Chapter Sixteen

 

 

Mar walked into the trades room and smiled sweetly at the men who paused in their work to look up at her. She had attempted to check with the master of coin first, but the man was deep in the records looking for some estate that Em had purchased. That was all she heard before Jer ushered her from the treasury, telling her to make the plans she wanted to and that of course the palace could afford whatever extravagance she could come up with.

“We’ve a mating to plan,” she said to the men in the room, watching them look to one another to speak first. None wanted to offer up something because none knew where they stood with Aren.

The last mating that had been planned had been cancelled abruptly.

“Of Av and Aren,” Mar said.

There was a collective, “oh,” from the room. Many of them opened drawers, riffled through papers and pulled scrolls from shelving. Those that pulled papers came around their desks, approaching Mar as they held out their items.

Mar took one, from the tailor, and opened it gently. The papers contained sketches for both a dress and formal attire for Av.

“She will dress in blue, he in red. Once they’ve mated they will no doubt disappear and I’ve leftovers from the dresses I made Lady Aren. She will then wear her purple court dress, and he will be able to get rid of the vest, which he no doubt will tear in some manner, and replace it with a tie of purple. Nothing extravagant, nothing that is not already paid for. These fabrics are quite rich, yes, but they are still made from the leftovers of other dresses. The blue is not quite the blue of the vineyard, but it will still be a nod to how Lady Aren arrived at court. In her beloved dress.

“The red does have a mix of orange to it, which is seen as the unofficial Northern colour, a mark of Av growing up on palace lands but belonging to Northern bloodlines. It will also hide the traditional… gifts… warriors bequeath on one another.”

“Gifts?” Mar asked.

“It was once tradition for a warrior to wear his mating clothing into a battle, then to the mating ceremony, as a mark of his prowess. That tradition has been altered, as there are rarely battles these days.”

Mar considered the papers, then handed them back to the tailor with a nod. She accepted, then, a scroll from the jeweller.

“They’ve already got their rings, which will mark them as mate and queen on the throne, though Lady Aren does not wear hers yet. But I noticed Lady Aren now has a black bracelet and this item here is in the treasury and can be lent for a lifetime. I plan on placing a small red stone into the centre there, and Lord Av might wear it to mark him as mate to the throne, even if he is too far away for it to be felt. All, no doubt, will recognize Lady Aren, as the one who sits the throne is simply known throughout.”

“If the master of coin is willing to part with his toy, then by all means. The man, however, has a great deal on his mind. If that does not come to pass, the rings are still a wonderful gift. Find Lord Av, demand to know where Lady Aren’s ring is. Make him give it to you, or to Aren, and I will do the rest.”

The door behind Mar opened and all of the tradesmen went still. Mar turned and met the cold blue eyes of Telm.

“What are you doing?” Telm demanded.

“Planning a mating ceremony,” Mar responded with a small smile. “As is my right as the one who stands as queen.”

“Aren will kill us both if I let you plan her ceremony,” the other woman growled.

“I think she’d appreciate my tastes,” she said.

“She might, but then she’d have to listen to the lords and ladies whine about how it wasn’t extravagant enough. Not to mention the high lords, who sit precarious seats as it is. The last thing we need is the high lords—or spirits forbid—the barons, getting it into their heads to do away with the high lord title by breeding into one another. We need to win their favour. You cannot do that with your ceremony, but for the Northern high lord, and you know where he stands on the matter.”

Telm was alluding to Er’s words after the engagement ball in the early winter, during the meeting in which the baron announced the North’s unconditional surrender to the throne, for fear of what Aren would make of palace lands.

“Then you had best help me instead of hiding, as you did all winter,” Mar said quickly. “Isn’t… didn’t we send the Western high lord’s cousin’s servant to him with a command to control his bloodline?”

“We did,” Telm said. “Hopefully he found it amusing, as Ervam believes, rather than taking it as an insult.”

“The Eastern high lord is already here,” the tailor said. “He brought his papers of credit. Good Eastern coin coming into our coffers. They still use gold. He requested an outfit for the mating ceremony be created for himself and his mate, matching. He wanted his bloodline’s lavender but we cannot make that colour here and I counselled him on matching too closely with the one who sits the throne. He’s going with a formal grey instead.”

Mar watched the surprise play over Telm’s features. Obviously no one had informed the head of house that a high lord had arrived.

