Chapter 5 SWORDPOINT DIPLOMACY

CHAPTER 5

She swept in, trusting that he would be at her heels. She gestured at a chair across the table as she sat.

He sat without any hesitation, as if it was normal for him to be in a princess's personal tent.

Her lips quirked up. "I'd offer refreshments, but it's hardly tea time."

"As you say, princess." He looked directly at her, with no apparent interest in the surroundings. The cheekiness was gone from his expression. He looked as blank and professional as he had when he'd been waiting for Harrod to acknowledge him.

The smile slid off of Rose's face.

'Maybe I was too much of a bitch out there.'

"I apologize," she said abruptly. That did startle her guest. "You may speak freely." She paused, remembering that there did need to be a level of respect. "Relatively freely," she amended. "If you wound my delicate feelings I will do unspeakable things."

He took a moment to respond. When he did, it was a murmur. "I shall keep my medium levels of freedom in mind."

"And you are?" She leaned back, toying with her hair. "I'm afraid I've been thinking of you in reference to your hair color."

He snorted. "Kian."

"Kian of…?" She raised her brows.

He looked chagrined. "Of no one of importance, and you know where I'm from."

"Can't be that unimportant," Rose said shrewdly. "No one wastes court training on carrot farmers' sons, and Harrod was petty to you."

Kian hesitated. "My Father fell out of favor when I was about 12," he admitted steadily.

Rose looked him over. She pursed her lips and made a guess at his age, based off of his face and how old she knew Harrod's heir was. Then she lined it up with the big political change she vaguely remembered from her childhood. "14 years ago," she guessed. He suppressed a flinch, truly uncomfortable for the first time. Rose tilted her head and honed in on the weak spot. "We're in your father's homeland, then. Did he die or go back?"

Kian might have been suppressing dislike of her when he gritted out, "He's dead."

She hummed. "I'm sorry for your loss, then. Was Harrod threatened by you from the start, or did that happen recently?"

He blinked at her.

Rose scoffed. "Come on," she dismissed. She tapped her leg impatiently. "He's proud as anything, but he's normally polite. The way he acted when you brought that message was childish and habitual."

Slowly, a faint smile crossed Kian's face. "My Lord is ever the image of graciousness," he lied.

'Either he's insulting my intelligence, or he worries the guards will report back to Harrod if he speaks ill.'

She ruffled her own hair, wondering if she should retie it before she went out. The braids were very loose now. "Right," she said dryly. "Glad to hear it. Well. How pressing are your duties supervising the pages?"

He blinked at the conversational whiplash and then rallied. "Easily reassigned to someone else," Kian admitted. His brow furrowed. "Am I being sent away?"

Rose tapped the table again, remembering that he'd been the first person to react and reach her that night. "No," she said thoughtfully. "I want you to accompany me on an errand."

There wasn't really an option for him to say no. But as far as she could tell, he wasn't particularly opposed.

She had a messenger sent to tell Celestin that she was leaving the camp temporarily. They left immediately after.

Not because she was running, of course. She wasn't a child that he could scold. But Rose didn't want to deal with second-guessing. Eventually, things might come to a head. Until then, it was in her best interest to avoid conflict with her commanders.

Kian was quiet while she got ready, composed her message, and led them out of the camp. He only spoke once they were out where no one could possibly hear.

"This is where that archer was," Kian observed. His voice was very quiet. "I heard that his track was lost."

Rose glanced at him. "I'm not satisfied," she confessed. They followed the known track and passed under the cool shadow of the forest. "Unless there's a regiment hiding in here, there's a tunnel out from the city." She frowned. "I'm not suggesting that the two of us go in and fight the city, mind."

"We'd need at least two more people to capture it," Kian agreed mildly. He broke a stick underfoot and scowled at his boot in betrayal.

She huffed out a laugh. "I just want to know where he's coming from."

"He's?" Kian asked a little sharply. He hopped from one stone to another, trying not to contaminate the trail. "Surely it's not been one man again and again."

'I can't prove it yet.'

Rose glanced at him. She pressed her lips together and went back to scanning the forest floor.

"That could explain why the pattern changed from one intruder to a group that next night," Kian mused. "They were trying to conceal the tactic had always been one operative. But you shot him." He eyed Rose. "Royal archers don't miss, and there was blood."

