Lucenna closed her eyes. She made herself strong because she needed to be. She had friends now, but it felt too incapacitating to rely on anyone, though she knew it shouldn’t.
“It’s difficult,” she admitted faintly.
“Because you think it makes you weak.”
Lucenna looked up at him, embarrassed and surprised he understood.
Klyde gave her a half smile. It was faint and kind. “Far from it, lass. I think it makes one brave to admit they need help. Even if you can’t admit it to the others yet, I hope you will come to me whenever you need to.”
As Lucenna studied the Captain of the Skelling Mercenaries, she found there were many sides of Klyde. The ridiculous part. The solider part. The calculative part. The part that was violent like a rogue tidal wave. Then there was this unanticipated soft side she had only seen in thesestolen moments when their walls unexpectedly dropped around each other.
She arched an eyebrow. “Free of charge?”
Klyde’s smile widened into a grin, and he winked. “Only for you, love”
Lucenna rolled her eyes, pretending she wasn’t glad to see him in a better mood. “I’m not your love.”
“Right.” At his nod toward the trees, they headed back to camp together.
“I am sorry about the gorge though,” she said. “The mercenaries won’t be able to cross into the west now.”
Not without a full force to fight back against those beasts.
“It’s a good thing they won’t be leaving Troll Bridge while I’m gone,” Klyde said as he moved a low-hanging branch out of her way. “They are taking the year off to build new homes in Skelling Rise and prepare for the refugees coming from the Magos Empire.”
She halted. “What?”
“Your people are going to need places to live, lass. The manor will be used as a command center for them to gather, with rooms for them to stay meanwhile. The logjam was a fortunate accident, as it assures outsiders won’t be making their way in, and those damn trolls won’t escape either.”
“But how will you get back in with Onyx?”
“I suppose I will figure that out when the time comes.” His casual statement seemed too indifferent towards how he reacted before.
Was it to hide his worry?
“Why did you offer to take my people in without compensation?” Lucenna asked instead. “The truth.”
Klyde sighed and came to a stop, facing her. “I couldn’t accept any sort of recompense, for my reasons are not entirely unselfish.”
Lucenna had suspected as much. She braced herself for whatever he was about to say.
“Opening our doors to outsiders is something I should have called a town meeting to discuss first. But I chose this because when you cried about the suffering women endured in the Empire, I couldn’t stand not doing whatever necessary to make it stop.” His hand reached for her cheek, but he caught himself and pulled back. “But I must admit … I do have another reason. Our population hasn’t grown much because there are more men than women in Skelling Rise.” When her eyes narrowed, Klyde gave her a look. “You know what kind of town I run and the laws wehave in place, lass. I promise, your people will always be respected, valued, and protected.”
Lucenna crossed her arms. “What if I told you sorceresses and mages are prohibited from mixing their bloodlines? To have a human love-mate is unheard of and very unlikely to happen.”
Sighing, Klyde shrugged. “Well, we hold no expectations. Most of the men have resigned themselves to never having a family, and the life of a mercenary tends to be a short one. Every day our town survives is a miracle. We hope opening our doors will bring in a new strength to continue that survival, even if it’s only with magic. And if by some rare chance a sorceress should choose a mercenary for herself, they would consider it a blessing from the Gods.” She stared at him, and he smiled, making those damn dimples appear. “Did you expect me to change my mind? We are stubborn folk, if you haven’t realized it yet.”
Her heart dipped at the way he was looking at her, sensing there was a double meaning behind his words. “I have noticed,” she replied faintly.
Klyde chuckled as he continued, and she watched him go.
Choose…
The word circled her mind around and around.
Her people would have the right to choose in Skelling Rise. They would haverights. To use magic if they wanted. To marry who they wish or not marry at all. To choose how to live their lives, no longer fearing that the Archmage and his Enforcers would come to take it from them.
With the warding spell in place, her people now had their own sanctuary.
