Page 140 of Unrivaled
“If you send me your renegade mages, I’ll cut their throats,” Whaarghun told him, leaning back.“Your hauntedGlowhas no place in our lands.”
“I was told you weren’t a superstitious man,” Luca said, coolly.
“Who told you that?”Whaarghun drawled.“They lied.I don’t need your mages, or your curses.We have both of our own.Better than yours.Older.Stronger.”
Luca nodded curtly.“What weaknesses do your mages have?Mayhap we can cover them to?—”
“Our Elementalists have no weaknesses,” Whaarghun cut in.
Liar.There wasn’t a lot known of their mages, but there was no such thing as perfection.
Luca arched his brows a little, but let it go.“I’m using the information I have, Whaarghun.It’s flawed, and I’ll acknowledge that.If you want effective aid, you need to give me effective instructions, or at least enough clues I can figure it out.”
“My people arestarving,Man in the Mountain,” Whaarghun said, the words icy.“Your armies march through landscapes and burn forests to the ground.They hunt game and salt fields.How many times must you be told thatwe need food?”
Luca was once again proving he was as useful as tits on a stallion.
“I sent supplies,” he said, frowning.“Not enough to feed the population, it’s true, but certainly enough to help.If you’re not exaggerating, then we need to look at where it’s being lost.If the Butcher takes your port this winter?—”
“If we could hold it, we would.”It was a statement of fact without any emotion.“The cost is too high.”
“You don’t need ships, I know,” Luca offered.“But my people do.Giving up Bayropaa…”
The man lent forward, his hands empty on the table, his eyes fixed on Luca’s face.For a moment, I struggled to breathe at the intensity of the exchange.
“Do you think I’ve given many things to your people willingly in my life, trudger?”
Luca, to my surprise, nodded and rubbed his jaw.“If I had ships, they’d be yours.”
“As you said,” the rebel told him, shaking his head, “we’ve no need for ships.”There was something dark, somethingfinal,about that.There was no violence in him.Anger, yes, but not violence.
Neither Luca nor Kadan showed any of the discomfort that plagued me.I had some grudging pride that I was with these men.
“What are you suggesting?”Lucah asked, his tone neutral.
Whaarghun turned his head and, for the second time since he’d walked in, he looked straight at me.“Fight with us,” he said.
I couldn’t have told you what color his eyes were or how those words sounded.I felt a pull, from the back of my skull and the pit of my belly.I wanted to do what he said.Ineededto do what he said.Heat spread in my veins, a strange, uncomfortable sensation.I felt sweat prickle beneath my arms and in the small of my back.It was a feeling I associated now with Audrey, with the weight of my sword in my hand and my shield on the other, with moving us incrementally closer to freedom.
As I did alongside her, I breathed in deep, let myself notice the discomfort, then refocused on the situation before me.
Which just so happened to be a very highly ranked Southern rebel asking for my service.
“My sword is sworn,” I told him, the words rolling easily off my tongue as gratitude swelled in my heart.All the choices I’d made had carried me here, now, with old friends and a new ally.My lady would likely be abed.Trouble was on the horizon, but it wasn’there.
Me and mine, we were okay.
“Chay is known for his skill with a sword throughout our land,” Luca said smoothly.“Now you can bear witness to his loyalty, too.It is a loyalty I will repay in kind.”
Whaarghun didn’t turn away from me for a time, but when he did there was a mocking smile on his mouth.“He isn’t loyal toyou.”
“He’s loyal to the woman I’ll take as wife,” Luca said, softly.“Above all others.And that is exactly as I’d have it.”
I felt a strange mixture of frustration, gratitude and embarrassment that I couldn’t figure out, right then, and didn’t know that I wanted to.
Luca’s eyes narrowed.He was entirely focused.It was the change in Whaarghun’s posture that surprised me.The man settled himself in the chair, leaning forwards aggressively still, but lowering himself none the less.For a moment I let the flow of conversation go and met Kadan’s eyes.He sat beside Luca and watched me, unsurprised.
He’d known.He’d known the man had some sort of magic.
