Exiles Gate

'They are awake out there,' he said reluctantly; and she:

'We had best take our leave of this place, gather Chei, and go.'

'I will find him.'

She rested her hand on his chest. 'Do not stray from here.' Fingers tightened on his harness. 'The horses first. Then we both find Chei, if he does not come to us. We can break our fast on the way.'

She was always cautious. This had other cause. He sensed that suddenly, wider awake than a moment ago, though he did not know which cause of many he could think of.

'Aye,' he said. He understood it for something of instinct; he did not take his own such impulses lightly, when they came; and Morgaine's, which were reliable, set a chill into him and cleared his head faster than cold water.

He gathered himself up and moved.

All the world outside was gray and wet, in a hanging fog—except he had kept the blankets dry, and seeing the likelihood of dew, even if he had not foreseen the rain, had thrown a reed mat over the good leather of their tack—being of mountainous Morija, where heavy dew and sudden rains were ordinary. The horses blew and stamped and threw their heads when he came to saddle them, and shifted skittishly as he worked, liking the drying-off, all the same.

Around the dead fire below, the women labored, wrapped in blankets, strange moving shapes like their own huts gone animate in the mist, among the less energetic forms of men who had begun to rise and wander about the peripheries of the camp similarly shrouded.

Morgaine came out with their packs and slung them over Siptah's saddle, pausing to cast a glance downhill toward the fire-site and the moving figures.

'There will be aching heads this morning,' Vanye muttered, pulling Arrhan's girth tight; and heard someone walking near them, through the brush, the which sound set his heart beating a little faster in apprehension. 'Who will that be?'

Morgaine made no answer. She had her cloak slung on one-sided against the cold; and because of the weapons she had. She carried Changeling at her back; and she stood by Siptah's side looking in the direction of that quiet tread—more than one man was there, that much was certain.

It was Chei that came out of the mist and the trees, with Bron limping behind him.

'We are leaving,' Morgaine said quietly. 'Chei, one last journey and I release you from your word—guide us as far as the Road. Beyond that—you are quit of us and you can go where you like, with our thanks.'

'Lady,' Chei said, 'you mistake me. Where I want to be, is with you and with Vanye. Myself and Bron, together. We have both decided. He understands everything. He agrees.'

'There is no need,' Morgaine said with a shake of her head. 'Believe me: that one service is all you need do us, and then go back, find some other place, do as you choose.'

'I am not helpless,' Bron declared fervently—a man much like his brother in all points, but taller. It was the identical anxious look. 'Lady, I limp, but I am a whole man on horseback—I shall not slow you; it is my leg that is wounded, that is all, and it is healing. I will not be lame, I have my gear, and I will not slow you.'

The silence went on then, painfully. 'No,' she said then.

The man drew in his breath, slowly. 'Then at least—do not cast Chei off for my sake.'

'You do not understand,' she said.

'You do not understand,' Chei said, and held out his hand toward Vanye with that same expression. 'Vanye—we were worth something to our lord, Bron and I; Bron—Bron was the one he used to say—had no fear of the devil himself. You see he is wounded; but he will heal—I will heal; you have never seen what I can do, and the two of us—you will never regret taking us, we will fight for you, Bron and I, against any of your enemies, human or qhal; we will never find a better lord, I believe that, and Bron believes it—He knows what you might have done here, and did not, and how you dealt with Arunden—and how you dealt with me—Tell her, Vanye. Tell my lady we will repay everything she spends on us. We will earn our keep. We are worth having, Nhi Vanye!'

'It is not your worth she disputes, Chei.'

'Then what? Do you doubt us? I brought you through this. I have gotten you safe passage. I swore to you. What do you think—that I have not kept my word? Bron and I—will go with you on our own. We will prove to you what we are worth. Take us on those terms. You owe us nothing. Only for God's sake do not leave us in Arunden's debt.'

Entanglement showed itself, unguessed and dark, an obscurity of honor and obligation. 'You mean that Arunden has some claim on you.'

'For Bron's life,' Chei said. 'For mine, if you leave me here; I will have to trade him everything I own; and most of everything that comes to me or Bron; and then we will never be free of him. One or the other of us he will always find a way to keep in his debt—that is the way he is. Lady, I swear we will manage, we will take nothing of your supplies—have I not brought you my own horse and gear already? Bron has his gear, he has a good horse—he traded his small-sword for it last night. He has his other. We will not slow you. We will earn our way, every step of it.'

'Foolishness,' Morgaine said harshly. 'Two wounded Men and qhalur territory ahead of us. And you would use our supplies. We have no time for hunting.'

'We have them! We have provisions—we—'

'Chei. Chei, no. This much I will do, if you have some debt here. Ride with us, both as far as the Road. I will at least get you free of here. You will see us as far as the Road and then we are quit of each other. You will have no debt to me or to Arunden, and that is as much as I can give you. I claim nothing of you.'

'Did you not promise—promise to me—that you would take me through the gate if I chose?'

Morgaine stopped for once with her mouth open, caught. Then she shut it abruptly and frowned. 'That had condition, condition you cannot meet. You know nothing about the land further on.'

'I thought it was for my life's sake—for my protection. Not a few nights gone. I will not deny you that right, you said.'

'I said I would advise you against it.'

'But I will go, lady, and my brother will.'

'You, I said. No other!'

Chei's face went paler still. 'Both of us. You will nothold me tothat. you will not deny me for bron's sake, you wouldnot do that,lady.'

'You do not know what I would do, fool!'

'I know I will follow you. And Bron will. Both of us. And you will not turn us back. Please.'

A long moment she stood still. And Chei was next to weeping, Bron's face pale and set. 'You are not afraid for that?' She swept her hand toward the camp, the dead fire, Arunden's place and others'.

'You have no fear of your priest and his curses?'

'We will follow you.'

'We will talk about it again before Tejhos. By then, you may have another opinion.'

'Lady,' Chei said fervently, and knelt down and seized her hand, his brother after him kneeling and taking her hand and pressing it to his brow, the which she endured with a look of dread on her face.

'We are leaving,' Morgaine told the brothers. 'Arm and saddle and take everything you can. I would dispense with any long leave-takings with Arunden, if we can avoid that, Chei. Or if you have to deal with him, say we will remember him kindly—say whatever will keep him content and keep him off our trail.'

'Aye, lady,' Chei said, and Bron murmured the same, rising with a great effort not to falter in the act. Chei delayed for him and then the both of them went off directly across the camp in all the haste Bron could use.

Morgaine swore beneath her breath and shook her head.

'It is freedom you offer them,' Vanye said. 'Evidently they are beholden for whatever they take at Arunden's hand.'

'If that is all they want,' she muttered, and turned to Siptah to tie the thongs that held her blanket roll.