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I wasn’t going to post any more of RITES OF PASSAGE but since I’ve had special requests, I’ve skipped forward a bit from Part I and Part II and Part III. This month’s snippet is from the scene in which our “hero” finds out that he’s about to be the fall guy…

Taleo was an expert when it came to beauty, and the Ista Aldrik women were all beautiful. Every, single, untouchable one of them. Petrina’s lush lips. Gellina’s auburn tresses. Junia’s ice-blue eyes. Aldrissa’s enticing curves. Even little Fidelia’s impish ears had their charm. Yes, the queen’s nieces were as lovely and unique as snowflakes, but they all had one Ista Aldrik trait in common—an unflinching ability to poison your tea and smile at you across the table as you drank it.

“I’m not thirsty,” Taleo said. “But thank you for the invitation. I’ve been riding for days and I’m no fit company for noblewomen.”

The queen swirled a jeweled spoon in a golden cup. “At least allow us to offer refreshments to your entourage.”

“I came alone,” Taleo said.

That got their attention. Six pairs of lovely eyes now fell upon him. It was the icy-eyed niece who spoke first. “My lord, do you mean to say that you rode over brigand-infested roads, by yourself, all the way from Anarinuell?”

Taleo nodded to the bevy of ambitious nieces. “Had bandits been bold enough to take me hostage, I’d have returned with useful knowledge of their whereabouts and habits.” In truth, Taleo would never allow himself to be captured alive by such men, but he watched closely for the ladies’ reactions.

The curvaceous Lady Aldrissa sputtered, walking to the balcony window and pulling back the crimson draperies as if to see if Taleo were lying. Below, he knew she’d see only ocean, sand, and his horse. “What utter foolishness!”

The rest of the queen’s nieces looked equally uninspired. But just as Taleo was beginning to think that acts of reckless bravery no longer impressed noblewomen, the queen said, “It sounds like a marvelous adventure. Sit and tell us about your journey.”

Taleo dusted himself off and took a seat at a respectable distance. He smelled of horse and needed a shave. He’d have liked to have been better groomed for this appearance, but circumstances were not entirely in his control. Which he hated. “Before I do, I wonder if you might explain why you’ve summoned me for this prestigious post when you’ve so many nieces, each eager to prove herself. Are none of them up to this task?”

“How dare you question our competence?” Lady Aldrissa demanded.

So things were going to go badly.

He’d ridden all this way to be bullied and lied to by the royal family and there was nothing he could do about it. But just then, Taleo’s luck turned. With the unraveling of a lock of fair hair, the power shifted.

Taleo’s eyes dropped to the floor and he held his silence.

“Look at me when I speak to you,” Aldrissa said.

“My lady, I cannot,” Taleo said.

“Why not?” Her tone was imperious and infuriated.

“Because you’re missing a hairpin.”

This sent the ladies all atwitter. A female soldier could be forgiven for an errant strand of hair. A common maiden in the fields wouldn’t be expected to account for her hairpins. But these were Ista Aldriks, each one vying to be the most proper and most obvious heir to the throne. One niece hissed, “Loose hair, loose woman!”

Lady Aldrissa rose quickly. “Thank you for your courtly behavior, my lord. Please forgive my misconduct.”

“It’s forgiven and already forgotten,” he said, keeping his eyes averted until she had left the room.

The missing hairpin had put the ladies on the defensive. The queen even opened the balcony windows as if to air out the stink of impropriety. When she did, Taleo tasted the ocean salt on the breeze and it made him uncomfortable. The crash of the waves below the bluff made him think of the nights he spent as a slave, listening to those waves, wishing to drown.

“Very well, then my lord. We will be frank,” the queen finally said. “The matter we want you to deal with is one that the Ista Aldrik family cannot personally touch. Our problem is a rabble-rousing priest.”

Taleo was intrigued. “A priest from which temple?”

“He doesn’t say,” the queen answered. “He tells the people to look into his eyes and they’ll know which deity he serves.”

“So they look into his eyes and see what they want to see?”

“And they believe. He gives sermons that ignite all the old, silly superstitions about twins.”

Now didn’t seem like the best time to inform his sovereign that Taleo didn’t find anything silly or superstitious about the loathing of twins. Admittedly, Taleo was no theologian; he didn’t know if twins shared a soul, if one twin was soulless, or if each twin harbored within its breast a depraved half-soul. But he did know that twins historically brought ruin to families and that was enough evidence for him.

“Are you worried for your sons, Clan Leader?” Taleo asked.

“Of course,” she said. “This priest is convincing the people to adopt the old ways. Parents of twins are told to leave one infant on the cliffs. If they don’t, the villagers break into homes and kill both babes in their cradles.”

“But your twin princes are no defenseless babes in the cradle,” Taleo said. “They’re grown warriors.”

“My sons will one day be called upon to follow in their father’s footsteps and rule the Republic. I’ll not have their futures jeopardized because of this bigotry.”

“Just how influential is this priest?” Taleo asked.

“His influence grows every day. If his sermons become a popular movement my sons will be seen as monsters.”

“So you want me to arrest him?” Taleo asked.

“Heavens no! No official action should be taken against him lest we give his followers a rallying cause.”

Taleo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Then you want me to…” Was there a delicate word for it? “You want me to kill him?”

“And make him a martyr? I should think not. No, he must be destroyed. You must follow him, learn everything about him, and find a way to bring him to such disgrace that his words will never carry any weight at all.”

It was now clear to Taleo why he had been appointed. The Ista Aldriks didn’t want to be thought of as impious twin-lovers nor repressors of religion, nor even the brilliant political schemers they actually were. The task and the taint would fall to him, a lord of a distinguished, but minor house. If it all went bad, they would blame it on him. And Taleo supposed, in the scheme of things, that is what lords of minor noble houses were good for.

Tags: excerpt monday, excerpts, firan, RITES OF PASSAGE, taleo, taria

This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 1:52 am and is filed under For Readers, Free Reads, RITES OF PASSAGE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.