Warsworn by Elizabeth Vaughan Page B

another way." He resumed his stalk, and started ranting. I'd not expected this to be easy, and it wasn't. As he paced, he repeated each of his arguments and I refuted them again, knowing that I was right. I started to work on the jerkin's lacings. These heavy leather garments were warm, and it was chaffing my neck. How did they wear this armor all the time?
    Finally he spun to look at me, and jabbed a finger in my direction. "We can send Gils. He—"
    "You'd send a boy to do a man's job?"
    He flared like a fire doused with oil. "You are the last living member of the House of Xy. I'll not risk you. I'll not risk what we are trying to do for our people." He took a step closer, and I fought the urge to step back. "I'll not risk all this for a tiny village. Who will know? Who will see?" He turned, headed for our horses.
    "The skies will know."
     
    He stopped dead, his back to me, his hands clenched in fists.
    My heart in my throat, I continued. "The Goddess will know."
    The silence between us lengthened. There was no sound, not even the bells in my hand. Just the wind, whipping at the grass and my hair.
    The tension left his hands first, as his clenched fingers slowly uncurled. Then his back and neck lost their stiffness as he took a deep breath. I moved the bells in my hand, letting them chime softly.
    He turned and walked back to me, a rueful look on his face. "I should have known. From the moment you defied me in the marketplace, I should have known. There is more honor and stubbornness in one slight Xyian woman than in my entire army."
    "Slight?" I raised an eyebrow.
    He smiled, and raised a hand to cup my face.
    "Keir, leaving these people would be as big a mistake as—"
    "As when I plunged my sword in Durst's chest."
    I nodded.
    "I would not do this, my heart's fire." Keir stroked my lips with his thumb.
    "All the other alternatives are worse. There is no choice, Keir." I stepped closer, and wrapped my arms around him. He enfolded me in his, and we stood for a long moment, a long moment of fragile peace.
    I stepped back, finally. "I have to talk to Gils."
    "We'll have him at the senel." Keir looked off in the distance, toward the army. "A few days delay will not be that great a loss."
    I opened my mouth to correct him, but closed it as he turned back to me. "Come, Lara. Let us be about this as quickly as possible."
    I took his hand without saying a word and we walked back to the horses.
    If Iften didn't remove that smug look from his face, Keir was going to do it for him.
    The senel had been called, under the same willow tree. The warleaders were gathered, and Marcus had managed a meal of warm gurt and fry bread. Kavage was brewing on a fire, and the smell of it filled the air. But I could barely choke down my food, my stomach was so tense.
    Now that Keir had made the decision I was eager to go, to find out what we were facing. If I left soon, I'd have daylight to take stock and talk to the remaining villagers. Please Goddess, let there be living souls within those gates. Xy had stories too, just as the Firelanders did, of whole towns filled with the dead and dying. Not here, Lady of the Moon and Stars. Please.
    But before I could go, there were things I had to tell them, had to teach them. I couldn't leave an entire army unprepared for the realities of a plague. But before I could teach them anything, I had to convince them of the threat. Gils was seated by my side, wide-eyed as he listened. His thin body trembled with suppressed excitement.
     
    Keir's announcement that we would aid the village was met with puzzled looks by some and pure disdain by others. "Leave them to rot in their filth," was Iften's contribution and it was met with almost complete agreement.
    But it was the statement that I would go into the village that caused that smirk on Iften's face.
    He remained silent as the others protested and argued, handing Keir's token from one to another. They made the same arguments that Keir had made to me, and Keir