Page 84 of Heart of the Desert

I cocked my head. “No. But perhaps they could learn. I did.” I stood and dusted off my hands on my pants. “If you set a field, Keera and I will invite Warrick and his men.”

Izumi opened her mouth as if to continue to argue, but Badha elbowed her in the side. “Just because you don’t need a distraction doesn’t mean our riders don’t.”

Izumi sighed. “I’ll find the sticks.”

With that, Keera and I set off in the direction of Doran’s camp. “Hopefully I don’t break anybody’s nose again,” she grumbled.

I shrugged, even as I thought back on the last time we had played kaman with Clans Tibel and Otush. Remembering the ferocity with which Keera had played sent my blood rushing down to pool in my cock.

I shook my head—that was not why I had suggested this. “The riders might respect that. It would be good to remind them how brutally you fight before they follow you into battle.”

Some of the tension in Keera’s shoulders faded. “I suppose I don’t have to worry about being queenly this time.”

“You made a beautiful queen, but you’re even more breathtaking out here in the desert, wild and free,” I told her.

A blush darkened her already sunburned cheeks, but her eyes flashed. “We will see if you feel the same when I hit you across the face with my kaman stick.”

Now, my cock twitched in definitive interest, and I had to take slow breaths in through my nose as we worked to locate General Warrick. When we explained to him our proposition, he scrubbed a hand over his chin.

“I do admit, I liked you better after crossing blades with you,” he said to Keera.

She wrinkled her nose. “I would have liked it better if it wasn’t clearly a play to undermine me, even in my victory.”

“Well then let me make it up to you, by giving you a chance to beat me with a wooden stick in front of your people—if you are willing to risk being beaten back.”

Keera’s eyes flashed again and her responding smile was more a baring of teeth. “Bold words from a man who lost our last duel.”

Warrick chuckled, and I commended his bravery. Not many men would laugh in the face of Keera’s fiery gaze. But he simply called for his men and followed us over to the field Dhara and Elion were setting.

“Are you going to explain the rules?” one of Warrick’s men asked as Badha began passing around sticks.

“Don’t lose,” Dhara said with a wicked grin as she approached.

The man’s mouth fell open in shock, but several men around him chuckled. As different as they were, it seemed even warriors from across the mountains shared some sensibilities.

“Simple. I like it,” Warrick observed as he hefted his stick in his hand. It was long enough to reach nearly to his waist when he rested the tip on the ground, but the end was curved in a gentle hook, perfect for scooping the ball away from opponents.

“Should we call teams?” Dhara asked.

“Perhaps our high lords should each call their own team,” Izumi chimed in, her eyes sharp and calculating. I was glad she conspired for us now. All gazes turned to us, and I squared my shoulders.

“Dhara, join my team,” I called.

Keera scrunched her nose at me. I knew she would have wanted the lord on her side, but I was all too happy to deprive her. To my surprise, she called Izumi over to her side, and it was my turn to frown. As much as Izumi and I had been rivals through the years, I was accustomed to having her at my back.

I claimed Elion next, and Dhara grunted in displeasure next to me. “We’re supposed to play against each other,” she hissed as he approached. Apparently the fact that she slipped into his tent at night when she thought nobody was looking—still holding on to the pretense that others did not know what was between them—hadn’t calmed her prickly nature.

“Maybe it’s time to do things a little differently,” Elion murmured, seemingly unperturbed. “Times have changed, after all.”

I ripped my attention away from their whispered conversation to watch Keera call Aderyn over.

Aderyn frowned. “I’ve never played. And I’m slower than I used to be.”

“Which is still faster than nearly anybody else I know,” Keera shot back.

One by one, we divided up the rest of the assembled warriors, dividing Warrick’s men between the two teams. Warrick himself ended up on my half of the field, with Badha and the new Lord Demir of Clan Padra standing behind Keera.

With the teams set, Keera and I marched to the center of the field, facing each other with squared shoulders. She raised her chin, and the light of the setting sun behind me flashed in her golden eyes. These days, we stood shoulder to shoulder in our fight against our shared enemies, but there was something intoxicating about being her opponent—watching her zero in on you like a caracal on her prey with defiance in her expression and a firm set to her jaw.