Red Rope of Fate (12 page)

Evlawyn nodded
. “I am at your disposal, My Lady,” Evlawyn simply said, offering a smile.

My Lady, it was an honorable title in elvish society, one you bequeathed upon someone you were willing to follow and serve for life. Tari felt the weight of such an honor and nodded. Just like Tari and Arion were bound,
Tari and Evlawyn would be bound for life.

“Thank you, Evlawyn,” Tari said, pausing before continuing. “It is nothing dire, I-I have the desire to learn some of the human language.”

Evlawyn blinked. “I see,” she carefully said. “Could we not ask a translator to tutor you?”

“I would rather not. I want to keep it a secret, and I don’t want anyone to find out about it,” Tari said.

After spending a great portion of the evening awake, pondering her traitorous emotions, it occurred to Tari that it was slightly
odd
that Crown Prince Benjimir spoke such passable elvish when Crown Princess Yvrea slaughtered the human language. Learning languages was not a test of intelligence, but a trial of determination. If Crown Prince Benjimir spoke better it was very likely he had practiced a great deal more.

There was really no way to find out how much he knew.

The thought was almost as unsettling as Tari’s recent realization about Arion and her feelings, but at least it was a problem she could address. Exchanging tit for tat, Tari would learn human.

“
Did you have any tutors in mind?” Evlawyn asked, shattering Tari’s thoughts.

Tari grinned, her first real smile since the previous night. “I do,” she admitted.
“Three of them, actually, which is why I need your help.”

Tari frowned as she walked through the confounding hallways of the south wing. For the last half hour she
tried to find her way to the servant’s quarters, where Evlawyn would be waiting for her—hopefully with information on their targets.

However, instead of finding her way to the qu
arters Tari was drawn like a moth to a flame to the south wing of the palace. She had been trying to exit it since she accidentally entered it, but something kept pulling her around and around the wing, unwilling to release her.

Tari sighed when she reached a familiar hallway. She had been avoiding it since this odd
calling hooked her, but perhaps it was why she was here.

Instead
of veering away from it as she had done for the past half hour, Tari glided down the hallway, making a right turn to a smaller passageway. She stopped in front of a familiar door and threw it open without ceremony, entering Arion’s office.

“This report is an embarrassment. You included no details on the physical characteristics of the
thief, nor did you get the contact information of the victim. You are a competent patrol leader but your reports humiliate our office. Do it again,” Arion crisply said, his eyes narrowed and eyebrows furrowed as he passed a pack of sheets to one of three Honor Guards standing in his office.

He set his eyes on the next patrol leader, who seemed ready to quake under Arion’s thunderous gaze.

“You,” Arion started, brandishing his words like a whip.

“Arion,” Tari said, walking deeper into the room. She edged past the patrol leaders, giving them an encouraging smile as she joined Arion behind his desk.

One of the patrol leaders audibly sighed in relief. The other two straightened and saluted her.

Arion looked over to Tari, his eyebrows still furrowed although he offered her a welcoming nod.

Tari leaned in Arion’s direction. “Dismiss them for a few minutes, please?”

Arion frowned but turned to his men. “You will excuse us. Wait in the hallway until I call you back in,” he barked.

The trio trooped out of the office, closing the door behind themselves, and Arion slumped in his chair.

“I don’t know why you insist on carrying on like normal when you get these headaches,” Tari said, sitting on the edge of Arion’s desk. “You are a bear to deal with when you get them. You could at least take something to relieve the pain,” she said as she reached around Arion and massaged his neck before sliding her fingers in the grooves at the base of his skull. Since her first run in with a migraine stricken Arion, Tari had cured the captain of his headaches at least an additional four times.

Arion closed his eyes, his breathing deepening as relief started to hit him. “Before you there was no way to relieve the pain.”

Tari chuckled. “Before me I’m certain you did not get these headaches quite as often,” she teased, gently tilting Arion’s head to better get at the tense muscles.

When she was finished Tari dropped her hands in her lap and smiled at her bond partner.

Arion opened his eyes half mast, the edges of his lips curling up in a barely imperceptible smile. “Thank you.”

“Next time you get one send for me.”

“I would not want to burden you with such a trite thing. I will not have you at my beck and call.”

Tari swatted his words away with her hand. “Please, if I could release your pain and save your poor men some fright I am happy to be of service. Unless I’m practicing with Seer Ringali. Then you’ll just have to wait,” Tari teased.

Arion’s smile transformed into a half smirk
before it dropped off his face altogether. He groaned and opened his eyes all the way before straightening in the chair. “You are off?” he asked as Tari stood, straightening her soft dress.

“Yes, I’m late for a meeting with my handmaiden, although this might work out better than I thought.”

“Very well. Send the yapping lapdogs back in on your way out, please,” Arion said.

Tari smiled at the apt description as she ducked back around the desk and headed for the door. “They may yap, but they respect you.”

