“Let them through.” The general's voice floated from inside the tent, and the guards reluctantly parted.
Ava sat on the cushion Luc had been on earlier that evening, as comfortable and relaxed as the general.
“So. This is your friend you were worried about.” The general's gaze was sharp on Luc's face.
He nodded.
“Well. She has told me the story of how you met in Kassia. I had heard you’d been captured, but when you sent me a missive from the Rising Wave three weeks ago, I assumed it was false information.”
“Someone in my column was working for the Kassian. I trusted him, and it led to two deaths and my capture.” Luc still thought sometimes of the look on Derek's face as the Kassian had thrown back the cloaks they’d used to disguise themselves.
It hadn't been triumphant, or even gleeful. It had been full of shame.
He wondered what had happened to the young soldier. Luc had never seen him again.
He must remember to ask Dak or Massi about it.
“Escaping from a northern Kassian fortress can only add to your legend,” General Ru said. “You should not keep it a secret.”
“Those in the Rising Wave know what happened to me.” Luc lowered himself beside Ava, careful not to sit on a cushion. “It isn't a secret.”
“Good. It’s not well known among the Venyatu but that will change when I tell my officers that Ava was my spy, and was also caught. That she met you in the fortress dungeon and you escaped together. She left you to work her way through Grimwalt to Venyatu.”
“But that isn't true.” Dak looked between Ru and Ava.
“No, but it suits both Ava and I for it to be considered true.” The general smiled a strange smile as she glanced at Ava.
“Why?” Dak was blunt, but in truth, Luc wondered, too.
“Because Ava can be a good liaison between our columns. She's been accepted as Venyatux here, and yet she is the lover of the Commander of the Rising Wave. That is all positive, as far as I am concerned.”
“That can't be the only reason.” Dak shook his head.
“It isn't. But Ava has explained her situation to me, and asked me to do this, and I have agreed to it.” General Ru looked smug.
Ava had promised her something. Or offered her something. Luc didn't know what she had to offer, but he was sure of it.
“Ava?”
“I have made friends here over the past weeks. Friends I will be sorry to lose when they discover I've been lying to them.” She looked up from her lap at last. “And it is much safer for me to be a Venyatux in the Venyatux column than the Grimwaldian ex-prisoner of the Queen's Herald.”
Given the Kassian spies he knew must still lurk in the Rising Wave, that was very true. But . . . “There is another reason you aren't telling me.”
She hesitated, looked over at the general, and received a nod. “The general would like my help negotiating a trade agreement between Grimwalt, Venyatu and the Skäddar. That is the price the Skäddar have asked for in return for spying for us on the Jatan border.”
“How can you help with that?” Dak's tone bordered on disrespectful, and Luc felt a sharp pain in his chest that the man he considered his brother was so hostile to his lover.
“Because my parents were Grimwalt's trade emissaries before they were murdered by the Kassian. I have some influence in the Grimwalt trade department.”
“And there you have it,” General Ru said. “The benefits to us both are very clear.”
Luc took Ava's hand. “You're going to continue to pretend to be Venyatux?”
She nodded. “You haven't told many people in the Rising Wave about me and how we met, have you?”
He shook his head. “Only Dak, and my other two lieutenants. They will keep your secret.”
He looked over at Dak, and his friend gave a slow nod.
“Then it’s settled. I will have to call my own lieutenants together and lie to them a little, but sometimes leaders must consider the greater good, mustn't we, Commander?”
“Unfortunately.” Luc had a feeling he was being laughed at, but he didn't have it in him to care.
“It is so late, you will surely stay the night?” General Ru rose up. “I will get someone to show you to our guest tent.”
Luc got to his feet. He would be staying in Ava's tent, but he didn't need to say that here.
“Thank you, General.” Ava touched her forehead and bowed.
“I met your grandmother once,” Ru suddenly said to her. “You are not in my debt.”
Ava seemed to pause, and Luc wondered what she saw in the general’s eyes before she gave a final nod and turned away to lead them out of the general’s quarters.
A guard appeared to take them to the guest accommodation. Ava glanced at Luc and he sent her a quick smile.
She smiled back, falling into step with him until they stood outside a large tent big enough for at least four.
The guard left them at the entrance.
“You're not sleeping here, are you?” Dak asked.
“No.”
“I’m supposed to watch your back, Luc. I can't do that if I don't know where you are.”
“My tent is close to where you found us earlier. He'll be safe with me.”
Ava's tone was earnest. She was trying to appease Dak, and Luc decided if his friend didn't start at least pretending to accept Ava, he would have to beat some sense into him.
“It doesn't matter anyway. He'll go with you, however much I object.”
“I just want a little time for myself.” Luc put a careful hand on Dak's shoulder, because he felt like hitting out at him, rather than making peace. “No one will know where I am. I'll be safer with Ava than in the guest tent, surely?”
Dak shrugged gracelessly, and Luc turned away from him, unwilling to show his frustration and anger.
Ava continued to look at Dak for a beat, and then she turned, too, took his hand and led him into the darkness.
The dawn light filtered through the thin canvas of her tent, and Ava tilted her head to look up at Luc. She was tucked up close against him, and filled with a warmth and joy she realized she may have never felt before.
They had spent only three nights together before now, and they had either been prisoners or hunted for every one.
This . . . this was a gift.
“Have we ever not had to run for our lives when we've been together?” Luc's voice was a rumble in her ear.
She smiled against his chest. “I was just thinking the same.” She stretched against him. “Although I do have to get breakfast and go, because I'm on guard duty this morning.”
He stilled beneath her. “You’re going to continue with that?”
She met his gaze. “It might be possible to pull back on that a little when the general's story about me starts to circulate, but for now, yes, I’d better keep to my schedule.”
He regarded her with serious eyes. Ran a hand down her naked back. “Was helping negotiate the trade deal all that the general wanted from you?”
Ava nodded, but her fear at the general’s parting comment was a tingle against her lips.
If General Ru knew her grandmother, she just might know who her relations were on her father’s side.