Maiden's Wolf (In Deception's Shadow Book 3) (20 page)

“Ah, that doesn’t
sound so difficult.”

“No,” he agreed and
returned to kissing her.

After a
candlemark filled with many slow, lingering caresses Silverblade knew the
moment Beatrice’s patience ran out for she uttered a sound of frustration.
Breaking away from his kiss, she looked him in the eye and raised herself just
enough so their bodies aligned. He accepted her silent invitation and with one
slow thrust he was home for the first time in centuries.

“My Healer, I
have missed you,” he whispered against her throat as he started to move.

Beatrice hugged
him with a fierce strength like she was afraid he’d disappear.

“You’ll never
lose me. We’re pack now.”

And it was true.

*****

An unknown number
of candlemarks later, Beatrice snuggled against him for warmth. One hand
explored his chest, her fingers stroking along each rib, across his abdomen,
even dipping into the hollow of his bellybutton until she was familiar with
every part of his body.

“Mmm, that’s
nice.” Silverblade rumbled.

She playfully
dragged her fingers lower and he hissed softly. “That’s nicer. Keep that up and
I’ll be ready again.”

“You will, will
you?” She sat up just enough that she could lean down and press kisses to his
jaw and lips.

“Yes. Most
certainly.” Smiling lazily, he added. “You might not want to miss your last few
opportunities. Because come dawn, we are going to be starting new. I still
expect my hundred days of courtship, after all.”

“You actually
think you’ll be able to fast for a hundred days after this?” Beatrice wasn’t
sure if she would.

“Perhaps not, but
it will be fun to see how long we last before we give in.”

“Sounds like an
interesting challenge,” she said with a grin.

“Yes.” But the
bright spark of humor in his eyes vanished and his expression turned serious.
Then just as suddenly, he kissed her more fiercely than he ever had before.

Panting and
breathless when he finally broke away, she just blinked down at him.

“I’m glad we’ve
had this night. In three days we will likely be fighting acolytes again and
neither of us can say for sure if we will survive. I will hold the memory of
this night close to my heart.”

“They’ll give us
three days? I thought we’d have to be ready to leave in the morning.”

He stroked one of
the pale lines of the pack bonds. “You will need time to get used to these.
After that, even though your body will adjust to them in a few days, it will
take many moon cycles before you master them.”

“Even if I
haven’t had time to master this before we must face the acolytes, it’s still
good the Hunter will have his pack.”

“I can already
feel them. It is different now, stronger. And I will guide and teach you how to
control the magic of the pack. But not this night,” he said and rolled on top
of her.

Beatrice decided
she liked Silverblade’s way of mentoring. She planned to experience more of it
this night.

All too soon,
they would have to take the battle to the acolytes and once that occurred,
their fates and futures were no longer certain. But there was still one
certainty that remained resolute—she wouldn’t let the acolytes have her mate.

When Beatrice had
first fled from the port settlement of River’s Divide, she never thought she’d
be coming back. Truthfully, it was the last place she wanted to be, and that
thought was reinforced by the sight of a group of acolytes riding out of the
gates and on down a road leading away from the city.

Well, she
supposed fewer acolytes within the city walls could only be a good thing.

She and
Silverblade had arrived in the middle of the night. The first part of the
journey had been by Gate and the second part was completed with the help of
fleet-footed santhyrians. Several members of Silverblade’s pack had made the
journey with them. His pack members and the santhyrians would fall back to wait
with the other members of the Twelve and the Elemental army. And every last
member was armed with longbows and fire arrows.

But the plan
concocted by the council of elders and members of the Twelve depended on
secrecy. The Elementals did not want to cause open war between themselves and
the humans simply to exterminate the acolytes. But first, they would have to
set up a secret meeting with General Stonemantle without the acolytes getting
wind of it.

Both Stonemantle
sisters agreed that their father was wise and likely already suspected the
acolytes of having some agenda. The difficulty would be reaching him. There was
also the risk that he’d already been compromised. That’s why Beatrice and
Silverblade found themselves at the outskirts of River’s Divide.

