A long breath passed through my lips. “You know, we’ve had this conversation far too many times over the years.”
“We’re going to keep on having it if little men continue to think they can mistreat a lady.”
I snorted. “A lady? Look, you know I don’t condone hitting women, and I would never put up with someone in my unit doing it, but I’d hardly call a whore a lady. You need to be more concerned with protecting those fighting alongside us, not someone who can’t stay off her back. Quit taking matters into your own hands. You should have reported the incident to the soldier’s sergeant. Now, his unit is shorthanded for tonight.”
She ignored my last point. “Nothing would have happened if I had reported it. You know that.”
I said nothing. She was right. I hated it when she was right.
“There were still better ways to handle the situation than how you did. Ways that would have punished the soldier without possibly crippling him for life.”
She shrugged. “See if I care. Her face is no less important than his manhood.”
“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here. I’m not trying to defend his actions, I’m just mad at how you handled things.” I shook my head. “Well, maybe the woman will get out of the trade now that she knows the risks.”
“I’m sure she knew the risks, and she chose the trade anyway. What does that tell you?”
“That she doesn’t have her head on straight.”
She frowned. “Could be. Maybe she just saw the money she’d make and didn’t care about getting slapped around. But how many choose that life because they feel that’s the only chance they have to survive?”
“Here you go again.”
Ava cocked her head to the side. “What if that had been Lasha?”
My eyes narrowed. Hypothetical or not, if anyone other than Ava had suggested such a thing I would have been all over them. “Don’t. It wouldn’t happen.”
“You don’t know that. We’ve been gone almost a decade. Neither one of us knows what things are like back home.”
“Stop, Ava. I know my wife. She’d never stoop to that. She’s too smart. Too resourceful.” I opened and closed my hands. “Besides, Lasha’s got friends to look after her and the kids if it came down to it.”
Somewhere in the last few exchanges I had closed the distance between us. I realized that because I saw fear creep into Ava’s eyes. It was odd. I hadn’t hit her since we were kids just being kids, yet I guess part of that older brother and younger sister dynamic remained.
I backed away a step. I hated to see that look in her eyes. She could make me angrier than anyone, but I loved her.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “Look, I’m done arguing. We’ve got orders, so we’ll have to continue this later. But I’m going to have to do something. This is getting elevated to the High Mages. Maybe if I take care of it on my own first, they’ll be more lenient.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t do me any favors, big brother. Ao can curse the High Mages as far as I’m concerned. All the gods can,” she snapped.
Ao, goddess of sorcery, was the mother of the gods within the Turine pantheon. All other gods and goddesses descended from her and her husband Molak, god of all things nature. They ruled the heavens according to our culture.
However, ask any other nation and you’d find a completely different set of beliefs. Genesha’s religion was the most puzzling. One and only one god, Beel. A mean piece of garbage who, according to the Geneshans, cultivated power through human sacrifices.
It seemed that they would have wised up long ago and suppressed Beel’s power by just ceasing the sacrifices. I’ve always been of the opinion that the fewer people meddling in my life, god or otherwise, the better.
I shook my head in response to Ava’s curse. “I thought you’d say something like that.”
Had she not burned so many bridges, she could have been a High Mage. She had the talent, just not the tutelage. No one wanted to take Ava on as an apprentice knowing they would have to contend with her temper.
“Return to the unit and get mudded up,” I added.
“I don’t need to do that. I can just cast a spell.”
“Call it pre-punishment. Besides, no sorcery unless I say otherwise.”