Paksworld

This one’s from the second book, so heavily edited to avoid spoilers. ..and there’s no guarantee it will make it into the final book.  Arianya ( Marshal-General of Gird) and Paks are riding along together on a hot summer morning.   Arianya’s the POV.

“She may wear Falk’s ruby, but she’s not just a Falkian knight,”  Arianya said.  “You weren’t at court when she killed that man…that wasn’t a prayer to Falk.  That was magery.”

“It could be both,” Paks said.  She bit into another plum and spat the stone into her hand, then tossed it into the base of a hedge.  “Alyanya’s blessing,” she said as it landed.

Arianya glanced back, half-expecting the stone to sprout then and there, bearing flowers and fruit by summer’s end.    No, that was silly.   “I don’t see how it could be both,” she said.