Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses) by Sharon Shinn Page B

quick exit. There were no gates to pass through, though there were guards lounging along the main road that led into the city. They were dressed in Helven green and gold, and they looked suitably well-trained, but they also looked as if they’d never seen a day’s real combat in their lives. Tayse shared a look with Justin, knowing that they had the same thought: We could take any five of them and win.
    The local guards didn’t seem to read their expressions. Indeed, many of them gave friendly waves to fellow soldiers, since Tayse and the other men of the party were wearing sashes colored with Danalustrous gold and red. It was interesting to be greeted with such casual respect. Riders, of course, wore black embroidered with the king’s gold lion when they wished to be recognized, and this generally evoked a reaction of awe bordering on fear. When they traveled incognito, they were more often mistaken for mercenaries or outlaws, and therefore treated with suspicion and caution. Rarely were they viewed as compatriots who might be good for a drink or two once the shift was ended.
    Kirra swept ahead of them all like a disdainful queen. Even in travel clothes, going four days without a bath, she was a beautiful woman, but dressed like the noblewoman she was, she was literally breathtaking. She and Senneth had spent an hour braiding jewels and gold ribbon into her hair before dressing her in a red and gold gown.
    “You produced that from oak leaves and meadowgrass, I suppose,” Tayse had said.
    Kirra had grinned over at him. Even her face looked finer, as if she had let herself gain some coarseness and weariness while they rode and now cast off those unnecessary disguises. “From buckskin and dirty linen,” she said. “Do you like it? Would it make you want to confide in me?”
    He had grinned back. “I don’t think fine clothes would move me as much as you’d like,” he replied. “But this Helven lord might be a different matter.”
    Senneth’s transformation had been more subtle but, to Tayse, more shocking. She had stepped out from Kirra’s shadow, and he had just stared at her. Her fine white-blond hair had darkened to a muddy brown, and her alert gray eyes looked washed out and tired. Even her skin, so smooth for someone who had led such an adventurous life, looked matted and ill used. Worst of all was her expression: docile, bland, and distant. “I am sure marlord Martin will respond to serra Kirra just as he should,” she said in a repressive voice.
    Kirra had burst out laughing, but Tayse had not been able to shake off his disbelief. “What did you do to her?” he demanded. “She doesn’t look anything like—I don’t know that I would recognize her.”
    “I didn’t touch her. I told you she had enough shiftling magic in her to change her appearance.”
    “Does it hurt?” he found himself asking.
    Senneth didn’t even smile at him for the question, as he supposed serving maids never got a chance to smile. “Does what hurt? To make a transformation like this? No, but it’s a little tedious and requires more of my concentration than I’d like.”
    “I mean—does it hurt to hold it all back? To swallow all the energy and intelligence that’s usually on your face?”
    For a moment she looked truly surprised, so he must have said something he did not intend. “No,” she said again. “But I’m starting to think I must look even worse than I meant to.”
    Tayse shook his head. “I’d have sworn on any Rider’s life that you had never been a servant, but right now I’d have to be rethinking that. You look the part completely.”
    “You’re right,” she said dryly. “I’ve never been a maid, though I’ve played a lot of different roles in my life.”
    “More roles than I can keep track of,” he said.
    A small smile for that. “And you don’t know half of them.”
    “That’s the trouble,” he said and turned away.
    He knew a few of them, though, and he reviewed them as he followed