Of all the
members of the Twelve, she and Silverblade were the best suited for this mission.
Beatrice was known to the residents of River’s Divide and would not draw
suspicion. Neither would Silverblade in his guise as a trapper. The great risk
was if the surviving acolytes from the earlier attack recognized either
Silverblade or herself. But she’d been avoiding acolytes all her life and was
confident she could outwit them for one more day to complete their mission.

Once they were
within the city’s defenses, their plan hinged on finding Captain Nurrowford and
determining if he was already corrupted by the acolytes or was still himself.
If he was deemed trustworthy, they would be forced to rely upon him to get the
letters written by the Stonemantle sisters to the general since there was no
way a simple trapper or herb witch would have reason to speak with the
commander of River’s Divide in person. They would also have to trust that when
the general got the letters, he would act upon what he read.

The plan had
seemed feasible three days ago when it was thought out. Now, from their present
position overlooking the gentle green hills surrounding River’s Divide, their
plan seemed like a monumental task, rife with danger.

The only point of
reassurance that Beatrice drew from the mission was that many of the acolytes
seemed to have already left the city, likely hunting for Elementals to feed
their master’s dark hunger.

However, Beatrice
wasn’t so stupid as to assume all the acolytes had left the city. There would
be some left behind to watch over the humans and likely study General
Stonemantle.

First they would
have to sneak into River’s Divide and find Captain Nurrowford. And she dearly
hoped she would not have to call upon her death magic and test her control in
such a populated area. Silverblade had been correct. The pack bonds gave her
far greater strength and endurance than she had before, but she couldn’t claim
to even have a rudimentary understanding or control over them yet.

Killing acolytes
was one thing. They were already dead, but there were a great many innocent
souls living in River’s Divide and she didn’t want to be responsible for
snuffing out those lives.

Silverblade
shifted beside her, adjusting his large pack with its cargo of pelts into a
more comfortable position. Beatrice carried a slightly smaller version, but it
still felt like it weighed twice her own weight. If the gate guards asked,
Silverblade would say his mare had gone lame and Old Mother had sent her
granddaughter to help so he wouldn’t miss market day.

“I still can’t
believe we’re going back there,” she said. “What if the guards get suspicious?”

Silverblade
laughed. “The guards are male. If I let slip that Old Mother loaned you to me
for the day to learn a trapper’s trade as well as other things,” His last word
was dripping with innuendo. “The guards will be so busy conjuring up what you
look like naked, they won’t be thinking with their brains or looking for any
deception.”

“Another time, I
would find that disturbing.”

“So would I.”
Silverblade leaned down for a quick kiss. “And I would normally be quick to
persuade a male to find another female to fantasize about.”

She touched her
lips and felt a shy smile spread across her face. “We should go. The city gate
will open for the day soon.”

Silverblade
squeezed her hand before releasing it. His blunt nails reminded her he was fully
human today. She’d grown so used to him in his hybrid form that the strange mix
of human and lupwyn characteristics had become the ‘normal’ Silverblade to her.
Over the last few days, she’d also seen him shift into his full lupwyn form.
And now here he was as she had first known him, the human trapper.

Out of all his
forms, she had the most difficulty dealing with Silverblade as a human. One
part of her mind wanted to warn against danger, for all humans meant danger to
her. There was no rationale behind it, but then again, fear often wasn’t
rational.

She snorted at
her own foolishness. Silverblade was her beloved no matter what form he wore.

With that thought
to warm her, they made their way down the road. They were soon joined by other
farmers and villagers making their way to the city on market day.

*****

They made it to
the gate without incident and when Silverblade joked about his new ‘helper,’
the gate guards had merely smiled knowingly and waved them on through.

Together they
continued on to the marketplace where Silverblade spoke with the town official
to rent his usual booth. It was located right next to a known toymaker that
Nurrowford often frequented looking for some new trinket or ribbon for one of
his five children.

