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“What are you saying?”

For the first time, Ava heard a dangerous note in the general's tone.

“Can you wait a day?” she asked the warrior.

“Yes. If the chance is to meet with the Commander of the Rising Wave, it would be foolish to do otherwise.” But the look he sent her was suspicious.

Ava turned to the general. “He agrees it's worth his while to accompany us.”

The general looked between them and then nodded. “Tell him to make himself welcome. Make sure he knows where to get a meal. Be his guide here.”

Ava thought it funny. She'd only been part of the column for three weeks, but she inclined her head and moved away, gesturing to the warrior to follow her.

“How do you come to speak Skäddar?” the warrior asked her, and she suddenly grew tired of not having a name for him.

“My name is Avasu.” She touched her forehead and bowed in greeting. “I'm from the border with Skäddar.”

“Huh.” He inclined his head. “My name is Kikir.” He watched her with interest. “No rude comment about me and mine stealing your goats?”

“No.” She smiled serenely at him. They had reached Deni and Sybyl, and she waved a hand at the senior guards, introducing them.

“We should have the two of you fight each other in training, Avasu.” Sybyl gave a slow, evil grin. “See if those Skäddar moves of yours are effective against a Skäddar warrior.”

Ava smiled back. “I don't think fighting Kikir is what the general had in mind when she asked me to make him welcome.”

Her weapons master, Carila, had taught her everything he knew—it was part of his agreement with her parents—and she'd assumed he'd passed on his Venyatux fighting skills.

But everyone's surprise at how good she was, and some of the more adventurous moves she used in her fighting style, had told her she'd made a mistake in not underplaying her skill.

She'd thought she'd need to prove her worth as a soldier, and instead found herself under scrutiny for being too good.

Too late to backtrack, she'd begun teasing the Venyatux relentlessly about how the border mountain folk were simply better at the fight than their cousins from the steppes—that the thin air and the long nights had given the highlanders the lung capacity and the time to be better than their fellow lowland tribesmen and women.

It had become a goodnatured rivalry, with Ava, the only self-confessed mountain girl, continually having to spar with whoever wished to prove her wrong.

If it had kept her skills nice and sharp, that was just a bonus to being accepted. The unit she'd been assigned to had chosen to treat her as a bright younger sibling, boasting about her to the other units and trying to put her in her place amongst themselves.

She had a feeling that Kikir might not be quite so willing to believe her lies. Especially if the fighting style Carila had taught her had no connection to the Skäddar.

“What is she saying?” Kikir asked.

Ava hesitated, then shrugged. She'd made a promise to herself that she was lying enough just by pretending to be Venyatux. She would not lie any more than she had to. “Sybyl wants me to spar with you. I was taught a fighting style that incorporates Skäddar elements. And I have been beating most of the lowlanders because of it. They want to see me fight a Skäddar warrior. And they are hoping you will win.”

Kikir tipped back his head and laughed. “I agree.”

“None of you get too excited.” Ava couldn't help the humor that bubbled up in her voice. “We're riding hard today, to catch up with the Rising Wave.”

“Now, now. We have to take a break sometime,” Deni said, grinning. “We'll make time.”

Ava translated for Kikir, and the wiry Skäddar clapped Deni on the back in enthusiastic agreement.

“You don't look too put out by this.” Sybyl was watching her, her face tilted to the side. She seemed bemused.

Ava couldn't tell her years of being locked away, with no one for company, meant that she didn't mind having to fight if that's how she was accepted into the group.

The teasing, the jokes, they were like the sweetest sustenance to her after years of famine and drought.

“I'm not.” She smiled at Sybyl, and she knew the senior officer would take it as a challenge.