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I’ve skipped forward a bit from Part I and Part II. This month’s snippet is from RITES OF PASSAGE and is the first time our “hero” (and I use that term extremely lightly) meets our heroine.

CHAPTER THREE

“Have you ever seen a lovelier ass?” Taleo asked.

The maiden pretended not to hear him, swirling her red palla over one shoulder, so Taleo urged his horse to follow. It was a bright winter’s day and the spring thaw couldn’t be far away, so Taleo was in the mood for a bit of sport.

His brother rode beside him, his horse’s bridle adorned with jingling bells. “Actually,” Kester said, his breath puffing steam in the cool air. “I have seen a lovelier ass and so have you. Yasmina’s backside is legend. Her frontside, too, truth be told.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still mooning over her,” Taleo said, navigating the crowded streets of Anarinuell with the kind of authority only a mounted nobleman could bring to bear. “You’re like a lovesick cow. It’s shameful.”

“You’re one to talk.” Kester laughed. “Why not give Yasmina up? You know she loves me, so why not let me have her to myself.”

“Because Yasmina is a prostitute; you’ll never have her to yourself.” Besides, Taleo didn’t give up anything or anyone that belonged to him, even fleetingly, and his brother should know that by now. “If you’re so sure of Yasmina’s love, just ask her to refuse me.”

Kester shot him a sullen look. “For reasons that completely escape me, women don’t refuse you.”

“Probably because I give them no opportunity.” After all, he was a Firan nobleman. If he chose to press the matter, a common woman couldn’t refuse him by law nor could she invite his attention without inviting censure. The injustice of it was one of the many reasons he preferred whores, who were freer to do as they liked.

His brother, on the other hand, spoke sweet words to woo reluctant hearts, gifting common girls with jingling jewelry. Taleo saw no purpose in this kind of artifice. As was proper, he always rewarded the women upon whom he took his privilege, and even found husbands for them if need be. He wasn’t a barbarian, after all.

But when Taleo wanted a woman, he had her, and usually without sentiment. So it would be with this maiden they were stalking who glanced over her shoulder at Taleo with a flirtatious wink then hopped onto the curb, trying to blend with passersby. “She knows we’re following her, doesn’t she?” Taleo asked, listening to the clip-clop of his horse’s hooves on the paved street.

Kester nodded. “Pick up the pace or she’s going to escape to the forum.”

Well, if it was chase the maiden wanted, he was eager to oblige. Taleo laughed, wading his horse through the crowd, crop in hand. “Make way!”

They caught up with her under a fruit seller’s awning. She was holding apples, about the color of her cheeks, and about the size of her breasts, if Taleo gauged right. And he always did. Taleo met the maiden’s eyes and now she couldn’t look away.

Kester blocked off the girl’s path to the right with the bulk of his horse. When she turned to the left, Taleo used his horse to pen her in. Together, he and his brother were interrupting the flow of traffic in front of the market stalls. Merchants gave sharp stares, but didn’t dare protest the lords’ horseplay.

“You’re looking very fine today, Mes,” Taleo said to the maiden. “Did you know that red is my favorite color?”

The maiden stood silent with her apples, flashing her eyes from beneath long, alluring eyelashes. Taleo smiled at her, and the maiden bit her lower lip to keep from smiling in return. A merchant interrupted. “Ya gonna pay for those apples?”

“I’ll pay.” Taleo took a few coins from his pouch for the fruit-hawker. It was his reputation, after all.

Suddenly, with a giggle, the maiden bolted again. One of the apples fell from her hand and rolled on the ground. The girl wasn’t very fast but Taleo’s galloping horse was. He knew that this was a dangerous game in a crowded marketplace, but Taleo enjoyed dangerous games. Besides, he couldn’t disappoint the maiden. She couldn’t have run away without wanting to be caught!

People cried out with fear and leaped out of the way as his beloved mare jumped a low cart. Her back hoof clipped the side and knocked it over, but the horse easily regained her footing and rejoined the chase. So there was no reason that after a few more gallops through the street, she should so suddenly rear up.

Taleo struggled to stay mounted while his horse pawed at the air and he glimpsed the black and green of Republic armor. Taleo’s legs strained as he willed himself not to be thrown. He managed it, just barely, and calmed Daheret, who put her hooves on the ground again. Only then did Taleo see the guardsman’s spear point aimed at his horse’s heart–the same guard who obviously made her rear up in the first place.

“Halt!” the young guard cried.

“Get out of my way,” Taleo growled at the guard, keeping one eye on the fleeing form of the maiden in red, his blood hot with the thrill of pursuit. It had been a good day until now.

“You’ve smashed a cart,” the guard said with a voice that was oddly high-pitched and accented.

