New Alliances

[Soran Nightblade]

Reya opened her eyes tiredly to the sound of one of her servant's voices. Mumbling nonsense, she decided, and closed them again, pointedly ignoring the voice.

"Lady Reya, your appointments," the voice pleaded again. This time, a rush of fabric brought a fierce golden light across her face.

Reya squinted up at her servant Jarex, who was tying the curtain aside to keep her from falling asleep again. She debated whether to scold him, praise him, or have him tortured for rousing her at the break of dawn, as she'd asked. She had barely slept the past night, for several reasons. First, she had allowed her long-ago love interest, who she now viewed with spite, to escape from her dungeons the night before.

Second, his escape had been achieved with the help of his remarkably annoying current love interest and what was apparently their adopted daughter.

Third, her most trusted bodyguard - who should have been the one to wake her and who most certainly would not have done it so boorishly as to bombard her with sunlight - had been critically wounded during her former heart-throb's escape. As of the time she finally slept the night before, he was still in poor health. With several of her healers at his side, there was little doubt that he was in better condition now, but she had not required him to remain on guard in her quarters while she slept, as he normally did.

"Lady Reya," her servant repeated, politely, "You have an appointment in twenty minutes."

"I told you to cancel my appointments," Reya said coldly.

"My Lady, we could not contact her."

"Oh, get out," she said, her graceful voice dipping into a snarl. The man wasted no time in obliging her. Sighing, Reya rose from her sheets and went about preparing herself for the day, which apparently was going to come whether she wanted it to or not.