Chapter Eight #3
“Consider it your penitence for all of the women you persecuted under the guise of training,” St. Denis said, casting Tay a long look.
“You’ve been cruel to the female sex long enough.
Now, I am asking you to be kind to Lady Athdara to make up for all of your past sins.
Train her as you would train any other worthy recruit, but more so. Will you do this?”
Initially, Tay didn’t want to. He didn’t want the added responsibility.
But the more he thought on it, the more he wasn’t entirely upset about it.
Perhaps it would be a good thing, because, God only knew, he wasn’t sure he’d be happy if another man had charge of her.
Still, he had to make a show of his indifference, or the others would be able to tell he wasn’t entirely averse to the directive.
That would only lead to questions he had no idea how to answer.
“Very well, my lord,” he said, averting his gaze and sounding unhappy. “If that is your wish.”
St. Denis’ gaze lingered on him for a moment before returning to the document in his hands. “Gather your trainers and explain the situation,” he said. “You may decide the training schedule. It will give us time to receive a reply from one or more of the warlords I will be contacting.”
“Aye, my lord.”
“You may go.”
Tay headed out of the chamber and into the entryway, his mind fairly buzzing with the conversation. He was just passing through the door when he heard his name. Coming to a halt, he waited for Ming Tang to catch up to him.
“It seems that you have been given a special burden,” Ming Tang said, a twinkle in his dark eyes. “I am sorry if this is unwelcome.”
Tay was trying to keep up the impression that this was something he didn’t want. “I cannot disobey Exmoor’s directive,” he said. “I will endure.”
“Of course you will,” Ming Tang said. “Come; I will go with you to summon the trainers, and then we shall go to the field. I’ve not yet met this woman. What is she like?”
They began to head out of the keep, down the wooden steps and to the red earth below. “A woman like any other,” Tay said neutrally. “But she is intelligent and determined. Her intention to avenge her father is an honorable one.”
“You made an impassioned plea for Lord Exmoor to help her.”
“I thought that is what Lord Exmoor would want, since he knew the girl’s father.”
“That is extraordinarily astute,” Ming Tang said. “You went after her when she ran away, spoke civilly to her, enough to know her intentions in this situation. That speaks of closer contact with women than you are known for.”
There was something in his tone that suggested he was onto Tay.
He viewed Athdara differently than most females, and Ming Tang could sense it.
The man wasn’t stupid. He was also one of Tay’s closest friends, so perhaps a little confessional to him would be a good thing.
He knew that Ming Tang wouldn’t think less of him for finding interest in a woman. He might actually applaud him.
“Yesterday was not the first time I have met Athdara de Ghent,” he said quietly.
Ming Tang, usually so good at controlling the emotions on his face, couldn’t help his look of surprise. “Is this so?” he said. “Where did you meet her before?”
Tay came to a halt, facing Ming Tang and knowing his story was going to sound stupid before he even told it.
“The night before, at The Black Cock,” he said.
“After you left, she entered, and we quite literally bumped into one another. She spilled my drink and was courteous enough to buy me a new one. We spoke. We spoke for quite some time, and I found her to be enchanting and delightful, so much so that I asked her to meet me again the next day. As it turned out, we did meet, but not at The Black Cock, as we had agreed. We met on the training field.”
Ming Tang couldn’t mask his shock. “You arranged to meet her after you first met her?”
“I did.”
“And you did not know she was your new female recruit?”
“I did not. In fairness, I did not ask.”
“She did not know you were to be her trainer?”
“She did not.”
Ming Tang could see what had happened. Given the expression on Tay’s face, it was clear.
“So you met a woman you were attracted to, only to find out she was a recruit,” he said. “As we all know, few female recruits make it past you, so when you realized who she was, you were torn.”
“Aye.”
“Very torn.”
“Very.”
“But you did not chase her away?”
“I swear, I did not.”
Ming Tang shook his head at the irony of it all. “I am sorry for you, my friend,” he said. “I know how you view women. I can only imagine that this must have been a blow.”
Tay sighed sharply. “Not too terribly,” he said, but he came to a halt and faced the shorter man. “What has me so frustrated is the fact that she intends to train here, hire a gang of mercenaries, and then go back to Toxandria to regain her father’s duchy.”
“Why should that frustrate you?”
“Because I cannot help her beyond training her.”
The light of recognition went on in Ming Tang’s eyes. “You want to go with her to Toxandria.”
Tay rolled his eyes helplessly and started walking again. “Nay,” he said sharply. “Aye. Damnation, I do not know what I want or what I am thinking. All I know… I feel the need to help her. That is as much as I can say right now.”
A smile tugged at Ming Tang’s lips. “That is because you are a compassionate man underneath that hard facade,” he said. “You pretend that you are not, but I know otherwise.”
“Oh, do shut up.”
Ming Tang chuckled. “I will,” he said. “For now. But I will say one thing more.”
“What?”
“I am most anxious to meet the lady who seems to have charmed the Leviathan.”
Tay shook his head. “You know what eventually happened to the Leviathan, don’t you?”
“What?”
“He was annihilated.”
Ming Tang could see the recruits off to the west. Bowen was yelling at them, telling them to continue running around the lake.
He kept an eye out for a woman but couldn’t spot her.
She was somewhere out there, that Leviathan tamer.
But given Tay’s last experience with a woman, he certainly hoped history wasn’t doomed to repeat itself.
“Let us hope not, my friend,” he said after a moment. “For your sake, let us hope not.”