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“Hold still,” Dahrena ad of the ointment she applied to his back His tumble from the saddle had left him with a spectacular bruise from hip to shoulder, not to ued him on the journey back to Warnsclave I dropped h already?” Dahrena went on, working the oint in hard tense circles “You have to charge into every army you find? Now, apparently, with a Dark-co in relief as she rose fro the various pots and boxes containing her curatives “I suspect ht”
He had taken a base in Warnsclave, the harbour- froranite and too substantial to be easily torn down The queen and her retinue occupied the upper floors whilst the arain ascountryside
“Like his ain This was the first cross word between theht not be so immune to injury after all The battle had been brief, hardly surprising given the odds, the Volarians running after no more than a quarter hour of co Free Swords fled in all directions, soon hunted down by the Eorhil whilst the Nilsaelins finished off the wounded and engaged in the ti the dead To his surprise Vaelin was greeted with grave respect as he walked the field, soldiers offering bows and raised lances in salute Do they choose not to see? he wondered Preferring to believe in a e and a Dark-led horse rather than a weakened fool who can’t stay in the saddle and drops his sword
“I ca today,” he told her, his tone flat, reflective She didn’t turn but her back stiffened “You know I lost ht me back Without itI dropped er on her face “Is that self-pity I hear, my lord?”
“No” He shook his head “Just honest words”
“Well, I have so to clasp his hands, s to clasp his own “I once saw a boy fight like a savage to win a banner in soht it cruel then, in truth I still do But the boy I saw that day did not hear a note fro, otherwise I would have felt it You were always rip on his hands “A gift is not muscle, or bone, or a skill learned since boyhood, a skill I cannot believe has dulled in but a feeeks”
She raised her gaze, the anger faded now as she stood, releasing his hands to enfold his head, pulling him close “We both have much still to do, Vaelin And I believe our queen’s purpose would be better served with you at her side” Shefro a kiss on his lips “Did you happen to find a key for this door?”
Later she lay with her head resting on his chest, her s any vestige of the chill It had begun at Alltor with scarcely any word spoken that first night There had been no preaether in the dark, drawn together by so neither felt any inclination to resist
“The queen hatesthe hairs on his chest “She strives to hide it, but I can feel it”
Whereas I can only suspect it, he thought “We break no law and offer no insult,” he said “And even a queen is allowed her own feelings”
“You and her, when you were young, did you?”
He gave a faint chuckle “No, such a thing could never have happened” His smile faded as Linden Al Hestian’s face cauilt of it cut him
“She loves you,” Dahrena went on “You must see it”
“I see only the queen I a more “What do the Seordah say of her?”
He felt her tense, her head shifting on his chest “Nothing, to me that is What they say to each other, however, I cannot say”
He knew the Seordah’s attitude to theone a severe transfor the affection they held for her and the reluctant respect they had begun to show him “What is it?” he asked her “Why do they fear us so?”
She re herself up to rest her chin on her hands, her face hidden in the dark but her eyes catching the light fro in the basement wall “Like the Faithful, the Seordah do not see death as a curse But they believe when a soul takes leave of the body it goes not to a world beyond this, but to a hidden place, a world that exists in every shadow and dark corner, unseen and unknowable by living eyes In this world you take every lesson learned when alive, every hunter’s trick or warrior’s skill, every scrap of lore, and you ereat and endless hunt, but free of fear or uncertainty, every burden carried in life gone, leaving only the hunt Youa hand into the shadowed hollow of a tree or the shade cast by a rock, hoping for a whispered ht reatest gift”