"Vanye?"
He reached for the straps of his armor, worked at them clumsily, managed them. She helped him pull it off, received the two-stone weight of mail into her hands and laid it aside. He unlaced the haqueton and shed it, sank down onto the mat with a sigh. Then she gave him water to drink, and bread and cheese of which he could eat only a few bites. He was more content simply to lean against the support of the shelter and rest. It was warm; she was there. It was for the moment, enough.
"Do not worry about the others," she said. "Lellin and Sezar will give warning if anything threatens us, and the arrharefuse to lay hand on them or me. -Oh, it is good to see thee, Vanye."
"Aye," he murmured, for his voice was too taut to say more.
She sat on the mat beside the brazier, locked her hands about one knee. A moment she gazed at him, as if taking in small details. "You have been hurt."
"It passes."
"Your fall out there-"
"I rode into that blind." He grimaced. "I thought to warn you… of my company."
"You succeeded." Her face grew the more concerned, deeply distressed. "Vanye. Will thee tell me what happened?"
"Roh, you mean."
"Roh.. And whatever else thee thinks good for me to know."
He glanced down, up again. "I have gone against your orders. I know that. I could not kill him. I confess to you… it has not been the first time. I agreed with him that I would speak to you… he asked nothing more, not even that much, but I told him that I would; I owed him. He is out of allies, out of hope, except to come here."
"And you believe him."
"Yes. In that-I do believe him."
Her hands clenched on her knee until the knuckles were white. "And what do you expect me to do?"
"I do not know. I do not know, liyo."He made the profound obeisance, which gesture she ordinarily hated, but the time demanded it. "I told him that I would speak with you. Will you let me do so, and hear me? I set my word on that."
"Do not hope that it will make any difference. My choices are not governed by what I would or you would."
"All I ask is a hearing. It is not easy to explain. In any sense, it is not easy. And I have asked few things of you, ever."
"Aye," she said softly, drew a long breath and let it go. "I will listen. I will at least listen."
"For long?"
"As long as you wish. Til the sun rises, if that is what you want of me."
He bowed his head against his hands a moment, gathering his thoughts. Nothing would make sense except from the beginning… and there he began, far off the matter of Roh. She looked perplexed at that… but she listened as she had said she would do; her gray eyes lost their anger and bore only on what he haltingly told her: things of himself, and his home, small things that she had not known of him, some of which were agony to tell… what it was for a half-Chya lad in Morija, what constant war Nhi and Chya had known, and how he came to be a Nhi lord's bastard. And there were things even of times that they had travelled together, things which he had seen and she had not… of Liell; and Roh; of the night they had spent in Roh's hall at Ra-koris; and another with him in the woods near Ivrel, when she had slept; or in Ohtij-in of Shiuan, unknown to her. He watched understanding flicker into sometime anger, and puzzlement return; she said nothing.
And he told her the rest: Fwar, and Hetharu's camp; and Merir's; and their way here. He spared nothing, least of all his pride; at the last he did not look at her, but elsewhere, close to choking on the words… for half of him was Nhi, and Nhi were proud, and not given to such admissions as he made.
Her hands were clenched when he had done. She loosed them after a moment, as if she had only then realized it. It was a moment before she looked up.
"Some things I would that I had known at the time."
"Aye, and some things I would that you did not know now."
"Nothing that you have told me troubles me, not on your account. Only Roh… Roh.I did not reckon on that. I swear that I did not."
"You saw him. But-but perhaps-I do not know, liyo."
"It cannot make any difference. It changes nothing."
"Liyo."
"Iwarned you it could not make any difference… Roh or Liell; no difference."
"But Roh-"
"Let me alone a time. Please."
His control came close to breaking. He had said too much, too painful things, and she shrugged them off with that. "Aye," he said thickly, and thrust his way to his feet, seeking the cold, sane air outside. But she rose and prevented him with a grip on his wrist. He would hurt her if he struck out in his anger; he stood still, and the tears broke his control. He averted his face from her.
"Think of something," she hissed fiercely. "Thinkof something that I can do with this gift you have brought me."
He could not. "His word you would never take. And that is all there is… his word, and my faith that it is worth something. And that is nothing to you."
"You are unfair."
"I make no complaint of you."
"Keep him prisoner? He knows too much… more than you, more perhaps than Merir… in some things more than I, perhaps. I cannot trust that much knowledge .. . not with Liell's instincts."
"At times… at times, I think there is only Roh. He said the other was only in dreams; and perhaps the dreams are stronger than he is when there is nothing near him that Roh remembers. He says that he needs me. -But I have no knowledge of such things. I only guess. Perhaps I am the one who forced him to come here to you, because when he is with me… he is my cousin. I only guess."
"Perhaps," she said after a moment, "your instinct in that guess is not so far amiss."
There was a clutching pain in him. He turned and looked at her, looked into her gray eyes, the face that was utterly qhalur."Roh has said… again and again… that you know all these things very well-and by your own experience."
She said nothing, but stepped back from him. He did not mean to let it go this time.
"I do not know," she whispered at last. "I do notknow."
"He says that you are what he is. I am asking you, liyo. Iam only ilin;you can tell me never to ask; and the oath I took to you does not question what you are. But Iwant to know. Iwant to know."
"I do not think you do."
"You said that you were not qhal.But how do I go on believing that? You said that you had never done what Liell has done. But," he added in a still voice difficult to force against the distrust in her eyes, "if you are not qhal-liyo,are you not then the other?"
"You are saying that I have lied to you."
"How can you have told me the truth? liyo,a little lie, even a kindly lie at the time… I could understand why. If you had told me you were the devil, I could not free myself of the oath I had given you. Perhaps you mean it for kindness in that hour. It was. But after so long, so many things-for my peace-"
"Would it give you peace?"
"To understand you-yes. It would. In many ways."
The gray eyes shimmered, pained. She offered her hand to his, palm up; he closed his over it, tightly, a manner of pledge, and he marked even in doing so that her fingers were long and the hand narrow. 'Truth," she said faintly. "I am what Hetharu is: halfling. A place long ago and far from Andur-Kursh… closed now, lost, no matter. The catastrophe did not come only on the qhal;they were not the only ones swept up. There were their ancestors, who made the Gates." She laughed, a lost and bitter laugh. "You do not understand. But as the Shiua are out of my past, I am out of theirs. It is paradox. The Gate-worlds are full of that. Can what I have told you give you peace?"
Fear was in her look… anxiety, he realized numbly, for hisopinion, as if she needed regard it. He half understood the other things, the madness that was time within gates. That anything could be older than the qhal… he could not grasp such age. But he had hurt her, and he could not bear to have done that. He let go her fingers, caught her face between his hands and set a kiss beside her lips, the only affirmation of trust he knew how to give. He had believed her a liar, had accused her, assuming so, so surely that he could dimiss such a lie and forgive, understanding her.