He sprang up, still half-blind, fighting clear of the sheets, and stumbled to the doorway. He blinked at Morgaine, who was dressed in her accustomed black armor and standing by the open outer door. A mass of geararmorrested on the hearthside; it had not been there the night before. Books and charts were heaped on the floor in a flood of daylight from the window, most of them open and in disorder. Servants were even then bringing in food, dishes steaming and savory, setting gold plates and cups on the long table.
And just outside the door, in conversation with Morgaine, stood a different set of guards: taller, slimmer men than the run of marshlanders. She was speaking with them quietly, giving orders or receiving reports.
Vanye ran a hand through his hair, let go his breath, deciding that there was nothing amiss. He ached; his lacerated wrists hurt to bend after a nights rest, and his feethe looked down, grimacing at the ugly sores. He limped back into the bedroom and sought a fresh shirt from the supply in the wardrobe, and found a pair of boots that he had set aside the night before, likewise from the wardrobe. He sat in the shadow, on the bed, working the overly tight boots onto his sore feet, and listened to Morgaines voice in the next room, and those of the men with whom she spoke. He did not make sense of it; the distance was too great and their accent was difficult for him. It seemed awkward to go into the other room, breaking in upon her business. He waited until he had heard Morgaine dismiss them, and heard the servants finish their arranging of breakfast and leave. Only then he arose and ventured out to see what matters were between them in cold daylight.
Sit, she offered him, bidding him to the table; and with a downcast expression and a shrug: It is noon; it is still raining occasionally, and the scouts report that there is no abating of the flood at the crossing. They give some hope that matters will improve tonight, or perhaps tomorrow. This they have from the Shiua themselves.
Vanye began to take the chair that she offered, but when he drew it back to sit down, he saw the stain on the carpet and stopped. She looked at him. He pushed the chair in again, then walked round the table and took the opposite one, not looking down, trying to forget the memory of the night. Quietly he moved his plate across the narrow table.
She was seated. He helped himself after her, spooned food onto gold plates and sipped at the hot and unfamiliar drink that eased his sore throat. He ate without a word, finding it wildly incongruous to be sharing table with Morgaine, stranger than to have shared a bed. He felt it improper to sit at table in her presence: to do so belonged to another life, when he had been a lords son, and knew hall manners and not the ashes of the hearthside or the campfire of an outlaw.
She also maintained silence. She was not given to much conversation, but there was too much strangeness about them in Ohtij-in that he could find that silence comfortable.
They do not seem to have fed you well, she remarked, when he had disposed of a third helping, and she had only then finished her first plate.
No, he said, they did not.
You slept more soundly than ever I have seen you.
You might have waked me, he said, when you wakened.
You seemed to need the rest.
He shrugged. I am grateful, he said.
I understand that your lodging here was not altogether comfortable.
No, he agreed, and took up his cup, pushing the plate away. He was uneasy in this strange humor of hers, that discussed him with such persistence.
I understand, Morgaine said, that you killed two menone of them the lord of Ohtij-in.
He set the cup down in startlement, held it in his fingers and turned it, swirling the amber liquid inside, his heart beating as if he had been running. No, he said. That is not so. One man I killed, yes. But the lord BydarraHetharu murdered him: his own sonmurdered him, alone in that room with me; and I would have been hanged for it last night, that at the least. The other son, Kithanhe may know the truth or not; I am not sure. But it was very neatly done liyo. There is none but Hetharu and myself that know for certain what happened in that room.
She pushed her chair back, turning it so that she faced him at the corner of the table; and she leaned back, regarding him with a frowning speculation that made him the more uncomfortable. Then, she said, Hetharu left in Rohs company, and took with him the main strength of Ohtij-in. Why? Why such a force?
I do not know.
This time must have been terrible for you.
Yes, he said at last, because she left a silence to be filled.
I did not find Jhirun Elas-daughter. But while I searched for her, Vanye, I heard a strange thing.
He thought that the color must long since have fled his face. He took a drink to ease the tightness in his throat Ask, he said.
It is said, she continued, that she, like yourself, was under Rohs personal protection. That his orders kept you both in fair comfort and safety until Bydarra was murdered.
He set the cup down again and looked at her, remembering that any suspicion for her was sufficient motive to kill. But she sat at breakfast with, him, sharing food and drink, while she had known these things perhaps as early as last night, before she lay down to sleep beside him.
If you thought that you could not trust me, he said, you would be rid of me at once. You would not have waited.
Is thee going to answer, Vanye? Or is thee going to go on evading me? Thee has omitted many things in the telling. On thy oathon thy oath, Nhi Vanye, no more of it.
HeRohfound welcome here, at least with one faction of the house. He saw to it that I was safe, yes; but not so comfortable, not so comfortable as you imagine, liyo. And laterwhen Hetharu seized powerthen, tooRoh intervened.
Do you know why?
He shook his head and said nothing. Suppositions led in many directions that he did not want to explore with her.
Did you speak with him directly?
Yes. There was long silence. He felt out of place even to be sitting in a chair, staring at her eye to eye, when that was not the situation between them and never had been.
Then thee has some idea.
He saidit was for kinships sake.
She said nothing.
He said, he continued with difficulty, that if youif you were lost, thenI think he would have sought a Claiming...
Did you suggest it? she asked; and perhaps the revulsion showed on his face, for her look softened at once to pity. No, she judged. No, thee would not. And for a moment she gazed on him with fearsome intentness, as if she prepared something from which she had long refrained. Thee is ignorant, she said, and in that ignorance, valuable to him.
I would not help him against you.
You are without defense. You are ignorant, and without defense.
Heat rose to his face, anger. Doubtless, he said.
I could remedy that, Vanye. Become what I am, accept what I serve, bear what I bear.
The heat fled, leaving chill behind. No, he said. No.
Vanyefor your own sake, listen to me.
Hope was in her eyes, utterly intense: never before had she pleaded with him for anything. He had come with her: perhaps then she had begun to hope for this thing that she had never won of him. He remembered then what he had for a time forgotten, the difference there was between Morgaine and what possessed Chya Roh: that Morgaine, having the right to order, had always refrained.
It was the thing she wanted most, that alone might give her some measure of peace; and she refrained.
Liyo, he whispered, I would do anything, anything you set me to do. Ask me things that I can do.
Except this, she concluded, in a tone that pierced his heart.