Red Rope of Fate (5 page)

Arion who straightened up as the translators
bolstered their confidence enough to start storming towards their table. “What?” he asked, catching Tari’s stare.

Feeling ungenerous, Tari turned away from him to look longingly to her female cousins, who were smiling with Arion’s sisters. “If only,” she muttered before the first translator reached her.

“Lady Tari and Captain Arion, we have not been introduced but I simply cannot keep my enthusiasm in check anymore. Could you please explain to me the intricacies of your relationship?”

A week after the banquet Tari
reluctantly stopped outside Arion’s office. She had made it a point to visit Arion on a daily basis even though they frequently attended state dinners and banquets together. Tari felt that even if her bond with the captain was untraditional they still had a responsibility to attempt friendship. It was absolutely clear to Tari, however, that Arion did not share her sentiments.

Whenever she visited the captain would continue with his work, rarely asking Tari questions or starting conversations. He answered Tari’s comments in as few words as possible
, barked at anybody who stumbled into his office while she was there, and for the most part would not translate anything anyone said while she was with him.

Still, for the sake of their countries
, Tari came.

Tari took a breath and rolled her shoulders back before knocking on the door.

“Come in.”

Tari opened the door and slipped inside. “Good afternoon, Captain Arion.”

“Good afternoon, Tari,” Arion said, seated behind his desk, as usual.

“I hope your morning
was pleasant?” Tari asked.

“Calamity has not befallen me, so I suppose it
was,” Arion said.

Tari nodded and leaned against a chair, but
Arion did not take the hint to ask her to sit. “I have received an invitation from the chief elvish enchanter for a meeting this afternoon. He wants to go over our Nodusigm ceremony again to see if we felt anything different than the rest of the participants. I told him I would be free for questioning but you would undoubtedly be busy with your patrol responsibilities. I hope I did not overstep my boundaries?”

“No
, you did not. Thank you,” Arion said, briefly looking up.

The pair was silent for some minutes. Tari was deter
mined to make him speak first and looked wordlessly around the office, but Arion seemed oblivious to her presence.

There was a knock on th
e door, and Tari turned to face it.

“Leave it,” Arion said. “It’s the
morning patrol leaders of my squad.”

“You can’t mea
n to leave them waiting outside?”

“I won’
t. But they will wait until you leave.”

Is he embarrassed to be seen with me?
Tari wondered as she stared at the captain. He shuffled papers.

“It’s fine,” Tari said, making her way back to the door. “I can see you are
busy. I suppose I’ll see you later for a banquet or dinner or party of some sort,” Tari said, going to the door to open it.

“Tari,” Arion started, but Tari waved him off and stepped into the hallway. She smiled briskly at the gawking patrol lead
ers before walking away.

She was
trying
. She was trying so hard, and Arion seemed intent that they should remain total strangers.
Very well. If Arion finds my companionship burdening, I will take care not to encumber him.

“Is something wrong?”

Tari looked up from her pensive reflections of the gross human wine and blinked at Arion. “I beg your pardon?”

Arion placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I was wondering if you are alright, or if something has happened.”

“No, I am perfectly fine. Why?” Tari said, looking up and down the table of food. For reasons beyond her understanding the human royal family insisted on throwing evening drinking parties once a week. As the mythological Nodusigm pair, Tari and Arion’s presence was mandatory.

“It is nothing.
It is merely that you have not stopped by my office in a number of days. A week, actually,” Arion said, studying the crowd.

T
ari didn’t reply and selected a rice cracker.

Arion and Tari stood in resol
ute silence, watching the gaieties as they drank and ate. Tari was pulled out of her observer role when King Celrin approached her.

“If you do not mind my rudeness, please allow me to steal your partner from you, Captain Arion,” King Celrin said to Arion via a translator.

Arion gravely bowed in permission and retreated to an empty wall where he was instantly accosted by no less than five human girls, all eager to talk to him. (Wonder of the mysterious brother to the new Princess had taken the human court by storm since the bonding ceremony.)

“You are subdued, Tarinthali,” King Celrin said
as they walked the perimeter of the room.

“My King?”

“You do not seem pleased to stand with Captain Arion.”

“I must beg your pardon, My King, but I believe it is the other way around.”

