Her eyes rested for a moment on Jaelle’s arms as if she could see the painful bruises there, and Jaelle thought, Does she truly read my mind?
When Kyril had helped to carry the unconscious man away, Rohana rose to her feet. She looked weary and worn.
“I know that you three”-her glance took in Peter and Magda, too-“were planning to leave today. Can you delay one more day? Today I must remain and make certain Gabriel is recovering as he should; tomorrow I can be ready to ride to Thendara with you.”
“To come with us? Why?” Jaelle asked.
Rohana looked at Magda and said, “Because I have made a very important discovery; I must talk at once with Lorill Hastur. He is under a misconception which, if it is not corrected at once, can have the gravest consequences for both our worlds. So, if you will have my company on the road to Thendara, tomorrow morning I will be ready to ride with you.”
Chapter SIXTEEN
It was raining when they reached the travel-shelter at sunset, and as the party began to dismount, Rohana said, “I had hoped to reach Thendara today, but I have no great liking for riding half the night. It will be tomorrow for certain.”
“I shall be glad to get there,” Magda said, but then she began to wonder. Just what awaited her in Thendara? Even this one night’s respite was welcome.
As she was unsaddling her horse, Darrill, son of Darnak, came up behind her, lifting the heavy saddle from her hands. She smiled and relinquished it, and stood beside him as he began giving their horses fodder. He waited until most of Rohana’s guardsmen had withdrawn-Lady Rohana, as wife of the Lord of Ardais, could not travel without a considerable escort-then asked in a low voice, “Will you be glad to get back to your own world, Margali?”
She said, troubled, “I am not sure it is my world anymore, Darrill. I am sworn to the Free Amazons.”
“But surely . . . Piedro told me that was but a disguise, a way of allowing you to travel in safety.”
“Piedro does not know anything about it,” Magda said, with unexpected sharpness.
“I don’t think I understand.”
“I am not sure that I understand it myself,” she said. “It is true that I took the oath as a means to an end; not really aware of what it meant. But later I chose, of my free will, to honor it, and I will do so, whatever happens.”
Slowly, he nodded. “I can understand that. But what will the Terrans say?”
That, she thought, is the question. Will I spend the rest of my life as a fugitive from the Empire’s justice? “I will try to get a leave of absence to honor my obligation to the Guild-house,” she said. “And after that I think I could work more effectively for the Empire. It would allow me to do many things that an ordinary woman could not do here, otherwise.”
He said, very low, “Margali, when I first met with you on midwinter-night, I was very impressed with your courage and spirit. It seemed to me that no woman of our people could have so much, and I thought it must be only that you were a stranger, a Terran. Now there are times when it seems to me that you are even more like a woman of our own people. You are not like anyone I have ever known before.” He raised his eyes, and looked directly into hers, and for a moment Magda thought he would kiss her. Then he swallowed hard, recalled himself, and turned a little away. He said, “Forgive me; I must finish with the horses.”
As he went about his work, Magda found herself thinking, If 7 am not careful, he will be falling in love with me. And that is a complication I cannot allow now. I must be very careful. The thought made her a little regretful. 7 discovered at midwinter that 1 must find new ways of relating to my world; but before I complicate my life with another man, I must find out more about myself!