Page 26 of Ties of Bargains

“Ouch!” Harm gripped his arm and flinched away from the tree. “What was that for?”

“Don’t drop the rock. The Tanglewood doesn’t like it.” Val pointed. “You need to put the rock back where we found it.”

Harm grimaced, picked up the rock, and lugged it toward the boulder next to their tent. This time, he tucked the rock into its hole. The moss began growing over the rock again, subsuming the rock back into the forest floor.

Harm trotted back to her, halting with a look of focus that almost mirrored Daisy’s.

When Daisy wasn’t snoozing in the sun, as she was doing now. The dog was more than happy to spend a day here in the Tanglewood, sleeping in the sun, catching the occasional critter to keep them fed, and playing fetch with the rope.

“What tortuous exercise do you have for me now?” Harm spread his arms, though his grin took any of the bite out of the words.

He really was far too trusting. Too cheerful. She probably should break him of that. But she just couldn’t bring herself to do that any more than she could just hand him over to his fate. He was just too…endearing.

Annoying puppies that got under one’s skin.

Giving herself a shake, Val crossed her arms and eyed him. “You said you have some training with a sword.”

“Yes.” Harm crossed his arms as well, facing her. “You don’t have to sound so doubtful.”

Her eyebrows rose. Did he have to bristle at that after his dubious performance in fighting that monster wolf? “Yes, I do. Now go ask the Tanglewood to provide us two staves for sparring.”

“You don’t have swords stashed in your magical pocket?” Harm scratched his chin as his gaze dropped to her side, though he snatched his gaze back up to her face, his neck flushing, after only a moment.

“Yes, of course I do.” She might prefer knives, but she also had a good collection of long swords, short swords, sabers, several war axes, two spears, and even a halberd. It was just easier to carry her weapons in her pocket than openly on her person. “But I’m not ready to trust you with anything sharp just yet.”

Harm’s grin took on a lopsided tilt as he turned away and strode back to their small camp, nearly reaching the end of his ten-foot tether before he halted. He rested a hand on one of the trees. “Tanglewood, could you please provide two staves suitable for sparring? I would appreciate it.”

Val resisted the urge to shake her head. Harm had adjusted rather well to talking to the forest to request things.

The tree shivered for a moment before two lengths of wood dropped from the upper branches to land at Harm’s feet.

“Bedankt.” Harm gathered the staves and returned to Val.

He held out one of the pieces of wood, and she took it. The weight wasn’t balanced quite like a sword, but it would do.

Across from her, Harm gripped the end of his staff, already dropping into a fighting stance.

Not a bad stance. Perhaps he had some training after all. Now if that training was adequate remained to be seen.

Val moved from casually holding the stave to whipping it forward in a blink, aiming to take Harm off guard.

His eyes widened, but he brought his stave up to block without so much as a stumble backward.

Val threw herself into her next strike. She couldn’t maneuver as freely as she normally would, given the cord between them that would tangle around them if she tried too much fancy footwork. But she could still hit hard and strike fast.

Harm parried her blow, putting his shoulder and back muscles into it. With his longer reach, taller height, and greater mass, he could strike a decent blow of his own.

Val felt something like a grin tug her face. This sword practice might actually be a decent match after all.

Val drew her spare knife.She flipped her knife around to pinch it by the flat of the blade as she held out the hilt to Harm. “It’s time you tried again with a knife. Just remember…”

“Don’t cut myself with the pointy end.” Harm took the knife, flexing his fingers on the hilt as if testing the grip. “And I shouldn’t cut you with the pointy end either.”

“No, you should absolutely try to stab or slice me with the pointy end. You won’t succeed, but you need to try.” Val unsheathed a second knife. That lack of ruthlessness was Harm’s biggest weakness when it came to fighting. “While we’re sparring, I’m the enemy. You won’t learn if you hold yourself back.”

She wasn’t sure why she’d added the qualifierwhile we’re sparring.She was his captor, his enemy, and she was taking him to an unknown, likely cruel fate here in the Fae Realm.

“I…see…” Harm’s gaze dropped to the knife she held. “So you’re going to be attempting to stab or slice me?”

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