Chapter 3 Scene 1

The short days of winter passed all too quickly for Cosi. When frost no longer crusted the windows each morning, it was time for Dros to return to the front. Though she was never prepared to watch him go, the process of leave-taking was especially difficult this time.

The Indra had agreed to meet with Nahl to discuss options for their assistance in the war, but since they never left their river valley, he had to go to them. That meant both of her men would be leaving the reach at once. Both of them would be away from her and there was no way for her to prevent them being in danger. Therefore, she had spent most of the day yelling at various members of the staff until Qarn took her aside and asked that she please find something more constructive to do with her time before they left with no one to work for them.

She knew now why her mother had advised picking consorts she cared little for, as she herself had done all her life. It made dealing with their inevitable loss much easier, her mother had claimed. But Cosi wasn’t the type to bed someone she cared nothing for, never had been. She’d chosen her consorts with her heart, and now she was paying the price.

Dros stood at the window of her bedroom looking out over his last sunset at home for several months. He’d finished packing by lunch and had grown more and more quiet as the day wore on.

She moved to stand behind him, wrapping him in her arms. “If I order you to stay, would you?”

“Yes.” He didn’t turn to look at her, but lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her wrist. “But please don’t. What good is a warlord with no battle to fight?”

She rested her cheek against his back and sighed. “You are so much more than a warlord to me.”

“The Sword’s purpose is to be your weapon. If I don’t fight for you, you should choose someone else.”

She hugged him fiercely. “I will not. You are my Sword until one of us dies, Drosimar. I told you as much when we were twelve; it was true then, and it’s even more true now.”

“Then let me do my duty. Let me fight for you as I should.”

She had no argument that would move him. He deserved to be the weapon she’d made him and by trying to protect him she dishonored that. “I hate you a little right now.”

“I’ve loved you every moment of my life. Even the ones before we had met.”

Cosi snorted. “You’re ridiculously sentimental.”

“I like to think it balances out the murderous bloodrage.”

She hugged him again, not wanting to ever let go. “It does at that.”

They stood watching the dying light in silence for a long while.

“Where’s Nahl?” Dros asked once the last of the light had been chased from the sky.

“In his library, packing so many papers his ganda will likely collapse under the weight.” She sighed. “Will you keep him safe for me?”

He turned to face her for the first time since she’d joined him. “I’ll be between him and the fighting at every moment. They won’t get past me.”

“I know they won’t.” She struggled to smile though her lips trembled. Battleborn warlords like Dros didn’t lose while a sword was still at hand; they fought until the nightmares took them.