Alannah turned to find Finn smiling as he watched the wholesome scene unfolding in the common room. “Of course. And I’m training with you, too.”
He glanced at her, raising a brow. “Is that so?”
“I asked Conan to help me. After that fight with Oran and now the bridge getting attacked,” she swallowed. “I need to be able to protect her.”
Finn tensed visibly. “Believe me, I understand that notion all too well.”
That piqued Alannah’s interest. “You speak as though from experience.”
“My sister was hunted by a man once. If not for Illadan, she’d be dead.” All the light had left his blue eyes, his face hardened. “If Conan can’t teach you, I will.” With that, he pushed away from the door and took his usual seat at the corner table.
She knew the moment Conan entered the room. It felt like all the air disappeared and she was fighting to breathe. The grin on his face when he spotted her didn’t help matters, and neither did the intense run that followed.
This time, she made it through half the route before she had to stop. Not great, but better. As he did every time she stopped, Conan appeared at her side, waiting patiently as her body remembered how to breathe.
“How far can you run?” she asked, finally able to stand straight without gasping.
That same grin answered her question, the one that felt like it was just for her. “Farther than you.”
She shoved him as hard as she could.
He didn’t even stumble.
“I mean it.”
“So do I,” he laughed. “I’ve never measured it. I run as far as Illadan makes me run. When we stayed in Dyflin we ran around the entire city, so it must’ve been a few miles. I can run farther, but I avoid it if I can.”
“You’ve been to Dyflin?” Alannah had always wondered what a town run by the invaders would be like. “Was it dangerous?”
“No, they were very welcoming. Of course, when you offer entertainment wherever you go, folk tend not to mind you visiting.”
“Is Dyflin like Luimneach?” She couldn’t stop herself. Curiosity got the better of her sense. Both towns had a large population of the northern invaders settled there, but Ath Luain was equally far from both places.
“Aye. Many houses are built in the style of their people, many folk speak the language and follow the rules and customs of the Ostmen, but not all.” He looked over at her as they walked. “If you want to learn of the Ostmen, you need only ask Finn. His father is one.”
“Well, that explains whyhe’sso tall,” she laughed, “but what of the rest of you?”
Conan caught her gaze, pausing to bite his bottom lip. “Just lucky, I guess,” he drawled, his voice rough.
Alannah’s stomach flipped. He couldn’t have meant her. They weren’t courting. It had only been the one night, and that certainly wasn’t what he meant. Lord, she was turning into a proper fool over him.
Desperate for a change of subject, she returned to Finn. “That means Illadan is married to an Ostwoman,” she thought aloud, “if he wed Finn’s sister.”
“Half of one, aye. But my brother married a woman from Dyflin with hair so red it looks like fire.”
“You have a brother?”
They’d nearly reached The Hart’s Rest, but Alannah didn’t want the conversation to end. It enchanted her, learning about Conan’s life and his friends. She’d only just realized she knew nothing of his family.
“I have three brothers and one sister,” he sighed.
“Are you not close to them?”
“Two of my brothers I see quite often, my sister a few times a year. My eldest brother—” he halted mid-speech, tightening his face in obvious frustration. “I cannot forgive what he did.”
“I’m sorry.” Instinctively, she placed a hand on his arm, hot as a forge beneath her fingers. She couldn’t imagine what that would be like, but she knew it would be hard. Her brothers and Emer were her entire world. Family was everything.
They stopped in the yard behind the barn, where they’d sparred before. Thankfully it hadn’t rained in a few days, so the mud had turned into packed dirt once again.
