"1 hate disappointing you, but you won't be getting that chance," he came back, moving into the middle of the room. "This house will give us a place to stay for the night, and those chickens outside will give us something to eat. I found some leather in the next room, probably left behind because it was badly tanned, but the bottoms of your feet won't know
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the difference. And on top of all the rest we'll have the chance to talk here, something I think we need more than food and shelter."
The look in his eyes had turned odd, but he was gone from the room before I could decide just what the oddness entailed. I couldn't imagine what he wanted to talk about, unless he intended being silly enough to threaten me. That would be just like the cowardly vermin he and his associates were, but if they were expecting to get anywhere with the tactic they were in for disappointment.
He was back in just a few minutes with a double armload of the chopped wood I'd seen stacked at the side of the house, and part of the load went into the hearth to be lit by the flame-starter in his belt pouch. I certainly expected to be given chores of my own to do, and was surprised when I didn't have to bother refusing. It occurred to me that in his place I wouldn't have been too eager to eat anything I'd had a chance at, and he was most likely looking at it in the same .way. He went outside again once the fire was well started, and this time stayed out there for quite a while:
I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep until my eyes opened again, showing me that darkness had come. I was stretched out on my left side on the floor, and the brightness of the fire in the hearth was enough to make me fook away. I sat up rubbing the back of my neck, wondering what could have caused me to drop off like that, as though I were exhausted after hours and hours of fighting. I couldn't remember being more than very faintly weary, so it didn't make any sense.
"In case you're wondering, you stiil have to have traces of the swamp mist in you,1' I was told, the words soft and easy. "You'll know it's completely gone when you can sit down for a few minutes without falling asleep."
I looked over to the left of the hearth from where his voice had come, and saw him sitting down leaning against the wall, the very edge of the fireglow touching him. So that was the name of what had been used to put me out, swamp mist, and wasn't it pure coincidence that he happened to know.
"You have to be hungry after not eating all day," he said, moving slowly where he sat so as not to jostle whatever it was I could just see in his lap. "Cat, here, and I have already
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had our meal, so what's left is yours. Wait just a minute and I'll get it."
"Don't bother," I said before he could coax the cat he'd mentioned out of his lap. "If 1 want something to eat, I'll get it for myself."
I leaned back against the wall again, finding it not difficult at all putting off the thought of eating. I wouldn't have taken anything from him even if I'd been starving, but 1 wasn't even really hungry. 1 decided I was feeling a little too vague to be hungry, and let it go at that.
"All right, so our talk gets to come first," he said with a sigh, lifting the cat out of his lap before rising and walking over to sit again beside me to my right. "1 doubt if anyone can say we've been blending beautifully since the first time we met, and it doesn't make much sense to let it go on like this. I think we ought to try to be friends."
"And I think I'd rather pick my own friends," I answered, not bothering to look at him. "I'm a big girl now, and I've even learned to tell the difference between people I like and those I don't. Guess which category you fall into."
"How many tries do I get?" he asked, sounding the least bit tired. "Look, I know I was hard on you this afternoon, but you have to understand that it's my responsibility to get you safely home. If I'd let you half-cripple me because your mood had soured, I'd hardly have been in a position to do what I had to. Are you going to hold that against me for the rest of our lives?"
"Possibly for the rest of yours," I allowed, watching the flames jump in the hearth. "I expect mine to be a good deal longer—starting from the minute i get my hands on a weapon."
"1 don't believe I could have been disappointed at the thought of having a shy and gentle woman for a wife," he muttered, stirring where he sat. "I can tell you right now that your attitude is going to dim the golden glow of our marriage •even before it's properly begun. How can I make you happy, if all you're interested in is coming after me with a sword in your hand and blood in your eye?"
"You can manage it by standing still," I answered with satisfaction, feeling the pleasure of it in my imagination. "And you can also stop worrying about something that will
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never happen. I wouldn't marry you even if you decided to cut me down right now."
"Something like that would take the attraction out of our wedding night," he said, his tone having gone dry again. "It might make for a more pleasant time in later years, but at the moment the idea doesn't have much appeal. And that would be a good argument for my having lost interest in our betrothal. Why would you think I'd want to end our betrothal?"
1 felt enough annoyance at that to turn my head to look at him, and found a very bland expression looking back at me out of the dimness. It was clear he had a reason for wanting me alive, but 1 didn't yet know what it was.
"What you want doesn't particularly matter," I said, disliking the way those eyes gazed directly at me. "What / want is more to the point, and I think I've made myself clear about that. If you ever find anyone crazy enough to marry you, you can be certain it won't be me."
"You seem to have a lot of trouble remembering that you're promised to me," he observed, reaching out a big hand to brush a strand of hair from my shoulder. "Your father personally registered the match at Court, which means he's responsible for producing my bride. If you refuse to go tnrough with it, he's the one who will have to face the consequences."
