Warrior

Chapter 20-1

Chapter 20

“You busy tomorrow?” I asked Chris when he sat with Tristan and me at breakfast the next morning.

“Nothing I can’t reschedule. What do you have in mind?”

“We have a warlock selling bad spells in Boise,” Tristan said. “Nothing too dangerous, but three people have been hurt using his magic. I’d like you two to have a kind word with him before it gets out of hand.”

Chris shrugged. “Sure. I’m up for a day trip. But why didn’t you get the Boise team to talk to him?”

Tristan smiled. “The Boise team is fairly young, and you two have more experience dealing with warlocks.”

“Good morning, gentlemen.”

“Morning,” the three of us answered as Celine laid her tray next to mine and took the seat beside me.

Celine said something to me, but I was distracted when I sensed Sara’s arrival. I glanced around, but she wasn’t in the room yet.

We’d had a great session yesterday, and I looked forward to spending today with her. This morning, I planned to take her back to the lake because she’d enjoyed it so much the last time. After lunch, we were going to spend a few hours on her studies. She’d learned a lot from her friend Remy, but there was so much she didn’t know.

“Nikolas?”

I looked at Celine, who looked a little annoyed that I’d been ignoring her.

“I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I asked if you had given any thought to joining me in one of my training sessions.” She leaned in. “I’m sure Chris wouldn’t mind working with Sara one afternoon this week to free you up.”

Chris’s smile was full of mischief. “I’d love to teach my little cousin a few tricks.”

Movement behind him drew my eyes to the door, just in time to see Sara’s back as she hurried from the dining hall.

I stared after her. Sara didn’t skip breakfast. Was she ill?

She’d looked okay when we parted ways yesterday, but I hadn’t seen her since. Had I pushed her too hard in training? Maybe I should have gone to see her after dinner.

“Excuse me.” I stood and picked up my tray, ignoring the surprised faces of my breakfast companions. I dropped my tray in one of the bins and turned toward the door.

My eyes fell on a side table piled high with baskets of muffins and pastries, and I snatched up a blueberry muffin wrapped in plastic. I’d seen Sara eating these all the time back in New Hastings, so I knew she liked them.

Something told me she had gone outside, so I left by the main entrance and looked around for her. I didn’t see or feel her, but she couldn’t have gone far. Knowing her love of the woods, I started toward them until I picked up her presence off to my right, in the direction of the river.

The sight of her sitting on the riverbank, with her forehead resting on her knees, which were drawn close to her chest, caused my stomach to tighten. She looked so small and lost against the backdrop of the foaming water, and all I wanted to do was take her in my arms and comfort her.

She didn’t look up when I approached, and my steps faltered when I felt pain coming through our bond.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She started in surprise, but she didn’t answer.

I walked over to stand beside her. “You left without eating, and you can’t train on an empty stomach. These are your favorite, right?”

Her head tilted back, and she stared at the muffin I held out to her. “Thanks,” she said quietly, taking it from my hand without looking at me.

“Are you going to tell me what is wrong with you?” Something had upset her, and I wished she felt like she could talk to me.

“I’m fine.”

I sat beside her. “I think I know you well enough to know that is not true.”

“I didn’t sleep last night and I’m tired,” she said thickly, still not meeting my eyes.

“Is that all? You sound upset.”

I could sense she was distressed, and I didn’t believe it had anything to do with a bad night’s sleep. Frustration gnawed at me. I hated seeing her like this and not knowing how to help her.

She lifted her head to stare at the river. “Not getting any sleep messes me up.”

Maybe forcing her to use her power on me yesterday had affected her more than she’d let on. She’d told me once that using her power weakened her, and I’d seen the effects of it when she’d healed Roland. She’d looked okay when we parted ways, but she could have been hiding it. Sara was very good at keeping things to herself.

“Perhaps we overdid it yesterday in training,” I suggested.

She nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”

What she needed was a day out. She’d been here a month, training almost every day. The one time she’d gotten a day away, she’d been attacked and spent the night in the medical ward. And I’d been pushing her in training. She needed a break.

“We’ll skip training today. Is there anything else you want to do instead? We could take that trip to town.”

There was a short pause, and I thought she was going to say yes.

“I think I’ll eat my muffin, and then I’ll go take Hugo and Woolf for a walk.”

I felt a small pang of disappointment, but I pushed it away. Her needs were all that mattered. She was upset and being with the hounds comforted her.

I got to my feet. “Just as long as you don’t do anything to tire yourself too much. I’ll see you later.”

I walked a few steps before she called, “See you, and thanks again for the muffin.”

“Anytime,” I called back with a smile.

Free from my plans for the day, I found Tristan and told him I’d visit the warlock today instead of tomorrow. Chris and I drove to Boise and found the warlock’s residence that had been hastily vacated. Warlocks had a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and this one apparently knew when someone was looking for him. We spent the next day and a half tracking him down and getting him to clean up his mess.

