“Yes.”
“Would it be selfish to wish for another war and that I’d be sent away from home?” Not that he truly wanted that, not unless Zenia could be sent away with him. Besides, with trolls skulking around in the countryside, he shouldn’t even joke about such things.
“Very much so.”
“Damn.”
“I’m sorry, Jev. I understand how you feel.”
He grunted in skepticism.
“Trust me, I do. My mother recently found out about a relationship I’ve been having, and she’s riding around the countryside right now, visiting zyndari mothers with eligible sons, hoping to arrange a marriage for me.”
“Ah.” He guessed she did understand. “I didn’t think you’d been seeing anyone.”
“I am.” Wyleria grimaced. “I was.”
“A commoner?”
“No, she’s the right social class.”
“Uh.” Jev stared up at the ceiling, his brain taking a while to figure out the ramifications of that pronoun.
“Just the wrong gender,” Wyleria added dryly.
“Did you change preferences in the years I was gone, or have I just been dense?”
She chuckled. “You are dense, but I was only fifteen when you left and wasn’t yet certain of my preferences.”
“Huh.”
He didn’t know what more to say. It was selfish, but he was far more concerned about his own future. Maybe later, when he figured out a way to be with Zenia, he could turn his mind toward helping his cousin. Or at least properly commiserating with her.
For now, he closed his eyes and willed meddling parents all over the world to disappear.
“What do you think they’ve been talking about in there for so long?” Rhi asked.
Zenia, sitting on a bench beside her, could only shrug. She’d picked up on Wyleria’s words that she’d been on her way into the city to discuss something with Jev before she’d heard about his injury. News from home, from his castle. It had to be. A message from his father?
She dreaded what that news might entail but told herself not to worry until she learned what it was. If he told her.
“I couldn’t guess,” she replied.
“Jev’s gift is still on his desk unopened,” Rhi said. She’d gone into the office that morning and run into Zyndar Garlok and the king. She’d mentioned Targyon was waiting for a full report.
Zenia would head up to the castle soon to deliver it. Fortunately, she had started preparing a written report while she’d been waiting for the healers to finish with Jev.
“I’m sure he’ll open it when he’s healed,” Zenia said. “He hasn’t been up there.”
“I once again resisted the urge to shake it.”
“Noble,” Zenia said.
“I thought so.”
“Ma’ams?” A young acolyte in white trousers and a tunic walked up with an envelope. “Is one of you Captain Cham?”
“Yes,” Zenia said.
The girl held up the envelope uncertainly. She was eleven or twelve. Zenia wondered if she was an orphan given to the temple to raise, as Zenia had once been, long ago.
“That’s the only clue we’re giving you,” Rhi said.
Zenia snorted and held out her hand. “What is…” She trailed off as she recognized the style of the writing on the envelope, elegant letters written in blue ink.
“Uh oh,” Rhi said, apparently recognizing it too. “Another message from your… helper?”
Helper. Was that the right word? She supposed so, since the last two clues she’d received had been warnings, apt warnings. But Zenia suspected this helper would ask for a favor one day or expect something in return. When she had some free time, whenever that might be, she would try to figure out who was sending these messages and how they were always a step ahead of her.
“Thank you,” she told the acolyte. “Where did you find it? Did you see who left it?”
The girl shook her head. “One of our monks brought it in from outside. He said it was leaning against the wall by the door and there wasn’t anyone around.”
“Of course not.” Zenia sighed and opened it as the acolyte returned to her chores.
“How did whoever is sending these know you were here?” Rhi waved toward the columns of the large prayer room.
“Who knows how he or she knows anything?” Zenia drew out the single piece of paper inside and unfolded it. As with the others, it was a short, simple message. “Avoid the elf.”
“The elf? We only know one. Unless you count that princess that we briefly met at Dharrow Castle.”
“It may not refer to Lornysh.” Why would it? “But to some elf we have yet to meet.”
“Or it could be Lornysh. Maybe he’s going to start some trouble.”
