Part 10 (1/2)

”You're doing fine,” the man began tentatively.

”Yes. There's only a little soreness left.”

She looked at him suddenly. ”You thought I might be afraid to ride? Is that why you just about ordered me to let you come with me?”

He flushed. ”The possibility had occurred to me,” he confessed. ”I didn't mean to insult you.”

”You haven't,” she a.s.sured him quietly.

The brown eyes remained on the war captain. Their expression was grave and also tender. ”You're quite a man, Ross Murdock.”

She tossed her head then so that the long braid confining her hair danced upon her shoulders. ”We've come a long way. Let's top that rise there and then rest a while.”

So saying, she put Spark into a quick canter that moved them well in front of her companion.

He asked similar speed of Lady Gay, but the buck had a good lead on them and reached his goal before they again came up to him.

The two riders dismounted, letting their reins hang down as a signal to their animals that they were free to browse but were not to stray from this area.

It was a beautiful and rather unusual place. The crest of one of the lower peaks, it was unlike most of its fellows in the range in being quite narrow, no more than seven yards across at its crown.

Murdock mounted the rise to its crest. His heart swelled when he gazed out over the incredible world below him.

All that a wild and unutterably fair nature could create in such an area was there in front of him: mountains, hills, sharp, deep valleys, well nigh all thickly forested save where an odd patch of moorland or cliff or waterway broke the expanse of the trees.

Lakes were a common feature of the region, small in surface area but incredibly deep and blue like liquid sapphires-it was from their abundance and startling color that the domain had taken its name. They were cold enough to give pain to anyone drinking their clear waters too quickly. The streams feeding them ran free and fast, frequently erupting into rapids or dropping suddenly into almost too beautiful falls.

Beyond all this, framing it, were the higher spires of the range, many of them forever bearing brilliant, cruel crowns of ice.

The Time Agent knew this place well. He had come here often since he had discovered it early last spring, had come to think through a difficult maneuver, had come when the need for peace or beauty or grandeur was on him, had come more rarely in happiness and in hope, and always, he had found what his spirit sought.

He had never spoken of its existence and had never heard any other mention it, and although he realized his Sapphireholders must have known of it as well, he had always secretly hoped none of his comrades was touched by this mountain crest as he was.

Now, however, he found he did not grudge the exquisite woman beside him even this, that, on the contrary, he wanted to lay it before her as one would lay a precious jewel at the feet of a G.o.ddess.

He turned to her and then smiled. The same exaltation he experienced in this place was on her as well. What he wished to offer, Eveleen Riordan already knew.

More than that. He realized with a start that in suggesting they rest here, she had been giving it to him.

”You come here often?” he asked.

Her nod did not surprise him. ”You're no stranger to it yourself, Firehand?”

”No.”

An air of quiet gravity settled over her, and she gave a little sigh. ”This really will be our last winter up here?”

”Very likely.”

He studied her intently. ”Don't you want peace?”

The surprise in her expression gave him her answer even before she spoke. ”With all my heart! These people need to be able to live and work like they used to do. They're ordinary folk, you know, most of them, however good they are at this business fate's forced on them.”

”You're good at it, too.”

The woman nodded briskly. ”I know the weapons, and Zanthor I Yoroc is an enemy easy to hate. Every blow I strike cuts into his heart's desire. I just wish they could slash into his heart itself.”

”Why, Eveleen?” he asked softly, startled by the vehemence with which she had spat that last out. ”This isn't our war, not really.”

She looked at him, her eyes grave, measuring him, before she made her decision to respond with the truth. ”I'm making up,” she told him, ”doing for these people what I can't do for my own.”

Eveleen walked a few steps away from him and fixed her eyes on the panaroma below. ”Ever since I learned about the Project, that time travel is not only possible but accomplished fact, I've wanted to go back, undo the centuries of wrong my race has suffered.”

Murdock said nothing, and she faced him once more. ”I know that's not possible. I wouldn't do it if the opportunity were offered to me, with the most extensive possibility and probability scenarios of the results giving me the all-clear. It's bad enough playing G.o.d and altering the history of other worlds, but I couldn't take any such chance with our own. I wouldn't dare.”

She shrugged. ”The people of this island are facing the same kind of trouble mine did, a vicious, powerful tyrant trying to take their lands and slaughter their leaders and everyone else with any superior gifts. It's a privilege to be able to serve them, to do for them what I'm powerless to do for my own.”

Her head raised. ”Have I succeeded in d.a.m.ning myself?”

”No. I trust you.”

Eveleen's expression softened. ”You're no neutral in this yourself. No one's blind to your love for Sapphirehold.”

Murdock nodded. ”I'd give my life and my soul to bring this domain through, and after my experiences with the Foanna, I know enough to mean precisely what I say.”

”It's appreciated, Ross,” she told him. ”Gordon once said to Luroc that his people would go through a wall of fire for him because he moved to protect them when he learned of their danger. So they would, but they'd go through a league of it for you, on their knees if need be, and that includes I Loran himself.”

He smiled but shook his head. ”They come close enough to it as it is. There's always danger when we ride...”

Suddenly, his eyes brightened. ”I could remain here, Eveleen,” he said quickly, before his courage failed. He wanted to share the shadow-hope Gordon had awakened in him, that and a newer one, but if he did not speak now, uncertainty and embarra.s.sment would silence him again. ”I could make it. My share of that gold we took plus what we contracted for in exchange for our services here would let me start up a small company. Firehand's reputation should draw men to me, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few of my Sapphireholders, especially among the women, won't be all-fired keen to go back to their old lives, not after discovering what they can accomplish. They'd ride with me as well. I might conceivably wind up a full Commandant before I'm through.”

”It's not impossible, Ross,” she said quietly. ”In fact, I'd say it was probable.”

Murdock drew a deep breath. He had gone so far. Now, he must face the rest of it. ”Would you stay with me?”

The brown eyes met his. Eveleen Riordan was no child. Their expression was certain and steady, although surprisingly somber for such a moment. ”Yes, I'll stay, or I'll go back with you if that's what you finally decide to do.”

That was it, quiet and matter of fact. He stared at her, not quite believing that she had consented, until her soft laugh made him feel very young.

That broke the spell. Ross came to her, folded her in his arms, kissing her deeply and savoring her response.

At last, Eveleen gently drew back. ”Patience, Firehand. We're going to do this properly, with everything in its right order.”

”Why doesn't that surprise me?” he grumbled, good-naturedly since anyone knowing the weapons expert as well as he did could have expected nothing else.

She smiled. ”I've always been a great respecter of tradition, not to mention a lover of ceremony. I really wouldn't like to be done out of this particular one.”