Page 160 of Lady for Embers

How much of a mess had his life become that he was envying being raised by an Assassin Lord, taught to take and kill, instead of being raised in the comfort of a castle?

He was so tired of all of it.

He’d been wandering around the maze for at least twenty minutes when voices carried to him. They must have been directly on the other side of the hedges.

“Have you traveled much among the continent?”

“No,” Tava answered. “I rarely left Baylorin. My father was rather protective.”

It was subtle, but Callan could hear the in?ection in her voice when she said “father” and “protective”. As if the words were questions rather than part of her explanation.

“Going to the Black Halls was the ?rst time I had ever left Windonelle,” Tava continued.

“And here you are. Across the Edria Sea,” Hale replied. “How are you liking Avonleya?”

“I have not seen much of it,” Tava answered. “Other than the trip from the docks when we ?rst arrived.”

“Well, that will not do. You ?nally get a chance to see some of the world, and you are sequestered away to estates.”

“I suppose that is the nature of my position.”

Callan halted. He hadn’t realized he’d been moving along beside them on this side of the hedges.

“It would be my pleasure to take you into Aimonway in thenext day or two. Let you see some of the city,” Hale was saying, his voice getting farther away as they continued on.

“That sounds lovely,” Tava said. “As long as Lynnea is provided help in my absence.”

“You enjoy being with the children each day?”

“I do not mind it,” Tava answered. “It is a place where I can contribute and help. One less thing for the others to worry about. Or at least I hope that is the case.”

Callan hurried to catch back up to them as they moved farther down the path. He had been trying to spend at least a few hours at the Coventry Estate each day and helping where he could. But he was also training intensely with Eliza for a few hours every day, attending various meetings, and getting updates from the others. Tava, however, was normally there before the sun was up and stayed until she returned to get ready for dinner. Rarely did she attend any meetings anymore, and it never failed to bother Callan some. She should be there. She had insights that they tended to gloss over or not even see. She was just as valuable to those meetings as the rest of them.

“You seem close with Princess Eva,” Hale said.

“Perhaps too close,” Tava said. “Perhaps I have overstepped in that area, but I know what it is to grow up without a mother. I know what it is to have a father or brother trying their hardest but wishing you had a mother to talk to. I do not wish to replace her mother, and Callan is wonderful and is doing the best he can. I just... want her to know she has someone else.”

“And Callan?”

There was a pause in their conversation, and Callan found himself holding his breath.

“What of him?” Tava asked.

“Princess Eva seems to think you will marry him.”

Another pause, and gods, Callan wished he could see her face. He would know where to look, what little tells to watch for as she answered.

“I can understand why she would think that,” Tava said slowly. “It is all quite complicated for something that should, to be frank, be so simple.”

“That can be said of many things in life,” Hale replied.

“Indeed it can.”

Their voices trailed off as they continued on whatever paththey were wandering. Callan, however, found himself at a dead end, unable to follow, and wasn’t that godsdamn poetic?

“Are you sure she didn’t cheat?” Razik grumbled, his eyes ?xed on Eliza as she slashed the spirit sword she had won through the air, her orange ?ames swirling around the blade and arcing with the swing.

“You know she didn’t, Razik,” Commander Tybalt said sternly, eyes narrowed on his nephew.

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