Book of Water

Chapter 20

20

Sometime during first watch, Astolpho and Michaela had moved to their own tents. Rinaldo returned to his, unsure what he would find.

The air inside smelled faintly of onions. Maybe Michaela ate something before she left. It also smelled faintly of her, a mixture of campfire smoke and the pleasantly pungent scent of horse.

Even that small lingering fragrance brought a quickening to Rinaldo’s blood. As though it recognized the traces of the woman whose power had been inside him not long ago. He wondered if Bayard felt it, too. If the horse would react to Michaela any differently now that she’d healed his wound and taken away all his pain.

Someone had folded Rinaldo’s blankets. All other sign of the visitors was gone.

He sat on the stack of blankets and began removing his boots. He suddenly felt… empty. As though that momentary surge of energy had stolen what was left of his hope and composure.

She was with Astolpho. He could never forget that. Rinaldo meant nothing to her.

He unlaced his leather chest armor and set it in the corner of the tent, but left the rest of his clothing on. He had warned his men to do the same in case there were some new attack in the night.

Where was Rogero now? There had been no sign of him or any of his men ever since the battle two nights ago. Some said when Orlando and his soldiers arrived and drove them off, the enemy must have realized how formidable King Carleman’s army truly was.

Rinaldo doubted that. Perhaps it was because he himself had fallen in the battle, but he suspected that Rogero would count the skirmish as a win. He had at least twice as many soldiers as Rinaldo’s and Orlando’s troops. Why would he run away from further fighting?

Instead, Rinaldo assumed that Rogero was simply biding his time. He would attack when and where he saw the greatest weakness to their defense. It might be at Monarch Pass, it might be at one of the other passes further south along the mountain range.

But until some messenger brought word of an attack someplace else, Rinaldo would continue urging his men to remain on high alert and to report even the slightest evidence that something was wrong. That small initial proof might be the only warning they received, just as it had the night Rinaldo thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

He closed his eyes now and sighed with fatigue.

And thought about Michaela.