Page 45 of Enchanted Shadows
Amos put a hand in the air. “Look. I have already said too much. I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to try anything. I’m merely Zara’s guardian of sorts. But I have been sworn to secrecy about how all that transpired and can’t risk her safety just to hand you the answers you seek. I can assure you, she is safe with me. Ask her yourself. Or take me to her. Though I know that is against the training rules, yes?”
Dammit. He had me there. “Yes. It is.”
“Ask her,” he repeated. “She will tell you I am harmless.”
The man before me looked awfully in shape for holding no job. “Why don’t you work in Nerede?”
“Again, related to what I just said. My current occupation is to be her guardian.”
The math wasn’t adding up here. “So she needs someone towatch out for her at all times? Yet you allow her out of your sight to train for ninety days?”
“She should be safe in Kavan Keep, correct?”
I stepped forward, ready to use fists to get some damn answers if I had to.
Emric slapped me in the chest to stop me.
“Ask her,” Amos repeated. “Again, none of this is my business to tell. I understand as her General you must have some questions given what she’s hinted at. Keep asking. She’ll tell you.”
“How do you know she’ll tell me?”
Amos took another swig of his beer. “I did my research before allowing Zara to fill out the paperwork.”
Emric chimed in, “Forgive me if this seems rude, but what do you do all day if you are a guardian for a woman that is in training hours away from you? We know that you don’t stay in this house all day, so do not even try to make it seem that you do.”
Amos smiled. He didn’t look scared or worried. He just smiled. “I keep an eye out.”
“For?” Emric asked. “Her family?”
Something about Amos’s phrasing had me asking, “So Zara is hiding from them?” If she could afford a personal guard, I wondered if she wasn’t from Rallis but hiding out in Nerede.
“Yes,” Amos admitted. “That is all I am willing to share, but yes. I believe I can give you that much.”
“Do they know she’s training in Kavan Keep?” Emric asked. The news about the team of all women hadn’t exactly been quiet. It’d spread around Wylan like every other juicy piece of gossip, like a winged wildfire devouring the levels of the kingdom until no stone was left untouched.
Amos took a breath. “I suspect they will know soon if they don’t already. But thus far, they have let it be.”
I was beginning to think she needed out of Nerede. And Rallistoo. “Will she even be safe to return here at the end of the first round of training?”
“If I do my job, yes. And if not, I suppose we both have about a month to figure that out, now don’t we?” He gave me a simple shrug. “You know where to find me.”
I took a long swig of my beer. “How is it possible that I finally hunt you down and am left with more questions than answers?”
Amos laughed freely. “I am not your enemy, General, but welcome to life with Zara.”
CHAPTER 15
We got the obstacle course taken down. We were increasing the self-defense training, having them fight each other one-on-one, and in a few weeks would be the maze, their final big test before the end of training. I was allowing them to use their Enchantments for sparring today, pairing up the non-Enchanted amongst themselves.
Miles and I were going first, showing them how it was done. Except about five minutes into it, I realized that neither one of us wanted to lose in front of the women.
At least this time we had the weighted practice swords instead of real ones.
Miles struck at my side, and I spun outward, ready for his upward attack.
I used my magic to slide him away from me, and he barely deflected my attempt to smack him in the head with a small log I had been slowly dropping from above him.
“That would’ve hurt,” he commented.
