“Put up that sword, else use it on one who has a similar weapon,” another voice growled, and then Dallan stepped out of the gloom and approached the man standing over the woman. “Or perhaps I should not suggest such a manly thing to one who happily strikes at the helpless.”
Dallan stood with his own sword in his hand, still in those tight cloth pants, bare-chested, blond-haired head up, broad shoulders back. The first sight of him had frightened the other man, but Dallan’s insult triggered the man’s flash-quick temper and insane anger. Rather than stopping to think about it he immediately raised his sword and charged the drin of Gerleth, which proved to be his last mistake. Dallan had enough body-weight and strength not to need to side-step; he blocked the swinging attack with his own weapon, then immediately moved in answer, and the man’s head flew from his shoulders. My shield was already closed tight by then, so all I had to do was avert my eyes while I hurried to the woman who still sat on the ground with a hand to the back of her head.
” Are you harmed?” I asked as I crouched down beside her, quickly letting my shield dissolve. I hadn’t wanted to feel that man die, but now it was over and the woman needed help.
“For the most part, no,” the woman answered with a grimace, clearly annoyed with herself. “My pride, however, is seriously damaged, that and my estimation of myself as an adequate fighter. To be downed by the simplest of subterfuges!”
“You were not truly defeated,” another voice put in, and then Dallan was crouching to the right of the woman as I crouched to the left, his sword already wiped and sheathed. “Had that other not intervened you would have had him, neatly and with skill. I must ask your pardon for my own intervention. ”
“Truly would I be a fool to berate a man who has saved my life,” she said with a wincing grin, Dallan’s compliment having eased a good deal of the non-physical pain she’d been feeling. “I must make the effort to recall that all people are not possessed of honor, difficult though the concept is to accept. It had not occurred to me that I must concern myself with one who would come behind. I give thanks that the gendis was not able to maintain his balance when first he thought to strike at me.”
“Yes, a truly fortunate thing,” Dallan murmured, his glance at me both brief and completely revealing. He knew I’d knocked the man off-balance, but he didn’t seem to be upset by it. “You must join us at our campsite till your head has cleared, else shall you likely be faced with another of these darayse before you have had opportunity to recover. Once you have returned to yourself, they will be of no bother to you.”
“I thank you for your offer of hospitality,” the woman answered warmly, beginning to get to her feet. Her usual litheness was hobbled by the dizziness that hit her, and Dallan had to put his arm around her fast to keep her from falling again. The hum in his mind grew at the contact, but I don’t think he missed the fact that the woman was still able to hang onto her sword, then unsteadily sheathe it.
“I am Dallan of Gerleth, and the wenda is Terril,” Dallan offered, very obviously making no mention of his title and position. “Our fire is yours for so long as you have need of it. ”
“I am Leelan of Vediaster,” the woman returned, still too shaky to notice the way Dallan was looking at her. “So the girl is yours. Has she been harmed?”
“Terril?” Dallan echoed in surprise, immediately moving his eyes to me. “In what manner might she have been harmed?”
“The gendis took her with the intention of using her,” Leelan explained, glancing up into Dallan’s face. As large as she was she still had to look up, but it didn’t seem to bother her. “The girl was clearly unable to defend herself, therefore did I demand her release. She should not have been left to walk about unescorted.
” Unable to defend herself,” Dallan echoed with what turned out to be annoyance and faint anger, his eyes just about blazing out of the dark at me. “We shall speak of this matter, wenda, when our guest has been seen to.”
“You would punish her for the honorless doing of another?” Leelan demanded with as much strength as she could muster while I dropped my eyes. The thought of Dallan’s punishing me didn’t bother me half as much as the suspicion of what I thought he intended instead.
“Calm yourself, Leelan of Vediaster,” Dallan said to soothe her, his voice softer than hers had been. “The girl is mine for neither punishment nor the withholding of it, nor would I punish her in any event. She and I are helid, and I believe the time has come to speak sternly with her.”
“Helid?” Leelan repeated in great surprise while I flinched to have my guess confirmed. Dallan was going to lecture me about defending myself, and I really didn’t want to go into that. “You freely admit to being helid with one who is female and a rella wenda?”
“Terril is most certainly female, yet is she scarcely a rella wenda as you speak of it,” Dallan came back, looking down at Leelan. “Her memabrak is Tammad, a man who cherishes her as few women have ever been cherished, a man who would not degrade her by holding her as no more than a woman for show. Despite her great beauty, Terril is not rella wenda. ”
“You defend the girl, yet not yourself,” Leelan said in nearly a murmur, smiling faintly up at Dallan in spite of the look he was giving her, a hum beginning in her mind that was both familiar and unfamiliar. “Never before have I met a man who felt no shame at being helid with a female. With your agreement, Dallan of Gerleth, I would learn to know such a man more completely.”
“My agreement is easily come by, Leelan of Vediaster,” Dallan answered with a grin, his arm tightening the least bit around her. “Allow me to assist you to our fire, where we may take our ease and-converse.”
Both of them grinned at that one, but they still started off in the direction of our campsite, happily forgetting all about me. I was using pain control on Leelan with a very delicate touch, helping along her own excellent recuperative powers rather than forcing them to the job of healing her. Even if I didn’t owe her the help, I would have worked at restoring her to full health simply for the distraction she would be for Dallan. The drin of Gerleth had always been fascinated by women who were really free, and if Leelan’s presence couldn’t get me out of that lecture, nothing would.
With the former spectators of the fight all disappeared into their camtahh, I was able to trail a good distance behind Dallan and Leelan back to our campsite without being bothered. I might have made more of an attempt to keep up with them if my side hadn’t been hurting the way it was, but probably wouldn’t have intruded in any event. I had never before seen anything on Rimilia to match their mutual absorption and attraction, and it made me smile to realize that even their names were similar. Watching them stare at each other was fun, but it was bound to be even more fun when Dallan came out of it and tried telling Leelan what to do. The big woman from Vediaster wasn’t likely to stand still for something like that, and Dallan would deserve whatever she did to him because of it. In the meanwhile I’d be entirely forgotten, most especially where lectures were concerned.
By the time they reached the fire Leelan was walking on her own, and Dallan glanced back to make sure I was in sight before going over to check on the contents of the large pot that hung from a tripod over the fire. He stirred the contents with a shallow-bowled wooden scoop before tasting it, then turned to Leelan with a smile.