“Good doing business with you,” Del said.
Raz chuckled and bowed elegantly to them. “Thank you for relieving our minds with regard to your communications with Laev T’Hawthorn.”
“You’re welcome.”
The HeartMates left and a quiet humming with questions filled the tent. Lepid trotted into the tent.
“Sounds like,” Jace said.
Glyssa’s Fam had relaxed him while she hadn’t been able to.
The next day Raz T’Elecampane handed out the assignments and Glyssa got one to “find a tree or trees for the door, dead, please.” The GrandLord handed her Flaired markers to set by the wood that could be tracked, examined, then hauled away by physical means instead of Flair.
She’d started out with Jace and Zem and Lepid. Jace was looking for strong, tall trees for the trusses and the weight-bearing poles of the building.
Lepid chortled and hopped up and down.
There! The huge tree appeared newly downed, with dirt still clinging to roots and leaves crisping dry in the summer heat. Satisfied, she grinned, using the last marker she had. This would be perfect for most of the door planks. Then she continued to search for fallen trees ready to be harvested and having no wildlife living in them and no rot.
One small glen led to another as she scanned over the waist-high brush, and pushed through to find another perfect log for the door.
She stopped, petrified, lost in a tangle of green. She hadn’t watched where she was going. A rill of panic slithered through her, leaving a film of cold sweat in its wake. She’d never been by herself in the wilderness before. Where there were kilometers and kilometers of forest, unexpected lakes.
Unexpected beasts.
Her. Mind. Froze. She turned in place. Weird sounds thundered in her ears, birdcalls she didn’t know. Rustlings, were they really trees or something else?
She didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know what to do. She was
Thirty-two
Stop and breathe and think. She was still uncomfortable, but able to handle her fear. Pressing her lips together, she decided she would not cry out to Jace or even Lepid. She should be able to handle this herself.
But looking up, she only saw diffuse light through the tall trees, not a trace of the sun to tell her what direction it was. Narrowing her eyes, she noted some disturbed bushes. Surely she’d come through there. She took a step toward them, then they burst open as Lepid jumped into the small copse.
Relief whooshed through her, making her light-headed enough that she let her weakened knees fold and sat on the downed tree. She wouldn’t have to depend on herself to find the camp.
Lepid hopped on the log and pranced up and down it. When he butted her side with his head, she stroked him with a shaking hand he didn’t notice.
A niggle of cowardice settled into her. She didn’t know how long she’d have been lost, and hadn’t known how to return to the camp, solely by her own means. She had to depend on others.
She’d begun to love the wilderness, but had avoided it, and avoided survival training if she got lost. She could have used that training a few minutes before, she’d put it off too long. Now events seemed to cram her days even more full and she didn’t know when she’d get to that learning. She should have instituted a plan for training the moment she’d arrived at the camp.
“You can be a hero with me, too.”
“Wait for me, please.” At least her voice didn’t quaver.
Lepid zoomed back in, barked three times, then pranced his way through the forest. The hair on her nape rose as she realized he wasn’t going back the same way she had come. She had faith in her Fam, especially since he hadn’t seemed to understand that she’d been lost and fearful.
The camp was a bustle of activity, with a cheerfulness that she hadn’t seen since the first days she’d arrived. Jace’s face creased in laugh lines as he ate, entertaining people with the story of the amount of salvageable timber he’d found, and adding Zem’s dry comments.
Everyone else had seemed to have had good luck, too, and this new project to build a community center was ahead of schedule.
All through the day, Glyssa remained busy, and stayed fairly close to her HeartMate, and definitely in sight of someone at all times. By the time she showered and loved with Jace in the tiny cubby in her pavilion, then fell into bed, she’d almost forgotten about the scary experience . . .
Glyssa and Del stood watching their men help build the community center. Though he was older, Raz was in just as fine shape as Jace, though the actor moved with more deliberation—because of his profession or age or status, Glyssa didn’t know. It did seem to her that he was extremely aware of his body. An attractive man who sparked nothing in her except for a wish of friendship with an interesting person.
Jace, now, simply seeing how he moved, somewhat careless of his body, accepting his strength and skills without thinking, heated her blood. Zem sat on a post, watching, and Lepid darted in and out, “supervising.”
“Hmmm,” Del hummed approvingly as the two worked shirtless together to raise a pole.
Glyssa sighed. “Yes, beautiful men.” Then she caught the slide of Del’s gaze to her, a tint of red gracing the tan of the cartographer’s cheeks. “You know,” Del said, “even as HeartMates our courtship wasn’t easy.”
“What? I mean, I beg your pardon? You are so well suited. You’re HeartMates!” And so were she and Jace, and that sure wasn’t going as well as she’d wanted or expected.
Del rolled a shoulder, fixed her gaze on the men. “I’m a cartographer, I wasn’t ready to give up my career of exploring and mapping the world. Raz was an up-and-coming actor in Druida City, he lived for the stage, the audience, applause.”
Glyssa blinked, considering that. “But you worked it out.”
“Not before some heartbreak, and we both had to change.”
Jutting her chin, Glyssa said, “I’m willing to change.”
Del hesitated, then simply shrugged. The men gave a shout of satisfaction as they set the last pole.
Glyssa linked her fingers and stretched. “Time for the cross-beams and the fancy trusses.” She shook her head. “This building is not minimalist.”
“No,” Del said in satisfaction. “It has a few good features and doesn’t appear like a crude frontier hall. The
