “Matched and mated for life, to raise children and griffins in the mountains until one of us shall die. And may the Mountain Brother grant us long life and many fledglings.”

  Darik cast his eyes around the empty room, half expecting to see Markal standing to one side, giving a warning shake of the head, maybe even running toward them, waving his hands in alarm. But there was no one.

  The Harvester take me, I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I want this woman, and she wants me.

  “Yes, let’s be married.”

  Darik climbed in the water, and Daria threw her arms around his neck.

  Chapter Nine

  The instant Faalam made his accusation, Sofiana sprang into action. Lassitus had her wrist, and his grip was tightening even as the head eunuch spoke. She drove her elbow into Lassitus’s fat belly. He grunted and released her. The older eunuch was on his feet and grabbing for her, but she danced out of his way and fled for the door.

  The guards had heard the commotion and were drawing their scimitars as she burst past them. But they had been lounging, apparently not expecting any sort of threat, let alone someone coming from inside the head eunuch’s chambers, and she was by them before they could grab her. If not for the danger of her situation, she might have appreciated their bulging eyes and slack-jawed amazement. This wasn’t even a woman, they were thinking, she was only a girl. No girl would ever defy the harem rules, let alone make a run for freedom.

  One of the men shouted a warning, and the other grabbed for a mallet and made for a brass bell that hung from the wall on a metal crook. She hadn’t spotted it on her entrance, being too absorbed in the moment, but now she recognized it as a warning system for when assassins or thieves entered the sultan’s harem. It would ring over the palace and bring more armed guards.

  But before the man could reach the bell, Faalam’s voice cut him off. “You fool, no! They’ll have our heads.”

  He started giving orders to Lassitus and the guards, but when Sofiana burst into the harem on the other side of the courtyard, the women and girls inside raised a cry, and she could no longer hear what Faalam was saying. Hands reached for her, and women demanded to know what the commotion was about.

  “Assassins!” Sofiana cried. “Run! They’ll kill us all!”

  Her words had the desired effect, and the women staggered to their feet, kicking aside pillows and knocking over censers of burning incense. When the eunuch guards came running into the harem moments later, twenty naked and half-naked women were up and blocking their way. Sofiana got out the other side and into the open again. She sprinted across the courtyard. From behind came shouts and high squeals. A quick glance over her shoulder showed one of the harem guards fighting his way past the women and into the open air.

  Sofiana raced from one courtyard to the other. When she rounded a corner and saw that she was alone, she threw herself over a short stone wall and into a flowering bush. Sharp branches and thorns tore at her silk clothing and scratched her hands and face, but she forced herself to remain flat and still. A second later, someone came racing into the courtyard and stopped, gasping and wheezing, before racing off again. She poked her head up to see the back side of one of the guards, then glanced in the other direction to make sure that the other wasn’t following hard on his heels.

  When she saw that he wasn’t, she eyed the vine climbing up the courtyard wall to her right. Get over that wall and she’d be into a courtyard that wasn’t connected to this one. She began climbing.

  But when Sofiana came down the other side, she found that she was in some vizier or other palace official’s private garden. Gilded bird cages hung from metal hooks, filled with brightly colored whistling birds. A fountain bubbled in the middle. There was no way out except through the arcade and into the apartments on the other side. Moving quickly before someone came out and spotted her, she stole across the courtyard, scrambled into the branches of a peach tree, and jumped up to the wall. She lowered herself down the other side, dropping the last several feet to the ground.

  And found she was back in the baths again where she’d been a couple of hours ago. This was perfect. She knew that if she passed around the pools, she would be down toward the rooms where Princess Marialla, King Daniel, and the rest of the Balsalomians were staying. Someone there could help her.

  She wasn’t surprised that the outdoor pool was empty, but when she came through the arched doorway into the dim interior, it was also nearly empty. It had been filled with bathers a couple of hours earlier when Chantmer sent her to be washed, and with the sun only beginning to dip toward evening she’d expected to find it crowded with people, the better to hide herself. There was only a solitary pair of bathers around the other side. One was a dark-haired woman already in the pool, with the water lapping around her shoulders. The other was a young man with his back turned to her, already out of his robe and now dropping his small clothes.

  Sofiana had been scandalized earlier to see men and women bathing together, but had quickly recovered. She didn’t much care to see men naked, but she’d traveled with enough of them on the road over the years to see all sorts of rude and uncouth behavior: men pissing in the road, passing gas, bathing naked in ponds, even rushing into random taverns to look for whores and other unsavory women. But as she studied these two, trying to figure out how to get around them, she could clearly see that the young man was rather disgustingly aroused by the woman in the water, and she was gesturing right at his crotch. It was scandalous. This was a public place!

