Free Read: Song of Marwey by Robin D. Owens, Chapter 6

Pascal and Marwey’s relationship is blooming – but it all comes to a head in Chapter Six when Pascal discovers what Marwey has been up to!

Song of Marwey by Robin D. Owens, Chapter 6

During the next week Marwey alternated between giddy delight at loving Pascal and dreading her new future as a warrior Marshall.

For the moment, she’d settled into her niche at the Castle, ensuring her great-aunt Thealia and her husband had a serene retreat after the fighting — battlefield fighting as well as political maneuvering with the Marshalls. Swordmarshall Thealia kept up the pressure to follow the oracle’s advice and Summon a stranger from another world to fix the failing magical boundary that kept out invading monsters.

Marwey had started defensive magic studies with a retired female Chevalier. As Marwey linked with the woman to practice the spells, she experienced battle-memories. Finally, she became accustomed to the terrors and awful sights of war and learned to work through them. She’d be Paired and fighting with Pascal, handling their defense, and that motivated her to work hard.

Every moment she could spare, she went to Pascal. If he was training publicly with Soldiers, Chevaliers or even Marshalls, she would watch. His grace on the winged horse filled her with pride until her eyes stung. He looked as if he’d been flying for years, not weeks.

Nights were spent with him igniting her body wildly until she twisted and arched against him, shattered in ecstasy and lay limp and damp next to him. He continued to want secrecy. The Song between them doubled and redoubled with chords and harmonies. Her need to be with him often and openly grew with each passing day.

One day the Castle’s information board showed the names of those in the next Chevalier’s class. Pascal’s wasn’t among them, and Marwey couldn’t stand the wait for him to start Chevalier training. The sooner he rose in his career, the sooner they could Pair. She made her plans and sought him out.

He was practicing in his scruffy little room. She slipped in and waited while he killed the animated dummies — three soul-suckers this time. Twelve tentacles went flying as Pascal hacked them off. She swallowed as the sight made her stomach twinge, but knew she could — would learn — to fight them, too.

“Stop!” ordered Pascal, and the spell ended. The dummies returned to stuffed leather. He sheathed his sword and wiped his head with his arm, grinning. “I need to bathe, but I don’t dare go to the public baths with you.”

Marwey grinned back. Though she wished her affair with him to be common knowledge, the baths were definitely not the place to announce it. She didn’t want to embarrass him. They bathed — and loved — together only when they could find the baths empty.

She ogled his chest before he pulled on an old shirt, covering it and the silver medallion he wore. Then she said, “Good news! You can get in the next Chevalier training class and a volaran is coming for you from the Germaine stables. I spoke to Thealia–”

He strode to her with a scowl. “You spoke to Thealia.” His hands clamped around her upper arms and lifted her to her toes. Power sizzled from him. “You planned. You spoke to Thealia. Did it ever occur to you that a man might have his own plans, his own pace?”

“No. I mean, you’re ready–”

His face turned ruddy. “No, I am not ready for the Chevalier class. I can barely ride a volaran and have just started my offensive magics. You think I want to appear to all those richer noble sons and daughters like a country bumpkin? To fumble in first steps where they are proficient?”

He dropped her with a thud. Stalked away from her. Paced back, raking his hands through his hair.

She said, “You ride very well. You are quickly becoming proficient in flying and your offensive magics are strong.”
He just glared at her.

“I did it for us,” she whispered, insides growing cold.

“Your plan for us. Ever since we met, you’ve been arranging my life. What about my plan for us? What about our plan for us? Don’t I get to plan for myself, for us? Don’t I get to decide what is best for us, for me? You asked, Thealia, as if I can’t ask her for myself, should I have cared to. As if I don’t have the courage to speak to her. Did it occur to you that I like to plan my own future?”

“I…I…” She didn’t know what to say. She’d hurt his pride. “I have the contacts.”

Pascal glared at her, fingers fisting and releasing. “Have you no respect for me at all, that you fight my battles? Did you stop to consider what it will cost me, cost us–” his tone took on a sneer “–for this favor from the great Swordmarshall Thealia Germaine?”

Marwey lifted her chin. “It won’t cost anything. She’s my great-aunt. I’m family.”

“I’m not.” He snorted. “And I’m not as green as you think. I’ve done plenty of trading and one thing I know for sure. Nothing comes free. Someday the favor will be recalled.” His lips twisted. “And the more you ask, and the higher the status of the person, the more you pay.”

“It’s not like that. You sound as if you’ve been listening to those disaffected Chevaliers about the Marshalls.”

He stood stolidly, looking at her, as if he were a great noble, not a poor Castle Soldier. “I listen to whom I please. I chart my own course. I do things when I am ready, at my own pace. That includes signing up for Chevalier training. It includes taking a lover.” He stared at her hard. “It includes making the decision to bond with a mate. I’m not ready for that, either.”

Her heart caught in her throat, her vision hazed. “Obviously not,” she managed, letting some of her own hurt out. “Since we’ve been sneaking around and you haven’t spent a night in my bed.”

“I’ve taken your gifts of clothing and armor,” he ground out. “But they were small in the scheme of things. Arranging my career without my leave isn’t small. And I don’t need your help. That’s not why I’m sleeping with you.”

“I never believed it was!”

“This makes me feel as if I’ve been bought. I didn’t earn it.”

“You will.”

He waved that aside. “I haven’t earned it yet. I can’t live with a woman who’s going to run my life for me. A Pairing is about partnership. There’s been little partnership between us. You arrange my life.”

“A partner must also be willing to take his partner’s help,” she said desperately. Her breath was coming short.

“They should discuss the cost, first.” He shook his head. “We’ve never done that. I haven’t been a partner, either. I haven’t let myself believe we belong together enough to let us be seen as a couple. Pairs, especially battle Pairs, can’t work that way. Neither of us has acted as a partner. I don’t think we can.” He strode to the door.

“Wait, we can talk now.”

He just stared at her. “How can we fix this without looking like fools or cowards? And who would let a fool or a coward be a Chevalier, a Marshall? We don’t see life the same way. This Song between us is not enough to overcome that, all the differences between us. I wonder, now, why I thought it could.” He left.

She was stunned. Everything inside her twisted. Her heart told her he was wrong, but her head echoed his words. They were not in tune, and that could be fatal in the future.

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Do you think Pascal has given up on Marwey? Find out next week!