Even Felicia knew she had been stupid. Without even a coat to keep off the snow, the layers of her dress were quickly soaking through as she came to a stop on an unfamiliar street. Shadows of night obscured the town, shutters had been drawn down and she knew that she had missed her turn.
Worse, she was alone. She never traveled through the city alone.
Months of worry had broken free in her and made her stupid. Even before the Canta rebellion, her father had been worried about the state of the kingdom, but never confided much in her. Still, she had gotten a sense of his concern and that had come to life at the Bureaucrat's Rebellion. Lucius had protected her there and she knew it was him leading the men from Rackvidd, but she had left him behind. She hadn’t even asked for his help.
Forum was supposed to have street lights, little braziers of flame to light every intersection, but the wind had gusted through and blown some out. Glumly, she recalled one of the lectures at the academy about combustion. It had been a discussion on the needs for smithing and the professor had talked about how difficult it could be to start a fire in winter, joking about how much trouble it was during war. All she could do was wrap her arms around herself as she stared at the cold coals within a dark brazier.
The grey sky kept blowing in snow, muffling the noise of rowdy taverns and masking the approach of three men across the cobblestone. She saw them when she turned around to return to Lucius’ manor. Tall and short, thick and scrawny, they wore only simple clothes and the scent of ale surrounded them. “Well, that’s unusual,” the man in the middle said, scratching the stubble on his chin.
“Bit late for an academy girl,” the largest man said, hands in his pockets as he looked her up and down, then put his attention on the shut doors around them.
The shortest man grinned. “Looks like she just came out of Jokers.”
“Excuse me,” Felicia said, head down as she grabbed the sides of her skirt, but her little knife had been in her other dress. There were no pockets in the dress she had put on for Lady Solhart. She turned and tried to head around them.
“Hold on,” the man in the middle said, smacking the short man on the shoulder and approaching Felicia, cutting off her path. “She’s too pretty to be from Jokers.What’s your name, girl?”
“Why should I give you my name?” she asked, stepping back from him, but her back was to even more city she didn’t recognize.
He laughed. “Where are my manners. The name is Louie. That hair of yours tells me you’re from the south. One of those soldier’s daughters, maybe?”
“I think you’re right, Louie,” the large man said, squinting his eyes as he looked at Felicia. “I think I recognize this girl.”
Her heart raced as Louie shook his head, and the shorter man also moved to surround her. “Paul, I swear, you and words are like the sea and the sky… if they ever come together, no man has ever found it. Paul here does deliveries to the academy. He’s seen just about everyone. Nothing untoward, you see?”
The third man snorted. “What’s a girl like you doing out at this time of night? Get kicked out of your man’s bed?”
“Manners!” Louie snapped. “This is a lady in our company. You can’t talk to her like I talk to your sister.”
The man snarled. “You talk to my sister like that and that’ll be blood. You know that damn well, Louie.”
“Then why are you talking to her like that? However, again, may I have your name. My friend and I seem to recognize you and I think you’re a long way from home.”
Felicia raised up her head, letting the moonlight expose her features as she said, “My name is Felicia vi Raymi.” All three of them rocked back on their heels, their eyes going wide. She spun on her heel and bolted into the night.
Louie’s voice exploded. “Shit! Stop her, now! Lady, do not go that way!”
When she glanced over her shoulder, all three men were sprinting after her. She was trying to run in heels with her petticoat bunched around her legs and it was obvious they’d be on her in an instant. The first streetlight she passed she turned at and then she turned down the first alley she spotted. Plunging into the darkness and praying they’d lose track of her she stumbled forward. She had to catch her breath, enough to scream. Sucking in the cold air burned her chest as she spun about to face the road.
Her shoe twisted beneath her and sent her sprawling into the snow. There was nothing but a sack on the ground, but then it lurched up. A haggard white face appeared from within the ragged fabric. Irises like dark coins, like drops of blood on fresh snow. She screamed, but an ice cold hand clamped around her mouth, striking as fast as a snake. The man was atop her, his breath steaming as his other hand grabbed at her hips.
