Page 89 of The Turncoat King

He would accept some secrets for a lightness in her step.

* * *

“I have another request.”Ava handed the black scarf to the general.

General Ru took it, studying Ava’s work by the lamplight, and then lifted her jacket and shirt and wound the scarf around her waist.

“You aren’t going to wear it around your neck?”

“No. If they suspect you have your grandmother’s abilities, anything black will surely worry them. I decided last night it would be better to hide it completely.”

“It will work even better close to your skin,” Ava conceded. “So that’s an added benefit.”

The general inclined her head. “Good. So what is this request?”

“I overheard some of the plans being made to send scouting parties to check where you think the Kassian may attack. I would like to be in one of them.” She knew Luc would be unhappy about this, but the scouts left tomorrow. The one way to find out what the enemy was going to do was to listen to them, and no one could get closer, unobserved, than she could.

It would be too dangerous, too revealing, to sew an invisibility cloak for someone else. It would take too much explaining, and reveal too much about herself.

She had woven a fine problem that had caught her in its web. But she wouldn’t change anything. Her secrets were hers, and she would protect them. Protect herself.

“Why?” The general sat down on one of the cushions she kept in her meeting space, and Ava sank down opposite her.

“Because I would be useful.”

The general stared at her for a long moment and gave a slow nod. “You would reveal yourself to the other scouts? Tell them what you can do?”

“Not if I can help it, no. But if it means the difference between the success or failure of the Rising Wave, I would expose myself in a heartbeat.”

General Ru tapped her lips. “I agree that you would be a secret weapon. An extra chance at success. I was going to send Deni. I’ll let him know you will be joining him.”

“Thank you.” She rose up. At least Deni was a good friend. It would be easier to tell him the truth, if it came to that, than someone she didn’t know as well.

“Avasu.”

She turned back. “Yes?”

“You tell your lover about this, and tell him tonight. I don’t want to have to deal with his anger tomorrow morning.”

“I intend to.” As she walked out, she thought she saw the general give a rueful shake of her head.

She had always planned to tell Luc tonight. And she was glad that she had spelled their little bedroom to keep in all sound, because she feared it would get noisy. And not in the good way it had been last night.

Chapter 28

The feeling that someone meant her harm started the moment Ava stepped out of the general’s tent.

She paused, and Catja, who was back on guard duty, looked over at her.

“What is it?”

“I feel eyes on me. Unfriendly eyes.”

Catja nodded. “Sufro and I have been saying exactly that for the last half hour.”

Ava glanced at her, surprised. “Have you worked out what direction it’s coming from?”

The guard shook her head.