Free Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells Page A

road.
    ‘First sign of approaching Mieren, you warn us,’ Vittoryxe said. The thought of sleeping near their ancestral enemy made her uncomfortable. ‘We claimed this camp site, and we’re not moving.’
    She didn’t really expect him to see Mieren this close to season’s cusp, when the walls between the earthly plane and the higher empyrean plane were at their weakest.
    Leaving the sentry, Vittoryxe headed downhill. It was steep here, and she was in a hurry. Her boots slipped in the leaf litter. Before she could fall, a strong hand caught her arm, setting her back on her feet.
    ‘Egrayne.’ She reached out to steady herself and let her gift surge so that Egrayne would get a taste of it. ‘Thank you.’
    The warrior sucked in a breath and stepped back into shadow. Vittoryxe wished she had the raedan gift so she could read her. If she could perceive the nuances of people’s feelings, she could manipulate them. Then it would be easy to cajole and threaten her way to become the sisterhood’s all-mother. But the last raedan died over two hundred years ago.
    ‘Everything good?’ the gift-warrior asked.
    ‘Fine.’ She didn’t bother to mention Arodyti’s tree. Foolish girl. Before this excursion, all the initiate had ever seen were topiary trees in pots and the sculpted trees of the city’s park.
    Egrayne stifled a yawn. ‘I’m for bed.’
    ‘Me too.’
    They both clambered down the slope to the spot by the river where two tents had been erected for the T’En. The Malaunje would sleep in the open. Both initiates were on watch; that meant she and Egrayne had the tent to themselves. Perfect.
    Already planning her moves, Vittoryxe didn’t notice anything as they passed the gift-tutor’s tent.
    But Egrayne paused, chin lifted eyes narrowed. ‘I sense–’
    ‘Male gift?’ Vittoryxe opened her senses to confirm it. ‘The lad, Graelen.’ The one they’d taken from the winery; the one the gift-tutor had been sent to test. ‘I sensed it on him when we were riding.’
    ‘He’s going to be powerful for a man.’ Egrayne was not happy.
    ‘Powerful and physically strong.’ Vittoryxe resented the fact that at barely sixteen, the lad was already taller than her. ‘Just what the sisterhood needs, a lad who has proven so volatile his choice-mother had to send for the gift-tutor. They’ll have to train him hard in gift and body to keep him in line.’
    ‘It’s not like he can help it,’ Egrayne said.
    The T’En’s gifts surged in their youth, when they had the least control over it. Gift-empowerers could reach into the youngsters and unlock their gifts smoothly, but they were rare, and the last one had died over ninety years before. This meant all T’En below the age of ninety had been forced to stumble upon the nature of their gifts through trial and error, wasting years before they started training. Empowerment was another high-status gift Vittoryxe would have been happy to possess.
    Egrayne gestured to the dark tent. ‘He’s in with Lealeni. If need be, she can contain his gift for him.’
    ‘He’s in with the newborn and the wet-nurse,’ Vittoryxe added. ‘Hardly ideal.’ And this conversation was hardly ideal if she planned seduction. ‘Come on.’
    She led Egrayne down to their tent and stepped inside.
    Egrayne went to light the lamp.
    ‘No.’ She caught the gift-warrior’s hand, bringing it to her lips, so she could kiss those scarred knuckles. ‘You saved my life today.’
    Egrayne inhaled sharply.
    ‘You stepped between me and a man in danger of losing control of his gift.’
    Egrayne said nothing. The tent was too dark to see her expression.
    ‘I wanted to say how much I admire you.’ In Vittoryxe’s experience, people loved compliments.
    ‘What are you offering?’
    Why did Egrayne have to be so cynical? ‘A night’s trysting? In each other’s arms we could share our gifts, reinforce them. It’s a long ride back. We may have need–’
    ‘So you do this to strengthen us