A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith

Author:Sherwood Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: magic, princess, rhis, ya
Publisher: Sherwood Smith

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Gone?” Rhis repeated. “Jarvas? And Iardith?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes,” Taniva said, jerking her chin up and down each time.

“Gone.” Rhis drew in a breath. “I’m sorry, but I’m very wet, and cold, and I think I’m dizzy.”

She plumped down onto a hassock.

Taniva scowled at the door leading to Shera’s rooms, which had opened. Shera’s maid whisked back and forth inside the room. How much had she heard? Taniva strode over in two long steps and slammed the door, then she stood with her back to it.

“If I am home, I know what to do. I ride and bring her back. But here, I do not know what to do. If I go to Lios, will I start trouble? Rhis! You always know what to say, I see this in the few days we are here. So I ask you. What shall we do?”

Shera let out a long sigh. “If the King of Arpalon finds out, he’ll have a perfect excuse for war. Not that that is our affair.”

“Is. Mine. War against Damatras will mean Arpalon’s army marches through my lands,” Taniva stated. “I do not care who wants what. When armies march, their trail leaves broken land. Especially if Damatras tries to meet them outside his border, as any smart king will do. It will be in High Plains he does it.”

“Jarvas’s father is smart,” Shera added in a sour voice. “At least, when it comes to fighting. Anything else is arguable, from what I overheard at my mother’s court.”

Taniva gave her a look of mild appraisal. “You speak right, you.”

Before she could go on someone new banged on the door.

“Reez! Reez!”

“That’s Yuzhyu,” Rhis said, looking at the other two. They just stared back at her, so she went to the door herself. “Yes?”

“I must see you. Trouble! Zat pest from Arpalon—”

Rhis opened the door.

Yuzhyu almost tumbled in, her frizzy blond hair wild. “Ah!” She pointed at Taniva. “I am in stable. I want to ride. Before ze boomer-in-sky. I hear him. He see me once. I zink. He zink I not . . . om! Um! Conceive? Follow?”

“Understand?”

Yuzhyu nodded in relief. “Jarvas zink I not understand so much. But I do. I know he want zat princess. Iss angry wid my—my cousin . . .” Yuzhyu looked away, and Rhis knew she was referring to Iardith’s determined courtship of the false Lios.

Before Rhis could draw another breath, Yuzhyu pulled from her clothing not one but two long, wicked looking knives. For a moment she held them along her forearm, blades out, then with a complicated whirl she flipped the knives up, caught their handles, and held them points out.

Taniva whistled, her approval unmistakable.

“He like trouble,” Yuzhyu said. “Make trouble for my cousin.” She moved her hands in a quick blur, and the blades vanished in her clothing again. “I zee you come here. I sit and zink. Do I tell my cousin? Or do I follow Jarvas, make him come back wiss princess? No, I first zee why you are here.

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