He huffed. “No damsels, Kambry.”
She rolled her eyes, which elicited a chucklefrom him. “Let’s go to the garden,” she said.
They resumed their walk. “Do you think we’llfind damsels there?” he teased.
“Did you arrange for any?”
“I had other ideas in mind.” He snapped hisfingers. “I really should have planned better. After all, I went tothe trouble of being handsome.”
“What’s in the garden, Russal?”
“Wait and see.”
Chapter Ten
After Russal parted thewall of greenery before them, Kambry stepped through, careful topull her dress close to avoid snagging on the twigs and curledleaves. A twenty-by-ten-foot area of flat ground stretched towardthe high outer wall that encircled the royal gardens. The gardenershad completely overlooked the area.
“Move along, darling,” Russal said from theother side of the hedge.
Kambry sidestepped, leaving him room to joinher.
“What do you think?” he said.
“Um. It’s a bit of an empty page, isn’tit?”
Russal laughed. “That’s the point. We can dowhat we like, and who would notice? My mom took me here to practicemanipulating Kavin magic when I was a boy.” He seemed pleased withthe rectangular space, the blank gray of the stone wall before themand the low-cropped ground cover. His satisfied smile dropped some.“I’d only just started when, well, you know, there was a sudden endof things. I don’t think I returned here for at least a year, and Icouldn’t make myself practice the skills she had taught me. Itlooks like it’s just been waiting for us, doesn’t it?”
She reached out to him, squeezed his hand andgave the space another viewing, this time appreciating it for itslack of design and landscaping. “So we can play with theplants?”
“The plants, the soil, the wall, anythingnatural and within reach of Kavin magic.”
Russal had already sealed the hole in thehedge. Tall shrubs surrounded them on three sides.
“Can we make anything grow?”
“Anything that’s actually here. We can’tproduce roses without a rosebush, but we’re not here to design agarden. This is practice. You practice knife throwing with awell-balanced knife and a target a close distance away. As youimprove, you increase the distance and change the knife. Youpractice Kavin magic with the stuff of nature: soil, rock, plantsand air. Those are our tools. As we improve, we’ll draw moreingredients for our needs.”
Kambry walked the length of one thick hedge,running her hand through the foliage. The narrow leaves were softand sunk beneath her palm. “How do we start?”
He raised his index finger at her and crossedto the wall. Pressing his hand to the stone, he stood a moment,appraising the canvas, she supposed, before looking over hisshoulder at her. “Come over here.”
She joined him, and he nodded at hishand.
Where his hand lay against the smooth,chiseled wall, the stone rose around his spread fingers as if itwere soft as mud. She pulled his hand away to find an imprintexactly matching the shape of his palm and fingers. Setting herhand inside the indentation, she expected it to reshape to her ownsmaller hand. Nothing happened.
Russal leaned against the wall. “Draw themagic inward and push it out. Tell it what you want any way youplease. Think it, say it, imagine what it would look like or desireit.”
The grainy texture of the cool stone beneathher hand tickled her palm, and she jerked it away.
Russal laughed and pressed her hand back inplace. “That was me. I’ll stop. Now what mark do you want toleave?”
Kambry stared at the wall. She gave Russal animpish grin, and he raised an eyebrow at her. The indentationshifted like liquid, almost a caress, before reforming into theshape of an oak leaf.
Russal nodded approval, and she pulled herhand away. He leaned in closer. At the center of the oak leaf was asmall shape. A proilis flower in bloom. He caressed it with afingertip.
“Lovely.” He gave her a quick kiss as areward. “That’s us. Force and cunning, endurance and malleability,the forest and the vine.”
“Malleability?” She leaned on the wall,facing him, and crossed her arms.
Setting his forearms on the wall on eitherside of her, he looked at her with smiling eyes. “Doesn’t the vinetwist and curl around the trunk? Doesn’t the dull brown barkenhance its beauty that much more? The oak gives support, and thevine creates its own base of power from it. Together they make upKavin. Just like we do.” He kissed her, curling an arm around herwaist and pulling her close. “Kambry,” he whispered.
Her heart raced, and she didn’t know if itwas the desire for him to kiss her again or not. She ducked underhis arm and backed away. How far would he go if she encouraged him?She wasn’t ready to contemplate that. “I think perhaps you are thevine and me the forest.”
He rolled his back to the wall andsighed.
“I remember the dress I wore at the GrandReview. It was rich brown and gold while you wore green andpurple.”
“I remember it, too. The dress cut way downin the back, and my fingers pressed to your skin could feel youtrembling.”
She was trembling now and backed up a fewmore steps. “Russal.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t think making indentations in stonewalls is all that useful.”
“No?”
“No.”
He turned and gave the wall a long look, hisgaze rising from the base to the top, well over twelve feet abovethem. Russal backed up a step. Nubs formed in offset rows, growingwith each second until they were small ledges one might grasp. Heleaped up and climbed to the top of the wall, then sat looking downat her. “Come join me.”
“In this dress?”
“Be malleable. Or consider that I’m the onlyone here, and I am your husband.”
Kambry didn’t allow her thoughts to traversealong the imaginative intimation he made. She gripped her skirtsand pulled them up a few inches. She was wearing boots, not assturdy as her training ones, but they could handle steps on a wall.But what to do with the voluminous fabric dangling around thoseboots? She grabbed the front of the skirt, and pulling the hemunderneath, she tucked it under the snug waist of her petticoat.“Malleable enough for you?”
“This angle doesn’t quite offer the view ofyour limbs that I could truly appreciate, but I’m intrigued withwhat your next adjustment might
