LITMIR.BIZ

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definitely wasn’t unwilling.

      He looked relaxed as his gaze swept over her party. Two warriors stood to attention either side of her and another watched her back. The Lady Lianthe, elder spokeswoman for the High Reaches, preceded her. A party of five—with her in the centre, protected—they faced the Arunian King, who stood beside a tall leather chair in a room too cold and bleak for general living.

      The old courtier who had guided them to the reception room finally spoke. ‘Your Majesty, the Lady Lianthe, elder stateswoman of the High Reaches. And party.’

      He knew who they were for they’d applied for this audience days ago. His office had been sent a copy of the accord. Sera wondered whether he’d spent the past two days poring over old diaries and history books in an effort to understand what none of his forefathers had seen fit to teach him.

      He had a softness for women, this King, for all that he had taken no wife. He’d held his mother in high regard when she was alive, although she’d been dead now for many years. He held his recently married sister, Queen Consort of Liesendaach, in high esteem still. His name had been linked to several eligible women, although nothing had ever come of it.

      ‘So it’s time,’ he said, and Sera almost smiled. She’d studied his speeches and knew that voice well. The cultured baritone weight of it and the occasional icy edge that could burn deeper than flame. There was no ice in it yet.

      Lianthe rose from her curtsey and inclined her head. ‘Your Majesty, as per the accord afforded our people by the Crown in the year thirteen twelve—’

      ‘I don’t want her.’

      Lianthe’s composure never wavered. They’d practised for this moment and every variation of it. At the King’s interruption, the elder stateswoman merely started again. ‘As per the accord, and in the event the King of Arun remains unmarried into his majority, the people of the High Reaches shall provide unto him a concubine of noble birth—’

      ‘I cannot accept.’

      ‘A concubine of noble birth, charged with attending the King’s needs and demands until such time as he acquires a wife and produces an heir. Thereafter, and at the King’s discretion—’

      ‘She cannot stay here.’ Finally, the ice had entered his voice. Not that it would do him any good. The people of the High Reaches had a duty to fulfil.

      ‘Thereafter, and at the King’s discretion, she shall be released from service, gifted her weight in gold and returned to her people.’

      There it was, the accord read in full, a concubine presented and a duty discharged. Sera watched, from within the shadows her travelling hood afforded her, as Lianthe clasped her bony hands in front of her and tried to look less irritated and more accommodating.

      ‘The accord stands, Your Majesty,’ Lianthe reminded him quietly. ‘It has never been dissolved.’

      The King’s black gaze swept from the older woman to rest broodingly on Sera’s cloaked form. She could feel the weight of his regard and the displeasure in it. ‘Lady Lianthe, with all due respect to the people of the High Reaches, I have no intention of being bound by this arrangement. Concubines have no place here. Not in this day and age.’

      ‘With all due respect, you know nothing of concubines.’ Fact and reprimand all rolled into one. ‘By all means petition the court, your parliament and the church. Many have tried. All have failed. We can wait. Meanwhile, we all do what we must. Your Majesty, it is my duty and honour to present to you the Lady Sera Boreas, daughter of Yuna, Courtesan of the High Reaches and valued member of the Order of the Kite. Our gift to you.’ Lianthe paused delicately. ‘In your time of need.’

      Sera hid her smile and sank to the floor in a curtsey, her head lowered and her cloak pooling around her like a black stain. Lianthe was not amused by their welcome, that much was clear to anyone with ears. This new King knew nothing of the role Sera might occupy if given the chance. What she could do for him. How best he might harness her skills. He didn’t want her.

      More fool him.

      He didn’t bid her to rise so she stayed down until he did. Cold, this grey stone hall with its too-righteous King. Pettiness did not become him.

      ‘Up,’ he said finally and Sera risked a glance at Lianthe as she rose. The older woman’s eyes flashed silver and her lips thinned.

      ‘Your Majesty, you appear to be mistaking the Lady Sera for a pet.’

      ‘Probably because you insist on giving her away as if she is one,’ he countered drily. ‘I’ve read the housing requirements traditionally afforded the concubines of the north. I do hope you can supply your own eunuchs. I’m afraid I don’t have any to hand.’ His gaze swept over the warriors of the High Reaches and they stared back, eyes hard and unmoving. ‘No eunuchs accompany you at the moment, I’d wager,’ he said quietly.

      He wasn’t wrong. ‘I can make do without if you can, Your Majesty.’ Sera let warm amusement coat her voice. ‘However, I do look forward to occupying the living quarters traditionally offered the concubines from the north. I’ve read a lot about the space.’

      ‘Is there a face to match that honeyed voice?’ he asked, after a pause that spanned a measured breath or four.

      She raised her hands and pushed her travelling hood from her face. His eyes narrowed. Reluctant amusement teased at his lips. ‘You might want to lead with that face, next time,’ he said.

      Sera had not been chosen for her plainness of form. ‘As long as it pleases you, Your Majesty.’

      ‘I’m sure it pleases everyone.’ There might just be a sense of humour in there somewhere. ‘Lady Sera, how exactly do you expect to be of use to me?’

      ‘It depends what you need.’

      ‘I need you gone.’

      ‘Ah.’ The man was decidedly single-minded. Sera inclined her head in tacit agreement. ‘In that case you need a wife, Your Majesty. Would you like me to find you one?’

      * * *

      Augustus, King of Arun, was no stranger to the machinations of women, but he’d never—in all his years—encountered women like these. One cloaked in a rich, regal red, her beauty still a force to be reckoned with, never mind her elder status. The other cloaked in deepest black from the neck down, her every feature perfect and her eyes a clear and bitter grey. Neither woman seemed at all perturbed by his displeasure or by the words spilling from their lips.

      He was used to having people around who did his bidding, but he called them employees, not servants, and there were rules and guidelines governing what he expected of them and what they could expect from him.

      There were no clear rules for this.

      He and his aides had spent the last two days in the palace record rooms, scouring the stacks for anything that mentioned the concubines of the High Reaches and the laws governing them. So far, he’d found plenty of information about their grace, beauty and unrivalled manners. So far, he’d found nothing to help him get rid of them.

      A concubine of the High Reaches was a gift to be unwrapped with the care one might afford a poisoned chalice, one of his ancestor Kings had written. Not exactly reassuring.

      ‘These living quarters you’ve read about…’ He shook his head and allowed a frown. ‘They’ve been mothballed for over a hundred and twenty years.’ As children, he and his sister had been fascinated by the huge round room with the ribbed glass ceiling. Right up until his mother had caught them in there one day, staging a mock aerial war on a dozen vicious pumpkins. She’d had that place locked down so fast and put a guard detail on the passageway into it and that had been the end of his secret retreat. ‘There’s no modern heating, no electricity, and the water that used to run into the pools there has long since been diverted. The space is not fit for use.’

      ‘The people of the High Reaches are not without resources,’ said the elder stateswoman regally.

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