Rising, Ven crossed to Naelin.
She wouldn't be like one of those girls in the morgue. She was powerful and intelligent and fierce . . . As he reached her, she opened her eyes. Seeing him, she smiled. "Aren't I doing well?" she asked. "And yes, I'm fishing for praise. So go ahead, tell me I'm amazing, and I'll blush and deny it, but inwardly I'll agree, because this . . . I never thought I could do this."
He wanted to take her in his arms and tell her she truly was amazing.
But she wasn't finished. "Galling to admit that Renet might have been right. I suppose this means I owe him an apology."
"He still endangered you and your children," Ven pointed out. Her former husband was unworthy of her. But that wasn't the conversation he intended to have. "I need you to be careful-"
"You think I'm not careful enough?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the spirits disperse. Earth spirits dove into the soil, air spirits spiraled up toward the clouds, tree spirits skittered along the branches. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Hear me out, before you decide to be furious at me. You're already careful with spirits. I need you to be careful of humans." And he told her what Hamon had showed him, what he'd seen, leaving out the details. As he talked, he felt her sag.
And then she straightened and looked him in the eye. "All right then. Spirits want to kill me. People want to kill me. Anything else?"
He wanted to kiss her.
But he didn't. Instead, he pulled out one of his knives, the short dagger he kept tucked in his boot, and said, "I'm going to teach you how to survive this."
Chapter 26
For three days, Naelin trained. She worked with Queen Daleina as often as the queen could manage, and with Ven every other waking hour. She learned to stretch her mind to control multiple spirits at once, and she learned to push her body to react to an attack.
"You don't need to know how to kill," Ven had told her. "You need to know how to not be killed. Slight but important distinction." He made her repeat the same maneuvers over and over: how to break a hold, how to dodge a knife thrust, how to twist so that a knife would only hit something nonvital. "Your mind doesn't need to memorize this; your body does." And so she practiced, because he'd described the murdered girls in enough detail that she didn't need to hear any more.
He also insisted she allow the wolf Bayn to come with her everywhere at all times, which was fine, albeit a little awkward in the bathroom. He usually politely faced the wall. But it was a plus when she had a free moment to visit her children. Llor would forgive any absence in exchange for the chance to play with the "doggie," and even Erian couldn't stay angry when Bayn licked her cheek.
So on the night of the third day, when Ven told her she was done, she looked around Queen Fara's old chambers for Bayn. He was sitting by the hearth, chewing on the thigh bone of a deer. "Ready to have a small child get sticky fingers in your fur?"
He thumped his tail and then trotted over to her side.
"I'll walk you there as well," Ven said.
She didn't bother to argue that she was safe in the palace, with all the guards who milled through every corridor and a very large wolf by her side. A little paranoia was a fine thing. Admirable, even. She shot him a look as they walked down the spiral stairs in the center of the palace tree. He was scowling beneath his beard, with his forehead crinkled and eyes fierce. "You look under stress," she said, even though it was an understatement. "Are you getting enough sleep?"
He quit scowling. "Are you trying to mother me?"
"The proper word is ‘nag.' I am trying to nag you into taking care of yourself, not just taking care of me. I'm fine." In truth, she felt as if she'd been rolled down a set of stairs and then stomped on, but that didn't bear mentioning. She also had a headache that pounded as if she had tiny drummers trapped inside her skull.
"I can handle it."
"Of course you can. Until you collapse from exhaustion and malnourishment. Look at it this way: I only nag because I care."
He stopped for a moment midstep and looked as if he wanted to say something, but then he continued down the stairs without speaking. She thought about asking him if there had been any progress in investigating the murders, or any progress in the search for the poisoner, but if there had been, he wouldn't look so intense. She wasn't sure she'd ever had anyone care for her well-being so much. She had to remind herself it was only because he wanted her to be the heir. He valued her for what she could do, not who she was. Not unlike Renet.