Amaskan's Blood Raven Oak (polar express read aloud TXT) 📖

Ida retrieved a chamber pot from beneath the table. “Here.”

“I’ll wait.” The woman shrugged and returned to her seat next to Adelei. She had no intention of being there long enough to need it. Adelei lay back against the pillow and sighed. “I would appreciate help getting back to my own rooms.”

“It would be safer for you to remain here.”

“Safer? Am I in danger?”

“Ya have to ask?”

“Yes, I do. I—I thought I’d walked into a job I’ve been trained for, and yet here I am in a country whose army looks wholly unprepared for what everyone tells me is coming. I’m being escorted by someone who quotes from the Order and isn’t Amaskan. I’m not sure of anything at this point.” Adelei’s stomach chose that moment to growl audibly, reminding her that she had no clue what time it was. “How long was I out?”

“Approaching midday. I’ll admit, you’ve walked into a nasty situation, that’s for sure. I’d hoped to be on the road today, but it looks like we’ll have to wait for the morrow. In the meantime, I’ll grab us some lunch.”

The woman crossed the room again and ducked through the arch. The sounds of her talking with a guard drifted to Adelei. There was a guard there as well. Great. She’d have to leave through the window.

Ida returned quickly and smirked when Adelei remained in the bed. “Glad to see ya restin’. You’ve got quite the concussion there. Dangerous to go about with that. At least today. And since ya need to be awake for a while still, I’ll do my best to tell ya what I can.”

Adelei sat up in the bed. Information from a spy could be useful indeed.

“At the time of the war, His Majesty, King Leon, worried that the peace treaty was a trap. In the event the castle should fall and his family be taken prisoner or killed, he needed to know that at least one of the royal family would survive.”

At least he was smart enough to know a trap when he saw one. To the warrior, she said, “Makes sense. If a battle’s coming, family is in the way if you’re lucky and a casualty if you’re not.”

“That’s a fairly callous outlook,” Ida said, surprising Adelei. “Warrior and veteran I am, but blood is important. Family makes us who we are, would ya not agree?”

“Family does have a hand in shaping us, yes, but when it comes to the job, everyone is expendable.”

“Even family?”

“Especially family.”

Ida didn’t laugh. Instead she buried her nose in her mug as if communing with it. “I can see why you’re the best,” she whispered. “To be so hardened so young though.”

The quiet settled between them. Like the sea back home. Calm until a good squall whipped it into a fury of choppy waves and tides. Ida would never understand the necessity of Adelei’s words. Soldier and warrior Ida might be, but she was no Amaskan. She can never understand what it means to follow our code or to sacrifice everything for justice.

As if she heard Adelei’s thoughts, Ida spoke again, “Ya think I don’t understand the path ya walk, but I say ya don’t either. Ya don’t know what you’ve walked into, nor where it’ll take ya. The King believed he was doin' the best to protect his family. It was a tough decision and one ya could learn from.”

Adelei itched to add that the bastard then sold his daughters, each to their own prisons, but she held her tongue. Her jaw popped with a yawn that near split her head in half.

“Your horse’s being well-looked after, and your belongin’s have been moved here at my order. I think ya could safely get some rest now, if ya like.” Ida plopped a stool in front of her chair and stretched out with her feet propped up. The warrior pulled a book off the table. Whether she read it or not, Adelei couldn’t tell. The woman’s eyes didn’t move much, but she turned the pages at steady intervals.

Looks like she doesn’t trust me to stay put. Adelei stifled another yawn. Dammit, I got plenty of sleep last night. Damned head wounds.

She tried closing her eyes, but behind them her mind raced. The King was told Adelei was dead, but that was a lie. Maybe he had told people that. Guilty conscience and all. Besides, what would this Ida know? Sepier or not, she was hardly the King’s ear.

While the thoughts plagued her, the wound on her scalp pounded. Like hoof beats on that dark night.

CHAPTER SIX

Brieghton Border Garrison; 255 Cercian 3rd

No matter how tolerable sleep had made the concussion, there were some things sleep couldn’t fix. Her temper for one. Especially if Ida didn’t stop staring at her.

The warrior woman sat on a stool, her legs crossed and propped up as she waited for Adelei to finish breakfast. When Adelei had entered the small living area of the guest house, Ida’s plate had already been empty, as well as her ale mug—though she showed little sign of drinking to excess. Adelei’s own plate held a mix of bread, fruits, and a few dried pieces of meat.

She straddled the small bench and grabbed for the hunk of bread, which she wrapped around the dried meat. Even then, her mouth twisted in disgust at the taste. Ten days of tough, dried-out jerky had left her wishing for time to hunt a proper meal. As she chewed, Ida Warhammer stared.

Adelei chased down the old venison with a bite of a juicy pompaello fruit whose seeds she spit onto her plate. The fist-sized, green fruit didn’t last long, and she licked her fingers clean. Still Ida stared.

As she tore off another hunk of bread, she ignored Ida’s furrowed brow, but the fifth frown stopped her mid-bite. “Is there something about me that you find displeasing?”

A flush spread across Ida’s face. “You’re all Amaskan, all right.”

“I already told you—former Amaskan. Besides, what’s that got to