She blushed, and her gaze faltered for a moment, but came back to meet his with level candor. "You have broken your word, Sir Knight. You have used magic."
"Break causes break," Geoffrey countered, "whether it was your doing, or not." He turned to the three brothers. "Must I fight you all again?" He wasn't at all sure that he wanted to, now, though—his courage was so vast that he scarcely even noticed fear, but he knew a losing fight when he saw one, and battling might not be the best way to win this prize. Quicksilver might be able to counter all his magic with her own. At the least, she would slow him down so that he might well fall prey to the weapons of her outlaws—but he would take at least half of them with him, to death. He was struck with admiration at how adroitly she had prevented just that calamity, by persuasion and maneuvering. And he had not even known he was being maneuvered! How dextrously she had hidden her powers!
The chance of losing, or even of losing his life, would not stop him from battling, of course—not if the cause was worth his death. But he had a notion that Quicksilver was far more worth his life.
If she had hidden her powers so well, though, she could have taken him by surprise. Surely she could have defeated him with the loss of only a quarter of her fightersand if she really hungered for power more than anything else, she would have done just that.
On the other hand, he did not doubt that she did want power—so why had she not ambushed him while she could? He felt a seed of hope sprout and shoot within him, but tried to ignore it; obviously there were things that were more important to her than power—but why should he presume that he was one of those things? Presumptuous indeed!
"Put up your weapons," he said to Leander. "Fall upon me again, and I will only steal her away again."
"Then we will only find you again!" Minerva said angrily. "There is not a foot of ground within this forest that our sentries do not see!"
"Thank you for the warning," Geoffrey said, with a courteous nod. "I shall take her far away from the greenwood this time."
Anger flared in the captain's face, but Quicksilver held up a hand to forestall her, saying quickly, "Peace, Minerva. I have no wish to ride that ghostly horse again! It was most unsettling, I assure you."
Minerva barked an order even as she sprang, and the Amazons were a sudden ring of muscle and steel enclosing their chief. "You must touch her to take her," Minerva snapped, "and if you attempt it, you shall die!"
Geoffrey stared at her for a second or two. Then his sword flashed out in three quick feints. Minerva parried the first two, then leaped to parry the third. Her women shouted and leaped out to surround Geoffrey and he sprang through the gap they had left, catching Quicksilver about the waist. But the feel of that supple body against his distracted him from his teleportation just long enough for Quicksilver to cry, "Hold!"
The bandits all froze where they were. Geoffrey wondered how often she could do that, before they ignored her command.
Then, to Minerva, Quicksilver said, "You may hold him off, my brave and loyal captain—or he may slip past your guard again, as he just has. I have no wish to feel the world turn inside out about me, or to have that blast deafen me. I gave my word, and I shall keep it!" She looked about her, eyes blazing. "So shall all of you! Aye, even you, my own brothers! I gave parole, and I shall go with him to Runnymede!"
"But he has broken his word," her brother protested. Quicksilver disengaged herself from Geoffrey's arm and stepped back to give him a long measuring look. "You have," she said, "and because of that, I shall break my bond in this much—I shall still go with you, but if I see a chance of escape, I shall take it."
The outlaws cheered.
"Myself!" Quicksilver shouted into their din. "Myself alone! I shall escape with no peril to anyone else, or I shall not escape at all!"
The cheer subsided into mutinous muttering. "Therefore begone!" Quicksilver commanded. "Back to the greenwood, and quickly, before the Crown's shire-reeve comes against you again, with a royal army!"
"If there is danger of that," said Leander, "we had best hold Laeg's castle, where we can defend ourselves better."
"Nay!" Geoffrey frowned. "It is Laeg's by right"' "Right?" Martin sneered. "You speak of Laeg and right in the same breath? There was never anything right in Count Laeg's life, least of all in his dealings with his peasants!"
"That is no reason to deny his son his inheritance!"
