Page 4 of The Healer and the Warlord

Then, a faint glitter at the edge of my vision caught my attention. I looked up to find several packs roped to Dileas’s back, and sticking out of one of them, the glimmering handle of a dirk.

I chanced a glance toward the horse’s head, where Kelvar had now opened a water sack and was letting Dileas drink. She slurped loudly, covering any noise my movements might make. Before I could second guess myself, I grabbed the handle of the knife and yanked it from the pack. I hid it behind my back, having nowhere on my person to stow it. No matter. I did not plan on concealing it long.

After long moments, Dileas finished drinking, and Kelvar moved to tie the water sack to her back once more. Then, he stepped toward me, a hand reaching to the water skin at his own belt.

“Are you—”

I didn’t let him finish the sentence, whipping the dirk out from behind my back and pressing the tip to his throat.

He stilled, and his eyes flashed, but then his confident smile returned, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes?” he asked, as if I had simply called his name to catch his attention.

“Bring me back to Clan Padra,” I demanded.

“And why would I do that?”

I looked pointedly at the knife in my hand, its tip currently resting on his Adam’s apple. He went nearly cross-eyed looking down at it at this proximity.

“That’s a horrible grip, Flower,” he mused. “One would think you had never wielded a knife before.”

My lips twisted in a grimace, both at the endearment he used so casually and his observation.

Before I could respond, he moved lightning-fast, ducking under the blade in my hand while grabbing my wrist. He twisted, and I yelped as the knife dropped from my hold. He plucked it out of the air deftly.

Then he held it up before me. “Don’t tuck your thumb under your other fingers,” he explained, showing me the proper grip. “And with your smaller size and inexperience, you’ll have better luck taking people by surprise. Stab them in the back, between their fourth and fifth ribs if you can manage it. Or go for their eyes and groin.”

I pulled back, looking at him quizzically. “And why are you telling me how to properly hold the knife I just used to threaten you?”

He shrugged. “Maybe so next time you do it, you will be a tad more… well… threatening.”

I huffed and spluttered in indignation, but he ignored me, only moving to tuck the dirk back into the pack I had pilfered it from. Then, he rifled inside and emerged with a length of rope.

“Unfortunately,” he continued, “as ill-conceived as your escape attempt was, it does officially take any chance of leaving you unbound to ride on your own off the table.”

I eyed the rope in his hands distastefully, and his responding smile was equal parts rueful and mischievous.

Chapter three

Kelvar

If carrying a sleeping Alyx had caused me to worry about the success of my mission, then the task of holding an awake Alyx had me teetering on the edge of failure.

I did not worry about her overpowering me and escaping through strength. In fact, I found the unsure way she held a knife downright bizarre for one who had spent their life riding alongside the Lord of a Clan.

I didn’t have the mental fortitude to consider such things right now, though. Not when she currently sat before me on Dileas’s back, my thighs bracketing hers and one arm around her waist holding her in place as she rested her bound wrists before her.

Every slight breeze caused her silken silver hair to flutter across my face, and I found that it smelled of the larrea flowers I had compared her to when I first saw her. The thought of the blooms made me grimace, and I was glad Alyx couldn’t see my face as I screwed my eyes shut in frustration.

I hadn’t meant to call her “Flower” earlier, but it had slipped out unbidden.

In fact, I hadn’t meant for a lot of things to happen on our journey together, short as it had been so far. I had meant to be detached and aloof, keeping my distance and simply delivering her to Lord Deryn, who would ransom her back to her father in trade for the legendary weaponsmith who rode with Clan Padra. But the moment she woke and stiffened in my arms, I sensed her fear like bitterness on my tongue. And so, I had reassured her she was safe. From there, our interactions only continued to spin out of my control, like an untamed colt barreling ahead despite my desperate pleas for it to stop.

Then, in the moment when her magic brushed against mine, I had nearly flown apart into a million pieces. Lightning had danced at the edge of my consciousness, and my vision went a blinding white. But it was not unpleasant, like losing control so often was. Far from it.

In fact, I almost wished it had been unpleasant.

Now, I glared at the back of the silver head in front of me, trying to puzzle out its contents. I dared not reach out toward her power and risk a repeat of earlier, but curiosity gnawed at me all the same. I sensed licks of magic in many who rode among the clans but nothing like Alyx’s.