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

places Vandis would rather ignore
and reminded him of the things he hardly dared to think. I so truly love
the way your mind works. I’m glad I chose you and that’s a fact—but all the
same, I’d rather you not go. It would be terribly dangerous.
    Oh, I don’t know, he said. I could just fly past his office window...
    He’d soil himself. She
cackled again and prodded at Vandis’s mind, giving him a strange, tickling
sensation.
    A broad smile stretched
his lips. That he could please Her, even in the smallest of ways…
    You do, My own.
Speaking with you is such a pleasure. This time, Her mind-touch was
more in the way of a caress.
    Vandis flushed. He hadn’t
meant for Her to pick that up. You’re right, though. It’d be dangerous.
Besides, I want to get this over with. He turned himself slightly north and
pressed his arms more tightly to his sides, willing more speed. Whatever force
pushed at his forehead, he hurried to press past it. He never flew this fast
over a city, or low to the ground; a couple of times he’d done it over
Dreamport, and he couldn’t believe the bitching afterward. He’d never heard any loud noises, and he definitely didn’t remember breaking any windows.
    Pressure rippled down his
body, so fast he could hardly perceive the motion. He only felt squeezed,
continuously, inside his thin air shield. It wasn’t precisely pleasant, but
damn! His soul sang with the feeling of speed, and when the sky cleared beneath
him, he saw the ground slipping away, mile after mile. Do You think they’ll
be all right? he asked.
    Worrywart, She
murmured. Do you not trust them?
    Of course I trust
them. It’s everyone else I don’t trust. What if somebody hurts my kids?
    Would they go
unpunished?
    Vandis snorted aloud. Hell,
no. But that wouldn’t heal the wounds they took. It’d only help me, no matter
who I pulped. And hadn’t that been a bitch to learn? He could hammer all
the bailiffs he wanted, but it wouldn’t take Dingus’s nightmares away; he could
thrash all the soldiers he felt like, but it wouldn’t return to Kessa what
she’d lost. I can’t fix them, he thought to Her. I want to, but I
can’t.
    Kessa does quite
well for herself.
    Yeah, she does. He
smiled, thinking of her: unbowed, whatever had happened to her. Unbroken. But…
    Dingus, She
finished.
    I don’t know what You
were thinking with that.
    I don’t know what
you think you’ve got to complain about.
    I am not complaining.
    Are you not, then?
Because it sounds awfully like that to Me.
    Vandis scowled and put on
a little speed to keep from being caught in an updraft over the mountains. I
can’t ask a question?
    You surely may, but
you weren’t.
    With a heavy sigh, he
pushed just a hair further to the north. Why the hell’d You choose me for
him? I mean—You could’ve chosen someone who’s even halfway not an asshole.
Somebody kind, and instead… me.
    And aren’t you glad
of it? She demanded.
    You know that I am. Darkness unfurled over the mountain, and a silver splinter of Oda’s face began
to carve its long slash in the dome of the sky. The stars glittered fiercely in
the thin air around him. You know how I feel.
    Oh, that you love
him? Yes, I do know that.
    He fought his desire to
fidget. A little miscalculation up here could be deadly.
    That’s why, She
said. I knew you would.
    Vandis muttered a
wordless, crabby sound. There was a wash of light on the horizon now, soft and
yellow, and at the speed he traveled, it exploded in front of him almost as
soon as he saw it, blotting out the stars. With an effort of will, he braked,
pack and cloak sliding forward until the buckles put a stop to it.
    I knew he’d love
you, too. And, My own, it was in My mind to give you that.
    He cruised over Dreamport
now, at the very limit of the city. The maw of the Pit yawned beneath him. The
Pit had once been a granite quarry, deep and wide enough to have supplied stone
for several of the castles, as well as for the royal palace complex,