“He hasn’t yet. Why would he?”
“I don’t know, but what do we really know about him?”
“He’s Jev’s friend,” Zenia said. “That’s enough.”
“How much does Jev know about him? Do you know?”
“Enough to consider him a friend.” Zenia returned the paper to the envelope. She wouldn’t conjure up suspicions about someone because of a warning from a mystery person, especially when they had no idea which elf the message meant.
“Hm,” was all Rhi said.
“It could refer to that scientist we already arrested,” Zenia said, though she doubted it, not if this note had just been delivered.
“I guess we’ll have to keep our eyes out for pointy-eared suspicious types. And Lornysh.”
Zenia frowned at her, recalling that Rhi had conversed with Lornysh a few times while they’d been riding yesterday and other times. Zenia had usually been talking with Jev at those times. “Do you have a reason to mistrust him?”
“He hasn’t done anything to me, other than being flinty, but he’s secretive, don’t you think? We know nothing about him. I asked where he was from and how he liked Korvann once. He stared off into the woods and ignored me.”
Zenia held the envelope in both hands and gazed down at it. She would show it to Jev—she didn’t think she had mentioned this secret helper yet, and she should do that, regardless of whether this had anything to do with Lornysh. Whatever it had to do with, she had a feeling that more trouble was on the way.
THE END
Book 4: Elven Fury
1
Zenia whipped her arm up to block, but she was a split second too slow, and Rhi’s gloved fist glanced off her temple. Zenia winced and jumped back. Her heel came off the mat and onto the red clay floor tiles.
“You’re out of bounds.” Rhi lowered her fists and took a few steps back to the center of the sparring area. “My point.”
“Wasn’t it your point when you clubbed me on the side of the head?” Zenia, sweat making her loose exercise togs stick to her body, hesitated to follow her friend back onto the mat. She needed a break, and the tile felt deliciously cool under her bare feet.
“Nah, I barely touched you. No judge would count that. You were slow to block though. You should be sparring with me every morning before work.”
“I’m usually in the office before dawn.”
“Yes, and that’s pathetic considering there aren’t any trolls invading this week, and I haven’t heard about any other dire emergencies.” Rhi waved her gloved hand, an invitation for Zenia to return to the mat.
Zenia dragged her damp sleeve across her forehead and eyed the towels draped over the nearby bench. Elsewhere in the gymnasium, a couple of pairs of men wrestled or sparred, but the open area was mostly empty, with Kor’s subjects busy at work this time of morning.
One of the sparring men noticed her looking his way, and he threw a wink, then looked her up and down. He turned his bare chest toward her, puffed up like a peacock, and flexed his muscles. His partner slipped past his distracted guard and landed an uppercut on his chin. The man staggered back but made a show of dismissing the blow, thumping a gloved fist against his bare chest and leaping back in to take reveng
e.
“Just because we thwarted that scouting party of trolls,” Zenia said, not interested in the sparring men, “doesn’t mean an invasion isn’t still coming.”
“Have your reports suggested it?” Rhi asked.
“Nothing has escalated this week.”
“So, you’re just in the office from before dawn to after dusk each day to avoid thinking about Jev’s upcoming nuptials.”
Zenia grimaced. “I’m attempting to do the job the king has entrusted to me, nothing else. It’s a demanding position with a lot of responsibility.” Zenia unwrapped her padded gloves. “I need a break.”
“It’s only been an hour.”
“For some people, that’s considered a long workout.”
Rhi snorted. “Barely a warmup. Do you want to switch to a bo for a while?” She waved toward where her wooden staff leaned against a marble column.
“I don’t carry a bo around town, so that wouldn’t likely help me.”
“You could. Don’t Crown Agents get to wear what they want? And carry what weapons they wish?”
“A pistol is less unwieldy than a six-foot staff.”
“But not nearly as versatile. There are times when you only want to thump people, not kill them. Come on.” Rhi waved toward the center of the mat again. “Another half hour. This was your idea, remember? I thought we were going to visit informants, but you randomly dragged me in here for some reason. I usually work out in the castle gymnasium.”
