Aisha was livid. “You expect me to pack my things and leave? First of all, what things? I own like three outfits and a couple instruments. Second of all, did you forget the entire reason I am with you in the first place? You’re trying to send me back to Rackvidd of all places, where everyone knows me.”

“Less than you would think,” he said, putting his hands to her arms. Halfway to embracing her, he hoped the contact would soothe.

It did not. “I’m not going back to Giordana, not alone. You think I’m in danger here? I’ll be in ten times more danger there!”

“You’ll be under Lord Raymi’s protection. I’ll see to it. And if something happens to you there, I’ll burn it to the ground myself.”

She crossed her arms and pulled back. “Just as soon as you’re done torching the isles?”

He pulled up and set his face. “The demon has to die, Aisha. There will be no negotiating with it. This is war.”

“You and what army? Did you forget that problem?” She broke away from him and sat down on their bed.

“I’ve been working on that problem. The first privateer showed up already. They’re sailing around the edges, charting the currents and looking for opportunity. That will put some pressure. Pressure will show the cracks. When I find those, I’ll lead a small team–”

“Who can you even trust to have your back? Sera? Sera and who else? The twins? That trollkin?”

He paced across the room and sat in a small reading chair beside the window. “Like I said, a small group. I’ll need more of course, for holding positions, for suppressing rebellions. But the demon I can handle by myself. Bringing too many people is a risk anyways. I wouldn’t be able to know they were all clean. One saboteur is more dangerous than twenty enemies.”

“You’re rushing because you’re scared.”

“I am scared!” Oil flew from the lamp when his fist smashed the table beside him. He had to snatch it up before the flame spread. With nowhere else to put it, he had to cross the room and set the candle upon his trunk, where he kept his armor. “Look, Aisha, the only thing I have confidence in is myself. I know that I won’t die. That’s the one bedrock foundation of my world. I don’t know that I can protect you, not like this.”

“Shouldn’t you keep me by your side then? Keep me close?” Her voice was soft as cotton, her face downcast.

He turned away from her and said, “Kajsa was close. She was right across the table from me and now she might die…”

“I was right,” she said. “You were close with her, weren’t you?”

He glanced over his shoulder and nodded. “She was my friend. Smarter than me too. Halfway to grown up and yet approachable. Of course I liked her, but that was when I was a nobody, when I had no power. I didn’t even have two hands! But that’s the past. This is now. She’s my alchemist. We’ll run out of money if we lose her.”

“You could lease land, couldn’t you?”

“In the long term, I plan to. Or, rather, I plan to teach Lamdo how to. Nobody will be interested now though. Not until they have to levy conscripts again… But the money is needed now, Aisha. I can’t take out a loan and wait half a year and hope the markets will favor me. I need to be the one offering loans. I need her.”

The redhead pouted at him, but kept her concerns to herself. She fixated on a seed of jealousy and the more she grasped upon it, the more ashamed of it she became. Her emotions towards Lucius retained a certain uneasiness, a taint of improper beginning. Doubt haunted her that her affection for him was born of mere circumstance and fear. That very fear whispered to her that he might feel the same.

Over the past weeks, she had comforted herself with superiority, that Kajsa couldn’t compare to her. Distance could make all the difference. No degree of talent could change the fact that Lucius wanted her across the sea from him, and the wounded alchemist would stay behind like a fixation of guilt for him.

Of course, that very concern made her feel ashamed that she even considered it, because she had no evidence whatsoever that Kajsa thought of herself as a rival or even considered Lucius as a man. He was her employer and perhaps nothing more. Thus, the muddy knot of emotions inside her squirmed like eels and not one word of it reached his ears.

“If I’m to go to Rackvidd, I will have to go as your spokesperson. That merchant Lupin seems to have been worthless.”

Lucius had produced a washing rag and used it to dab up the spilled oil. “And you think you’d be better?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

She brushed her hair back and shifted the way she sat to drape more of her body towards him. “Did you forget that my father was a merchant?” You think I learned nothing but songs?”

“I didn’t think that… ah, well…” Lucius put on a diplomatic smile. “You weren’t exactly given your freedom.”

She sighed. “My father benefited immensely from my mother’s counsel. Plenty of men do, it’s the dirty secret of Giordana and the secret ingredient to many arranged marriages.”

“It’s a pity the talent doesn’t immigrate more often.”