'He's chatty, isn't he? I wouldn't have guessed it.'

"We don't miss," Rose confirmed calmly. She ducked under a branch and then frowned. She took a step back and tried to see where she'd gone off the path.

An image came to her mind. The failed assassin in her tent had been taller than her. If he'd walked in the forest, he probably wouldn't be going under branches that she had to duck under.

'Oo, my fiance is tall,' Rose realized absently for the first time, still squinting at the mass of tree roots and moss. 'If we live, we'll look so good together.'

It wasn't really the point, but it made her laugh a little internally.

'I'm seeing nothing. How is that possible? Maybe someone could jump from only stones and roots without disturbing them or damaging any bark. But while carrying someone wounded? Who could pull that off?'

"But you think that particular person is still alive." Kian kept his voice deliberately inflectionless. "Can I ask why?"

She bit the inside of her cheek for a moment. Should she explain? She was on the fence. It wouldn't hurt anything. And without her brother, she was short on confidants.

With a sigh, Rose decided. "Since you asked so nicely," she started, adding a drawl. "I'm starting to think my frame of reference is skewed. I knew that the average and the elite are different, of course. But judging based off of my peers and the soldiers I see in action, the person I fought in my tent is much more like me than like the men I killed the day after I shot our guest." She could feel a rather unpleasant smile stretch across her face. "Any wound that I could walk away from wouldn't kill me, if I got medical care relatively soon. Since we didn't find a corpse and he left on his own power, I choose to assume he's recovering and will visit again."

"In this theory, there was only ever one archer," Kian mused. "And there was only one saboteur? You think one person killed everyone in that rest tent?"

Rose shrugged. "Yes," she said, feeling judged. "I think so." She sighed and changed the subject. "Do you have any ideas or insights?" She gestured at the forest floor. "I can't see any path from here. Maybe we can approach it backwards. Where would a tunnel come out? How could an entrance be concealed?"

She saw a muscle clench in Kian's neck, even in the gloom of the forest. He took a controlled breath. "I couldn't say," he said evenly. "I don't have any knowledge of the area or insight into how locals think because of my ancestry. I apologize."

She frowned. "That's not what I'm asking," Rose said impatiently. "I'm asking for logic. I keep thinking that a cliff face would be a good way to hide an entrance, but that's too far away for saboteurs to be exiting from nightly and also reach our camp. How else would one secure a tunnel?"

"Oh." He let out a surprised huff of air. Something vulnerable came over his face and was just as quickly clamped down on. "I… I'll think. I suppose it could be covered with wood, like a well cover, and then with brush or other debris to conceal it."

"That would require someone staying on the outside to hide it after people go back," Rose pointed out with a frown. "Not impossible, but we've seen no signs of habitation."

They walked around until it threatened to get dark, but didn't find anything useful. They went back to camp in a silence that was heavy.

'Of course,' Rose thought, working hard not to scowl at the messenger waiting for her at the edge of camp. The woman looked pale, so she probably wasn't hiding her mood well. 'I suppose that will be a summons asking for a meeting to discuss what I did today.'

She very nearly waved her hand to dismiss the waiting messenger, but that wasn't fair. "Yes?" She asked curtly.

The other woman ducked her head and curtsied.

It took iron willpower not to roll her eyes. They were not at court. If she had to show respect, a salute or even a bow would be less silly.

"Lord Harrod sends word that communication has arrived for you." She didn't look up. "He will be waiting in the command center."

'Did it go directly to him again, or did he only receive it because I was gone?'

"Thank you," Rose bit out. "If that's all, you may go."

She curtsied again and then scarpered off.

Rose did roll her eyes this time and picked up her pace. "Alright," she said under her breath. "Let's get this over with."

"Shall I accompany you?" Kian asked. By now, she knew his voice well enough to realize he'd switched back into a bland, passive register that must have been his modus operandi for dealing with authority.

She thought it over for a moment.

'I don't need him, strictly speaking. I wonder how Harrod would react, though. I'd like to see. But Kian is financially and socially reliant on Harrod…'

"I have a slight preference for your attendance," Rose decided. "But if it will cause discord for you with Lord Harrod, you may return to your duties."

She didn't actually need to get him in trouble for her power games with old men. He could weigh the consequences better than she could.  

