A Vision in Smoke by Allyson S. Barkley

Author:Allyson S. Barkley [Barkley, Allyson S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

When Ari arrived back at her tent, Ely was already there and he was not alone. Dinar sat on the floor, legs crossed and leaning back on her hands. The two were talking with earnest faces, words pouring out like water tumbling down an endless mountain. When Ari saw them, she turned to go, hoping to leave them alone. Ely stopped her.

“You don’t have to leave.”

Dinar’s forced smile did not echo this sentiment. Jagger slipped into the room ahead of his girl and hopped onto her bed, picking a spot on the end from which to watch the intruder with suspicious eyes. Ari only nodded curtly and stalked over to join him.

“Where were you?” Dinar asked her.

Unlacing her boots, she did not reply.

“I’m sorry for what I said today – and the day we met.” Dinar appeared earnest, but Ari was not entirely convinced. “I did not mean anything by it.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Ari,” Ely began, but she cut him off before he could go on.

“I want this for you, Ely, because you deserve to have your family. That does not mean I have to indulge her efforts to taint my honor.”

“That was not my intention,” Dinar put in firmly.

“No? You had everyone else fooled.”

“I should go,” the other woman said quietly, rising and brushing Ely’s shoulder as she walked out.

He rounded on Ari as soon as his sister was gone. “Why did you have to do that?”

“I’m glad you have reconnected,” she answered flatly.

“I thought we had moved on from ignoring my questions.”

“We?”

He sighed in exasperation. “I understand why you are angry, but you were the one who encouraged me to speak to her! Don’t look at me like that,” he continued, directing his words at Jagger. “You know I’m right.”

The bobcat blinked calmly.

“Anyway, she’ll be kinder as she warms up to you,” Ely told Ari, dropping onto his cot. “I think she’s just a bit jealous.”

“Excuse me?” She gave him a skeptical look.

Shrugging, Ely removed his boots and pulled a blanket from the end of the bed. “The two of us were always together, always knew everything about each other. She’s missed four years of my life and now I show up with you… It would be hard, don’t you think?”

“It was her fault.” Ari was almost surprised at her own conviction, at how passionately upset she could be with this woman for something she had done years earlier.

Ely seemed to share that confusion, a small smile wandering over his lips as he squinted to study her. “Where were you, really?”

“Shooting with Mateo in the Old Hall.”

Eyes widening, he nodded slowly. “He wasn’t angry?”

“Sad, I think.” Ari leaned back and folded her hands behind her head. “I told him that we saw Daerecles.”

Ely was quiet, processing this. He looked sad too, his soft brown eyes deep with feeling.

“Anyway,” said Ari, turning to stare up at the canvas ceiling, “he’s an incredible bowman. I don’t know why he doesn’t enter the battle himself.”

“That is some praise.”

“I do offer it when it is deserving.

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