She glared at him for a few seconds more before she huffed out a breath and dropped into the chair opposite him. “I need to know you’re here and focused before we head into an unknown and potentially dangerous situation tomorrow. You’ve been off since they told us this was the last of the funding for our missions.”
It was his turn to narrow his eyes at her. “You know I’ve got your back. Always.”
“I know. And there’s no one I’d rather have there than you.”
When she didn’t say anything else, Daks grimaced and sat forward in his chair. “Look. You know better than anyone this intrigue shit isn’t why I signed on. There are other teams much better at that than we are, much less, uh, noticeable. That wasn’t why I took the job. Now it looks like this last trip is only going to get us deeper into it… and that’s if the girl wasn’t exaggerating. Plus—” He clenched his jaw before he could say the rest, grabbed his tankard again, and downed the last of its lukewarm contents in one swallow.
Shura’s frown softened and she nodded. “I know. Maran’s boy, Val. But we don’t know why the Brotherhood took him yet. He might not have been gifted. Or he might have been gifted in a way they’d find useful.”
His lips twisted sourly. “Great. So instead of mysteriously disappearing off the face of Kita, never to be seen or heard from again, he can look forward to a lifetime of forced servitude to the bastards. That’s so much better.”
“There are many brothers who seem to truly enjoy their positions,” she offered with little enthusiasm.
“But what percentage of the ones who are taken? And if you mean the Thirty-Six, those sick bastards only get off on the pain and power. They’d twist him into someone his mother wouldn’t even recognize. If only I’d ever seen the boy, touched him. I would have sensed if he had any gifts and spared them that. We could’ve gotten him away.”
“We don’t know if he had any. They could have chosen him for some other reason, known only to them. This could have been political. Or they could have found out what she’s been doing and this was punishment.”
“This is supposed to make me feel better?” He closed his eyes and twisted his neck from side to side. “I’m sorry,” he said finally, giving her a pained smile. “I know you’re trying to help, and I also know you feel the same way I do about them.” He blew out a breath and rubbed his forehead. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s time I take a break and do something else, instead of bashing my head against this wall over and over. I mean, let’s look on the bright side. From all we’ve heard, things seem to be escalating here just fine without us. Perhaps we won’t have to do anything at all and the Brotherhood will crumble from its rotten foundations up, all on its own. Maybe a break where we simply stay home and give aid to those fleeing the coming troubles is the best we can do.”
“Maybe a bit of rest for you too,” she added quietly.
“Hey, we had the winter,” he said with a chuckle and a wry smile.
“Being at the Scholomagi with all its politics and division, and then at your family’s holdings, with all that drama and tension, was nothing like a rest,” she shot back.
He shrugged. “You were there too. If you don’t need a rest, then neither do I. I’m as tough as you are… mostly.” He said that last with another smile and a wink, and her lips quirked as she shook her head.
“You take it more personally than I do, which is why you find it more draining,” she replied more seriously, pouring a bucket of cold water on his attempt to deflect. “I’m here because of you, Vaida. This is my fight only because it is yours. The oaths were sworn. I am bound. That doesn’t mean my heart breaks as yours does.”
Daks shifted uncomfortably and turned to look out the small round rain-streaked window to the lovely view of the dirty side of the neighboring building. It wasn’t that Shura didn’t care for the plight of the Rassans or the Sambarans, but her people faced enough hardship and prejudice that they couldn’t afford to take on anyone else’s troubles. He felt guilty sometimes for keeping her away from them, but he had his own demons to fight, and her being oathbound to him hadn’t exactly been his decision.
Still, the subject—and that damned Cigani title she’d given him—always made him uneasy. Vaida—chief, leader, boss.
He grimaced. He was no leader, even if he’d spent the first half of his life being trained to become one before his gift was discovered and his life turned upside down. There was a reason his younger sister was heir to the family hold and not him, and it wasn’t only because of the laws regarding the gifted in Samebar. He didn’t want to be anyone’s boss, ever.
After all their years together, he’d like to believe Shura stuck with him because of their friendship, not because of the oaths she’d sworn after he’d saved her entire family from certain death. But the Cigani were a proud and mysterious people, and they took their oaths very seriously. She would stay regardless of whether she liked him, and regardless of whether he wanted her to. She would be his right arm until the day he died… and he would have been lost a long time ago without her.
When he turned his gaze back to her, he found her staring pensively out the window into the gloom, mirroring him.
“The sun will go down soon,” she murmured before clapping her hands together and meeting his gaze again. “Grayla is expecting me tonight after the guard change,”
