Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(201)

Bernard grimaced, but gave her a reluctant nod and bent to place a light kiss on her mouth. He looked like he was about to say something else, but Amara's little scarlet shift caught his eye and he raised his eyebrows at her. "What's that?"

"My costume," Amara said.

Bernard's grin was not-quite-a leer. "Where's the rest of it?"

Amara gave him a very level look as she felt her cheeks warming, and she turned and walked firmly into the bathing room, shutting the door behind her.

Rook was already sitting in one of the small tubs, bathing briskly. She folded a modest arm across her breasts until the door was closed. Then she went back to bathing, while watching Amara obliquely.

"What are you looking at?" Amara asked quietly. The words came out far more belligerently than she had intended.

"A master assassin of the High Lord currently on the throne," Rook replied, her tone laced with only the barest trace of irony. "I'd prefer I wasn't alone in the bath with her."

Amara lifted her chin and gave Rook a cool look. "I am no assassin."

"Perspective, Countess. Can you say you have never killed in service to your lord?"

"Never with an arrow fired from ambush," Amara said.

Rook smiled, very slightly. "That's very noble." Then she frowned and tilted her head to one side. "But... no. Your training was unlike mine. Or you'd not blush quite so easily."

Amara frowned at Rook, and took a deep breath. There was no profit in bickering with the former bloodcrow. It would accomplish nothing but to waste time. Instead of replying sharply, thoughtlessly, she began to undress and to bathe herself briskly. "My education as a Cursor did not include... that sort of technique, no."

"There are no bedchamber spies among the Cursors?" Rook asked, her tone skeptical.

"There are some, " Amara said. "But every Cursor is evaluated and trained a bit differently. They intend us to play to our strengths. For some, it includes an education in seduction. My training was focused in other areas. "

"Interesting," Rook said, her tone detached, professionally clinical.

Amara tried to match her tone. "I take it your own training included how to seduce men?"

"To seduce and pleasure, men and women alike."

Amara dropped her soap into the bath in surprise.

Rook allowed herself the hint of a chuckle, but it died quickly as she frowned down at the bathwater. "Relax, Countess. None of it was by my choice. I... I don't think I would care to revisit that sort of situation at all if there was any way I could possibly avoid it."

Amara drew in a breath. "I see. Your daughter."

"A by-product of my training," Rook said quietly.

"Her father?"

"Could be one of ten or twelve men," Rook said, her voice cool. "The training was... intensive."

Amara shook her head. "I can't even imagine."

"No one should be able to imagine it," Rook said. "Rut Kalarus strongly favored that sort of training for his female agents."

"It gives him greater control over them," Amara said.

"Without resorting to the use of collars," Rook agreed, her voice bitter. She scrubbed at herself with a cloth, harshly, almost viciously. "Leaves their wits intact. Better able to serve him."

Amara shook her head. She couldn't even imagine. Her experience as a lover was hardly extensive, consisting of a single young man at the Academy who had dazzled her for three glorious months before dying in the fires that had first brought her to the attention of the First Lord-and Bernard. Who made her feel glorious and beautiful-and loved.