Hal - The Duellist #1

Chapter Eleven - The Emperor

"How did you get out?" Hal focussed on the road, resisting the temptation to look at Meracad as they meandered along the city's streets.

"My father left this morning and Agata was planning to spend an evening with Georgie ─ if he hasn't already broken her heart, of course."

Smiling, Hal put out an arm to guide Meracad around a street cart that blocked their way. Her palm made brief contact with the graceful arch of the girl's lower back. She quickly drew away, knowing better than to attract the prying gaze of passers-by.

"I feigned a head-ache and locked my door from the inside. They won't try to disturb me ─ they're all as relieved as I am that father is away."

"And then what did you do? Climb out of the window?" Hal laughed.

Meracad threw her a long, side-ways glance, one eyebrow raised.

"You did?" Hal asked, unnerved.

"I have my ways." Meracad unfurled a secretive smile. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"Have you heard of an inn called 'The Emperor?'"

"No."

"Not surprising really. It's certainly not the kind of place your father would want you seen in, so if you're worried, we can turn back now."

"I'm not worried." Meracad's smile grew taut. "Maybe you are?"

Hal thought better of replying. They headed further from the heart of the city with its lean sandstone facades and paved streets. The workshops and slums they now passed appeared half-neglected and slum like, leading onto the dark, brooding alleys, gambling dens and brothels of Riverside. Meracad's eyes grew anxious, her pose tense, her face strained. She kept up the stream of conversation, Hal assumed, to hide her nerves.

"Why do people call you Thæc?"

"Well, that's my name, isn't it? I have no other."

"But I heard that Cara Thæc claims you're not her daughter. So why do you still use her family's name?"

Hal balked at being drawn on the subject. She hated speaking of her parentage with anyone, but Meracad would only ask again in the future. "Cara was not the only person who made my life a misery at court. The whole place is a cesspit. Courtiers will turn against anyone they deem an outsider. My only friends there were the imperial guards. They taught me how to duel, and when they realised I had talent, they told Beric. As soon as he had seen me fight, he offered me a place in his academy. But the other cadets were none too happy about having a girl in their midst ─ they made my life difficult too." She shuddered, the memory of taunts, of blows and insults still fresh and vivid. It had taken her own skill, years of practice, victory after victory on the duelling circle to prove them wrong.

"But you haven't answered my question. Surely keeping Cara's name just made things worst!"

"I didn't give it to myself!" Hal drew up in the street, the past now too raw and too painful to bear. "The novices started naming me after Cara. They thought it would frustrate me or make me cry. Whatever they expected, it didn't work. I just ignored them. I had to! But the name stuck." Her smile was bitter. "I don't have any other family name. I have no idea who my father was. And Hal the ward of the imperial court is too much of a mouthful. Anyway it makes Cara furious when people call me Thæc."

"So, it's true that you and Cara don't hold each other in regard?"

Meracad had pushed the matter too far. Frowning, Hal turned to her. "That's more than I can say."