Resenting the Hero Read Online Free PDF Page B

“But you’re not going to be all stiff and formal for the rest of our lives, are you? My friends call me Taro.”
    Do they? I nodded, and let him make of that what he would.
    â€œSo, those adventures of yours?” I’d let him do the talking. I had the feeling he liked to talk about himself, and he needed only a little nudge before going on for hours. I could pretend to be fascinated for a while, then claim fatigue and beg off.
    He was looking at me oddly. I wasn’t sure why I felt it was odd. There was nothing mocking in it, or angry, or in any way inappropriate. More like, there was a certain weight to his gaze that I hadn’t been expecting, that caught me off guard and made me wonder if I was being too transparent.
    â€œLet us partake of this meal,” he suggested, his tone even but his eyes still . . . close. “Then we can settle down and tell each other our life stories.”
    I hoped to avoid the life stories, but I was willing enough to dive into the food. My answer to him was to hand him a plate.
    The music started then, and I froze at the first notes, bracing myself. The music played, however, was a nice light air, pretty dining music, and I relaxed. I sat down at another part of the table, and Karish sat across from me.
    â€œSo, Lee . . .”
    I halted halfway through biting into a slice of bread. Lee? Only members of my family called me Lee. But my mouth was too full of food to make an immediate protest.
    â€œWho was the last person you slept with?”
    My mouth still full, I glared at him.
    He grinned back.
    It was a hard meal to get through. I couldn’t get a serious word out of him. He flirted or teased the whole time, and it was irritating. I always enjoyed the occasional droll comment, but joke after joke spilling out of someone’s mouth was tiring. It made me feel I had to either laugh or shoot back something equally urbane on a regular basis, and that was a game I’d never enjoyed. All I could do was respond as though the comments were serious, and hope to slow him down a little.
    And then there was a knock on the door, and the landlady walked in, holding up an envelope. “Which one of you is Shield Mallorough?”
    The thrill of hearing my title for the first time was shot through with apprehension. Why was I receiving correspondence, delivered right to me at the Horse’s Head? That bespoke an emergency. “Here,” I said.
    She looked my way and handed me the envelope. She was smiling, though, so the news couldn’t be bad. “Congratulations,” she said.
    Frowning, I cracked the wax Triple S seal and pulled out a single sheet of paper. It was a short message, quickly read.
    â€œWhat is it?” Karish asked.
    â€œOur post,” I said in an absent tone. We weren’t supposed to receive our posts until the next day. How had they even made the selection so quickly? They hadn’t even known who was going to be bonded, never mind to whom. “We’re to start off for High Scape as soon as possible tomorrow morning.”
    â€œHigh Scape?” Devereaux demanded, reaching out to snatch the missive from my hand.
    I let her. I was thrown into shock.
    High Scape. The biggest city on the continent. Said to be exciting and dangerous and full of crazy people. Also said to be increasingly unstable, threatened with natural disasters on a daily basis, a frequency unheard of anywhere else. It had more Pairs posted there than anywhere else, six, who were put on a schedule so that one Pair was always doing nothing but waiting for the events.
    We were to be the seventh. An increase on the roster, to accommodate the sudden increase in natural disasters.
    Only highly experienced Pairs were posted there. I wouldn’t have even considered it a possibility so early after bonding. Why in the world would they . . . ?
    I looked at Karish.
    Ah.
    It had started already.

Chapter Three
    The ride from Shidonee’s Gap to High