Shalador's Lady

lovers to share a room so openly.
    For now, she would go outside and take a look at the boardinghouse’s gardens and see what she could do.
    When she opened the bedroom door, there were no guards waiting for her in the hallway, there were no escorts. There were no males of any kind.
    But there was a Sceltie, who took one look at her and said, *Hat, Cassie.*
    “I’m just—”
    * Hat. *
    She fetched the brown, open-weave hat she had bought for this visit. Gray insisted she wear a hat to protect her skin, and Shira had talked her into shopping for one and had gone so far as to buy a hat too, laughingly saying it would become a trademark of the court—any Lady serving in the First Circle would wear a hat as a symbol of her service to the Queen.
    At the time, Cassidy had accepted the teasing and Shira’s purchase of a hat without a second thought. Now she wondered how dear the cost of the hat had been for the Shalador witch. Her hat had been put on the court account, and its price would be deducted from the tithe the shopkeeper owed at the end of summer. But Shira had paid for her own hat.
    Prince Sadi had offered to help pay some of her expenses while she was in Dena Nehele. Would he be willing to extend the Queen’s gift to a small loan so she could pay her First Circle an advance against their quarterly wages? Would she have the courage to ask him?
    *Cassie?*
    She plunked the hat on her head and scowled at Vae. “See? I’m wearing the hat.”
    *Yes.* Vae gave Cassidy a tail-tip wag. *Now Gray will not worry about your face molting.*
    The image of pieces of skin fluttering to the ground like discarded bird feathers made her queasy. Kindred tended to describe things in relation to an animal, but that wasn’t always a comfortable picture for humans when they were the subject of the conversation.
    Vae headed for the stairs, pausing long enough to make sure Cassidy was following her.
    *Gray is outside with Ranon and a young male who is a Warlord Prince,* Vae said. *He is family to Ranon, and Ranon wants you to see him, but there are worry smells too.*
    “Ranon has probably spent a lot of years keeping his relative hidden from the Queens,” Cassidy replied. “It can’t be easy for him to bring a young Warlord Prince into the open.”
    *Why? You are Ranon’s Queen. You are Dena Nehele’s Queen. The pup belongs to you.*
    You can’t claim what you can’t find, Cassidy thought. Hide some of the Queens so there will be someone left to rule. Hide the young Warlord Princes so that another generation can survive long enough to stand on a killing field and fight for their land.
    The world was simple for Vae. Not because she was a dog, but because she had grown up in the village the Queen of Scelt called home. Even if only a few actually served in a court, a Territory Queen held the life of every person in her hands, as well as the land itself. Lady Morghann was a strong Queen and a close friend of Jaenelle Angelline, and Morghann’s husband, Lord Khardeen, ruled the village of Maghre on his Lady’s behalf. So Vae had no reason to doubt that praise and punishment would be given fairly—and both would be given when deserved.
    Vae wouldn’t hesitate to bring someone who mattered to her to the attention of the Queen she served. For Ranon to bring the boy within sight of a Queen was a huge act of trust.
    Cassidy stopped at the door leading outside as she thought about this young male Ranon had brought to the boardinghouse. Brother? Or son? Was that the reason he and Shira had been acting so uneasy? Was it their son or just his son?
    Neither, Cassidy decided as she rounded the side of the house and saw the three men. The boy was in his late teens—too old to be anything but a brother or cousin to Ranon.
    Gray’s smile was warm and open when he saw her walking toward them. Ranon’s expression was somewhere between determined and hopeful. And the youngster . . .
    How many friends had he seen taken away only to return broken or crippled—or never to return at all? She had no sense that the Shalador Queens had mistreated their own people, but the Shalador Queens had had little power, controlled as they had been by the Province Queens.
    She stopped when there was enough distance between her and the men that Ranon could dismiss the young Warlord Prince before approaching her, eliminating the requirement of an introduction.
    She watched Ranon assess the distance, and knew the moment when he realized what it meant. A