Duty Bound by Lindsay Buroker
A faint clink came from down the hall as a maid carried dishes toward the kitchens. Jev thought about drawing Naysha aside for a more private discussion, but since she was a married woman, he feared that might give the appearance of impropriety.
He clasped his hands behind his back. “I did think about it, but I didn’t know if you would appreciate it if I showed up on your doorstep.” He especially hadn’t known if her husband of nine years would appreciate it.
“I understand.”
She was still studying her hands, or perhaps the two gold rings on her fingers. They hadn’t been there long ago. Casual jewelry or gifts from her doting husband?
“Jev? I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time… I’m sorry.” Naysha lifted her gaze, meeting his eyes. Hers were wary. Did she expect him to lash out? To turn his back on her?
He might have once, early on, but too many years had passed. The pain was mostly a dull ache now, a wistful wondering of what might have been. His father, he recalled, had approved of Naysha. An appropriate zyndari woman from a bloodline full of great warrior heroes of the past.
“I’m sorry for not writing and telling you myself,” she continued. “It was cowardly of me not to. I was so nervous about it, I was making myself sick, and when your cousin mentioned that she had written you… I don’t know. I was horrified that you would hear first from her, then relieved that she’d broken the news so I didn’t have to. I still planned to write, but somehow the months passed, and I didn’t, and then it seemed like it had been too long and that it would be strange to write then. That you wouldn’t want to hear from me.”
“It’s all right, Naysha.” Jev made his voice as gentle as he could, though a petty part of him didn’t want to let her off the hook so easily. But no, it was enough that she was distressed over this ten years later. She must have thought of it at least a few times while he’d been gone. “We were young. It was a long time ago. I hope you’re happy with Grift?” Jev was proud of himself for using his name rather than calling him by some dismissive derogatory term.
She hesitated but only for a second before nodding. “We’re doing well. We have three children, and they’re wonderful. Trying at times, but you know how it is.”
No, he did not, alas. But he nodded and smiled. “Of course. I’m glad you’re well.”
“Thank you. That’s all I have to say. I just wanted to apologize for being so immature back then.”
Not for leaving him, he noted, but he carefully kept his smile fixed in place. He’d been gone. Things would have been different, he was certain, if he hadn’t been sent away. But the past couldn’t be changed now.
“I admitted to my mother a few years ago that I never told you, and she lectured me terribly about how shameful that was. She’d assumed I’d written and gone to tell your father in person. She said your family would likely never talk to ours again.”
“Well, my family isn’t that scintillating, so that couldn’t have been much of a loss.”
She snorted softly, appearing more relaxed now that she’d offered her apology. A part of him almost regretted that she’d felt bad all these years, but it wasn’t as if he could have done anything. He could have written her, he supposed, but anything he might have penned back then would have been full of feelings of hurt and betrayal. Better simply to let her go, he’d always thought.
“I hope you’ll come by sometime,” she said, unlacing her fingers and offering her hands. “Meet the children.”
Meeting the children she’d had with another man sounded like one of the more horrifying experiences he could conjure up, but he made himself clasp her hands and nod. “If you need anything, let me know.”
He was aware of a side door opening and two people walking into the hallway, but he didn’t think much of it, assuming more castle staff were passing through, until he heard a soft gasp. He released Naysha’s hands and was surprised to see Rhi and Zenia standing a short distance away.
A guilty lurch assaulted his gut, though he didn’t know why. He and Zenia weren’t dating, and even if they had been, Jev hadn’t been doing anything romantic with Naysha. Even someone walking in on them should have recognized it as a platonic hand clasp. Right?
Zenia, he was certain, had been the one to let out the little gasp, but she recovered quickly and continued forward, her chin tilted upward. Rhi strode along beside her, a frown on her face mingling with a confused wrinkle to her brow as she looked at Jev, then Naysha, then back to Jev.
“Captain Dharrow,” Zenia said formally as she and Rhi entered the intersection. They looked to be heading through it toward the stairs on the far side that led down to their office. Her gaze shifted to Naysha, but she paused, probably not certain how to address her.
Jev had the urge to hasten Naysha down the hall and not have the two women meet, but it was too late for that.
“This is Zyndari Naysha Elan,” he said. “Naysha, Captain Zenia Cham and Agent Rhi Lin.”
“Ah, colleagues?”
Jev hesitated. Zenia was more to him than that, even if she didn’t want to be, but he couldn’t have explained things to his best friend much less an ex-fiancée from the distant past.
“Yes,” he said.
“Nice to meet you, Zyndari.” Zenia curtsied, then started past them.
Rhi grunted what might have been a greeting or indigestion. Naysha frowned, and Jev lifted a hand, hoping to forestall some zyndarish correction of etiquette.
“Zenia,” Jev said—she’d already hustled past, as if eager to give him and Naysha their privacy. “Are you heading to the office? The king just gave us a new assignment. I need to share the details.”
She gave him a look back over her shoulder that was hard to read. “I’ll be there.”
