Warsinger James Baldwin (read this if TXT) 📖

large deck that looked out over the courtyard. I jumped up to the edge of the rampart just in time to see Kitti yell and charge Suri with a practice sword, bringing it down in a clumsy two-handed swing.

“You're telling me everything with those shoulders, girl!” Suri parried the blow with her practice weapon, an oar taken from a rowboat. “Less twisting at the waist, more spine! Come at me straight, and don't let up!”

“YAAAAAHHH!” Kitti followed her as she stepped backward, chopping with all her strength.

“That's it! You can do it! Ten more times! One, two, three - that's it, don't let up! Four!” She counted down as the girl, dripping sweat, beat on the oar with the blade of her sword. By the end, the oak practice sword was dented and Kitti was panting, her flaxen hair plastered to her forehead. She looked up, and her mouth formed an 'O' of surprise when she saw me perched on the wall.

“How's the Berserking going?” I called out.

“Great!” Kitti punched the air, then winced, clutching her shoulder. “Ow.”

Suri gave me a warm smile, then returned her attention to Kitti. “You were gettin’ the right kind of power into those downstrokes by the end. How's do your arms feel?”

“Like jelly.” Kitti's hands trembled as she tried to sling her sword over her back in the Berserker style and dropped it with a clatter. “I don't even know if I can do my hair.”

“I'll do your hair for you, kid. Or...” Suri's eyes flashed with mirth. “Hector over there is really proud of his. Can you do her braid?”

“Anything for you, sugartits.” I winked at her, then froze as Kitti turned the color of a cherry and I remembered that she was barely fourteen. “And by that, I, uh, mean the bird. You know... the rare and lovely Scarlet Sugartit. You find them in the Endlar.”

Suri roared with laughter, slapping Kitti on the shoulder and sending her stumbling forward a few steps. “Go on, then. He won't bite you.”

“But, Countess!” Kitti bit her lip, shooting me a doe-eyed glance. “He's the Voivode! Do you perhaps have a lady-in-waiting who could, umm...?”

“You don't have to take anything off for his High Lordliness to do your hair.” Suri planted her hands on her hips. “You got a comb, Hector?”

“Darling. What do you take me for? A barbarian?” I placed a hand against my chest. “I have THREE combs, hair oil, leave-in conditioner...”

“See?” Suri grinned broadly. “He's such a pretty-boy, isn't he?”

Kitti finally giggled, and relaxed enough to dance over to me. She turned around so I could reach her plait. “Honestly, I've never seen a lord with hair like yours before.”

“You should see Vash's,” I said, starting on it with the comb. She wore her straight blonde hair in a simple Dutch braid, a job so easy I could have done it with my eyes closed. “He's a Baru, and he hasn't cut his hair in thirty years.”

“Thirty years!” Kitti gasped. “How does he even stand the weight of it? Mine is barely to my waist, and it's so hot and annoying. I'd much rather have hair like Suri's.”

“So cut it,” Suri said with a shrug. “Fuck'em. Wear your hair how you like.”

Kitti shook her head a little as I gathered it up for the braid. “I can't do that!”

“Why the hell not?” Suri came to a stop in front of her.

“No man would marry me if I didn't look like a lady,” the girl replied primly.

I couldn't help but laugh. “That's not true. Suri's a lady with short hair, and I'd marry her in a heartbeat.”

There was a brief, awkward pause when I realized what I'd said, Suri realized what I'd said, and we looked at each other with an expression of complete and utter surprise at how easily it had slipped out.

“Ooh.” Kitti glanced between us as my hands paused.

Suri cleared her throat and looked past me to the courtyard. “So... how's Karalti doing? Looks like she just curled up and flaked out down there.”

“Yeah, she did. Didn't even say a word to me.” I cleared my throat, tied off the plait, and let it drop. “Sorry to ask, Kitti, but I need to speak with Suri about something. Important Berserker business.”

“Sure!” She danced away from me, and turned with a sly expression. “Well, Lady Suri - who's showing everything with her shoulders NOW?”

“Brat.” Suri sniffed, but as the girl giggled and fled, she smiled fondly. Only once Kitti was down the stairs did it fade around the edges.

“Looks like that helped,” I said.

“Yeah.” Suri's lips quirked. “So... how'd it go?”

“Kicked him in the junk a couple of times for you,” I said, stretching my hands until they gave a satisfying pop. “Didn't really get any useful info from him yet, but he knows some stuff about how you ended up here.”

She considered that for a while. “Do I want to know?”

“Beats me. Historically speaking, you don't like hearing about the Total War, Australia, or any of that shit… so probably not.”

“That's changing.” Suri leaned back against the rampart beside me, shoulder to shoulder. “You hear enough people talk about something, you start to believe it. I had no reason to care about what the Wardens said, but you and Rin, and Vash-”

“Vash?” I cocked my head in confusion. “Vash talks about the Total War?”

She nodded. “He says he's had dreams about it, and that a lot of people do. That a lot of folks he's counselled had dreams of a great big war, with places and things they can't put a name to. Grief they can't describe, sounds that terrify them, fears they don't understand. He said it’s been getting more commonplace over the years.”

Just like Kira, the healer from Lyrensgrove. “You've been talking to him a lot?”

“Yeah. He's easy to talk to,” Suri said. “While you were out flying with Karalti and we were hanging out in the Tellak, there wasn’t room to do anything except eat, sleep, and shoot