The Will of the Empress - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,84

to let them know of our visit."

"Or someone at the castle got the word out when you announced this jaunt last night," Tris said, matter-of factly.

Sandry glared at her.

"What?" demanded Tris. "I'm not saying you shouldn't venture outside your precious walls. It isn't as if we didn't handle the whole mess with no bloodshed. Though I don't see why you didn't arrest the nobles, at least," she told Ambros. "It was highway robbery, in a manner of speaking."

"I wanted to get Sandry home," Ambros said. "We'd have had our work cut out for us, to round them up and hold them, even without their weapons. And, well, there is the matter of the unspoken law."

"What unspoken law?" Sandry wanted to know.

Ambros sighed and scratched his head. If he hadn't been such a dignified man, Sandry would have described his look as sheepish. "The one of runaway marriages," he said reluctantly at last. "No magistrate will penalize a man who kidnaps an unmarried woman for the purposes of marriage. Or if they do, it's a fine, and one so tiny that it's insulting. The only exception is if someone is killed during the kidnapping. Then the man must die."

"Mila of the Grain, of course we must punish him if he kills someone, but kidnapping?" cried Sandry. "A mere bit of manly folly! I'm sure if he apologizes to the woman and gives her flowers, she'll come to thank him!"

Wincing, Ambros continued in his dry way: "The custom's from the old empire, the one west of the Syth. Those we've conquered since have chosen to, well, honour it."

"That's barbaric!" snapped the girl.

All around them the guards from Landreg bristled.

"It is!" Sandry insisted, swiveling to look at them. "Around the Pebbled Sea, women control their own lives, within limits. No one can force us to marry against our will!"

"Actually, they can, but they have to be sneakier about it," remarkedTris, watching the clouds overhead. "Contracts, and bride prices. Telling the girl it's for the good of the family, that sort of thing."

"It's not right, the Namornese custom is barbaric, and I won't be forced to marry anyone!" Sandry snapped. "Anyone who tries to force me will learn a sharp lesson!"

"Any would-be kidnapper with chain mail would still be wearing it even after you were done with your spell," Ambros observed. "And if they know what you can do, they'll be sure to prepare ahead of time."

"I am not helpless deadweight," Sandry whispered, her eyes blazing. "I am no victim, no pawn, no weakling."

Tris sighed as they trotted onto the road that would take them to the castle gate. "No weakling against the imperial mages? Ishabal is a great mage. So's Quenaill. Do you even know if you could face down great mages, if one was trying to kidnap you?"

"If you three weren't fighting what we used to be, I wouldn't think twice about it!" cried Sandry, furious. "But no, you fear I'll discover something naughty in your minds. Or silly. Or ugly. It's like the three of you went off to have your adventures and then you come home and blame me because we're all different! I want us to be what we were, and all you care about is that travel broadened you!" To her disgust she realized she was weeping as she shouted her resentments. "Forgive me for wanting my family back!" Before she disgraced herself even further, she kicked her horse into a gallop and pelted headlong up the hill to Landreg Castle.

*

On their return Sandry retreated to her rooms. As they waited for the bell to call them to the dining hall, it was left to Tris to tell Briar and Daja what had happened that day.

Daja nodded when Tris told them about Sandry's last outburst. "She mentioned that to me, back home," she admitted.

"But she said when we left she didn't mind," Briar complained. They had gathered in his chambers, watching as he put together a blemish cure for Ambros's oldest daughter. He spoke to his sisters as if he were doing nothing else, but his hands were sure as he added a drop of this and two drops of that to the contents of a small bowl. "She told us to stop being silly and grab the chance when it was offered."

"What else could she say?" Daja wanted to know. "If you've forgotten, she hates to distress people."

"That wasn't apparent today," Tris murmured, watching the flames in Briar's hearth. "She left those kidnappers in plenty of distress.