Nadine’s brows shot up. “That women enjoy it when you kidnap them, force them down upon an altar, remove their clothes, then carve with a knife into their breasts? No. I can’t say that it has.”
Magnus wetted his lips. “I hear women gossiping about it from time to time. I guess it can be quite an erotic experience for them.”
She laughed. “Half-wits.”
“Some of them were Ebronians.” And one of them had been her own sister, but Magnus would keep that to himself, as he’d like to keep his stones hanging between his legs.
Nadine was silent for three whole glorious seconds. She blinked. “I don’t believe you.”
He dared a smile. “I know. That’s what makes it so funny.”
Nadine crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m here. And I’m willing to go along with your asinine little rituals. You asked me to make up my mind what was important to me, claimed that you’d done the same. Well now it’s time for you to prove it, barbarian. I’m not lying down on that altar without a fight. So choose.”
Glanshi.
This woman was more stubborn than his mother. An impressive feat. At that thought, an idea sprouted in his mind. Memories flashed, of his parents telling stories around the campfire. Stories of their own bonding, and the events leading up to it.
“I’ll bargain with you, kandiri.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” she spat.
Magnus shrugged. “Because you like it.”
“I don’t speak your language.”
“You know what it means.”
Nadine’s blink of surprise followed by the bristle of anger was all the confirmation he needed. Satisfaction stirred in his chest. He’d give her no time to deny it. “Do you want to hear my offer?”
Nadine scowled at him.
He’d take that as a “yes”. “If you can keep me from pinning you to this altar, I’ll forgo the tanshi rite.”
Nadine’s expression grew suspicious. “Just like that? After the giant parade you’ve made out of this?”
“I don’t intend to lose. But if it makes you feel less pathetic, or whatever your objection is to the plain task of lying down for a few moments, then I’m willing to go through the paces with you.” Magnus couldn’t put a name to it, but some instinct told him that pressing her on this matter would be an unwise move for him. It made no sense, yet the caution would not dissipate. “Unless you’re as sure as I am that you’d lose?”
Nadine’s expression grew calculating. “What would you tell your clan?”
“That I’d claimed you properly.”
“And if they demanded proof?”
Magnus gave a sharp bark of laughter. “I guarantee you, woman, as pretty as I’m sure those breasts are, none of my kin would challenge me for the chance to gander at them.”
Nadine pursed her lips. “Three shots to the neck while you attempt to pin me. If I get my hits, we’re done.”
Magnus smiled. He’d expected no less from his warrior soon-to-be-hamma. She’d established a way for herself to win. She couldn’t pin him. That much was obvious. But if she was fast enough, flexible enough, she might be able to land three precise blows.
A voice in the back of Magnus’s mind warned him that he shouldn’t risk it. But that voice belonged to a more judicious Magnus. Magnus could acknowledge that his wisdom, like his hands and feet as a youth, was an asset he hadn’t yet grown into. That acknowledgment usually changed nothing.
“Done.”
She lunged for him.
“Kreesha!”
He wasn’t ready. Magnus stepped forward to catch her up in his arms, moved to the right to follow where her eyes were tracking. At the last moment, and swifter than a serpent, she ducked beneath his sweeping arms and slipped past his other side. The cunning creature had faked him out.
Thwack!
“Glanshi.” Magnus clapped a hand down on the back of his throbbing neck. He turned.
Where was she?
Instinct prickled, and Magnus turned once more, just in time to catch her in the air with his forearm. She was trying to land another blow on the back of his spine. He shoved her off midair, and she stumbled backward with uncanny balance, then hunched down low into a fighting stance.
“Regna, woman! Do you mean to spar with me or take my head off?”
She grinned dangerously. “I mean to win.”
Magnus sputtered on a laugh. He shook his head and widened his own stance. “I could almost let you.”
He charged her.
The altar stood a little over four paces from the ground. He either had to funnel her to it and then pin her there, or get his hands on her and carry her himself. He was suddenly glad she’d added the condition of three hits on his person. If she hadn’t, Magnus had no doubt the little hellcat could have run circles around him indefinitely. She was so fast.
He ducked low and tried to take her feet out from under her, but she leapt high and it was all Magnus could do to guard his neck as she rolled over top of his back and landed on his other side.
Glanshi, she was agile. More so than he would’ve expected from someone as tall as she.
Magnus straightened and began working at the leather ties of his chaps. Nadine narrowed her eyes at him and he cocked his head. “Going to need all the mobility I can get with you.”
“You’ll still be too slow.”
As if to demonstrate her point, she took a running start toward him and kicked up a clod of dirt aimed directly at his face. Were they in the desert terrain she was used to, she’d have sprayed a blinding fan of sand into his eyes. Instead, he dropped the ties of his chaps to bat the clod away. Then he caught the other fist she sent toward his neck.
He grinned. “Got you.”
Thwack!
“Kreesha!” She’d missed his neck, but she still got him square in the chin with her free hand. Magnus swung her backward toward the altar before releasing her hand to clutch at his face. He spun.
She was already coming at him.
Magnus growled, and this time he charged in the opposite direction the little trickster’s eyes and body language hinted at. Nadine must have seen that she’d been found out, because she changed direction at the last moment, wrecking her momentum. He caught her. Now he had both her upper arms in his hands. He pushed her backward, his sheer weight enough force to shove her to the altar. She snarled as he gave a mighty heave and lifted her high to clear the shining surface.
Too high.
Instead of plopping onto the altar, she caught the edge with the back of her heels and simply strode her way backward over to the other side. She was so fast, so slippery, that Magnus lost his grip on her as she spun away from him, leaving the altar between them.
“Glanshi!”
“You need new oaths, barbarian. Be a good guide dog, and I’ll teach you some of mine.”
Nadine shot him a smug grin from across the altar as she circled her way around into the open clearing. She rolled her shoulders backward and tucked her chin. The way she moved. She was all confidence and grace, and pure, gleaming spirit. Magnus’s blood was on fire with want for her.
“A dog, am I? I won’t argue. Lustful, possessive, and loyal.” He pointed at her as his other hand hastened to finally get rid of his half-tied chaps. “Be careful what words you put on me.”