Page 109 of Beds and Blades

Varia studied me.

“You have become very certain of yourself.”

“I defeated you ten minutes ago. My confidence is temporarily unmanageable.”

That drew a brief laugh from her. Then she grew quiet.

“You are the closest friend I have ever had,” she said.

The words came without ceremony, as Varia’s truest statements always did.

“In any garrison. At any posting. In my entire life.”

Her blue eyes were bright and no longer entirely steady. A single tear escaped and tracked down her cheek, apparently having rejected the chain of command.

“In my world, we have a phrase for that,” I said. “Ride or die.”

“Ride or die?”

“It means I am with you through everything. No conditions. You are mine, and I am yours.”

She considered the phrase with the focused attention she gave to anything she intended to keep.

“Ride or die,” she repeated.

“Absolutely.”

Varia set her flask beside her and pulled me into her arms.

The movement was abrupt enough that I barely had time to respond. Varia did not hug tentatively. She held me with the same certainty she brought to everything else, one arm firm across my back, her face pressed briefly against my hair. I wrapped my arms around her.

For several seconds, neither of us spoke. The snow fell around us, and the garrison moved through the yard below, and the woman who had spent years refusing to let anyone close held on to me as though she had finally decided closeness was not the same thing as weakness.

Then she released me, cleared her throat, and retrieved her flask.

A moment later, she walked toward Gaius.

I watched him notice her approach. His posture changed before his expression did. Then warmth reached his face, unmistakable and immediate. He had been waiting.

Varia said something I could not hear. Gaius laughed. The smile she gave him was small but unguarded.

Varia looked back once.

I raised my flask.

She smiled.

Chapter nineteen

First Blood

Skip had night duty.

This happened periodically. Most of his responsibilities fell during the day—supplies, patrol rotations, reports, meetings, administrative work. But night was when Morvanna’s forces were active, and every few weeks he took command of the night watch himself.

Even when he was on a daytime schedule and theoretically sleeping after sunset, everyone understood that a major incursion would bring the High Commander running.

Part of it was practical. Part of it was morale.