Chapter 10 Rada #2
He’d gathered a few more scars over the years on his chest and arms, but they only served to accentuate the muscle under the skin.
My fingers twitched, remembering all the nights I’d spent learning the shapes of him.
My gaze dropped to the tight-fitting trousers that hid his lower body from view.
I remembered what was underneath that leather, too.
Goran was far larger than Alexios, and I would’ve been worried for my valet, except I’d seen him fight. Hells, I’d fought with him, and had my ass handed to me every single time. His moves were smooth as silk, nothing like Goran’s blunt force attacks.
But Goran was light on his feet, too, and when he struck out with a low kick, Alexios had to jump up and back in a quick somersault to keep from being knocked down. When he landed, Goran attacked again.
The next few moments were a masterclass in fighting, and I was reminded of the time I’d watched a songbird harass an eagle. Alexios wasn’t letting his blows land when he could help it, but turning and moving so that Goran stumbled on the attack.
“Fight me!” he roared at last, a hint of anger finally emerging. “Are you mocking me?” Those words carried a hint of wounded pride, and I saw Alexios go still, his eyes widening.
Shit. That was all the opening the warlord had needed.
His next punch connected with Alexios’s solar plexus, hard.
My valet went flying, and even though he landed well, somehow twisting like a cat midair to fall on his hands and feet in a crouch, the blow had winded him.
The fight after that was ugly, and short.
He allowed Goran’s strikes to land, but still kept from hitting the larger male.
It wasn’t long until Alexios was swaying in front of the warlord, facing a massive fist, that Goran realized what was happening.
His jaw dropped open. “Are you… letting me win?” The cheering warriors around them went quiet.
“You haven’t even tried to land a solid punch, or kick.
” He glowered down at the Beta. “You insult me.”
Alexios straightened, then bowed low. “I never intended to. You asked me to show you how I fought. This is how I fight.”
“Pulling your punches? Giving up?” Goran let his hands fall to his sides, obviously confused. “That’s not fighting.”
“But it is how I fight. Continue, Warlord.” Alexios lifted his hands in a challenge. “Unless you forfeit?”
Goran clenched his jaw. “There’s no honor in fighting someone who won’t fight back.” But he pulled one arm back, leaning close enough to reach the Beta when the blow fell… and found himself flying through the air, landing on his back on the ground.
In a second, Alexios had done a flip and had a wheezing, stunned Goran in a headlock.
I stifled a laugh. He’d shown me this move, though I could never pull it off on him. If he squeezed for long enough, Goran would pass out from lack of blood flow to the brain.
Goran reached around, trying to dislodge the smaller male, and he even managed to rise halfway off the ground, but Alexios pressed on a spot on the warrior’s neck that I knew would stop that attempt.
It did. “Do you concede, Warlord?”
Goran tried again, though his movement was sloppy. Finally, he slapped a hand on the ground twice before Alexios moved away smoothly, standing to bow.
“Well fought, Warlord. Thank you for the chance to test my skills against a truly worthy opponent.”
The warriors all around were silent for a long moment before Goran found his feet. “No, thank you, Priest.”
“Call me Alexios.”
Goran grinned and patted the smaller man on the back. “Do you like venison? My men brought down a stag this morning, and I’d love to have you eat with us… and tell us about your fighting style.”
“Teach us!” someone else yelled out.
“I do not eat meat,” Alexios said, and the whole group went silent again, dismay on their rough, bearded faces, as if he’d just told them he was dying. I pressed a hand to my mouth to hold in my laughter.
Goran blinked. “Do you drink ale, then?”
“On special occasions.”
“Well, this can be one of those,” Goran shouted, his grin breathtaking even from a distance. “Ale for the champion, ale for the priest! He eats like a rabbit, but fights like a beast!” I almost gasped as memories of Goran’s poetry washed over me. There had been days he practically spoke in sonnets.
His laughter as he pounded Alexios on the back, as well as his men’s shouted rhymes, filled the camp. “Ale for everyone!”
