“Do you know who your ten fighters will be yet?” Monikah asked.
“Yes.” Everyone was agile, but a number of them stood out as natural fighters. “But I’ll keep training them for another four or five months and keep them on their toes before separating the final team off to hone their skills.”
“I can’t believe we have to wait ten months for the games.”
“They’ll come soon enough. When they do, we’ll be ready.” Rhone tucked her into his side, smiling as she molded against his body.
They’d set up a larger tent on Monikah’s island, and shared it every night, unless the urchin went into a craze and disappeared. She was getting better about coming back for meals and letting him know she’d be away. Each time she was away overnight, Rhone aged by two years, but asking Monikah to change that aspect of her personality would be asking too much, and he was more than ready to take that on the chin to be with her.
“Monikah,” he said. “I love you.”
“Did you just tell me you loved me for the first time when we’re surrounded by fifty sweaty bodies?”
He glanced at the others, but they were in varying states of misery and not paying attention. “Is that a problem?”
“Flowers and dinner, Rhone,” she said loudly, walking to the edge and tipping over.
His mouth dropped as she climbed up into view again. He ignored the laughter from his fighters. “Flowers don’t grow here,” he shouted after her.
“Flowers and dinner!” she yelled, disappearing from sight.
Rhone’s lips spread into a wide grin but he forced the curve away as he turned back to the sweating Ire folk. “What are you all smiling about? We’ll see who’s laughing after one hundred up-downs.”
One of the Ire folk ran to the edge of the island and vomited. Rhone grimaced at the outraged scream from the island below.
“In a line! On my count,” he called.
The row of Ire folk crouched and sprang into a push-up position and then crouched again to spring high in the air. Rhone prepared himself to start delivering systematic threats, and gave a cursory glance around for Monikah.
. . . Flowers and dinner, huh?
He could do that.
Acknowledgments
Writing a Tainted Accords novella is always a joy, but Rhone’s story also took me back to my time dog-sledding in Kiruna, Lapland—one of my favorite travel memories.
I’d like to thank the team at Camp Alta in Kiruna for answering my one million questions about their dogs and sleds.
Thank you to my readers for your curiosity about Rhone, who was very much an unspeaking giant in the main series, yet always had a story to tell. I’m so glad I had the chance to write it.
Thank you to my manuscript team: Melissa, Robin, Patti, and Michelle. Let’s eat cake, in our various countries. Maybe over Skype?
To my friends and family, who are entirely accepting of my creative eccentricities.
To my husband, who wholeheartedly encourages them.
Happy Reading,
Kelly
Also by Kelly St. Clare
The Tainted Accords:
Fantasy of Frost
Fantasy of Flight
Fantasy of Fire
Fantasy of Freedom
The Tainted Accords Novellas:
Sin
Olandon
Rhone
Shard (2019)
The After Trilogy:
The Retreat
The Return
The Reprisal
The Darkest Drae (Trilogy) Co-written with Raye Wagner
Blood Oath
Shadow Wings
Black Crown
Shard
(The Tainted Accords: Novella Four)
Coming 2019
The Retreat
(The After Trilogy, #1)
Earth was ruined. Humankind destroyed. Or so they were told. . . .
When a technical glitch during battle leaves Romy and the four other members of Knot 27 hurtling through orbit towards Planet Earth, Romy knows they are dead one way or another.
If the crash doesn't kill them, post-global warming conditions will.
Yet days pass as Romy wanders injured and aimless through the bush. Alone. Every second, every day she continues to breathe disputes what they have been told.
As Romy desperately searches for her knot, she comes across a grey-eyed man--a mysterious and close-lipped presence she is not certain she can trust. Especially when he shouldn't even exist.
Secrets are unmasked.
A different version of Earth bursts to the surface.
Will Romy survive the betrayal and lies threatening to shatter her mind like glass?
Now Available
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Rhone Page 12