Ruru waved to her. “Yes, Nikella’s finally arrived!”
Chapter 30
Kiera
Without another word,Aiden strode over to Nikella and clasped forearms with her.
I followed at a more cautious pace while they murmured to each other.
Maz grinned at me from a chair where he was polishing his small silver axe. Standing behind one of the tables, a man with dark skin and a crown of white hair nodded at me with a warm smile. He was dressed in a Teacher robe.
But the woman. The woman was a mystery.
She was tall and built like a warrior. Long black hair with a few touches of gray was braided down her back. She wore a loose white shirt with short sleeves under a leather vest and dirt-smudged pants and boots.
As I drew closer, she looked away from Aiden and pinned me with a stare. I quickly swallowed my gasp. She was strikingly beautiful with her dark blue eyes and sculpted cheekbones. A thin scar ran from her left temple to her right jaw, splitting over her lips as if someone had dragged a knife over her face. As if someone had wanted to destroy her beauty.
That person failed miserably.
Her muscled arms were etched with even more scars—light and dark, twisted and smooth. She looked like she’d been through a dozen wars, yet Rellmira hadn’t seen one in centuries. Perhaps they were from Dag skirmishes? Aiden had lived there for a while.
Something else haunted me about her face. A familiarity I couldn’t quite place. But I’d never seen her before. And from the quick study she did of me, she didn’t know me either.
My heart stilled. Was she Aiden’s mother?
Aiden released her arms and turned to me with relief shining in his eyes. “Kiera, this is Nikella, my mentor.”
Oh.I gave her a nervous nod.
She nodded back but said nothing.
“Did you have any trouble coming through the city gate?” Aiden asked her.
“No, but I had to smuggle in my spear,” she said in a hoarse voice, as if she hadn’t spoken in days.
I glanced down at the table to see a double-ended spear made entirely of steel with a wide leather grip in the middle.
“How did you do that?” Ruru asked in awe.
Nikella picked up a long hollow stick from the ground and shoved her spear into it. She capped it with a leather cuff. “Walking stick,” she grunted.
Ruru’s mouth fell open, and I had to blink a few times myself. How often did she have to disguise her spear?
“And this is Librius,” Aiden continued with the introductions. “A Teacher here, and a good friend.”
White stubble framed Librius’s smile as he gave me a short bow. “Lovely to meet you at last, Kiera. The boys have talked about you a great deal.”
My cheeks warmed, as did Ruru’s. Maz winked at me, wearing nothing but an unlaced vest and rolled-up pants. Aiden simply studied the assortment of tins laid out on the table.
Nikella, however, looked unamused. Or perhaps that was just how she always looked. “Ruru tells me you helped Aiden escape prison,” she said, her eyes as sharp as her spear.
“That’s true,” I said, wondering if there was a wrong answer.
“Stole the key to the chains right off the jailer,” Maz added.
“Then you set Aiden free,” Nikella continued. “Why?”
I blanked at the blunt question. I was also very aware of Aiden standing two feet away. “Because... I needed his help to escape. And... and he tried to protect me from the jailer. Which is more than anyone’s ever done for me before.”
