Charles chuckled, then looked to Lara.“White or black?”
“White,” Laraanswered.
Charles turned the board so that theblack pieces faced him.“Now watch and learn, Talon.”He reachedfor a black pawn.“Watch and learn.”
“Watch and learn?”Talonsnorted.“It was I who taught you how to play.”
Charles flashed Talon a quick grin.“Iwasn’t speaking of the board game, man.”
The king beat Lara handily their firstgame, when she was still glancing wide-eyed around his tent as muchor more than she was concentrating on the game.She played thesecond game with her more usual attentiveness, keeping her eyes onhis every move and taking her time to make hers as Charles andTalon spoke of the failed campaign behind them and the march stillahead of them.
“You still think theBasques will retaliate?”Charles asked.
“Wouldn’t you?”Talon heldCharles’s gaze.“If it were your city burned, your women andchildren dead?”
Lara’s head shot up, her attention offthe game and on them.
Charles let out a heavy sigh and satback in his chair.“I know the razing of Pamplona did not sit wellwith you—”
“The great army of Gaulslaughtered innocent women and children,” Talon ground out.“To sayit didn’t sit well with me is beyond an understatement.”
“I understand and evencommiserate with your feelings on this,” Charles told him.“However, unfortunate as it is, the lives of innocents are often,too often, I agree, a casualty of war.”
“Unfortunate?”
The king held up his hand.“Your pointis made, Captain, which is why I wanted you here.Your company willbe my second guard from here to Oloron.”He glanced at Lara.“Thisway you’ll be able to watch over the both of us.”He leaned acrossthe table toward Lara as if sharing a secret.“Our Captain Guiscardhere is a mother hen at heart, with rather large, sharp talons Iwould not wish to feel sunk into any part of myanatomy.”
“A veritable patron saintof strays.”She eyed Talon as if he’d actually grown feathers andtalons.
Charles burst out laughing.“She knowsyou better than you let on.”
Talon motioned for Lara to move herqueen, and she set her white queen before the black king.Charleswidened his eyes as his mouth gaped.
Talon grinned.“Checkmate.”
***
Talon woke to a cry piercing his earsand heart.He rolled off his bedroll and laid his hand on Lara’sshoulder as a keening moan escaped her lips.
“Lara, wake up.Wake up,my rose.”
Her eyes fluttered open and focused onhis.He helped her sit up, glad she was coming back to him, gladderstill she’d been so far away when he’d called her his rose.Shestarted shivering, and Talon held her, his nose in her shorn curlsas she buried her head into his shoulder.He sat there holding herclose as the gray of dawn broke, sharing his warmth and slowlyrocking back and forth, murmuring soft shushing sounds into herhair until her shivering subsided, until she lifted her head andpushed away from him, though not far.Her palms still pressingagainst his chest, she took a deep breath in, then let it outslowly.
“Stay close by the kingwhen we ride.”Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Talon cupped her chin and tilted it sohe could meet her gaze and found his old friend the wary wildcatstaring back at him.“Why do you say that?”
“I dreamed I was coming toa place of high rocks,” she said, her voice as shaky as her breath.“The rocks formed a tunnel.When I came out the other side, I wasstanding on a ledge, looking out over a field…a field covered withthe bodies of men and horses.”She clapped a hand over her mouth,stifling a sob.“They were…everywhere.There wasblood…everywhere.”
Talon pulled Lara close and held hertight.“It was just a bad dream.”
“No.”Lara grabbed histunic with both hands, her eyes wild.“I don’t just have baddreams.My bad dreams come true.”
“Are you saying you haveforetelling dreams?”
She held his gaze.“Yes.That is whatI’m telling you.”
Whether true or not, whether Talonbelieved her or not, it was obvious she believed it.She had noreason to lie.In truth, Talon had never known her to lie, otherthan by omission.And whether her dream came true or not, timewould tell.Either way, it would do no harm to act as if it weretrue.
