Part 4 (1/2)
Night 77 of the Fourth Quarter, Year of the Master 705 The first sensation when Linden woke up was of a piece of cloth against her mouth. She also felt the scent of Rianor's cologne. A moment later she opened her eyes to see his coat wrapped around her, while he himself was sitting beside her, holding her head. He proceeded to wave two fingers before her face.
”How many fingers do you see?”
Making her eyes follow the movement of his hand brought her dizziness and, a second after that, joy. This same hand had been not long ago lifelessly prostrated on the stones. Despite the protest of her jaw, Linden beamed.
”How many fingers, Linde?”
It sounded like an order, and the steely gray glint had set into his eyes again, but there was concern in his voice, too. Linden found herself wis.h.i.+ng to obey him, punch him, and hug him all at the same time; instead, the corners of her mouth lifted teasingly.
”I don't kna”Four?” Her voice was awkward to control and she coughed, Rianor holding her head up, his features worried and still.
”You know, my lord,” she murmured when her voice obeyed. ”Most people would have tested my counting abilities before they took me as an apprentice.”
For a long moment his face remained unreadable, then a smile surfaced on it.
”Ah, I am aware of that.” He laid her head back and played with a lock of her hair. ”Most people would also deem managing such a smart and provocative apprentice to be a challenge.”
”Is that supposed to be a complimenta”” Linden bit back ”or a threat,” as his eyes surveyed her with a steely glint that was not exactly commanding but made her skin tingle.
”Perhaps.” Rianor bent over her, and Linden s.h.i.+vered as he drew very near, his hand releasing her hair and drifting downa”and then the hand gathered the candle from the ground beside her body, and he stood up.
”And perhaps I should tell you, my lady,” he said with a teasing smile, reaching his hand to help her rise, ”most people and I have very few similarities.”
”I think I know this already,” she murmured, smiling at hima”and then her smile faded, together with her momentary cheer and playfulness. She had not noticed immediately, but Rianor's face was illuminated too much. His candle was presently not the only light source. The other one was a stony pillar, looming where the samodiva and her well had been.
Right now Rianor was looking through it as if it did not exist. Linden s.h.i.+vered, clutching her hands tightly to her body, resisting both the urge to scream and the urge to run away.
Rianor
Night 77 of the Fourth Quarter, Year of the Master 705 Rianor gritted his teeth and ignored his broken ribs, holding her tightly as she jerked, kicked, and even managed to bite his hand. Pity that his gloves had been so bloodstained that the healer had destroyed them. She tried to bite again, and he put his other hand on her throat, careful to keep the light away from her skin. The alternative was to slap her, and it would probably break her hysterics faster, but it would hurt and scare her more, too. He realized his mistake when she stiffened and suddenly found the wits to perform his wrist trick on him, then broke into tears while s.h.i.+elding her throat. He had forgotten that the blasted Mentor had nearly suffocated her a short time ago.
Rianor reached for her again, and she stumbled back, a panicked look on her face. He caught her just before she would have left the area of light. A moment later, the Lord of Qynnsent was wis.h.i.+ng for five armed Mentors instead of the silently weeping girl in his arms.
”It is all right, Linde, I won't hurt you.”
She was so silent. She had not screamed even once, although she was terrified. Of him. Because earlier he had grabbed her and restricted the movement of her hands before she'd had the chance to do something she might later be sorry fora”before she would do like his mother had done fifteen years ago, with the same unmistakable wild look on her face.
”Do not worry about that, my boy, it is all right for ladies to be sometimes unstable,” his father had told his eight-year-old son, ”all of them break mirrors.” He had been stable, High Lord Alastair, accepting that the alien light that lady Eleora had seen in the mirror was nothing but a fancy. He accepted the same for later experiences of that kind, too. Since no one but the lady's husband, her son, and her housekeeper knew about them, they were not even dangerous. Rianor had sometimes dreamed about that light. Then, five years later, his parents had died and teaching himself to not dream at all had been the best waya”the only waya”to obliterate the nightmares.
Chasing the memories away, Rianor smiled at Linden.
”Hurting you would not be too easy, even if I wanted to. I should have mentioned that you can break hands with that joint lock. You almost broke mine.”
And fortunately it was not broken in advance. He tried to stiffen his chest and breathe slowly, giving some rest to his broken ribs. His limbs were bruised but mostly intact, although the brutal pain in his head made it somewhat difficult to control them. Which was not to be tolerated. Rianor removed one hand from around the girl and focused his mind first on that hand's fingers and then, like Fight Master Keitaro had taught him, gradually relaxed each muscle up to the shoulder until his arm felt his again.
