“Out from underneath your dragon?” Fel asked. “And the weapons platform? We’ll shoot him down if he comes close.”
We’ll?
Jhiton assumed that only Syla could operate that device. Maybe that was an incorrect assumption.
“I think Wreylith intimidates Agrevlari enough that he won’t approach while she’s here,” Syla said. “Though I understand there have been promises of horn-hog meat.”
“Just see what your captain will reveal while he’s drugged,” Aunt Tibby said.
“Anddon’thave sex with him.” Fel groaned.
Was the bodyguard planning to stand in the room again while Vorik and Syla spoke? That would make engaging in a seduction plan challenging.
“You don’t think that would prompt him to babble secrets?” Syla asked wryly.
“No,” Fel said.
“Maybe,” Tibby offered. “Did it before?”
“No,” Syla said.
“Then stick with the drug. There’s no need to… Goodness, Syla.” Tibby had already been whispering, but she lowered her voice even further. If not for Vorik’s magically enhanced hearing, he wouldn’t have caught any of the conversation. “What if you were impregnated? Withstormeroffspring?”
“I’m taking a contraceptive.” Syla sounded uncomfortable, like this wasn’t a topic she wished to discuss.
Vorik didn’t blame her, though he did find himself curious if the thought of having children with him was as appalling to Syla as to her aunt. Oh, he knew they never could, not when they were at war, but… he remembered Jhiton offering a place in the tribe for Syla if she wanted to live with them. If only…
“Such methods aren’t foolproof,” Tibby said. “You of all people know that. Can you imagine the scandal? Normally,Iwouldn’t care about such things—and given that none of your siblings were able to have children, I’d consider it a blessed event if you became a mother, but not ofhischild. It would be one more reason for your political opponents to try to oust you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Syla murmured, then called into the cabin, “Corporal, is he ready?” with a tinge of desperation in her voice.
She hadn’tsaidshe loathed the idea of having children with Vorik, but she wanted to escape that conversation. He didn’t blame her.
The man who’d been shackling Vorik stepped back. “Uhm.”
He looked toward another soldier holding a long chain that could be hooked to the shackles and attached to a ring mounted in a cell, but his perusal of the cabin didn’t reveal any eyelets bolted to the walls. This was someone’s sleeping quarters, not a proper dungeon.
“He’s not very secured, Your Majesty, but he is shackled again.”
“For all the good it’ll do,” a soldier with a fresh scar down the side of his neck muttered.
During the battle, Vorik hadn’t attacked any of the fleet troops—he’d been focused on Lesva—but it was possible he’d encountered the man before.
“Good. Thank you.” Syla stepped inside, Fel walking in behind her.
The bodyguard immediately glowered at Vorik. It probably had more to do with the earlier kiss than a desire to throttle him. Vorik wouldn’t go so far as to say Fel was on his side now, but hecouldhave ordered Vorik slain while Syla had been unconscious.
Vorik bowed to them, his chains rattling. “I’m distressed that seeing my face still prompts such dyspeptic expressions from you, Sergeant Fel.”
The glower turned into a growl. Maybe thereweresome fantasies of throttling.
“You can go, Corporal,” Syla told the man who’d shackled Vorik. “And leave the keys here, please.”
The soldier blinked. “We can’t leave the keys in the cabin with him, Your Majesty. He would easily overpower you, take them, and unlock himself.”
“My bodyguard is here with me.”
The soldier looked at Fel. “Your bodyguard is sixty years old.”
