No sounds of pursuit followed them. The birds kept singing, which indicated they didn’t sense a threat. The track descended into a glade where a stream cascaded around rocks. The wingabeast would need water, and they should take a small rest before going on.
Rand dismounted and reached up to help Mara out of the saddle.
Ignoring him, she slid to the ground on her own. Her hair had escaped its plaits and now tumbled about her in wild abandon. Under other circumstances he’d have been hard pressed not to kiss her. He steadied her and stepped away.
The Black lowered its muzzle to drink from the stream.
Rand rummaged in the saddlebag and pulled out an elkskin full of water. The wingabeast keeper must have outfitted the Black for a rider who never came. Rand frowned at the memory of the wingabeast keeper running back to the shrilling creatures outside Torindan’s wall. An arrow had pierced him. Rand extended the water bottle to Mara, and their fingers brushed as she accepted it.
She tilted her head back, and the muscles of her throat moved as she took long swallows.
He drank in turn, then tore another strip from the hem of his jerken and wetted it in the stream.
Seated on a large rock, Mara watched his approach.
Noticing her puckered forehead, he smiled to ease her. “The welt on your cheek needs cleansing.” He’d half-expected her to reject his help, but she remained still as he washed dried blood from her cheek.
Wings flapped in the sky, and Mara turned a frightened gaze on him.
Rand caught up the wingabeast’s reins and pulled Mara into forest cover. Stepping in front of her, he waited with a hand to his sword hilt.
A shadow rippled across the stream. Ragged wings and leather armor gleamed with dark luster against the pale sky.
Rand held his breath and prayed that both Mara and the wingabeast would remain motionless.
The welke and its rider vanished beyond the tree tops.
Rand drew in air and let it out in a long sigh. He turned to find Mara trembling. Unable to resist the desire to comfort her, he drew her into his arms. She looked up at him with parted lips. He lowered his head, ready to succumb.
Trust shone in her eyes.
He groaned and pulled away.
Several heartbeats passed, and then she touched his arm. “Thank you.”
Did she thank him for restraining his ardor?
“You placed yourself between me and danger.”
Speaking of love would be so easy right now, but he shook free of the impulse. In her present vulnerable state, it would be unfair. “I owed you that much.”
“I should have thanked you before this. You could have saved yourself and left me at the watergate.”
No, he couldn’t have, but he didn’t tell her that.
She cast her gaze downward. “Why did you abandon me in the wilderness?”
“I’m sorry, Mara. If I could do it again differently, I would.”
Her head came up. “But why did you do it?”
He’d been trying to save her from his confusion, but how could he explain something he didn’t fully understand? “I had…an important reason to return to Pilaer, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. I thought you would return home.” He needed to end this conversation before he revealed things he wasn’t ready to say and that she probably wouldn’t want to know. He lifted her by the waist and into the saddle, and for once she didn’t fight him. The bewilderment on her face almost proved his undoing.
Mastering himself, he levered himself onto the wingabeast’s back and reached past her to gather the reins. “Come, Lof Raena. We’ve a journey to complete.”
Thank you…
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AMDG
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