The Last Swordmage by Martin F. Hengst

Author:Martin F. Hengst [Hengst, Martin F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Tiadaria had no idea what had possessed her to agree to such madness. It was well after dark when they finally called a halt to their first day's travel. Her bottom and legs were sore from the hard ride. They had pushed the horses as far as they thought they safely could. All she wanted to do now was curl up in a ball and go to sleep, but the horses needed to be rubbed down and a meal needed to be cooked. These duties, obviously, fell to her.

As she stirred a thin travel stew in a pot that Torus had provided from his saddlebags, she pondered exactly what had come over her to agree to such a foolhardy journey. In a few weeks, the fire of her resistance had died down to embers. Every now and again those embers would flare up and she would remember her indignation at being bought and sold, but for the most part, she served the Captain because it was comfortable and pleased her to do so, not because it was expected of her.

He treated her well and kindly. The only times he was harsh with her were the times, during training, when she wasn't paying attention or was being intentionally obstinate. He had taught her many things about fighting with swords and staves. He claimed that she was helping keep his reflexes sharp and he seemed to genuinely enjoy the practice. However, she had noticed him taking a swig off the flask he kept tucked in his belt all too often.

She had tried to ignore that, but she had found much to her growing chagrin, that she would miss him if something were to happen to him. He wasn't just the man who had purchased her anymore. She was the man who had saved her from execution because he thought she could be more. That kernel of knowledge, which she had denied so vehemently at the outset of their relationship, had grown into a strong, sinewy vine of grudging trust.

She finished with the stew and served both men first, then herself. She sat down on a log to eat, and then settled into the grass when she found that the log was far too hard and unyielding to sit on with her sores. They ate in silence, every one of them too tired to do more than gulp down the soup and spread out a bedroll.

As she spread out the thin blanket she kept under her saddle, the Captain approached her from around the fire. Torus was already rolled on his side, his back to the banked warmth of the embers, snoring softly. The Captain hunkered down beside her and motioned to her blanket.

“Lay down, little one. On your stomach.”

Tiadaria's stomach dropped suddenly. Was he really going to take her here? In the open, under the stars, with another man a rock's throw away? Tia knew that it was his right, but in the weeks that she had been his, he had never taken a single action that lead her to believe that he thought about her in that way.

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