Free Oath Bound (Book 3) by M.A. Ray

thing like that?”
    Dingus gave him nothing
but big, hurt eyes, and he felt like he’d kicked a puppy.
    “I’m not angry with you.
I just thought you’d rather have a few minutes with me.” He raised his
eyebrows. “Was I wrong?”
    “No.” Dingus’s lips
ticked up at the corners, and the minute, familiar smile slammed into Vandis’s
chest.
    He stuffed his cap down
over his hair. Barber, he reminded himself sternly, trying not to think
of how much he’d miss his son-who-wasn’t, and cleared his throat. “As hard as
you were watching out for me, I want you to watch yourself and Kessa. Heads
down, eyes open.”
    “Yes, Vandis.”
    “I gave Kessa some for
her expenses, so you don’t have to spend your stipend. Remember, it’s against
the law for you to carry more than ten sovereigns at a time—that’s total, not
just the gold pieces.”
    “I got a lot more than
that in my pack. What if—”
    “Keep it out of sight and
store it as soon as you can. Mind what I told Kessa about the ‘No Bigs’ signs.
They don’t want you kicking the citizens around, even by accident.”
    “I’ll keep my eyes open,”
Dingus promised. He paused, licking his lips. “Vandis…”
    “It won’t be more than a
month.”
    “Please. Be careful.”
    Vandis shut his eyes and
breathed. Getting sick and tired of hearing that, he thought, but aloud
he only said, “I’ll see you soon,” and climbed to perch on the railing around
the deck. He wished it’d feel a little less inappropriate to hug Dingus. The
boy looked like he could use it: somehow smaller than usual. It wasn’t as weird
with Kessa. She’d been kissing Vandis on the cheek almost since day one, and
she didn’t have the same restlessness Dingus exuded. He settled for a hard
squeeze on Dingus’s shoulder. “Soon, okay? Don’t worry.”
    “See you soon.” Dingus
hunched, looking like he wanted to say something more, but Vandis didn’t think
he could stand to hear it and still leave. He let himself fall slowly back with
a wave and a grin, which startled out the laugh he’d been hoping to hear.
    He plummeted, guilt
dragging him down, and at the last moment shot up and through the canopy,
scattering needles behind him. Rain pattered off his protective wrapping of
air—it kept him dry, for the most part, but a cloudburst or a hailstorm would
leave him wet and bruised. As he climbed, he made a quick check of all his
fastenings, buckles to bootlaces. Once he had everything secured to his
satisfaction, he flattened his body, stroked his arms down to his sides, and
blew into the low deck of clouds, curving eastward. From below, they looked
like gray wool muffling the sky, but from within they were thick-soup fog.
Once, he’d let himself fall through one, wanting to feel what it was like, but
he’d regretted that in a hurry. It had soaked him, and up high was like
the cold heart of Hell.
    He burst through the
cloud-top, leaving his own streak of condensation behind, and flew out of the
sunset. There were times he pitied everyone he left on the ground, but in
truth, he liked that nobody else had ever seen this, nor ever would. The
world above the clouds was Vandis’s alone, his personal gift from his Lady.
Down below, they might have a gloomy day with buckets of rain or piles of snow,
but above there’d be sunshine every day, pure blue and pure white, except at
sunup and sundown. Now Vandis’s little shadow zipped along ahead of him, a
distorted dark patch on glorious, golden-edged mounds of soft purple, shocking
pink, and hot orange. The air was clear and clean, sweet and chilly in his
mouth and lungs.
    Thank You for letting
me see this , he said to Her, a prayer.
    With whom else
should I share it but My own Vandis? She answered him, and his heart
leapt at the sound of Her voice.
    I’m well out of
Windish by now. Think I should pop over to Muscoda and scare the shit out of
Lech Valitchka?
    She gave Her wicked
little laugh, the one that darted straight to