“Together,” she confirms, offering me a hand and pulling me to my feet.
“Your word on that?” I can’t help myself. I always have to press for certainty. It’s as much a part of how I’m constructed as my sinews and bones.
“Do you want some kind of oath, Adalbrand?”
I like how she says my name with one eyebrow lifted. I like how she seems utterly unaffected by me. Usually. I draw women like flies to a half-eaten pie and I must remind them often that I am sworn to the God — a fact, I have noted, that only seems to make them more ardent in their declarations of what they would do if only they could. I don’t begrudge them that. It’s nice to be considered desirable, even if they do rather try my vows.
I answer carefully. “An oath would be appreciated.”
She laughs and it startles me. She blows like the sea wind, hot and mellow, then cold and sharp, with barely a hint of the change before it rushes over you.
The dog whines on the other side of the door a second time and she stares at me, biting her lower lip on one side as she looks me up and down. I don’t think I’ve felt so judged since I was a new squire under uniform inspection.
“Will you help me cast out the demon if we are given the chance?” she asks, as if this is the sticking point — as if every paladin here wouldn’t lend her aid with that.
“Of course.”
I go ahead and look right back. She’s given me license now that she’s doing it to me. The wear and tatters on her clothing only serve to highlight the flawlessness of her black hair. That scar above her eyebrow and the other on her chin do the same for the perfect swoop of her cheekbones. She is contradictions. Doubtful but certain, marred but incomparable. And I must school my heart to stop cataloging them all.
“Fine, then we will make an oath.” She leans a hip against the desk, arms crossed over her chest. My gaze snags on the posture. She looks amused by me and for the first time since I arrived in this place, I feel a glimmer of light. Humor, in my opinion, is the buoyancy the heart needs to go on. “Tell me what you want to swear.”
From the other side of the door, the dog barks.
“Are you going to let him in?” I ask, smiling with her as if we are sharing a joke instead of forging something more akin to a peace treaty or maybe — just maybe — a friendship.
“Not until we’re done this.”
Well, I don’t want to be bitten again, so that’s fine with me. I’ve never met a paladin before who let a dog trail them. Perhaps there are certain rules or proprieties. Maybe I’m meant to overlook the mild mauling.
“I’ll swear to work hand in hand with you until the cup is found and returned to the church,” I offer. “That I will guard your back and join counsel with you in this and in all else. And that, if we have the chance, we will cast out that demon.”
“A dangerous oath,” she says and her eyes are still dancing, still teasing, still drawing me in.
They don’t look quite so much like Marigold’s anymore. Marigold’s never had that edge. The edge that tells me she might be cleverer than me, brighter and faster and stronger. I find it only draws me in worse, trapping me like a fly in a spider’s web.
“What if we never find the cup?”
“Would you like to add conditions for if we fail?” I offer.
“I never factor in failure,” she says, and her grin grows and then freezes, as if she realizes she’s admitted something that makes her look bad. She rallies, but her new smile is a bit weaker. “Let’s have a little confidence. Let’s assume we will find the Cup and return it.”
And I know better than to make an oath like that. I really do. If there’s no Cup of Tears here, this will bind us together for life. And then what will we do? Serve side by side like a tortoise and a wolf yoked together? I don’t even know which of us would be tortoise and which the wolf.
She smiles and shows her teeth.
Fine. She’s clearly the wolf.
I wrench my gauntlet off and offer my palm, and when she takes it in her warm one, I have to swallow. Her clasp is firm and certain.
“May it be and ever be,” she vows to me, and I return her vow with my own.
“My sword is yours and my honor until we succeed.”
When I let go of her hand, she leans over the sphere and points. “I think you’re going to be glad that you teamed up with me, Poisoned Saint. I might have found something interesting here.”
Chapter Fourteen
Vagabond Paladin
