Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [86]
It didn’t matter to them that he had nothing to do with the incident on the Prieta Mountains. He wasn’t even under Los Loma, Gaela, at the time. The Sword Master didn’t seem to remember that Teg and his clan mates had battled their common enemy with him at the gates of ASSIST either. Teg had been wounded badly there. That should count for something. A redemption? Ingratiation? Why do I feel I owe him one?
He cringed at the assumptions. There wasn’t any place for ‘should’ in his life, not now, especially not as the new apprentice to the High Priestess Kreshkali. Besides, the wound had been a blessing, the top of his ‘gratitude list’ that he recalled daily. It had left him crippled for months, the recovery slow and painful. The only way he could distract his mind from the agony and confinement was by reading. In the process, he’d fallen in love with the written word. Literature was his divine consort now, when before it had been the hunt, or the fight. He was happy to return to those activities as his body healed, though they didn’t hold the same fascination any more. He never strayed long from the written page, and there were so many books to explore. The library of Temple Los Loma held endless distraction for him. It was the last great collection of literature on Earth, and it was his job—one of his jobs—to help catalogue and preserve it. Bliss.
He paused in his reflections, catching the eye of a woman trotting down the manor steps. She adjusted her course straight for him.
Maluka.
She was wearing short leggings and a small leather vest. A sword belt fitted snugly around her hips and a large sack of apples balanced on her shoulder. His face brightened when she slowed her pace. She stopped square in front of him and flashed a smile back, shifting the weight of the apples to lean in and give him a kiss on the cheek. Maluka was someone he didn’t mind stopping to chat with.
‘Tell me you’re training this morning,’ she said, dropping the sack to her feet and letting it rest against her leg. Her red hair swept across her face and she brushed it aside.
‘I wish I was, beautiful, but…’
‘Liar.’
He laughed. ‘You’re right. I’m not unhappy to be working with Kreshkali today.’
‘Any day’s more like it. What is it? The books? Charts and stars?’
‘Something like that.’
‘And I suppose your smile’s for her too?’ Maluka cocked her head to the side, raising her chin.
‘This one’s all yours,’ he answered.
‘Ha! Lying again. You’re not a Lupin, you’re a diplomat.’ She picked up the sack, her biceps flexing as she settled it on her shoulder. ‘Come to the afternoon workout, if you aren’t completely immersed. I still want to learn that one-handed uppercut you wielded yesterday.’
‘The Sword Master hasn’t shown you?’
She lowered her voice, her eyes glancing about. ‘I’m not at that level yet.’
‘But you want me to break protocol and teach you anyway? I’m not already in trouble enough with An’ Lawrence?’
‘I didn’t think that would worry you,’ she said, brushing her body alongside his as she walked past.
‘I’ll be there if I can,’ he said, but she was halfway across the courtyard by the time he spoke.
There’s an invitation I can’t misinterpret…He watched her disappear into the sword hall. He might be training later today, but if so, his sparring partner would be Kreshkali. She’d taken a keen interest in the sword since the battle at ASSIST. She used the blade as a conduit more than as a weapon and she was teaching him the technique.
‘I’m not interested in battle,’ she’d told him. ‘But magic—that’s another thing.’
Magic and divination mattered more than anything to the High Priestess—more than anything she explored with him, anyway. He wondered how An’ Lawrence felt about that. He was such a traditionalist when it came to boosting the power of the sword with magic. As far as he knew, Rosette