In The Beginning, Gail Daley [red white royal blue .TXT] 📗

"Yes, thank you," he responded, wondering what relation she was to Lewys. She looked too young to be his wife.

"We are quite informal here, Sire. With so many unexpected guests, our servants are being run off their feet; In order to spare them we have set out a buffet. Please serve yourself and join us at the table." She indicated the buffet and the long table set out where several members of what he took to be the Dracon's relatives and retainers were already seated. Although they turned to watch him, they didn't rise.

Drake Tobari hastily came forward. "Allow me, Sire."

The Shahen was hungry, and the food smelled delicious, so he decided to overlook the affront to his dignity. "Thank you, Drake," he said.

At the table, he found himself seated across from a young girl bearing a marked resemblance to Draconi Rebecca. He generally got on well with children, and he had found they often let information drop in their artless conversation, so he smiled at her. "Hello, who might you be?"

"I am Draya Selene," she replied. "Are you the Shahen?"

"Yes, I am." He gave her a confiding smile. "I'm afraid I don't know who everyone is. Perhaps you could enlighten me?"

"You met my sister, Draconi Rebecca. Her husband, Drake Andre is sitting beside her." The dark man next to Rebecca had all the earmarks of a Merc. He looked up and met the Shahen's eyes coolly, with no sign of deference.

She gestured to the two children sitting beside her, a thin pale-haired girl and a tall, lanky boy. "These are my friends Issa Mathias and Teryl Rivers. My sister Catrin is our healer, you met her when she tended your bruises; she is still down in the infirmary. Sitting across from Andre are Kenwyn Hyrele and his wife Shynian Genor. Shynian is one of the healers, but Catrin sent her to rest because she is carrying a baby, and we don't want her to die like Mikel's mother did. Is there anyone else you don't know?"

"Thank you, you've been helpful. You said Mikel's mother had died. I'm sorry to hear that. Was it recent?"

Selene nodded. "It happened right after Logan brought her here."

"Do pregnant ladies often die in childbirth here?" he asked.

"Catrin said it was because her womb had been torn up when the Proctor's raped her so many times, and it couldn't take the—the strain of the birthing."

The Shahen was startled. The child spoke casually of the Proctor's raping a woman as if it were a common practice. "How do you know she was raped?" he asked.

Selene shrugged. "It's what they do. It's how they make more Magi. It happened to Shynian too, but Kenwyn and Logan rescued her. When Torrigan had me, he tried it, but I bit him and I kicked him and I ran away. That's when Rebecca and Andre found me."

"How did this Torrigan come to have you?"

"I was still inside my mother when the Proctors took her. When I was born, she paid a servant to smuggle me out of the Proctor's compound. She raised me, but she died. When she did, the people we stayed with turned me in to Torrigan. He beat me and would have raped me too, but I got away. It was raining and dark and cold when Rebecca and Andre found me. My family had been looking for me for years," she added with a lift of her chin.

"And who is your mother?" he asked.

"My mother was Kathlea. My father was Maxton. He was a Merc like Andre. The Proctor's guards wounded him when they took her. He searched and searched. When he found her, they got trapped on top of the cliffs over the compound. They died when they jumped off into to water."

"How do you know this? You wouldn't have been born," he protested.

"Rebecca was ten when they came for Mama. She saw it. Later one of the women we helped told Grandfather and Grandmother the story about what happened inside the Proctor compound."

The child had certainly given the Shahen a lot to think about. He ate his dinner in silence, wondering when the pressure to talk about a treaty would start.

After dinner, the family retired to the library, joined by the Shahen and his nobles. The room had a well used look. The three children set up a complicated board game. Shynian put her feet into Kenwyn's lap so he could rub them. Rebecca, Andre and Lewys seated themselves at a table at the far end of the room, holding a low-voiced conversation. The Shahan was a little miffed; he wasn't used to being ignored.

He walked over to Lewys and his family, but none of them rose at his approach. "May I join you?" he asked.

"Of course, Sire," Lewys answered.

Rupert studied the three thoughtfully. Rebecca sat with her hands folded on the table, watching him warily. Andre had draped a casual arm across the back of her chair, absently rubbing her shoulder. When the Shahen glanced at him, he encountered a cool, assessing stare.

"It was you I take it who designed the defenses used against me?" he asked Andre.

"I had help," Andre replied, "but yes, I carried them out."

"Dracon, do you speak for the unregistered Magi of Askela?"

"I have been empowered to speak for the Magi Cadre on the matter of creating an agreement to curb the Proctors," Lewys agreed. He shrugged. "Not all unregistered Magi are members, some of them are too distrustful of any group to join us, but the majority of us are agreed certain laws concerning Magi need to be changed or removed."

The Shahen regarded him silently for a moment. At last he said, "I have heard things concerning the behavior of my Proctors today I don't like," he admitted, "but I can't simply disband them. Some form of organized magical defense is necessary for the security of Askela. I am convinced ordering the Proctors to disband will only lead them