“It will please you to know,” she said, taking the opportunity to change the subject. “That I am now considered a full Mheyu Guardian.” She smiled at him. “My training was successful.”
The anger afflicting Tyomar slowly ebbed away. His fists relaxed and his eyes became more focused as he looked her over. “Congratulations, little cloak,” he said gruffly. “You are still wearing your old gowns.”
“My new ones are being made,” she explained. “But they will be ready for me soon.”
Tyomar nodded, but he seemed distracted. “Does that change anything regarding you being our contact?”
“Yes. In a few days, I will no longer be your contact.”
“I see.” The dragorai was silent for a long moment, his face like stone. “So someone will replace you while you familiarize yourselves with your new duties? I’m not sure why it makes any difference if you are still at the sanctum.”
“I won’t be at the sanctum,” Oshali clarified. “I will be traveling.”
Tyomar suddenly became alert. “What? Where could you possibly be traveling to?”
“Across the realm. I’m going to the South—”
His face distorted into an expression of disbelief. “No, you are not.”
“They have given me an assignment. It requires that I travel South.”
“You can refuse it.”
Oshali’s frown deepened, her annoyance building. “I don’t want to refuse it. I’ve been looking forward to exploring the realm since I was little.”
That seemed to disarm him a little, but he looked at her like she was insane. “You will be traveling into dangerous territories during a war, little cloak. Many lives have been lost in this war, and many lives brutally destroyed. Death isn’t the worse thing out there.”
“I know,” she replied, “but I’m prepared. I want to experience the realms. I won’t be risking my safety.”
“No. I forbid it.”
Oshali’s anger burst to the forefront of her hard-fought-for control, and against all of her training and all of her willpower, she snapped back at him. “You cannot forbid it! Your permission is not required.”
Tyomar’s face twisted into a snarl. “I’m sure that if I ordered the Mheyu, they would—”
“They would tell you we do not follow orders from the dragorai,” Oshali finished for him. “They are the ones who are giving me this assignment. What could you possibly say that they don’t already know about me traveling the realms?”
Tyomar shook his head. “You are going into this blindly. You do not know how much danger you will be in.”
“You think I am defenseless?” Oshali asked, almost laughing out loud. “You think I have absolutely no way of protecting myself?”
“Your Mheyu Gowns will not protect you from everything,” Tyomar bellowed. “You think guardians haven’t died out there? You do not know the people out in the realms, the lives people live that make them desperate and angry and do unspeakable things. It is foolish for you to make decisions about anything when you are wholly ignorant of what you’re getting into.”
Oshali huffed out a breath, realizing what was happening. Since he still thought of her as a child, he believed she was incapable of doing anything so adult as to travel across the realms by herself. And the more she thought of it, the angrier she became. Did he think just because he visited and spoke to her now and then that he could control her? Did he think that because he rescued her as a child, that her life belonged to him now? The only thing that rang true from her heated thoughts was that he still felt she was incapable.
Gritting her teeth, she surveyed where they were. High near the top of the mountain, the platform was wide enough for them to be ten feet apart, but behind Tyomar was an enormous drop and the rest of his mountain range spread out, vast and beautiful.
Oshali began to cast, drawing on the Thrakondarian language to create rhythm and pattern in her speech, building and crafting the gorgeous poetry that called on magic to aid her. It responded immediately, rich and plentiful, waiting for her instruction as it gathered. Tyomar’s face dropped, astonishment evident, but before he could do or say anything, Oshali launched into a sprint toward him. Everything she was about to do was against all rules, but Oshali was beyond that. She was too angry. She didn’t need him to cause problems between her and the Mheyu, and destroy her chance to go out into the realm. If he thought she was incapable, then she simply had to prove she was not.
Powering all her energy into her legs, she ran so quickly toward him he had no time to react. Veering slightly to his left, she jumped off the ledge, spreading her arms outward as she jettisoned herself out into the air.
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