Page 10

I dismounted from Vulcan in a fluid movement. Because I knew the return journey home would be easier, I wore only my right arm of armour over a black buckled gambeson. I drew my sword from its sheath.

“Cyrian, Olba. Come with me.”

They were two Osacanians of Elendur’s royal guard, the ones I trusted most and whom I had stationed outside our room last night.

They were accomplished warriors. Three of us against a dozen thieves was more than enough.

Cyrian was nearly as tall as I, bald and unshaven.

Olba was younger, with childish chestnut curls framing his face and cheerful blue eyes.

“Do...My lord!” cried Ashana.

I immediately turned to her. How lovely she looked, my wife, all dressed in black—like me—on my Friesian stallion.

Dignified even in her posture, with the aura of a humble princess and captivating green eyes to die for.

I smiled at her. It was quite unreal, the power this woman had over me.

All I had to do was look at her and I’d grin like a fool.

“Yes, my lady?”

Ashana cleared her throat.

“Are you really going with just three?”

I immediately understood what she was getting at.

How could I explain to her, without hurting her feelings, that while the Muvarians were sadly bad in combat, the Osacanians were formidable, and that it was for this reason that her country had lost the war?

That this was also why three of our men were more than enough to beat ten Muvarian thieves?

I opened my mouth without a clue as to how to phrase my response.

“Yes.”

That’s the best I could do. Sincerely.

“Massim spoke of ten thieves. Ten,” she insisted.

I nodded as I felt my men on the verge of bursting into laughter. They were holding back so hard that their bodies were beginning to tremble with spasms.

“I know, my lady.”

“Are you telling me that the three of you can take down ten thieves?”

How do I get out of this mess?

“That’s not what I said,” I countered, with what I hoped was a charming smile.

Ashana’s eyes widened slightly in astonishment.

“That’s what your actions imply.”

I scratched the top of my head, embarrassed. I had to come up with an idea, and fast.

“I’m very strong, you know.”

“I don’t doubt it. But it’s still ten highwaymen. Can you really take on ten armed men on your own?”

“I can,” I asserted without hesitation.

At that, she pointed alternately at Cyrian and Olba with her index finger.

“So, I suppose you don’t really need them.”

Instinctively, I turned to my men, who were doing their utmost to hide their desire to explode with laughter. A single look from me silenced their urge to cackle like turkeys.

“I suppose, yes,” I articulated, before turning my attention back to my wife.

She gave me a beaming smile.

“You really are strong.”

Gosh. This was why I avoided being boastful. It spared me from getting myself into this kind of impossible situation. Without taking my eyes off Ashana, I announced in an irritated voice:

“Cyrian, Olba, look after Lady Ashana while I deal with these ruffians alone. ”

I advanced into the woods that covered most of the area to the right of the road we were travelling to reach the Muvaria border, still furious at having been tricked.

Sure, I found my wife sublime, and I was attracted to her, there was no denying it.

But now I knew she was also a clever little pest. I stopped.

Ah. They are here .

I felt them. I could even hear their hearts beating fast. There were twelve of them, to be precise.

“Don’t waste my time. Come out of hiding. Even those hiding in the trees,” I announced coldly, swinging my sword in the air.

I waited a moment and then, finally, a blond guy of average height, but with the long, thin build of a serpent, emerged from the thicket. He wore a sword around his waist and shoddy boots.

“What do we have here, friends?” he crooned. Looks like a quality nobleman. A knight without armour, perhaps?

I preferred to ignore his provocation.

“Let me put it to you simply: leave and stay alive. Insist...and die.”

“I don’t like your proposals, knight.”

“That’s your problem. So?”

A flash of anger crossed my interlocutor’s dull brown eyes. He made a discreet gesture with his hand. The next instant, I caught an arrow in flight from the heights behind me. I let out a long sigh.

“It’s not going to work. Whatever plan you have in mind, it’s not worth it, I assure you,” I warned, weary of his obstinacy.

“I’ve got more than one archer,” argued my opponent, likely the leader of the thieves. “Dodging one arrow is easy, but twenty?”

“Why don’t you give it a try?” I suggested, smiling all the while.

For a brief moment, he hesitated. But he seemed to recover and ordered his men to shower me with arrows.

At the same moment, I drew on my power, drawn directly from my innermost nature.