Jev watched as she and Rhi turned the corner toward the stairs, tempted to run after them and explain that nothing had been going on. Again, he reminded himself that he and Zenia were not seeing each other, that he owed her no explanations regarding Naysha.
“Will you see me out, Jev?” Naysha asked.
“Of course.”
She offered her arm, and after hesitating, he linked it into his. They walked out side by side, their talk conversational and meaningless, which was good because Jev didn’t have to focus to follow it. He found himself trying to think of what he would say to Zenia.
Nothing, he decided. He would tell her the assignment, and they would discuss work matters, as was appropriate for co-workers to do with each other. That was what they were. Nothing more.
“I feel like I should have punched that woman in the nose on your behalf,” Rhi announced as they stopped in front of the door to their office.
“I’m glad you didn’t.” Zenia didn’t reach for the knob, not yet. Other agents would be at their desks inside, and she needed a moment to compose herself. She didn’t know why, but seeing Jev clasping hands with that woman had rattled her. They hadn’t been kissing or doing anything romantic, but they’d seemed to have a connection, and for some reason, she had no trouble imagining them doing those things. And that disturbed her.
She fully acknowledged that she’d rejected Jev’s offer to date, so she had no right to feel disgruntled if he had a relationship with someone else, but she couldn’t dismiss the wild I’ve-made-a-horrible-mistake-in-telling-him-no thoughts that flooded through her mind.
“Are you sure?” Rhi asked. “I thought you two were—”
“We’re not.”
“Oh? Why not?”
“I’d rather not talk about it here.” Or at all, Zenia silently amended.
Even though Rhi had always spoken openly about her interests in men, her monkly vows of chastity aside, Zenia had rarely spoken of such things with her. In part because she’d been Rhi’s superior in the Water Order organization and in part because there had been so little interest from men. Her inquisitor’s robe and reputation had acted as a shield to keep men and women alike from approaching her, and she’d never known how to lower that shield and app
“Even if we were seeing each other,” Zenia added, mostly because Rhi was staring at her as if she’d grown a third nostril, “there wouldn’t be anything wrong with him platonically touching some other woman.”
“Even if she’s a beautiful woman?”
“Even if.” Zenia reached for the knob to end the conversation.
The door opened before her fingers wrapped around it. The stocky, glowering Zyndar Garlok stood there.
His scowl deepened when he saw them.
“Where have you been all day?” he demanded of Zenia.
She bristled at the lack of respect in his tone.
“Zyndar Garlok,” she said as calmly as she could, hating that she had to zyndar him when she was his superior, at least in this office. “As I clearly told you this morning, we went into the city to check in with the office’s civilian informants. I understand that our chat was six hours ago, but if you forgot about it in that time, you may want to see one of the castle’s doctors. Perhaps they can prescribe a potion to enhance your memory.”
Garlok’s nostrils flared. He looked like a horse after a hard run.
“For all I know, you were off lollygagging all day,” Garlok growled.
“I fail to see how it would be your concern even if we were, though I assure you that I don’t lollygag. Ever.”
“It’s true,” Rhi said. “She works even on holidays. It’s a little sad, really.”
“Thank you for the support,” Zenia murmured to her.
Rhi slapped her on the back. “No problem.”
Garlok grumbled something under his breath, then strode forward, clearly intending to mow them over if they didn’t move. Zenia thought about calling upon her dragon tear to form a barrier around her so she could hold her ground and he would bounce off, but that would be immature. Besides, the dragon tear didn’t always do things exactly how she wished. She gritted her teeth and stepped aside.
As Garlok passed, still managing to bump her shoulder with his, he startled her by slipping on something. Before he could catch himself, his feet flew up, and he fell onto his back. Zenia and Rhi barely managed to jump out of the way.
Belatedly, Zenia thought she might have caught him and kept him from falling, but she’d been more worried the huge man would hit her.
Garlok cursed and pushed himself to his feet immediately, pausing to turn his glower onto the stone floor. From the way he’d pitched backward, Zenia wouldn’t have been surprised to spot a moldering banana peel down there, but she didn’t see anything.
A smug feeling of contentment emanated from her dragon tear.
She stared down at it. Did you do that? she asked silently.
The gem had never spoken to her—that would have alarmed the founders’ gifts out of her—so she didn’t expect an answer. But the smug feeling shifted to a faint sense of innocence. One she didn’t quite believe.
“Having trouble walking today, Garlok?” came Jev’s voice from down the hallway. “Maybe you shouldn’t stay out so late drinking.”
Garlok turned his glower on Jev. The fall hadn’t done anything to improve his mood.
“I’d accuse you of greasing the floor, but a zyndar wouldn’t stoop so low,” Garlok said, then squinted suspiciously at Zenia.
She did her best to mentally convey to the dragon tear that she didn’t want anything else to happen to the man.
“I would,” Rhi said cheerfully. “I’ll have to start carrying cans of the stuff around to rub all over the boots of annoying zyndar.”
Jev snorted. Garlok’s eyes narrowed further—it was amazing he could still see out of them. Finally, he stomped past them. It was careful stomping with much surveying of the floor as he jammed each foot down.
