The Pillars Of The World

studying the puppy. And any intruders will find out how savage an animal who’s even part shadow hound can be .
    “I’m glad you’re doing well with each other. I won’t keep you from your work.” She turned to mount her pale mare.
    “Dianna . . .”
    Dianna looked over her shoulder.
    “I am sorry I was rude. And I could use a rest if you want to stay for a bit. I could offer you—” She huffed out a breath. “Well, there’s water. Or tea, if you’d like something warm.”
    “Some water would be welcome.” Following Ari to the back of the cottage, Dianna stopped long enough to slip off the mare’s bridle to let her graze. She watched Ari fill a bucket and set it beside the well for the mare, then go into the cottage. Bringing out two mugs, Ari filled another bucket, poured water into both mugs, then poured the rest of the water back into the well.
    “At this time of year, the water in the well is a bit cooler than what I get from the pump in the kitchen,”
    Ari explained, handing Dianna a mug.
    Dianna sat on the bench. Ari remained standing, staring out at the meadow.
    “What’s troubling you?” Dianna asked.
    “I’ve had my share of bullies for the day.”
    “In that case, who has been troubling you?” Dianna the Huntress asked.
    “What makes men think they have the right to use anger to intimidate someone into giving them what they want?” Ari demanded, whirling around. “How can ‘yes’ have any meaning if you’re afraid to say ’no‘?”
    “What did he want?”
    “He wanted sex. What else could he want?” She was almost shouting now. “And then Odella shows up and wants a spell or potion because she’s afraid she’s with child and obviously doesn’t like whoever she ended up with during the Summer Moon enough to consider wedding him. And when I told her I didn’t know anything that would help her, she threatened me.”
    Dianna dismissed Odella as insignificant. But this male . . . What was his name? Ah, yes. “So this . . .
    Neall . . . threatened you because you wouldn’t give him sex? What right does he have to expect such a thing from you?”
    “Not Neall,” Ari snapped. “Lucian.”
    Dianna choked. “A F—” She choked again.
    “Drink some water,” Ari said, coming over to give Dianna a couple hard thumps on the back.
    Dianna drank some water, swallowed wrong, then coughed until her eyes watered and Ari thumped her back again.
    “A Fae Lord threatened you because you refused him?”
    Ari looked at her warily. “How did you know he was a Fae Lord?”

    “Your conversation isn’t sprinkled with male names,” Dianna replied testily. “Since it wasn’t this Neall, it was easy to figure out it was the Fae Lord.”
    “Yes, it was him.”
    Dianna watched Ari pace in front of the bench. Lucian, you fool, what have you done ? “Sometimes men are stupid,” she said, offering it as a sop to a bruised female ego.
    “I’ll drink to that.” Ari raised her mug in a salute, not breaking stride.
    Worried that Ari hadn’t taken the words as they had been meant and shrugged off her annoyance with a smile of agreement, Dianna sipped the water. This was no girl who could be led. This was a young woman who was steaming mad. “Maybe he misunderstood something you said?”
    “He greeted me, I returned the greeting. If that’s all it takes to be misunderstood, I simply won’t speak to him again.”
    Groping for something to say, Dianna blurted out the first thing that occurred to her. “I’m surprised you didn’t turn him into a large stone or something.”
    “I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to,” Ari said. “My magic doesn’t work that way.” She paused, narrowed her eyes. “Although stuffing him down the privy is an appealing thought.”
    Dianna felt her jaw drop. Mother’s mercy . She studied Ari more closely. Oh, there was plenty of anger there that belonged on Lucian’s shoulders, but not all of it was because of him. He simply had become the focus for it. And that wasn’t good.
    “Perhaps if you started from the beginning and explained ...”
    Those words seemed to loosen the pebble that was holding up the dam. As all of Ari’s pent-up anger and frustration and doubts about dealing with the villagers of Ridgeley, men in general, and Lucian in particular spilled out, Dianna thought over and over, She isn’t like us. She may not be like other humans, but she also isn’t like us. And not even the Lightbringer can afford to forget that