"I understand exactly what I am saying, Keir. My people need yours, for protection now thatour forces have been exhausted, for links to trade, for our future. My people have enough tosee them through this winter but they will need every bit of harvest that can be salvaged fromthe fields to survive. If it is plague, if it spreads from here…" I closed my eyes against thatpossibility. "Why do you send scouts out, if not to know what you are going to have to dealwith? We have to know and the only way to know is if I go in."
"There must be another—"
I glared at him. "And if it gets to the Plains? What of your people? Will the warrior priests aidthem?"
He stopped, jaw clenched, shoulders tight, his hands in fists. He started to curse and the wordsthat poured from him at that point were not ones that I knew. He stopped, breathing hard.
"There must be another way." He resumed his stalk, and started ranting. I'd not expected thisto be easy, and it wasn't. As he paced, he repeated each of his arguments and I refuted themagain, knowing that I was right. I started to work on the jerkin's lacings. These heavy leathergarments were warm, and it was chaffing my neck. How did they wear this armor all the time?
Finally he spun to look at me, and jabbed a finger in my direction. "We can send Gils. He—"
"You'd send a boy to do a man's job?"
He flared like a fire doused with oil. "You are the last living member of the House of Xy. I'llnot risk you. I'll not risk what we are trying to do for our people." He took a step closer, and Ifought the urge to step back. "I'll not risk all this for a tiny village. Who will know? Who willsee?" He turned, headed for our horses.
"The skies will know."
He stopped dead, his back to me, his hands clenched in fists.
My heart in my throat, I continued. "The Goddess will know."
The silence between us lengthened. There was no sound, not even the bells in my hand. Justthe wind, whipping at the grass and my hair.
The tension left his hands first, as his clenched fingers slowly uncurled. Then his back and necklost their stiffness as he took a deep breath. I moved the bells in my hand, letting them chimesoftly.
He turned and walked back to me, a rueful look on his face. "I should have known. From themoment you defied me in the marketplace, I should have known. There is more honor andstubbornness in one slight Xyian woman than in my entire army."
"Slight?" I raised an eyebrow.
He smiled, and raised a hand to cup my face.
"Keir, leaving these people would be as big a mistake as—"
"As when I plunged my sword in Durst's chest."
I nodded.
"I would not do this, my heart's fire." Keir stroked my lips with his thumb.
"All the other alternatives are worse. There is no choice, Keir." I stepped closer, and wrappedmy arms around him. He enfolded me in his, and we stood for a long moment, a long moment offragile peace.
I stepped back, finally. "I have to talk to Gils."
"We'll have him at the senel." Keir looked off in the distance, toward the army. "A few daysdelay will not be that great a loss."
I opened my mouth to correct him, but closed it as he turned back to me. "Come, Lara. Let usbe about this as quickly as possible."
I took his hand without saying a word and we walked back to the horses.
If Iften didn't remove that smug look from his face, Keir was going to do it for him.
The senel had been called, under the same willow tree. The warleaders were gathered, andMarcus had managed a meal of warm gurt and fry bread. Kavage was brewing on a fire, andthe smell of it filled the air. But I could barely choke down my food, my stomach was so tense.
Now that Keir had made the decision I was eager to go, to find out what we were facing. If I leftsoon, I'd have daylight to take stock and talk to the remaining villagers. Please Goddess, letthere be living souls within those gates. Xy had stories too, just as the Firelanders did, of wholetowns filled with the dead and dying. Not here, Lady of the Moon and Stars. Please.
But before I could go, there were things I had to tell them, had to teach them. I couldn't leavean entire army unprepared for the realities of a plague. But before I could teach them anything,I had to convince them of the threat. Gils was seated by my side, wide-eyed as he listened. Histhin body trembled with suppressed excitement.
Keir's announcement that we would aid the village was met with puzzled looks by some andpure disdain by others. "Leave them to rot in their filth," was Iften's contribution and it wasmet with almost complete agreement.
