Free Deception's Pawn (Princesses of Myth) by Esther Friesner Page A

lazily climbing its way into the clouds.
    “This is a good place,” Kian declared and removed Ea’s hood. The kestrel uttered a fierce cry of impatience, spreading her wings and turning her head sharply, taking in her surroundings. “Go on then, pretty one.” He jerked his arm up and she soared.
    I held my breath in rapture. Nothing I’d ever seen was as beautiful as this, nothing had the power to enchant me so deeply. I followed Ea’s flight with more than my eyes; my spirit soared with her. “How lovely,” I whispered.
    “I agree.”
    Something in Kian’s tone made me tear my eyes from Ea to discover him staring at me in a vaguely disturbing way. I remembered such looks from the days before my brothers were born, when I was still the High King’s prize, the hero’s portion,the promise of wealth and power that he dangled before the lords of Èriu to earn or keep their allegiance. I didn’t like it then and I liked it less now, here far from Dún Beithe and alone with Kian.
    “Do you mean me, Lord Kian?” I imitated the flirtatious lilt I’d heard Dairine use when trying to catch the attention of a new man. “You’re certainly not the first to tell me that, so I do hope you’ve got a new way of describing why I make all other girls look like rag-dressed sticks topped with handfuls of straw. Where do you want to start? My eyes?” I fluttered my lashes. “My hair?” I tossed it with both hands. “Will you start at my feet and work your way up or start at my head and work your way down? I don’t care, as long as you’re original. I’ve heard it all so many times before that if I listen to one more repetition—”
    His smitten look faded into a very wobbly grin. The poor young man didn’t know what to make of me, but he pushed ahead anyway. “Lady Maeve, I truly think that you’re as beautiful as … as … as the sun that—”
    “Not that! Not the whole dreary ‘You outshine the sun and the moon and the stars’ again! Didn’t I warn you to say something new ? Oh, the sameness, the fatal sameness ! I’m done for!” I cried, clutched my heart, and keeled over in the worst imitation of sudden death you could ever hope to see.
    I lay in the grass with my eyes closed, still as a block of wood, drawing shallow breaths, waiting. I waited no more than four heartbeats before I heard the sound I’d hoped for: Kian’s rousing laughter.
    “Get up, you foolish girl,” he said, gently nudging me with his toe. “Get up before a field mouse crawls into your beautiful hair, or a crow pecks out your beautiful eyes, or a raven gobbles up your beautiful tongue.”
    I sprang to my feet willingly. “That’s not a very big feast for a full-grown raven. What about my beautiful brain?”
    “The brain that thought I was actually flattering you?” he scoffed. “There’s not enough meat there to make a meal for my kestrel.”
    I breathed easier. My ploy had worked: Kian wouldn’t be able to look at me without recalling my deliberately silly display. How could he ever court a girl he couldn’t take seriously?
    Relieved, I set my attention on Ea once more. She hovered over the field, searching the grass for signs of prey. Suddenly she dropped and struck, ending the life of some unlucky insect or rodent in the grass.
    Kian cheered. “ That’s my beauty! She’s too small to go after anything worth eating, but she sometimes flushes hares for my arrows. I’ll bring along my bow next time and you’ll see.”
    Next time  … The promise of those words filled me with happy anticipation.
    “What about tomorrow?” I blurted. “You could teach me how to shoot instead of how to use the sword. I wouldn’t need to change my clothing for that and I’d be standing still, so my aches wouldn’t bother me.”
    Kian regarded me with grudging admiration. “Taking charge of everything, are you? I’m not ready to swap my tunic for your dress just yet, milady. It’s not a bad idea to teach you archery, but not