Ashes And Spirit (Book 3) (52 page)

“Very good. It is Loki I need to speak with.”

“We will accompany you to his chambers.”

With her shoulders squared, Kalila started down the long hall with the Defenders on her heels. During the winter, the drafts in the halls were icy and uncomfortable. Now, in late summer, when it remained late summer, they brought refreshing coolness as they drifted by, making the torches in their sconces on the walls dance to its silent tune.

Striding toward Loki’s door, Kalila felt a moment of absolute freedom. For this moment, for this night, she wasn’t a queen. She was a young woman in love.

Loki opened the door before she could even knock. Kalila looked at him in surprise. “You’re awake.”

“Merru is on the roof. He overheard you and woke me.”

Closer inspection revealed creases in the side of his face from the pillow and tussled blond hair. Uncertainty took hold. “It isn’t that important. I can speak with you in the morning.”

She started to leave, but he caught her hand. “Kalila, if you need to speak with me, for whatever reason, now is fine.”

Nodding, she moved past him into the room. When he closed the door, she turned to look at him. His tall frame leaned back against the door with his arms folded over his chest. He’d grown again during his time in Shadereen. At least a couple of inches. His shoulders were broader, muscles more defined. A thin scar, much like those she carried on her own face, marred the side of his. Just in front of his ear, it ran from his temple down to his jaw.

Loki studied her with blue eyes that were harder and more serious than they had been the last time she saw him. Suddenly self-conscious of her scars, she tried to cover them with her hair.

“Don’t.”

Her hand froze. “What?”

“Don’t do that, not with me.”

She brushed her hair back over her shoulder.

“What is this about? Is everything all right?”

Kalila glanced away. “I…yes…and no.” She hesitated, unsure how to do this. “Markene is as good as it can be under the circumstances. Kalila the queen is also as good as she can be. However,” she paused again before saying softly, “Kalila the woman, not so much.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Why?”

The concern in his voice almost undid her. She swallowed, raised her chin, and looked him in the eye. “I don’t want to arrive at the end of my life regretting missed chances. As queen, it is my duty to place my nation first. Somewhere, I have to have a place for myself as well.”

“Where are you going with this?” He met her eyes with an unwavering gaze.

“Before you left, we admitted to having feelings for each other, and I said not now. If the border didn’t change how you feel about me, I’m saying ‘now’ is here.”

“The border changed a lot of things about me,” he said. “But it didn’t change that. Barring a bondmate showing up out of the blue, I don’t think anything ever will. If you are all right with that possibility, then now is good.”

“I won’t pretend that the thought of a woman one day becoming your bondmate doesn’t bother me. It is something I’ve thought quite a bit about and in the end, it doesn’t make sense to avoid what is between us now because of what may or may not happen sometime in the future.” Kalila waited with her heart pounding.

Loki nodded and remained silent so long she began to wonder what he was thinking. Had she said something wrong? Finally, he said, “May I kiss you?”

“You may.”

He crossed the room and took her face in his hands. Kalila swayed into him, losing herself in the kiss, in the moment. Time stood still as his arms wrapped around her and pulled her tight against his body. Tonight was theirs and they would go wherever it took them. All thoughts of food reports, soldier counts, and endless arguments with the Heads of Houses fled her mind.

M
aleena glanced down at the village tucked into the flanks of the massive mountains around it. Smoke curled from the chimneys of the cooking fires at the Stone Wagon Inn, her destination. Near the edge of the clearing around the inn, among the trampled grass and wild flowers, stood a three-wagon merchant train. Though it had only been a few years since she last saw Lowden, it felt like lifetimes. High above it, Nydara flew over the village in a lazy circle.

As out of the way as Lowden was, the villagers had seen nothing of the battle raging around them, though the tales of Trilene and dragons would have been carried there with the merchants. Now, with the entire east side of the Traders travel route broken and Yari in the path of the next battle, it was unlikely they truly knew the fate of Calladar on the far side of the mountains.

“Are we going to land or spend the entire day circling this little village?”

Maleena sighed. Nydara skirted what she was really thinking with her question.
“You mean am I going to procrastinate this forever?”

“Something along that line, yes.”

“I haven’t seen these people in years. I wasn’t exactly welcomed here—ever.”

Nydara snorted.
“Are you a Dragon Rider? Are you one half of the most powerful Spirit pair ever seen? Are you the woman who brought a man to his knees in the middle of a ballroom? Are you the woman who put the Heads of Houses in Markene in their place?”

“What kind of questions are these? Of course I am.”

“Then stop fretting about this little village and act like it.”

The silver was right; she was acting like a fool up here. She took a slow, deep breath to center herself and focused on the woman she’d become instead of the girl who had left this place.
“Your wisdom is once again appreciated, my friend. I’m ready when you are.”