It formed a sort of translucent shield around me, slightly tinged with red and burning hot like flames.

All the arrows immediately turned to ash on contact. Not a single one reached me.

The leader of the thieves turned pale. His gaze met mine and he understood. I knew my irises must be glowing like the embers of a fire ready to spew out its flames.

“You’re not human,” he stammered, terrified.

I grinned, amused.

“Ah. Finally, it seems you’re capable of discernment. I’d had my doubts. What do you think? Do you still wish to face me?”

He hesitated, then miserably bowed his head in surrender.

“We’re leaving, my lord.”

I heard them all—without exception—retreat. Some were disgruntled, convinced that we were carrying a great deal of loot with us. I had asked my men not to wave the Elendur banner to facilitate our journey. A very happy decision.

Upon returning, everyone noticed, not without a certain amazement, that my clothes were not stained with blood.

Cyrian raised a questioning eyebrow, to which I responded with a shrug.

If the three of us had gone as I’d originally planned, I could have had some fun with a bit of action; being alone, the best and quickest thing to do had been to scare them off.

“Is it already finished?” said Ashana.

Her surprise was genuine. Frustrated, I resumed my place on Vulcan.

“Yes. When they saw me approach, they mistook me for a demon capable of annihilating them all with my evil powers and ran away.”

“The people of Muvaria do not believe in demons.”

I smiled coldly, remembering the look on the thief’s face when he realized my nature.

“Well, these Muvarians believe it now.”

I signalled to the rest of the troops to get back on the road, then commanded my horse to do the same.

“How can you not believe in demons? You’ve seen Paivrin’s powers. Besides, magic is everywhere. It’s impossible for you to ignore it,” I said.

Ashana didn’t answer immediately.

“Actually, it’s not that we don’t believe in it in the literal sense. It was my father who forbade us to believe in magic and demons, by putting pressure on the High Priests of the One God.”

“Why is that?”

“Because of the colour of my hair. No one in Muvaria has this shade. The one reminiscent of blood.”

“And the ruby,” I added.

I would have gladly slapped myself for the trouble. The ruby was my stone. Mine. Ashana was my wife. The equation was simple, wasn’t it? I could already see Paivrin’s strange yet clearly mocking gaze on me.

“He thought it would be easier for me, his first child, to live in our world if the people didn’t perceive me as demonic. Even on a diplomatic level, my hair was becoming a problem,” she finally sighed.

I noticed the sadness in her voice. A mysterious impulse urged me to console her, to tell her that everything would be alright from now on, and that the first person who dared call her a demon would have his head torn off.

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” I said.

Ashana let out a bitter laugh.

“No one can control the fear felt by others, especially if they are in large numbers.”

“We’ll see. It only takes the appearance of something that terrifies them more than a hair colour for them to forget the latter.”

“Ah? And you have that in your leather satchel, along with a clean shirt?”

“It could be.”

I immediately thought of the Abyss and its monsters, which were gaining ever more ground.

Perhaps Muvaria was still far from its clutches, but it was only a matter of time.

I kissed the nape of her neck in comfort.

Oh, a brief kiss; too short to ignite my senses, but long enough for me to taste the flavour of her skin.

Ashana jumped and stiffened. I immediately cursed myself.

It was the persistent feeling that I’d known her all my life. As if the young woman was a part of me that I’d just discovered. A different part, but strangely complementary.

“You don’t like me touching you?”

The question burned my lips. If that was the case, my nights would be long and my agony certain.

“It’s not that,” she began hesitantly.

Praise be to our Father!

I smiled inwardly at the relief I felt after hearing her answer. It might not take many full moons before I turned into a lovestruck youth, enamoured with his lady .

It was hard to imagine being stripped of my independence as a single man who had lived for many centuries on the battlefield. I refused to accept this possibility. And yet...

“Good. The thought that you find me physically repugnant is quite painful to me.”

I wish I could have swallowed those words before I uttered them. She fidgeted in front of me, on Vulcan’s saddle, as we continued to move forward at a leisurely pace.

“It’s, I mean ... Our relationship is too new and under the circumstances, I’m going to need some time, to ... to ...”

“To?” I pressed, curious.

Ashana cleared her throat.

“To be ready to experience a certain kind of intimacy.”

This sentence awakened a thousand questions in my mind.