“In the light?” I blurted, still convinced that any plans including me would have to be executed at night. “When my dark hair would be seen by all who looked upon me? I might well find it possible to cause them to pay no mind to what they see, Leelan, yet the drain on my strength . . . .”
“No, no, Terril, your strength must be preserved for use against the Hand and the Chama,” Leelan interrupted my protests, waving them aside and dismissing them. “Clearly you must be disguised and shall be, for such a thing will not be difficult. The question to be answered is this: are we to agree on that time as the one for attack, or do we require additional time which only the pledging of my word will secure for us?”
“A word which you will then be honor-bound to hold to, even should Farian fall!” one of the other women growled in disgust, strangely enough one of the two who had been completely opposed to attacking immediately. “No, Leelan, this puts a new light on the matter. You have sacrificed enough.”
“Indeed,” said more than one of the others, and I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I substituted my curtain for the shield, made the effort to touch their minds, and found that every one of them had made the same decision.
“We are in agreement, then?” Leelan asked as she looked around, her mind filled with relief and gratitude. “We will make our attempt on the morrow?”
“We will,” they all said aloud, completing some sort of formula or tradition, and then they all laughed. The agreement really was unanimous, which we discovered in the next minute.
“I, personally, will be most pleased to make the attempt on the morrow,” an unexpected voice rang out, causing half of us to turn around. Dallan stood just inside the room with Hestin to his left; none of us had noticed either one of them arrive.
“And in what manner do you believe you may join us, l’lenda?” Relgon asked, speaking when Leelan didn’t. “Would it please you to raise your sword with our w’wendaa? Should our intentions prevail, there will be few to raise such a weapon against.”
“I am honored that you would accept my sword among those of your own warriors, lady,” Dallan said with a bow before beginning to walk toward us, deliberately having used the word w’wendaa rather than l’lendaa. “I, however, am bound by a previous honor, one which demands that I remain beside the woman of my friend and brother. Where Terril goes, there, too, go I.”
“You cannot!” Leelan gasped, outraged, annoyed—and suddenly worried. “Your presence would alert the guard, Dallan, and even were you to be admitted you would not be allowed to walk the corridors without escort. The presence of an escort would greatly complicate our plan.”
“And should any harm befall Terril, my honor would be no more,” he countered, stopping to look down at the woman he argued with. “Would you ask me to compromise my honor out of deference to your need?”
All of the women suddenly flashed annoyed frustration so strongly that I could feel the waves of it through my curtain, but not one word was spoken in answer to Dallan’s question. He had as much as accused them of being ready to sacrifice his honor to their cause, and that was something most of them would not find it possible to do. Dallan knew that and had been trying to get at least one of them to say he could go along no matter how out of place he would be, but Deegor spoke up before anyone could put an irretrievable foot in it.
“The request of this l’lenda to accompany you is the least of the matters we have before us, Leelan,” she said, starting immediately to get to her feet. “We will now take our leave to see to as many of them as we may, and will send you word as to our progress. We will meet again before your departure for the palace.”
Leelan nodded with a smile as she, too, rose to her feet, and in another moment everyone was following suit. Deegor had momentarily neutralized Dallan by calling his demand a request, something he couldn’t correct on the spot without making himself look foolish. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be a problem, but arguing it out with him could be done more easily without so large an audience. The women all said good-bye to me before heading for the door, and Leelan followed along behind them to see them out. I was drifting along too, listening to two of them making some afterthought comments on one of the suggestions I’d made, but the last of it got said without my hearing it. Just as I reached the doorway I was snagged by Dallan and Hestin both, one taking each of my arms, and the parade continued on without me.
“You seem to have been rather fully occupied, treda,” Hestin said from my right, looking down at me calmly. “In my distraction, it had not come to me that this would be so.”
“And I, too, had not realized that Leelan and the others would fail to dissuade you from leaving your bed,” Dallan chimed in, his stare from my left quite a bit more on the chilly side. “A thing which was done, sister, without the permission of either Hestin or myself.”
Each one of them had a big hand wrapped around the arm nearest him, and although they weren’t hurting me they also weren’t holding on loosely enough for me to pull free. I closed my eyes for a minute with a sigh, trying to keep my temper in check, then looked up at each of them in turn with the meager results of my efforts.
“I refuse to allow this to continue,” I stated, not only annoyed but embarrassed. “I am a grown woman, and will not be ordered about as though I were a child.”
“You are a grown woman who is banded, and one who was badly hurt,” Dallan said with an air of repeating himself for the hundredth time, adding patience-finally-wearing-thin.
“You cannot march about as you please, disregarding everything said to you.”
“And yet, what else might be expected of her?” Hestin put in, this time speaking to Dallan. “A treda such as she cannot be expected to behave with a full knowledge of honor, as witness her recent behavior. You blow your breath into the gale, Dallan.”
“What knowledge of honor do you refer to?” I demanded at once, stung by his slighting reference. “I have done nothing dishonorable. ”
“All you have done has been dishonorable, treda,” Hestin said in disagreement, bringing those calm eyes back to me. “A woman who has been banded by a man is more than merely his belonging, she is also the guardian of his honor. Her behavior is a reflection of the esteem in which she holds him, each action speaking loudly of her respect for him. Should she do as he would wish in his absence, she demonstrates her respect and upholds his honor before others; should she do other than what he would wish, she demonstrates the opposite. Tell us which you have done, treda. ”
“While also bearing in mind your-exercises-upon the healer,” Dallan said as I stared in upset at Hestin. “It matters not that you were made responsible for your own actions as regards your power; were Tammad to appear this moment at Leelan’s door and be told all of which has occurred, what would be done with you?”
I turned my head to look up at Dallan, knowing exactly what Tammad would do, but the question wasn’t fair. If Tammad had been there, I wouldn’t have had to do any of what I’d done. Beginning to feel trapped, I looked back at Hestin.
“I am a living being, an individual, not merely a reflection,” I told the man, trying to keep from sounding cornered. “My actions are my own, and speak of none save myself.”
“With one who is banded, that cannot be,” he denied again, refusing to give an inch. “Were your memabrak to go out, draw his sword, then begin wantonly slaying the helpless, would you not be horribly shamed? In no manner would you be able to halt him, yet would you continue to be enclosed in the bands of such a one. At the moment your memabrak is unable to halt you—and your lack of obedience would surely fill him with shame. Although I have never met him, I feel sure this is so. Do you believe me mistaken?”