Page 34 of The Sundered Realms

He’d thawed more and more as they talked, like satisfying her endless thirst was a challenge that would only spur him on rather than exhausting his patience. Liris’ mind was so awhirl she felt almost drunk off of him.

So approaching the university, she was excited, she was ready, but she was also nervous—because if she hated this place, she was still going to be stuck here for a while.

More importantly, she had the sense that Vhannor was just waiting for her to break, like he couldn’t believe she was actually how she seemed. Or how he thought of her. Which wasn’t fair, but if she didn’t react how he expected—and she didn’t know what he wanted from her—and he decided not to personally help her advance any more after all—

She’d been appropriately enthusiastic when they arrived in Embhullor, at least. How could she not be, with a view at sunrise of terraced fields surrounded by forest and rolling mountains all around them. It had taken her breath away—there were so many ways for the world to be green.

Liris dared a look up at Vhannor, whose lips quirked a little, though he looked tense too. “We’re almost there, I promise.”

“Yes, but you keep saying that, and then we’re not. And you won’t tell me what to expect.”

“I want to see what you think.”

“Unless there will be demon spells there—“

“Definitely not. You truly don’t need to prepare for this. There’s no wrong reaction.”

Liris frowned at him. “Clearly there is, or you wouldn’t be avoiding preparing me for this when you haven’t held back anything else.”

Vhannor blinked, pausing to look at her, like this honestly hadn’t occurred to him.

Before Liris could pursue the point, between one instant and the next Vhannor snapped into alertness and dodged as an assailant dropped down from the trees at him.

Liris had just started to launch herself in the attacker’s direction when Vhannor rolled to his feet, not tense any longer and drawled, “Hello, Shry.”

Liris almost tripped over her own feet halting mid-charge.

“Still got it,” Shry said smugly, spinning a long blade in her hand rapidly before sheathing it in one swift movement.

The woman was paler than anyone Liris had ever seen, her black eyes and all-black clothing stark in contrast to her long, shining white hair. She was also impossibly elegant, the way Liris imagined a large cat would be: all lethal grace, movement contained and economical until striking with impossible speed. Liris had barely seen Shry move, and not just because she’d been startled.

Vhannor didn’t look worried, brushing dirt off his shoulders. “Let’s get going again, shall we? Liris, Shry; Shry, Liris.”

Liris and Shry shot each other profoundly skeptical glances at that completely uninformative introduction.

Then Shry shrugged and fell into step beside Vhannor as if she hadn’t just attacked him for no apparent reason, and since everyone was pretending nothing had happened, Liris resumed her own position on Vhannor’s other side and tried to walk normally.

Shry said conversationally, “Thought you could sneak back in, did you?”

Vhannor rolled his eyes. “I’m hardly sneaking. This is the main path.”

“Should you be sneaking?” Liris asked. Then: “Could you even? Use a spell to hide?”

Vhannor stiffened—minutely, but Liris still caught it.

She frowned and then asked more cautiously, “Would you recommend I take more care with my speech for a time?”

“What? No—I mean, you can speak freely in front of Shry.”

This answered nothing. She’d clearly erred, but didn’t know how, which was the worst way to fail a test.

Her heart thumped faster. She took a breath and took a risk, asking bluntly, “Then what did I say?”

That brought Vhannor’s head up, and he stared at her intently.

Realizing she was giving him a chance.

Liris’ heart pounded.

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