She closed her eyes and slept again. She was somnolent, or sleeping, most of that day, but the fever did not return. Magda had little to do, after the animals had been tended. She thought about burying the dead bandits, but that was a task entirely beyond her strength. She stayed near Jaelle, in case the wounded girl should need anything. The sight of the bandage on Jaelle’s face troubled her deeply. She was so ‘beautiful! In the Terran Zone they could repair that ugly slash as good as new; here, I suppose, she will bear that terrible scar until she dies!
It occurred to her again that now, with Jaelle well on the way toward recovery, she could make her escape, leave her to recover at leisure, and not even have the other woman’s death on her conscience. But by now the thought was very remote.
On the next day Jaelle was able to get up and walk about a little, moving her arm cautiously; swearing at the pain, but moving it, nevertheless. “I don’t want the muscles to freeze and the arm to lose its strength,” she said irritably, when Magda urged her not to risk tearing it open again. “I know what I am doing.” Now that she was no longer somnolent with shock and exhaustion, she was in a good deal of pain, and it made her irritable and restless. Late in the afternoon Magda woke from a brief doze to find Jaelle staring at her as if trying to remember something. Does she remember thinking I was going to kill her? She remembered, with some shock, the moment when she had stood over Jaelle, not yet sure herself what she intended. Jaelle had been as still as a wounded animal awaiting the hunter’s death-stroke. .
Jaelle said quietly, at last, “I did not expect you to stay with me, Margali; I knew you took our oath unwillingly. It is customary for oath-mother and daughter to exchange gifts; you have given me my life, I know.”
“Don’t!” Magda could not bear to start thinking again about her indecision. She got up and went out of the shelter, looking at the lowering gray sky, heavy with unfallen snow. Midwinter was only a few days distant; and on that day Peter Haldane would meet a dreadful death, suffering the penalty of Rumal di Scarp’s blood feud with the Ardais clan. Magda leaned against the outside wall of the shelter and gave herself up to helpless, desperate weeping.
After a long time she felt a soft touch on her arm; Jaelle stood there, looking very pale and troubled.
“Is he so dear to you-the kinsman of your mission?”
Exhausted, struggling for self-control, Magda could only shake her head and say, “It is not only that.”
“Then tell me what it is, my sister.” Jaelle took Magda’s hand. She said, “Don’t stand here in the cold.”
More because she remembered that Jaelle herself must not be kept in the cold with her unhealed wound, Magda let herself be led inside. Jaelle stumbled, fell heavily against her; Magda caught her, eased her down on one of the stone benches.
“Now tell me, sister.”
Magda shook her head, exhausted. “I told you all.”
“But this time,” Jaelle said, “the truth, will you not? I do not understand you, Margali. You were lying when you took the oath; you were not lying. You were telling the truth; you were not telling the truth. Even your name-it is your name; you have another name. Tell me.”
Magda’s defenses were down. “How did you know?”
Jaelle said, “I was born daughter to the Comyn; I have some laran.” Magda did not know the word as Jaelle used it; it usually meant a gift or talent. “I have not had the training to use it properly. Lady Rohana- she is my mother’s kinswoman-wished me sent to a Tower to be trained in its use; I would have none of that crew. So my gift is erratic; I cannot use it when I would, and when I would not, it thrusts itself on me, undesired. It was so when you took the oath; I could feel, within myself, that you were torn two ways, and in such fear … there was no need for such terror as that. And now I can read your thoughts, but only a little, Margali-if that is your name. You are oath-bound, but so am I; as you are sworn, so am I oath-bound to you, never to hurt or betray you. Tell me, my sister!”