Ivy started into her tent to look for a tin of sweetmeats that she thought she had left there. Sanval caught her arm as she passed and hastily let go when she stopped. The tips of his ears were slightly pink, but he also had that determined air about him. He was going to ask a question even if the answer was guaranteed to embarrass him. She was beginning to feel quite comfortable with those almost expressions of his.
"Why did you speak for me in front of the Thultyrl? Why rescue me so many times below ground? Why trade away that spellbook?"
She could have told him the truth. About how she could no more leave him behind than she could let Wiggles be eaten by a snake. Except, of course, her feelings for Sanval were even more complicated than that, and she needed some time to unravel them in her own mind. Once, when she was fifteen and setting out to be the most terrible and fearsome fighter in the Realms, she swore that she would never become too fond of anyone-she wasn't going to have some tragic love story turn her into a tree like her father. Except somewhere along the way, she had picked up all these odd attachments-more attachments than the Pearl had pearls. Furthermore, Ivy had a suspicion that her fondness for a certain noble character who owned an unbelievable amount of clean linen would be more troublesome than all those other attachments combined. It might even be the kind of feeling that made you put down roots in one way or another.
Still, Sanval had saved her life more than once, and she did owe him an answer. After all, running away had never got her anything but being stuck under a dead horse, as Mumchance pointed out all too often.
"Friends are important," she finally said.
He had a new expression on his face, one she hadn't seen before. Sort of pleased, sort of disappointed.
"It was the right and proper thing to do. You should appreciate that, being from Procampur." Ivy noticed that everyone had stopped hunting through their bags, and they were listening very casually to their conversation. "Anyway, Gunderal could not translate Toram's spellbook-even Kid could not puzzle out what language it was in. Some type of code, we think. Basically worthless to us, except for the maps, and we tore those out before we gave it away." Sanval's expression was shifting further toward the disappointed side. Ivy hurried on, wondering why the others were all rolling their eyes at her. "The Moaning Diamond, on the other hand, would be very useful to us. Certainly it would lower the risk of our trade, seal the deal as Siegebreakers, if you know what I mean. Mumchance is sure that he knows where to dig to recover it. Want to help?"
Of course, she knew that he would refuse. He was too proper a gentleman to go treasure hunting underground.
He startled her by nodding. "Well, why not?"
Zuzzara and Gunderal laughed at Ivy's expression.
"Pay up, pay up," said Zuzzara to Mumchance and Kid. "Told you that he was going to stick around."
"Just remember the rules, Ivy," said Gunderal.
"You brought him back, my dear," said Kid.
"You're responsible for him," added Mumchance.
"If he makes a mess," concluded Zuzzara.
"Him?" said Ivy staring at Sanval. All of his bright shining armor might be missing, and he might be wearing his second-best pair of boots, but he still appeared cleaner and neater than any fighter she had ever met. Procampur men!
Sanval stared back at her, looking carefully at the free-floating pony tail of golden hair waving on the top of her head and her generally well-groomed appearance. "How about I keep her cleaned up and looking like that?" Sanval asked the others.
"Could you?" asked Zuzzara.
"Would you?" asked Gunderal.
"It seems like a very fair trade, my dears," said Kid with his pointed little smile.
"I have to agree," said Mumchance.
"Hey!" said Ivy, because she was their captain, and she occasionally did deserve just a bit more respect (not that she ever got it). Still, she couldn't stop grinning.
Zuzzara, Gunderal, Mumchance, and Kid bent their heads together. There was a buzz of whispers.
"We would appreciate your help in keeping Ivy scrubbed," said Mumchance finally. "There's a spare room at the farm if you want to visit."
"I might," Sanval said directly to Ivy. "If you come to Procampur."
"I might," said Ivy with just the same emphasis. She cocked her head forward, got almost nose to nose, but he did not back down. He just narrowed his eyes and gave her that typical Sanval look of noble composure. It was, she had to admit, a very impressive and rather attractive expression. One of these days, she was going to figure out how to do it herself. After all, she was the daughter of a couple of heroes-a bard and a druid who rattled the world in their own way-and in some places that made her just as much a lady as Sanval was a gentleman. Still, she wondered how stuck he was on Procampur's views about people like herself. "What color are your roof tiles today?"
"I think," said Sanval with a faint but distinct smile, "I think that they should be red."
"Humans! This flirting back and forth is going to take forever. Come on," said Mumchance to the others. The dwarf whistled for Wiggles and the rest of his dogs. "Let's go for a run, puppies! We have some digging to do."