Trickster’s Choice
Nawat stood against the wall, relaxed and alert. Before him two men at arms were preparing to shoot. Dove stood behind one archer with a handful of arrows, while the duchess held arrows for the second archer. Aly’s mind told moncler outlet her that the duchess would hardly consent to murder just as the first man shot. The second man shot immediately after him. Then both set fresh arrows to the string and shot steadily, arrow after arrow, one at a time, until they had exhausted all the extras held by the duchess and her stepdaughter.
Nawat caught them all with grace and ease, snatching the arrows from the air as if he had all day to do so. When the archers finished, he gathered the heap of arrows at his feet and carried them moncler womens jackets back to their owners.
He’s so fast, Aly thought in awe. I couldn’t do it, and I’m no slouch! She sighed, wishing Da were here to see it. He’d taught her to catch daggers in midair, but this game was much more hazardous.
The game was not done. The men at arms repeated the experiment with javelins, then hunting and combat spears. Nawat caught them all, moving so fast Aly couldn’t follow his hands. She cheered him and the men at arms on.
When the bell rang to remind the household it was nearly time for supper, he looked up at the applauding Aly and waved. „This is my favorite game,” he called to her. „Do you want to play?”
„I wouldn’t dare!” moncler online store she cried, laughing, before she retreated into the room. She’d seen men catch knives before. She had seen the finest archers in the Queen’s Riders draw an outline in arrows of someone positioned against a wooden fence or wall, just cheap moncler jackets to show they could do it. She had never seen anything like this.
Sarai and Dove ran in. Sarai smiled at Aly. „You should have seen your face! Did you know he could do that?” she asked as she collapsed on her bed.
Dove unstrung her bow, shaking her head. „He’s amazing,” she said, coiling her bowstring.
„You know, maybe this horrible old place isn’t so bad,” Sarai told the ceiling. „Not if these wonderful men keep showing up.”
Aly raised an eyebrow at https://www.cheapmoncler.com her. „I wouldn’t try kissing him,” she warned. „It wouldn’t be what you expect.”
Sarai wrinkled her nose. „Aly!” she complained. „I found out he eats bugs! I’m not kissing a man with bug breath!”
Aly blinked. I don’t remember him tasting of bugs when he kissed me, she thought. I’d better pay more attention next time.
Her mind promptly reined her up. This was highly improper. There would be no next time. Her uk moncler sale task was looking after the Balitang children, not mooning over someone, particularly not a crow turned man.
Even if he could pluck arrows from the air.
The next morning Aly, still on a goatherd’s hours, walked out of the keep into the dawn. The sun had just cleared the moncler outlet sale walls to best moncler jackets light the inner courtyard and the young moncler outlet woodbury man who straddled a bench there. Aly stopped to watch him carefully glue pieces moncler sale online of cheap moncler sale feather onto the wooden shaft.
Nawat looked up at her with a smile that lit his eyes. „You are beautiful in the new light,” he told her. „If I were the Dawn Crow, I would bring you the sun to hatch as our first nestling.”
Aly blinked at him. Her heart felt strangely squeezed by some powerful emotion. She bit her lip to distract herself from a feeling that made her horribly unsure. „Have you been kissing anybody?” she asked without meaning to, and gasped. She had let words out of her mouth without thinking, which was not like her! Worse, they were such personal words, ones he might feel meant personal feelings she did not have! This was the kind of thing that other girls said, those girls who were not bored by all the young men who had moncler outlet prices courted them. How many handsome fellows had sighed compliments to Aly while, unconcerned, she had mentally wrestled with breaking a uk moncler outlet new code? At home she never cared about her suitors enough to worry if cheap moncler coats mens they kissed other girls. She scrambled to blot out what she’d said. „Not that it’s any of cheap moncler jackets mens my business, but you should understand, people have a way of kissing discount moncler jackets for fun, without it meaning anything serious, and I’d hate for you to think someone wanted you to mate feed them just because they’re kissing ” Stop babbling, her mind ordered. Aly stopped.
Nawat’s smile broadened. That disturbing light in his eyes deepened. „I moncler outlet online have kissed no one but you, Aly,” he assured her, serious. „Why should I kiss anyone else?”
Aly gulped. You can continue this conversation, or you can talk about something less. giddy, she told herself. Less frightening. „You know I won’t always be around,” she said abruptly. „I don’t belong here, really.”
„Then I will go with you,” Nawat said. „I belong with you.”
He doesn’t know what cheap moncler jackets he’s saying, Aly told herself. He doesn’t know what that means.
She looked at him, arms folded, trying to keep any extra feelings from leaping out. „What are you doing?” she asked, to change the subject to anything less dangerous. Then she grimaced. He was fletching arrows, as always.
She glanced at his bench, then bent down. He was fletching, but these arrows were heavier, and the feathers he used were moncler uk outlet not bird feathers, but Stormwing. „How did you cut them up?” she wanted moncler sale to know, moncler sale outlet genuinely curious. More scraps of cut up steel feathers lay on the bench.
Nawat pointed to a long piece of what looked like black, chipped glass. „Shiny volcano rock,” he told Aly. „Chip the edge until it is sharp. That cuts Stormwing feathers. They come from the heat of the cheap moncler jackets womens place where Stormwings were born.”
Aly touched the glassy blade. „Obsidian,” she said. „That’s its name.”
„Yes,” Nawat replied. „Shiny volcano rock.” moncler usa He set a length of steel feather into a thin groove filled with glue and held it moncler outlet store in place.
Aly didn’t see a single cut on his hands, though the feathers were lethally sharp. „Won’t they be too heavy for the glue?” she asked.