"You cannot know if you have not lived here," Quicksilver snapped. "The son's deeds are no better than the father's; he is a true branch of the bad tree, and thinks the peasants are his cattle—aye, and we yeomen, who are children of a squire, too."
Geoffrey turned to her, frowning. "Be that as it may, the law is the law, and I am sworn to uphold it!"
"Even when it is wrong?" Jory jibed.
"The law was made by the lords," Martin said with scorn, "and it serves their ends, not those of us common folk."
"If there is truth in what you say, I shall be your advocate among the lords and before the Crown, to see the law changed!" Geoffrey declared.
"And while you are advocating," said Minerva, "what will they do to us?"
Geoffrey turned to her with words of reassurance on his lips—but found himself suddenly seeing her not as an opponent, but as a woman of the commoners, vulnerable to a lord's whims, and realized that behind the sword and beneath the armor was a very desirable body. It struck him as curious that he did not himself desire it, though he was sure he would have before he met Quicksilver. Nonetheless, the new Count Laeg no doubt would, and would use her own body to punish her. Geoffrey's bold words of faith in the law, died on his lips. Instead, he said, "Right or wrong, the law must be obeyed. If it is not, we will have chaos, with every man's hand turned against every other's, and the women—caught between them in suffering."
"You say that to outlaws?" Leander scoffed. "Tell me, pray, what the difference is."
"And while you are debating it, Count Laeg will fall upon you," Quicksilver told them both. "Aye, brother, I think you will be safer in Castle Laeg while this bold champion debates our cause before the Crown."
"And tries your fate," Leander growled.
Geoffrey glared at him. "Will you not yield to the law?"
"Speak of that when the law has delivered its verdict," Quicksilver countered.
"What verdict?" Minerva demanded. "The only case that will be tried is whether or not you have slain a lord, Quicksilver, and stolen his lands—and we all know what the answer to that must be!"
The outlaws growled and pressed in.
"Yet you seem to think she was right in so doing!" Geoffrey called out. "Might not the King and Queen think so, too?"
The outlaws hovered, uncertain.
"Shall we not be tried with her, then?" Minerva demanded. "Even if we are not there?"
"We shall," Leander answered, "and an army sent against us if our sister is judged guilty. Nay, my sib, you must not go!"
The outlaws pressed in again, and Geoffrey gauged the distance between his arm and Quicksilver's waist. Looking up, he could see that Minerva was measuring it, too.
"I have sworn I will go with this man, and I shall!" Quicksilver called out. "Oh, I shall escape from him if I can—but I will not have you place your necks even further in the noose by assaulting a Gallowglass!"
"Hung for the sheep, hung for the flock," Leander answered, "even if the sheep was a rogue ram, and it was necessary to slay him to save our lives."
Geoffrey turned to him. "Is there a charge you would bring?"
Leander scowled. "What nonsense is this?"
"I have said I will be your advocate before the Crown—but I cannot be so, without a charge to prosecute or a cause to advocate! Do you accuse Count Laeg of breaking the law?"
A furious rumble went up among the outlaws, but Leander's eye caught fire. "Aye, we do, and our sister can give you a whole catalogue of his crimes—but the long and the short of it is this: that he has oppressed and exploited his peasants unmercifully, f
or his own pleasure and gain and not for their welfare, or the kingdom's."
"You charge, then, that he has been untrue to his vows as a knight, and as a vassal of the Queen?"
"As a knight, a thousand times over, for he swore to protect the weak from the strong, did he not?"
"He did," Geoffrey answered with full certainty.
"I charge that he has been the strong who has preyed upon the weak, and that his son has already done likewise! I charge that he has broken the law! And that in breaking it, he has left us no choice but to break it, too, or die at his hands! That the father has done this a thousand times in a thousand ways, and the son has already begun to follow his father's example!"
Quicksilver smiled, eyes glowing as she gazed at her brother, and even Geoffrey could feel the exaltation of her approval. Yes, the woman was a projective, and a powerful one, whether she knew it or not. For himself, he only nodded at Leander and said, "These are weighty charges indeed, and enough to justify unseating a lord—if they can be proved to be true."
