“I see the Commander out on the field every day, training.” The officer gave Haslia a long look. “There’s no sorcery involved. Just hard work.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “And I’ll tell you now, Haslia. If I hear another word about the Commander’s heart’s choice using spells on him, I’ll assume you aren’t busy enough, and give you more to do.”
“Beside, you’re saying that he’s been enspelled since he got back from Kassia, but he and Avasu only met up again two days ago, after two months apart,” Deni said. “She’s been traveling with us a lot of that time. Are you saying she’s such a powerful spell caster she can work a spell that lasts two months?”
Haslia shrugged. “I didn’t come up with the story, despite what Fredrik says.” She sent the other soldier a dark look. “And I won’t repeat it again.”
Frederik pointed a finger at Deni. “I hadn’t even thought of that, but you’re right. How could he be enspelled by your scout all this time they’ve been apart? A magical working only lasts a few hours.”
“Says who?” Haslia scoffed. “What do you know about it?”
“What do you know about it?” the officer asked.
“Enough to know with so few spell casters around, we don’t really know what they can do, do we? And if I could cast spells, I’d be sure to downplay how long they last. Wouldn’t you?”
“This story has been swirling around since your Commander escaped the Kassian?” Taira asked.
“Yes. Since a few days after he got back.” Frederik folded his arms and looked over at Haslia.
“So he told everyone he’d escaped with Avasu?” Taira frowned.
“No.” The officer drew the word out. “That’s a good point. Only someone who knew he’d escaped with a woman would be able to make up a rumor about a woman enspelling him.”
“Like Revek,” Frederik said.
“Or like the Kassian themselves.” Deni’s voice was low.
Haslia stopped looking around, as if for escape, and slowly let her gaze travel over each of them. “What, I’m a spy now because I passed on a rumor? I won’t repeat the stupid story again, all right?”
“I want to know who told it to you if you didn’t make it up yourself.” The officer took hold of her arm.
“I can’t remember.” She jerked her arm away. “I might have been a little dramatic in retelling it, and bringing it up too often, but I won’t do it again. I promise.”
A sudden rustle of leaves and branches made everyone, including Ava, turn to the left.
Her horse stepped through the trees, and Taira blew out a breath in relief. “Avasu’s horse. That’s something.”
“You take it back to the Venyatux, Haslia.” The officer caught hold of its reins and handed it to the woman. “The rest of us, let’s go after the Commander.”
They disappeared into the trees, and Haslia was left standing beside the horse, staring after them.
Her face was blank. She took one last, slow look around the clearing before she led the horse out, her gaze passing over Ava again.
Well.
Ava sat very still for another long beat.
She hadn’t heard the rumors they were talking about—how could she when they’d only just joined the Rising Wave?—but she could hear the voice of her cousin in them.
Oh, yes. There were Kassian spies in the Rising Wave, and they’d been salting the earth in anticipation of her arrival.
It sounded as if a counter-narrative had risen up as well, though, based on Luc’s sword.
She vaguely remembered him grabbing it from the dungeon beside her mother’s tomb.
How frustrating to whoever had started the enspelled-by-a-witch rumor when the magic sword story began to take hold.
And how interesting that Haslia occasionally shared pillows, as the Cervantes put it, with Revek.
That woman needed watching.
Chapter 14
Luc moved as fast as he could.
He didn’t trust the word of the Kassian spies. He would certainly not trust them at their word with Ava’s life at stake.
He could hear them talking in low, urgent tones up ahead, two men, by the sound of it.
He hadn’t heard Ava’s voice once.
From behind him, something crashed through the undergrowth and he went still.
So did the two men he was following.
Someone had come after him, when he’d specifically told them to wait.
He used the fact that the two Kassian up ahead had stopped and kept moving forward, making up ground.
The flick of a horse’s tail through the leaves slowed him, and he edged to the side, looking for a good view of the pair.
“Is it her?” One of them whispered. “Stumbling around? She hit her head hard enough she might be disoriented.”
“Maybe. Or maybe her friends decided not to wait on our word. I wouldn’t have.” The other man’s voice was just as low.
“If it’s her, we could grab her.”
“We can barely get through the bush here with the two of us, Cassak. We just keep moving forward, and be thankful they’ll find it just as hard as we are.”
Was the ‘her’ they were talking about Ava?
Luc crouched down, shuffled closer.
The men had gotten off their horse, and he could see why. The going was impossible, too many low-hanging branches blocked the way.
They were moving slowly, and there was no sign of Ava anywhere.
So they didn’t have her.
And she was badly injured. Deni had shouted something about her being knocked from her horse when he’d come racing toward the column, waving his arms.
Luc turned away from the spies, immediately dismissing them in his mind, and started going back the way he’d come.
The sound of leaves crunching beneath a pair of boots had him going still.
So someone had followed him through the bush.
He pressed up against a tree, deep in shadow, and caught sight of Revek pushing his way through a tangle of branches.
His face had been slashed by sharp twigs, and he smeared some of the blood over his cheek with the back of his hand.
He nearly didn’t see Luc, but he was a Chosen, too, and he stopped dead after a few steps.
He turned to look, and seemed to relax.
Luc stared at him.
His trust in Revek had begun to erode the first night he’d returned to the Rising Wave after escaping the Kassian fortress with Ava.
That night, he’d nearly been killed on Revek’s orders.
His old friend had sworn it was a mistake, but he knew there was something wrong with what had happened.
The attack on Ava was just another reason to be wary.
Revek’s face stilled.
A look of hurt flashed in his eyes.
“Attack?” he mouthed.
Luc shook his head. “They don’t have Ava.”
Revek blinked. “Where is she then?”
Luc shrugged. Turned and started back the way he’d come, but Revek’s hand grabbed his shoulder.
“You’re letting them go?” Rev’s whisper was directly in his ear.
“They don’t have Ava, so yes. She’s hurt. I need to find her.”
“You do that.” Revek sounded bitter. “I’ll go after the spies. It’ll be good to find out what the Kassian plans are.”