With a rumble, Nydara made a sharp dive angled at the clearing around the inn. As they drew closer, she let out a tremendous roar to announce their arrival, as if everyone hadn’t already seen the massive dragon barreling toward them.

Those on the ground scrambled for cover amid the cries of alarm. Nydara’s mental chuckle echoed in Maleena’s head as the silver drew up sharp just in time to land gently. The wind from her wings sent the trees around the clearing swaying. Maleena shook her head.
“That wasn’t nice.”

Smug amusement threaded through Nydara’s return,
“What? I didn’t harm them. I do think I’ve set the mood for your return quite nicely though.”

“Thanks, I think,”
Maleena sent as she loosened the safety straps and leaped to the ground. While she removed the catcher strap, Maleena let her magic flare out in order to better gauge the reactions of the villagers. Fear, anxiety, and underneath, a thread of curiosity. At least it wasn’t all bad.

Silence hung heavy over the inn and the entire village. Nydara’s roar had stilled even the birds and the insects. Maleena tossed the catcher strap up on the saddle and then strode toward the inn until she stood halfway between it and Nydara.

People gathered around the edge of the clearing in the shadow of the trees. On the wide porch of the inn, Edadella stood close with her mostly grown sons. Maleena recognized several others as the same merchant and his guards who had come to Lowden every year for as long as she could remember.

Maleena lifted her chin, looked Edadella in the eye, and broke the silence. “I am Di’shan Maleena Wyndam, rider of the Silver Nydara and a Guardian of Galdrilene.”

A few gasps greeted her formal introduction. Edadella gathered her full, apron-covered skirt in shaky hands and moved to the steps, hesitated, then walked down them. “Why have you come to my inn?”

“Why have you come to Lowden at all?” Master Endle, the mayor of Lowden, stepped from the shelter of the trees into the sunlight. “I thought we were well rid of you.”

Maleena barely spared him a glance before returning her attention to the innkeeper’s wife. “Where is your husband? It would be best if he were present for this as well.”

Edadella shook her head slightly. “He passed into Maiadar the winter before last.”

“Very well then, I will speak with just you for now.”

“You had better start speaking to me, young lady,” Master Endle growled.

When Maleena looked at him again there were five other men gathered around him. Who knew that one day she would warrant the attention of the entire village council? “There is very little I had ‘better do,’ Delin Endle. Rest assured, I will speak with you when I am ready. What I have to say now is between Edadella, Arrah, and myself.”

Edadella placed a hand over her heart. “Arrah?” She cast a worried look at her youngest son. The lanky youth, if Maleena remembered correctly, had just entered his seventeenth year. He looked uncomfortable and afraid. “What could you possibly want with Arrah?”

Though the first flush of fall color tinged the trees, it was much hotter than normal this time of year in Lowden and the mid-day sun felt uncomfortably warm under the weight of the padded shirt and chainmail tunic she wore. “It would be best if we spoke inside.”

She strode past the innkeeper and those on the porch. Edadella caught up to her just before she crossed the threshold. “I don’t allow weapons in my inn.” She gestured to the slender sword hanging at Maleena’s waist.

Maleena stepped inside before glancing over her shoulder at the woman. “I’m not here to kill anyone; however, if I were it wouldn’t require a sword.” She settled into a chair at one of the two long tables. With the wide hearth in the main room unlit and the tall ceilings, it was quite a bit cooler than outside in the sun. “Sit.”

Edadella and Arrah followed her inside and sank into chairs on the other side of the table. Maleena looked at the group hovering in the open doorway. “Find something else to do with yourselves for now, this will be a private conversation.”

Endle barged across the porch and through the doorway. “You have no right to keep me or the council away.”

Maleena leveled a cold look at him. “I have every right. What I have to say to Edadella and Arrah is none of your concern. You may leave now.” Dismissing him, she turned back to the innkeeper and her son.

“How dare you speak to me like that.” He reached as if to grab her arm then his knees hit the floor as he cradled his head.

“I’ll speak to you however I wish. You are butting in where you have no business,” she said, releasing the weave she’d slammed him with. “And you will never attempt to touch me again, Delin Endle.” She raised an eyebrow at the council that stared at her and Delin. “Help him remove himself, and leave us.”

They scrambled to grab Delin and dragged him half standing out onto the porch. The door closed behind them.

Her face pale, Edadella gripped Arrah’s arm with one hand. “What…what is it you want?”

Maleena sighed, leaned back in the chair, and regarded them. “Edadella, I mean neither you nor Arrah any harm. I wished to speak with you first because Arrah can use magic.”

“No…” the innkeeper breathed. “No, he can’t. I’ve seen nothing.”

Arrah’s silence spoke volumes. Maleena looked directly at him. “Yes, he can. He can weave Earth magic. Can’t you, Arrah?”

He stared at the tabletop. “I didn’t mean to. It just…happened.”

“What happened?” Edadella looked at him in alarm.