How long will you stay here letting me pet you?

As long as you will-- his arms fell with the dress in a puddle around her feet, and Kara continued to string strand after strand after strand.

Noise had melted away and all she heard were the echoes of waves the way she'd heard them for many nights as she lay securely beside this man in the hammock. The man who had saved her life, and then kept her closely guarded from predators in this new and unfamiliar world, a man who had trained her, healed her, and shared his life and innermost secrets with her. The only secret left to reveal was-- why?

Rion pulled the dress up abruptly, guiding her hands inside the sleeves, and cinching the laces around her back, he retrieved his cloak and flung it over his shoulders looking down at her with a mixture of fear and tenderness that she found disconcerting for someone who couldn't keep his inner thoughts completely to himself. 

He cleared his throat, taking her arm to escort her back to their table. Another man was sitting in Rion's chair, drinking from his cup. Rion thrust Kara behind him as he drew his dagger.

"Pavel."

"Rion."

"Get out of my seat, man!"

"Or you'll what? Tend to your doxie in the privy?"

"Why pick a fight with me, man? You know you can't win."

The man cocked his head to one side and exposed his own dagger as he kicked back the chair. Kara drew the knife Rion kept in his boots, she turned her back to his and held the knife in front of her gleaming in the firelight. Several men backed away from her feral eyes.

Rion waved the dagger. "I have no desire to hurt you."

"Just a peaceful tryst with the girl, Rion? First you take my place in the school, then in the guard, then in the warriors, and finally in the Quarso! And now you claim the fairest maiden as well? I think the time has come to share your winnings." His grin jealousy was an evil leer and Kara could hear it in his voice as he advanced.

"I can't help that I'm the better man on every count, Pavel."

"You win by trickery and thievery!"

"Take back your slanderous words!"

"I will after I relieve you of your woman."

"This could have been such a peaceful night, Pavel, but you had to--" Rion feinted to the right, one arm behind him, blocking Kara's body. The dagger sailed from Pavel's hand as another appeared in the other one. Rion dodged the first and leaped forward, disabling the second with a lethal blow to the neck that not only dropped the blade, but dropped the man. As Pavel crashed to the floor, a collective sigh went up from the gathered spectators. Kara lowered her knife.

"That's all there is to that, friends!" Rion grabbed Kara's cup from the table and lifted it in a toast which was echoed raucously through the room as men and women alike dismissed the incident and returned to their pursuits. Rion swung Kara around, close to him, his hand on her back keeping her warm to his chest, for any and all looking on, he seemed a possessive lover. His grin was wicked as he completed the charade by smacking a huge wet kiss on the corner of her mouth. Too stunned to react, Kara did no more than push him away half-heartedly.

Are you all right?

No, are you?

Happens all the time in Village Baer.

Fights? Or you being challenged?

Me being challenged. There are many like him that didn't make the Quarso. Jealousy runs rampant in Quildor's kingdom.

You just killed a man!

Yes.

Surely it will be remarked upon. It will draw the attention of your fellow Foemen.

Stop calling me Foeman.

You told me to call you Foeman!

As opposed to Minion!

What should I call you, imbecile?

Quarso. You were thinking my killing Pavel will draw the attention of my fellow Quarso. You were concerned about us being caught.

And why not? You yourself claimed they were closing in on us! They were hunting us! You felt that!

Not because I am scared of them.

Then why? You weren't even sure your family will accept that you have taken a searcher girl as—

Rion grabbed his food off the table, threw down a few more coins and tucked his dagger away, stepping over the prone form of Pavel on their way out. Kara stumbled after him, her heart in her throat, her eyes darting back and forth from one man to the next, expecting to be accosted.

Come on, they'll leave us alone now.

They might, they might not!

You have nothing to fear when you are with me, na'shilean.

Kara had no clue what to say to that. Her mind was so far into its scrambling and random thoughts, all she could do was follow him blindly. The dress was awkward, the weight of her uniform folded under it and wrapping around her legs as she stepped was prohibitive. Her stomach growled from not being fed. And Rion was striding through the backlit alleys at a breakneck pace.