"I can face my own consequences!" I snapped, immediately even angrier as I tried to knock his hand away and missed when he moved it fast out of my reach. "If I go to the King and tell him I'm the one who refuses the match, he'll have to leave my father alone."
"The Law won't allow King Klieant to leave your father alone," he retorted, leaning away from the wall. "The Laws were established in the first place to keep peace among the nobility, since the breaking of a Ducal betrothal contract has been known to lead to war between the duchies. Even if my father doesn't press the matter, your father will spend years paying off the fines involved, and that could very well be the least of it. Most women aren't like you, Sofaltis, so there's no provision made for refusal on the part of the bride. If the wedding doesn't take place, no one but your father will be blamed."
"But that's not fair!" I shouted, throwing myself to my feet to stride to the fire. "It's my life and my decision, and
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i'H make the King see that even if I have to cut down every half-baked Fighter who tries to keep me from Kirn!"
I stood in front of the hearth with my arms wrapped around me, not against an outer chill but an inner one. I couldn't be so completely trapped, ! just couldn't be, it simply wasn't fair! The man was an enemy, for Evon's sake! The Law couldn't still demand that I marry him!
"It might have been your decision if you'd been bom a peasant," his voice came from behind me, unbelievably sounding sympathetic and compassionate. "As someone who was nobly born, you have no more choice than the rest of us. 1 agree that it isn't fair, but it's already done and nothing can change that. And it could have been considerably worse. You might have been bound to someone who had no interest in you as an individual at all. I may not look like the best of all possible mates right now, but I can certainly assure you my interest isn't in any way lacking."
His hands came to my arms at that, stroking gently over the tunic sleeves, just as though he were telling the truth. It wou
ld have helped if he really was a friend rather than an enemy, but other than that it made no difference at all. If I didn't cooperate, my father would be dishonored and ruined, something he'd made very clear.
"If you're trying to make me believe I'm the only thing you're interested in, you're wasting your time," I said, acting as though I didn't notice his hands on me. "If not for what comes along with me, your interest would undoubtedly be as intense as most men's toward a female Blade. And if you want to discuss convenient memory lapses, let's talk about yours in relation to me. How much good will being my father's heir do you if you have to put up with the sort of married life I'm prepared to supply? And not only prepared, but eager and willing?"
"What sort would that be?" he asked, his voice now wary and his hands stilled. "I'm prepared to concede you quite a lot of freedom, but there are certain things . . ."
"Concede me?" I said with a short laugh, stepping away from his hands and then turning to face him. "See what I mean about your memory lapses? Why would I need any freedom conceded to me, when I already have it all? I can make you the biggest laughingstock in the entire Kingdom,
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and have fun every minute I'm doing it. You won't have to worry about turning your back on me, because 1 won't wait for your back to be turned. Every bit of it will be right out in the open, where you—and everyone else— can see it."
"Now let's take it easy and discuss this calmly," he said tn response to my growing enthusiasm, trying not to sound as worried as he undoubtedly was. "You're talking about doing 'everything' out in the open, but you know and I know there are quite a lot of things you couldn't do without disgracing your family as well as me. Since you'd never disgrace your family, there aren't ..."
"Is that so?" I interrupted again, folding my arms and smiling happily as 1 looked up at him. "You think I'd worry about disgracing a family that was going to have you at its head? I think the first thing I'll do is ride around to visit the Counts and Barons—and challenge their chief Fighters after insulting them personally. And of course I'll have very public arrangements made with every night house in Gensea, to be sure the ones I choose as my favorites will be available when I want them. Drinking contests at the taverns, riding out with the City Guard when there's nothing more interesting to do, maybe even starting my own Sword Company ..."
"You can't possibly believe I'd stand still for all that," he finally got out with a laugh of incredulity, a small change from the blank disbelief he'd been showing. "Any man who did stand for it would be an idiot, and 1 may be a lot of things but that's not one of them."
"How would you stop me?" I asked, still smiling pleasantly. "Blade to blade in formal challenge? I'd be a widow so fast it would make your head spin—right off your shoulders into the dirt. What's the matter? Aren't you still hot and eager to make me your wife?"
To say his expression had gone peculiar would be to understate abysmally, and I wondered why I hadn't thought of that before. Show him the Blade as well as the woman, Traixe had said, and I'd forgotten all about it. If he was the only one who could call the whole thing off, it was obviously my job to see that he did—no matter what those behind him wanted him to do instead.
"Sofaltis, I really don't know what to say," he managed after a moment, the peculiar expression still with him. "I
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don't know why you're so dead set against being my wife, but it must have something to do with the way all this started. Don't you see you're blaming me for something that wasn't my fault? If it had been up to me I would have told you everything, but the choice wasn't mine. Others had the final word, and you're holding it against me. You mentioned fairness before; is that what you call fair?"
