Warrior's Dawn (Fire and Tears) (6 page)

Did she know this particular sword held more than the usual elven magic? Did she know exactly how old it was? He glanced at the base near the guard and spotted the telltale elven signature. He raised his brows, momentarily stunned. Not just old, then. Something even rarer.

Whether she realized the true value of her swords or not, her reluctance proved the weapon was important to her. Or maybe she simply didn’t like the idea of him having a sword. Though if that were the case, she wouldn’t have agreed to this detour to arm him. Either way, he acknowledged her trust with a slight bow of his head and then led the way back down the narrow gap so they could approach the weapons storage facility from a more covert angle.

As they neared the building again, Althir stopped where he could see the door through which he intended to gain entrance.

Leaning near enough to speak into Mina’s ear, he said, “Wait here. If you hear anything at all, I’ve drawn too much attention. Get back to Sinnale territory.”

She pulled away and looked up at him with her eyebrows raised and her eyes wide. “No,” she mouthed flatly. Then closer to his ear, “I go in too. That’s why I’m here, to make sure you don’t return to your former colleagues.”

Irritation bit deep into his gut, even though he recognized her logic. Her distrust made sense. She was here to keep an eye on him. He knew that. The Sinnale council had made it very clear. So he wasn’t entirely sure why her lack of faith in him grated against his pride so sharply. He didn’t expect her trust. In fact, he’d probably think less of her if she did trust him too easily.

Still… His logic didn’t seem to be communicating with his instincts, and his instincts were annoyed beyond measure that she refused to listen to him.

“Fine. But keep quiet. Let me do what I need to do. We’re finished if we’re discovered.”

She released a mostly silent breath that sounded suspiciously like a snort and turned back toward their goal.

He led on silent steps to the door, then motioned her back against the wall while he turned the knob. A minion stepped through with his sword pointed at Althir. Althir stared down his nose at the thing that used to be a human man until the minion lowered his sword and bowed his head. With a quick nod, and an even quicker flick of his wrist, he swept the short sword upward and sliced neatly through the minion’s throat. He didn’t even have a chance to gurgle a dying breath before collapsing face first onto the cobbles.

The stench of rotting meat, which permeated all minions, increased as the man bled out. Althir curled his lip at the noxious smell and moved inside, not waiting to see what Mina did.

She followed as silently as he could have hoped. For a human, she moved with a great deal of control and stealth. Years working as a spy had obviously trained her well.

Once inside, he went to the smaller of the two weapons rooms. Rather than take from the main stores, he raided the watches’ supply, knowing those weren’t monitored as closely, or counted as accurately, as the main collection in a much larger room deeper in the building. A further advantage of stealing from the guards’ supply—the room was very close to the door they’d entered through and not secured with a complicated locking system.

He concentrated on listening to his surroundings as he moved, waiting for any sign the other minions were moving from their stations. The house remained eerily, but blessedly, quiet. At the door to the weapons room, he dropped to one knee to study the simple key lock. He could force the door easily enough, but doing it without making noise would take some finesse. As he studied the knob and frame, Mina dropped down to her knees next to him and shouldered him over a few inches.

She put her mouth against his ear and said, “Any spells?”

He shook his head.

She pulled two long, thin needles from inside one of the sleeves of her tunic and proceeded to pick the lock with a dexterity that both surprised and impressed him.

“Thief,” he mouthed around a smile as the door clicked open.

“Spy,” she corrected in the same near-silent tone.

They scooted inside and Mina pulled the door nearly closed, leaving an inch of space so she could watch the hallway. Althir went right to the rack of swords, bows and arrows.

He fingered the arrows, thinking of his cousin and her special arrows just delivered into Sinnale hands. He could use some of those about now. But, then again, they made a lot of noise when they exploded. Better the stealthier, if less elegant, human-made arrows.

He picked up a full quiver and bow, dropping both over his head so they rested at an angle across his back. Then he turned to select a sword. Just one. He didn’t want to weigh himself down, and he also didn’t want to take so much that it made the theft obvious.

The swords weren’t nearly as well made as Mina’s, but they were sturdy and would do in a fight. They weren’t elven either, of course. During the neutrality, Glengowyn hadn’t traded weapons with either side. And now that the elves had gotten involved in the human war, they sent weapons only to the Sinnale.

He hefted one blade, checked its balance, replaced it and selected another. Satisfied that the second would do, he went in search of a scabbard to hold it. Unfortunately, none of those were in the storage room.

Damn. Well he’d have to make do with his belt. He slipped the naked blade gently through the belt looped through his trousers and hooked the guard on the edges of the leather to keep it in place. Maybe the dead minion had a scabbard, he thought as he joined Mina.

She glanced back, noted his weapons and nodded once, then she eased the door open as quietly as the hinges allowed. Althir continued to listen intently for any possible noise from the others, and it was that attention that kept him hovering in the door a beat before following Mina into the hall.

The minion that came up behind her moved much more quietly than most of them did, though he wasn’t as silent as an elf—or even a human spy. Mina must have assumed the noise came from Althir, however, because she didn’t turn to face the threat immediately. Her hesitation was only seconds, but those were preciously long seconds that nearly cost her her life.

The minion raised his sword, Mina turned just as the sword speared toward her. She leapt back awkwardly, unprepared for the attack. The sword caught one of her sleeves, slicing through material and drawing blood, though not actually piercing her. She was quick to reach for her sword but not quick enough.

Althir stepped out, using their focus on each other to move up behind the minion in silence. With Mina’s short sword, he sliced the man’s throat as smoothly and quietly as he’d killed the first minion.

