Page 72 of The Red Woman and the White Bear

“A decent effort for your first time raising a weapon in nearly a month,” Raif appraised, hardly winded by their fight. “Your strength will return. It’s your focus that concerns me.”

Kael, unbuckling his own leathers, cut a harsh glare in Raif’s direction. “I do not recall asking for your assessment of my skills, Captain.”

“And yet I’ve given it all the same,” Raif shot back, then sighed. “Did I make a mistake?”

“Beating me? Some would say so.” Kael reached up to retie his damp hair, pushing strands roughly back off of his skin.

“Bringing the girl, Kael. I shouldn’t have done so without your permission.” Raif sat down heavily on a bench at the edge of the training ring and dug at a rock stuck in the tread of his boot with his dagger. Kael sat on a bench adjacent. He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

“You made the right decision. I would still be shut away if you hadn’t.” It was a difficult thing for Kael to admit out loud, that this human girl had been the one to drag him back from the edge. Raif knew it, too, and kept his eyes on the stone in his boot while Kael spoke.

“She is not what I expected the Red Woman to be,” Raif said.

“Far, far from it,” Kael agreed. “My imagined version certainly would have been easier to kill.”

“She is as brave as I would have expected, though. It took very little convincing to get her to return once I told her of your injury, despite the way you parted.” Raif gave up on the rock and began stripping off his leathers. Kael did the same.

“Indeed, she is that.” To call Aisling merely brave felt like an understatement, but he couldn’t think of a word strong enough to describe her courage. Or, maybe, stupidity, to have returned to help the male who she believed wanted her dead. Whichever it was, he was thankful for it.

“Care to ride with me?” Raif asked, standing now with his leather chest plate tucked under his arm. “I picked up a perimeter post for this morning. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say you’d be unlikely to sleep if you returned to your chamber now.”

“I could use the distraction,” Kael agreed.

Once she’d been saddled, Kael mounted Furax fluidly and joined Raif at the tree line. His mare, slightly smaller but no less intimidating, stamped and snorted impatiently.

“You are the captain,” Kael said as they began their route. “Why do you continue to take patrols? Especially at this hour. This job is for far greener soldiers.”

Raif slashed at a low branch that hung over the trail and his horse kicked it aside when it fell to the snow-covered ground. “A good leader never asks their men to do what they would not themselves. And I like the quiet of the morning. It’s good for thinking.”

Itwasquiet, save for the birdsong of those which remained behind to winter there. Kael settled into Furax’s rhythmic movement and drew in a breath of crisp, cold air. It wasn’t often that he was out at this hour—he preferred sunset to sunrise—but there was something peaceful to being awake while the rest of his court retired for the day.

“And what is it that you have to think about?”Kael asked.

“The same as you, more than likely. The war, the future of your court. What the Red Woman means in all of this.” Raif scanned the deep woods, though there was no sign of movement. They hadn’t faced a threat this close to the Undercastle in years, but still the patrols continued like clockwork.

“What do you think?” Kael reached forward to brush a clump of snow from where it had fallen into Furax’s mane, then leaned back in the saddle. He wished for an advisor to tell him what to do, what could be done. Raif was as close as he would get; Aisling’s presence was certainly not a matter he would take to Werryn.

“I do not think she wishes to destroy you, as the prophecy would suggest. But,” Raif added thoughtfully, “it is a prophecy for a reason.”

“Even if she should stay and do nothing at all in its pursuit, it will come to pass regardless. Fate has already set things in motion.” Kael did his best to push feeling out of his voice. He was skilled beyond all else at cool rationalization, but his current situation was putting that skill to the test, and he was failing. There was a crack in that dam he’d erected long ago to hold back his emotions, to keep them out of his way, and it seemed only to spread each time he thought of Aisling.

“What will you do?”

Kael sucked in another deep breath of that sharp air. The cold in his lungs soothed him some. “She suggested seeking out the Silver Saints to act as some sort of mediator in a peace negotiation.” He pronounced their true name then, slowly, as though the words aloneheld the power to bring them back. The translation, though perhaps less impressive, felt somehow safer.

“The Silver Saints?” Raif barked out a surprised laugh. “Can it even be done?”

“I am not sure,” Kael said truthfully.

“I haven’t heard that name in an age. She’d have us return to the early days then? With the Silver Saints ruling over both courts?” Raif steered his horse down a narrower trail. Furax followed without direction from Kael.

“I am not sure,” he repeated. “I think that she is naïve and idealistic to believe such a solution could be viable.” He wished he could be, too. Seeing the hope shining in Aisling’s eyes had nearly broken him; he’d never felt such a thing. But he wanted to. And if there was anyone in the entire realm that might inspire it in him, it would be her.

Raif dug in a saddlebag and withdrew a flask. He took a pull, then offered it to Kael. “Maybe. But it is clear that she wants to protect you.”

“She is misguided.” Kael accepted the flask gratefully, the honey wine warming his tongue and throat. He stopped himself short of draining it and handed it back to his friend.

“She cares about you.” Raif finished it off then tucked the flask away.

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