Firebrand
The stables were warm compared to the outdoors, and she waited by Mallard’s stall in anticipation for Horse Master Riggs to arrive. When she did, Anna was told to groom Mallard the way she had learned the previous day. Then she learned to tack him and was instructed to lead him out to the paddock where the lesson began in earnest. Anna had been on horses only a few times before, always riding behind someone else, and they’d been burly farm beasts. Mallard was sleek in comparison. It was strange being up in the saddle all by herself, but Master Riggs went slowly to make sure she was not scared. She learned how to use the reins and her legs, and how to sit and maintain her center of balance, but they did little more than move at a walk.
Afterward, Anna learned how to untack Mallard, and she brushed him down. She then had to hurry back to the castle for her shift.
• • •
As Anna lugged her implements down the servants quarters to the queen’s apartments, she could feel the ache in her legs. Sitting on a horse took a lot more muscle than she thought. It always looked like the horse was doing all the work and the rider just sat there, but now she was learning there was much more to it.
She cleaned the ashes out of the queen’s bed chamber hearth, and by the time she reached the queen’s sitting room, she was pleased to discover the king was not present. He must be meeting with the Rhovan prince, and she was glad. King Zachary’s hard eyes and cold manner disturbed her.
The queen reclined on her sofa and looked to be napping. Anna went to work at the hearth as silently as possible, but her presence did not go unmarked.
“Hello, Anna,” the queen said.
Startled, Anna whirled and made a clumsy curtsy. The queen was not asleep after all.
“How are you?” the queen asked. “Are you enjoying your new lessons?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. It’s wonderful.”
The queen smiled, but it was a tired smile. Anna remembered then what Captain Mapstone had asked her to do the day before. “Your Majesty?”
“Yes, Anna?”
“Captain Mapstone asked me to tell you that if you ever need anything from her, to send me immediately.”
The queen smiled again. “A crafty woman, is our Captain Mapstone. She’s turning you into a regular messenger.” The city bells started ringing out the noon hour. The queen frowned, and when the last bell faded, she said, “Anna, please tell the captain to meet me here this time tomorrow.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Anna returned to work, and as she finished up, she heard a door open and close, and there was a curious inrush of cold air. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that the king had arrived. She hefted her buckets and tools and scuttled from the sitting room.
She heard the king say, “I am returned, my dearest. Now we can sit together.”
“So soon?” the queen asked. She did not sound particularly pleased.
Anna entered the servants’ corridor and their voices fell away as she left the queen’s apartments behind.
• • •
The following day, Anna had no lessons, but as always, she attended to her rounds. It was one of the days she took care of the Rider wing and she had found that she’d gone from unnoticed to known, for many of the Riders she happened to encounter in the course of her work now knew her name and greeted her. Her life had changed so dramatically she could hardly believe it. Tomorrow she would begin basic arms training, and the idea was both thrilling and even more frightening than riding a horse. The Riders reassured her that Arms Master Gresia was a good instructor and that it wouldn’t be frightening at all.
Buoyed by their words, she headed back to the west wing to tend Queen Estora’s rooms. As she worked in the queen’s bed chamber, she heard the queen speaking to someone out in the sitting room, and then remembered it was the time that the queen had requested Captain Mapstone to see her. When Anna had delivered the message to the captain, the captain had sat back in her chair deep in thought, looking concerned. Anna didn’t know what was going on, but she sensed the queen was unhappy. Snippets of their conversation drifted back to her.
“—and the prince and his counselors are right to be offended,” the captain said. “His lack of interest has been rude. He was the one, after all, who requested the Rhovans to come. It’s entirely unlike him.”
The queen said something Anna could not hear.
“No,” Captain Mapstone replied. “I have not. He has not let me near him, and he does not summon me to attend him. I find out about meetings if Les Tallman remembers to send me a message.”
The frustration was, to Anna’s ear, clear in the captain’s voice. She crept toward the sitting room trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, but the two women were so deep into their conversation that they did not appear to notice her.
“It is troubling,” the queen said. “He will not even allow his dogs near him.”
“That is extremely unusual,” the captain replied.
When Anna reached the hearth, she chanced a backward glance. The captain stood, seeming to gaze off into the distance, her left arm still bound to her. The queen sat on her sofa, seeming to have sunk into her own thoughts.
“I cannot believe I am saying this,” the queen told the captain, “but I prefer the old Zachary. He did not smother me, and he let me see other people.”
“What? What do you mean? He doesn’t let you see other people now?”
“Not even my ladies. He barely lets the servants do their work. Jaid is almost afraid to come tend me. That is why I had you come now, because I knew he’d be meeting with the Rhovans.”