When he looked up from the collapsed carcass, Mina’s eyes were wide, her nostrils flaring and her mouth slightly opened with her rapid breath. She met his gaze but didn’t bother to mouth any comments. They didn’t have time to waste.

Althir stepped over the body, took her hand and hurried toward their exit. He paused before rushing out into the night, listening for signs of ambush from outside or that the alert had been raised inside. When he was sure their exit was safe, he pulled her into the streets. They raced back toward the road Mina needed to get them to their second hiding spot.

Once well clear of the storage hold, though, Mina jerked him to a stop and pulled him into an empty building. He was about to protest, but she put her fingers over his mouth to silence him. The contact was more of a shock than any real impediment to speaking, and he couldn’t manage to form a coherent sentence even if he’d remembered what he wanted to say.

Instead, all he could think was that her fingers were warm and held that very faint but elusive scent that defined her. And that it would be very easy to pull one of her fingers into his mouth to taste her. He was surprised at how desperately he wanted that taste. He held her gaze for a long, charged few heartbeats before she finally dropped the touch.

Motioning him farther into the dark entryway, she stopped when they were well out of sight from any of the windows. He glanced around quickly, taking note that they’d ended up inside what seemed to be a house, then he focused on her again.

“There’s no one here,” she affirmed in a whisper. “I wanted to… With this detour for your weapons, we aren’t going to reach the next place I wanted us to hide before dawn. We took too long.”

When he would have commented, she raised a hand.

“I’m not complaining. We couldn’t have done that any faster with so little complication.”

He raised his brows at the “little complication” comment.

She ducked her head. “About that. Thank you. For…”

When she trailed off, he smirked. “For not letting him kill you? If I’d done that, who would watch me to make sure I didn’t turn traitor again?”

She kept her head down so he couldn’t see her expression clearly, but he did catch her slight flinch. His satisfaction with the reaction mingled with another emotion he didn’t entirely recognize in himself and so didn’t bother to analyze.

“Well. Anyway, I do thank you.” She held out a hand and finally looked up to meet his gaze. “My sword, please.”

He wanted to mock her for the “please” too but didn’t as he handed her blade back.

She sheathed it then gestured at his sword hung looped through his belt. “We’ll try to find you a scabbard in our travels. That will be too hard to get at if we find ourselves in a fight.”

He just stared.

Flicking her tongue out to wet her lips, she said, “Since we won’t make our original hiding spot, I have a backup we can head toward. It’s closer but a little out of the way given our ultimate destination.”

“Fine.”

The glint of moisture on her lips from that quick pass of her tongue captured his attention. How this woman managed to irritate and entice him all at once, he couldn’t begin to guess. But at the moment, he didn’t really care. He was too busy wondering what that full mouth of hers might taste like, and if she’d still stick her sword in his gut if he tried to kiss her. Maybe not, since he’d just saved her life. Though he suspected he’d still get a sound slap for his efforts. He smiled, just a little, certain the sting of that slap would be worth it.

She sucked in a sharp breath and his gaze dropped to her breasts. Ah, but this woman made him forget where they were, what they were doing, the fact that she hated him, that a part of him resented her. Everything that should have put a halt to his growing desire got swept away under the need to touch her. To fill his hands with her full breasts and taste the skin along her throat, searching out her sweet flavors.

He didn’t think he moved, not even to step toward her and act on his growing fantasies, but she made a sudden sound and jerked backward a few steps. He met her gaze without even an ounce of guilt for staring at her breasts or considering all the ways he’d like to taste her.

Her pulse was actually visible in her throat, and he could hear the increased speed of her breathing in the otherwise silent room. She was affected by him. That was obvious. Despite her own distrust and hate.

Maybe she wouldn’t slap him too quickly if he moved in for that kiss…

Before he could, though, she said, “We need to move. We won’t reach our new safe spot if we linger here too long.”

“Then why did we stop?”

Her expression shifted through a series of emotions he couldn’t follow before she settled her gaze on his shoulder. “I wanted to tell you about the change of plans.”

“You could have done that while we moved.”

“And I wanted to pause long enough to thank you. For…”

“Saving your life,” he finished for her, amused that she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.

“Yes. Exactly.”

“You could have said that once we reached the safe spot.”

“It needed saying sooner rather than later.” She straightened her shoulders. “Let’s move.”

Without waiting for his response, she returned to the door she’d so recently dragged him through, studied the street beyond, then slipped out into the night, leaving him to follow.

He didn’t let her get too far away before joining her. He had no intention of letting her get too far away from him for the next several days. More often than he should, he caught himself watching her rounded ass as they skirted close to the buildings and down darkened streets. He might still get slapped, maybe even end up with one of her swords in his gut, but he would have the kiss he so desperately wanted.

Sooner rather than later.

And if she didn’t kill him, he had no intention of stopping at just a kiss.

Chapter Five

Mina was so overly conscious of Althir’s gaze on her, she moved stiffly, awkwardly, feeling oddly uncomfortable in her own body. Her skin felt too tight, her clothing too confining. A jittery tingle of awareness kept her nerves so alert to his presence, it was almost pain.

She hated Althir. Hated his kind. Resented his masculine beauty that she found so hard to ignore. So why did she suddenly feel this…need? Why couldn’t her anger and hate overcome the growing twist of desire tightening in her stomach?

She didn’t even like him! He was arrogant. Rude. Presumptuous. Mean.

And he’d saved her life.

Swallowing hard around the thickness clogging her throat, she led him into the former tavern that would be their hiding spot for the day, then motioned him toward the stairs at the rear of the common room.