AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Good,” he grunted. “Then there’s nothing stopping us.”
“Only good sense,” she retorted. “What about Daniel?” she demanded. “Are you planning to save him, too?”
“What happens if you separate a bonded familiar from their wizard?” he asked. He’d been saving that question. Good of her to provide the perfect opportunity.
She held up a hand, ticking off her points. “One: even more against the law. Two: the wizard will pursue and will pull no punches. Jan would be within his rights to kill you, for example. Three: Daniel would fight you to get back to Jan. And—”
“Even if he hates his wizard?” Gabriel interrupted.
“You are not hearing me on this,” she replied with some frustration. “When I say it doesn’t matter how we feel, I mean that literally. Happy or unhappy, hate or love, familiars crave their wizard masters. That’s four: he would waste away and eventually die without Jan.”
Hmm. “That’s documented?”
“Remember what I told you about the bad old days and experimentation on familiars? Yes, that was tested, too.”
“It seems that if the bond can be forged, it can be broken,” he argued. “Regardless, Narlis isn’t bonded, so she’s free to come with us.”
Her tempting mouth curving into a smile, Nic came toward him, hips swaying hypnotically. He wrested his gaze up to her face as she lifted a hand to caress his newly shaved cheek. That grooming impwashandy. “This path leads to trouble,” she said softly. “And won’t help you restore House Phel.”
“Maybe not.” He laid a hand over hers. “But I have to be able to live with myself, too.”
A line formed between her brows, eyes snapping with impatience, all softness gone. “You can’t save every familiar, foolish wizard.”
“Not one by one, but it’s a start.”
“A start to what?” she asked with growing suspicion.
“Change.” A knock came on the door, and he kissed the furrow between her brows before going to answer it.
“You can’t change the entire world,” Nic called after him. He only grinned at her and let the pair of young people in to gather their bags. Nic was correct that it was a lot of stuff, but it had pleased her, at least a little. He’d go to a lot more trouble than that to alleviate the bitter grief that still haunted her face when she wasn’t putting on a show for him.
“Let’s go see someone about a couple of horses,” he said, bringing her cloak to her.
She let him fasten it around her shoulders but glared at him balefully. “If you’re determined to bring Narlis with us, a wagon would be even better.”
“No. I don’t want to be beholden to anything Elal.”
“Stubborn wizard. I knew when I read your dossier that you were exactly the sort to dash yourself brainless trying to fight the Convocation.”
He trailed a finger over her cheek. “So intelligent and insightful. And yet you didn’t summarily dismiss such a foolish wizard.”
“Clearly I’m not as smart as you think,” she replied with asperity, moving away from his touch.
An hour later,they’d returned to the inn with two new horses to share Vale’s burden. Nic perched happily on an elegant white mare, lightly dappled with gray, and with a mane and tail like glossy slate. Predictably, Nic had argued that the mare was too pricey, but she was perfectly sized for Nic’s stature, and the pair of them had immediately fallen in love. She hadn’t even protested all that much, though she’d made dire promises about taking a hard look at the House Phel accounts in the future, reviewing his expenditures, and creating a budget.
The other mare was a gentle bay with a smooth stride and an even temperament that should work well for Narlis.
With their copious luggage distributed between the three horses, Gabriel walked, leading Vale, Nic following behind on her mare and leading the one for Narlis. Gabriel had tried talking Nic into waiting at the inn for him to return with Narlis, but she flatly refused, insisting her place was by his side, in case he needed her assistance. When he argued that he could best the Iblis wizard without breaking a sweat, she’d called him arrogant and overconfident—then suggested that an abandoned, unbonded familiar left to kick her heels alone at an inn could be abducted.
And that had done it.
They reached the shop, Gabriel burying his deep distaste along with the urge to simply throttle the asshole wizard. “Stay on your horse,” he told Nic, feeling he needed to remind her, even though that had been a condition of her coming along.
“Yes, master,” she sang out cheerfully, simpering when he glowered at her.
He grabbed the door handle of the shop and found it locked. Physically as well as magically. Stepping back, he stared in the darkened windows, confounded.
“It might’ve been smarter to acquire the rider before the horse,” Nic noted sardonically.
