Page 83 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
Drue froze. She looked distant for a moment, as though she were toiling through every instance like this from her past. Slowly, she nodded. ‘Thank you.’
Talemir inclined his head.
‘You would have killed him,’ she commented.
‘Without hesitation.’
‘But you didn’t… Why?’
‘You didn’t want me to.’
‘It’s that simple?’ She raised a brow at him. ‘Just like that, a mighty Warsword is mine to command?’
Gods, he wanted to kiss her, wanted to tell her that his shadow-infested heart was hers and hers alone to command, to do with as she willed.
Instead, he forced a laugh. ‘Don’t let it go to your head.’
Drue eyed him, her face grave. ‘Teach me. I will not be the only Naarvian who missed out on training because of some prick.’
‘You saw our demonstrations.’
‘It’s not enough. Show me. Show me how to best you.’
And so Talemir did.
Outside,Wilder had overseen the rest of the sparring session and assembled a weapons checkpoint with Drue’s father, Fendran. The master forger sat at a makeshift table in the town square and the Naarvians lined up before him to present their blades for assessment.
As Talemir and Drue approached, Talemir noticed the older man’s hands shaking as he took each blade and held it out before him. Drue’s intake of breath beside him told him she’d caught it as well, and she didn’t hesitate to go to her father’s side. There, she whispered to him, and Talemir saw the telltale signs of a child trying to reassure their parent, but Fendran’s furrowed brow did not abate.
‘He’s worried for her.’ Adrienne’s voice sounded from Talemir’s left and he turned to find the general leaning against a nearby post, her gaze on the Emmersons. ‘Fendran’s already lost a wife and four sons to this damn conflict…’
‘He won’t lose Drue,’ Talemir replied. ‘Not on my watch.’
‘Nor mine,’ Adrienne vowed. ‘But it’s easy to forget that he’s old. He always looks so strong and powerful in the forge, surrounded by his hammers and fires. Out here… he looks frailer than I remember. I think Drue sees that too.’
‘He’s not to take part in the battle,’ Talemir said.
To his surprise, Adrienne didn’t recoil at the command. Instead, she nodded. ‘I’ve already given the order.’
Before long,noon was upon them and Adrienne had the Naarvian forces assembled on horseback. Talemir found himself once more next to Wilder, their stallions eager to ride out beneath them.
Talemir was relieved to see that Drue rode beside Adrienne, and that the bastard Coltan was nowhere in sight. Talemir wasn’t sure he trusted himself not to obliterate the lout again if he laid eyes on him so soon after what had transpired earlier.
His gaze found Drue again —
‘You wear your heart on your sleeve alongside that totem,’ Wilder said, nodding to the emblem of three blades that graced the band around Talemir’s bicep.
Talemir looked from his Warsword totem back to Drue across the way. ‘What does it matter?’
‘It tells the world your weakness, Tal.’
Talemir steeled himself against the truth of those words. ‘I have no weakness,’ he told his protégé.
At Adrienne’s command, they rode out.
The half-day’s ride to the compound passed quickly, and as evening fell, they moved into smaller groups and surrounded the stronghold as planned. Night settled around them, and without thinking, Talemir positioned himself at Drue’s side, where together, they waited for the general’s signal.
Atop the crest in the land, overlooking the raiders’ base, the Naarvian units were stationed half a league apart. In the dark, the signal finally came: three steady waves of a torch.
