Warrior of the Ages (Warriors of the Ages) (32 page)

“As for your shop, we shall see. I will make you no promises, but I will admit that you seem to have a gift for accumulating goods that many delight in. Your shop has already caught the interest of a good many of the clan. Especially Old Guard. I think you will find they are a very influential ally.”

Then shouts of “Bethy, Bethy!” reached her ears and Honor Monroe was there, swinging her in circles so that her slippers slid off her feet and clattered into the crowd of grinning spectators. Not spectators, her clan, and their hearts pressed towards hers and she happily kissed Honor back. Never in all her life, had she ever had a really close friend like him. If only he were a girl he’d be perfect. When he finally put her down, teasing that she was diminutive without her stilts on, she scanned the crowd for Kahtar. Disappointment cut through her as she saw him push through the front doors, not even bothering to tell her goodbye before he left.

THE UNEXPECTED TREAT of broad-siding Honor Monroe with the flat of his blade, so hard that the warrior did a face plant into the hard ground, made Kahtar happier than he’d been in weeks. In the early morning darkness, he sensed rather than saw the critical black eyes of an Old Guard on him. They felt disapproving even when Kahtar offered the young warrior a hand up. As though the Old Guard knew he was already planning to whack the dark haired warrior into one of the heavy posts planted in the earth. Perhaps the old Guard did know. Too bad. There was no sin in besting another warrior. No sin, really, in taking too much pleasure in it.

Honor took the hand up, and Kahtar sensed it when Honor tenderly touched his forehead. Kahtar didn’t need his eyes to know that dark bruising was already blossoming over his rookie’s forehead. Kahtar had no trouble keeping his face expressionless. He knew Honor couldn’t scan well enough to read it and it was too dark to see. Honor’s intrusive scan brushed over his face twice, trying to, before trustingly or perhaps stupidly raising his blade again.

With Beth White now part of the clan and Berwick gone on, the only unusual threat was that Berwick’s people would eventually find them and possibly seek retribution. The Mother’s emissaries were still searching the lowlands of Scotland in hopes of brokering a peace. In the meantime life continued on, uneventful and quiet. Everything had changed, but nothing had changed. Beth had found her way back to her own people, but she wanted Honor Monroe. Unrequited love wasn’t uncommon and Kahtar was certain he was already over it. As a matter of fact he was intent on making Honor into the kind of man worthy of Beth.

Kahtar found himself in a perpetually bad mood, simply as a result of Monroe’s shortcomings. That was how he justified his bad mood anyway. Kahtar hadn’t seen Beth in weeks. She had taken residence in an apartment at Cobbson Compound, and all he knew of her status was what Honor Monroe occasionally happened to share. Kahtar refused to consciously consider that these two facts could be a good part of his bad attitude.

Honor Monroe took the bait, swinging his razor sharp blade a hair’s breadth too close to Kahtar’s face, the tip sliced through his cheek. Winning in battle took sacrifice. Sensing the cut in the darkness, Honor dropped his guard, an apology forming on his lips. It never had time to exit. Kahtar spun on the spot and put the flat of his blade across Honor’s shoulders and launched him so that his face hit an oak beam so hard he bounced off, unconscious before he hit the ground.

A bit guiltily Kahtar took the time to fix the man’s broken nose before the Old Guard could. Old Guard never bothered with healing noses straight, and as much as he hated the thought, he didn’t want to disappoint Beth with a lifetime of having to look at a crooked nose, though he did suspect that Honor was just vain enough to have it re-broken and fixed at the clinic.

Breathing through his mouth, Honor groaned regaining consciousness.

“Thanks, Chief, for fixing it right.”

“I didn’t do it for you.” The comment sounded petty to his own ears and he stood and sheathed his blade.

“It isn’t like that between us. She doesn’t love me like that.”

The words ‘I don’t know what you mean’ almost slipped out of Kahtar’s mouth, but he stopped the lie, forcing truthful words out.

“What do you mean?”

Honor struggled to sit up. The first pink light of dawn shone into the barn and he was faintly visible as he checked his face carefully.

“She loves me like I’m her sister.”

Giving in to burning curiosity Kahtar dropped to one knee. There didn’t seem to be any regret in Honor’s voice and Kahtar asked, “But you love her?”

“Of course I do.” A faint laugh, “Who wouldn’t?”

Jealously crept into Kahtar’s voice. “Did you declare to her yet?”

“Of course I didn’t. I told you, it isn’t like that. She’s my best friend.”

“Are you not attracted to women?” It was the only explanation he could come up with. Honor didn’t take the remark well.

“I might have asked the same question of you, if you hadn’t just spent the entire morning spanking me simply for being her friend. I used to suspect she was interested in you too, at first, but I think she has better options now.”

This information was unexpected. Leaning forward he gripped Honor’s leg and squeezed, trying to see his eyes in the dim light.

