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  It always bothered Mark to hear her speak so casually of killing. For though she had not come right out and said it, he knew it was what was on her mind. She had killed her own father, after all. But he wouldn’t let her see how such words disturbed him. It wouldn’t fit with the persona he’d carefully cultivated for her benefit. If she could see beneath his rough and ready facade he had little doubt she would drop him like a hot rock.

  “The kingdom should be so lucky to have you for its queen.” He trailed his fingers up her arm. “You know, you wouldn’t need Richard at all if you had a son of your own.”

  Daniella laughed. “Surely you jest. For a son I would first need a husband and I have enough dealing with Richard. I hardly need another man in my life. And a child.” She actually shivered. “My skin crawls at the thought. I raised my brother and he was enough child rearing for my lifetime. Why this talk of me having a son anyway?” She turned to face him. “Trying to get rid of me, lover?”

  “Never.” He cupped the back of her neck with his hand. Perhaps his next words would be a bit too bold, but if she took them wrong he could always play it off as a joke. “I was actually making you an offer.”

  “A bastard son?” She fingered the collar of his shirt, her expression so serious he near dare hope she might actually be considering the idea. “The High Priest might put a son of mine on the throne if Richard were to meet an untimely end, if not for Charles. My cousin is next in line for the throne before any son of mine.”

  Mark shrugged. “One measly Lord would not be so hard to get rid of.” The words slipped from his lips before he could think better of it. Something in her eyes made him wish he’d held his tongue.

  “Remember you said that.” She turned and walked out of the kennel.

  He watched her go with a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach. “As if I could forget.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Kat stood beside her horse, drinking from her canteen and trying to pretend she wasn’t watching Jesse. She shouldn’t be watching him. Didn’t want to be watching him. Six months in the Dells should have been more than enough time to get over him. Apparently, it wasn’t. Every feeling she’d thought she was past had come rushing back as if they’d never been apart. She knew he’d take her back if she said the word and couldn’t deny the temptation. But to go back would only mean setting herself up for more heartbreak. If Jesse couldn’t understand what he’d done was wrong, then they had no chance of going anywhere in a relationship.

  “I dare say this is the most barren landscape it has ever been my great misfortune to traverse,” Ethan said. “At the moment I would take even the most flea bitten of inns, provided it had water enough for a bath. I swear I smell as foul as this beast.” He glared at his horse as though it were the cause of all his misfortune.

  Kat rolled her eyes as she put the cap back on her canteen. Ethan might be of good use to them if they ran across some trouble. He might even be able to help once they reached the temple. But in the meanwhile he was making this trip twice as miserable as it would be otherwise.

  “I guess you’ll have to settle with being dirty like the rest of us,” Jesse snapped.

  “But the rest of you are accustomed to being dirty.” Ethan sniffed. “I am a spy, not a mercenary. My place is in a cozy bed with some Lord’s mistress, learning all the dirty affairs of state. Not out here under this infernal sun.”

  “Then why are you here?” Jesse asked. “You knew exactly where we would be going when Kat brought you in on this job. And it’s only going to get worse when we reach the desert. If you’re so miserable, why not go back home and spare the rest of us from having to listen to you.”

  Ethan stared coolly back at him. “For the same reason you’ve chosen to betray the wildlings. Oh, so many shiny starstones.”

  Jesse flushed, his gaze shifting briefly to Manny where it could not stay. Manny said nothing, nor did he look at any of them. Though he was standing a little ways off, it wasn’t so far away he hadn’t heard what Ethan said. He was always the silent sort, but this was different. So much so it was even starting to make Kat feel a touch of guilt.

  For as long as she’d known Jesse and Manny they’d had a relationship which at first seemed almost like master and servant. Jesse never spoke a command to the wildling, and yet the man seemed to take his every word as an order. But after having gotten the chance to know them, she’d come to realize she was wrong. Their friendship was like no friendship she’d ever seen before. It was some kind of bond she couldn’t understand, and yet it was obvious how deeply it ran. It bothered her to think she might have destroyed their bond for the sake of wealth.

