Rune Knight: Book Two of The Empress Saga

CHAPTER TWELVE

    Enfri was breathless. She was beginning to feel in danger of passing out when she finally managed to pull a gasp of air into her lungs. All that kept her from toppling off Spider was her desperate grip on Jin's waist.

Jin's reaction wasn't quite so mirthful. "Are you about done?"

    There was no stopping it. Enfri buried her face into Jin's back as she succumbed to another fit of laughter. "I can't stop picturing it," she forced herself to say. "I never thought, not for a second, that you would..." She couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence through her cackling.

    Riding a handful of paces off to their left, Sasha was doing his best to appear that he was taking no notice of this shameless display. He could try to hide it all he wished, but Enfri caught the tight-lipped look on his face as he held back a few chuckles of his own.

    "Enfri, please," Jin admonished. "It is no laughing matter. This is my deepest shame."

    "Come off it," Enfri replied. "No, really, you have no idea what a relief it is to hear this." She took a deep breath so she could explain herself. "All this time, I thought you had set your coterie after me out of a sense of duty to your father. Despite everything, I could understand and forgive that. But... to find out that you were so... clueless!"

    Enfri knew she shouldn't make light of it. She truly did, and it was plain that Jin didn't think it amusing at all. It would be better to calm down. At least, that's what Enfri told herself. Her giggles continued.

    Jin sighed and continued her tale. "Gain saw I was growing unfocused. I could think of nothing but you. It was the news of Ban's betrothal to Princess Pacifica that made it worse. I never harbored romantic feelings for him because women are my sole courting preference, but I still found myself feeling lessened for not pursuing a relationship with anyone. As the date of the wedding approached, my insecurity grew. My thoughts constantly returned to that young sky woman I had met in Sandharbor, so intelligent and beautiful."

    Enfri held on a little tighter. "Even though my spine was crooked?"

    "Don't be absurd," Jin scoffed. "When my uncle confronted me with my... distraction, I confessed to him what preoccupied me. I told him everything, of your hair and your father, everything that attracted me to you. Gain realized immediately what you were and what had to be done."

    Enfri felt even more guilty for laughing. This was hard for Jin to own up to. Her feelings were what ended up exposing Enfri's secret.

    "You didn't know," Enfri tried to assure her.

    "My father called for my other uncle, Vintus," Jin continued. "He ordered him to take his coterie to Sandharbor and... clean up his own mess. I couldn't let that happen. It was my carelessness that brought this down on you. I knew I had to be the one to see it through. My father took some convincing, but I begged him to give the contract to Gain's coterie. I argued that we would know you on sight and had recently dealt in good faith with the goodfolk of your village. We were better suited for the task."

    Whenever Jin mentioned this Vintus, Enfri felt a small surge of resentment. He was the one that killed Enfri's father in Teularon without warning or trial. She wished to ask about him, but couldn't bring herself to do it.

    "The king gave you the contract instead of Gain?" Enfri asked instead.

    "Father said that if I wished to be there when it was done so badly, that I should be the one in command. Gain protested— he knew what Father was asking me to do— but the decision was made. As for myself, I was glad for it."