“What do you mean she might have been interested in me? Did she say something?”

“No. Call it instinct, but you’ve completely ignored her for weeks, and at last count she’s received thirty-four declarations from clansmen. I imagine she’ll find a much more pleasant mate than you could ever make. She’s eaten lunch with a different Palmer warrior every day this week. Let go of my leg! You’re leaving more bruises! I forfeit! Find yourself another whipping boy!”

“Sorry.” Rising, Kahtar turned to go, parting with, “You’re still a very predictable opponent on the battlefield.”

THE FOOD AT Cobbson Clinic was spectacular, in all her life Beth had never been exposed to enough clean food that she actually wanted to eat. Seated at a tall table in a sunny courtyard rife with fish ponds and landscaped vegetable gardens, she eyed artfully arranged vegetables on her plate.

“Do you like the mushrooms?” The warrior across the table from her was, without doubt, movie star handsome. She’d always assumed that a man had to be photo-shopped to look like that. Perfect face, beautiful mouth—sculpted and the edges turned up just slightly, green eyes that really shouldn’t occur naturally in nature—it was tempting to accept his offer of marriage just to have children with those eyes—but really, beyond the fact that he was too gorgeous, she knew nothing about him. The green eyes smiled, and the mouth followed suit, and teeth really couldn’t be that perfect outside of a toothpaste ad, could they?

“You do know me. What I mean is that you can sense my heart can’t you?”

“Yes-s.” Faltering Beth looked at him wide-eyed. How did he know what she was thinking?

The smile grew wider. “It shows in your face, your thoughts, but mostly it is your heart. You have the singularly most appealing heart I’ve ever felt. Join with me, you’ll be able to get inside the Arc then, and we’ll begin our hony mone today.”

Keeping her eyes down Beth wondered if he was aware that he was so perfect that she’d never consider, ever, marrying him. Pairing off in marriage seemed to be the foremost goal of every unmarried man in the clan. Apparently she couldn’t get into the Arc—where most of the clan was—until she got married, and every single man in the clan seemed desperate to help her fix that. Well, most single men in the clan.

All of these men so anxious to get married were a huge adjustment from the men in the outside world. Beth wondered why it didn’t seem like a good thing. Maybe it was because it left her feeling like the littlest antelope at the edge of the herd. At least one proposal had come her way each day since becoming part of Cultuelle Khristos and it was starting to freak her out. They all seemed far too confident that she’d have no regrets in marrying a stranger, they’d laughed when she’d pointed that out to them. To make it worse they seemed wholly mesmerized by her, and she was absolutely certain that not one of them had considered what it would mean to take a wife who only spoke the truth.

Living in this little bit of paradise, as beautiful as it was, she found herself hiding in her apartment listening to her less than honorable music as much as possible, and swearing mentally for reasons she didn’t really understand. She felt like the only imperfect person in a perfect world, like a fraud that everyone was enamored with, and she both dreaded and anticipated disappointing them. Beth focused on the stuffed mushrooms, wondering if the men would leave her alone if she gained eighty pounds. Wondering how many meals she’d have to eat a day to do it. A voice interrupted her grand plan.

“Take the western boundary for a shift, Palmer, as quickly as you can get there.”

The order interrupted Axel’s vigilant wait for her impending smack down. Beth would have known that voice anywhere, but it annoyed her that it made her heart skip even while she stared at a plate full of vegetables. It was, after all, the kind of voice that a country singer would kill for, and she detested country music.

“Chief?” Axel Palmer frowned and stood, reaching to squeeze Beth’s hand even though she hurried to move it. Unfortunately he was as unnaturally fast as he was handsome.

“What part didn’t you understand?” Kahtar slid onto Axel’s chair and the warrior hurried to obey, and Beth, refusing to look towards that voice, was forced to look at her latest suitor.

The heart-breaking green eyes bored into hers as he whispered, “I will find you soon, Dear Beth.”

“I look forward to it, Axel.” The words slipped out unexpectedly and Beth thought for a moment that she’d told her first fib. Then she realized it was true, but only because she instinctively knew it would annoy Kahtar, and suddenly she looked forward to that more than anything she’d done in weeks.

“How do you like the food?” That voice thrilled her, and it was slightly annoyed, and that made it even better. She kept her eyes on her plate until she could look up without betraying that fact. When she did, all the Palmer men melted from memory. This giant sitting across from her, with his steely eyes and military crew cut had a rugged, imperfectly handsome face that had beckoned to her from the first. Those Mount Olympus biceps meant nothing though, it was the way he almost assaulted her with his heart that thrilled. It stopped hers like a mountain stepping into the wind and there was no way she could ignore the enormous strength behind it.

She looked away again, angry because for the first time in weeks she felt perfectly happy, and there was no denying why.