“I know. I’m expecting someone.” Zenia glanced toward the large archway that led into the practice area, but it remained empty.
On the nearby mat, the two sparring men broke apart, one heading over to a bench. The one that had been posturing for Zenia dropped to the mat and did a series of pushups.
“Is it one of them?” Rhi waved toward the boys. They were well-built and handsome, and the one doing push-ups certainly knew it. He pushed his legs into the air, balancing carefully to do hand-stand push-ups. “Because if things don’t work out with Jev, I’m sure that one would scratch any itches you have.”
“I don’t need itches scratched.” Zenia looked away, hoping to convey that to the man. He kept glancing over, his head flushed red now, as he did his exercises. “Maybe you can get his address.”
Rhi twitched a shoulder. “Maybe. I’m actually a bit tired of men.”
“Going to switch to women?”
Rhi snorted. “No. I just mean that I went a little wild after tossing my monk’s gi—and my oath of celibacy—aside, and it wasn’t unenjoyable, but…” She shrugged again. “This will sound silly, but it was more fun when I was a monk.”
“Sex was more fun when you were celibate?” Zenia arched her eyebrows, though she knew full well that Rhi had sneaked men into her room in the temple.
“When I was supposed to be. And there was the possibility of being caught. It made it riskier and more exciting. A couple of times, my gentlemen visitors had to hide under the bed or jump out the window if a fellow monk knocked on my door.”
“I remember the morning you went out early to cut the thorny Bougainvillea away from your window.”
“A bit belatedly,” Rhi said. “I felt the need to apologize several times to Branik Chasinlar after he, in his haste to slip out before Archmage Sazshen entered, had numerous exposed parts perforated by thorns.”
“Was everything exposed?”
“Yes. My point is, that I’m not finding sex quite as stimulating.” Rhi looked over at the red-faced young man, who had completed his exercises and lay on the mat on his back, watching them. At her glance, he rolled to his knees and started a series of languid stretches to show off his musculature.
“Perhaps you should seek out a relationship, rather than a simple itch-scratching.” Zenia looked toward the archway again, wondering if she should head into the rest of the gymnasium to look for her contact.
Rhi grunted dubiously. “I’m not looking to get married. Or have babies. Can you imagine me as a mother?” She waved down her stocky frame. The exercise togs didn’t reveal her muscles, but Zenia knew they were there and that she could likely go toe-to-toe in a push-up competition with the young man.
“Not every relationship has to have that goal, I’m sure. You could seek out someone you enjoy spending time with, and maybe it would make you happy, no thorns or windows required.”
“The way Jev and his engagement to another woman is making you happy?”
Zenia winced.
“Sorry.” Rhi touched her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have said that. I just meant… Oh, I don’t know. Relationships seem like more of a complication than I want in my life.”
“Understandable.” Zenia hadn’t thought she wanted that complication, either, not while she was busy settling into a new job, and yet… She’d fallen in love with Zyndar Jevlain Dharrow, the unattainable nobleman. At least unattainable for someone who wasn’t noble herself. She sighed. “Let’s go visit the baths. The person I need to see may be back there.”
As Rhi went to pick up her bo, Zenia headed for the exit. The man who’d been trying to get their attention jumped to his feet and trotted over to intercept her.
“I believe the person you need to see is right here.” He patted his pectorals and smiled at her, his gaze dipping to her chest.
Zenia couldn’t imagine that she appeared sexy at the moment, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and stray strands plastering the sides of her sweat-dampened neck. Admittedly, her damp exercise clothes clung to her body and outlined her figure. The man’s long perusal up and down made Zenia uncomfortable.
“No,” Zenia said. “I’m looking for a woman.”
“That can’t be. Women don’t have the right parts.” He let his hand trail down his chest to the waist of his trousers.
“Back off, pervert,” Rhi said, coming over with her bo. “Nobody wants to see your parts.”