“You should be considering yourself lucky, you know? To have a woman so talented, so intelligent…”

He noticed the invitation at last and strolled towards her, removing his belt. “I confess I’ve been a bit blinded by your beauty.”

“You need to try harder with your flirting, dear.”

“If only I had a bard to teach me,” he said, climbing atop her. “So, you’ll go?”

“For a time, I’ll go.”

“I’ll send Sera with you,” Lucius said, and planted a kiss on the nape of her neck. She smelled only of her body, no hint of perfumes left in the dead of night.

Her hands roamed his body to help the unraveling of his clothes. “You need her.”

“I need her to protect you.”

“Who will train the guards?”

“I’ll have to find someone else.”

“Don’t be silly, where are you going to find someone like that?”

“I have a plan,” he said, and he began the mirror of her work, freeing her body of her nightgown.

They coupled, a fresh memory for the both of them. They anchored the night within their minds like a diary of the body. The next morning, Lucius rose before the frogs did. He bathed himself in cold water and went to the training grounds. While the soldiers were still getting dressed he stood with the target dummies, slashing through the motions of everything Leomund had taught him. As he had distantly hoped, Sera Lynnfield joined him, though she came in full armor.

“Need a sparring partner, my lord?”

Sweat prickled his body, fighting with the morning mist for supremacy. The fires of war smoldered in his chest, every swing a bellows blow to stoke them. “I need you to protect Aisha, actually.”

Sera glanced back to the manor and nodded. “I heard about Kajsa. Sammy says she’ll pull through.”

“She will, but I don’t know if we’ll be so lucky again.”

“Got to make your own luck, my father would tell me.”

Lucius nodded. “Couldn’t agree more, but it’s going to take me some time to find the demon still. During that time I need you.”

“Of course.”

“I need you in Rackvidd.”

“I’m sorry?”

Lucius set his training weapon aside and walked over to her. “I’m sending Aisha to Rackvidd, to keep her safe. She’ll be my economic ambassador as well, but I have to keep her away from this thing’s clutches.”

Sera blinked. “You’re asking me to leave with her?”

“I’m sorry, you’ll have to leave Sammy with me too. There’s no one else I can trust with this,” Lucius said. Which wasn’t entirely true, he just didn’t know where the Tolzi brothers were.

Sera opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words. She tried to gesture with her hands, to work up the logical construct she needed. The tumble of frustrations inside her defied her, refused to be staked down to the simplistic thing called language. Eventually, she sighed. “For how long?”

“Just a few weeks, your expenses will be on me.”

She sagged, her arms hanging like weights. “Careful what you promise, I can have an appetite.”

He grinned. “As long as you keep Aisha safe, it’s money well spent. Do try to get Raymi to cover your hospitality please.”

“When do I have to leave?”

“The first ship that’s going to Rackvidd, which might be a few days yet. So, I need you to stick to Aisha while she’s here until then.”

Sera huffed and crossed her arms. “And what are you going to be doing until then? That you can’t protect her yourself. Shouldn’t you be hopping to be her hero?”

“Last time I was a hero was last night, and I made a wall decoration out of a man. It’s not a good look for me. Besides, I need to go raise an army.”

“What? Gunna stand on the street corner and show how tough you are? You might get some mercenaries that way but this is the Misty Isles, not the middle kingdoms.”

“No, I’ve got a better idea than that. There are men far more motivated to risk their lives. I’m going to recruit from the mine. I’ll offer them double rations and a commutation of their sentencing on condition that they fight. It’s dangerous, to arm prisoners like that, but I can’t think of a better way to get a militia on short notice.”

“Didn’t one of them try to kill you just a few weeks ago?”

Lucius habitually stretched the little wound that prisoner had given him and said, “It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s the best I’ve got. That’s also why I need Aisha in Rackvidd. I need her to entice some ship crews to come down and fight. Going to promise them land and then get them to throw out the Aillesterrans for me.”

Sera pursed her lips and shook her head. “You’re playing a dangerous game, my lord.”

“Of course I am.”

“I’d be very upset with you if you hadn’t given me at least the night to say goodbye.”

He grinned. “Might be two nights if you’re lucky.”

“I suppose I need to go check the docks?”

“Please, and when you have, I’d be happy to spar with you or perhaps have the chef cook up a meal of your choice. You name it.”

“I will,” she said, and turned back to the manor.

Lucius picked his training blade up once more and faced the scarecrow. The glowing lantern face of the demon loomed within his mind, transposed to wicker flesh and he attacked it.