I watched the men all gather around the two, the camp’s cook rolling a barrel of ale into the center of the group.
Some of the older warriors helped set it up on a boulder, and the younger ones passed out horn drinking cups.
Alexios was welcomed into the heart of it all, having proven himself, even though he’d honored his vow.
I ignored the twinge of jealousy that pinched somewhere close to my heart.
I’d had a crew in Rimholt growing up. They’d included me like this.
I’d known what it was like to have a group of fighters who had my back, who genuinely liked me.
I just hadn’t seen any of them since I left home. Being a spy was lonely work.
I slid closer to the shadow of the salt cypress and leaned on the bark. “What was that kind of fighting?” one of the warriors demanded once the ale was passed out. “You didn’t hit the Warlord once.”
“I’m a priest.”
“I thought you were a valet.”
“Ah, yes. I am a valet. I was a priest, until the Goddess called me to a higher station.”
“Brave to lie down with that viper,” someone said. I heard a scuffle, followed by a weak, “Sorry, Warlord. Sorry, Priest.”
“I’m sorry as well,” Alexios said. “I’m not her lover.”
For a moment, my mind spun. Had he meant he was sorry, and he wasn’t my lover? Or he was sorry that he wasn’t my lover?
Goran blinked. “You’re not?”
“You’re not serious.” When Goran just stared without speaking, Alexios went on. “I made a vow, and… I’m a Beta.”
“No shame in that,” Goran murmured. “There’s no less honor in being a Beta.”
“And a lot more women who can take your cock, in any hole she likes,” another warrior comforted him, before yelling, “Fuck! Sorry, Priest. You can’t even use the thing, can ya? I’m an idiot.”
“I don’t mind. I can’t miss what I’ve never had, isn’t that the saying?”
“Oh, by Her twisted left titty, you’re a virgin?”
Alexios sipped his ale and shrugged. “I am. I was left by my mother on the temple steps when I was only a few days old. The priests raised me and taught me how to fight. Or how not to fight.” He smirked at Goran. “If you’d like me to teach you some of my moves, I would be honored.”
“I have a feeling they’d be more effective for someone smaller than me. I use more brute force in battle. But…” Goran let out a sharp whistle. “Harbin!”
One of the young redheaded boys who’d attacked me came running. “Yes, Warlord?”
“Did you see the fight?”
The boy nodded, his throat bobbing wildly at the attention. “I did, Warlord. It was the same kind of fighting he did when… when I was the stupidest, dishonorable mongrel born, and attacked the Omega, your wife and my Warqueen—”
“Shut up, Harbin.” Goran took a deep breath. “You’re one of the smaller Alphas. I think this method of fighting would suit you.”
“Yes,” Alexios agreed, standing. He handed Goran an axe, and they faced each other. “A diagonal slice, Warlord?’
Goran nodded and lifted the axe, bringing it down slowly.
Alexios twisted out of the way and pushed down on the top of Goran’s arm, somehow causing the axe to fall free of his strong grip.
Goran cursed, shaking his hand out. “What was that? It felt like getting the point of my elbow whacked, but in the wrist as well.”
“That is what can win you a fight against any sized warrior, young Harbin,” Alexios said. “Or keep you alive long enough to get away.”
“I would never run from a fight,” the boy blustered. “I’m not a coward.”
Goran and Alexios both laughed. “Don’t let my wife hear you say that,” Goran said, and I swallowed the bubble of annoyed happiness at hearing him call me that. “She made me run twenty miles a day for the first months we were married.”
“Did she think you lacked stamina?” Alexios teased, then ducked a playful punch that would have taken the head off my valet if it had connected.
“Fuck off. She’d been… liberating some gemstones from a dragon’s lair, and I’d insisted on going along.
Then the dragon popped back in to check on his hoard, and we were nowhere near far enough away.
The thing’s angry roar still haunts my nightmares.