  When he turned and slipped into the water, she caught a glimpse of his face and blinked in shock. It was Darik, the lout. Seducing young palace girls. Probably the woman was the daughter or concubine of some important person or other; he’d get himself killed satisfying his desires. The young woman wrapped her arms around Darik’s neck and kissed him lustily.

  Sofiana didn’t wait any longer. She strolled over. “Darik, what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

  The two lovers gave a start of alarm. The girl kept her arms wrapped around his neck, but Darik pulled away with a guilty expression.

  “Ninny, what are you doing here?” he asked. His face was red and he looked angry.

  “Don’t call me Ninny. Only Whelan and Daniel are allowed. And the khalifa,” she added. “My name is Sofiana.”

  “Will you answer the question?” He eyed her. “You’re all scratched up. And you’ve been running. Is something wrong?”

  Sofiana was still irritated. Chantmer told her that Darik and Markal were going to smuggle her out of the palace, and yet the boy was getting naked with this girl, who was clearly not an innocent victim of Darik’s lust by the way she’d been kissing him so hungrily. The girl turned an irritated gaze in her direction, and Sofiana recognized her.

  “O
h, it’s you. The griffin rider.”

  “I know you,” Daria said, her expression softening. “You’re the king’s daughter. The one Markal wants to rescue.”

  “So what are you doing then?” Sofiana demanded. “The two of you should be waiting for me, not in here—” She waved her hand. “You know!”

  “Sofiana, why are you here?” Darik asked, and now he seemed merely exasperated. “Did the wizards send you in?”

  “No, I’m running for my life, you idiot.”

  This got Darik’s attention. “What have you done?”

  “Are you going to help me or not?”

  He turned his back before climbing out of the water and reaching for his small clothes and his robe. Daria made to follow him out, but Darik told her to stay in the water, then dressed and turned back to Sofiana for an explanation.

  She told him about Chantmer, which brought an angry retort about the wizard’s treachery, and then about what had happened with Faalam and Lassitus.

  When she was done, Darik sighed. “Your timing could have been better, you know that?”

  “It’s all right,” Daria said. “We’ll get married another time.”

  “Married?” Sofiana said. “What are you two babbling about? And where is everyone? The baths were full before.”

  “We have to get her out of here,” Daria said, still in the water. “Take her up to where Narud found you and wait for the wizards.”

  “I’m not leaving you alone,” Darik said.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “No, you have to stay in the water. You need to stay strong for tonight.”

  “Then go without me.”

  “I told you—”

  “This is ridiculous,” Sofiana interrupted. “Are you going to help me or not?”

  “I could go back for my sword,” Darik said to Daria. “That way you could stay cool in the water, and I’ll be able to guard Sofiana until the wizards return.”

  “What a dumb idea,” Sofiana said. “May as well give me the sword and let me defend myself if that’s all the good you’ll be able to do.”

  She stomped her feet, growing more infuriated by the moment. Where were those two wizards anyway? How could they have left Daria and Sofiana in the hands of this incompetent boy? She glanced at the two of them and made a sudden decision. She tore off the ridiculous silk slippers she’d been wearing since she’d left Chantmer, then turned and broke into a run toward the opposite side of the baths.

  Behind, Darik called for her to stop. He came after her as she kept running, but she had no trouble losing him.

  #

  Sofiana left the open air as soon as possible and continued her way toward the Balsalomian apartments through interior hallways and chambers, but she had underestimated the complexity of the palace. She possessed an excellent memory among her many skills and was certain she had not been this way before. The lamps on the wall were placed further apart than she’d seen earlier, and instead of geometric designs, dragons and lions etched the walls, painted gold and red. The paint was fresh, but the carvings themselves had lost their sharp edge and were broken in places.

  But when she emerged into the open air again, she found herself briefly crossing a terrace that overlooked the palace walls and the city of Marrabat below and knew that she must be close based on her position within the palace. She returned to the hallways and soon found herself in familiar territory. Only a few hours earlier she’d been stealthily following Princess Marialla, Daniel, and Vizier Fenerath through the halls when a sudden restlessness came over her, a need to explore the palace. Not long after that, Chantmer had found her climbing a tree. She now suspected that Chantmer had made her wander off so he could find her and put her to poisoning the eunuch.

  Voices came from the hallway ahead of her, and she thought it might be Balsalomian guards. If so, they could take her to Daniel and Marialla. But when she rounded the corner, she found two men standing in front of her with grins on their faces. They were the two eunuch guards who she’d escaped outside Faalam’s chambers.

  “Ah, so here is the little lotus flower herself. Walked right into our arms. Our master will be very pleased.”

  “Get out of my way,” she demanded, backing up when they took a step toward her. “I’ll scream and the princess’s guards will come running. They’ll kill you.”

  “Go ahead and scream, nobody will hear you,” the first man said. He held out his hand. “Come with us, child. We mean you no harm.”

