They made an easier ride this time across Azeroth, attended by old friends and new. They camped last beyond the two rivers, and there were arrhendimtents spread and a bright fire to warm the night.
Merir had come great honor to them; and Lellin and Sezar and Sharrn, no holding them from this journey; and Roh: Roh, sunk much of the time in lonely silence or staring bleakly elsewhere. Roh sat apart from the company, among the strange arrhendimof east Shathan, well guarded by them, although he did little and said less, and had never made attempt to run.
"This Chya Roh," Merir whispered that night, while the remnant of the company shared food together, all but Roh. "He is halfling, aye, and more than that-but Shathan would take him. We have taken some even of the Shiua folk who have come begging peace with the forest, who have some love of the green land. And could any man's love for it be greater than his, who has offered his life for it?"
He spoke to Morgaine, and Vanye looked on her with sudden, painful hope, for Roh's fate had blighted all the peace of these last days. But Morgaine said nothing, and finally shook her head.
"He fought for us," said Lellin. "Sezar and I will speak for him."
"So do I," said Sharrn. "Lady Morgaine, I am alone. I would take this Man, and Dev would not reproach me for it, nor would Larrel and Kessun."
Morgaine shook her head, although with great sadaess. "Let us not speak of it again tonight. Please."
But Vanye did, when that night they were alone, in the tent which they shared. A tiny oil lamp lent a faint glow among the shadows. He could see Morgaine's face. A sad mood was on her, and one of her silences, but he ventured it all the same, for there was no more time.
"What Sharrn offered are you thinking of that?"
Her gray eyes met his, guarded at once.
"I ask it of you," he said, "if it can be given."
"Do not." Her voice had a hard edge, quiet as it was. "Did I not say: I will never go right or left to please you?I know only one direction, Vanye. If you do not understand that, then you have never understood me at all."
"If you do not understand my asking, hopeless as it is, then you have never understood me either."
"Forgive me," she said then faintly. "Yes. I do. Thee must, being Nhi. But consider him, not your honor. What did you tell me regarding what struggle he has? How long can he bear that?"
He let go his breath and clenched his hands about his knees, for it was true; he considered Roh's moodiness, the terrible darkness that seemed above him much of the time. The Fires were near dying. The power at Nehmin had been set to fade at a given day and hour, and that hour was evening tomorrow.
"I have ordered," Morgaine said, "that his guards watch him with special closeness this night."
"You saved his life. Why?"
"I have watched him. I have been watching him."
He had never spoken with her of Roh's fate, not in all the days that they had spent in the forest about Nehmin, while Roh and Sezar healed, while they rested and nursed their own wounds, and took the gentle hospitality of Shathan's east. He had almost hoped then for her mercy, had even been confident of it.
But when they had prepared to leave, she had ordered Roh brought with them under guard. "I want to know where you are," she had told Roh; and Roh had bowed in great irony. "Doubtless you have stronger wishes than that," Roh had answered, and the look of the stranger had been in his eyes. The stranger was much with them on this ride, even to this last night. Roh was quiet, morose; and sometimes it was Roh and as often it was not. Perhaps the arrhendimdid not fully see this; if any suspected this shifting, it was likely Merir, and perhaps Sharrn, who knew fully what he was.
"Do you doubt I consider what pain he suffers?" Vanye asked bitterly. "But I have faith in the outcome of this mood of his; and you always have faith in the worst. That is our difference."
"And we would not know until the Fires were dead, whether we should believe one thing or the other," Morgaine said. "And thee and I cannot linger this side to find it out."
"And you do not take chances."
"I do not take chances."
There was long silence.
"Never," she said, "have I power to listen to heart more than head. Thee's my better nature, Vanye. All that I am not, thee is. And when I come against that Thee's the only-well, I would miss thee. But I have thought it over how perhaps if I should harm this man, thee would hate me; that thee would, finally, leave me. And thee will do what thee thinks right; and so must I, thee by heart, I by head; and which of us is right, I do not know. But I cannot let myself be led by wanting this and wanting that. I must be right. It is not what Roh can do that frets me; once the Fires are dead-I hope I hopethat he is powerless."
I know what is written in the runes on that blade,Roh had said; at least the gist of it.The words shot back into his mind out of all the confusion of pain and akil,turning him cold to the heart. Little of that time he did remember clearly; but this came back.
"He knows more," he said hoarsely. "He has at least part of Changeling'sknowledge."
A moment she stared at him, stark-stricken, and then bowed against her hands, murmured a word in her own lost language, over and over.
"I have killed him," Vanye said. "By telling you that, I have killed him, have I not?"
It was long before she looked up at him. "Nhi honor," she said.
"I do not think I will sleep well hereafter."
"Thee also serves something stronger than thyself."
"It is as cold a bedfellow as that you serve. Perhaps that is why I have always understood you. Only keep Changelingfrom him. What wants doing-I will do, if you cannot be moved."
"I cannot have that."
"In this, liyo,I do not care what you will and will not."
She folded her arms and rested her head against them.
The light eventually burned out; neither of them slept but by snatches, nor spoke, while it burned. It was only afterward that Vanye fell into deeper sleep, and that still sitting, his head upon his arms.
They slept late in the morning; the arrhendmade no haste to wake them, but had breakfast prepared when they came out, Morgaine dressed in her white garments, Vanye in the clothing which the arrhendimhad provided. And still Roh did not choose to sit with them, nor even to eat, though his guards brought him food and tried to persuade him. He only drank a little, and sat with his head bowed on his arms after.
"We will take Roh," Morgaine said to Merir and the others when they had done with breakfast. "Our ways must part now, yours and ours; but Roh must go with us."
"If you will it so," said Merir, "but we would go all the way to the Fires with you."
"Best we ride this last day alone. Go back, lord. Give our love to the Mirrindim and the Carrhendim. Tell them why we could not come back."
"There is also," said Vanye, "a boy named Sin, of Mirrind, who wants to be khemeis."
"We know him," said Sharrn.
'Teach him," Vanye asked of the old arrhen.He saw then a touch of longing come to the qhal'sgray eyes.
"Aye," said Sham. "I shall. The Fires may go, but the arrhendmust remain."
Vanye nodded slowly, comforted.
"We would come with you," said Lellin, "Sezar and I. Not to the Fires, but through them. It would be hard to leave our forests, harder yet to leave the arrhendbut-"