Nothing Has Changed - Chapter 9 - Sneak Peek Excerpt
She had set her own work down on the mat beside her and was now reaching across the weave to the arrow he had just laid down. His body stilled, and his hands began their trembling. He had not noticed that they had stopped until now, when they returned. Turning the arrow slowly in her hand, she inspected it from feather to tip. She brought the fletch close to her face. Her eyes narrowed and she slowly brought one of her own arrows up into her other hand, and held his arrow beside one of her own. The two arrows were identical. The same wrap. The same angle. The same closing of the binding over the quill. The same bite at the knot. She turned both arrows once more in her fingers. Then she set her own down. She kept his. "Who taught you?" she said. His jaw worked. "Your hands cannot draw a bow. Yet they can craft an arrow perfectly." She turned his arrow over once more "They craft like mine." He drew a breath in. Another question too small for the answer it required. He looked at the arrow in her hand, and swallowed against the words lodged in his throat. "My wife taught me." Her face did not move. "She must be a great warrior." Her voice had softened — not greatly, but he knew the edges of her voice from years of marriage. They softened now. He looked down. "She was."