After making
their way to their booth, she helped Silverblade unpack his pelts, laying them
out on the table to show their quality and his fine tanning skills. She was
also surprised to see him unroll small, lifelike carvings of animals and people
and lay them out next to his furs.

A number of
people were already visiting his booth. Apparently he was well known for his
skill.

While Beatrice
found the whole endeavor nerve-wracking and difficult to focus on their
patrons, she did manage to keep scanning for acolytes and Captain Nurrowford.

The real danger
would begin the moment she passed the letter to Nurrowford. Beatrice was
confident she would be able to recognize if he’d been corrupted by acolytes,
but she had no way of knowing if the general was compromised until she met him.

Once the letter
had been delivered, Silverblade and Beatrice would continue to sell their wares
at the market, pretending to be nothing more than what they appeared. There
they would await word from Captain Nurrowford and hopefully he would find a way
to get them to General Stonemantle in secret.

Beatrice was just
tying up a purchase for a local dressmaker when she caught movement out of the
corner of her eye. Captain Nurrowford stood at the booth next to them, his
long, lanky form casting a shadow across their table. She knew his appearance
from previous market days. Even if she hadn’t, he’d be easy to pick out in a
crowd.

A particularly
nasty scar twisted its way down from his eyebrow to his chin and it managed to
pull all the skin on one side of his face toward a central, knotted mass of
scar tissue. Her magic had always wanted to heal that wax-like pitted and
rumpled skin.

But from what she
knew of the man, his outward appearance did not reflect what was inside. He was
known to be a fair and honest man.

When Nurrowford
was almost finished with his purchase at the next booth over, she allowed her
magic to flare and study him, searching for signs of acolyte corruption. She
continued to study him even as she handed her package to the dressmaker. The
woman handed her a small copper coin. Beatrice slipped it into her coin purse
while at the same time easing out Ashayna Stonemantle’s letter.

Captain
Nurrowford purchased a small wooden toy sword, commenting that his youngest had
managed to break the one he’d only bought the week before. Nurrowford walked
on, ignoring the fur pelts, but pausing when Silverblade put out another carved
figurine.

Nurrowford put
down his other purchases to study the small carved horse. Beatrice had a
suspicion it wasn’t actually a carving of a horse, but one of the horse-like
santhyrians.

He mumbled
something under his breath. “My daughter already has a herd of these. But she’s
always asking for just one more.”

Captain
Nurrowford chuckled good-naturedly and pulled out another small coin and handed
it to Silverblade. While Silverblade was wrapping the tiny wooden figure in a
bit of cloth, Nurrowford picked up his other purchases. Beatrice saw her
chance.

“Sir,” she said
as she pretended to pick the letter up off the table where his purchases had
sat a moment before. “You forgot this.”

She tilted the
letter in his direction at an angle so he couldn’t miss seeing his name and
hopefully recognize the handwriting. Surprise registered on his face for less
than a heartbeat, and then he schooled his features back into calm
indifference, taking the letter from her hand with a polite thank you.

And just like
that he took his leave, slowly making his way through the rest of the market.
Outwardly, he did not seem to hurry, but anyone studying him closely would see
that he was no longer paying attention to the various items on the tables.

After a
quarter-candlemark, he pushed his way through the throngs of people coming to
the market and headed deeper into River’s Divide—in the general direction of
the Stonemantle residence. They could only hope that General Stonemantle would
get the letter and act upon it.

Since there was
nothing else they could do on that front, they continued to sell their wares.

Later, news
reached her ears about some excitement at the docks. A ship had just sailed in.
Gossip spread and before long, they heard that there were acolytes aboard the
ship in the company of the temple soldiers that served them back in the empire.

She and
Silverblade exchanged a glance at the dire news. But there was nothing they
could do at the moment.

If they left now,
they would draw unwanted attention, and there was no guarantee they would get
another opportunity like this. There was nothing to do except sit, wait, and
worry.