“You’re my second visitor,” said Odal.
“I know,” Geri replied. “Professor Leoh told me about his visit to you. How you refused to try to help Hector.”
Allowing himself a smile, Odal said, “I thought that’s what you’d be here for.”
She turned to face him. “You can’t leave him in Kerak! If Kanus… -”
“Hector is with Romis. He’s safe enough.”
“For how long?”
“As long as any of us,” Odal said.
“No,” Gen insisted. “He’s a prisoner, and he’s in danger.”
“You actually love him?”
Her eyes had the glint of tears in them. “Yes,” she said.
Shaking his head in disbelief, Odal asked, “How can you love that bumbling, tongue-twisted.. .”
“He’s stronger than you are!” Geri flashed. “And braver. He’d never willingly loll anyone, not even you. He let you live when everyone else on the planet— including me—would have shot you down.”
Odal backed away involuntarily.
“You owe your life to Hector,” she said.
“And now I’m supposed to throw it away to save his.”
“That’s right. That would be the decent thing to do. It’s what he’d do for you.”
“I doubt that.”
“Of course you do. You don’t know what decency is.”
He looked at her, carefully this time. trying to fathom the emotions in her face, her voice.
“Do you hate me?” Odal asked.
Her mouth started to form a yes, but she hesitated. “I should; I have every reason to. I … I don’t know … I want to!”
She got up from the bench and walked rapidly, head down, to the nearest exit from the courtyard. Odal watched her for a moment, then went after her. But the guards stopped him as he neared the door. Geri went on through and disappeared from his sight without ever turning back to look at him.