Royal Outlaw: (Royal Outlaw, Book 1) (16 page)

The priestess listened to the girls one by one, correcting them or praising them depending on how good their accents were. Mariel felt uncomfortable waiting for her turn. Cara looked at her with beseeching eyes, begging her to be nice to the poor priestess she terrorized. But by behaving, Mariel felt she would be holding up the white flag of surrender. Or would she be? Trapped at the convent, Mariel had no influence on the way the kingdom was run or what noblewomen were taught. She may still be trying to find a way out of being princess, but that did not mean she could not make a few changes. Cara and James were right, misbehaving at the convent was doing no one any good, even Mariel was miserable.

“No, Miss Cara,” Priestess Penelope corrected, “Drop the jaw more and push out the words. And ‘
aver
’ is the past tenst, while ‘
avest
’ is the present tense.’”

Cara nodded and tried again before the priestess turned toward Mariel.

The teacher cringed. “Why do I even bother? Let us get this over with quickly. Please say, ‘It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.’”

Mariel remained silent, torn. She glanced at Cara whose large brown eyes pleaded with her. At last, just as the priestess was about to move to the next girl without a response from the unruly pupil, Mariel surrendered everything and took a risk, hoping this would work in the end: “
Lor ve ak mjorl tec avest quarn shodefnim, Zifmer
Penelope.” She spoke the correct words heavily, placing emphasis where any native Dremien speaker would.

When Priestess Penelope remained frozen in shock, Mariel felt guilty. She had been cruel, treating the priestesses with disrespect. Without meaning to, she had behaved like the worst aristocrat, pouting and acting atrociously when she did not get her way.

“
I am sorry for being impertinent
,” she said in Dremien. “
It was uncalled for. You have never done anything to harm me.
”

“Your Dremien is flawless,” the priestess gasped in amazement, too stunned to make any other comment.

A deepening hue of shame crept across Mariel’s face. “I speak seven languages fluently, including Natrician.”

Priestess Penelope mouthed the number in wonder. To prove her point, Mariel recited the priestess’s phrase, “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” in all seven languages.

The priestess moved suddenly. She grabbed Mariel’s arm and dragged her out of the room. Mariel said nothing as Priestess Penelope hauled her down the hall and into High Priestess’s office.

High Priestess looked up in surprise at the interruption, but before she could ask what the disobedient princess had done now, Priestess Penelope cried, “She speaks seven languages fluently! And they were not nonsense words either. I recognized three of the languages and she spoke them flawlessly, as though she has been speaking them her whole life!”

It took a moment for High Priestess to comprehend what the ecstatic priestess said. “Who taught you to speak all those languages?”

Mariel decided on a course of truth, she had done enough damage at this convent. “The friends who helped raise me, but I picked up on the accents when I traveled through the kingdoms that spoke the languages.”

For the first time since Mariel had known her, High Priestess was shocked speechless.

Over the following days, Mariel was on her best behavior. The priestesses remained tense, as though waiting for Mariel to play one of her nasty tricks, but she remained quiet and did as she was told. Her anger toward her grandparents had not lessened, but she kept it in check and no longer lashed out at everyone around her. Not being ruled by anger caused Mariel’s swordplay to improve significantly and she even joked with James.

Three days after Mariel’s attitude shifted, she changed into her dark shift and grabbed the torn and dirty uniform she used during her morning exercises. As she picked up her sword, Cara sat up in bed and said, “Please, take me with you.”

Mariel started in surprise and stubbed her toe. She cursed as pain shot up her foot.

“Sorry,” Cara whispered.

“You don’t even know where I’m going.” Mariel dropped her bundle and massaged her aching toe.

“To practice with your sword. I want to learn how to fight. Please teach me.” Her large brown eyes reminded Mariel of a puppy begging for scraps of food.

She raised her eyebrow. “Fighting is not a proper skill for noblewomen to know.”

A fire lit in Cara’s eyes. “Just because I’m a noblewoman doesn’t mean I’m weak or that I should be forced to rely on men to protect me. I want to be able to defend myself.”

Mariel’s heart soared. She wanted to grab Cara and dance with her around the room. Cara had stood up for herself, and what was more, she was not willing to sit around and be dictated how to behave properly.

“Okay.”

“What?”

“I thought you wanted to learn to fight?” Mariel could barely keep the grin off her face.

“I do!” Cara hurried to reassure her. “But just like that, all I had to do was ask?”

Mariel nodded, and a sudden thought occurred to her, one that made her even happier, but would probably annoy James. “There’s one condition.”

Cara looked wary. “What is it?”

Smart girl
, Mariel thought,
she knows not to agree to a deal before she understands all that it involves.

