She was building on her heart’s song, he realized. On the oath she swore that he need not fear her. Because she wasn’t hiding her skills from him. But still she stood, eyes down, hands clasped.
“There is something else.” Her knuckles were white. “Something I haven’t shared with you.”
“And if it upsets you so much to tell me, then leave it for now.” He drew her close, kissed her forehead. “I don’t need all your secrets at once.”
She looked up at him, gave a slow nod.
He didn’t like that something weighed on her as much as this secret seemed to, but his words had soothed her, and when someone called to her, as they stepped into the light thrown by the fire, she called a laughing reply.
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.
After another careful look around, Ava began to walk back to the Rising Wave.
Was the growing feeling of danger from the protective workings hidden in her cuffs and collar, or was it more visceral, like Catja and Sufro were experiencing?
In the past, when she had worn her old cloak, she had sensed this often, but it had felt like it came from a distance, someone watching her through the tents but who was too far away to harm her physically. She had only had a closer brush with whoever it was who stalked her a few times, and they had moved away quickly each time.
Except for when they hunted her at night.
She had been roused from sleep many times over the weeks she’d traveled with the Venyatux, but they always moved away quickly and she had never wanted to chance poking her head out and revealing herself to see who they were.
Now, the feeling of imminent danger grew with every step, the embroidery touching the skin of her wrists and neck suddenly hot and chafing.
She gave in to the warnings suddenly, instinct causing her to crouch down and turn, just as a stick passed over her head with a whistle.
She let out a warning call, because this was an enemy in their midsts. The ululation seemed to bounce around her. Carila had taught her it was the carrying cry used in the high mountains to warn of Skäddar raids and mountain lion attacks.
“That won’t help you.” The stick was swung again, but Ava was already back on her feet, dancing out of the way.
“The Speaker’s messenger,” she said. She had thought it must be him who followed her through Grimwalt, but she hadn’t caught sight of his face once in all the weeks she’d been with the Venyatu. She couldn’t see his face now either in the darkness, but it was his voice.
She remembered it well as he’d tried to drag her from her grandmother’s hall.
“You should have just come when you were told.” He grunted with effort as he swung the stick again.
She wondered why he was using a stick when he had a sword hanging from his belt. But he was herding her with his attacks, she realized. Trying to maneuver her somewhere that suited him better.
“Your orders are to bring me back alive.” She spun, trying to edge back toward the original spot where he’d attacked her. Trying to keep from going in the direction he wanted her to go. “Why did you shoot at me, then? Your arrows nearly got me twice.”
“I was aiming for your shoulder.” He struck out in frustration when she forced him full circle, back to where they started. She could see his face at last, and held back a gasp when it didn’t match his voice at all. This was not the man she remembered.
She drew in a deep breath and ululated again, wondering why no one had come out to help her, or at least see what was going on.
“They can’t hear you.” She could hear the smile in his voice.
“What the fuck are you doing, Vane? You’re supposed to be sending her my way.” The voice came out of the darkness behind her attacker.
She remembered this voice, too. The second abductor who had appeared out of nowhere to help drag her away. He loomed out of the darkness, and to her relief, his face was as she remembered it.
“You try getting her to go the direction you want, then.” Vane turned and hissed the words over his shoulder.
The moment his attention was off her, Ava jumped off the path into a small patch of ground surrounded by tents. There was a faint pop in her ears and she drew in a deep breath, and gave the warning cry again.