“Blame?” said Coransee calmly. “What are we doing out here between sectors with the Clayarks, Teray? Why are we here?”
Teray made a sound of disgust. “All right, make it my fault if you want to. But you know as well as I do that you should link up with at least some of your people. You could stand it with a couple of them even though they’re not close to you. Hell, you’re the one who wants the Pattern. That will link you with everyone.” He could see that
Coransee was getting angry, but he did not care.
“You know,” said Coransee quietly, “I would have stopped you some words back if I didn’t realize you were speaking out of your feelings for the woman. But even for that, you’ve said enough.”
Teray looked at Amber and saw that she was breathing normally now. For a while she had hardly seemed to be breathing at all. But she was pulling out of it. The wound was closed already. She was going to be all right. And this wouldn’t happen again, because weary or not, he and Amber wouldn’t depend on the protection, the watchfulness, of others. They would look out for themselves as before, working together, their combined, extended awareness missing nothing. For days they had traveled safely alone. Now, amid a group of strong Patternists, the Clayarks had reached them. Coransee could not even be trusted to give protection to the people he claimed as his own.
Teray touched Amber’s arm and knew that she was aware of him, that she took comfort in his presence. He looked at her silently for several seconds, then spoke to Coransee.
“You’re right, Lord, I did speak out of love for her. I… do you intend to keep her?”
“Yes.”
“I was afraid you did. If Rayal’s findings free me, will you let me buy her?”
“Buy her with what?”
“With service, brother, work. I had planned never to see Redhill again if I was freed. But I’ll go back and work at whatever you say if my service will buy her.”
But Coransee was already shaking his head. “You’re welcome to come back to Redhill, to my House, if you’re freed. But she’s not for sale.” Coransee smiled slightly. “You’d never be able to hold her anyway.”
“I wouldn’t try to hold her against her will. I want her as my wife, not as my prisoner.”
“You won’t have her as either. At least not until I’m tired of her. But you’ll have the same access to her as any other outsider if you return with me.”
Amber opened her eyes and looked at Teray, then at Coransee. She did not speak. Perhaps she could not, yet
“Of course,” said Coransee to Teray, “you can have it all if you decide to stop fighting me. Amber will be the least of what you’ll get.”
Amber sat up, closed her eyes again for a few seconds, then opened them and stood up. Still without speaking, she walked over to her horse, took down her canteen, then went off several steps to a large rock. She leaned against the rock, kicked aside some sand, and vomited into the depression she had made. When she was finished, she rinsed her mouth, then took a long drink of water. She kicked sand into the depression, turned, and came toward them,
eating something that Teray had not seen her take from her horse. Her eyes were on Coransee.
“I’m an independent, Lord.” She spoke with slight hoarseness. “I’m an independent because most people realize how much trouble I can cause them if they try to hold me.”
“You think I don’t, after two years?”
“I think you haven’t thought about it enough.”
“That sounds like a warning.”
“Good. At least you know me well enough to understand that much.”
He hit her just as she was turning away. She shielded too late to escape the force of the blow. She fell to one knee, and stared her hatred at him.
“I’ve taken you into my House,” he said. “You belong to me. You don’t give me warnings.”
“I’ll give you this one!” Her voice was a harsh whisper. “Hit me again and you won’t have an undamaged organ left in your body!”
Teray came between them. He stepped between them physically, and emphasized the link mentally so that Coransee understood the situation.
“This is none of your business, Teray,” said the Housemaster.
“Lord, she’s just recovering from a wound that would have killed anyone else. Can’t you at least
wait until she’s rested before you start on her?”
Amber came up beside Teray and said quietly, “Stay out of it, Teray. You’ve made your deal.”
“Keep quiet.” He didn’t bother to look at her. Both she and Coransee ought to be grateful to him. He was giving them a way out. A way to avoid a potentially suicidal confrontation. Or, at the very worst, he was joining the confrontation and thus making it less certainly suicidal for Amber. “We’re one,” he told Coransee. “She and I are one. Attacking her is the same as attacking me.”
Coransee looked at Teray with mild surprise. “She’s worth your life to you?”
“She is.” Not that he expected to pay with his life for siding with her. The moment of greatest tension had passed. Now Coransee would find a face-saving way out.
“Has she already agreed to stay with you?” the Housemaster asked. Had Teray succeeded where Coransee had failed?
“No, Lord. In fact, she refused.”
Coransee laughed aloud. “Then you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”
Teray said nothing, stayed where he was. Coransee said to Amber, “Would you let him throw away his foolish life for you, girl? You know I’d kill him.”
