Free Warrior by Jennifer Fallon

house is mortgaged to Ameel Parkesh.”

    “I wish I could help, my dear. Parkesh is not a man to be trifled with.”

    “Is there some way of borrowing the money?” she asked, beginning to feel truly desperate. “I could pay it back, Master Kell. You know me to be a woman of my word. I could find work . . . I could work here, for that matter, to clear the debt, if need be. You know I have a head for figures.”

    “How much do you need?”

    “One hundred and eighty thousand gold rivets. And that’s just to clear the debt on the house.”

    The old man shook his head, clearly sympathetic, but powerless. “I can’t loan you that sort of money, Luciena. Not without going to Princess Marla for permission.”

    She sat back in her chair, the bitter taste of defeat on her lips. “Princess bloody Marla. It always comes back to her, doesn’t it?”

    “Perhaps if you explained your dilemma to her—”

    “I’d rather sell myself into slavery than accept help from that woman.”

    Farlian was obviously puzzled by her attitude. “Has her highness done something to you, Luciena?”

    “On the contrary, Master Kell,” she corrected, rising to her feet. “She’s done nothing. Nothing at all. That’s the problem. Thank you for your time.”

    She turned to leave, but Farlian’s voice stopped her at the door. “You should go and see her, you know.”

    Luciena glanced over her shoulder at him. “The only thing I have left is my pride, Master Kell. I’m not going to sell that just to get out of debt.”

    “Pride won’t keep you fed, lass. And it won’t put a roof over your head.”

    “No,” she agreed bitterly. “But it will allow me to sleep at night, even if I am sleeping in the streets.”

    If Farlian Kell had an answer for that, Luciena didn’t wait around to hear it. She closed the door on him and strode past the rows of scribes and secretaries in the outer office with her head held high, looking neither left nor right. It wasn’t until she was back out in the street, now deserted as the midday heat drove everyone indoors for a time, that she allowed the tears to blur her vision. She turned and headed in the direction of the house that she would, very soon, no longer be able to call home.

    Luciena was three streets away from the house when she remembered she wasn’t the only one with problems. No matter how desperate her own situation seemed, she had a cousin in Talabar in far worse trouble. Although she wasn’t able to explain it to Aleesha, Luciena didn’t have much in the way of family and it seemed a crime to turn her back on the one cousin she knew of. Assuming, of course, her uncle’s letter wasn’t just a very clever ruse to extort money from her, as her slave suspected.

    Still, you can’t get blood out of a stone , Luciena reminded herself, thinking Warak Mariner sorely misinformed if he thought there was any of the Mariner money left for his niece to squander. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to help. Rory had exhibited signs of magical talent and Warak wanted money to send him to the Sorcerers’ Collective in Greenharbour.

    Maybe, if Luciena couldn’t help him, the High Arrion could.

    Luciena didn’t even get past the gates of the Sorcerers’ Collective before they turned her away, not in the slightest bit interested in her tale about her magically gifted cousin in distant Talabar.
    Infuriated, although not really surprised, by the Collective’s careless dismissal of her petition, footsore, weary and bowed down by the weight of her problems, it was midafternoon before Luciena turned into the street where she lived, only to find the day had just plunged from bad to infinitely worse. Parked outside the house was a litter with four muscular slaves leaning against the outer wall of the house, making the most of what little shade there was on the street.

    “Whose litter is this?” she demanded of the nearest bearer as she approached the door.

    “Master