“Can I ask you something?” Maud asked.
“Of course.”
“Why do you have a copy of Twilight in your room?”
Arland became completely still. “Um.”
“Lord Marshal?” she prompted with a small smile.
“I wanted to know how women from Earth see vampires.”
“Why?”
He paused, obviously choosing his words carefully. “Your sister is a fascinating woman.”
“You don’t ever have to apologize for being attracted to my sister,” she told him. “She is amazing.”
“She is. To my shame, I must confess that it might have been more than just Lady Dina’s fine qualities. A certain rivalry may have played a role.”
“Sean Evans,” Maud guessed.
“I decided back then that I do not like werewolves,” Arland said. “I have yet to change my mind. Ghastly creatures.”
They sat together in comfortable silence while she picked at her plate. He was right. Food helped. Of course, if she relied on food to stave off her anxiety, she would soon have to get a new set of armor.
“We do not get many outsiders here,” Arland said. “Kacey, my cousin’s stepbrother’s wife, is the first human I had ever seen. As adolescents, we were all fascinated by her. She was different. When I visited the inn, I had never before met anyone like Lady Dina. Feminine, wrapped in mystery, yet firmly in control of her domain.”
“The mystique of the innkeepers,” Maud murmured.
“Yes. Sometimes meeting someone so different obscures the real person underneath. One becomes more fascinated with what a person represents than who they are.”
“Mmmm.” Where was he going with this?
His voice was intimate and sure. “What I’m trying to say is, I see you. I would love you if you were a vampire or a human, because of who you are. You don’t need an inn or a broom to fascinate me. You only have to look my way and you’ll have all of my attention.”
Something fluttered in her chest. Something left over from before Karhari and her marriage.
She tilted her head and gave him a narrow smile. “What if I were a werewolf?”
He sucked in air, pretending to think it over. “I would love you still.”
She laughed quietly and rested her head on his shoulder.
7
The door chimed.
Maud sat up on the bed, instantly awake, and for a confused moment, tried to open the door with her mind. Then reality sank in: She wasn’t back at Dina’s inn. She was in her quarters in House Krahr’s castle.
She’d dreamt of being small and weak, running for her life through the garden at her parents’ inn. Something chased her, something huge and monstrous. She tried to see what it was, but all she could remember were teeth. Enormous teeth as tall as Helen.
The door chimed again.
Maud shook her head, trying to clear the last shreds of the nightmare from her mind. Yesterday she’d stayed in Arland’s room way too long. They’d ended up talking about the space station long after Helen had fallen asleep.
“Time?” she asked as she pulled on soft sweatpants.
Glowing red numbers ignited on the wall above the fireplace. 9:30. Daesyn had a thirty-hour cycle, each hour being fifty minutes, each minute fifty moments. It was early. In Earth time, around 6:30 am.
The door chimed once again.
“Open.”
The door slid aside, and Karat swept in wearing black armor. Not her best military set, either. When a military set suffered damage, it was often repaired while in battle or shortly after. Fixing syn-armor required a quiet environment, a lot of time, and a steady hand. Under battle conditions all three were frequently in short supply, which was why war armor showed scars and imperfections. The black set Karat wore now looked like it had just come from a nanite forge. Whatever damage it had suffered had been mended without a trace.
Karat dropped into the nearest chair. “How was my cousin?”
Maud blinked at her.
“You spent most of the night in his rooms.”
“You’re spying on me.”
“Of course we’re spying on you. We know you went back to your room with Helen. We also know that the current usage in his room was elevated until well after midnight, which is atypical of him, so we deduced that you dropped off your child and returned via the private passageway. I trust everything went well?”
Vampire cousins. “The armor stayed on.”
“What? Why?”
“We’re not to that stage of the relationship.”
Karat stared at her. “Have you ever?”
“No.”
“That’s absurd. How do you know you’re compatible? How could he ask you to marry him without first verifying this?”
“You would have to ask him,” Maud growled.
“What were you doing all that time in his rooms?”
“Helen watched a movie. We talked. It was sweet.”
“So, you took the child with you…Wait.” Karat paused. “Did you just say my cousin was sweet? Arland Krahr? The Bloodmace? The Bone Crusher? The Ravager of Nexus? That Arland?”
