Home > The Turncoat King (The Rising Wave #1)(7)

The Turncoat King (The Rising Wave #1)(7)
Author: Michelle Diener

“You want to stay?” Dak asked, and he sounded resigned.

“Let's see,” Luc said, trying to fight the compulsion. He knew it made no sense, and yet, he couldn't let it go.

The guard assigned to lead them to the Skäddar warrior paused to speak to someone in low tones. When he turned back to Luc and Dak, he was grinning.

“The Skäddar warrior is this way. He's sparring with one of our best fighters and we're hoping he wins.” His smile widened as he led the way.

“Why are you hoping he defeats one of your own?” Dak asked.

“Because she's from the mountain border with Skäddar, and has been teasing us steppe-dwellers about how the highlanders are superior. It will be very good to see someone land her on her arse.”

“None of you have been able to?” Dak lifted his brows.

The guard gave a grunt. “Not yet.”

Luc could tell they were close to the sparring match. The sound of cheers and whistles started up, and ahead of them was a circle of soldiers, all looking inward.

The guard led them around the side, to where the crowd wasn't as thick.

The sun had almost completely set, so two torches had been driven into the ground to illuminate the fighting ring, and the opponents were already circling each other.

The man was obviously Skäddar. Luc had met only a few of the northern dwellers before, but they all had markings on their faces like this one.

The Venyatux highlander was much smaller than her opponent, and had her back to them.

Luc felt the air freeze in his chest and throat as he recognized her hair first—a little longer than it had been since he'd last seen her a month ago but still much shorter than everyone else's.

Ava.

She ducked as the Skäddar swung his fighting stick at her head, and the vicious, no-holds-barred move forced a sound out of the back of Luc's throat. Shock and anger seemed to deafen him, a roaring in his ears.

Ava spun, but her attention was on keeping from being struck down, and she never looked his way as she grabbed the bottom of the Skäddar's jacket, twisting it in her hand and using it as leverage as she kicked up her legs and swung herself behind him.

He staggered, off-balance, and she chopped at his neck with the blade of her hand.

He stumbled forward with a roar, and in the moment when she had nothing to do but watch her opponent stagger toward the crowd, her gaze met his.

For the first time since he'd seen her, she stopped moving, no longer the fluid, quicksilver adversary she had been.

The Skäddar managed to stop himself before he ploughed into the spectators, and turned.

Luc realized the moment he saw she was distracted, the sudden acceleration as he leaped toward her, stick raised.

He shouted her name and she snapped back to the fight, too late to avoid the onslaught but quick enough to slide her body to the side, so the blow landed on her upper arm.

The wooden sparring knife she had been holding dropped from her grasp, and she staggered to the side. Even then, her gaze returned to his face.

The crowd had realized something was happening, because a few started to murmur, and one to shout out a question, but the Skäddar was caught up in the fight, not able to read the change in circumstances.

He spun to get momentum, stick raised, to hit her while she was off-balance, and Luc leaped, grabbing the stick out of his hands and knocking him to the ground.

He stared down at the Skäddar for a moment, the rage, the desire to kill, riding him so hot he almost gasped for breath. But he pulled back his temper, and instead snapped the stick in two with his hands.

The Skäddar had been about to shout at him in outrage, but the look on Luc's face had dried those words up.

Luc deliberately turned his back on the warrior, to find Ava standing, staring at him.

She was holding her injured left arm. “You are here. You came to find me.”

“I did.” He dropped the two pieces of the Skäddar's stick, scooped Ava up and turned, found every eye was on them, mouths agape. “I will always come to find you.”

Even Dak was staring at him, wide-eyed.

He didn't care. He had everything he needed right in his arms.

He shoved his way through the crowd and into the now dark camp.

“Where to?”

She lifted an arm and pointed, and he blundered through the tents, avoiding the ropes, until he reached a patch of ground that seemed to be empty.

“There,” Ava murmured to him, but he couldn't see anything where she was pointing, and he carried on walking out onto the plain.

He knew this place. It had once been his home, long ago.

He would win it back. And he would win Ava, too.

 

 

Chapter 5

 

 

“I was almost afraid to go looking for you tomorrow.” Ava brushed a finger down Luc's chest, her voice still a little breathy.

Luc shifted on his cloak and cupped a hand to her cheek, rubbed his thumb over her cheekbone. “Why afraid?”

“Because it has been two months since we said goodbye, and I didn't know whether you would be glad to see me, or not.”

“Ava.” His hand stilled. “I don't think I could have made it any clearer that I wanted you to come. That I will always want you, and if you don’t come to me, I will come to you.”

She gave him a wry smile and lifted naked shoulders. “Doubts crept in.”

“Never doubt when it comes to me. I will never not be happy to see you.”

She leaned forward, pressed herself against him, and wondered if that was true. If he knew everything about her, he may not be so hasty to say that.

But some secrets were hard to let free.

Beneath her, Luc went still.

“Someone is coming.” He handed her her clothes, and she took them and scrambled up so he could stand as well.

They dressed silently, and Ava tensed a little when she swung her cloak around her.

Whoever was looking for them didn't mean her harm, exactly. But they weren't feeling friendly toward her.

“Do you think it's an enemy?” she asked Luc, glad he still had the handkerchief she had given him as protection.

When they had started kissing, started undressing each other in desperate, jerky movements the moment they were far enough away from the camp, she had been delighted to find it tucked into his shirt.

He had stuffed it back as she watched him dress. It pleased her immensely. Although it was possible the protective working had slowly degraded.

She had no sense of how long her work lasted, but she had something new she had been making for him. Something better than a handkerchief.

He shook his head. “My lieutenant, Dak, is my guess.” He drew her close to him, tucking her under his arm in a move so protective, Ava looked up at him.

She hadn't woven a working into Luc's handkerchief that included protection of her, so Luc must know his lieutenant didn't like her.

And yet, the man had never met her.

She braced herself as he appeared out of the darkness; for what, she wasn't quite sure.

“I was worried.” Dak spoke to Luc, but his gaze was on Ava. “They say you're from Venyatu, from the border with Skäddar. But you told Luc you were from Grimwalt.”

“I lied to get into the Venyatux column. I was being hunted by two men from Grimwalt, and I needed the Venyatux to take me in quickly and without suspicion. My weapons and defense master was from the Venyatux highlands, so I told them I was from his home region. It was the only place in Venyatu I could speak about confidently.”

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