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Anhuset clasped her hands behind her back and adopted a bored look. Inside, she warred with herself, one part hoping he’d take up Ildiko’s invitation, the other hoping he declined. She refused to give credence to the bubble of disappointment when he declined.
Serovek rounded the table to take Ildiko’s hand and bowed over her knuckles before straightening with a smile. “Tempting as that is, I’ll take the hours to return to High Salure. I’d like to get this done without delay.” He glanced at Brishen. “Though if you don't mind, I’ll pay my respects to the little queen regnant before I leave.”
The prince nodded. “Of course. I’ll take you to see her. Ildiko is the only human she’s seen so far. She’ll be fascinated.”
Or frightened, Anhuset thought, but kept her silence.
Serovek saluted Ildiko. “As always, it’s a pleasure to see you again, Highness. Your hospitality has no equal.” He turned to Anhuset. She half-expected that teasing smirk, but he only saluted a second time, his voice serious. “Sha-Anhuset. Until we meet again.”
Anhuset returned the salute, disappointed by the lack of his good-natured taunting. “Margrave.”
The two men exited the room, leaving Ildiko and Anhuset alone. Anhuset stared at the closed door for a moment before speaking in a low voice. “There is no possible way you’ll claw that sword out of Brishen’s grip. Did you see his expression when I suggested it?”
Ildiko sighed. “I did. It will have to stay here for now, though I wish it otherwise. This isn’t surrender just yet. Let me see if I can talk him around to the idea of at least taking the sword to Emlek or giving it to Serovek to house. Anywhere but at Saggara.” She rubbed her arms as if chilled. “No good can come of storing the blade here. I can feel it.”
The two women parted ways then, Ildiko to join Brishen and Serovek, Anhuset to return to the barracks where she hastily stripped out of her formal garb for her more comfortable everyday wear. She bound her hair in a quick loop knot at the back of her head, shouldered on a cloak with hood to protect her eyes from the day’s coming sunlight, and left her room for the redoubt’s stables to join a contingent of others for guard duty along the shores of the Absu.
She found Serovek in the stableyard, giving direction to his men before they headed home to High Salure. Despite her concealing hood, he spotted her and waved her over to where he stood next to his horse.
“You should have taken thehercegeséup on her offer,” she said. “You’ll fall asleep in the saddle before you reach home.”
“Not like it hasn’t happened before.” He patted the horse’s neck. “Magas here can find his way home blindfolded.” He raised one of those expressive black eyebrows. “Are you asking me to stay?”
He was back to teasing her. She bristled. “No.”
He heaved a dramatic sigh. “Ah well. There’s no joy without hope, even when it’s dashed.”
“You’re going to vex me the entire trip to the monastery, aren’t you?”
He grinned. “I hope to charm you the whole way so that you fall into my arms by the time we arrive.”
“If you still have arms by then.”
Stop it,she silently admonished herself. You’re only encouraging him with the repartee.
To her surprise, his expression turned serious again. “I wish to offer you an apology.”
That really did startle her. “For what?”
He scraped a hand down his face as if trying to find the right words. “For my clumsy humor earlier. I know I tease you, and I know it raises your hackles, but obviously I crossed into forbidden territory when we were in the corridor earlier. I didn’t mean to offend.”
They were on uncomfortable ground here, at least for her. While he provoked her in a playful way every time they crossed paths, she knew how to respond. Snarls and snaps and warning growls that only emboldened him. It was a dance where she knew the steps, a game in which she understood all the rules. This was neither of those, and she scrabbled for how to respond to his sincere regret.
“You didn’t offend, not in the way you think. That time, when we all stood among the menhirs, when noble men were stabbing each other as a last resort to save the rest of us...no humor can be found in that, not even gallows humor. As a soldier, I know what it is to take a life and have the act leave its scar, but stabbing you was different. What connects us is an awful thing, better to be forgotten than jested about.”
She clamped her lips shut after that, certain she sounded like a bumbling fool unable to string three coherent words together. But she didn’t look away from him as he stood there considering her in the punishing morning light.
His homely features softened, the blue of his eyes darkening until they were almost black. “Does it truly bother you so much?”
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
He patted his flat midriff. “Well, I get an ache now and then to remind me you have good aim and a strong arm. But otherwise, no.” He didn’t reach out to her, but he drew closer until they were nearly toe to toe. “We did what needed doing, Anhuset.” His voice was soft, mild. “You’re a seasoned fighter, ashain the Kai military. I always assumed you, of all people, understood that what’s necessary can sometimes be brutal.”
She did understand. “This was different.”
His voice was even softer now, a caress across her forehead. “How so?”
The bailey was nearly empty, with only a minimal crowd of Kai going about the business of guard duty or clean-up as the redoubt settled down to slumber. The margrave’s retainers lingered near the gate, politely looking elsewhere as they waited for their lord to complete whatever business remained with his Kai hosts. To Anhuset, it felt as if only she and Serovek occupied the space.