Linden raised her face towards his. In the dim light her eyes were a darker shade of amber, gla.s.sy and expressionless, watching him, but seeing something else.
”They say that seeing things that do not exist is even worse than aberrant thoughts,” she said softly, ”and that even Mentors cannot save you. Bers might, but no one knows if even they can. The Lost Ones are eating your quintessence, they say, so you stop seeing the world and then start seeing another one, an illusion. Evil that is not even real.”
She trembled, and the veil before her eyes slowly lifted, making them once again smart, alive, and hurt. ”Have you heard that, or is it something offered only to commoners? How can something that is not real be evil? Or good, for that matter. So I thought, as a Scientist, before. But I was not a Scientist at the moment when I saw what you did not. I was a scared fool. And I was not a scared fool earlier. I could control myself when you were in dangera”when I fought her earliera”so how can just seeing something make me lose control now?”
”Emotions build upon each other. You have been through a lot in the last four days, without a chance to recuperate.”
Two tears glistened on her eyelashes, breaking the amber glow in an intricate pattern. Before he could think about it, Rianor gently brushed them away, not wis.h.i.+ng for the Mentors any more.
”Linde. Tell me what I am not seeing.” He looked at the bruises on her face and neck. ”And what happened before that. After that, try to not think much. Rest a little if you can, and leave everything to me. I will find a way out. I have survived bad situations before.”
”So you have? This is good to know. It is good to know something about you, my lord Rianor. Or, should I say, my lord stranger.” The amber eyes met his and held. ”You obviously know things about me, since you are mentioning the last four days. Then you know that I, too, have survived bad situations. And you want me to not think.”
She shook her head, wet hair slapping cheeks already wet from new tears. ”It would be convenient if I did not think, would it not? So that I did not possibly think of what you might do to me? Why did you fight for me tonight, my lord? Why did you take me with you? Are you a lord at all? Or, are you with the Bers? The nonexistent Master only knows how much compromising evidence you have gathered about mea”more than enough, in any case!”
The whip cut on his face chose that moment to start bleeding again. Rianor sighed, wis.h.i.+ng that the blood would at least not get in his eyes like this, and that whatever hammered his forehead from the inside would stop. His vision blurred and his body quivered, and it was all he could do to not lean over Linden for support.
”Youa”” He stopped and swallowed, fighting a sudden surge of nausea. But he must not sit or lie down now. He was not sure whether he would be able to rise after that. He had to leave this place as soon as possible and get to Qynnsenta”he had to get her to Qynnsent. He was not prepared for having her there yet, but he would deal with it. He would have to deal with the Bers, too. Rianor clenched his jaw at the thought of them, which only made his wound bleed harder.
And here she was, talking to him about them, fearing him, thinking him to be one of them ... He tried to control his rising anger with one of Master Keitaro's exercises but failed.
”You, headstronga”heedlessa”scatterminded woman, do you think that I would be in this place and in this condition if I were a Ber or wanted to betray you to them!? And if I were, or dida”whether or not I had gathered enough evidence against you before now, you just provided it to me with your 'nonexistent Master.' If you don't trust me, don't talk! If you so much want to think, at least be good at thinking!”
It worked better than any promise or consolation. She glared back at him.
”And you, insultinga”presumptuousa”conceited man! How dare you talk to me like that!”
Rianor laughed, angry and amused at the same time. n.o.body ever dared talk to him the way she just had. Well, the members of his own House, whom he treated like immediate family, allowed themselves the occasional, milder, retort. But outside people were civil, and many of the women were eager to please him, in many ways. And even though the maddening woman before him was going to be a Qynnsent lady soon, he should not allow her such retorts. He squeezed her, ignoring his ribs' complaint, as well as any pain she might feel herself, and brushed his lips to her ear.
”Be very careful how you address me, my apprentice. I won't betray you to the Bers, but for all you know, I might be more dangerous than them.”
She s.h.i.+vered, but it must not have been fear. When she turned her head to face him again, the amber seemed to glow brighter than a lantern.
”I will remember that, my lord master. I will remember it next time when something almost kills me because I am trying to save you, and you can't even see it!”
d.a.m.n it, that was not the best time to teach her respect. Or to think how well she fit into his arms, not at all like a family member. She smelled of lavender, despite the grime and blood, and how on Mierenthia had he recognized this particular smell? Rianor slightly relaxed his grip and tried to focus on the vague thought that had started nibbling his mind. It seemed important.