Melanie Rawn - Stronghold (Dragon Star, Book 1)

Stronghold

Book 1 of the Dragon Star series

Melanie Rawn

CONTENTS

Kohan squinted into the Desert sky, watching his circling hawk. All at once the bird plummeted to the rough scrub of the Vere Hills. Rohan held his breath. A few moments later the hawk soared upward, a greentail clutched in her talons. She spiraled on a thermal, then swooped down to deposit the plump bird neatly at Rohans feet. When she balanced on his arm again, he whistled appreciatively; she replied with a grating coo of affection.

Shes flirting with you again, Sioned observed.

I have that effect on ladies of taste and perception. He fed the bird a morsel of raw meat, whistled the flight command again, and flung her smoothly into the air. The hawk flew off to seek her own dinner.

Sioned sat down on a rock. I assume that means Avaly of Rezeld wouldve had more luck if shed batted her lashes?

So thats whats been bothering you all day. Unhooking the water skin from his belt, he took a swig and offered her some.

It was embarrassing to watch. She drank and stoppered the skin.

All I could think about was getting her off her knees and out of my sight as fast as possible.

Why did she wait nine years? It couldnt have taken that long to think up that tale about her fathers being under a diarmadhi spell like Chiana.

Her proposed husband evidently inspired her. He wants the holding and the title along with her highborn blood. Thats the only dowry a merchant that wealthy would care about.

Well, he cant have them. Morlen was just waiting for a chance to betray you and Pol, and I see no reason to reward his daughter for it. And anyway, how could she think of marrying a man who forced her to that performance?

Sioned! Wouldnt you plead on your knees for me?

With my aching joints? Certainly not.

He grinned down at her. Well, I suppose you are getting old and crippled and decrepit.

Half a season your senior, young fellow, and dont you forget it! She wagged a finger at him, laughing.

He caught her hand and was about to pull her up into his arms when a screech and a feather-rush warned him. He turned just in time to extend his right arm to his hawk, who dug her talons into protective leather and preened.

Jealous, too, Sioned remarked. Goddess, doesnt she look pleased with herself!

They walked back through the late afternoon haze to Stronghold, entering by the grotto passageonce secret, but not anymore. Sioned lingered by the waterfall to bathe her face and arms while Rohan returned his hawk to the mews. This autumn, her thirty-ninth in the Desert, was the hottest she could recall. She and Rohan had avoided summer completely this year by indulging in a lengthy journey through Syr before going up to Dragons Rest for the Rialla. Shed shown him her childhood home of River Run, taken a side trip into the Catha Hills to investigate the dragons winter lairs, and stopped in at High Kirat to visit her nephew Prince Kostas and his family. Many times theyd left their small retinue behind and slept in the open, hunted or hawked as fancy dictated, and forgotten for days at a time that there were titles and responsibilities attached to their names.

But having escaped the summer heat, they returned after the Rialla to find their princedom had taken on all the soothing qualities of a smelting furnace. The sun blazed, the dunes burned with shimmer-visions, and heat clung to every stone. Rohan shrugged off the brutal climate, being Desert born and bred, but even though shed spent two-thirds of her life here, Sioned felt the heat more as she grew older.

She settled on a mossy rock and hauled off her t>oots. Gasping with the shock as she plunged her feet into cool water, she closed her eyes and tried to dream herself back at River Run. No use. If Avaly hadnt arrived yesterday with her foredoomed plea, she could have been at Radzyn by now, enjoying its crisp sea breezes, visiting Maarken and Hollis at Whitecliff

Dont get too comfortable, advised Rohan from behind her. Weve just been graced with an emissary from Prince Velden of Grib.

Damn it, whats wrong with these people? Why couldnt they have talked to us at the Rialla?

Doubtless they had their reasons.

Whatever they are, I dont like them.

Come on, High Princesswe played all summer. Time to get back to work.

She kicked water at him across the little pool. I dont want to.

Now you sound like Jihan.

Well, you have to admit people make things difficult. You can hardly pretend to be reluctant with your power when theyre always handing you chances to use it.

Pretend? He frowned.

Demanding that you use it, actually. At least Pols honest about it. He loves to fix things and makes no pretense of

Just be grateful that someone still finds it worthwhile to consult us old folks, he drawled.

That silenced her. She followed him back through the gardens and upstairs, gnawing over his implication. It was amusing to tease each other about oncoming old age especially when neither believed the other had aged at all but at times they were forcibly reminded that the years were indeed accumulating.

The knowledge had sneaked up on them at first. Perhaps it had started at the Rialla of 731, Pols first as husband and father as well as prince. He had spoken for Princemarch before, of course, but with his new family had come new awarenesses. The terms he gained, independent of anything Rohan won for the Desert, were highly advantageous and gave subtle hints about his plans for his daughters future. Rohan and Sioned had congratulated themselves on their successafter all, they had taught Pol everything he knew.

But more leisurely reflection, and repetition of the experience in 734 and again this very summer, had shown them a hard truth. While the princes still looked to them, they also looked to Pol. The next High Prince.

Rohan and Sioned had given him the world in which he exercised his share of the family cunning. The peace theyd established had lasted with only minor lapses since 704.

Theyd founded a school for physicians and a scriptorium. Specific borders agreed to by all princes ensured that no more wars were fought over a few square measures of land. Arts and sciences thrived. Interwoven trade made the princedoms economically dependent on each other. Most importantly, Rohan had nudged the other rulers into standardizing much of the legal code. Over the years this had come to be known as the High Princes Writ, and it would be his most lasting achievement. It was more than any other High Prince had done before him, more than anyone else could have hoped to do in a lifetimeeven if anyone else had been the dreamer Rohan was. But because he did have dreams, leavened with vast patience and ruthless practicality, there was so much more that he wanted to accomplish.

It was a proud thing to watch Pol fulfill their hopes. And Meiglan had surprised them all with her adjustments to her role as his wife. Though she would never be the kind of High Princess Sioned was, she had grown into her own sort of wisdom. People didnt confide in Meiglan, or consult her about matters of state. They merely did not guard their tongues around her. It was an opportunity not open to Sioned, whose intelligence was well known and often feared. She learned more from what people didnt tell her than from what they did. But Meiglan was so quiet, so unobtrusive, that most of the time one forgot she was there. What she reported was colored by her personal prejudicesshe loathed Pirro of Fessenden, for instance, and was terrified of Ghiana. But she had learned to weed out what was important and present it with an eye to Pols needs. Her methods differed from Sioneds, but she got the job done.

This past Rialla Rohan and Sioned had mostly watched the young couples work, giving private advice here and there. It was time for them to move into the background; eventually Pol and Meiglan would take their places. The other princes must accustom themselves to the next generation. Eminently practicalbut a little depressing.