Mageborn The Line of Illeniel by Michael Manning (interesting novels to read .txt) 📕

might be just a burden to you, but for her this bond is an honor. It gives her something to feel good about. Getting her ass handed to her by that great hulk of a trainer is embarrassing. The last person she wants to see it is you.”

“Why me?” I complained. “I’m the one person who’s cheering her on the most.”

Marc shook his head, “How did you get so far in life without understanding the first thing about women? Why you? Because you are the person she wants to impress the most! Not the one she wants to see her being humiliated.”

I had to admit, Marc always understood people better than I did, women especially. “So what should I do?” I asked.

“Nothing, if you do watch any more of their sparring bouts keep your mouth shut and your hands to yourself. Give her plenty of space.”

“What if she does well? If she’s successful I should compliment her right?”

He snorted, “Not now... later maybe. Compliment her on some small achievement now and she’ll think you’re mocking her. Her self-esteem won’t let her believe you anyway. She’ll be her own worst critic for a while.”

He seemed to be full of good news. “So when will this get better?”

“When he compliments her,” Marc replied.

Something about having her waiting on another man’s approval didn’t sit well with me. “So if I encourage her it’s mockery, if he does she’ll be giddy with happiness?”

“Of course,” he replied smugly. “In my wild and loose days, before my new vocation, I used tactics like that to woo women all the time. You start off aloof, disinterested... cold even. Then, when you show them a bit of kindness they get weak in the knees. This is the same sort of thing. Quickest way I know of to get a woman into bed too,” he paused for a second, considering what he had just said. “Not that this is going to lead to something like that of course. You’ve got nothing to worry about with Penny,” he amended.

“Whose side are you on here?” I snapped.

“Yours my friend, always yours,” he answered, smiling.

An hour later we were back on the road. Our trip was greatly improved by the fact that no one was talking anymore. A sullen silence hung over us like a pall. It was turning out to be a grand journey.

At dusk we made camp. After a quiet meal Cyhan announced that there would be no training that evening. I wasn’t sure if he felt Penny needed more time to recover or whether he might not trust himself to spar ‘nicely’. In any case I didn’t mind the chance for a little extra rest.

“Have you sensed anyone nearby?” he asked me, probably for the tenth time.

“Nope, not a soul all day,” I replied.

“That worries me,” he said. Big surprise, he’d be worried no matter what I told him. “I’ll feel better when it’s over. The waiting is the worst part,” he added.

That made two of us, although for different reasons. I didn’t bother reminding him I would tell him as soon as I found anything. He would keep asking anyway. Personally I was of the opinion that the bankers hadn’t bothered to set up anything as sinister as an ambush. “Are we going to set watches?” I asked. I’m not sure why I asked, the answer was obvious.

“Ordinarily I would say let your Anath’Meridum take one watch with Marcus and you take the other with me. Her senses are keen enough now that she should be able to detect any foe almost as quickly as you could,” he replied. That surprised me; I hadn’t known her senses were heightened as well. He went on, “Frankly though, I don’t trust her enough yet so you’ll be taking the first watch with Marcus. I’ll stay up with her to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m not deaf you know,” she responded gruffly.

“I wanted you to hear that. Maybe you’ll learn something,” he replied.

“Alright, alright... I’ll take the first watch. I’ll wake you two up after midnight,” I spoke quickly. I wanted to head off the beginning of another war between them.

They staked their territories on opposite sides of our small campfire and soon they were both laying still, backs to the fire. Marc and I talked for a while, mostly about the old days, but we had to keep it quiet to avoid disturbing our sleeping companions. Eventually we stopped talking and sat silently on opposite sides of the fire. That left me with a lot of time to think.

I already had an idea of how I wanted to handle the possible thieves, if there were any. But I wasn’t sure how well it would work. I took the opportunity to work on the idea and plan out the words I would use when, or if, the time came.

Time went slowly and I soon ran out of things to think about. I got up and walked around the camp a few times to ward off sleep. As I walked I gathered small stones from the rocky ground near our camp. I would need them later if we did get ambushed. I was definitely getting drowsy. Eventually the moon reached a point that told me my time was done, so I went over to wake up Penny first.

I shook her shoulder gently, “Wake up sleeping beauty.”

Her eyes opened slowly in the dim light, “Mort?”

“It’s me,” I said softly.

“I’m sorry about before. I was angry with myself, not you. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that.”

“Don’t worry about it. You were under a lot of stress,” I told her.

“I just want to learn quickly. We don’t have much time.”

I knew what she was referring to, “Yeah. Just don’t make yourself miserable for what time we have left.”

“I can do this Mort, it isn’t a waste of time,” she said intently.

“I know, but we only have a few months left anyway,” I replied hastily, a little too hastily perhaps.

“What is