some time before their eveningfeast to avoid the discussion. Hopefully they would be more occupied with their find.
He breathed shallowly, waiting as the woman turned her attention from the dig site to the approaching company of men. The smell of their pack animals lingered in the air, mute testimony to the fact they'd been ill- treated over whatever distance they'd covered. Easing a branch aside, the ranger peered at the woman.
He kept his eyes from directly resting on her. Most people had the ability to know when they were being stared at. Jaeleen was a warrior herself, trained in frontier woodcraft, though certainly not of ranger caliber.
She hunkered down next to a thick-boled oak tree. Early in spring, the oak seeds still fell to the earth in waves, twirling endlessly with each new breeze. Already the seeds clung to her homespun clothing, taking away some of the alienness of her that didn't fit in the forest.
Her face was as he remembered it, triangular, with a short nose and a generous mouth. Her yellow-gold hair blazed under the hooded brown cloak. The homespun clothing masked some of the generous curves of her body, but couldn't hide the fact that she was all female.
She held the hand crossbow in her gloved right hand and glanced back along the trail she must have made in her journey through the forest. Only a few bent grasses remained to mark her passage. She'd been careful. Most people would never have been able to trail her. Someone among the pursuing group must have known woodcraft.
I could go scout them and report back, Xuxa offered.
No, Baylee replied. You could be seen. That's a risk we don't need to take yet. Jaeleen may know who they are.
She may not be inclined to share that information.
Baylee grinned, feeling his spirits soar as he contemplated the coming confrontation. Fighting in the forest was something he was very familiar with. He dropped a hand to the ground and gingerly lifted small rocks from the gully side. He discarded them patiently, searching for ones that were about the size of a robin's egg, as round as he could manage, and worn smooth as churned butter to the touch. By the time he had a dozen of them located and pocketed, the first noises of the approaching party reached him.
The scrape of steel against leather sounded totally out of place in the forest. Horses blew their breath out in tired nickers.
Jaeleen shifted, laying her hand crossbow over a tree limb in front of her, a fletched bolt locked into place. Nestled into the side of the gully as she was, chances were small that she'd be spotted right away, and her position was defensible. Even with numbers on their side, the approaching group was certain to lose a couple members or more. Jaeleen was deadly with her little crossbow, and even more deadly when a man came within embrace of any of the small knives she kept secreted on her person.
Still, Baylee knew the woman would be overran. He reached for his belt and loosened the strip of heavily worked deerskin hiding inside it. Holding the ends between his fingers, he took a rock from his pocket and placed it in the end. The pocket formed around the stone instantly, turning the simple piece of leather into a sling.
He clasped the sling in his hand, then moved forward into the open, gliding between the leaves and the branches. Jaeleen had her back to him. He made no noise that she could hear.
Coming up behind her, he reached forward and clapped a hand over her mouth. She struggled immediately, becoming a hellion in his grasp. Baylee used his body weight to subdue her, managing it with difficulty because he didn't want to hurt her.
She waved the vicious little hand crossbow and tried to bring it to bear.
Baylee kept his hand over her mouth. She bit him, and her teeth penetrated the rough leather of his gloves with enough force to hurt but not break the skin. 'Jaeleen!' he hissed into her ear. 'Be quiet, or you'll have them down on us!'
She stopped struggling, but her body remained tense. He released his hold on her lower face. She turned her head to look at him.
'Baylee?'
He met her gaze. 'Yes.'
Without warning, she kicked him betwixt wind and water.
I warned you about her, Xuxa said. She knows no allegiance except what she gives willingly. You do not mean as much to her as you think.
Baylee rolled away to deflect part of the kick. But he crashed through the dead leaves and branches scattered across the ground, causing a great deal of noise. As he got to his feet, he heard orders bellowed in the distance. Then the sound of running feet echoed through the forest, approaching quickly.
Jaeleen leveled her hand crossbow at Baylee's chest Her finger whitened on the trigger.
2
'Baylee!' Recognition dawned in Jaeleen's eyes over the edged bolt of the hand crossbow.
'Yes.' Baylee took a tentative breath, really surprised when it didn't hurt too badly.
'What are you doing here?' Jaeleen remained behind cover, her attention divided between the ranger and the approaching group bashing their way through the forest.
'Camping,' Baylee replied. He turned his own attention to the crashing noises coming through the brush. The group no longer worried about remaining quiet. He pointed at the hand crossbow. 'Would you mind aiming that somewhere else?'
Jaeleen shifted the crossbow, but not far. She reached up and knocked leaves from her hair. Oak seeds whirled around and descended to the ground. 'You expect me to believe you were camping?'
'Not since you've been spying on me.'
Dark anger coasted across the shadowed planes of the woman warrior's face. 'Spying is kind of a harsh term, don't you think?'
Baylee let some of his own anger sound in his voice. 'What exactly would you call it?'
Jaeleen's mouth made an O of surprise. 'You think I followed you here!'
'I've been here for hours,' Baylee retorted, 'and you've only just arrived. What would you think?'
The crashing through the forest neared, sounding remarkably like hounds taking to the brush. The bellowed commands became clearer, and this time Baylee was able to recognize the language being used.
An ore raiding party, Xuxa said. They must have cut your trail, or the woman's.
'How dare you think I would follow you! I swear by the fair hair of Tymora, my chosen goddess, that I had no idea you were here until I saw you on that hillside!' Jaeleen looked indignant.
Her words rang true, but Baylee knew the woman had the gift of making any implausibility sound like the truth. He'd had experience. 'Then what are you doing here?' he demanded.
She hesitated. 'Traveling.'
Baylee snorted his disbelief, an obscene sound that Xuxa instantly rebuked him for through their silent communication. 'Ranger's Way is six miles to the east. You're out in the rough.'
'I was hoping to shave a few days off my journey to Plunge-pool.'
'What business have you in Plungepool?'
'I went to see the falls, if it's any business of yours,' Jaeleen snapped. 'Which, of course, it isn't. I've heard a lot about the area.'
'You've never been there?'
'No.'
Baylee struggled to believe that. Still, most of the times he'd occasioned to meet Jaeleen had been along the Sword Coast. Though there had been that time in Mulhorand when he and Golsway had recovered the Orb of Aurus, which had contained a codex that had given scholars clues into one of the dead languages contained in that country.
It had been the third meeting with Jaeleen, and the first time they'd been intimate with each other, giving in to the impulses both had. However, Jaeleen had taken advantage of that tryst to steal the Orb of Aurus. Golsway had been incensed, and it had taken them six days to track her down and steal it back only moments after she'd