“Your money! You’ve got money don’t you? Where’s your fucking money? I’ll bash your fucking brains out!” the man hissed, his hand tearing her dress apart.
She bit his hand, crunching the bones. He screamed in pain, doubling over before yanking away from her. She pushed, but his legs were still pinning her to the snow. The taste of warm iron soiled her mouth as she sucked in more air.
Before she screamed, the light from the street was blocked out and calloused hands grabbed the man. He was lifted into the air and thrown to the ground as Felicia recognized the silhouette of Paul, the man who had been chasing her. The crazy man shouted, but the third pursuer, the short one, was on him with a knife. An instant later, his throat had been cut open. He choked as his blood melted the snow and steamed the air.
“Back off,” Paul growled, his gaze deeper into the alley.
Felicia hardly dared turn around, but three more sets of eyes watched from the shadows, huddled together. They shrank at the man’s command.
Nothing had been said to her though. In fact, Paul stepped past her, making himself like a wall as the other pursuer wiped his knife clean, darting glances everywhere. It was Louie in the street who spoke while Felicia stood up. He had his hands up, facing the way they had come.
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“Now calm down, my lord. Everything is fine,” Louie said, backing away. He cleared his throat. “Everything is fine now, isn’t that right boys?”
“Yes, sir,” both men answered, causing Felicia to press her back to the wall opposite of them, her heart still racing.
“Dangerous times is all, my lord,” Louie said, his eyes still elsewhere. “Very dangerous time for a lady to go running off on her own. We had to give chase is all. Had to make sure she was safe, you see? We’re actually fans of you, my lord. Wouldn’t want something happening to a friend of yours, my lord.”
The second figure stepped into view and relief almost sent Felicia to her knees. Lucius, with a sword drawn, asked, “Who are you?”
“A friend of a friend, I assure you. I am Faezel’s man, and thus I am your man,” Louie said, and there was a glimmer of recognition in the boy’s face.
Lucius turned to the alley, his eyes taking in the scene before settling on Felicia. She ran to him and threw herself against him, clinging to his coat as one arm wrapped around her. He was taller than her, body unflinching against her wet body as she pressed tighter. Without a word, he turned and pulled her away. He put his chest between her and the alley.
When he spoke, his words weren’t for her. “You’re Faezel’s man? Where do you frequent?”
“There’s a cellar on Cooper Street. No sign, but it’s a pub.”
“Clean this up well and I’ll find you,” Lucius said and gently turned Felicia around. He faced her back toward his manor and began walking with her. When they rounded the corner, he stopped and sheathed his sword before putting his cloak around her. “Did those three hurt you? Or just scare you?”
She shook her head. “They didn’t touch me.”
“Then I don’t have to go back there and kill them,” Lucius said. He was smirking as men began to shout in the alley. Their pleas didn’t last long.
She bit her lip and turned her gaze to the ground. When they walked, he kept his arm around her shoulders. “You must be cold, running out here suddenly because of my stupidity.”
“I was boiling, actually. Holding my tongue all evening was worse than marching at the front of a vanguard. I would have come sooner, but I had words for that bitch that calls herself my mother.”
Felicia found herself laughing and leaned against Lucius. “Ever since you left that house, you’re a different man, you know that? Even Aria said to not judge you by the brat you used to be. Father would have never trusted you just a few years ago, but you’ve become quite the man.” His jaw tensed and he didn’t look down at her. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry there wasn’t anything I could do for your father. I had to be at the capital and now I have to be here. If I breach contract, the king will arrest everyone associated with me, you included. He can’t threaten me directly, so he threatens the people around me. It’s infuriating.”
“So, I’m close enough to you for that?” she asked. Thoughts about the new king were mere whispers in her mind as she held Lucius’ cloak tighter.
He laughed. “I like brazen girls.”
“Brazen?”
“You outright asked why I wasn’t courting you, and you sheltered Aisha when I asked you to. In fact, you should have been more brazen.”
“Oh really?”
