'Why did you bring me here?' she demanded, low and savage.
'I'm taking you back to the Gate. To our own world, where we belong, so that Jace and Chess can come back where they belong.'
'This is my world now.' Leashed fury in her voice. 'This is where I belong. I have a task to do here, acreation to unfold. In this world, I can make my existence mean something. I have no desire to go back.'
'I don't suppose you do, right now.' Vandien kept his voice reasonable. 'You are not yourself at present; you are still under the Limbreth's sway. After a time without their water, and some proper food in you, you'll come back to your senses.'
'You mean I'll sink back to your level.' Ki sat up, running skeletal hands through her disheveled hair. She hissed out a breath. 'Look at me. Already you've brought me back to anger, one of the basest emotions of the Human race. I had managed to free myself of that, Vandien, before you came back. Why did you have to spoil it all? Can't you see? You had your place in my life, and filled it sweetly. I am grateful to you for all that you were to me and all that we shared. But that time is past, and I have moved beyond you. Do not take it hard; I appreciate you now as I never did before. I have looked back at every memory I have of you, of every moment we have ever shared, and from each I have taken the gold and left the dross behind. I have purified your touch on my life. Now you would come back to soil it all again. I beg you not to. Leave me and go on, let me return to my work, and keep of you what was good.'
Vandien had remained silent before her impassioned plea. Now he forced his clenched hands to open. He rose and stepped away to give her space. A practical voice inside him assured him that it was the Limbreth speaking, not Ki. She had been poisoned by their water, drugged by their visions. But that small demon of insecurity that sleeps in the best-loved of men sent forth a poisoned dart. She was done with him. She had taken of him all he had to offer her, and now she would carry it away with her. What had he to offer that could compete with the vision of the Limbreths? He coughed out a sigh and walked to the horses, to annoy them by thoroughly inspecting their hooves. He chewed his bitter choices. He could bind her like an animal and keep her at his side. He would be ashamed to treat a dog so. He could plead with her to come with him. He could let her go.
'You have my love, Vandien,' she said to his hunched shoulders. 'I leave it with you. You don't need me always by your side to possess that. We have cared for one another. But I am not a vine, to twist my life and twine about a strong column like yourself. Rather we have been as two strong trees that grew side by side, but must eventually lean apart from one another. You would not have me in your shade, would you, stunted and misshapen? Let me go.'
'I am not holding you.' The words were ripped slowly out of him, like torn pieces of flesh. He crossed his arms on his chest and held himself tightly, but there was no comfort in that solitary hug. The warm rich scents of the forest flowered up around him as it breathed out as peacefully as a sleeping child. The horses cropped the short grasses growing from the moss in contentment. No wind disturbed a single leaf; peace walked the night in velvet slippers. Vandien felt himself as a gaping red wound in the tranquil night as he watched Ki rise with difficulty. She was so painfully thin, so weakened by her fast. It was the water, he told himself vainly, the enchantment of the Limbreths that had brought them to this parting. But he could not wholly believe it. They had but brought Ki to an earlier realization of a truth he had always secretly known, that he needed her more than she needed him; that there were things waiting for one so capable and strong that could not be shared by a reckless vagabond like himself. In a thousand nightmares he had stood by the road calling after her as her wagon dwindled out of sight. Now she was going, her wagon lost to them both, and he did not call. She walked as hesitantly as a new-born fawn, picking her steps with caution born of weakness. Her robe was dark, and so was her hair; in no time the road swallowed her from sight. He stepped back into the sheltering trees, suddenly aware that his traitorous feet had nearly followed her. Let her go, he told himself sternly. Within the copse, he sank down, letting his dark head rest on his knees. He wondered what he would do next.
How long he sat he couldn't guess. He heard hoofbeats coming at an easy lope down the black road. He would have to go out of the copse and call to her, or she would pass him by in the dark. Not that itmattered much. Belatedly he recalled that he had all the food, and to Hollyika that would matter. He rose grudgingly, but before he could step out into the open, the greys had whinnied to Black and he had answered. Vandien heard the sound of his hooves change as he slowed and turned off the hard road onto firm turf.
Horse and rider looked bad and smelled worse. Vandien had heard rumors of the Brurjan battle musk, but had never smelled it before. He judged it a weapon at least as potent as her sword. He stepped forward to catch the reins of the spent horse, but he went jigging out of his reach; Hollyika pulled the horse's head sharply away.
'You're a damn fool!' she growled at him.
'I'm glad to see you, too.'
She didn't even pause. 'You don't muffle your horses' muzzles; how did you know it would be me coming along? Then you step up in front of a warhorse fresh from battle, waving your hands like a target; and lastly, you seem to have dropped this on your way.'
'This' proved to be Ki, slung casually behind the Brurjan on her horse, and almost invisible behind her bulk.
'What the hell?' Vandien exclaimed in dismay. He stepped again to take her from the horse, remembered in time, and jumped back from the feint of Black's hooves.
'Quit spooking him!' growled the Brurjan and leaped from the saddle like a cat from a fence. She turned and went casually up to her horse, who stood docilely for her. She unslung Ki, dumping her to the ground unceremoniously. Vandien hastened to kneel beside her. 'Is she hurt?'
'Not as bad as I am.' For the first time, he noticed the dark drip from one of her muscular forearms. A passing scythe, he decided, and rose again, anxious for both of them.
'Let her flop.' Hollyika read his thoughts. 'I whacked her again, and down she went. She'll keep. She won't be up for a while, at any rate. Rip the sleeve off your shirt for a bandage.' She worked her tongue around in her immense mouth, and then put her lips to her wound. Vandien watched in awe as her black tongue moved carefully down the length of the slash. Two tugs had his sleeve free of his shirt. He began to rip it into strips.
'You don't say much,' Hollyika observed when she had finished licking her wound. 'Not a thank you, Holly, I dropped her off the pack horse and never noticed or anything.'
'I didn't drop her off the pack horse.' Vandien stepped up to take her arm in his hands. He split one end of his long strip to knot it firmly but not too tightly above the wound. With a gentle touch he began to wrap the strip firmly in a long spiral down her arm. She gave no sign of pain.
'So how did you lose her?' she pressed.
'Are you asking me what I think you're asking me?' Vandien asked spitefully.
'No. I'm asking what stupid thing you did, that's all.'
'She didn't want to stay with me. She wanted to go back to the Limbreths. I let her go.' The words wereclipped, but he resisted the urge to snug the bandage tighter around the wound.
'Stupider than I thought. I figured you had taken a nap and let her wander off. Don't you want her, after all the trouble we've gone to?'
'Yes. No. Hell, get off me! I don't want her if she doesn't want to be with me.'
'Now he decides that. Wonderful. Beware of ifs, Human. They dilute your purpose and spoil your drive. Consider your decision with no ifs. You want her. You have her. Keep her after this.'