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Authors: Kate Hill

Tags: #Romance

Mica (4 page)

BOOK: Mica
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“Don’t make me fight you, Blaze.”

“I was never in Greenhaven,” Mica said. He knew about the place, however, and his anger at the woman faded, replaced by sympathy. Many villages on the coast of the Western Continent had been destroyed during the time she mentioned. “The General Mica you’re referring to was my father.”

Sun pushed away from Blaze and approached, her hands raised to fight. “Then I can use you to find him.”

“It will do you no good.”

“Yes it will,” she snarled. “Even if I have to beat his whereabouts out of you—”

“I’ve held my tongue for worse than you.” Mica removed his foot from the stirrup but didn’t advance on her. The woman had obviously lost much to his father’s brutality.

Though her attitude irritated him, he could see no reason to further upset her. “I realize you’ve suffered because of my father’s actions. I’m sorry.”

“Keep your apology. It makes me sick. I want to know where your father is.”

“He’s dead.”

“Right. One way or the other, you’ll tell me the truth.”

“He speaks the truth,” Blaze told her.

She glanced at the auburn-haired Knight. “He can’t be dead.”

Blaze opened his hands helplessly. “The spirits don’t lie to me.”

“All right.” Sun picked up her sword, pointing it at Mica. “If I can’t kill the father then I’ll destroy his spawn.”

“You cannot.” Blaze stepped in front of Mica. “The lamb cannot be accused of doing the coyote’s work.”

Sun glared at the Knight. “Blaze, now is not the time to test my patience!”

“You cannot punish him for a crime he didn’t commit. What of your vows? Will you ruin your life for the sake of a dead man?”

The woman sheathed her sword, kicked the cave wall and dropped to the ground.

“You can step away from him, Blaze. I’m not going to kill him, though I have no doubt he deserves death as much as his father.”

Mica stared at her. He’d seen many like her in his lifetime, people destroyed by hatred because of the likes of his father—and himself. At least Mica had realized his violent path promised him and those he touched nothing but loneliness and pain.

“I wish I could change what he did,” Mica said.

“Keep quiet,” she snapped.

He sheathed his dagger, wrapped his robe around his shoulders and sat on the
blankets. “The storm might last the night. You should sleep.”

“I’d sooner sleep in the company of a snake.”

“I won’t be closing my eyes either,” he stated. She’d probably cut them out if he did.

“Then both of you watch.” Blaze settled onto the floor, tugging the blankets around him and muttering to himself.

Moments later, Sun knew by the evenness of his breathing that he was asleep. She looked across the fire at Mica who sat staring at the flames. The sight of him infuriated her. Thick tendrils of ink-colored hair flowed down his shoulders and back. His slightly parted lips looked soft and finely shaped. She noted for the first time the black lines rimming his eyes. She had seen several people in the market with the same type of eye makeup and guessed it was part of the Kennas’ culture. Some of the Knights and Dames wore tattoos from their homeland. She knew in certain parts of the world warriors painted their faces in battle, but she’d never seen a man in makeup before.

Still, the black lines in no way detracted from his masculinity; they merely enhanced the beauty of his eyes.

“I wish I could change what happened to you,” he said.

“Excuse me if I can’t believe any son of
his
, particularly if you claim to be a general yourself.”

“I am no longer a general.”

“Good,” she seethed.

“There aren’t adequate words to describe the horror of battle.”

“You don’t have to tell me about battle.”

“No. I can see you’re familiar with it, but you’ve also overcome your past. Your friend spoke of vows you took. By the way you handle your sword, I’m guessing you’re a Dame of the Opal Order. I recognized the emblem on your companion’s tunic to be that of the Ruby Order.”

Sun stared hard into Mica’s eyes. “You’re wondering why, after all I went through to become a Dame, I’ve wasted my time looking for your father?”

“The answer is obvious. Becoming a Dame doesn’t wipe away your humanity. You have every right to hate my father and want revenge.”

Sun leaned forward, pointing a finger at him. In spite of the rage sparking her lovely blue eyes, Mica saw deep pain. She tried hiding it and had obviously learned to live with it, but it still burned inside her. “I don’t understand you. What are you trying to prove? Do you actually think I’ll believe you’re decent, that you don’t have a bit of him in you?”

“I don’t care what you believe.” His words weren’t taunting or hateful. He simply stated a fact.

