Page 52 of Vows of Sacrifice

“If your opponent is wearing armour, I imagine it will be . . . complicated.”

Ashana raised an eyebrow.

“I guess so.”

“So, for the time being, let’s assume that he doesn’t have one.”

The young woman nodded in agreement. I appreciated the fact that she hadn’t braided her hair, the reflections of which hypnotized me completely. I felt like a house cat fascinated by a ball of yarn, driven by the irresistible urge to play with it with its paw.

I positioned myself behind her—to my advantage—to show her how to hold the weapon properly. My body curved against hers, as if to cover her like a protective shield.

“I like your perfume.”

It just came out. Of its own accord, and without any prior intellectual consultation with my mind.

“It’s my soap,” she replied in a whisper. “I’ve already told you.”

“Ah?”

I could see her red-tinged ears expressing her embarrassment. And with good reason: all my men, without exception, were staring at us with their mouths open, as if watching an event as extraordinary as a solar eclipse. I immediately straightened up and glared at them. Which encouraged them to quickly resume their training.

“I will personally teach you combat, whenever possible, after breakfast, for example. How does that sound?”

Ashana turned to me with a radiant smile on her lips. And what lips . . . A mouth that begged for the most passionate kisses. I need to speak to Elendur. The sooner we marry, the sooner we can . . . be truly united, I mused, staring at her.

“I’d be very happy!”

She examined the weapon in her hands once more, and I had the impression that it was a piece of my soul that she was caressing with her fingertips. Which was partly true, but Ashana didn’t know that. She looked up at me with her magnificent green eyes, which transfixed me.

“Why do you want me to learn to defend myself?”

“Because you are my wife,” I said without a moment’s hesitation.

“Is it really that dangerous?”

“You have no idea.”

I remained silent for a moment, then continued:

“Would you like me to show you around Osacan? When we get back, I can take you to the eaglery.”

“What is the eaglery?” she asked.

I raised my eyes to the sky, and Ashana followed suit. In the celestial dome that towered over Tarnton, immense messenger birds of prey circled ceaselessly: the guardians of the Osacan twins.

“The surest way to give your family news about you,” I replied in an atonal voice.

This announcement delightfully lit up her features with an expression of sincere joy, which I contemplated wordlessly. The more time I spent with my wife, the more I struggled to recognize myself. I felt whole, free, and frighteningly afraid of losing myself in the strange relationship that now bound her and me together. Strange in the sense that we were at once very different, on so many points that I no longer counted them, but also similar, even complementary on others.

It made me want to run away. Escape from her, but also from the power she exerted over me. I was like the moth that couldn’t resist approaching a candle flame, even if it meant burning its wings, yet had a visceral need to get away from it.

I dreaded the day when she would discover my true nature, because if she was truly my flame, she was bound to find out. It was inevitable.

Without thinking, I leaned forward to offer her a chaste kiss on her delicately full lips. Ashana gasped; I immediately stepped back. Had I done something wrong? But how could I express it without her taking me for crazy or a pervert? This persistent feeling that we’d known each other since long before our recent meeting. This irrepressible need to constantly touch her, as if the slightest contact between us were natural and could assure me of her existence, that Ashana was really there, and not just a daydream. A hope that I had forgotten in a dark corner of my mind.

“Dovah?” she called in response to my silence.

I lowered my eyes to meet hers.

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