Leander turned away in disgust, and Minerva flared, "Proved! What proof can peasants offer, against a thieving and rapacious lord?"
"Peasants cannot," Geoffrey told her, "but another lord can. Nay, I have said I will be your advocate, and I shall. This I swear—and I shall seek out what proof I can. Be of good cheer; this is no idle boast. I have agents who shall go among you unseen, for they owe me favors, even as I owe them. But I must ask you to trust me in this, for I cannot prove good faith until I speak before the Crown."
"At which time, if you break faith, it will be too late for us," Minerva said, tight-lipped. "No, we must keep our chief here."
"I have said I will ride with this knight, and I shall!" Quicksilver snapped, beginning to be angry again. "For the rest of you, though, go back to Castle Laeg, and hold it for me! I must have a home to come back to, when I have escaped from this popinjay!"
"Oh, a popinjay, am I?" Geoffrey rounded on her, eyes glinting at the prospect of a good fight.
"Aye, a popinjay, and it is my lance for which you shall be the target!" Quicksilver stepped in to face him, fists on her hips. "Do not think to reverse that, for when did a popinjay bear a lance against a rider?"
A murmur of admiration and delight spread through the outlaw host. Geoffrey only grinned. "Beware, for your popinjay is truly a quintain, and equipped with a lance of his own!"
"My remedy, then, is to break it!"
"What then, will you break a lance with me?" Geoffrey purred, his eyes glowing into hers. "A valiant deed, and sport worthy of a true knight-errant."
Minerva stepped forward, alarmed, but Quicksilver only smiled with the same ferocious delight Geoffrey showed and answered, "I am not a knight, sir, nor even a squire, but only a squire's daughter."
"That may be so," Geoffrey conceded, "but you are every inch a lady."
Leander frowned. "What riddle is this you speak? A lady is the daughter of a lord or, at the least, a knight. A woman must be born a lady, or can never be one!"
"I must agree with that," Geoffrey returned, his gaze still on Quicksilver's, "but I have just discovered that a woman can be born a lady even if her father was not a lord."
The outlaws murmured in amazement, but Minerva cried in alarm, "Beware, mistress! He seeks to cozen you!"
"Of course he does," Quicksilver said. "When was there a man who did not seek to cozen every pretty maid he met?" But she was still smiling, still held her gaze locked with Geoffrey's.
"Sister," Leander said, a quaver in his voice, "I fear for you."
Geoffrey did not think he was talking about the noose. "Some dangers I must face alone, Leander," Quicksilver told him, her gaze unwavering, "but the prize is worth the gamble."
"Not if the dice are loaded against you!" Minerva cried in near panic.
"Fear not, sweet friend," Quicksilver told her. "I have thrown with loaded dice before, and won."
Of course, Geoffrey thought—she was telekinetic. He wondered if he should read a double meaning into that, too. "You seem to forget," he said, "that riding with this woman is a gamble for me, too."
Minerva looked up at him in surprise. "I did not think you would realize that!"
"Oh, yes," Geoffrey said softly, "but I cannot lose, you see—for with a woman like this, even loss is gain." Minerva frowned, not understanding, but Quicksilver blushed and turned away.
When she raised her face to her outlaws, the blush had faded. "Go back to Castle Laeg," she cried, "and hold it for me! Will you or nil you, I shall ride with this knight!"
"Our only remedy, then, is to take you back by force," Leander said, frowning.
Quicksilver turned a very cold gaze on him. "Brother," she said, "I love you dearly, and owe you greatly, but I should chastise you sorely if you did. You must make your life, and I must make mine."
"Life?" he said bitterly. "Or death?"
"I shall die boldly, or live sweetly," she told him. "Do not seek to save me from myself, brother, or you might destroy any chance of happiness that I might ever have. Go now, and do not seek to guard me again!" She turned back to Geoffrey. "Let us ride!"
