Page 64 of Unrivaled
La’Angi City
Audrey wasn’t totally done with her pining, but the intensity of it was greatly reduced, and had reduced again since Yasmine’s arrival.Of all the cures for her tears I could think of, none of them involved sitting out in the old gardens with her friend, imagining the paths, garden beds, plants and decorations to fill the space.Though boring to me, it made Audrey’s eyes light up.
I heard “drainage” and retreated to the entry of the garden, looking over the main market square, or what would be the main market square.A number of buildings on the outskirts had been torn down.Slabs of rock had been moved.A series of small buildings were being erected around the fountain.Beneath them, foundations were being lain.She was putting in chairs, somewhere for people to retreat out of the weather, and widening the areas where bottlenecks always formed.
There was more to it, and I’d listened to it for long enough that I should’ve been able to recite it, but I hadn’t bothered to make note of any of it.
I didn’t need to.She was managing it.
Was my job done?
A young woman smiled brightly at me from behind the handcart loaded with soil she was doing something important with.I nodded, drawing in the spring air that smelt of dirt and rat shit and rotting straw, holding it hard behind my ribs.
I’d had my years being the terror of the forest.Not that I’d beentheterror.I’d beenaterror, part of the shadows your friend wandered into never to return.I’d once run for seventeen days on quick, stolen bits of sleep across the mountains and down into the steppe country, on the trail of an enemy tribe of horsemen.At the end of that run, I’d fought those arrogant fools, bringing down man and horse alike.I’d emptied my quiver, broken a knife, and earned myself a new scar.We’d retrieved our Sisters they’d taken and seen them home again.
Now I just stood here, soaking in the sun, breathing in and breathing out while time ticked on by.
Returning would’ve been impossible.Once she got out of La’Angi, it would take the force of a God to get her back here.I turned, casting my gaze back to the woman who’d never gotten to be a girl.She could’ve had a happy life with us.She’d’ve ended up as a Headwoman, I suspected.Mayhap a medicine woman, with her love of plants.
Both, knowing her.
Chay approached, his pace was leisurely, shield over his shoulder and hand on his sword hilt, as if he was just doing the rounds.
He wasn’t.Chay didn’tdo rounds.
I didn’t make it easy on him, though I knew what he wanted.
What a shame her heart was healing and his was still broken.Oops.Oh well.
“She’s doing well,” he said, glancing over the work being done on the market.
“Yes.”
He stood quietly for a little while.Every now and then, he’d shift his weight.His boots would creak and so would his belt.Metal links in the frog that secured his scabbard to his belt would strike together.
“The Duke will be angry when he gets back.”
The Duke.He’d been talking to Thomas.I’d wondered if that’s where this had all started.“He always finds something.”
“Have you ever wondered what would happen if he realized who you are?”he asked, his blue eyes showing a depth of grief I would’ve pitied him for in another life.
“No.”
One of his brows rose.“No?”
I shrugged.“I’d kill him, or he’d kill me.End of problem.”
He looked at me for a long time, as if I’d just said something terribly complex.After so much time with Audrey, he ought to be used to pragmatism.
“You never thought, ‘how can I protect her’?”
I held in the sigh that wanted to escape.Whatever Thomas had said to him had done a thorough job.The older man had stabbed him, pulled out the knife, then left him to bleed.But all the rags I had were already bloody, and those in decent condition I hoarded jealously for the woman who laughed with her friend in the sun behind us.
“Did she tell you how she and I met?”I asked him.
He shook his head.
I considered how much to give him.I came from the province of de Cayrd.I was lady Cherelle’s maid, when everything happened.My ability to see threats coming kept me alive in those walls and made me an excellent warrior.I was never broken.
