Amaskan's Blood, Raven Oak [read me a book .TXT] 📗

Master Bredych ruffled her hair with his hand, familiar lines decorating the corner of his mouth. “Besides, you could use some discipline. Someone’s got to teach you that fighting is more than random fists and feet.”

While both horrible and life changing, the event wasn’t one Adelei would forget. As time passed and wisdom engrained itself into her mind, she and Min became good friends and remained so until the woman’s death two years prior. Justice had been swift and carried out by Adelei herself. Taking out the traitor who killed her friend exposed a weakness in the Order itself. Though the weakness was quickly covered up. No need for their enemies to find out.

This task and the knowledge that had come with it had earned Adelei’s promotion from Journeyman to full member of the Order. Captain Warhammer was made from the same cloth. Patience would help work this out, as it had with Min.

The reminder of home settled like a calm across Adelei’s shoulders, and it shifted the unease she’d felt since crossing the border into the background. Several hours travel passed, and Ida allowed her to trail behind at a steady distance until Adelei urged her horse forward. Midnight matched Ida’s mare in pacing until they were nose to nose.

The landscape, thick with trees now, held privacy for them and left a fragrance of life through the woods. Once or twice the wind kicked up, and dark and light greens rustled and whispered around them.

After the desert’s heat, Adelei welcomed the shady canopy’s drop in temperature. “This is nice.” Adelei tried engaging the warrior in small talk as their horses crossed a trickle of a stream. “In most of Sadai, there are two seasons: hot and less hot. Some places along the coast are lucky enough to see all four seasons, but it depends upon which mountainside one lives.”

“I remember.” Adelei tilted her head and gave the warrior a knowing look. Ida said, “I’ve visited the capital several times. Been a long time now, but I remember the heat. And the beauty. We should come up on the town of Tarmsworth in a few hours. How’s the head?”

The muted ache in her head had faded, and Adelei nodded. “I’ve given some thought to our earlier conversation. We both have our orders, which may differ or even conflict.” Adelei pulled the stopper from her water bag and took a long swallow. Ida’s mare slowed to keep them even paced. “If I’m to do my job and protect the Princess, I must know the entire truth, even if it’s something you don’t wish to discuss. If anything is kept from me, no matter how seemingly insignificant, it may cost your princess her life.” And me, mine.

Ida’s silence was a good sign that she was thinking, and Adelei allowed her the quiet. Probably weighing her options against the orders she’s been given. I know that’s what I’d be doing about now.

When the warrior spoke, her voice was calmer than Adelei expected. “I told ya yesterday that news spread quickly about the second princess’s death. King Leon only wished to hide his family away, to protect them. I would know what ya think of this.”

“His Majesty had the right idea in trying to hide his family, a better move, I think, than what did happen. Still, he should have sent his family away sooner or not at all. Waiting until the city was under attack was foolhardy.”

“While it was probable that Alesta would be attacked, His Majesty couldn’t have known the city would come so close to fallin’ into enemy hands. It never has before. He was hopeful that a peaceful resolution would make the issue moot.”

“Then he was a fool.”

The mare halted, and Ida faced Adelei. “Why? Because he wished peace? Or because he believed peace possible? Or maybe ya think because he loved his family and didn’t want to send them away?”

“All of it but mostly the latter. Families are a liability one cannot afford in battle. When war is on your doorstep, you can’t hope the enemy won’t notice your family tucked away in the bower. Peace means running in the opposite direction.”

Sensing Ida’s frustration, Adelei held a hand up to stop the woman’s retort. “Look, Gods know I would love to believe peace possible—then I could grow old somewhere in a nice cottage, tucked in a forest like this. Maybe even grow fat. I wouldn’t have a need to live by these,” she said, sliding one of her throwing knives partially from its sheath at her wrist. “But men don’t live by peace. They live by passion, and passion leads to war.”

“‘Passion is of the heart. War is of the soul.’ Ya truly believe that?” Ida took a light heel to her mare as they moved forward again.

Now I know she’s trained or lived with the Order. She’s studied the works of Yesler Finn, and those works are only obtainable in the Grand Library of Amaska.

“Would ya agree that ‘there are many little ways to peace, none of which can be found at the end of a sword’?” Ida asked.

This time it was Adelei who stopped her horse. “You walk the Way of the Warrior, yet you quote Master Bredych as if you know him—how do you know teachings not meant for stray ears?”

Ida’s horse whinnied, shying away from a stray stick breaking nearby, and Ida patted her mare’s neck absently. “‘Tis only a deer, silly girl.”

Midnight sidestepped and gave Ida’s mare wide berth. The deer ahead stood erect, waiting for their next course of action. Adelei remained silent and listened to the trees for signs of more than a simple deer. Hearing nothing, they moved on, Ida one hoof fall ahead of her.

“A long time before ya were birthed, I lived another life, followed another path. More than that, I won’t tell ya yet. And some of it, I won’t tell ya at all, as it’s not my story to tell. You’ll have to ask