Wind Rider's Oath

the West Riding, but only an anguished father. 'Why didn't you? This will break Hanatha's heart, as it has already broken mine.'

'Because it was her decision,' Kaeritha said gently. 'I'm not a Sothoii, Tellian. I don't pretend to understand your people, or all of your ways and customs. But when your daughter rode up to my fire out of the rain and the night, all by herself, she wasn't running away from your heart, or your love, or from Hanatha's love. She was running to them.'

The unshed tears broke free, running down Tellian's fatigue-lined cheeks into his beard, and her own eyes stung.

'That's her message to you,' Kaeritha continued quietly. 'That she can never tell you how sorry she is for the pain she knows her actions will cause you and her mother. But that she also knows this was only the first offer for her hand. There would have been more, if this one was refused, Tellian, and you know it. Just as you know that who she is and what she offers means almost all those offers would have been made for all the wrong reasons. But you also know you couldn't refuse them all-not without paying a disastrous political price. She may be only fourteen years old, but she sees that, and she understands it. So she made the only decision she thinks she can make. Not just for her, but for everyone she loves.'

'But how could she leave us this way?' Tellian demanded, his voice raw with anguish. 'The law will take us from her as surely as it takes her from us, Kaeritha! Everyone she's ever known, everything she ever had, will be taken from her. How could you let her pay that price, whatever she wanted?'

'Because of who she is,' Kaeritha said quietly. 'Not 'what'-not because she's the daughter of a baron-but because of who she is . . . and who you raised her to be. You made her too strong if you wanted someone who would meekly submit to a life sentence as no more than a high-born broodmare to someone like this Blackhill. And you made her too loving to allow someone like him or Baron Cassan to use her as a weapon against you. Between you, you and Hanatha raised a young woman strong enough and loving enough to give up all of the rank and all of the privileges of her birth, to suffer the pain of 'running away' from you and the even worse pain of knowing how much grief her decision would cause you. Not because she was foolish, or petulant, or spoiled-and certainly not because she was stupid. She did it because of how much she loves you both.'

The father's tears spilled freely now, and she stepped closer, reaching out to rest her hands on his shoulders.

'What else could I do in the face of that much love, Tellian?' she asked very softly.

'Nothing,' he whispered, and he bowed his head and his own right hand left the dagger hilt and rose to cover the hand on his left shoulder.

He stood that way for long, endless moments. Then he inhaled deeply, squeezed her hand lightly, raised his head, and brushed the tears from his eyes.

'I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that she hadn't done this thing,' he said, his voice less ragged but still soft. 'I would never have consented to her marriage to anyone she didn't choose to marry, whatever the political cost. But I suppose she knew that, didn't she?'

'Yes, I think she did,' