Ice and Embers (Blessed Epoch) by Li Augusta

Author:Li, Augusta [Li, Augusta]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2013-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“MY BAIRN, you have a… a most uncommon visitor.”

The uncharacteristically hesitant tone in Tam Allwynn’s gruff voice made Duncan sit up straight from the financial records he’d been hunched over all evening. He blinked his tired eyes in the torchlight. What in the sisters’ names could have perplexed the seasoned soldier? A visitor? His heart stuttering with the faintest hope, Duncan got to his feet. Sitting for so many hours with his treasurer and then on his own had left his legs cramped. “Is it a young man?” he dared to ask. Could Yarrow have really returned to them? “What color is his hair?”

Tam Allwynn’s furry brows arched up at what he certainly found an odd question, but like any good knight, he answered it. “The most ungodly red, tam.”

Duncan collapsed back into his chair. It had been a foolish expectation at best, but it had taken root and bloomed in his chest with only the slightest coaxing, just like a windblossom growing from a crack in the unforgiving stone. “I can’t imagine what fresh torment this will prove, and after the day I’ve had, I can hardly wait for what will surely be a delightful surprise. Show him in, tam, and thank you.”

The grizzled seneschal bowed and disappeared into the shadows of the hall, returning with a slight figure, the top of the stranger’s head barely reaching the knight’s shoulder. Though small, the lad walked with grace and confidence into the ring of brighter light where Duncan worked. Duncan squinted at his ropes of shell-adorned hair and tremendous orange eyes. “Mother Goddess,” he gasped. “Sai?”

“I’m happy you remember me, Duncan.” The Emiri looked much as Duncan recalled with his full lips always moving suggestively and his beautiful androgynous features, but strips of puffy black wreathed his bright eyes.

Tam Allwynn stepped between Duncan and Sai. “You will address the bairn of Windwake in the proper manner, Emiri.”

Duncan lifted his hand with some effort. “Thank you for your concern, Allwynn, but Sai and I are old friends.”

“You certainly pick yourself some… unusual friends,” Allwynn grumbled as he turned to leave and stomped away. “Call if you need me.”

Sai watched the seneschal depart with a smirk tugging at his lips. Without waiting to be invited, he sat down in the chair Duncan’s treasurer had occupied hours before and leaned his elbows on the table.

“Please tell me you’re not here to ask for money like everyone else, Mir-Sai,” Duncan teased, hoping he remembered the proper honorific for an Emiri ship’s captain.

Sai threw his head back, laughed, and clapped his hands. “Ah, very good, Tam Duncan! Though it is Sai-Mir, but still, well done! And no, I haven’t come for gold, unless you’re offering, in which case I’d tell you it would only be fair for me to earn it somehow.”

He stretched his lithe brown body, barely covered in strips of worn leather, across the table toward Duncan. The beads in his hair rattled softly as they brushed the parchment-strewn surface. Duncan couldn’t help chuckling as he rolled his eyes.

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