King Celrin raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You think Captain Arion does not enjoy your company?”

“I could not say for certain, My King. There is very little that I understand about
Captain Arion.”

“Indeed,” King Celrin said, looking across the room to King Petyrr. The human monarch laughed loudly as one of his men relayed a story to him. “Perhaps you have mistaken his conduct. We come from a different culture, Tarinthali. Captain Arion may not be aware
of what his gestures and actions mean to you.”

“Perhaps, My King.”

“You are not convinced?”

“If you say the captain is not aware, then I will trust your words, My King.”

A ghost of a smile flittered across King Celrin’s face. “Tari, for this moment please think of me as your relative and not your ruler. Your relationship with the captain is of great importance, but you are not the only one who feels the weight of our expectations,” King Celrin said as he pointedly looked to Arion.

The captain was still surrounded by adoring females but his eyes were on Tari and the elven king.

“
Please keep trying,” King Celrin said. “I know you understand the words he speaks, but perhaps you have missed what he does for your sake.”

Tari stared at Arion for a moment before turning. “My King? What
do you,” she trailed off, the king had left her and was standing at King Petyrr’s side.

The jovial human king was trying to explain with badly
executed gestures what joke he found so funny. The elvish lord smiled slightly and nodded in understanding as his translator spoke to him.

“Tari,” Talon called from a group of elves. “Tari, come walk with us.”

Tari hesitated and looked for her partner. Arion was conversing with the group of females arranged around him like pretty flowers.

For my sake? What a joke
. “Coming,” Tari said.

Later that evening, after the party finally ended, King Celrin’s words still haunted Tari.
Tari released her skirts, and they fell around her in a sigh when she cleared the corner of the gardens. It was dark out, but there were torches and lamps lit in the gardens, and it was faster to navigate through the greenery than to find her way through the maze-like palace at this hour.

“Drinking parties,” Tari said, shaking her head. “You would think they would serve more than one kind of drink.”

Tari ducked under a low tree branch, her shoulders slumping as she dwelled on King Celrin’s words. “I should keep trying,” she sighed. “I cannot let Captain Arion’s taciturn temperament get in the way of progress. Perhaps I should visit his sisters to ask them for advice?”

Most of the night Tari had spent by Arion’s side. As usual the captain
had very little to say, but Tari supposed there were worse ways to spend an evening.

Tari stopped, her tapered ears twitching slightly as she looked out over the gardens. She could have sworn she heard a bush rustle.

Tari shrugged and started walking again, briefly folding her arms behind her back. Her muscles protested as she stretched her arms. “I’m getting out of shape. I’ll have to practice longer tomorrow,” Tari decided. She had yet to hear from Seer Ringali, but she expected a correspondence from him any day, and she was not looking forward to it.

Something mo
ved behind her, and Tari ducked. The swinging wooden cudgel missed her by a hair’s width. Tari twirled, putting her back to a tree, her arms extended with hints of her light magic burning on her arms. She hesitated when she realized her assailants were human.

There were five of them, although Tari was willing to be
t there were lookouts posted in strategic locations nearby. All of them looked to be from Calnor, although Tari couldn’t be certain.

That was a problem.
If they were from Calnor Tari couldn’t fight back.

Chapter 4

Heroics

They leaped at Tari, cornering her faster than she could slip away. She shouted, but one of them slipped a gag into her mouth while two others grabbed her wrists and pulled her arms behind her back.

Tari struggled like a wild horse. She kicked one of the men in the gut, kneed another in his back, and planted her shoe on another’s face. One of the smarter attackers pulled her legs out from underneath her, pushing her to the ground in a heap.

The men exchanged heated words
as Tari tried to shout past the gag. They flipped her over and tied her wrists behind her back, angrily speaking again when Tari kicked out.

Tari’s white hot anger froze over when one of them held a dagger to her throat.

They hauled her to her feet, the edge of the dagger made a thin but painful slice on Tari’s neck when she moved too slowly. Tari clamped down on the adrenaline that threatened to rush her system. If she wanted to get out alive
and
keep her vows as an Evening Star she would have be crafty.

Terror and rage howled in her, however, when one of the men stepped close to her, leaning into her
and sniffing.