Mariel picked up her corset and tossed it at Cara who fumbled the catch. “You have to help me dress.”

Cara smiled and quickly complied with the request. After Mariel helped Cara into her clothes they climbed out the window. To Mariel’s surprise, Cara scurried down the tree like a squirrel. Seeing Mariel’s expression, Cara explained that she loved climbing trees and used to do it back home, especially to escape lessons with the governess she had as a child.

The waiting white unicorn stood out brilliantly against the shadows of the forest, despite the predawn light. James was not in sight, but Mariel assumed he was there because she was running late. Iyela turned her eyes on Cara and left. Mariel’s unicorn friend knew that around most humans she needed to act like an ordinary horse to keep from arousing suspicion.

As Mariel watched Iyela leave, Cara gasped and latched on to her arm. James stepped out of the forest. Mariel shot him a warning look, silently pleading with him to behave. James could toy and sleep with her maidservant Betti, but Cara was off limits.

“Good morning. This is my . . . friend, Cara Cramell of Stonewell.” To her surprise, she liked calling Cara a friend. She suddenly did not feel so alone anymore. “She wants to learn to defend herself.”

“But he’s a man!” Cara whispered frantically, still clinging to Mariel’s arm.

Mariel grinned archly. “That point could be argued.”

James ignored the jibe and bowed gracefully. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Cara. I am James Alecsson, a friend of Mariel’s and currently working as a hand in the convent’s stables. I would be happy to help teach you, if you will let me.”

Cara smiled shyly and released Mariel’s arm. “Okay.”

James straightened and gave Cara an encouraging smile. “We will start with fist fighting. That’s basic. Using your bare hands is one of the best ways to fight, knights commonly forget that.”

“Why?”

“They tend to think it’s beneath them,” Mariel said. “If they can’t buy it with money, then it isn’t any use.”

James continued, “If you are caught without a weapon, you do not want to be completely defenseless. I know some people who can put up almost as good of a fight without a weapon as with one.”

“Cara,” Mariel interjected, “you need to understand that learning to fight will not be easy. You will need to strengthen your body and your lungs, which means running and doing some other exercises I can show you. It is going to hurt, and you will have to be able to push away that pain.”

A dark expression came over Cara’s face. “I can deal with pain.”

Mariel did not think she was talking about learning to fight. Lord Stonewell beat his servants and his wife. Perhaps Cara wanted to learn to defend herself from her father and the possibility of a future husband who was like him.

“Attack me.”

“What?” Cara asked.

“We have to find out what you already know, or how you would fight. We can teach you from there,” Mariel said.

Cara was wary, but James coaxed her on and she attacked. Mariel took a step to the side and Cara raced passed her. With her weight positioned too far forward, Cara lost her balance and fell. She picked herself up and faced her two new instructors.

“What did I do wrong?”

Mariel was tempted to say, “I think the more appropriate question would be ‘what did you do right?’” but she bit back the remark and instead said, “For starters, you need to keep your weight more centrally balanced.” Mariel lifted her skirts, startling a gasp from Cara who glanced quickly at James. The older girl ignored the shocked sound. “Bend your legs slightly and keep your hips forward, like this.”

“Don’t lower your eyes,” James added. “Always keep your eyes on the opponent. Watch Mariel attack me.”

Mariel rushed him, her bare feet lightly touching the ground despite the heavy fabric she wore. James swung a fist at her, but she ducked and spun around, twisting her body differently than she would if she was not wearing the corset. She grabbed James’s flying fist and angled her body so that her skirts shifted to one side and shot out a foot. She hooked James’s legs and tossed him over her hip. He dove into a roll and popped back to his feet.

That reminded Mariel of a step they a skipped. She turned to her wide-eyed friend. “We should teach you the art of falling before anything else.”

Cara received many bumps and bruises, but she never once complained. The times that James saw how she positioned her body wrong, he asked Mariel to fix it for her. Mariel had not been expecting this. When she worked with James, he never hesitated to touch her to reposition her when she did something wrong. She was relieved that he respected Cara’s space, even if he did not respect hers.

By the time the sun rose, Cara gasped for air and had slowed considerably. Knowing that the younger girl did not have the stamina to continue, Mariel and James had her sit for the remainder of the exercise period and observe the two of them fight.

Finally, the sun was too high on the horizon to continue. Cara stood and stumbled. James automatically caught and steadied her. Color flared in Cara’s cheeks and James dropped his hand and stepped away.

“Careful,” he said, ignoring Cara’s blush. “I think even Mariel would have difficulty explaining a broken bone while you’re sweaty and covered with dirt.”

He turned and winked at Mariel, as Cara continued to stare at James with wide-eyes.

