Free Sworn To Conflict: Courtlight #3 by Terah Edun

the two male presences she suddenly found comforting, Ciardis cleared her throat. She startled when both of the women dropped their battleaxes quickly to form a crossed barricade in front of her. Ciardis gulped. Her head just barely reached the bottom of both axes. The women were that tall.
    Ciardis was as tall as her two hulking guards’ upper chests but Titus’s and Kane’s heights paled in comparison to that of the two massive females. She barely reached their waists. They were giants. She decided to pour on the charm. “Good afternoon, ladies. I had hoped to gain a meal with another of my gender.”
    The women didn’t bat an eyelash, and nor did their gaze wander from the rigid visage they carried as they look ahead and straight through Titus, Kane, and Ciardis. She was tempted to look back toward her guards for advice, but just before she did a voice of rolling thunder came from inside the encircled encampment.
    “Kane, you son of a bitch, what are you doing here?” shouted the woman.
    Ciardis’s eyes widened. This woman didn’t sound friendly.
    Ciardis watched as the massive female giant strode forward across the snow like a predator stalking its prey. She wore patches of fur that strategically covered her breasts, waist, thighs, and little else. A thick braided leather headband kept wisps of thick blonde hair from her face and a large broadsword was strapped to her back. Her skin glistened with oil rendered from some fat and she moved with the confidence of a born warrior.
    Ciardis turned her head slightly to the side to speak with Kane while keeping a wary eye on the approaching woman.
    “You know her?”
    “We were lovers.”
    At that Ciardis raised both eyebrows. The woman had at least four feet and one hundred pounds on her mighty guard. And then Ciardis reassessed. She also moved as sprightly as a gazelle and as proudly as a hunter. She was stunning and deadly.
    “Were?” whispered Titus from over her other shoulder.
    Kane didn’t respond. Which was just as well, because the giant woman had arrived.
    The glare that she leveled at Kane said that she wanted to take his head off his shoulders and stick it on a pike. “I asked what you’re doing here, you bastard.”
    “Oh, Inga my love you’ve always been so charming.”
    The woman’s mouth narrowed to a thin line and her callused hand twitched as if she wanted to go for her broadsword. A nervous bead of sweat trickled down Ciardis’s spine. She didn’t want to be in between them if Inga did decide to go for her weapon.
    “The woman wants to sit at the fire,” said Kane, speaking of Ciardis.
    Inga’s sharp gaze turned down toward Ciardis. Ciardis was starting to wish she’d just eaten in her tent. “And what would a human woman want with the food of my people?”
    “You say ‘human; as if you aren’t one,” Ciardis retorted. She didn’t bother to hold her tongue. She didn’t like the derision in the woman’s voice.
    “I am not.” Inga was eyeing Ciardis the way a cat would eye a potential toy.
    “Then what are you?”
    Inga drew a knife from her waist and Kane and Titus stepped forward in one smooth movement. The two guards of the gate raised their battleaxes with hardened grins, the first emotion Ciardis had seen cross their faces.
    “Step back,” Inga commanded. Her guards settled back into their positions without a word. All emotion was wiped from their faces. Kane and Titus didn’t move, which Ciardis was grateful for.
    “Your woman asked me what I am,” said Inga with a lazy flick of her knife. “I only mean to answer her question.”
    Staring forward, Ciardis watched as Inga drew the sharp blade against the flesh of her arm. Her blood welled up from the cut she’d sustained, and out it poured, a blue as bright as a multi-faceted sapphire. Ciardis couldn’t contain her gasp.
    “You humans may not know my kind,” said Inga with satisfaction, “but you know the legends.”
    Ciardis stared up into her face with