“The Western high lord sent a missive to me,” the cobbler declared. “The missive said he would be here in three more days and I was to have one of my famous hunting boots ready for him, and that he would pay double. The man does love my boots. He buys a pair every time he comes to court and it’s now been a few years.”

“That just leaves the Southern high lord,” Telm muttered. “Whom we need to buy above all else.”

“Why?” Mar asked.

“The Southern high lord was appointed almost ten years ago by your mother, after she had the previous lord slaughtered, as rumour goes. He stands against the expansion of the South and despises Merkat. He also happens to be your uncle by blood. Em’s older brother. But he kept to the bloodline—Savel, I believe it was. I always referred to him by his given name, Lerd.”

“Lord Lerd?” Mar asked, unable to suppress a giggle.

“Let’s just say your mother didn’t fall far from that rotted tree,” Telm muttered. “Lerd is a warrior of his own right, and rather strong. Your mother gave him the position as much to remove him from court as to give him something of his own. She knew she could trust him to be honourable in the position but was afraid he would stab her in the back.”

Mar glanced to the tradesmen, who still stood quite close by, then back to Telm. The head of house arched an eyebrow in response.

“To those who lived during that time, it was quite obvious,” the older queen muttered. “Lerd attempted to control Em, even tried to sit by her side. That was when Em suddenly found a love for Jer again. Once the engagement was announced they mated, and didn’t even give the high lords time to be notified. The South protested, then your mother slaughtered him and his bloodline, and sent her brother to take his place.

“Once there, Lerd found himself a mate and now has several children, but has not been back to court since. This will be his first trip as high lord.”

“Removing him would have been a part of the South rejoining palace lands,” Mar said.

“It was, yes, but to have a land rejoin, how could we keep a strong warrior such as him in the South?” Telm responded. “I’d rather him and his children near at hand. That bloodline has always been good to palace lands. Well, not always, I suppose, but it’s always those who mate into it that are foul, not those born to it.”

“My mother was born to it,” Mar muttered.

“Your mother took her mother’s name, thinking herself too good for an ancient and gracious line like Savel. Her blond hair, fair skin, and beauty, fleeting as it was, came from her father, not her mother. Never from her mother. That woman—now that woman would have competed with an actual witch for the title of witch.”

“Warts and all,” one of the tradesmen muttered.

A shudder ran through those gathered.

Mar had never learned of her blood besides her mother. Since the early winter she had been declared a Hue and found herself accountable to all the Mariltons and somehow linked to the Eastern baron, even though her father’s mother had no discernible relation to Gamen.

Now there was another bloodline to add to the growing list. Another line that claimed to be great and powerful, but had obviously fallen just as everyone else had.

“I’ve never heard of this bloodline,” Mar said.

“That’s because their name altered during the dark times recently. Savnell became Savel when the adults gathered and decided to change their name in order to protect their children and grandchildren. Commoners were actively seeking out any who claimed the name because there were those who claimed to be Savnell but were using the bloodline to search out queens and destroy them.”

Mar felt a prickling along her skin. “Wasn’t the warrior queen’s mate a Savnell?”

“Yes, he was,” Telm said. “Lord Lerd takes after his ancestors.”

“B-but we have no idea how to treaty with someone like that!” Mar exclaimed. “We hardly know how to speak with the North and they are a step apart from those warriors of old.”

“I can treaty with him, as you put it,” Telm murmured. “After all, I dropped him over my knee more than once when he was a boy and he knows I’ve no qualms about doing it again.”

“What do the rest of us do?” Mar asked.

“Hope that Aren’s instincts don’t drive her to chase after a mated man?” Telm asked. “During his time at court, Lord Lerd was chased by every man, woman, and some few chits who thought themselves adult enough to trifle with a warrior. At least the unmated ones chased him. He chased a few queens as well, those who visited court. His daughters are now banished from court, which is something we might be able to use. Em banished them for fear of their blood, but Aren would have no fear of it because she has no idea whose toes she would be stepping on.”

“I think Aren would want to keep her mating ceremony as small as possible,” she said.

“Only the barons and their families, the high lords, the servants… and a hundred or so lords and ladies who are flocking to court to meet the new queen,” Telm said. The head of house was quiet for a moment, then sighed. “She’s going to kill us both.”

“Probably,” Mar grumbled.