though she’d recognized her attraction to the Massi General long ago. It was only last night that her feelings for him truly blossomed, and he hadn’t done a thing. He just slept in the guest bedroom of the house she grew up in, but the fact that he was so close and in a place so familiar to her helped her to realize just how strongly her feelings for him had become. Late the previous night, or more accurately very early this morning, she’d risen very thirsty and passed his room. The moon was bright and in the dim light she could see that he was lying, shirtless under a thin sheet, half on his side but mostly on his stomach. His hair was tousled but his face was as sweet and serene as a young boy’s. Her heart, like a tumbler, did a little flip and continued to flip regularly ever since.
“To Massi?” she asked.
“Yes. The Temple Knights have landed.”
She glanced at Bock in time to see his face fall, even though the news was expected. Her heart did another flip as she thought perhaps his disappointment matched her own at the prospect of leaving Parma and her childhood home.
“I’m not sure…several days,” she answered, wondering just where the Knights were located. She could Travel to Heron from here, but would be hard pressed to jump from there to Manse without further rest.
“Perhaps you should Travel to Noble,” Monde said, interrupting her thoughts, “then we can all make the trip to Manse together.”
na Gall thought about this for a moment, frowning until Lonogan reached out and took her hand in his. Her heart jumped again and she gave him a small smile. “I may be able to Travel to Noble by tomorrow, late afternoon or early evening.”
“Good!” Gwaynn and Monde said in unison, and then they heard Monde chuckle. “Plan on it,” the Zarina continued. “I’ll contact you soon.”
“As you wish,” na Gall answered.
“Win the Cassinni for us,” Gwaynn added as the Speaker bubble slowly disappeared.
After it was fully gone, Lonogan and Jess stood close together, still holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes. Both wanted to resume kissing, but each felt that somehow, after such horrendous news, it would be the height of selfishness to do so. And even though Lonogan Bock was completely taken with the woman in front of him, his mind refused to stay present and kept darting back across hundreds of miles of water to his army in Massi. Worry caused his brows to furrow slightly and na Gall reached up and caressed his cheek, bringing him fully back to Parma.
“Tomorrow,” she said and then she kissed him again, silently dismissing all the reasons why she should not do so.
?
Prince Phillip Toranado pushed back from the front lines and headed to the rear, away from the fighting. Arrows fell sporadically around him, but he paid them no mind. He could do nothing about them in any case. If he was hit, he was hit. There was no possible way to avoid them in such close quarters. He was just happy that the Rhondono had so few archers.
“This way M’lord,” the messenger said, leading Phillip back through the lines of grimy, sweaty soldiers, until finally they were in a safe zone. They were now far enough back that the enemy archers could not threaten them but even so they were still surrounded by soldiers. The Scar Gap was only around a hundred yards across in this area with a pair of steep rocky cliffs on either side, hemming the fighting in. To make matters tighter, tall pines grew close to the rock face and just the center channel was clear of obstacles. The narrow confines allowed for only a limited engagement, less than two hundred men could face off at any one time. It was a place where a small group of determined fighters could hold off a much larger force, Captain Jima and his small band of soldiers had illustrated the fact quite nicely not six months ago when he held up the entire Deutzani army for nearly a month. But the narrows of the Gap also made for intense, high energy fighting as fresh troops were constantly rotated forward to relieve the tired, the wounded or the dead. Prince Phillip, thanks to the heavy training he received with Gwaynn and the Massi, had occupied his position at the front for well over an hour, hacking and stabbing at the enemy. When the messenger arrived he was nearing the end of his stamina, so he did not argue too much at the idea of moving back for a rest. Plus a sword tip grazed him in his right side. It was a minor wound, but it needed to be tended, plus a few ribs were beginning to bark at him from hard blows his chain mail managed to deflect.
“It’s a relatively small force of Rhondono soldiers,” Captain Trammel said as Phillip stretched his right arm up over his head and gingerly felt his ribs with his left hand. The two men walked side by side through the outskirts of the camp and into the large command tent. Doctor Ryebald moved forward and began pulling off the Prince’s armor. Phillip allowed her to do so without complaint, feeling that he might need a few stitches before heading back to the fighting.
“How…” Phillip began.
“Laynee,” Trammel answered with a nod at the girl who sat quietly in one corner watching closely as the doctor stripped the top layer of clothes off the Prince. She colored slightly as Phillip smiled at her.
“What of the Knights?” he asked her, no longer uncomfortable with the fact that so much depended on such a young girl…a pretty one at that.
“Zebo says they’re still nearly a hundred miles from Cape,” she answered and allowed her own gaze to travel over his body. She winced slightly at the bloody gash in his right side, and quickly looked away as Ryebald began sewing.
Phillip caught the young girl’s expression and chuckled then winced as the thick needle pierced his skin.
“It’s not a large force,” Tabernas said as he pulled the tent flap aside and strode in, his hair slick with sweat and matted against his head and neck. He stopped short as he caught sight of the doctor with his Prince.
Phillip shrugged. “It’s nothing,” he said then added. “We’ll leave come dark, move back to Manse.”
No one said anything, but they all felt the same regret. They could force their way through the Scar Gap eventually, a small force could not hold them up forever, but each knew it could hold them up long enough for the Knights to cross the open plains of Massi and trap them in the narrow confines. And if that happened they would be fighting on two fronts and in all likelihood be destroyed.
“The Rhondono have been giving ground all day, tempting us to move farther into the Gap,” Tabernas said flopping down in a chair. He was tired. He’d done his share of killing. He hoped the Rhondono force facing them was indeed expendable, because they were taking a beating against the Toranado heavy infantry.
Phillip nodded. “They’re underestimating us if they think we would fall for such an obvious trap.”
“Yes, or they want us to think they are underestimating us,” the Weapons Master quipped.
Phillip thought about that for a long moment, considering this new angle, then barked out a laugh.
“If I believed that, I would be overestimating them. No one that’s subtle,” he said and then glanced again at the young Traveler. She sat there gazing at him with her long hair and large eyes.
“How far can you project?”
Laynee shrugged. “I practice every other day. It makes me tired,” she answered then jumped down off the table she was sitting on and shook her hair free so that it rippled down her back like a long blonde river of silk. Tabernas smiled at the young girl’s obvious advances toward the Prince.
“I can’t make Manse yet,” she continued with a frown, “or Cape, which is farther, but I can get to Colchester,” she finally added with just a hint of pride.
