Sharon Shinn - Reader And Raelynx

He actually felt like laughing. Impossible for the princess to be any more well defended. What could harm her with safeguards like these in place?

“What happened?” Senneth asked. “Was that the raelynx?”

Cammon wanted to get out of bed, but he was completely nude and it seemed like a bad idea. Amalie, who was wearing a thin nightdress, merely wrapped the covers tightly around her body and assumed an expression of great dignity. Cammon tried for a similar look. “I woke up, felt someone sneaking through camp,” he said. “I was just about to call for Tayse when I felt the raelynx. I figured he could take care of whoever was coming.”

Tayse still hadn’t sheathed his sword. “Then all is clear? The assassin had no companions?”

Cammon shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

Senneth looked at Tayse. “Unless he brought Arberharst friends with him.”

“I think the raelynx would have gone for them, too,” Cammon said.

“We’ll make a circuit of camp,” Tayse said, and ducked back out the door.

Senneth surveyed them. It was the first time she had been confronted with direct evidence that Cammon was sharing Amalie’s bed. “And now I suppose you’ll tell me to be grateful that you’ve disregarded every warning I’ve given you to keep your reserve with the princess,” she said. She didn’t sound angry, but she didn’t sound elated, either.

He risked a grin. “Well, actually, it was the raelynx that saved Amalie tonight, so I don’t suppose I can even make that argument.”

“Senneth, I want him with me,” Amalie said. “I love him.”

Senneth sighed heavily. “I suppose you do. I would kill him, but he’s too valuable, at least for the moment.”

Kirra poked her head through the tent flap. “Sen, Tayse wants you outside. Oh, look, Cammon and Amalie are sleeping together. What an interesting development.” She wasn’t surprised, either, Cammon could tell-but neither was she horrified. In fact, in typical Kirra fashion, she seemed to find the awkward situation delightful. “Nothing like keeping your bodyguards close at hand.”

“Speak with more respect to the princess,” Cammon said, trying to frown her down, but Amalie was smiling.

“He has continued to render me the most valuable services,” Amalie said.

Kirra hooted with laughter and didn’t even try to answer. “Sen. Outside,” she repeated and then disappeared.

Senneth gave them both a darkling look and followed Kirra. The candle flames blew out as the flap fell shut.

“She didn’t seem too angry,” Amalie said.

“She’s got other things to worry about,” Cammon said. “At the moment. The conversation isn’t over, I assure you.”

Nor was the influx of people into the tent. “Is she all right? What was that scream?” came Valri’s voice, and a moment later the queen ducked through the tent door. “Amalie? What happened?”

Cammon sighed, reached over, and again lit one of the candles as Valri felt her way across the floor. As soon as the light came up, she stopped, and regarded the two of them with disfavor. “The raelynx attacked an enemy creeping through camp,” Cammon said. “Amalie’s fine.”

“I see that,” Valri said in an icy voice. “But you-what are you doing in here? I thought you were sleeping with the Riders.”

“Well,” said Cammon. “No.” He remembered their last conversation at Ghosenhall. “I thought you had decided you didn’t mind if Amalie and I-” He waved a hand in lieu of completing the sentence.

Valri threw her hands in the air. “I didn’t expect you to be so brazen! Now half the camp will be gossiping about your relationship.” She sighed and rubbed a hand across her forehead. “I’ve been too lax. Ever since the attack at the palace-I haven’t been as watchful as I should have been. Time for strict propriety again. Time for me to be sleeping here in Amalie’s tent at night.”

“Instead of at Arrol’s campfire?” Amalie asked politely.

Valri’s frown grew blacker. “I don’t think-”

Amalie sat up straighter in the bed, letting the covers fall to her waist. “Valri, you have guarded me so long and so well. And now there is very little you can do for me. You cannot hide my magic anymore. You cannot keep me safe. You will always be my most treasured friend, but you can spend some attention on your own life now. I hope you are sleeping at Arrol’s side tonight, but I was only guessing. I will be sleeping beside Cammon. Don’t even try to talk to me about it. Just go back to bed.”

Valri hesitated a moment, obviously unwilling to shirk her duty but unsure of what she might be able to accomplish in the middle of the night in the middle of a war. “You’re still too young,” was what she said, leaving them to guess at the rest. Too young to fall in love. Too young to lose your father. Too young to face armies trying to steal your throne. Too young to make momentous decisions on your own.

“I better not be,” Amalie said. “For this is what my life holds now.”

A few seconds longer Valri waited, then she sighed and spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Then sleep now, and talk to me in the morning,” she said, coming close enough to kiss Amalie on the cheek. She just looked at Cammon, then shook her head and quickly left the tent. But he thought she might have been wearing a faint smile.

“Do you think it’s safe to put out the candle this time, or will someone else come barging in?” he asked.

“I can’t think who. Blow it out,” Amalie replied, and they snuggled together in the darkness. “Do you really think she’s sleeping with Arrol right now?” she whispered against his chest.

“That’s the name of Ellynor’s cousin, right? Well, I can’t be sure, but there’s a part of her that seems almost blissful. So I think so.”

Amalie drew closer. “Good. Valri has given up so much for me. I want her to do something that brings her happiness.”

They were both silent for a while, thinking their different thoughts. “Amalie,” Cammon said at last in a low voice. “You weren’t controlling it, were you? The raelynx just attacked that man all on its own.”

She didn’t answer at first, and then she shook her head. “I think I would have slept through the whole event if you hadn’t woken me up. Well, and if that man hadn’t screamed.”

“That’s a little frightening.”

She drew closer. “I find it reassuring.”

SENNETHwas starting to hate the very feel of fire.

She had taken to keeping her hands down at her sides so that no one noticed the blisters on her palms. She imagined soot in her hair, cinders under her nails; the smell of ashes clung to her skin. At night she was haunted by images of flames. By day, her whole world was heat and color.

And frustration.

It had never been this hard to call fire, to bend it to her will, to make it leap and dance and bow and settle and flare up again. Once she had tried to burn down a house in the middle of a rainstorm, and the timbers refused to light and the soaked thatch of the roof stubbornly resisted every intrusive spark. She had spent a good hour forcing the flames to catch and then willing them to take hold in the water-soaked wood, and when she was finished she had been in such a bad temper that a migraine had dropped her where she stood.

Trying to cast a spell on the Arberharst armies was very much like trying to ignite a building in the middle of a downpour. Except it was an exercise that was lasting for days, it was more important, and she was having even less success.

And when she did succeed in finding a raw pocket of unmixed Gillengaria soldiers, and she was able to ring them with flame and cause their very uniforms to light, then she had to hear the terrified screams of soldiers who were burning to death. Because of the magic in her hands. Because of the conviction in her heart.