“Why are you still here?” Archer was getting frustrated. Ever since Adalia’s family left, she had been tailing him everywhere he went, filling his ears with unnecessary jibber jabber. “Why did you stay? I know it’s not for the crock pot excuse you served your father.”
“I thought it would be a good idea,” she shrugged her shoulders and walked away from him. “Besides I don’t think it’s fair to let your family plan my brother’s vows alone.”
“They are my sister’s vows too,” his eyes followed her as she paced around him. Her hands held together behind her back and her shoulders elevated to her ears. She looked like an innocent little girl, and her sweet demeanor could trick you into believing that she wasn’t the same girl that was slaying intruders one by one, while balancing on the castle walls.
He laughed. Her long red and black dress swept the floor. Her jet black hair was in curls cascading down her back. One would never think that would be a point in time that all that hair would be tucked under a helmet, and the dress replaced with full steel body armor, and in her gentle fingers she would wielded a sword. Archer laughed one more time.
Adalia froze when his hearty laugh bounced off the castle stony walls and landed straight in her heart. He made her feel… things. “I don’t think I have ever heard you laugh like that, actually, I have only heard you laugh once.”
“I had a happy thought,” he smiled at her. The irony of her two different personas was a source of amusement to him. “How you can be like a man in one instance, then a girl in the next amuses me.”
***
Adalia looked at the silver lightning in his eyes but this time it shone through with a different kind of emotion. There was no anger in his eyes anymore, instead they smiled and-at her.
“You are pretty odd yourself,” she was still gazing into his eyes as she spoke.
“How is that?”
“This morning you looked at me like you were ready to drive your dagger into my heart. But now-,” she was still looking into his eyes so she noticed the change in them. A cloud of thunder loomed behind the lightning. She had said the wrong thing and now she had to salvage the moment. “But you are very beautiful both times.”
“What?” His anger was replaced with confusion. Then amusement, Archer was laughing once more. “Do you want to come to the mock battle field with me?”
It took her a couple of seconds to respond. Usually she was being chased out of the mock battle field and here someone was inviting her to one.
“Are you serious or are you just playing around with me?” Her eyes were slit in suspicion.
“I’m not teasing you. Novia will be down there too.”
“You let your sister fight?” This was another startling piece of information to her. Randi was terrified of mother and so was Gabrielle, so they wouldn’t willingly let her fight just because she was a girl. It seemed unfair to her, that Novia, a girl younger than she was, was allowed to battle and she wasn’t.
“Yes, while taking extreme caution.”
“I usually have to disguise myself or sneak onto the grounds to get a fight,” she huffed.
Archer could imagine that. She seemed like a girl who went to all and any length to get what she wanted. “I need all my siblings able to defend themselves in the event that I cannot,” he mumbled as if it was a thought he had always harbored and feared. “Meet me here in half an hour,” he instructed before walking away.
Adalia rushed to the room that had been assigned to her. She was glad that her mother had insisted on her taking a full chest of clothes. Especially since three quarters of what she had packed were trousers and shirts. She had her armor from her fight the previous day and her faithful sword lay under her pillows. Soon she was ready and very excited about the mock battle.