His neutrality seemed to incite Sun’s rage. “What kind of general were you, Mica of Ademene? Were you honest, upstanding and noble?”
“There is no nobility in war. Only suffering.”

“That’s right enough.” Sun leaned against the bumpy cave wall, her square jaw set and her eyes half closed. Her smooth, golden skin was different from the darker women he was accustomed to. Perhaps her strangeness attracted him, but he longed to touch her face and taste her lips. Her mouth was sensual, the lower lip full. He wondered how she would look wearing a smile instead of a scowl.

“Why don’t you sleep? I’m not about to attack you.”

The look she shot him explained just how much she trusted his promise.

“How did he die?” she asked.

“My father? In battle.”

“I hope he suffered.”

“I don’t know. I was banished at the time and heard of his death months after it happened.”

“Banished? It figures. What disgusting crime did you commit? Rape? Murder?”

Mica’s gaze fixed on the fire. “Treason.”

 

“Treason? How?” Sun could have ripped out her tongue. His life and his crimes shouldn’t interest her.

“Why do you want to know?”

“I don’t. I couldn’t care less except to say they should have executed you.

Banishment was too good for you.”

A sad smile touched his lips. “There was a time when I wished they had killed me, but that was the point of banishment.”

Sun looked away. She didn’t know how much time passed before drowsiness overtook her. Forcing her eyes open, she tried to keep awake by thinking about some new herbal remedies Blaze had taught her.

“My army had taken over one of the largest villages in Upper Kenna, several miles from the capital city,” Mica began. “At the time, I reported directly to my father who was advisor to the man who called himself the emperor of Ademene—a usurping pig of a cousin to the true emperor. I sent word that we’d secured the village. My father sent a message back telling me to kill everyone in it. I refused.”

Sun glanced at him, wondering if he told the truth or if he thought to play on her sympathy.

“You did the right thing.” Blaze’s soft voice broke the stillness hanging between Sun and Mica.

Sun snorted, lifting her gaze to heaven. “He’s probably lying, Blaze.”

Blaze raised himself onto his elbows and blinked sleep from his pale eyes. “You know the spirits talk to me, Brightest Star.”

Mica turned to Blaze. “You commune with the dead?”
“They never let me rest,” Blaze muttered. “You interest me, Mirrored Rock.”

Mirrored Rock. Mica.
Blaze’s interpretation of names never ceased to amaze Sun.

Mica chuckled. “I interest you?”

“You have a deep soul. Contradictions battle inside you.”

“They battle inside us all.” Sun buried herself deeper in her cloak. The night had grown very cold.

“The fight is stronger in some than in others,” Blaze continued. “I would say you and Mirrored Rock are much alike, but—”

“We are nothing alike,” Sun bellowed.

“But I knew you would shake the walls should I say so.”

Mica’s eyes glistened with amusement. “She has a soft, womanly voice, doesn’t she?”

“At least I look like the woman I am. What kind of man paints his eyes like you do?”

“It’s called kohl,” Mica explained, as if to a child. “In the desert, it helps deflect the sunlight. You should try it.”

“I’d like to try hanging your head from my belt.”

“That’s enough,” Blaze snapped.

“You can’t tell me how to act, Blaze. I’m not a child anymore.”

Again Mica grinned. “Could have fooled me.”

Sun drew a dagger and loomed over him. “One more comment from you, and I’ll cut off your hair and sell it at the market.”

“They pay well.” Mica lifted a section of his black mane to reveal shorter locks beneath. “Ten silver pieces for just two braids.”

Sun wrinkled her nose. “You actually sold your hair?”

“I’d been in the desert for over a month. The first market I reached, I wanted to eat everything they were selling. Dried fruit, fresh bread and dye all for a couple of measly braids seemed a good bargain.”

“Dye?”

“I hoped that would pique your interest.” Mica opened his cloak and unfastened his vest. He parted it, revealing a chest and abdomen of lean, chiseled muscle. Black and burgundy symbols formed an attractive line from just below his breastbone to his navel.

Each of the ridges of muscle on his stomach was painted with snakes and rams. Sun’s mouth went dry at the sight of his body. Did it feel hard as it looked? She imagined running her hands across the dark, chiseled chest. How would those flat, brown nipples feel beneath her fingers and tongue? The man was gorgeous enough to make a woman lose her breath.

