“But she won’t even see me….”
“Nonsense. If you love her, you’ll get to her. Tell her where you stand and why. If she loves you, she’ll accept you for what you are, and be proud of you for it.”
Hector looked uncertain. “And if she doesn’t love me?”
“Well .. . knowing the Acquatainian temperament, she might start throwing things at you.”
The Watchman remained sitting on the desk top and stared down at the floor.
Leoh grasped his shoulder. “Listen to me, son. What you did took courage, real courage. It would have been easy to kill Odal and win her approval ,.. everyone’s approval, as a matter of fact. But you did what you thought was right. Now, if you had the courage to do that, surely you have the courage to face an unarmed girl.”
Hector looked up at him, his long face somber. “But suppose … suppose she never loved me. Suppose she was just … well, using me … until I killed Odal?”
Then you’re well rid of her, Leoh thought. But he couldn’t say that to Hector.
“I don’t think that’s the case at all,” he said softly,
And he added to himself. At least I hope not.
In his exhausted sleep, Odal did not hear the door opening. The sergeant stepped into the bare windowless cell and shined his lamp in Odal’s eyes. The Kerak major stirred and turned his face away from the lightThe sergeant grabbed his shoulder and shook him sternly.
Odal snapped awake, knocked the guard’s hand from his shoulder, and seized him by the throat. The guard dropped his lamp and tried to pry Odal’s single hand from his windpipe. For a second or two they remained locked in soundless fury, in the weird glow from the lamp on the floor—Odal sitting up on the cot, the sergeant slowly sinking to his knees.