“Who was hunting you from Grimwalt?” Luc asked, stepping away from her a little so he could face her.
“I'm not completely sure but I think . . .” She realized Dak was still glaring at her, and her words trailed off.
“We need to smooth things over with the Skäddar and the Venyatux here, Luc. This is going to complicate things.” Dak shifted, looking away from them both, back toward the camp.
Ava could see the dance and leap of the campfire flames, and hear the laughter and conversation drifting over to them on the evening breeze.
She felt her heart squeeze, because Dak was right. This was going to complicate things.
She'd thought she'd sneak through the Rising Wave and find Luc quietly. Secretly. Perhaps keep up the pretense of being Venyatux, with his knowledge.
But she realized that was a foolish strategy. He was the Commander.
There would be no way to hide a relationship with him.
And if General Ru ever found out who she really was, she would assume Luc had known Ava’s secrets all along.
His reputation would suffer and he and her new friends would be hurt at her betrayal.
“Dak’s right.” She said it quietly.
Dak turned sharply. “So what do you suggest?”
There was more than a little venom in his tone.
“I didn't stop the fight and carry myself off,” she reminded him mildly. “That was someone else.”
“So it was.” Luc pulled her close again and kissed the top of her head. “I'll face up to my transgressions. Let's go.”
“Let's go?” Dak drew himself taller. “What do you mean? How can we explain what's going on here? I don't have a clear idea myself.”
“I have a suggestion.” Ava thought of the general's hard, blank eyes from this afternoon. “Can we skirt around the camp and approach the general’s tent without passing too many people? I'll speak to her alone.”
“Alone?” Luc frowned. “I'll come with you.”
“Let me talk to her first. I'm the one who has wronged the Venyatux, and I need to apologize to the general. Let her decide how she wants to handle things. I don't want my lie to affect your alliance with this column.” She didn't know if this was the right course, but it was the one way to protect Luc from all the baggage she dragged around with her.
So she would do it.
“That sounds . . . sensible.” Dak glanced at her sidelong. “We can get you to the general's tent.”
She nodded. She had a scarf in her pocket that would help her get to the general's tent on her own if she wanted to, and no one would stop her, but that was not something she would ever say.
She and Luc followed Dak, hands entwined, and she realized Luc didn't seem worried at all.
She looked up at him and gave him a smile as she squeezed his hand.
This was more than she’d dared dream while she’d been planning her revenge at her grandmother’s house, while she’d been racing through Grimwalt’s forests, and while she’d been traveling in the Venyatux column.
She wanted to carry on walking, Luc’s hand in hers, until everything was behind them and the world lay before them, with no responsibilities or cares.
Her mother had told her over and over that the truth about herself, both who her family was and what she could do, would be nothing but a danger to her.
Speaking the words of what and who she was had caught in her throat the few times she had been tempted to utter them. She had a sense of inevitability about telling Luc at some point, but she was greedy for more time with him before that day.
She would manage this.
She hadn't asked how his side and chest were. She had traced the wounds she had stitched with feather-light fingers as they made love out on the plain, and she had not found so much as a ridge of skin.
It was as if he had never been shot by an arrow and stabbed.
She glanced at his forearm, but she guessed that wound, too, where he'd been slashed with a sword, was probably also gone.
He must wonder about that.
He had already asked her once, before they’d been captured a second time by the Kassian. And she was sure, when they had time and privacy, he would ask again.
She would have to think carefully how she answered.
Dak had led them through the tents with an amazing sense of direction, and Ava felt a tingle at the thought.
There was more than one kind of magic.
She’d thought since she'd met him that Luc had something about him, too.
Something . . . more.
“We should announce ourselves, before someone takes us for the enemy,” Dak said, stopping a short distance from the general's tent.
“Stay here. I'll call you when I've spoken to her. I’ve been translating for the general since the Skäddar arrived, and I’ll be able to gain entrance.” That was all true, but the reason she would be able to gain entrance had nothing to do with the small job she'd done for the general earlier that day.
She doubted the Venyatux military leader would even remember her.
Luc released her reluctantly. “Shout if you need help.”
She nodded, reaching into the pocket of her cloak. As she walked away she heard Dak's harsh whisper.
“Help her how? We're surrounded by the Venyatu.”
She thought she heard Luc sigh in response.
His friend was obviously worried about him. Nervous about the woman who had captured his attention.
She couldn't blame him. Not completely.
She was deep in the long shadows now, and she wound the scarf around her neck. When she reached the general's tent, she called a soft greeting.
“Enter.” The general's sharp answer had her guards turning, suddenly realizing Ava was right beside them as she pulled the scarf away.
She stepped into the tent before they could do much more than gape, but she saw the instant of recognition in their eyes, and they settled back into place.
They would assume she had come to pass on information she'd gleaned from the Skäddar warrior.
That suited Ava just fine.
The general started at the sight of her and stood. “Who are you?” She frowned, and then snapped her fingers. “The translator! Come here to tell me . . . what?”
“Nothing to do with the Skäddar, I'm afraid.” Ava bowed her head.
“What else could you tell me?” The general sat back down on a cushion and waved at one for Ava to do the same.
Ava lowered herself down, and drew her cloak even closer around her. “It's a bit complicated, I'm afraid.”
Chapter 6
Ava took a long time in the general's tent.
So long, Luc began to move toward it, worried for her.
Dak swore, then got into step with him.
“I don't recognize you,” he said.
Luc tilted his head. “Is that so?”
“Could she have enspelled you? She's from Grimwalt, and they're more likely to have magic than most.”
Luc quirked his lips. He had wondered that himself, a time or two. And found he didn't care. “Have you ever heard of a spell that lasted two months?”
Dak didn't respond.
The guards from the general's tent were far more alert to their approach than he'd seen them be for Ava's, but then she had been traveling with the Venyatux for weeks now, and they knew her.