  She kept trying to tell herself it really wasn’t her fault. Jesse chose to come along with her of his own free will. He didn’t have to give in to the idea of being wealthy beyond imagining. He could have said no. Such thoughts had assured Kat she’d done nothing wrong in the beginning, not so much now.

  “Do you think we’ll reach the village soon?” Kat asked, slipping her canteen back into her saddlebag.

  “I don’t know," Jesse said. “Maybe. Wildling settlements shift. Because the water went dry or the animals caught sick, or the spirits sent someone a dream. Whatever. Back at the trading post, Pander said they’d moved east. He didn’t say how far.”

  Kat frowned at his tone. Before the colossal mistake which was their short lived romantic relationship, she would have tried to talk to him about what was wrong. But back then they were friends and now they were.... Well, she wasn’t entirely sure. And it was Jesse’s fault more than hers. He was the one who made the move that took their relationship from friendship to something more and he was the one who turned something more into nothing.

  Manny turned and came back to stand beside Jesse’s horse. Still, he didn’t say anything or even look up. Jesse acted as though he didn’t notice being ignored, but Kat knew him well enough to catch the slight tightening of his jaw which proved otherwise.

  She climbed back into the saddle and settled in for what she expected to be a long ride. And she wasn’t wrong. The sun had slid far toward the western horizon before they had their first glimpse of the village.

  In her mind, Kat hadn’t known exactly what to expect after hearing Jesse say the village sometimes moved. She couldn’t really fathom how you could pick up a town, which is what she had assumed the village was, and move it. Now she understood.

  While in the Dells, she had seen some ramshackle, hobbled together homes, but nothing like this. She wasn’t certain the cluster of hide covered structures could even be properly called buildings. The entire place looked as if a strong wind could lift it up and carry it away at a moment’s notice.

  Upon arrival they were quickly surrounded by smiling faces, though no one approached. Like Manny, they were bronze skinned and wore their black hair shorn close to the skull, even the women. Their bodies bore numerous tattoos, expect for the smallest children, who were as blank as a canvas waiting to be painted.

  Everyone wore short breeches bunched at the knee, but while the men were bare chested, the women covered their upper bodies with beaded vests. Nobody wore shoes. A woman around Jesse’s age with a cobra tattooed on the left side of her face approached Jesse’s horse.

  “Hello, Jesse.” She smiled warmly at him. “Welcome home.”

  Jesse returned her smile, though his was somewhat strained. “Hello, Nika. It’s good to see you.” He swung down from the saddle and they embraced.

  Kat felt an irrational surge of jealously. It was ridiculous both because she no longer had a good reason to be jealous and because she wasn’t the least surprised the ‘she’ Jesse had referred to earlier was a girlfriend. Knowing him, he probably had more than one in the Wild Lands, if not in the village itself.

  “Manny.” Nika stepped over to her fellow wildling and squeezed his arm. “How goes your journey?”

  He shifted his gaze away from hers. “The path yet evades me.”

  “The light will find you in
time.” She looked past him at Kat and Ethan. “Jesse, you bring friends.”

  “Yes, well...” Jesse cleared his throat. “Kat and Ethan are working a job with me.”

  Kat pressed her lips together. She wanted to remind him of exactly who was working a job with who, but considering he seemed right at home here and she was a stranger she thought it better to hold her tongue.

  “A job?” Nika raised a brow. A small scar ran through it, but it added to her features rather than detracted from them. She was really rather pretty. “What kind of job brings you to the Wild Lands?”

  “I came here to talk to you about it,” Jesse said, “but it’s best we do so in private.”

  “All right.” She turned and Kat saw a second tattoo, this one on her right arm from her elbow to her shoulder. A tree of some sort. “Follow me, please. All of you. I’m happy to offer the hospitality of my home.”