“Perhaps,” Arion said, sounding unconvinced.

Tari laughed as she slipped out of the room, closing the door behind herself.

Arion’s patrol leaders were lined up in the hallway. The second Tari shut the door they all performed the sign for “life saver” and said “Our Hero!” in human.

Evlawyn appeared in the hallway at that moment, holding a
sheet of paper. A very smug smile was pressed on her lips in an un-Evlawyn like display, but Tari also could not help the predator smile that bubbled up in her.

“Yes,” she agreed in human, making the patrol leaders slack jawed. “Can you be mine hero?” she said, aware her accent was poor but hopefully passable.

The guards’ eyes widened, showing they understood as Evlawyn passed Tari the paper.

Tari glanced at it and smirked. She and Evlawyn slowly sauntered closer to the guards like
wild cats closing in on prey. The soldiers gulped and clustered together, and Tari smiled. “Good afternoon Patrol Leaders Grygg, Thad, and Wilford,” she said in Calnoric.

“Horses.
Hor-ses
. Those
horses
are a matched set,” Grygg said primly before he sipped tea from a dainty, porcelain tea cup.

“Those horses are a matched set,” Tari repeated in
Calnoric, copying the patrol leader’s syllable stress.

“What time was tea served?” Thad asked, holding out his cup and saucer so Evlawyn could refill it.

“Noon,” Tari said.

“Ah-ah-ah,” Grygg said, shaking a finger. “Lazy reply.”

“The tea was served in noon,” Tari said.

“At, not in,” the last patrol leader, Wilford, corrected before selecting a macaroon.

“The tea was served at noon,” Tari repeated. Her tongue felt pained, but ever since Arion’s morning patrol leaders had agreed to help her learn human, her understanding had greatly increased. Her pronunciation needed work as it was not something she could silently acquire a talent for, but Arion’s men were just as brilliant and hardnosed as their captain, and they never hesitated to correct her.

“Would you……black tea or green tea,” Thad asked, some of his words getting lost in the muddle of human before he gestured to the tea pot.

“Please, once more, more slowly?” Tari asked.

“Would you,” Thad started, waiting for Tari’s nod. “Prefer,”

“Prefer?” Tari asked.

“Desire, want,” Wilford
said.

“Would you prefer,” Thad repeated. “
A brew of black tea or green tea?”

Tari hesitated. “Black, please, with fat cow milk.”

The patrol leaders blankly stared at Tari, their tea cups all held in various poses, before shaking their heads.

“Who taught you that phrase?” Grygg said, he spoke quickly, not expecting Tari to understand, although she did.

“Not us,” Thad emphatically said. “No, never say fat cow milk. It’s
cream
.”

“Black, please, with cream,” Tari repeated.

“Next,” Grygg said, nodding his thanks to Evlawyn when she topped off his cup of tea. “Halt in the name of the King,” he said carefully before sipping his tea.

“Halt in the name of the King? When is she g
oing to use that?” Thad scoffed, adding a dash of sugar to his tea.

“Captain will kill us…she…goes…patrol,” Wilford said, slumping in the settee in Tari’s sitting room.

Evlawyn cleared his throat, and the young patrol leader jerked forward, correcting his posture.

Tari frowned slightly, inwardly disappointed with herself. While she was picking up human words and grammar rules she wasn’t
good enough
! Whenever Grygg, Thad, or Wilford spoke at a normal speed she had a difficult time picking out words she recognized, much less understood.

“Lady Tari,” Thad said, recapturing her attention. “You are doing great. Well done,” he said with an emp
hatic nod.

Tari shook her head. “Not yet. Hailt in the namane of the King.”

“Halt in the name of the King,” Grygg repeated as Thad shot him a dirty look.

“Hailt in the namane of the King.”

“No,
halt.
Halt. Name. Two parts, not three. Na-me,” he said.

“W
hat……………Tari?” Wilford asked.

Tari shook his head, his whole sentence was lost to her. “Please, once more, more slowly?”

Wilford thoughtfully frowned as he set his dainty tea cup down. “At parties, humans ask you what?” he said, executing a few sign gestures to get his point across.

Tari thoughtfully shifted. “Capetain Arion.”

“Captain,” Wilford corrected.

“Captain Arion, the food and drink, daughters, my bond, Captain Arion, and weather,” Tari listed.

“Daughters?” Thad asked.

“King Petyrr.”

“Ahh.”

“Food and drink? I see,” Thad said, thinking for a moment as he sipped his tea.

Wilford held out the tray of tea treats. “Would you like a cookie?”

“Yes please,” Tari said, reaching for the tray.

Wilford held it just out of reach. “Ask a question,” he suggested before bringing the tray closer.

Tari thought for a  moment before saying, “Which one tastes best?”

Thad nodded. “Well said. Good accent, but in royal company you should say ‘Which one do you recommend?’”