Free Temptress Unbound by Lisa Cach

extraordinary to make them willing to lay down their life under the command of someone not of their tribe.
    The wedding was to be three days hence. The valley was filled with the tents of the visiting chieftains and their highest-ranking men and wives, and their bodyguards of soldiers. Ambrosius had opened his cellars as well as his purse, and drink and food flowed freely enough to soften the edge of tension between foes, and yet not so freely that more than a few drunken brawls rolled through the muddied fields.
    And here was I, shivering in my fish scales made in haste by the same smith who had furnished Skalibur.
    Terix wrapped his arms over my shoulders from behind, lifting his cloak along with them to envelop me in its warmth. “How is it that we’re forever players upon stages, Nimia?” he asked into my ear. “As far as we run from what we once were, we end up the same.”
    I rested my hands upon his where they crossed on my chest, and leaned back against him. “It’s the only solution we know. Have a problem? Put on a mask and pretend to be someone else. Make people laugh, or cry, or lust. Then run for our lives while they’re not looking.”
    â€œWe’ll be running as soon as this cursed wedding is done with, yes?”
    â€œYou know I want to. But . . .”
    â€œOh gods. What?”
    â€œI would have happily run even sooner, except for two reasons. First, it might mar the festivities and draw attention to us instead of leaving it on Arthur and Wynnetha, where it belongs. Better to smile and congratulate them, than to stir up a scene by leaving.”
    He grunted a reluctant agreement. “Couldn’t leave before this sword business, anyway.”
    â€œSecond, the chalice. The vision Maerlin and I had shared, where Wynnetha stepped into a cauldron that could only be the Phanne chalice . . . I don’t want to leave without the chalice, but Maerlin will never let it go before it’s put to whatever fated use it was meant for.”
    Terix groaned. “Wasn’t Wynnetha walking over bloody bones in that vision?”
    â€œThey could be the bones of past conflicts.”
    He bounced his chin on the top of my head. “Right.”
    â€œOther than that, there’s no reason to stay here any longer. I’ve learned what I could of my mother, and to find her I have to find the same labyrinth she seeks.”
    â€œThe one Naji told us about, on Crete,” Terix said.
    I nodded. “It might not be the one she seeks, but it’s our only hint of where she might have gone.”
    Terix hugged me closer. “Are you certain you want to leave Brenn?”
    â€œI don’t want to. But I can’t stay here after the wedding. You don’t have to come with me; I know there’s so much you can learn here, and you’ve made such advances under Brenn—”
    â€œ Leave you? Have your wits rotted in the damp?”
    â€œIt doesn’t seem fair, you following me when you have your own needs, your own life’s path to follow.”
    â€œYou are my path,” he said, so softly the words were little more than a breath of wind in my hair.
    â€œYou could have a full life here, Terix. A wife, a family, a home. Brenn would gladly take you on as a permanent part of Ambrosius’s army.”
    Terix’s arms hardened. “Is that what you want, to have me stay?”
    â€œNo,” I whispered. “And I know it’s selfish of me, to not want to give you up. I’d be lost without you.”
    He relaxed his hold, his breath releasing in a sigh that was half chuckle. “Then it’s a good thing you’re stuck with me, even when it means I get you into situations like this.”
    I feigned a nonchalant shrug. “What do I mind drowning in a freezing, frog-clogged pond? It’s better than calling myself Nerthus and going topless while giving nonsense prophecies to a bunch of filthy