  As Nika led them toward one of the larger buildings, Manny and Jesse were repeatedly greeted by the other occupants of the village in what Kat found to be a strangely deferential manner. Though she knew Jesse had spent time in the Wild Lands, she didn’t know exactly for how long and what his life had been like. His past from before he and Manny arrived in Marigold was something of a mystery to her. Jesse was not one to speak of the past and forget trying to get information from Manny. It occurred to Kat for the first time that coming to the Wild Lands might offer her some of the answers she had never been able to get from Jesse.

  Inside Nika’s home, the floor was nothing but animal hides spread out across the ground. A faintly aromatic scent, originating from a shelf lined with various bottles and boxes, filled the air. In one corner sat a small tree with purple blossoms in a pot which looked rather heavy to be in a home designed to be packed up and moved at any moment.

  “Do you like it?” Nika asked, coming to stand beside Kat. “It is called a patoku plant. It was gifted to me at my joining ceremony after I attained oneness with the earth spirit.”

  “You lost me,” Kat said. “Maybe you can explain? I’m afraid I don’t know much about wildling culture.”

  Jesse drew a sharp breath in through his teeth. “They don’t use that word here. Only outsiders call this place the Wild Lands. Its proper name is Kartesk and Nika is a Child of the Divine Light.”

  “It’s all right, Jesse,” Nika said. “I see no insult in the word from her.” She smiled at Kat. “You have a good soul.”

  “Oh. Uh. Thank you.” Kat tried to smile back. It wasn’t easy. Her father held no faith in gods or spirits or such and she had been raised the same. Spiritual people, like Nika and Manny, made her slightly uneasy. Deke had always said nothing was more dangerous than a true believer.

  “You are welcome,” Nika said. “And yes, I would be happy to explain. The joining ceremony is something one goes through once they have attained oneness with their kindred spirit. Not all my people have a kindred spirit, only those of us chosen from birth for some special purpose. Those chosen by the earth spirit, as I was, are healers. The air spirit chooses our holy ones, the fire spirit choose our war leaders, and the water spirit chooses our peace keepers.”

  “So, you have no say in any of this? No choices?” Kat asked. She couldn’t imagine having the entire course of her life dictated by the whims of some so-called spirits.

  “We want no choices,” Nika said. “It is a great honor to be chosen and to then dedicate our lives to proving our worth. This is the only way we fulfill our destiny and attain oneness.”

  “Do any of these chosen ever fail to prove their worth?”

  Nika’s smile faded. “It happens from time to time. If a soul has strayed too far from its intended path.” She flicked a glance at Manny, who was intently staring at the wall. “It’s not something we like to talk about.”

  “I know something I’d like to talk about,” Ethan interjected. “Do you people bathe here?”

  “Ethan.” Kat was truly socked by his rudeness. Usually he turned on the charm when in the presence of an attractive woman.

  “What?” Ethan asked. “Do you see this shirt?” He lifted his arm to show off the dark stains. “This shirt is made from silk imported from a country whose name I can’t even pronounce and now it’s ruined.” He dropped his arms to his sides. “If I must wear ruined clothes, then I would at least like to be clean in them.”

  Kat glared at him. “You’ll have to excuse, Ethan. He’s pretty to look at, but beyond that he doesn’t have much going for him.”

  Ethan sniffed. “I’m certain I could think of a rejoinder which would make your pitiful attempt at an insult all the more sad, if only I weren’t so filthy.” He gave Nika an imploring look. “Surely a lovely lady such as yourself bathes.”

  “I have a wooden tub,” Nika said. “I’d be happy to bring you some goat milk for a bath.”

  “I’m sorry, I must have sand in my ears,” Ethan said. “I thought you said goat milk.”

  For the first time since they started out on this journey, something close to a smile touched Jesse’s lips. “Oh you heard her fine. Water can sometimes be scarce in Kartesk so they don’t use it for something like bathing. Goat milk is more abundant and it comes out warm, so you don’t even have to heat it.”