"If you aren't concerned about us being found by your Quarso...." She sneered the word angrily. "Then why are we running through the darkened streets?"

*********

You're still hungry." Rion announced as soon as they'd crested a small hill and the dim lights of the village were below them, a stiff sea breeze ruffled his hair all to one side, but the reflection of the rising moons left that queer prickle of roguish anticipation in his eyes.

"Well, you gave me precious little time to eat!"

Ahead of them, another cottage loomed, a very dim light showing through a small window.

"Stay here." Rion planted her firmly next to a rugged fence. "I mean it, Kara, for your own safety, stay here!"

"Where are you going?" Her heart pounded breathlessly at the thought of being alone in this outdoor, unattached village-- dirty, unfamiliar and unpredictable.

"To the cot." He knocked on the door and it opened shedding a stream of yellow light along the hay strewn path, not twenty feet away. Rion's voice was calm, measured, and so soft, she couldn't hear what he said to the woman who had opened the door surrounded by three or more children all gawping at her behind the Quarso.

One child disappeared and suddenly a cloth filled with bread and other things was deposited in Rion's outstretched hand and the door was shut and firmly bolted. Rion turned to her triumphantly. "Up here."

Kara followed him up behind the cottage, struggling in the heavy and tangling skirts, the laces of the bodice now falling apart and revealing more than it covered. Kara held it together as best she could, cursing women's clothing in general and wishing fervently she was still in her uniform.

On the ridge above the cottage, Rion helped her sit down near a large-leafed bush with some rocks and another dirt path. Behind them, a domestic animal snorted. She thought it might be a horse, and had seen them in books before. She didn't want Rion to have to explain it to her, as he had everything else this evening, and turned her face away not inviting is attention.

Rion sat close beside her blocking the cooler breeze and pulled her straggling hair off her shoulder while he handed her the napkin. He leaned into her good-naturedly, as his deft fingers re-laced and tightened the strings of her dress. "Had you a little frightened back there, did I?"

Instantly her fear was replaced with a sudden rush of adrenaline and anger. "If you had been killed I'd have been free to go home!"

"But, you were ready to fight at my side."

"I wasn't at your side, Foeman. I was covering your back and protecting my front!"

He chuckled at her vehemence, opening the napkin and handing her the bread. "I've known Pavel since I was a child. I was on his turf, as good an opportunity as any to challenge me. He couldn't have done it anywhere else. He had it coming."

"You just killed a childhood friend and you are laughing about it?"

Rion was appalled. "I did not kill a childhood friend. I defended myself, and you I might add. He was never my friend. We didn't even travel in the same unit. Ever. Not even the same class at school. Not to mention he was right, I was always better than him."

Kara stuffed the bread in her mouth annoyed at his arrogance, yet recognizing the same phenomenon in herself. She too judged when she was better than another... not that she felt they needed to die for it.

"The others will run for the Quarso."

"No, they will not. They will throw the refuse in the drink, and be done with it. Good riddance, I say."

"But the ones who are looking for you? Surely they will realize it was you who did the killing?"

He shrugged. "Perhaps. I doubt it. We are few in number, but Crevan will not allow any who could catch me to actually be put in a position to do so."

"Crevan is the Captain, and you have far too much confidence in him. He works for the same man you did. An evil man."

"He is like me." Rion quickly jammed bread into his own mouth and chewed, leaning into her side thoughtfully.

"You trust him to behave like you would? You feel he would have stolen a searcher girl and healed her if given the chance?"

Rion sputtered, spitting out crumbs. He did not for one second think that Crevan would have saved a searcher girl, even the Princess.

"But what if he is not the only one calling the shots? What if it is Quildor himself who has sent the others to find you?"

"Why would he bother with me?" Rion's thoughts about Quildor were filled with bitter hostility as well as pragmatism. He didn't believe Quildor even knew he had been in the mountain-- or gone for as long as he had been.

Unless Adara had told him.

Yes, Adara would have told him.

In that case, they were in actual danger.

*********