* * *
"Every one of them, decapitated. Quite neatly, too, Warlord."
"What happened?" The Warlord studied his Lord Marshall while he sipped a cup of tea inside his tent.
"The girl gave a warning to her superior, as I understand it, and since she was closest, went after the archers herself. I spoke with her tribal leader earlier. He said the arrows were going to do a great deal of damage if we waited until we had men gathered to go after them. The girl ran to the ravine where they were hiding and stopped them after only two volleys. She took an arrow in her right arm—thankfully, she's left-handed—and managed to kill the archers while they were scrambling to get away. All they'd brought with them were their bows. They couldn't fight her in close quarters."
"We need to find out if they have more trained archers. It will not be good news if they do. Granted we have some shields with us, but not nearly enough and many of the warriors do not know how to use them." The Warlord set down his cup and frowned.
"We've only dealt with a few archers here and there—this is the first time they've banded together," Wolf, the Lord Marshall acknowledged. "The General is out visiting the wounded—we're lucky we only lost one man in the attack."
"Are the wounded able to travel? I'd like to go on in the morning."
"I believe so, Warlord. We can leave them with the cooking tents if the attacks come soon." The Lord Marshall examined the map lying on the small table between himself and the Warlord. They'd been plotting strategy.
"Good. Spread the word; we'll leave first thing in the morning."
* * *
I wasn't speaking to anybody. Drake and Drew had given up, after a while. Dragon still walked around with a deep scowl on his face, but that was nothing new. I wanted to be happy for Karzac. He'd delivered so many babies; it was time he got one. I berated myself for not feeling better and more cheerful over the whole thing. Had Dragon known before they'd taken me on this little jaunt into the wilderness? I wasn't about to go Looking. My life was miserable enough, thanks.
My arrow wound was already closed up and almost healed but I still wore the bandage. Amara said no sparring for a day or two. What we did in the evenings, now, was watch Crane train Tava, Hart and Nima. Crane Trevor and Dragon Taylor were helping and they'd spar with the women. Veykan sometimes helped out, or Turtle, even. I was bored and depressed. There wasn't a rooftop to sit on or that's where I would have been, pondering the difficulties of my life.
"Lissa, there's nothing we can do to change things," Drew sat beside me while I watched Crane put the three women through their paces. I'd heard from Drake that they hadn't been trained properly at all. I wasn't surprised—I figured the men had cut corners with their training, just so they could have an easy lay out of it. Yeah, I wasn't in a charitable mood toward anybody, nowadays.
"Well, I'll just feel this way for a while, then," I muttered.
"Lissa, we love you. Drake and I. Karzac loves you. We've been afraid to tell him that you know already. I think he'd come if he knew you were gone."
"Oh, yeah, the whole time-bending thing," I grumped. Nobody was listening to us—Crane was shouting at Tava, who was doing her best to block Dragon Taylor's blows while their blades clanged in the early evening quiet. "Besides, Karzac needs to stay with Grace. That's his baby. No way he needs to come haring after a neurotic Vampire Queen."
I was trying to come to grips with this—Karzac needed to stay with his baby until that baby was grown. He or she was going to need a stable home life and a permanent father in residence, as far as I was concerned. The poor kid was going to have to get used to the idea that his mother had multiple mates, even if they were the best guys in the universe.
"What did Howard Graham say to you, baby?"
"He said a lot of things but the words I'm sorry have never passed his lips."
"I wish we'd known each other, growing up," Drew said, putting his arm around me. "Drake and I got into all kinds of trouble. If we'd had a friend that needed looking after, well, we might not have raised so much hell."
"I'm glad you got to raise hell," I said, bumping my forehead against his arm. "Somebody needed to. I was afraid to breathe, most of the time. It was a relief to go to school in the mornings. Nobody could touch me there."
"Gracie is our second mom," Drew said suddenly. "If Mom was gone on assignment, Gracie was there. Or Gram. We knew, early on, that we had an extended family. We still call Mack Daddy Mack, and the others, too. They were all dads for us. Of course, Dad had the final say if he was in, but Uncle Crane stood in for him if he wasn't, or one of the others. Karzac certainly did. We knew we could go to him for anything. Radomir helped teach us hand fighting. We had to work to get to his level, he's so fast. Lisster and Rush taught us how to fish. Justin and Mack taught us how to ski and surf. Grampa Adam and Grampa Martin showed us how to build things. Lynx, Russell and Will taught us how to gamble. Behind Dad's back, of course. Grampa Merrill taught us how to manage money and he and Grampa Adam help us with our portfolios."
"It's good you had all those people to depend on. I'm happy for you," I sighed.
"Lissa, what I'm trying to say is that you're part of that family, now. Karzac didn't expect this. Neither did Grace."
"I know. I'm just trying to come to grips with it. I'm going for a walk, now."
"Baby, no. Don't go off by yourself. Or let Drake and me go with you. We need to know how to fix what bothers you."
"There's no fixing some of what bothers me," I said and stood up. Drew didn't like it and his dark eyes were narrowed in concern, but I walked away from him anyway. The clashing of swords grew dim as I made my way toward the edge of the camp. There wasn't any place else to go so as soon as I was out of sight, I misted away, heading toward the river. It had a few days to wash itself clean since we'd been there so I took a dip and then let the last heat of the day dry me off. Reemagar was sitting on the riverbank when I was dressed again.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. I might have expected Connegar, but he wasn't the one to come. I didn't have a comb with me so I had to run fingers through my hair to get the tangles out before braiding it again.
"I came to see you. The others do not know you are gone since Dragon will bend time to get you back again right after you left. I know, as do the other Larentii."
"That is an amazing gift, to be able to know things like that," I said, looking up at his solemn, sky-blue face. His eyes crinkled a little when he smiled at me and the blue of those eyes was incredible to see. He was one of the Larentii who had dark-blond hair—almost a brown. It looked good on him. His wrists hung over his knees as he sat beside me, so I lifted the hand nearest me and examined his palm.