“That’s not true. Just last night, I entertained Zyndari Mekhari in her townhouse. She used the words stallion-like to describe me.”
His buddy ambled over, and Zenia hoped it would be to tell him to quit being an idiot and get out of the way, but he planted himself behind his friend and in front of Rhi.
“Are you two headed for the baths? Why don’t you join us?” He poked a thumb over his shoulder. “We can help you relax.”
“No, thank you,” Zenia said, missing the days when she’d worn an inquisitor’s robe and nobody had dared step into her path, to flirt or do anything else.
“No, and I’m not going to thank you.” Rhi jammed the end of her bo downward and would have hit one man’s bare foot if he hadn’t yanked it back in time. “Step aside. And keep your arms down. The aromatic stench of those pits is more likely to make your foes pass out than your wrestling skills ever will.”
Unfortunately, her insult only made the man grin and look at his friend. “I like a challenge.”
“Too bad you don’t like soap,” Rhi grumbled and moved to step around him.
He shifted, not grabbing her but blocking her path.
A hint of warmth came from the dragon tear Zenia wore on a leather thong around her neck, and it seemed to ask a silent question.
No, Zenia thought at it. We don’t need magical help. She didn’t want to use magic to hurt these men.
A sense of disappointment emanated from the gem, and though no words formed in Zenia’s mind, it managed to convey an, “Are you sure?” notion.
“Move your ass out of my way,” Rhi said, “or I’ll move it for you.”
“Go ahead and try.” The man’s eyes glinted. “I’ve been hoping you would ask me to wrestle since you first walked in.”
Rhi lifted her bo as she lowered into a ready stance.
Zenia, less enthusiastic at the idea of fighting with these loons, especially since they seemed excited by the idea, said, “Rhi is one of the king’s hand-selected Crown Agents. It’s against kingdom law for you to impede her. Please step aside.”
The man snorted. “Girl
s can’t be king’s agents.”
The bare-chested man in front of Zenia seemed less certain. He took half a step back, lifting his bare hands. But his buddy scowled and lunged for Rhi, as if he meant to rip her bo from her grip.
She used it, striking twice in rapid succession, to block his lunging hands. The humor vanished from his face, and his fingers snapped into fists.
Zenia’s dragon tear allowed her to sense people’s feelings and sometimes thoughts, and she keenly felt when the man’s thoughts shifted from wanting to show Rhi a good time to wanting to teach her her place, subservient to him. Zenia knew Rhi could take care of herself, but a true fight might bring the staff and end up with them kicked out of the gym.
Don’t hurt anyone, please, Zenia thought to her dragon tear as she pulled it out from under her tunic. But you can show them a little intimidating flair.
The gem flared a blue so intense she had to squint. The men flung their arms up against its brilliance and stumbled back.
Rhi’s would-be assailant recovered first and sneered at Zenia. “I’ve seen dragon tears before. You can’t scare—”
The mat under his feet lifted and was yanked to the side, as if someone had gripped the end and pulled. Someone with the strength to knock a grown man off his feet. He tumbled sideways, crashing into his comrade.
More mats stirred, and Zenia and Rhi scurried to the safety of the tiles. At least a dozen mats lifted into the air, twisting and snapping at the two men like living creatures. They shouted in alarm, trying to get to their feet and run. But the mats blocked their efforts to escape, just as the men had blocked Zenia and Rhi from escaping.
The other people sparring in the gymnasium gaped, their eyes bulging at the sight.
Zenia rubbed her face. This flair was more conspicuous than she’d had in mind. She tried to impart the idea of finishing up and putting the mats back down to her dragon tear.
Some of them settled back to their spots on the tiles, but other mats swept in and wrapped around the two men. Soon, they were pinned and bundled like stuffed gort leaves, with only their bare feet and their faces free. Their very red faces. They struggled, attempting to wriggle their arms out and escape, but the mats only tightened.
Agents of the Crown- The Complete Series Page 83