Mariel glanced again at the rising sun. “We should hurry. Betti will be in our room soon. She knows what I do in the morning, but now that I have you involved I don’t know if my blackmail will hold against her telling on both of us. We need to hide the evidence.”

“What is the blackmail you have against Betti?” Cara asked curiously, all traces of her blush fading.

Mariel shot James a scathing look. To her surprise, he did not meet her eyes and color flooded his olive-toned cheeks. She tried to remember a time she had ever seen him blush and failed to.

“Mariel?”

The girl looked back at Cara and remembered the question. “Let’s just say, Betti behaves in some ways that aren’t considered proper.”

“Oh,” Cara said, and then realization struck. “Oh! Oh!” Her cheeks flamed.

Mariel laughed when she realized she was the only person not blushing. It was nice to laugh. She had not been doing it often enough recently.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Cara nodded and started toward the beech tree. Mariel began to follow, but James caught her arm. “Wait.”

Mariel’s body automatically stiffened, preparing for a fight. Cara paused when she realized Mariel was not following.

“Please,” James whispered. “I need to speak to you.”

Mariel was undecided. She did not like being entirely alone with the young man, it made her uncomfortable, and this time Iyela was not here to make sure he behaved himself. She was curious though.

Curiosity is going to be my downfall,
she thought darkly.

“I promise not to kiss you,” James hissed.

That decided her. For some reason, Mariel trusted James to keep his word, even though she did not trust him as a person.

“It’s okay, Cara. I’ll catch up in a minute. Besides, you can climb that tree as good as any squirrel I’ve seen, you don’t need my help.”

Cara was uncertain, but eventually she nodded and left. She glanced back at them several times until she disappeared around the corner of the convent.

“Do you truly consider Cara to be your friend?”

The question was not what Mariel expected. She did not know what she had expected, but it was not this. Did this mean that James was a spy and this was the sign he had been waiting for that she was becoming corrupted? Was he going to kill her now? Her hand rested on the pommel of her sword, just in case. She knew she could not win a duel if it came to that, but the feel of the weapon beneath her fingertips calmed her. Common sense told her he would not kill her now anyway, Cara was waiting for her and she would know something had happened if Mariel did not come back. Not that James had any problem escaping the law. He had a high price on his head, too.

“Cara is my roommate,” Mariel replied, deciding to avoid the answer.

James rolled his eyes and relaxed his stance. “I know
that
. What I want to know, is do you consider her a friend?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Good gods, Mariel! Do you always have to be so stubborn? It’s not that hard of a question. I want to know because I’m curious. Is that a crime now too, Your Royal Highness?”

Mariel winced, she hated when anyone brought up her title.

James saw his mistake. “Sorry,” he said quietly, “You made me mad. Will you please answer me? I’m not going to think bad of you regardless of what you say. Cara is a nice girl, despite her father. Of course, if it was Isabel you had brought out here today, I would be very concerned.”

A giggle burst out of Mariel and she clamped a hand to her mouth in surprise. Where had that come from?

“Yes, Cara is my friend.”

James smiled. “Was that so hard?”

She shook her head.

“I’m glad. You need a friend inside that place. And maybe Cara will teach you that not all people with noble blood are evil.”

“Most are.”

“A lot are corrupt, yes I agree, but there are still many out there that have their hearts in the right places, they just don’t know what to do with them. The way the corrupted monarchy is run gives them no choice sometimes. You may prefer an outlaw’s life, but most people like the security and pleasures wealth provides. Many wealthy people choose to follow the monarchy because they see that their monetary interests will improve that way, but that doesn’t mean they are all bad. You have a personal grudge against the Natrician aristocracy, and I fully understand that. But if you ever intend to rule this kingdom, you have to be able to cooperate with the wealthy class.”

“I’m not ruling anything,” Mariel replied sourly. “And since when did you get so wise? You sound like a zreshlan.”

“Why, I’m the wisest man alive! And my employer will be glad that my education with the zreshlans wasn’t a complete waste.”  

“Of course it was,” Mariel teased. “All you know how to do is mix a few words together and make them sound special, that doesn’t mean you actually know how to think!”

They both laughed, but James sobered quickly.

“Do you trust me, Mariel?”

The question wiped the grin off her face. He stared at her beseechingly. She could not meet his gaze and looked at the ground.

“I take that as a no.”

The hurt in his voice was enough to make her feel guilty. “I’m sorry.”

“Would you at least tell me why?”

Why? She did not trust him because she did not know why he was here or who he worked for. But if she did know those things would she trust him then? She thought of Cara, her new friend, she trusted her, but only to a point, complete trust was not there. Who did she trust? She trusted her papa and she trusted zreshlans, but that was all.