He continued, “Sun, from the moment I saw you, I thought ‘here’s a woman whose body was made to paint’. I usually charge four copper pieces per design, unless you
supply the dye, then it’s three, but for the honor of decorating such a lovely body, I’ll lower my price to—”

Sun kicked him so hard and fast that he scarcely had time to raise his arm in defense.

“You are disgusting.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you.” He wiped his bloody lip since the arm that blocked her kick had smashed his face.

“That time, I don’t blame her,” Blaze said.

Sun returned to her place by the fire. Her stomach clenched not only because, as Blaze hinted, Mica’s lewd offer was offensive but because the idea of his long, graceful fingers painting her body actually appealed to her.

Sun liked being in control. She’d bedded men who attracted her, but never one like Mica who could make her wet with a look. It wouldn’t matter anyway. After tonight they’d never see each other again.

* * * * *

The following morning, after eating a meal of bread and dried fruit, the trio saddled their horses.

“Lock will be surprised to see us,” Sun told Blaze.

Fastening his saddle, Mica glanced at Sun over his horse’s back. “Too bad you have to leave so quickly. There’s much to see in the Kennas.”

“My one tie with the Kennas is dead and I say good riddance.”

Mica’s brow furrowed. “You want to hate an entire country because of one man?”

“Don’t you ever shut up?” Didn’t he know how fragile the wire he tugged? If he irritated her too much, she wouldn’t hesitate in following through with the attack she’d started last night. “I want to get as far from you and this stinking country as possible.”

Mica whistled. “And I was under the impression Knights and Dames thought of all people as equal.”

“She’s abandoned the ways of her Order of late.” Blaze glanced at Sun with irritation but she pretended not to notice.

She mounted. “Let’s go. We’ll reach the port by dusk.”

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Blaze extended his hand to Mica who grasped it.

“My pleasure, Sir. Good luck, Dame Sun.”

She curled her lip and kicked her horse forward.

Moments later, Blaze’s horse fell into step beside hers. When they reached the top of the dune, Sun glanced back at Mica who rode in the opposite direction, his blue robes a sapphire droplet on the expanse of golden sand.

“I know that was hard for you,” Blaze said.
“You don’t have to say anything. I’ll be fine.”

“My reasons are selfish. It hurts me to see you in pain, Brightest Star.”

“I’m not in pain anymore.”

“So you say. What do you think of Mica?”

“I don’t like him.”

“No?”

“He pretends he’s not like his father,” she sneered.

“Perhaps he’s not.”

“No matter what he says, the blood in his veins will not change. Besides, he has bigger balls than a White Island yak.”

“Brightest Star!”

Shrugging, she said, “Sorry, Blaze, but I never was much of a lady.”

“You are a coconut.”

“What?”

“A coconut. Hard on the outside, liquid on the inside.”

“I know you like to think I have a heart but I don’t. Not really.”

“It’s a rare Dame who has no heart. Like crying tears to quench the desert’s thirst.

Giving one’s life to the Order requires sacrifice.”

“Yes, and I get to fight in plenty of battles.”

“I must agree with Mica’s view of battle. No honor, only suffering.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t like it.”

A bellow of rage echoed across the dunes.

“Mica,” Blaze said and turned his horse back.

Sun didn’t hesitate in following. They galloped down the sand dune.

At the base, Mica had dismounted. A body lay on the sand, stone buzzards pecking at the tattered heap. More interested in dead prey than in the living, the stone buzzards flew off.

By the time Sun and Blaze dismounted, Mica was kneeling beside the blistered corpse. One of the eyes had been plucked out by the buzzards, the other stared lifelessly toward the sun.

“Damn scavengers.” Mica snarled. He parted the corpse’s robe, revealing whip slashes encrusted with dried blood. “I knew it. Bastards.”

“What happened to him?” Sun asked.

Mica met her gaze, the hatred in his eyes stunning her. “He was banished, Dame Sun.”

Banished. Just as Mica had been.

“I have to cremate what’s left of him and bury his bones.”
“I’ll help you,” Blaze offered.

“Thank you.”

Sun drew a deep breath, knowing she shouldn’t care one way or the other what Mica did. She told herself she wouldn’t help for his sake, but for the deceased man she didn’t know. After all, as a Dame, she was sworn to lend aid where needed.

BOOK: Mica
7.9Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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