“And what harm will Tammad be given the while I lie about resting?” I asked, finding it difficult to keep my anger from flaring out. “You believe I will meekly obey you the while he remains in the hands of that female? No, Dallan, do not expect it to be so, for it shall not be! I will return to that place as quickly as I am able, and woe to any who stands in my path.”
“Calmly, sister, calmly,” he soothed, worry having replaced the annoyance in his eyes. His hands came to mine on the goblet, gently trying to take it out of my grip, and I looked down to see the white on my knuckles. I’d obviously been trying to crush the life out of the goblet, a top-notch example of complete emotional control and stability.
“Perhaps you would do better urging me to intelligence rather than calm,” I said, letting him take the stupid goblet. “To waste one’s strength in anger is to throw it away before a time of true need. I shall not waste it so again, for I will soon have need of it.”
“Perhaps I would do best in now speaking of other things,” he replied, putting the goblet down and picking up the bowl of meat soup. “Eat as much of this as you are able, and then we will discuss what befell you.”
“The Chama of Vediaster befell us,” I said, taking the bowl while trying not to drool. “How is it you were in precisely the place I chose to make my escape?”
“Where else would I be’?” he asked, rising to go after the goblet he had left earlier, and returning to sit cross-legged where he’d been crouching. “I knew well enough by what gate you three had entered the palace grounds, therefore was that the gate I took up vigilance before when you failed to emerge or send word. Knowing as you all did that I was about, I reasoned that were one of you to effect an escape it would be through there so that we might find one another. When I saw you moving unchallenged through the ranks of the guards I knew you used your power, therefore did I retreat further into the alleyway to keep from being affected. I was cautiously making my way to you when you came to me instead. ”
I was too busy taking another scoopful of the thick soup to say anything immediately, and it needed to be chewed a little before it could be swallowed. If anyone had asked me just then how it was, I would have sworn it was the best thing I’d tasted in my entire life.
“I believe I should admit it had not occurred to me that you would be there,” I said as soon as I could, reaching for the slab of bread. “It was truly fortunate that I no longer had the strength to wield my power, for my mind had not entirely cleared itself, and your abrupt appearance frightened me badly. This place you brought me to is extremely pleasant. Have you-taken it for the time we will remain in the city?”
I’d wanted to ask Dallan if he’d rented the place or was boarding there, but the Rimilian language had no words or phrases to express the ideas. I remembered then what Tammad had said about there being no accommodations available for money, but Dallan was already shaking his head.
“I had need of a haven for you and also a healer, therefore was I unable to merely take you to my camtah,” he said. “I was not immediately able to remove that band from around your throat, which made choosing a healer at random an undertaking filled with peril. I required a healer who would not afterward speak of the palace slave who had been tended, and there was but a single way to discover one such as that. We are now both guests beneath the roof of Leelan.”
I stopped chewing almost in mid-bite to stare at him, but his expressionless facade told me nothing. I had more than a few reactions of my own to that revelation, but that was neither the time nor the place to expound on them.
“So we are guests of Leelan of Vediaster,” was all I said, going back to my fortifying. “And she was able—and willing-to find the sort of healer you required’?”
“When she saw what had been done to you she was taken by great anger,” Dallan said, the odd look in his eyes flickering at the admission. “Leelan seems-disapproving-of the Chama and her court, and was not reluctant to give us assistance. The healer she sent for—a quiet man who seemed quite close to her-apparently felt the same.”
“We will not impose on her generosity for long,” I said, pausing to take another swallow of the juice. “This darkness would be too soon for me, I think, yet the one after will surely be suitable. By then we shall have formed a plan, and will proceed to free Tammad and Cinnan.”
“Shall we indeed?” he said, sounding annoyed all over again. “We two alone will force our way onto the palace grounds, obtain entry to the palace itself, and then blithely proceed to free Tammad and Cinnan? The while those who stand guard merely look on and comment upon our progress? Or perhaps assist us?”
“You need not be so exasperated,” I told him with a calm glance, paying more attention to my food than to his hysterics. “The plan will see to all of your objections.”
“A plan which has not yet been formulated, but which will no doubt contain provision for the necessity of my carrying you as well as wielding a blade,” he growled, not at all happy with me. “You will not be fit to walk alone so soon, an opinion put forward by the healer which I shall, in ‘exasperation,’ take above your own. Do you believe me so skillful with a sword that this objection will be overcome?”
I took a final mouthful of the meat soup, a mouthful I was forcing on myself in an effort to more quickly increase my capacity, then finished the last of the juice. Once the goblet was down, however, I turned my head to look directly at Dallan.
“As you seriously doubt that my attempt will succeed, perhaps it would be best if you were to remain behind,” I said, speaking with absolute neutrality. “The healer cannot know when I will walk, for he cannot feel what I do. Come the darkness after this next, I will walk—and succeed.”
I wonder if explosions have to gather themselves before they can go off. If they’re anything like Dallan they do, and from the look in his eyes that was just what he was intending. He straightened where he sat, his eyes hard and furious, but before he was able to get the first word out there was a knock on the door. He wanted to ignore the knock, and probably would have if he were in his own house, but instead he called out, “Enter.”
I don’t know who I could have been expecting, but seeing Leelan walk in was something of a surprise. She hadn’t changed at all in the past few days, and was wearing her sword the same way Dallan wore his; why she should have changed was something else I didn’t know, but somehow I felt as though she should have. When she saw me sitting up it was her turn to be faintly surprised, but that didn’t stop her from closing the door and approaching my bed.
“It pleases me to see you looking so well, Terril,” she said, stopping to Dallan’s right toward the foot of the bed. “The healer was quite certain you would awaken about this time. ”
“She is far more than awake,” Dallan said, the growl even thicker, his eyes not moving from my face. “She means to attack the palace come the darkness after next, and has just informed me that, as I dared to suggest that the effort might well be extreme only for her and me, my presence will not be required after all. Perhaps you would be good enough to request the return of that healer. I would know how soon it will be permissible to beat her.”
“Not for some time, I should think.” Leelan soothed him with a badly swallowed-down grin while I bristled. “I cannot find it in me to fault her for wishing to return to the palace to take vengeance, however, for would we, ourselves, not wish to do the same, had we been done as she was? There are many who chafe beneath the rule of the present Chama, Terril, and many who would truly joy in accompanying you with bared blades, yet is there the power to consider. Farian won her place with the strength of her power, and there are none about able to match her, not to speak of besting her. No matter your determination, girl, it is simply not enough.”