The Staff and the Blade: Irin Chronicles Book Four (20 page)

“We have watched them, suspecting the worst,” Gabriel continued, “but even our closest observation reveals no direct attacks. These Grigori are being particularly patient and feeding from enough humans that they are draining and killing none. Or none that we can prove.”

“Have they suddenly grown a conscience?” Sari scoffed. “There must be attacks we’re missing.”

“There aren’t.” Damien’s voice was final. “And I do not think conscience is at work. There is some other motive we have not guessed yet.”

Tala took Gabriel’s hand. “What did you discover on your journey?”

“The same thing is happening elsewhere,” Gabriel said. “Madrid. Salamanca. Bordeaux. Tours. All are seeing an influx of Grigori, but no subsequent rise in attacks.”

“They are setting the board,” Sari said. “Like in chess, Damien.”

Her mate had been teaching her the game of strategy, and she might have enjoyed it more than he did. Damien had been taught a variation of the modern game as a boy and drilled relentlessly in it to practice strategic thinking. For Sari, it was only a game. But a helpful one.

“That is my thinking as well,” Damien said. “But for what? This slow rise has only increased Irin presence in each of these cities. As the roads improve, it becomes easier and easier to move about. Just in our house, we’ve taken on five new scribes in the past year.”

Gabriel said, “And each of the houses has had a similar increase. All are working at full capacity. Some are building on to their houses in order to bring more.”

Tala’s head cocked to the side.

Sari said, “What do you see, Tala?”

“Nothing yet. It’s more of a feeling. I have to think more.”

Damien’s eyes were locked on Tala. “Have you had any more visions? Abra said you were awake last night.”

“Meddling healer,” Tala muttered. “Nothing. Well yes, something, but not related to what we’re talking about.” A faint blush rose in her cheeks.

Damien said, “Whatever the vision was, I need to know it.”

“I’m not sure this is the best—”

“Tala, I need to know.”

Gabriel ran a hand down her back. “What is it, love?”

“Gabriel…” She halted and looked at Sari, her mouth hanging open. “Tell me what to do.”

“Not this time.” Sari tried to contain her smile. “And you’re the one who is so certain.”

Gabriel sat up straighter. “Tala?”

“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out. “That’s what the vision was about.”

“I am too,” Sari said. “At least according to my sister.”

“
Amor
.” A stream of joyful Spanish fell from Gabriel’s lips as he pulled Tala into an embrace.

Sari turned to Damien.

“Is it true?” he said, his eyes hopeful.

Sari nodded. “According to Tala, though I have not seen the signs yet.”

Tears welled up, but he stood and walked around the table, folding her into his arms, tucking her face into his neck and gripping her hair with his fist.

“
Milá
,” he murmured. “My child.”

“Our child.”

“Sari of Vestfold is carrying my child,” he whispered in her ear. “And she tells me this when I cannot thank her properly.”

“You’re the one who pushed Tala about her vision.”

She felt the tension take his body. His arms tightened around her before he raised his head and forced her eyes to his.

“Damien?”

“You’re moving to the retreat. Both of you. Today.”

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

“D
ID
you really think I would be rational about this?” He paced around their bedchamber. “Truly, Sari?”

“Did you think I would meekly trot off to the village without a word?” she asked him. “
Truly
?”

“I will not argue about this with you. In the end, I am your watcher as well as your mate.”

Rage filled her eyes. “And if it was Abra who was with child? Your house healer? What then? Would she be packed off without a thought?”

“I
am
thinking. And it is not Abra! It’s you.”

“And I am your mate. Not your faithful soldier.”

He rounded on her. “I know you’re not my faithful soldier, because if you were,
you would do as I am commanding you!
”

“You do not command
me
,” she yelled. “We agreed—”

“We agreed if you had a disagreement with one of my orders, you would speak to me in private, not storm out of the library in full view of my men, shouting that I was a dictator. Sari, I
am
your watcher. If you want to be treated as a warrior—”

“I am a warrior.”

“Then act like one.”

“Accord me the same respect you would give your men.”

He threw his hand toward the door. “This is not because you’re a woman. Didn’t Marcel leave for the village last year when his mate was with child?”

“Because he asked to leave,” she said. “Not because you commanded him.”

“I would have commanded him if he hadn’t asked. His mate needed to be protected.”

They stood a foot apart, chests heaving. They both could explode when they were roused; this was hardly their first fight. Though Damien was usually the more even tempered, today it didn’t matter. The moment Sari had told him she was with child, he felt it. Fierce, wild joy. And heart-gripping fear. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t. It would destroy him.

“And you?” Angry tears were in her eyes. “Will you be coming to prison with me?”

“It is not a prison,” he said. “And you know I cannot.”

“It is a prison if I am forced to be there,” she said.

He saw the light slipping from her eyes. The wild independence that had lured him from the beginning. It was like watching a falcon’s wings clipped in front of him.

“Sari, please.” He wouldn’t relent. He couldn’t. But he hated seeing that wild light flee. “You knew this would happen. You knew it. We’ve talked about it before.”

Her voice was wooden. “I know.”

“Then why—”

“Because now I know something is coming.” She crossed her arms and turned her back to him. “And whatever it is, I will not be there to protect you if I am in the village. You will be here and I will be there. And if something happens, we will not be together.”

“Sari…” He put his arms around her and hugged her back into his chest. His hand slipped down to her belly where their child was growing. He knew it was just his imagination, but he could feel the spark of the babe’s soul. His and Sari’s child. It was a dream he’d almost given up. “I survived many years without you, my love.”