It was a day longer than I’d planned to be away from Sara, and I caught myself speeding more than once on the drive back to Westhorne. It still amazed me how my life had changed since I met her. A few months ago, I’d thought nothing of being on the road for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. Now I could only think about getting back to her.

We made it back in time for dinner. I checked in with Tristan to let him know the warlock problem was resolved, and then I headed for the dining hall.

Sara and Jordan were leaving just as I entered, and Sara gave me a small smile. She appeared to be in better spirits and no longer upset by whatever had been bothering her yesterday.

After dinner, Chris and I went to the arena to spar. We fought for an hour before Chris lowered his sword and declared he’d had enough.

He rubbed his shoulder. “We need to find a better way for you to work off some of that aggression.”

“What aggression?”

Chris snorted. “You’ve been wound up for two days. I thought being back here would improve your mood, but my aching shoulder says otherwise.”

I started to shake my head and stopped because he was right; I was wound up. Every minute I spent with Sara strengthened our bond and intensified my need to be with her. It was a constant struggle to be what she needed and not reveal my true feelings for her. Being away from her had been hard for me and my Mori.

“I can guess your mood has something to do with my little cousin. You two on the outs?”

“No. She just needed a break.” I told him about our training session two days ago when I’d tricked her into using her power on me. “I think I pushed her too hard.”

Chris whistled. “You are a braver man than I am. I heard what she did to that lamprey demon.”

“It was a risk, but a worthwhile one. She can’t fight or use a sword yet, but she has this powerful weapon inside her. She’s afraid of using it because she thinks she’ll hurt one of us. Now she knows how to call on her power and how to control it, and she doesn’t have to be afraid of harming us.”

“I’m impressed.”

“She is impressive,” I agreed.

“I’m talking about you. Who knew you had a trainer hidden inside of you all this time?”

I laughed. “Only for her.”

“Trainees everywhere will be sad to hear that,” he quipped as we walked to the door.

I followed him outside and came to a halt when I saw Sara and Sahir walking quickly toward the menagerie.

“Where’s the fire?” Chris called.

“The young griffin we got in today is in distress, and Sara is going to help me with her,” Sahir replied.

Griffins were intelligent creatures, but also vicious when they felt threatened. I’d watched one rip apart a dozen poachers that had stupidly tried to raid its nest after I’d warned them to stay away. A young griffin could be even more dangerous if they were frightened.

“Griffin wrangling? Another one of your talents, Cousin?” Chris said.

“Griffins can be very dangerous when they are cornered. Sara is not going in there unprotected,” I said firmly, walking over to them.

Sara frowned at me. “She’s just a child, Nikolas.”

I stepped between her and the menagerie. “That child could easily rip a grizzly bear apart with her claws.”

She raised an eyebrow. “So could the troll you thought was going to kill me.”

Sahir stared at us. “Troll?”

“I’ll tell you about him later,” she said. “Let’s take care of your griffin first.”

“Not without us,” I said.

Sara huffed and rolled her eyes. “Fine, but you better not frighten her. You two can stay by the door unless the vicious griffin attacks me.”

Chris snickered and leaned toward me to whisper loudly. “I think she’s gotten bossy since she came here. What have you been teaching her?”

Scowling, I pushed him away and followed Sara into the menagerie. I took up a position near the door where I could watch her and jump in if necessary.

Chris didn’t speak when he stood beside me, but his tight grip on his sword told me he was worried too despite his joking.

Sara and Sahir moved toward the cages. She stopped to pet the hellhounds and called a greeting to the wyvern from a safe distance.

My whole body tensed as Sara walked past the cages toward the center of the building. At the same time, I couldn’t help but be amazed by her composure and her lack of fear. You would think she was approaching a baby bird that had fallen from its nest, not a creature that could kill a man with one swipe of its powerful paw.

Despite the instinct that screamed for me to pull her away from this new threat, I did nothing but watch her. I didn’t understand the effect Sara had on creatures, but I had to trust she knew what she was doing.

She stopped and looked up, and my gaze followed hers to the small griffin perched in the rafters of the domed building. The griffin’s feathers were filthy and dull, and it had a bare spot on its neck where some of its feathers had fallen out. Judging by its size, I guessed it to be no more than four or five years of age.

“Wow, oh, wow,” Sara said in an awed voice, staring raptly at the griffin.

“Sara, this is Minuet,” Sahir told her in a soft voice.

“She’s incredible.”

He nodded grimly. “She won’t be that way for long if we don’t get her down from there and get her to eat something.”

“Right, sorry. I’ve just never seen anything like her.” She walked over to sit on the floor with her back against the bars of an empty cage. “Sahir, could you stand with the others so you don’t frighten her?”

He stayed where he was. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m just going to talk to her for a bit.”

I took a step forward when he left her and walked toward us.

He shook his head and held up a hand to stop me. “She’ll be okay,” he whispered confidently.

Sara’s soothing voice filled the room. “I hope you don’t mind me keeping you company, Minuet. I bet it’s pretty scary and lonely for you here. I know how you feel. I miss my family, too.”