Zenia didn’t relax until he disappeared up the stairs. Though she didn’t relax entirely then, either, for Jev remained, as did her thoughts of that woman. Naysha. Why was that name familiar? He’d mentioned her once before, Zenia thought. Oh founders, wasn’t that the name of the woman he’d intended to marry but who had married someone else when he’d gone off to the war? What would she be doing at the castle?
Jev smiled tentatively at her. Zenia nodded professionally at him. Rhi looked back and forth between them, as if she wanted to say something, but she didn’t.
“I met with the king a little while ago.” Jev pointed toward the ceiling and the floors above them. “We’re to prioritize finding Master Grindmor. There are hundreds of dwarves on their way—Targyon invited them to open up shops in Korvann—and it would be politically inconvenient if our most prominent dwarf in the city was missing when they arrived.”
Zenia nodded again. “We went to Master Grindmor’s shop today, hoping to find clues about where she’s gone—or who might have taken her.”
“Already? Did you know we’d get this assignment?”
“I guessed, and I knew your friend Cutter was missing.”
Jev frowned. “Yes. I’m hoping we’ll find him when we find her.”
“The shop hadn’t been disturbed at all. At least until we disturbed it.” Zenia held back a grimace. She didn’t want to admit that she and her dragon tear had broken the lock—and the magical alarms. Even though they had searched the premises in order to find clues to help Grindmor, she felt like a burglar who’d gone thieving in the night.
“I don’t know about that,” Rhi said. “I found the love poems disturbing.”
“Disturbing isn’t the same thing as disturbed.” Zenia waved at her, hoping she wouldn’t go into details. Again.
“No? Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Rhi,” Jev said, “would you mind giving us a couple of private minutes?”
“In the hall?”
“Well, we don’t have a private office of our own.” Jev’s expression grew wistful, and Zenia wondered what he was imagining. Maybe just being able to shut a door to keep out Garlok.
Rhi reached for the knob. “Want me to scowl ferociously at anyone who tries to leave while you’re getting private out there?”
“That’s not necessary,” Jev said. “This won’t take long.”
Rhi shrugged and stepped inside, her bo clunking on the door frame. A few agents in the office had been talking, but their voices stopped. Zenia imagined them peppering her for gossip.
The door closed, leaving her standing in front of Jev and wondering what to do with her hands. Clasp them behind her back? Stuff them in the pockets of her dress? Why was she even worrying about it?
“I’m surprised there weren’t any clues at her shop,” Jev said, “but I trust you would have found them if they had been there.”
“Yes,” Zenia said before realizing that sounded arrogant. “I mean, Rhi and I poked through everything thoroughly, and my dragon tear didn’t sense any magic outside of the traps Grindmor likely set herself.”
“I’ve got another lead. I met with some of the officers I worked with—and that Cutter also knew—in the army. One saw him going into a clockmaker’s shop four days ago. I don’t know what Cutter would want with a timepiece, so I’m guessing he was following a lead of his own in his quest to find Grindmor’s special tools.”
“You want to go check the shop?”
“Before it closes today, yes. Do you want to come with me?”
“Yes,” Zenia said, before she could question if he truly wanted her to come or was simply being polite in asking. She wouldn’t want to miss a chance to investigate a lead.
“Good. Are you ready to go out again now?”
“Yes.”
He continued to stand facing her instead of heading toward the exit. She’d suspected the clockmaker lead wasn’t the reason he’d asked Rhi to leave, so she patiently waited for him to say more.
“Are we
“I don’t need to talk.”
“No?”
“You’re the one who’s been avoiding the office.” Zenia didn’t add and me, not out loud. She didn’t want to accuse him of anything, and she truly hoped her decision wouldn’t make their relationship awkward going forward.
“I have not.” His spine straightened, a touch of that zyndar arrogance bleeding into his stance. Usually, he only got that when someone accused him of not intending to keep his word.
“There’s dust on your chair.”
“I have a dusty butt.”
Zenia arched her eyebrows.
He turned his hand palm up. “I went out to Dharrow Castle yesterday and spent the night. I needed to talk to my father about a few things.”
Zenia almost asked him if the possibility of an arranged marriage was one of those things, but that was none of her business. Even so, she caught herself asking, “Is it settled?”
Jev sighed. “Not in the long term, but for the moment, I hope.”
That sounded ominous.
“Shall we go look for red beard hairs in the clockmaker’s shop?” Jev smiled and extended his hand toward the stairs.
“Such long, coarse things might muck up the inner workings of a clock.”
“Of that I have no doubt.”
5
“No sign of beard hair yet,” Jev announced.
Zenia cocked an eyebrow at him. They were walking through the Earth Dragon quarter, following the wide cobblestone street leading to a series of shops carved into an old quarry that had once been outside the boundaries of the city.
“You think you’d notice it amid the dirt and cobblestones?” Zenia asked, willing to go along with his humor.
“Oh, absolutely. You’d trip over it.”
“What are we going to do when the king’s five hundred dwarves—and their beards—arrive?” she asked.
Jev had filled her in on more of the details of his meeting with Targyon on the way over.