Mickey Reichert - Flight of the Renshai

Tae ignored the animal to call down to the maid again. "You don't need to protect me, you know." His toes wedged into comfortable ledges in the mortar, and his fingers looped around irregularities in the stone.

Alneezah continued spreading blankets as if Tae had never interrupted. "Who said anything about protecting you,Your Majesty? You have two competent guard forces for that."

It was true. In addition to the main army, his father commanded an elite group of men. Organized criminals, they penetrated every area of the world with ease and acted on information with a swift efficiency the guards would not dare to emulate. Though no one other than Tae knew it, Imorelda acted as a third line of defense. Only four other people in the world would even believe he could communicate with a cat. Queen Matrinka had had a similar relationship with Imorelda's mother, Mior, and only Darris, Kevral, and Ra-khir knew about it. All three of them, as well as Tae, had needed serious convincing despite trusting Matrinka implicitly. Eventually, Tae's uncanny knack for languages had allowed him to communicate with Mior also and, later, with the kitten she had gifted to him. Few humans seemed able to resist Imorelda's charm, and they all spoke openly in her presence. *She's cagey and cheeky. Qualities I adore.* *Then you marry her.* Tae shifted fingers that had begun to cramp.*Most humans look upon those as character flaws, not qualities.* *Most humans wouldn't know quality if it scratched their eyes out and batted them around the floor.* *An interesting turn of phrase.*

Imorelda sat on the window seat and licked one gray paw.*Yes, isn't it? I made it up myself.* *I would never have guessed.*

Imorelda stopped her bath suddenly, and her head disappeared from the window.*Subikahn's here.* Her face returned, her little black nose crinkled.*And that yellow-furred one who always smells like metal and oil.*

By "yellow," Tae knew she meant blond. She always identified humans by the color of their hair, which she interchangeably referred to as "manes" or "fur."*You mean the Renshai.Talamir?* *Yes, that one.They're looking for you.*

Tae skittered back up the wall to the window ledge.

Imorelda yawned and stretched before moseying out of Tae's way and allowing him to duck inside.

"Ah, there you are, Papa." Subikahn showed no surprise at finding the king of Stalmize dangling out of a tower window. His thin black hair was disheveled, like his father's always was, his cheeks still pinkish from exertion. His olive skin always seemed darker in the presence of his pale Renshai torke. Subikahn's lips held a smile that seemed permanently glued there, while the Renshai looked more nervous than excited. He shifted from foot to foot, his hands hovering above his swords. He would not touch a weapon in the king's presence, but he seemed incapable of putting his hands calmly at his sides.

Tae spun toward them on the window seat, preparing to dismount; but Imorelda stomped into his lap before he could drop his feet to the floor. Effectively trapped, he sat. "Hello, Subikahn." He nodded toward the other Renshai, "Talamir."

"Your Majesty," Talamir executed an awkward bow. "Thank you for seeing us without notice."

It seemed a strange statement. Tae had never denied either of them audience, any time or anywhere, in the past. "Well, I could hardly have declined, could I? I simply entered the room, and there you were."

Talamir bowed several more times. "I'm sorry, Sire. Were we disturbing you, Sire? We can come back later, S-"

Subikahn seized his teacher's arm. "He's kidding, Tally." He turned Tae a pleading look. "Papa, tell him you're kidding."

"I'm kidding," Tae admitted, petting the cat hand over hand, until tiny hairs danced through the sunlight. She had a circular pattern of black stripes against a grizzly silver-gray and only one spot of white, at the very tip of her tail. "What can I do for the two of you?"

Subikahn looked like he might burst. "Talamir says I'll definitely pass my testing. When I return from the Fields of Wrath next time, I'll be a man!"

A wave of excitement passed through Tae, and he could not help grinning. The testing of the Renshai meant little to him, but it would make his son, and Kevral, happy. Nothing else mattered. "That's great news! On your return, we'll have to celebrate." A strange idea came to him suddenly. His advisers had bothered him for years about hosting a dance or massive party, a way to interact with lesser royalty and get to know them better. He was already popular with the peasantry, who saw the king as one of them. He often came across as shockingly down to earth. He kept their taxes low and allowed those with more experience and intelligence to make judgments and preside over his court.

The nobility, however, remained suspicious of the family who appeared to have no history before wresting power from the previous king of Stalmize, even nearly twenty years later. Tae suspected his advisers also hoped he would finally find a queen when he became lost in the romanticism of the event. "Perhaps a ball? We've never had one of those before."

Subikahn's smile seemed to encompass his entire face. "Thanks, Papa. That would be wonderful." He turned an adoring look upon his swordmaster.

Talamir remained stonily silent.

Imorelda butted Tae's hand with her head, and he scratched around her cheeks and ears. He could not imagine a more perfect moment: his only son deliriously happy and his cat purring mightily in his lap.

"Papa, there's more."

Still grinning, Tae inclined his head toward Subikahn to encourage him to continue.

Talamir closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"Papa," Subikahn blurted, his words nearly tumbling over one another. "I'm in love."

Though he did not stop grinning, Tae sucked in the sides of his mouth. Amused by the admission, he continued to stroke the cat. He had waited a long time for his son's first crush, glad the boy trusted him enough to share it. "Really? Who is she?"

"I've fallen for a Renshai, Papa. Just like you."

Just like me. Tae's grin wilted, and he shrugged. "I wouldn't wish my love life on anyone, Subikahn. Especially you." So it happened on Kevral's watch. He wondered why she had not mentioned it, or if she had been too busy training to even notice. Her intense and one-sided devotion to sword work might make her oblivious, even to her son's distraction. He wondered if she truly loved her children as much as her swords, her husband as much as her devotion to the Renshai techniques that made them the best swordsmen in the world.

Tae found himself shivering, filled with a sense of foreboding, and wondered why. It would fall to his long-suffering and able advisers to get the populace to accept a Renshai princess. If Subikahn had waited this long to mention her, he could not miss her too much, which meant their relationship could not have gotten serious yet.

Subikahn's excitement, however, told a different story. It was fresh and strong, beyond the level of a budding crush. In his excitement, he seized his torke's hand.

"So," Tae continued carefully. "When do I get to meet her?"

Subikahn laughed with the wild abandon of someone so madly in love it springs forth from every pore. Though playful at times, the young prince rarely became so giddy he could not contain himself. This time, the words practically spilled from his mouth. "You know my lover, Papa. Very well. It's…" He squeezed his teacher's hand. "It's Talamir."

Few things could have surprised Tae more. He sat in stunned silence, his hand stilling on the cat, his expression exposed. Unbidden thoughts jolted into his mind, among them the dire realization that his son had just blithely confessed to a capital crime.

For several moments, no one moved or spoke. Then, cautiously, Talamir freed his hand from Subikahn's, apparently anticipating a fight. Any difficult situation sent a Renshai to his sword.