Light of Eidon (Legends of the Guardian-King, Book 1)
Page 49
And before he could say another word, she walked away.
He and Trap went up to the cliff top to watch her leave, the camels snaking alongside the stream, now gleaming in the wash at the base of the cliffs. The sky was very blue, the sun so bright they had to squint, and a hot breeze ruffled their headcloths and beards.
“You were like her once,” Trap said presently. “Not so long ago it seems to me.”
“But she doesn’t even want to listen.”
“Did you?”
“More than her, surely.”
“Less, I’d say.”
The head of the caravan was nearly across the arizza now. He could still pick out his sister, swathed from head to toe in gray and covered by a blue shade with gold fringe. Cooper rode behind her, wrapped in pale Dorsaddi russet, oathbound, as he’d been nearly all his adult life, to keep her safe.
Abramm loosed a long, regretful sigh. “I shouldn’t have let her go.”
“She must make her choice before him just as you have, my friend. And you must give her the freedom to do so.”
“But-“
“Do you think he will pursue her with any less vigor than he did you?”
No. Of course not. Squinting out across the arizza, Abramm watched the caravan move into the narrow opening of the wadi that would lead them up out of the SaHal.
“It’s frustrating, isn’t it?” he said after a time. “Knowing the truth but being helpless to make others see it.”
“Yes.” Hand raised to shield his eyes, Trap, too, watched as the last of the camels disappeared. Then he turned to Abramm with an ironic smile. “Sometimes, though, they surprise you in the end.”