Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles #4) - Ilona Andrews Page 0,19
branches to the sun. A moment, and the dense canopy abruptly fell away. They’d cleared the mesa. Far below, a verdant grassland stretched, rolling to the horizon, like a sea with islands of white mesas that dripped turquoise forests. A wide river wound through it, unrestrained by any dams.
“Do you like Daesyn?” Arland asked.
“It’s beautiful,” she said honestly.
“It’s home,” he said.
It could be your home, his glance added.
Too early for that.
He looked straight ahead, his face calm, and she found herself staring at the hard line of his jaw. Imagined running her fingers down its length…
Stop it, she told herself.
“Does it strike you as odd, my lord, that Kozor and Serak decided to bury the hatchet?”
“Alliances are broken and created all the time,” he said. His voice held no enthusiasm. He didn’t like it either. Her instincts rarely failed her, but it was nice to have confirmation.
“True. But most Houses view such old rivalries as healthy.”
“Is that so?” he said.
“It is. Conflict keeps their forces sharp. The strong and talented emerge, weaker people are culled, and there are ample opportunities for heroism and much growling about duty and honor.”
Arland smiled, showing a hint of fang. “And speeches. Don’t forget the speeches.”
“Their feud is generations old. There are dead and wronged on both sides. There must be some mutual advantage for them to set it aside. Are you aware of such an advantage?”
“No.”
“Then it must be a common enemy.”
Arland sighed.
She raised her eyebrows at him.
“Your reasoning is sound,” he said. “I’m not arguing with it. A month ago, I said pretty much the same thing at a strategy session where this wedding request was discussed.”
“And?”
“And I was told that there was no graceful way to refuse the request. We are the dominant House in the quadrant. We have no indication that we are being lied to, and we have no excuse to deny it. We aren’t at war, and our House is enjoying unprecedented prosperity at the moment. If we denied them, there would be questions.”
“’Is House Krahr so meek that they are afraid of allowing a mere two hundred wedding guests into their territory?’”
He nodded.
Hosting a wedding was expensive. Tradition dictated that something had to be offered in return. “What was their offer?”
“Safe haven for the merchant ships.”
“House Krahr can’t protect its merchant fleet?”
He grimaced. “The sector bordering the Serak system is filled with pirates. Both Kozor and Serak have been fighting them for the better part of the century. There is a four-point warp near that system, just outside of the Anocracy space.”
Four-point warps were rare. It meant that a ship could enter hyperspace and choose any of the other three destinations, which meant that stretch of space served as a major shipping artery. A multi-point warp is what made a solar system special. Earth was the only known twelve-point warp in existence.
“Our armada is more than sufficient for the protection of our merchant fleets,” Arland continued. “The pirates go after freelancers, courier ships, exploration and survey crews, and family miners and salvagers.”
“Anything too small to warrant an escort by a ship of war.”
“Exactly. The crews of these smaller crafts are members of House Krahr and neighboring Houses. It’s been an ongoing thorny issue. We’ve gone after the pirate fleet a few times. They simply scatter. We chase down one or two of their vessels, and meanwhile the rest vanish. Kozor and Serak have the advantage of location and experience fighting them. They offered protection for our smaller craft, and we took it.”
To tell him about the two Kozor women or not to tell him?
If he were Melizard, she would’ve held back until she had something more concrete.
That settled it. “I overheard a conversation in the spaceport. Two knights of House Kozor, Onda and Seveline.”
“Anything interesting?” he asked.
“Seveline appraised you like you were a side of beef. In her opinion, you’re a prime specimen she wouldn’t mind taking for a ride.”
He grinned at her. He had a terrible smile. It made him look predatory and slightly boyish at the same time. The combination was devastating.
“They called me a halfer,” Helen said from the backseat.
The smiled vanished from his face, as if jerked away. “You’re not a halfer,” Arland growled. “You’re a vampire and a human. Both and whole, not half and half.”
Maud could’ve kissed him. Instead, she plastered a cool expression on her face. “Seveline told Onda that she should be allowed to play with you, because it would be a shame to lose.”