Red Rope of Fate by K.M. Shea

Arion’s room as if it were her own. However the captain seemed content to give her free rule.
    Tari took the tea tray from her handmaiden with a smile before she crossed the room to set the wooden tray down on a small end table crowded next to her chair.
    Tari reclined in the chair and sipped her tea, apple spice flavored, while Arion quietly shuffled through his paperwork. When a soldier knocked on Arion’s door an hour later Tari took her leave, feeling content—if not accomplished.

    The following day Tari was cross-examined forwards and backwards during a rather intense interview with the head security captain of Rosewood Park. It was an elf, and he seemed to take Tari’s attack rather as a personal failing than a defensive misstep.
    Tari’s assurances that she felt perfectly safe in the gardens did not seem to sit well with the captain, who gravely promised to double the garden security detail before bowing her out of the room.
    “I apologize again for the shortcomings of our patrols. We shall double our efforts to ensure the gardens are a place of peace and sanctuary.”
    “Thank you, sir, but the failing was neither yours nor your men’s. You cannot take the blame from those who sought to attack me, the fault is theirs,” Tari countered.
    The captain looked unconvinced and bowed deeper still before shutting the door to his office.
    Tari exhaled and set out in the direction she thought would lead her to Rosewood Park. She was still using it as her center point for transportation rather than attempt to learn the winding passages of the castle. It meant she took an awkwardly long amount of time to travel the palace, but Tari didn’t mind. The sunlight and open air corridors refreshed her.
    Tari flicked her skirts in a pleased gesture when she found one of the open air corridors that transverse d the side of the palace and Rosewood Park. She went down one flight of stairs and was about to go down a second when she paused and instead started down the corridor.
    This isn’t the direction I need to go in. Tari thought, even as she kept walking. There was something that pulled her along.
    The corridor turned in a wide U shape—still following the palace and overlooking the gardens below. Tari glanced at the other side of the U and spotted Arion, walking briskly with three guards hurrying after him to keep pace.
    “Arion,” Tari called.
    The captain stopped, looked across the courtyard and nodded to her before he started walking again. They met at the bottom of the U.
    Arion was dressed in his usual dark colored tunic and military hauberk, his sword and daggers draped from his belt. There was a distinct wrinkle in his forehead, and his eyes looked stormy. His soldiers walked gingerly behind him, their expressions pinched with worry.
    “Is everything all right?” Tari asked uncertainly.
    “Yes,” Arion barked. Behind him his men jumped.
    Tari leaned forward, studying Arion. “What are you doing out here?”
    “Patrols. I check on my men stationed in the castle,” he said, turning slightly to cast a stormy look to the guards.
    They shifted uncomfortably and said nothing.
    Tari straightened up and took a step towards the captain. “Are you sure you’re fine? You seem…”
    “Of course I’m sure,” Arion said.
    One of his men winced at the thunderous voice Arion used, but Tari was not dissuaded. Whatever had been pulling her in this direction had quieted the second she set eyes on Arion. “How was your morning?”
    “I dealt with inferior underlings. I’m no longer amazed by the attack against you. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a kidnapping on the palace grounds before due to the sloppy work of the Honor Guard,” Arion said.
    The guard at his left arm blushed.
    Tari tilted her head, still trying to interpret Arion’s body language. She could tell that something was off . “Will you still come to tonight’s drinking party?”
    Arion finally cracked a half smile, but the gesture looked like it