  “Oh. Oh dear.” Ethan fanned himself with his hand. “Oh good God Above, goat milk? Someone tell me this is a jest.”

  Jesse shrugged. “It’s that or stay dirty.”

  The expression on Ethan’s face was so hilarious Kat had to press the back of her hand to her lips to suppress a laugh.

  “It’s quite pleasant,” Nika said. “And I can find you more clothes, if you like.”

  Ethan sighed. “Nothing made of silk, I don’t suppose.”

  “No. But they will be clean and comfortable.”

  “Well, then I suppose in a place like this it’s all a man can hope for.”

  “I believe this is Ethan’s way of saying thank you,” Jesse said.

  Nika nodded. “Let me go and see about the milk. Please, make yourselves at home. If you’re hungry, feel free to eat. Jesse, I assume you remember where everything is?”

  “I remember,” he said.

  Kat watched her leave, feeling again an irrational spark of jealousy. “She’s pretty. Does she know about your preference for whores, or has she yet to see that aspect of your personality?”

  Jesse gave her a flat look. “She’s my sister.”

  “Your... what?” Kat stared at him. “Your sister? So her parents were the ones who adopted you?” It was only recently she’d discovered even this much about him. For a man she had been desperately in love with, there wasn’t much she did know about him.

  He shook his head. “It’s complicated. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Why don’t you try me?” Kat wasn’t sure why she was pressing. One of the luxuries of having broken up with him was she no longer had to care about the past he’d kept so carefully hidden from her. She no longer had to try so hard to bring down his walls, or to fight the same old argument again. And yet, she still wished he would talk to her.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” Jesse knelt in front of the trunk and lifted the lid.

  Kat gritted her teeth and, not for the first time, wondered if a good thunk in the back of the head with her staff might do him some good. “Fine. Whatever. What are you looking for?”

  “Something to eat.” Jesse took a cloth wrapped bundle from the trunk and stood. “Want some?” He opened the bundle to reveal about a dozen strips of dry, dull colored meat.

  It wasn’t the best looking food Kat had ever seen, but she’d eaten worse. She took two strips and found the taste to be good, if unfamiliar.

  “What about you?” Jesse offered the meat to Ethan.

  He eyed it warily. “What sort of animal was that before someone killed it and cooked it dry?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s edible.”

  “That’s a matter of opinion.” He pulled a handkerchief out from inside his pocket a
nd sighed as dirt crumbled to the floor. “If I had known the sort of barbarous conditions under which I was going to be expected to live I might have thought harder about refusing Kat’s offer to join her on this particular job.”

  “If only I could have been so lucky,” Jesse muttered as he went to sit beside Manny. He held the meat toward the wildling without looking at him. Manny took a piece without saying a word.

  Kat rubbed the back of her neck. She wished Ethan had said no and Cole had said yes. Not only would he have been better company, but it would be nice to a have a friend around who she could trust to watch her back. Jesse had his own stuff going on in his head. He was distracted. Manny was more likely to look to him if they found themselves in trouble, no matter how angry he might be. And forget trusting Ethan. He was as apt to stab her in the back as was an enemy if there was any profit in it for him.

  “Starstones,” she whispered under her breath. “Lots of starstones.” Maybe if she kept reminding herself of the fortune awaiting her at the end of this job it wouldn’t seem like such a mistake to be there.

  Sometimes she thought she should call this entire thing off, but she never came close to saying the words. After this job was over, she could retire to a mansion on the coast. No more living under her father’s shadow. No more dealing with Jesse. No more nights sleeping out in the damp and the cold praying she didn’t end up with dysentery.

  What she had waiting for her was more than a fortune in starstones. It was a chance at a life away from the drudging, bloody work of a mercenary into which she had been born and raised. A civilized life which might even include a real home with a family of her own.