With great reluctance, her bodyguard brought forth her horse—a spirited bay mare—and the outlaws disgorged Fess. Knight and bandit both mounted, and the tall black stallion said, in mental words that only Geoffrey could hear, I hope you know what you are doing, Geoffrey.
If I do not, I am sure that you will, he returned. Bear me on to glory, Fess.
CHAPTER 8
You seem to have extricated yourself from another difficulty, Fess thought at Geoffrey.
Aye, though I think it may be my captive who has extricated me. How did they find us so quickly, Fess?
When you disappeared, they took a moment to recover from the shock, then Leander dispatched runners to the sentries. They do indeed have a network that surveys every route through this forest, though boasting of every foot is a bit of an exaggeration.
'Every route' includes the rivers, then?
It does. A sentry sent word of your arrival almost as soon as you appeared by the riverbank. Her attention was no doubt attracted by the explosion accompanying your appearance.
Quicksilver mistook his long silence. "Are you so angered by a mere challenge when it is not even a defeat?"
"It is irritating to be denied battle, when I have prepared myself for it," Geoffrey acknowledged.
"Aye." Quicksilver seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. "But I could not allow it, you see. I could not risk the lives of my warriors—and my brothers least of all."
Geoffrey swung about in his saddle, staring. "Could not allow it?"
Quicksilver stared, confused, then smiled as she understood his meaning. "Has a woman never denied you before?"
"Only in that which it was hers to deny." Geoffrey felt the hot blood mount into his face.
"And never before have you met a wench who could deny you a battle," Quicksilver said drily. "You forget that I am not your common wench, Sir Knight."
"Aye, neither my wench, nor any man's! You are a lady, and do not think I do not know it!"
"Then you know more than I do," she retorted. "I am the daughter of a country squire, nothing more!" Geoffrey tossed his head irritably, dismissing the objection. "You are certainly no man's wench, if you told me truly in your tale of your life."
"I did!"
"So I thought—but it occurs to me now that you may have had more motive to tell me that tale, and so fully, than merely the desire to satisfy my curiosity."
"That is all that I shall satisfy!"
"You are frank in that, but perhaps not in other matters. You kept me in converse so that your bandits might find us, did you not?"
Quicksilver smiled and tossed her head, her long hair swirling about her head and shoulders. "What if I did?"
"Nothing, save that I must always ask myself hence forth why you do what you do. This trail that we followwill it lead us out of the wood?"
"Aye."
"But will it lead us out if we follow it in the direction in which we are now riding? Or will it only lead us further in?"
Quicksilver smiled again, amused. "It will lead you further in."
Geoffrey nodded, vindicated. "I must ask you everything, must I not? And surely watch each word I say. Come, let us go out." He turned Fess's head.
Quicksilver turned her mare to follow him, eyes sparkling.
As she came up alongside him, Geoffrey asked, "Why do you ride a mare? I doubt not that you are skilled enough in the saddle to handle any stallion."
"You do not think I would trust myself to a male, do you?" Quicksilver countered. "My Belinda is the equal of any stallion in all but sheer strength—and their superior in endurance and intelligence."
Geoffrey nodded, and they rode in silence for a few minutes, Quicksilver casting mischievous glances at him out of the corners of her eyes. It occurred to Geoffrey that she was sure she could escape him whenever she wished, but found him amusing in the meantime.
He had to admit some truth to it. For himself, he found her company entrancing, though he was not all that sure that he could escape her, if she did not want him to. On the other hand, she would find him harder to throw off than she knew.
"So," he said, more to break the silence than to make things clear, "you are a witch."
"As you are a warlock."
"Why did you not tell me that straight out?"
"You did not ask," she countered. "Do not patronize me, knight. You know as well as I that knowledge held in reserve is advantage."
"A fundamental principle of tactics," Geoffrey admitted. "However, now I do ask you straight out: What are your powers?"
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