” He shuddered, but was smiling. “I was much slower than she was, and it was only her quick thinking that saved me.”
“Probably her greed that got you into the mess to begin with,” one of the warriors grumbled. “She stole every stick of gold out of my old warlord’s castle a week after she abandoned us.”
I held my breath. Abandoned… us? What did he mean?
“She didn’t abandon Starlak, you fool.” Goran took another hearty swig of ale. “She left me. I wasn’t warlord enough to keep her from her all-important mission.”
Alexios grunted. “Would you have wanted her to give it up?” He swiveled his head to the warrior who’d complained. “You said greed. Don’t you know what she’s been doing with all the gold she steals?” He looked back at Goran, whose face was sour. “Have you asked her what her mission was?”
“What she wanted more than anything, including me. To become a master spy,” he said, though his brows were rising as Alexios stood. My valet did a very credible job of looking down his nose at Goran, who stood a good foot and a half above him.
“No wonder she said you needed to grow up. She was right.” Then he set down his cup and headed straight toward me. I could tell when the rest of the men noticed me; they all stood at attention, the ones who’d stripped off their shirts racing to cover their chests.
The nearest sentry began cursing as I walked past. “Where the hells did you come from?”
“No, hell’s where I’m going,” I whispered, turning my head as he backed away. He acted as if he were scared to be too close to me, but his eyes shone with distaste, not fear. Maybe he’d heard how I’d tried to kill Lachlan. Maybe he’d been one of the ones I’d poisoned in the fight.
I glanced around the camp. That disgust was in some of the faces there, though most still looked at me with something like awe.
“Back to work, men,” Goran shouted, turning away from me and pulling his own shirt on. “Sentries, report for discipline. Half rations for a week for allowing a spy into camp.”
“They don’t deserve that,” I murmured aloud. “I’m not just a spy.”
“A master spy, right? Thank you for the lesson, Warqueen,” the sentry muttered angrily, as he dropped to one knee in a mocking bow.
I spotted the adder in the grass beside him before he realized it was there.
He wouldn’t have been able to keep it from striking.
But I had two throwing knives in my hands before my next breath, and released them without hesitation.
They pinned the adder to the fallen cypress needles with two soft sounds, like a mother shushing her baby to sleep. Shh. Shh.
I reached him in three strides and picked up the adder, pulling a clean glass vial from my cloak.
The snake was still alive, but thrashing as death approached.
I whispered an apology as I held it behind its neck, pressing its fangs to the edge of the slender tube.
Venom dripped down the sides, and for a long moment, I focused on the snake, running though the formulas I knew that this particular venom was used for.
It kept me from thinking about all the warriors who were watching me, judging me. Though Goran still had his back to me.
Alexios helped me cap the vial and place it back in my cloak. “He never really knew you, did he?” he whispered in his own language.
“Can anyone truly know anyone else?” I replied softly, setting the now-dead snake in the grass.
“No, but he was your husband. He should…” He shook his head. “How is the selkie?”
“He doesn’t know me, either,” I said, closing my eyes for a moment. The whispers in the camp were starting to wear on me. “He has more reason to hate me than Goran does.”
Alexios sucked in a breath, then shot me an odd look. “I took a vow of peace,” he said softly. “But vows can be broken. The Goddess is very forgiving.” I laughed, but shook my head.
Suddenly, Dustin came running, his cheeks flushed. He raced to my side and dropped to one knee, his head lowered. No one in the camp greeted him, not even his former friends. “My Warqueen, I thought you were in the privy.”
“I went for a walk.”
“The Lady Stellina has requested you and your valet to be present at dinner in a half hour, Warqueen.”
I groaned. “Think she’ll take no for an answer?”
“I think I’d rather have a dose of adderbane myself than find out,” Alexios teased.
I cast a look to the east, toward the beach, where the cold wind was whipping up a covering of froth on the waves near the shore. The whitecaps almost looked like ridges of silver scales from this angle.