“Oh.” Syla remembered Tibby’s giggle when she and Fel had been close in the wagon. Syla hadn’t noticed that Fel had been slowed down by anything. He might not have vaulted out of the wagon as quickly as Vorik, but Vorik was half his age. Besides, Felhadbrought his crossbow to bear and done fine in the fight. He’d done much more thanshehad. “It’s all right, Sergeant. And we all survived. I don’t think any of us were even wounded.”
“Someonecouldhave been.Youcould have been, and it’s my duty to protect you.”
“Yes, and you’re doing a great job. Especially since you were supposed to retire last month.” Syla smiled at him.
His expression remained glum. By the eyes of the moon, was he going to chastise himself for taking the time to appreciate Tibby’s feminine assets? Syla didn’t want him to feel guilty about that. She had no idea if Fel and Tibby were a good match—they exchanged more vitriolic comments with each other than Syla did with enemies who were trying to kill her—but there was no reason why they couldn’t explore that together.
“Vorik and I were distracted twice last night,” she offered. “Even in emotional and chaotic times, people need each other.”
“I’m a bodyguard, not a normal person. I have duties that I’m sworn to do.” Fel waved to her.
“Well, I’m a queen—though that’s probably debatable at the moment since someone else’s butt is polishing the throne—andI consider myself a person with needs, the same as anyone else.” Syla patted his arm. “You’re doing a good job, Sergeant. I appreciate you.”
“Because you’re complimenting me, I won’t point out that it would be better for the Kingdom if you weredistractedby someone less… stormery.”
“Yeah, but would it be better forme?” Syla thought of the lineage of arranged marriages in her family and how few tales there were of any of them being more than civil.
Fel sighed. “Probably not. Even if he’s completely inappropriate for a queen, has slain more Kingdom soldiers than we can count, and was involved in the devastating invasion of our homeland, he… protects you.”
“I’ll let Vorik know of your growing adoration for him.” Syla patted Fel’s arm again, then walked into the front room, the kiln and furnace still radiating heat, and woke Tibby. “Sorry to disturb you when you were probably up all night, but how are things going?”
Tibby sat up and looked blearily around. She found her spectacles folded atop a book and hooked them over her ears. “It will take some time.”
Syla thought of Vorik’s three days. She also thought about how every day that she didn’t challenge Lord Fograth was another day for him to entrench himself as the ruler of the Kingdom.
“A couple more days of work, at least,” Tibby said.
“Oh, days sounds promising.” Syla had envisioned her aunt slaving away like a forge worker for months to craft the artifact.
“Not if it involves sleeping on the floor every night.” Tibby massaged her back.
“Did we get the only spare room?” Embarrassment warmed Syla’s cheeks. Her aunt was thirty years older than she and probably had more need for a mattress.
“Yes, but we all preferred that you were locked away in there anyway. Nobody wanted to hear…” Tibby waved vaguely. “More than we heard.”
Wreylith’s commentary came to mind, and Syla’s cheeks warmed even more. To change the subject, she said, “I’m thinking of taking Vorik and Wreylith to go free Teyla from imprisonment on her estate while you finish here. Fel can keep an eye out for you.”
“Felis assigned to guard the queen.” He frowned at them from the hallway.
“Yes, but Tibby doesn’t have a dragon or a rider,” Syla said. “Sheneedsprotection.”
“Youbothneed someone watching over you,” Fel grumbled, probably thinking of more than external threats.
“It shouldn’t take us long to reach Lake Ferringtar and collect Teyla.” Recalling the two-person-per-dragon problem, Syla added, “Or at least free her and put her on a horse heading away from her father, who was probably part of the plan to keep her locked up while her brother schemes.”
“I doubt she’s in that much danger,” Tibby said, “other than being mortally offended by being imprisoned by her own family.”
“We don’t know what’s being done to moon-marked people. Also, it sounded like Fograth is thinking of forcing Teyla to marry him. And who knows what Relvin is plotting? Regardless, Teyla was here while we were gone. She may know more about what’s been going on behind the scenes.”
“More likely, she knows about what was going on in thelibrarywhile we were gone. When last I saw her, she was studying the scrolls and tools you two brought back from your desert adventure.”
Syla waved an acknowledgment, but she still felt obligated to get her cousin. “You can have the spare room here while we’regone. You and Fel. I’m sure his back gets sore from sleeping on the floor too.”
Looking wistful, Fel let his hand stray not to his back but to his hip, and he rotated his torso to alleviate an ongoing ache.
Syla resisted the urge to suggest she could leave liniment from her first-aid kit on the bedside table for them to share. That might prompt baleful glares rather than gratitude.
“As soon as the shielder is working, we’ll take it over to Harvest Island and figure out a way to shoo away the dragons before activating it.” Syla remembered the report that wyverns and manticores had shown up over there as well as dragons. Hopefully, whatever they had been up to was finished and wouldn’t be an ongoing threat. “We’ll have to take the weapons platform with us, I suppose. I hope Major Hixun is successfully avoiding being captured by the fleet.”
