“You’ll have to do better than that,” a voice whispered in my ear, “if you want to sneak up on me in the woods.”
I turned to see Faryn standing at my shoulder, a playful smile on her lips.
“Maybe I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you,” I objected.
“And maybe I’m the one of us who traveled from another world,” she replied. “But neither of those things seems very likely.”
She walked out into the clearing, and my eyes followed her as she went. I drank in her trim body, legs revealed by the slits in her robes, and hair cascading down her back. She looked over her shoulder and crooked a finger at me.
“Come on,” she said. “I brought you a treat.”
She sat down on the blanket, and I went to sit beside her. She picked up the jug and poured wine into each of the cups, then passed one to me. As our fingers touched, she paused, and I felt a thrill run through me. My mind filled with memories of her naked body, the feel of her riding me in the storeroom, the two of us crying out together in pure joy.
“Silver River wine.” She let go of my cup and raised one for herself. “The finest the guild has to offer.”
“Cheers.” I tapped my cup against hers.
“Cheers?” She tilted her head to look at me quizzically.
“It’s just something we say back home.”
I took a sip. The wine was as delicious, crisp, and refreshing as a fine white from Earth.
“How are the lessons going?” she asked.
“Very well,” I said. “I particularly enjoy botany. The teacher is excellent.”
She smiled at that. “Good pupils bring out the best in a teacher.”
“It helps that she’s easy on the eye.”
“I don’t think that’s how you’re meant to view your masters.”
“Oh dear. In that case, I’ve probably been giving Rutmonlir the completely wrong idea.”
“You and Rutmonlir, eh?” She raised an eyebrow. “That I’d like to see.”
I shook my head. “He’s not really my type.”
“You have a type?”
“At the moment, it’s mature women with emerald eyes.”
She laughed and held out the jug. “More wine?”
I hadn’t even realized how quickly I was drinking, but the cup was empty. I leaned in closer so that she could pour. I relished the scent of her skin, like new life on a spring day.
“Let’s test your botany skills.” She held out something in the palm of her hand. “What is this?”
I took her hand in one of mine and tilted it to better catch the light. She was holding a seed, about as long as the width of my middle finger, one end pointed and the other flat. Silver-green veins ran along a dark brown shell.
“Seed from a razor birch.” I cast my mind back across what she’d taught us. “Grows in low hills with plentiful water. The leaves can lacerate unwary travelers who try to push through a grove.”
“Very good.” She turned her hand over, our palms pressing against each other.
“You don’t happen to have any sap, do you? I wouldn’t mind having a healing potion up my sleeve.”
“Sap?” Faryn tutted in a schoolmaster’s tone. “The sap is not used to make healing potions, young man.”
“Sounds like Hamon should have listened in botany class,” I said.
“Perhaps you should paid less attention to the teacher’s body and focused more on--” Faryn’s smile faltered. “Hamon had a healing potion?”
“Yeah. He used it in the Ember Cavern.”
“That is troubling. His father must have given it to him.”
“He might have stolen it.”
“Never. Hamon may be a foolish and arrogant man, but he would never cross Jiven Wysaro.”
“Let’s forget Hamon,” I said. “I have you here, and I would rather not think about him for the rest of the night.”
Her lips parted, and I thought she was going to move in for the kiss. But then, she sat back and withdrew her hand from mine.
“This probably isn’t…” she began but let the words trail off. “That is to say, I’m here to help you learn, like Tolin asked me to.”
“Learning can be about the body, not just the mind.”
“It certainly can.” She jumped to her feet, stepped away from the blanket, and fell into a fighting stance. “Let’s see how your sparring is going.”
The change from flirting to sparring would have been enough to give some men whiplash, but I wasn’t so easily thrown. I jumped to my feet and stood facing Faryn as I rolled my shoulders to warm up my muscles.
“If I’d known there was going to be a test, I would have prepared,” I said.
“You have to be ready for surprises.”
Faryn sprang forward, leg extended in a kick at my chest. Still adjusting to the changed circumstances, my mind dulled by the wine and the exhaustion of the day, I was a little too slow in stepping aside. Her foot slammed into my shoulder, and I staggered back, losing a sandal as I went.
I kicked off the other sandal after I regained my balance. “I thought people were all about honor here. Where’s the honor in a surprise attack?”
“Tolin says that you’re here to save the world.” She pressed me back with a flurry of punches. “If you’re going to do that, then you have to be ready for anything.”
I shifted from blocking and lashed out with my foot to try to knock her off balance. She jumped out of the way, then darted in again with her fists swinging.
This time, I was ready, or thought I was. I caught her hand in mine and jerked her toward me, meaning to grapple her. But she leaned into it, ducked in under my arm, and twisted it around as she came up behind my back.
As she twisted, the pain in my shoulder forced me to give way. I sank onto one knee and drew her lower with me. Her grip loosened on my arm, and I yanked it free. She grunted as I grabbed her forearm and pulled her over my shoulder.
That move would have flung most
