Bonded to the Rakian Berserker (Rakian Warrior Mates #3) - Elin Wyn Page 0,16

her fingers.

“Do you want to walk, too?” he asked her softly. “At least get out of the middle of this?”

Declan shook his head. “It’s one thing for you to be walking on the side,” he explained. “No one would take a look at you and think it was odd that you’d want to spare the horses from carrying your weight.”

He tilted his head towards Esme. “Right now she looks like a perfect merchant’s wife. Fashionable, and a little bit fussy.”

His refusal to look at Esme for more than a quick glance gave Gavin a certain satisfaction.

And Declan was right. Clad in a deep blue gown with trailing sleeves, the fine white veil covering her hair matched the slivers of the undergown that could barely be seen at her wrists and neck.

Esme looked the very image of most of the women Gavin had seen in the colonists’ towns.

“She looks pretty enough,” he agreed. “But not exactly comfortable.”

Esme shot him a look of gratitude. “It’s a good thing I don’t need to walk in this. And we better not be planning on anything that involves running,” she muttered. “I don’t know how anybody gets anything done wearing all these layers around your feet without tripping.”

Declan clicked the horses to move them around a slow moving hand cart, piled high with cabbages.

“If we do this right, you shouldn’t need to be doing any running at all,” he said. “Try not to be noticed.”

“At least, until we find the children and Layla,” Esme added. “After that…” She trailed off

“After that we’ll do whatever needs to be done,” Gavin promised.

“Before we get to Kinallen,” Declan said, “we should get your history straight. What did you make your money trading in again?”

“Wool,” Gavin said for the fourth time, gritting his teeth.

Declan might not be able to stand against him in a field of combat, but apparently the smaller man had his own ideas of revenge.

They’d gone through the cover story repeatedly since starting the journey, and they seemed doomed to repeat it the entire rest of the way.

“And now that we’ve partnered up, what is the merchandise that’s going to give us an edge over every other fabric trader at the market?” Declan pressed on, either unaware of how close his neck was to being snapped or not caring.

“These lovely, lovely new dyes!” Esme chirped, the smile on her face stretched maniacally.

She let her expression fall into natural lines. “They are beautiful though,” she said, twisting back to look at one of the chests where their trade goods were stored. “I’ve never seen fabrics like them.”

“I doubt anyone else has either,” Gavin replied.

It’d been a long night’s work, up to the caverns of the Kalaley, negotiating with her for as much of the Haleru woven and dyed fabric as he and Nic could carry on the two air sleds.

He frowned. “Let’s just hope no one asks us about the process.”

“No,” Declan argued. “We want them to ask, and then you just look mysterious and insist it’s a trade secret. That’s part of being a good negotiator.”

“Conveniently enough, it’s also the truth,” Gavin added.

After a brief pause for a cold lunch under the spreading branches of a tree, they continued on their way.

Declan might have his faults, but he knew how long travel on a congested road with a wagon would take.

They still had two hours of light by the time they reached the plain wooden walls of Kinallen, and Gavin couldn’t be happier with the idea of getting off the road.

“Jormoi will have been here for hours already,” he murmured to Esme as they passed under the bored gaze of the town guardsmen. “By now he’ll have been able to search outside the walls pretty thoroughly, and tonight I’ll pick up the search inside.”

She nodded, eyes darting around taking in the scene before them.

“Never been here?” he said, intensely aware of her discomfort the moment they’d passed through the gate.

But she managed it well, just a faint tightening of her lips as she took in the sprawling town before her.

She shook her head once, then raised her hand to her cheek as if suddenly missing the tiny braids that had framed her face, her hair now bound into one thick plate behind her.

“No,” she said softly. “This is as far south on the main road as I’ve ever come, ever since joining my clan.”

Since joining her clan? Gavin’s mind caught on the words.

The town itself was considerably bigger than Grasmere, but the buildings looked much the