His voice softened. “Your father was probably poisoned. You should have asked me to hunt down his killers.”
The emotions inside her were an unfamiliar mess, but not quite enough to make her cry. “What if I asked now?”
“One way to find out.”
“Why aren’t you courting me, Lucius?”
He stopped in the middle of the street, his arm slipping from her shoulder as he stared at her. “Of all the times,” he said, laughter bubbling up from him. “Thats what you ask of me? I swear, you could teach most tacticians a few tricks. Striking where the enemy least expects it! Felicia vi Raymi, don’t you know I’m a greedy man?”
“How could I not?” She was smiling again. “The whole academy knows you live with two mistresses. Some say you’re even sleeping with that alchemist girl. Of course I knew that before asking. I may not have a sister, but I’m still Vassish. And you, Lucius, are a great man. You change history itself with a decision and a swing of your sword and unlike most of our peers, I’m more impressed by the former than the latter.”
Lucius put up his hands. “You might be asking for more than you realize.”
“I know, but that’s always the case. In fact, if it weren’t, then that man would be a bore.”
“Felicia vi Raymi, would you join me for dinner tonight? I’m afraid there will be a baby making more noise than would be desired, but if she wakes Alexander, then I’ll just make her sleep with the horses tonight. And after, we’ll have to make time for courtship.”
Felicia burst out laughing. “Of course, I humbly accept your offer,” she said, and the two of them returned to the manor.
Leomund stood at the gate, quietly holding a mug of mulled wine. “You’ve a way with words, my boy.”
“I wouldn’t say that was me. She outplayed me by far,” Lucius said, shutting and locking the gate behind them.
“I would never pass judgment on words of blossoming affection,” Leomund said as he gestured back to the house. “You unleashed a monster in there.”
Felicia arched an eyebrow, but Lucius flew into the house and found it nearly silent. A stilted conversation continued in the dining room and Felicia followed him in. “He’s back!” Lupa declared from the head of the table, grinning with a glass of wine. Aisha was nowhere to be seen, but Aria and Lady Solhart sat across from one another, the latter as stiff in her seat as a child learning etiquette.
Lady Solhart twisted in her seat and said, “Son, this woman–”
“Aria, do you think you could take Felicia upstairs and help her change her dress?” Lucius said, ignoring his mother. He stepped aside and when he put his hand on the back of Lupa’s seat, she relinquished it to him, still holding the dagger he had given her.
Aria jumped up. “Did something happen?” she asked as Felicia opened the cloak and showed the torn strips of silk dangling from her sides. Without a word more, the two of them went upstairs, where Aria quietly pressed Felicia for details. It took a dozen assurances that she was fine as the evening dress was exchanged for something simpler that Aria had.
“He came for me in time,” Felicia said, looking herself over with a hand mirror.
Her friend scrutinized her and said, “What is that, three times now?”
“A reliable trend,” she said, trying to brush her hair back into proper form. Her makeup had survived the ordeal mostly intact.
“It’s good you’re back. I’m afraid either he or Lupa would have killed my mother if something serious had happened to you because of her. That bitch came to pick a fight. It’s unbelievable!”
“You do need to find a man though,” Felicia said.
“As if you know how to pick a man.”
Felicia just laughed and returned to the dining room, where Lucius gestured for her to sit next to him at the table. A feast had been laid out, though the meat no longer steamed and the butter had begun to congeal once more. Everything had been left to wait because of her.
Lupa sat at the foot of the table and said, “Is it the custom here in Vassermark for the guest to do the serving? Or is that Giordana?”
Lucius grinned. “I think it’s a good custom.”
“Agreed! Lady Solhart, you know how to serve, don’t you?”
The woman looked appalled but there wasn’t one face of sympathy for her. Whatever thoughts were on her mind, she kept to herself as she got up and began roughly carving the meat and putting slices on everyone else’s plates.
Lucius poured Felicia a glass of wine as Lady Solhart seated herself again. He said, “See? Living without servants isn’t an issue, so long as everyone enjoys each others company.”