“But you weren’t mine then,” she said. “You didn’t hold my heart in your hands, Damien. Now you do.”

If there was anything he loved more than her spirit, it was the honesty of her emotions. Sari never held back. Happy or angry, he would know it. How often had he wished he could speak his feelings as easily as she did?

“I will take care of your heart,” he said. “But I need you to take care of our child. And yourself. If you are here, I won’t be able to concentrate. I’ll only be thinking of you. The retreat is isolated from Grigori violence. Protected. You and Tala will be safe there.”

He honed in on the mention of her sister. If there was anyone Sari was more protective of than even him, it was Tala. Did he feel guilty taking advantage of her protectiveness? Not if it kept her safe.

“The Grigori know who she is, Sari. They have always targeted seers, and once they learn of her pregnancy, she will be even more at risk. The only reason Gabriel doesn’t go mad about her leaving the house and going into town now is because you always go with her. She needs to go to the retreat, and you need to go with her.”

She finally clutched his hands, and Damien felt her soften. “I hate this. I hate the thought of being parted from you.”

“A matter of months,
milá
. And then our child will be here. I will come to the village as often as I can. Farrin and Abra will be here. Gabriel and I can take turns visiting. We will not be parted for months. Only days, my love.”

“It won’t be the same.”

“I know. Who will challenge my every command and question my every decision when you are gone?” He pinched her waist.

She sniffed. “You like it.”

“I do.” He kissed her jaw. “You make me better. Sharper.”

“What will you do without me?”

Go slowly mad.
Only the thought of their child calmed him. This was but a season of life, her grandmother would say. Damien had already decided he would request a sabbatical as other expecting fathers did. He did not want to miss a moment of his son or daughter’s life.

“I’ll write to the Watchers’ Council tomorrow,” he said. “I want to be with you. Not in the city.”

Her hands clutched his. “They won’t approve it.”

“They’ll have to. I’m not the only watcher whose mate has become pregnant. It is expected for warriors to ask for leave to raise children. I’m not the only one.”

“But you’re the only
you
.”

Damien laughed. “I do love that your opinion of me is so elevated.”

“It’s not elevated. It’s true.”

He would admit the request would not be welcome, especially coming on the heels of the letter he knew Gabriel and Tala had sent that morning. For one house to lose both a seer and a watcher was not ideal. Damien wasn’t going to ignore his elders, but he
would
be with his mate, even if he had to call in political favors from his family to be released from command.

“Sari, you do what you must to protect our child now,” he said. “And I’ll do what I must to protect both of you as soon as my request is granted. And it
will
be granted, if I have to ride to Vienna myself.”

“Damien—”

“Enough.” He held her tighter. “Enough fighting for now. We are having a child, Sari. A
child
. We’ve waited so long,
reshon
. Now is the time for joy.”

※

He was writing the letter the next morning when Tala walked into his study.

“Sister.” He rose and went to embrace her. “With all the fighting yesterday, I did not get the chance to congratulate you and Gabriel.”

She smiled and hugged him back. “You didn’t expect her to run off without an argument, did you?”

“No. I used you to convince her to go. Do you mind?”

“It’s nothing I didn’t expect,” she said. “Gabriel and I have already sent a request to the singers’ council.”

“I’m writing my letter to the elders now.”

“Good.” She shivered and hugged her arms around herself. “I know something is coming. I can feel it. But we cannot stop living because a battle is on the horizon.”

“A battle is
always
on the horizon.”

“Exactly.”

“You must promise me to send word if the vision starts again.”

The disturbing vision of the empty house and Gabriel crying out had lessened in the past year and a half, but it hadn’t ceased. She still mentioned it. Mentioned any changes. Mentioned the things that stayed the same. She’d even tried to draw the house she saw in detail, convinced it was a real place and not merely symbolic. He had the sketch in his desk, though he’d never shown it to Gabriel. Tala had made him promise.

“Sari says we leave tomorrow,” she said. “When will you come to visit?”

“I told Gabriel to accompany you both to the village this time. I should be down next week. Farrin and Abra have been told, though they’ve promised not to breathe a word to the men.”

“They’ll know she is with child as soon as Sari tells them she’s moving permanently to the retreat.”

He grimaced. “Do me a favor, sister. Do not say the word ‘permanently’ in regard to the retreat.”

Tala laughed. “You know what I mean. Only a child could tear her from a warrior’s life.”

Damien paused. “Did she do it for me?”

If she had, Tala would be honest. Kind, but honest.

But Tala shook her head. “She wants a child as much as you do.”

He took a deep breath. “Are you sure?”

She gave him an impish grin. “All this doubt. Honestly, it’s as if you think I do not see the future.”

“Tala,” he warned.

“Stow your temper, Damien. I’ll have enough with just hers for the next few months.”

“You’re nothing but trouble.”

“That’s why I’m the little sister,” she said. “But you love me anyway.”

Damien couldn’t stop the smile. He did. He would have loved Tala, if for no other reason than she made Sari so happy. But she was also a delight. Bright, cheerful, and funny. She was the calm balance to Sari’s fiery personality. Damien had never had a sister, but that didn’t matter to Tala. She’d loved him as an older brother from the start.

“She’ll be sad,” Tala said. “But don’t worry. I’ll keep her from brooding.”

“See that you do.”

※

They left the next morning, surrounded by Farrin, Gabriel, and five of Damien’s fiercest men. Sari and he had taken their farewells in their room, unwilling to let the rest of the house see their bittersweet kisses. He was still their watcher. She was still their watcher’s mate. Though he felt as if his heart left in the carriage with her, Damien was unwilling to show how keenly he already felt her absence.