They walked in silence for nearly a minute before Kian spoke up. "I will accompany you, of course."

"Lovely."

…She felt more pleased by him agreeing to come with than she expected to feel.

'Well. I am extremely vexed by Harrod. And if he's placed his son as my squire, he's probably actively spying on me. Implying I have a source of inside information will make him nervous, if he is hiding things from me. I didn't like the way Kian lied in my tent. I wonder if one or more of my personal guards are from Harrod's troops.'

Celestin and Harrod bowed when she walked in. "Princess," Celestin murmured.

She gave them both a nod. "Good evening, gentlemen. I hear there's news?"

Celestin proffered a thin stack of envelopes. "Thank you," she said on autopilot. Her heart skipped a beat at the handwriting she recognized. Eagerly she pulled her letter opener off of her belt. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an odd look float over Harrod's face when he saw the man standing quietly behind her shoulder. She shifted her weight the slightest bit closer to Kian.

"How go preparations for knocking on the gate?" Rose asked, only half focused on the people in the tent.

She opened the letter from her brother first, ripping the envelope neatly with her knife. The missive inside was short. She read it twice and didn't let the expression on her face change.

The probable losses on our side are higher than with our original plan. I'm not comfortable with this. Can you come and speak with me? You could see our progress.

Well, she thought. It could have been worse. Still, she felt a little disappointed.

"We're making good progress on the explosives", Harrod said levelly. "I still believe that they will not bring down the gate alone."

She nodded at him and then cut open the next letter. "Send some of yours off to cut down trees for battering rams." She made a face. "It's unfortunate that they'll be able to see our preparations from inside the walls, but there's no way around that." Her attention was split as she began reading.

My darling girl, it began. The letter had been passed on unopened, without a name on the outside. She wondered how her aunt had managed that. The contents were carefully vague. …Aunt Aime was trying to evade spies or censors.

Harrod bowed. "As you say," he said gravely. "I think it would be too much to ask that we surprise them with the information that we want inside."

Rose smirked. But at least she didn't laugh. "We need to speak terms with them again. An envoy should go to the gates tomorrow."

The winter here is more unforgiving than you've experienced. The campaign season will be short. I will go ahead to the capital. Your cousin will visit that coastal city.

There was more, but those sentences were the ones that Rose focused on.

Something burned in her chest, where her heartbeat became a little stronger. She wanted to clear out the fortresses at Aunt Aime's back. If she was going directly to the capital, she'd be in danger of getting attacked from the rear.

'I want to finish up here, fast.'

The war drums in her chest didn't let up when she opened the last letter. It was the first one her Father had sent since she came out to the war front.

It was addressed to both her and her brother. He wished them luck, he said he was expecting good news from then soon, he told them that their little sister missed them and was looking forward to showing them a recital proving how well she'd memorized the family tree.

She folded all three letters up carefully and put them all in the one unmarked envelope.

"I'm going to go visit my brother tonight," Rose decided. "I like the idea of traveling when our watchers can't see."

"They don't seem to realize yet that we split off," Celestin agreed. "Will you be taking this one with you, then?" He nodded at Kian.

Hmm. "I don't know yet," Rose said lightly. "I already dragged him into the forest today."

"And what did you find?" Celestin rumbled. His eyes were hard. She was rather glad that she wasn't the one he was directing that look at.

'Not sure Kian deserves that.'

"What I expected to find," Rose sidestepped. "Just not what I hoped to find." She thought about the logistics of recalling in the dark and frowned. Carrying a torch would negate the benefit of traveling at night.  "If he's up for a 4 hour walk in the dark, yes, Kian will accompany me." She glanced at him. "How's your night vision?"

She was genuinely curious. He seemed to be a step above the average. Kian bowed at the direct address, form perfectly correct. He opened his mouth.

Before he could speak, Harrod cut in. "He would be honored." She could see that he was narrowing his eyes slightly at his ward. "I'm glad that you are content with the quality of soldiers we produce."

'I've seen literally one I noted as competent, and you don't even like him.'

"It does you credit," Rose said blandly. No point in insulting him outright. "Change the guard rotation and patrol pattern to what we discussed yesterday, now that it's gone dark. If anything happens when I'm gone, Celestin has command."