at her four husbands as they waited for everyone to ride out.
The one onlooker who surprised her was Leshaun, who walked up to her.
“You better come back and finish your training before I leave,” he ordered, patting her thigh. “We’ve only gotten through two of the three rituals you wanted to learn.”
“I will, I will,” she huffed, rolling her eyes. “Thank you, though. I very much appreciated the knowledge. I’ll come back and finish up my studies just for you. That way, you can retire in peace, knowing you finally wrangled me and my bad blood magic ways.”
He slapped her knee for that but smiled. She hadn’t told anyone what Leshaun taught her. This was Emerian’s first mission. She wanted to know how to do the tatua ritual for him like Mat had done for her. She didn’t much care what Alchan or Luykas thought about that and had no intention of telling either of them before she did it. She was his warrior, and he was her nemari. It was going to be her decision, and she figured his first mission was just the trial by fire, he deserved to get his first tatua. There would be more in the future, of course, but this was the perfect way to finally make him a full adult Andinna and end his transition into the culture of their people.
After Leshaun was gone, Alchan walked up to her.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get more time,” he said softly. “Ride fast, fight well, and get back to us before we even realize you’re gone.”
“Are you saying you’re going to miss me, Alchan Andini?” Mave gasped. The king gave her a tight smile.
“Don’t say that too loud, but yes. I’m going to miss your particular brand of bloodthirst while you’re gone. Everyone else tries to keep me from going too far. You remind me that sometimes we have to.”
She grinned. She did have her own particular brand of bloodthirst. She liked that.
“Be safe, brother,” she said, reaching. He grabbed her hand and squeezed.
“You be safe, sister. You’re the one going on the mission.” He backed away and nodded his head respectfully.
She turned her horse around and nodded to Kian. Senri backed away from her husband, waving at her, a mother saying goodbye to her daughter. Mave couldn’t take a moment to talk to her, but they had spent time together just the day before. Senri and Mave had known the mission could start at any moment.
Together, Mave and Kian kicked their horses into action, their warriors following them as they rode south out of the village. Andinna moved out of the way, waving and cheering as they rode hard, refusing to slow down.
They needed to cover a vast distance as fast as they could. The Andinna needed them to come back swiftly with good news. They rode nonstop the entire first day but slowed to a walk once they were out of the valley, so they didn’t burn out the horses.
“Well, that was a fucking exit,” Kian commented, looking back. “Any reason for that?”
“I didn’t want to look back,” she answered. “You know how it is. Get out as fast as possible, or you’ll want to turn around.”
“I’m sorry you only had one night with them,” her father said softly. “You’ll come back and have loads of time with them. They obviously need to recover, so maybe Alchan will keep them off missions until you’re ready to go on another. That way, all three of you can go out together, and this won’t be a problem.”
“Yeah, the timing was bad the last couple of seasons,” she complained. “I was away in spring, then they were away most of the summer. Now, we’re going to be gone for at least a third of autumn. We’ll be running missions all winter since our initial plans didn’t work out nearly the way we wanted them to.”
“Small missions over the winter are easier than campaigns, though. It’s what we have, and we can get good work done,” Kian pointed out. “I know it’s hard, but we’re at war, Mave. Lothen was child’s play compared to Shadra. She sent him out here to cut his teeth, and we told them to fuck off. We knew she would swing hard the first moment she got the chance.”
“We didn’t expect it this fast,” Mave whispered. “So, yeah, I want us to keep moving. We can’t ruin the horses, but I want us sleeping light and moving fast. I want to hit this