Why, the guard was just a girl!  He narrowed his eyes at the way she staggered under ill-fitting leather armor and noticed the smattering of freckles on her pale arms. Ticanee. A Ticanee guard? How was that possible? Knowing that the fleeing maiden was no fully away, Taleo sighed and marked the guard’s insignia. “Centurion, do you know who I am?”

“It doesn’t matter who you are,” the girl guard replied.

He heard the bells on his brother’s horse, so knew that Kester had caught up. With a smirk, Taleo leaned forward on horseback, and said, “I’m Lord Taleo Teranzik of the Bear Clan and this is my brother, Lord Kester. And if you weren’t an unschooled savage, you’d know it matters greatly who we are.”

In the middle of the marketplace, amidst the clack of the wagons and the mulling crowds, the centurion stood her ground, but her voice quavered. “You could have hurt someone playing chase in the forum. You endangered people.”

Taleo affected his best lordly glare, which he’d practiced to perfection. It usually frightened commoners, servants and miscreants alike, so it was an important skill to have. “Be that as it may, you have endangered my divine right to take Noble Privilege upon any maiden I choose.”

“My lord, that may be your right, but it doesn’t mean you can take your privilege in the forum.”

She had a point. Under other circumstances, Taleo would’ve laughed and ceded it graciously. He was generally of good humor, but this girl was arguing with him in public. A crowd had gathered around them and Taleo imagined the whispers. Has the House of Teranzik fallen so low that a savage can berate their lords without consequence? Will the Teranziks bow and scrape to a Ticanee guard, as they once bowed and scraped to the Shamibelians?

Taleo replied in what he hoped was an amused tone. “Yes, let’s speak of rights then, Centurion. What right do you have to threaten my horse? For that alone, I should thrash you.”

Someone shouted from the crowd. “Everyone knows the Teranziks love their horses . . . and their dogs.”

Someone else laughed and Taleo felt the itch of the people’s ridicule beneath his gloved hand. His fist clenched and fury bubbled up inside him. It was regrettable, but he had no choice but to take it out on the girl. “I’ll tell you what, Centurion: you can take the maiden’s place. I planned to invite her to my room, but you’re Ticanee, so a dirty alleyway will suffice for you.”

Spear in hand, the girl guard crimsoned. Not a pretty blush, like the maiden with the apples. No, this was anger. She seemed to tremble with it. “Pay the merchant for his overturned cart or…or I’ll arrest you,” she said, tilting her helmet back and staring at him with freakish blue eyes.

Taleo startled. Even his mare took three steps back. It wasn’t just the color of her eyes but her tattoos as well. A blue feathery design had been inked just above her brow, making her look like a fierce bird of prey. Yet, she held her spear as if her humanity depended upon it. Her hands, unexpectedly callused, wrapped around the wood like an overworked slave challenging an overseer with a shovel. As if he, Taleo Teranzik, was her oppressor.

It disturbed him to his very core.

Taleo took a moment regain his composure. “You’re just a little slut playing dress-up as a Republic guard. You’re not going to arrest me.”

Kester piped up with, “Taleo, just pay the fine and ride on.”

He knew he was behaving badly, but this damnable Ticanee girl had forced him into a public confrontation and he saw no room for gracious retreat now. “No, Kester. I’m going to knock that spear out of her foreign hands. She’s insolent.”

“Ticanee aren’t foreign,” the girl snapped. “And if you think you can knock my spear away, I invite you to try.”

Taleo found her hubris attractive. After all, it was always the women who issued challenges who most wanted to lose. Besides, he knew what Ticanee were like. Feral. Desperate. Filthy. He started to swing down off his horse, crop in hand, but Kester gripped his arm. “Not this one, Taleo. She’s the Oshta’s daughter.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s the Ticanee Clan Leader’s daughter. She’s a Lady.”

Taleo snorted. “Ticanee nobility?”

It was ridiculous.

Kester shrugged and his horse jingled impatiently, as if it also hated those infernal bells. “Lady Taria is their version of nobility, anyway. Her father is on the Clan Council.”

Taleo noticed the girl’s shaky knees beneath the leather flaps of her military skirt. She didn’t look noble. “You’re the Oshta’s daughter?”

“It shouldn’t matter. I’m a Republic guard.” She kept her chin up when she spoke but he could hear a tremor in her voice and that crumbling resolve was like a siren’s call. Still, the daughter of a medallion holder was trouble Taleo didn’t need. Besides, he was already giving the commoners too much gossip, so he unlaced his money pouch from his belt and didn’t bother counting the coins. “Give this to any inconvenienced merchants and the rest to charity.”

Taleo threw the pouch to the centurion who caught it with one hand, breaking the grip on her spear. Then he rode past her and out of the forum before she could stop him.