Those light eyes were directly on me, open and frank and oddly vulnerable. If I hadn't known better 1 would have almost believed him, would have almost been ashamed oi myself for not giving him any chance at all. The only thing that ruined it for him was that I knew who those "others" were, and I have very little sympathy for people who are enemies to me and mine.
"That's funny, but I can't quite .see them," I said, looking him up and down in the firelight and even trying to peer behind him. "I wonder where they can be."
"They?" he repeated, back to looking blank as he glanced down at himself. "What are you talking about? What is it you're looking for?"
"I'm looking for the chains and the marks of the torture vthey' used to force you into going along with them," I answered, standing still again as soon as he went for it. "Since 1 can't seem to find any, I have to conclude that they're very persuasive—or you're awfully easy to talk into things. For your sake, I hope you're just as easy to talk out of them—and that is what I call fair, as in warning."
"You know, I'm discovering there's a limit to any man's patience," he said, his skin having darkened enough to notice even in the firelight. "You're not hearing anything I say, and not because you can't but because you won't. I've tried to be understanding and reasonable, but your stubbornness goes well beyond reason. Maybe 1 ought to simply say you'll do as you're told, and leave it at that."
"You can leave it anywhere you please," I said with a snort, still not terribly impressed. "For myself, I'll be taking it—as far as I like. You can either kill me now, back out of the marriage as soon as we return, or go through with it and live a life you can't even begin to imagine. The Law says the choice is yours and I'd never break the Law, so have fun making your choice."
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"Who do you think you are, Even's twin sister?" he asked with exasperation, folding his arms as he stared down at me. "You make it sound as if you think you're the best Blade ever to have lived, and for some reason I tend to doubt that."
"I'm good enough to take you," I came back, meeting his gaze with an evil grin. "And if you were that unsure about it, you wouldn't have been so careful to 'doubt' me while I was unarmed. How—discreet—of you."
"Why, you little twerp!" he growled, straightening as he unfolded his arms. "You'll never see the day I back down from a runt who's half mouth and all ego! Even if you had Evon to stand behind, I could—"
He broke it off abruptly, just short of the challenge I'd really been trying hard for, and put a hand to his face. He muttered something into that hand, then took it away as he shook his head.
"You almost made me do it," he said, this time staring at me accusingly. "AH I wanted to do was settle things peaceably, and you almost pushed me into a fight. What am I going to do with you?"
"Absolutely nothing," I answered, staying with the ob-noxiousness that seemed to bother him so much. "Especially once I'm armed again. By then I don't doubt you'll be even more interested in peace. Where did you say that chicken was?"
Things had begun working out so well that my appetite had suddenly returned. The man in front of me was just short of being furious, and by the time I finished with him he'd be so ready to challenge me that nothing would stop him. I'd be sure that happened in front of enough witnesses to prove / wasn't to blame, and that would be the end of my problems.
"The chicken's over there, in the corner of the hearth," he said in a continuing growl, pointing behind me and to my right. "You'll forgive me, I think, if I don't wish you a hearty appetite."
With that he turned and stomped off, and that was it for the rest of the night.
Chapter 9
By the time it was light enough out to see things easily, Kylin had sufficient chicken cooked and wrapped to last them for a short while, and had made a crude pair of sandals for the girl. He had just enough leather left over for a second pair, which would hopefully, along with the first pair, get them back to her father's castle. If he had to carry her again he would, but if he had the choice it would be to leave her on her own two feet.
"To keep from getting knocked off my own feet," he muttered to the cat that rubbed at his ankles, then he crouched to scratch at a light gray head. The
cat was gray, the new day was starting off gray, and what sleep he'd managed to get the night before had been filled with eyes of gray. He stared out the open door without really seeing the yard, patiently waiting for the swamp mist to let the girl wake up, not so patiently trying to understand why things refused to work out right between them. She had spent the night sleeping not five feet away from him, and all he'd been able to do was dream about her.
His sigh was easily the tenth that morning, and if he'd been aware of it he would have felt disturbed. He'd never had so much trouble with a woman before, and if she kept on pushing at him the way she'd been doing, he'd end up jumping into something they'd both regret. All he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and let her know she'd never be sorry she had to marry him, but all she wanted was to start a fight. He was more than half tempted to let her do just that, and then finish it in a way she would not soon forget. She
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was all but begging for it, and if he had any brains at alt he'd—
No. That was one thing he refused to do. She was the woman who would become his wife, and if it made her happy to believe she could best him with swords, let her keep on believing it. She was so damned unhappy about everything else he could almost feel her pain, and if he hadn't already given his word to go through with becoming Duke Rilfe's heir, he would probably get her home and then go back to being a King's Fighter. She could be so bright and alive, shining with Evon's glow—until he mentioned anything at all about the marriage. If just once she would smile at him when she wasn't threatening him with something—
"Don't you have anything better to do with your time than play with a cat?" her voice came suddenly from behind him, still sounding half asleep. "Like waking me up to let me know the new day has started?"
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