"If I owned the house,
would I own you too?"

Keilah

Jalen held his cup in two hands, rubbed his fingers together, scrutinizing the fire as if searching for something lost, and then he spoke."Hattavah, you are spoken of often in the soldier camps." Dakkoul stiffened. "They say many things about you. That you can scale sheer walls as fast as an arrow flies, that you are as silent as a demon when you walk."

Dakkoul's mouth curved into a smile that glimmered in the firelight but Jalen had not finished speaking, "That you kill as easily as the ordinary man breathes. Every unsolved murder is attributed to you." His voice stopped for a moment seeing Dakkoul's smile vanish, then he began again. "That any scrap of information you hear, you pass on to Lord Rustavan. Nothing can be safely said out-loud because you might hear it and then it will be proclaimed on the roof-tops. Every person hunted by the guards blames you."

Dakkoul spoke, his voice uneven, "Why do you say this to me, in front of her? I know what they say."

Jalen scraped his bowl clean and spoke in a soft voice. "Yet here you are Hattavah with this girl by your side that you were supposed to kill, and it reminds me of that story they tell of you about the prince. I think some of what they say isn't true."

"And perhaps it all is. " said Dakkoul his eyes hooded. "Perhaps she is my only exception."

"I'm willing to take a gamble that you are not as loose-lipped as they say. I can take Lady Keilah away from here to wherever she wants to go. Then you can return as if you have fulfilled your mission. No one need know she slipped off in the night alive with me."

Dakkoul drummed his fingers on the log then spoke. "Why do you offer to do this? You'll be hunted as a deserter and executed if found."

Why do you risk your life to save hers?" asked Jalen in return.

Dakkoul was silent. "I have my reasons," he said eventually.

"As do I. I grow tired of the senseless killing I am ordered to do. As I sit here thinking of the dead that have joined the ghosts that howl with the artic fox, I want to save a life instead of having my hands dipped in more blood. And I think if I deserted with her, then when you are sent to hunt for me you might not find me."

Dakkoul gave him a penetrating look. "So that's why you want to take her."

"Not really, Hattavah, it has more to do with this," he said and pulled out a necklace with a symbol on it, a flame. The sign of Jagur's god.

"You're a fool to show me that. Put it away."

Jalen tucked it back inside his tunic. "Is there to be a purge then?"

"I think there will. Lord Rustavan grows more and more hostile to any alternative ways of thinking. And they are right enough about me, I'll do what I have to ensure my survival and that of my daughter. You should take that off."

Jalen glared into the fire. "I'm not a slave."

"No, you're Lord Rustavan's soldier. Not much difference that I can see."

"At the end of twenty years I can walk away at least and my time is nearly up."

"There is that," said Dakkoul. He sat silent for a moment considering, then asked "Keilah, do you wish to go with him? He is trustworthy, I think and you'll have better odds of survival."

"But why does my uncle want to kill me? He's never even met me."

"Now your mother is gone, you are the heir. He wants his daughter to rule the house."

Keilah folded her arms across her chest. "I see." It wasn't personal then. She had no desire to disinherit his daughter but if she led the house she could order her soldiers to keep Vene-Jakaan safe and her place in Wayvolkan society would be secured. And there was another consideration. Keilah moved beside Dakkoul and stretched out her arm and put it on his knee. He raised his eyebrows at her.

She gave him a soft smile. "If I owned the house, would I own you too?"

His eyes widened. "Yes, by law everything in the house belongs to your grandmother who generously allows even the smallest slave to own some things.  Her son-in-law, your uncle Lord Rustavan is my master and his right to own me is respected."

"But legally I could set you free?"

Dakkoul gave a short, bitter laugh and shifted his leg so her hand slipped off. "It's too late for that but you could help my daughter."

"I'd like to meet her."

Dakkoul scratched the dirt with his foot, before meeting her eyes. "I want to be honest with you. To give my daughter a future, I always obey Lord Rustavan. He will do everything he can to stop you ruling the house and he will no doubt use me against you. If it's a choice between your safety and my daughter's, I will always choose her. To come back with me is a huge risk."

Keilah's head swirled with his hurtful honesty, his love for his child, and the danger that marked the way ahead. Lives rested on her decision, not the least her own. She looked at Jalen's face and liked what she saw, the straightforward way he held her gaze.

Then she saw Dakkoul bending over the fire and remembered leaping on his back as a child and being spun around and around. The laughter would stream out of her and she would beg him to spin her again, the heady rush addictive, and he would, over and over again until he could hardly stand. The memory hooked into her heart and decided her. He ought to free and she could make that happen if only she had the courage to pursue her birthright. "I want to go with you Dakkoul, but thank you for your offer Jalen."

Dakkoul frowned.

"As you wish." Jalen said as he stood up.

"If you want to save a life," said Dakkoul to him as if the words were pulled out from him, "I think Captain Tanaach is wandering around out there somewhere. I didn't see his body with the others."

Jalen scooped up an oil lamp. "I will go immediately." He jumped on his horse and left.

And she was alone with Dakkoul by the campfire.