“Maybe I don’t want privacy,” she says, shrugging her surcoat over her jerkin in a way that makes my mouth a little drier. She’s dressed in more layers than a southern nun and yet the addition of just one more tantalizes me. “Maybe if I’m going on an adventure, I want a companion.”
“Didn’t you always have a companion? Weren’t you with Sir Branson?”
The lines in her face grow deeper. I’m taken by surprise and a little guilty. Fool. She only just buried her friend and you must rub salt in the wound?
“That was different. The pair of us were a unit,” she says, looking at her dog rather than at me.
I make a mistake then.
“We could be a unit,” I tell her, like I’m not damaged and ruined. Like I’m not so pickled in guilt I could be served alongside ham. Like I won’t ruin her with me.
She hums as if considering my offer. “Are you going to turn insane on me again inside the monastery?”
Now it is my turn to look away and swallow.
“I beg your forgiveness, Lady. I am deeply flawed. Something terrible lurks in the depths of my heart and sometimes I’m not sure if it’s me.”
I keep my eyes averted as I finish dressing in my own kit, yanking and pulling at straps with more force and vigor than necessary.
I expect her to scold me or chastise me. She does neither. When I look up, her eyes are full of a knowing she can’t possibly have at her age.
“I am riddled with flaws also, Sir Knight. As are we all. I would still like a companion on my adventure.”
“And who would you choose?” I keep my tone teasing, trying to stay away from heavy things. I note she offered me no forgiveness for my foolishness before. “Who would you choose to take with you on this grand adventure? A butler, perhaps, all the better to help you find a cup?”
I work at the remaining straps of my armor, this time with less vigor. I dress lightly. I do not need more than the basics. After all, we are going down into a terrible, broken monastery, not out onto a battlefield. More armor is just more work to lug up the stairs when we are through.
The lady paladin seems to agree. She sticks to a breastplate with no backplate, keeps her gauntlets and pauldrons, but tosses aside all else. She checks her sword belt twice.
“I’m missing a knife,” she says, her face lined as she frowns. “I could have sworn I had two on this belt when I went to sleep.”
“Maybe Hefertus borrowed it to shave.”
“How is he so light on his feet? I did not even hear him awaken and look at the mess he made! He could not have done that silently.”
Beside her, her dog pants, a doggy smile on its devil face. I’m not fooled. I know perfectly well it will bite me with no provocation.
I give it a long, dark look. Don’t cross me, dog. I have too much human blood on my hands to worry much about dog blood.
“Hefertus is a mystery,” I allow. “And he’s never one to shy from adventure.”
“Neither am I,” she says resolutely. “And I suppose today will be another adventure. I’ll skip the butler and take you with me, I think.”
I could get drunk on this kind of courage, this kind of carefree boldness that tells me she drags few ghosts behind her. She’s light and free as a bird of the sky. I adore it. I want to be it. Or be close to it. I will take either one.
“Tell me about this adventure,” I say, indulging her as I roll up my blankets and tie my things into my pack. It’s overly cautious to bring it down the stairs with me, but yesterday we left the Engineers up top. Today, we will have no one to come after us if something goes awry. I want to be ready.
“It’s the story of a brave paladin,” she says, shooting me a mischievous look. I think she doesn’t realize how much her eyes twinkle even when she’s trying to be serious, never mind when she is joking. That’s worth more than any relic.
“Does this paladin have a dog?”
Her smile is the dawn. “She does, in fact.”
“And a hapless companion who will make terrible mistakes and require rescuing?”
“Oh, you’ve heard this story? Well, don’t spoil the ending.”
We’re both on our feet now. Equipped. Packed.
