Righteous Anger (Okal Rel Saga #2)

2.4: An Education

Hara took Horth to a courtesan den on the other side of UnderGelion, in a freehold district run by commoners who derived their protection from the patronage of important clients.

"Captain Hara," she was greeted by their smiling hostess. "Good to see you again."

"This is Horth Nersal," said Hara, laying her palm on Horth's shoulder. "He's only eleven, but as you can see he is too grown up to remain a virgin without causing trouble."

"I see what you mean," said the woman, acknowledging Horth with an easy smile that was free of the smirking jocularity that made Horth's predicament embarrassing. She eased a sheet of golden hair over one shoulder. "Liz is good with beginners," she decided. "And she copes well enough with Vrellish customers. Third door on the left," she concluded, pointing.

Hara gave Horth a reassuring pat on the back and a slight push in the right direction. "Go on," she told him. "The girl you find inside will make it easy and there'll be no fertility issues to interfere. All courtesans at Eva's are sterile."

Something irked Horth about that idea. He had an instinctive feeling that sex ought to be bound up with at least the possibility of complications, and made an unwelcome but involuntary comparison with herd animals, raised on Tark, that were neutered for the convenience of others.

"Is Terril free?" Hara asked, eyes sheering off to pan the small crowd of about twenty patrons, entertainers and novices on the den's central floor, called the Patron's Round.

"No, I'm afraid he's engaged," said their hostess. "But let me introduce you to an alternative selection."

With Hara gone, Horth decided seeking Liz would be better than standing around looking out of place.

He crossed the Patron's Round in quick strides, went down the corridor indicated and was dutifully headed for the third door when he heard raised voices coming from one of the rooms he was passing.

Horth could tell by the pronouns that leapt out at him that the disputants were Sevolites of unequal classes. The nobleborn woman was Vrellish and the man was a Demish highborn.

He had no trouble identifying the sound of a sword being drawn, either. On impulse, Horth drew his own sword and went through the door. He knew it was stupid, but somehow it felt infinitely easier than solving the social problem of how to relate to a female courtesan.

Inside, Horth found a single Vrellish woman confronting three Silver Demish men, with the courtesan who had been entertaining her cowering well back, out of harm's way. The woman was half dressed, wearing only underpants beneath a loose tunic with a deep V-neck that revealed slices of her small, firm breasts.

The Demish highborn was backed up by a pair of his liveried errants. Both errants had bared their swords, presumably to address the woman's challenge, within challenge class, on behalf of their superior. Except that two on one was not honorable.

The Vrellish woman had shut up and seemed to be having second thoughts about clearing her sword under the circumstances. But the whole dynamic changed the moment Horth entered the room with his sword drawn.

The Demish highborn pivoted, covered by one of his errants while the second kept his attention on the Vrellish woman.

"Nersal?" the Demish highborn said, sounding puzzled. He devoured the details encoded in the braid on Horth's formal jacket in a gulp, and experimented with a friendly manner. "One of Liege Nersal's half-Nesak sons, it would appear. Branst, is it?"

"Horth," said Horth.

"Horth? But Horth is eleven years — uh, well," the Demish man thought better of completing that thought. "In any case, I am Evan Pond, vassal to Liege D'Forest of Lion Reach. My dispute with Liege Thris, here, is a matter of trade business and none of your family's affair. You have no cause to interfere, young man."