Blood Arcane

Captain Travis Potshard paused on the training grounds of the guest mansion, watching Jingen and Stygean and wondering what the two boys were talking about. He had spent several minutes listening to Anksha's speech and demonstration, and saw how the two boys huddled together after her rantings. His brown hair was the only thing about him that did not look a bit disheveled, because Darianna had insisted upon brushing his coarse locks back and tying them in a tail. His tanned and weathered skin had the texture of smooth saddle leather. The only thing vaguely imposing about Travis was his six foot height.

Darianna, walking with her arm through his, laid her head on his shoulder, her silver hair with the bright orange streak down the middle contrasted with her eighteen-year-old face. "You don't like them, Old Dog?"

Travis rubbed the back of his thick fingered hand across his stubbled chin: he had not shaved that morning, although Darianna had argued with him over it. "They're trouble, Daree. If my old dog Blue were still around, he'd agree with me. A boy can kill as easily as a man, if he picks his time and his target. A blade in the night or in the back."

He did not feel ready to handle his captaincy, but since the Rowdies — the search and rescue freeranger company he had run with since he was thirteen — had been transformed into the Army of the Renunciate by picking up more than five hundred enlistments once they declared that they would be going north to fight the sa'nekaryiane of Minnoras, Nans had become a general, and Travis and her other three lieutenants had become captains.

"They are sa'necari. Trained in the rites, even if they haven't committed them yet. Which is enough reason to distrust them." Darianna sprouted fur along her arms, which Travis recognized as a sign of tension in her. The freeranger kissed the side of her face, and the lycan scout relaxed back into fully human form. "I hope Isranon knows what he's doing."

Travis' cornflower eyes narrowed. "So do I. Because boys or not, if they hurt Isranon, I'll kill them."

Darianna growled deep in her throat. "You'd have to beat Anksha to them."

"Hey, Travis!" Captain Luck Settlesby crossed the yard and joined them. "We've got more picks to make. More myn have shown up trying to enlist."

Daree excused herself to see about her duties with Nevin, who led their battle-clan, which served as scouts for the Army of the Renunciate as they were now calling themselves, although the banner they marched under was the same that had flown above them when they had been merely Gryphonheart's Rowdies.

The Rowdies were still the Rowdies in their own eyes, but now they were more and it took some getting used to. Travis figured that Luck made a better captain than he did. His phlegmatic friend was neat, clean, and smelled of some kind of spicy cologne that Luck had recently acquired out of a bonus that Isranon had paid out to all of the Rowdies. Travis had a thought that he might ask Darianna if she would enjoy him smelling that way.

As they walked off toward the field where three lines of myn were queuing up for enlistment tryouts, Travis began to scratch his chin again in a preoccupied manner.

"Something wrong, Travis?"

"Yeah, kinda."

"Between you and Daree?"

"That's some of it."

Luck gave Travis a long, hard look. "Spit it out. I know when something's bothering you."

Travis heaved a tremendous unhappy sigh. "She's been getting irritable with me."

Luck glanced across the yard at Darianna disappearing into a crowd of lycans. "She didn't look irritable just now."

Travis ducked his head. "Well, she doesn't do it in public. Just when we're alone. I tell her what's got me worried and she jumps all over me."

"About what?"

"Luck, I don't want kids. At least not right now. Not with a war staring us in the face. She says we're doing it according to the lycan custom of 'wild cousins' and no commitment. But the thought of her getting pregnant scares the shit out of me."

Luck paused and rocked back on his heels. "Exactly what have you been saying to her?"

"I keep asking her if she's taking the herbs so as not to get herself belly bound."

A rueful grin spread across Luck's face. "Is that the way you've been expressing it?"

Travis flushed. "Pretty much."

"And just when have you been telling her this and how often?"

Travis' flush deepened to the brightest crimson that Luck could recall seeing.

"Awww shit, Travis. Tell me you're not bringing this up every time you're about to slip the bone in."

"I guess I am pretty much now that I think on it."

"Travis, you're an idiot. No wonder you've never had much luck with females. Either you trust Daree or you don't. And if you don't, then keep your bone in your pants."

Luck dug in his pocket, grabbed Travis' hands, and put a bunch of something rubbery in them before striding away. Travis looked down at what Luck had given him and blushed again. His hands were filled with eel-skins.

GODWAR CENTRAL

Blood Arcane