To the High Redoubt by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Page A

her.
    â€œWhat?” It was an effort to hold him now, but she did.
    â€œChampion. It was bad enough using that other word, that ‘immai’ thing you attach to my name, but calling me champion…” He reached back for his blanket to wrap himself in it, away from her.
    â€œBut that is what it means, Arkady-champion. Immai is champion.” There was no argument in her tone or her attitude, but she could feel his desire to lash out at her. “From the time you heard my call and answered it, you have been my champion, and I have said so.”
    â€œIt’s a stupid thing to say,” he sulked, not succeeding in getting away from her.
    She found an edge of the blanket and crawled under it, moving so that she lay against his back. “It may be foolish to you, but if you were not my champion, you would not have heard me call, for I called to my champion. That way, those enemies of my House who followed me would not sense my need or my intentions.”
    â€œIt’s all nonsense,” he said gruffly.
    â€œThen my blindness is nonsense, too,” she responded in a still-low voice.
    Arkady rebuked himself inwardly, although he could not bring himself to say so to her. Instead, after a little time of silence, he said, “This alchemy you do—do you change lead into gold?”
    She shook her head, letting her dark hair brush against his back. “No. There are those who do, but it is a small matter.”
    â€œA small matter, to make gold from lead?” Arkady exclaimed, so incredulous that he forgot some of his resentment.
    â€œYes. That is only changing matter to matter. But to change, to transform yourself, that is an accomplishment. Those who practice this discipline strive to do that, not these minor…tricks.” She did her best not to sound indignant, but she knew that some of her feelings could not be entirely disguised. “I do not mean to criticize you, Arkady-champion. I hope you will trust what I say. I do not intend to deceive you.”
    â€œHow do I know that?” he challenged.
    Surata let her breath out slowly, not quite sighing. “There are ways I could show you, and things I could show you, but it would take time, and you would have to study. Since there is no chance for that now, what can I do but ask that you test me. You need not tell me that you are testing, or when you are testing, simply do it and make your own decisions.” Her voice trembled at the end of this, and for the first time some of her composure deserted her.
    Arkady shifted enough to permit him to put one arm around her, holding her head close to his shoulder with his hand. “You’ve passed one test already. Two, if you count waking me last night.” Without intending to, he bent his head and kissed her forehead, just above the blue mark.
    â€œThat is a start, I suppose,” Surata said, snuggling closer to him.
    â€œRight,” Arkady whispered with a single twitch of laughter, thinking that she meant his attitude and not the kiss.

Chapter 5

    â€œThere are many skills we are taught,” Surata told Arkady the next day as the rode toward the pass they had heard other travellers call Giants’ Causeway. “Most of them are to strengthen us and show us the limits of what we do, but some are…useful. There are ways to help a wound heal.”
    Arkady knew she was referring to his arm, for the infection he had feared had stopped for no reason, and now there was a red, puckering seam there, as if he had been cut three weeks ago, not three days. “And can you cure all things?”
    â€œOf course not,” she said wistfully. “I cannot cure age or mortal wounds or the sickness of rotting, or any other of the gods’ maladies. I cannot cure blindness. I cannot make the dumb speak.” She leaned her head on his back. She had grown used to the pace of the gelding, and it was no longer a constant struggle to keep her seat on the