“Yes. He was sweet and there was no ravaging.” The way he looked at her last night gave her no doubt he wanted to. She wanted to as well, but something held her back. She was like a bridled horse. Every time she thought about it, something tugged on the reins and made her stop.
Karat leaned back and laughed. “That is so not like him. Poor, poor Arland. So far gone.”
Maud sighed. “The problem isn’t your cousin. The problem is me. He’s giving me time.”
Karat sobered up. “Yes, of course.”
“Is there a point in you coming here and waking me up?”
“Yes.” All mirth drained from Karat’s face. “Lady Ilemina requests your presence at the Ladies’ Communal this morning.”
Figured. Maud squared her shoulders. She knew it was coming and here it was. There was no escape.
“Do you have practice armor?” Karat asked.
“I’ll wear my usual set.”
“Probably for the best. You’ll need it. You have about twenty minutes to get ready. We’ll need to collect Helen as well. She has labor duty.”
“We’ll get dressed,” Maud said.
“Here we go.” Karat stopped by the doorway to a large chamber. The older sentinel who’d brought Helen to the feast hall waited in the doorway. Beyond the doorway children played on floor.
The sentinel’s blue eyes sparkled slightly with hidden humor. “Lady Helen.”
Lady Helen squared her tiny shoulders. “I’m here for repercussions.”
“Indeed.” The older vampire produced a small brush and a tube filled with blue gel. “You will squeeze some gel on the floor and scrub it with your brush until all the dirt is removed. You will clean ten stone squares of the floor. You will remain here until your task is complete.”
Helen took the little brush and the tube, held her head high, and went inside.
Behind her Maud saw another figure on the floor with an identical brush, his left arm in a plasticast. Vampire justice knew no mercy.
“She will be fine,” Karat told her. “Come.”
They strode ten yards down the hallway to the large wide-open doors. Beyond the doors lay a lawn of turquoise grass flooded with golden sunshine and bordered by ornamental trees. A three-foot stone wall encircled the lawn, clearly part of a parapet. Beyond the wall, across the stretch of empty air, towers and castle walls rose. They were on top of a mid-level tower.
Vampire women sparred on the grass with practice weapons. Several others watched the sparring. To the side a table stood with refreshments. A typical Ladies’ Communal. They would beat up on each other for an hour or so, then drink and gossip. Maud had quite enjoyed Communals before she became a pariah. Once she had proven herself, they were a nice way to catch up with everyone. Today wouldn’t be pleasant. Today they would throw her to the dogs, expecting her to cringe and submit. It was a test, one she had to pass.
Tradition dictated that both genders stayed away from each other’s Communals. She was on her own.
Karat stopped by the rack of practice weapons.
“We’re going to do this nice and easy,” she said under her breath. “You and I will spar, then we will drink some fruity drinks and go back. Don’t worry.”
They really didn’t think much of her.
Maud tried the first sword. Too heavy. Too long. Too short. Weighted wrong. The polymer weapons resembled their counterparts down to every minute detail, but they couldn’t cut armor. The main danger lay in being bashed with one. A skilled thrust could also cause internal injury despite the armor.
Strikes with practice weapons did leave a red mark, which would fade with time or cleaning. It was an easy way to keep score and many Communals resulted in a long examination of red marks and whether or not the wound would be fatal if a live weapon had been used. The edges of the practice swords weren’t exactly sharp, but you could draw blood with one. She’d done it before, just three days ago, when Arland and she had sparred aboard his destroyer. The Marshal had been fascinated with the concept of the buckler and they had spent a good three hours slicing at each other.
There. She found a blade similar to her own. Karat selected a longer, heavier sword, then eyed Maud’s choice and went for a shorter blade. Really, now.
Karat strolled to a spot in the grass and hefted her blade. “Don’t worry.”
Maud positioned herself. “I don’t see any vampires from the other Houses here.”
“This is a Krahr affair.”
“I feel so flattered to be invited.”
Karat swung her blade and took a deliberately slow lunge.
Maud looked at her. “I’m not going to dignify that with a parry.”
Karat straightened and hissed, “I’m trying to help you.”
A red-haired vampire marched toward them, green eyes blazing.
“There is a vampire walking toward us and she looks like she’s about to run us over.”