“When I suggestedyou burn off some steam, I didn’t mean get yourself killed,” Ursula said with considerable asperityas she walked into her chambers.
She would’ve been informed that I’d requested a Tala healer to attend my worst wounds, so it didn’t surprise me that she already knew. Just as well that I’d gone to her rooms and not elsewhere. I’d considered it, whether I’d be welcome in the chambers that had been hers long before her father hired my Vervaldr to defend Ordnung. Ursula referred to them as ourrooms, but I was careful not to. Finally I’d decided that she’d tell me in no uncertain terms when she wanted me out.
She’d left the decision in my lap, so I’d keep that tactical advantage.
“I didn’t get myself killed,” I replied mildly. “As you, with your acute observational skills, can no doubt confirm for yourself.”
“How is he?” she asked the Tala healer, Kelleah, ignoring me entirely.
“A few broken ribs, a lot of lacerations, some internal bleeding. Nothing I can’t fix, given a few more moments of quiet,” Kelleah replied, voice vague and green eyes sharp. A wide-shouldered and big-bosomed woman with an unusual amount of red in her Tala dark hair, Kelleah possessed both the gentle, nurturing qualities of a healer and the no-nonsense conviction of those who put their calling aboveall else. Andi had sent her to be Ordnung’s healer, remarking that Kelleah would be up to the challenge of defying Ursula when necessary.
Duly rebuked, clearly not happy about it, Ursula divested herself of the trappings of her public persona. First she tossed the crown aside, then removed her jewelry, treating her mother’s rubies with a reverence she hadn’t shown the crown. She unbuckled hersword belt from the metalwork bodice and set the whole thing—sword still sheathed—on the table. One of her ladies approached at her glance and undid the fastenings of the bodice, taking it away.
Apparently Ursula planned to stay in for a bit. I couldn’t decide if that boded well or ill for me. At least she was unarmed. With external weapons, anyway.
She stretched—nothing like Zynda’s languidmovements, but like a warrior relieved of armor—and prowled to the window behind me. Her soft bootsteps on the thick rugs continued, and I pictured her pacing restlessly. Kelleah’s healing magic swarmed through me, an odd prickling heat that made me profoundly sleepy and restless at once. I resisted the sleepiness, focusing on the surging energy. I’d need it for whatever confrontation Ursula planned—almostcertainly not of the enticing variety. Alas.
Tala healing—we all knew from experience—tended to arouse sexual desire along with the renewed wellbeing. The more intense the healing, the more extreme the ensuing arousal. Except when the patient nearly died, as Ursula had. Then it was all they could do to muster the will to live. Aha—and that memory worked to dampen any ill-considered desire onmy part.
I sincerely doubted Ursula would appreciate any seductive moves from the man she thought had betrayed her and had lost his temper, shaming her royal hospitality.
“There,” Kelleah declared, rubbing her palms together briskly, the green of her eyes dimming as she allowed the healing magic to settle inside her again. “You’ll be just fine, Captain Harlan.” Her gaze darted to Ursula, stillstanding rigidly by the window. “At least physically.” She winked encouragingly and stood. “Your Majesty,” she said, by way of signaling her withdrawal, and strode out.
Servants passed her, bringing in platters of food and wine, then also left, closing the doors and leaving us alone.
“Didn’t you eat yet?” I asked Ursula, surveying the spread, and the midafternoon sun.
“Yes. And no.” She soundeddistracted, deep in thought, but came over to sit opposite me. With her crown removed, she’d been running her hands through her bloodred hair so it stood in unruly tufts and spikes. Endearingly so. Her composed expression and shuttered gaze didn’t show it, but the mussed hair gave evidence of her agitation.
I reached over the table and took her hand, so wiry and strong, callused from wieldingher sword. “I’m sorry if I worried you. My wounds weren’t that severe. Under other circumstances, I’d have dealt with them on my own. I only asked for Kelleah in case there’s an attack. I need to be in top form.”
She squeezed my hand, meeting my eyes—hers indeed filled with worry. “It’s not that,” she said, then amended, withdrawing her hand. “Well, hearing that Zynda had torn you up enough thatyou called for Kelleah didn’t help my appetite. But, no, I had no stomach to eat with the others, and I knew you hadn’t eaten. Due to the aforementioned and ill-advised battle to the death with the best shapeshifter living.”
“It wasn’t a battle to the death,” I corrected, filling my plate. Magical healing left you hungry, too. “We only sparred.”
“Sparred,” she echoed, the neutrality of her tonean accusation in and of itself.
I quickly checked her expression, but it revealed nothing. “Yes. A game, nothing more.”
“Oh, it was more than that. It was foolish and irresponsible,” she bit out “Either of you could’ve killed the other and we need you both in the war ahead. One slip, Harlan, that’s all it takes. One wound mortal enough that she can’t shift in time or the Tala healer can’t reachyou. For agame. She wasn’t supposed to be out there with you anyway.Sparring.”
I watched her closely as she finished by spitting the word through tight lips. Wehadbeen foolish and irresponsible, Zynda and I. She’d beaten me two rounds out of three—the third time only because she pulled out the dragon form—and I’d been the one to insist on a fourth, with the dragon off the table as the worstkind of cheating. That last match had indeed nearly killed us, both of us carried away in our determination to best the other. We’d finally conceded to the tie and she’d had to lend a shoulder to help me stagger back into the castle.
Ursula, however, was more than worried, more than aggravated with me. Something had her in a quiet fury, something newer than this morning’s trials.
Ursula andI usually sparred together, and it often led to sex. It hadn’t occurred to me that she might see my sparring with Zynda as another betrayal. “Are you jealous?”
“No, I’m notjealous,” she sneered, lathering a slice of rye bread with fresh butter. Then she sighed, closing her eyes briefly. “All right, maybe a little jealous.”
“Essla…” I wished I still had ahold of her. “I’m in no way attractedto Zynda. You are the only woman I want. Ever. You’re everything to me.”
She met my gaze wryly. “So you’re forever telling me. And it’s not that. I’m more…bothered that you sparred with her instead of talking to me about what’s going on.” She held up the honey-stick, the thick liquid forming golden teardrops, pointing it at me to forestall any explanation. “I’m also envious that you two got tobe outside, playing games, while I was stuck in the council chambers talking obnoxious politics.”
I chewed thoughtfully. The butter tasted of sweet clover, redolent of summer, and the warm afternoon sunshine brought in the sounds of furious birdsong and the faint echoes of music and laughter. Ursula didn’t have Andi’s same drive to be outdoors, to live outside of walls, which seemed to be characteristicof the Tala, but she had enough Tala in her to feel the pull. When she’d been her father’s heir, Ursula had traveled extensively through the realm, leading campaigns or exercising Uorsin’s diplomatic overtures. On our travels, we’d been outside more than in.
Since returning to Ordnung and taking up the weight of her crown again, it had been the reverse. She’d barely been able to enjoy the summerweather at all. No wonder she acted so caged lately. Maybe I could do something about that.
Though not today.
“I take it the politics were obnoxious enough for you to cancel court for the afternoon?” I asked carefully.
“As obnoxious as they get,” she agreed, then poured us both wine, filling the goblets to the rim. An ominous sign for so early in the day. “You and I need to talk.”