  She took another step backward, and the two eunuchs rushed at her. But they were slow and fat. She ducked to the ground and rolled to one side. She slid out her foot as they lurched by and sent one man crashing into the other. They both spilled to the ground, and Sofiana turned to run. Shouts sounded at her back as the two men regained their feet.

  Sofiana was not frightened. Damn fools, she thought, even as she realized that she might still be feeling the lingering effects of Chantmer’s spell. She felt unusually confident considering her precarious situation.

  But as she looped back around to try again for the princess’s rooms, she rounded a corner and ran into two more guards. These ones were not eunuchs. They wore loose flowing robes, with naked scimitars at their belts and daggers in sheaths.

  The two men stared in surprise before one of them said, “Hey, that’s the girl.” The two men grabbed for her.

  Faalam’s earlier worry about alerting the general palace guard seemed to be no more. Perhaps he’d decided that the risk of having her escape altogether was more worrisome.

  Sofiana slipped through their grasp and risked facing the eunuchs again as she fled back in the direction she’d come. She turned down an unfamiliar passageway as the chase grew louder behind her. This wasn’t particularly amusing anymore, and her heart was thumping as much with fear as with the exertion of her run. She cursed herself for not staying with Darik and the griffin rider. It was her own pride that had sent her away.

  A few seconds later, she burst through an archway and onto a small patio of fruit trees and fountains. Two monkeys washed oranges in one of the fountains, and they shrieked when she ran toward them, scrambling up the nearest tree where they sat scolding. She ran toward the matching doorway on the far side of the patio and stumbled into a man in a cloak with tattoos on his arms and a book in hand.

  He grabbed her. “Where are you going? That’s forbidden.”

  It was one of the mages she’d seen wandering through the palace.

  “The wizard,” she panted. She cast a desperate glance over her shoulder as the two guards and the pair of eunuchs all came bursting onto the patio. “Chantmer. He told me to—”

  This was enough to loosen his grip, and she broke free and ran past him.

  “Wash your feet before entering the library,” he called after her.

  She ignored him and kept running. She stumbled through the library. Men in robes with tattoos looked up as she ran past. Some read books, others sat on beds of nails. Others lashed themselves over the shoulder with braided whips, chanting in low voices. Few paid her much attention, but they rose indignantly to their feet when the guards and eunuchs stepped into the room. Angry words followed, but Sofiana didn’t stop running.

  At last she turned down a hallway with a high, vaulted ceiling. There were no lamps, only a thin light that streamed through tiny windows high on the wall to her right. It was cooler in here behind all the stone. Sofiana stopped and listened for sounds of pursuit before bending to gasp for air, glad to take refuge in the deep shadows.

  “I am doubly fortunate today, it seems,” a man’s voice said in front of her.

  Sofiana looked up in alarm to see that a man had crept up while she stood gasping. His face was hidden in shadows. She turned to run, but the man swept out a leg and tripped her. While she scrambled for her footing, he grabbed her and dragged her to her feet and then shoved her against the wall.

  “Who are you?” Sofiana asked, alarmed at the tremble of fear in her voice. She strugg
led to pull free, but the man was too strong.

  “Just a guard who is smarter than my friends. I circled around instead of simply chasing you all over the place. Turns out I got lucky.” He turned his head. Voices sounded through the small windows from the other side of the wall, more sounds of pursuit. The guard yanked her deeper in, beyond the windows, where it was even darker.

  “Keep quiet,” he warned and slammed a hand over her mouth.

  Sofiana obeyed, figuring it was better to deal with one man than several, but she was frightened and it was all she could do to keep from screaming. The voices called to each other outside, but after a minute, they left. The man relaxed his hold on Sofiana.

  “See what I mean,” he said, voice triumphant. “They’re none too smart.”

  “What do you want with me?” she demanded, anger replacing her fear. “When the princess hears about this, she will be furious.”

  “No doubt she will. But that is a problem for the sultan to deal with. The eunuch offered ten shekels to the man who caught you.”

  “Then why hide? Why not step forward and claim your reward?”

  The man spun her around and pushed her against the wall. Hot breath came against Sofiana’s face, and he pinned her in place with his body.

  “Because there are things I want more than ten shekels. The sultan may have you for his concubine, but I’ll always know I had you first.” He fumbled with his belt with one hand and groped at her breasts with his other.

  She found her own hands suddenly free. She grabbed for the knife he wore at his belt and yanked it from its sheath. Before the man could react, she shoved it toward his belly. He staggered backward with a surprised look on his face, as if it had never occurred to him that a girl would fight back. A gash opened through his robes, and his intestines spilled out like the coils of a snake. He grabbed at them with a cry and tried to hold them in.

  Sofiana fled for her life.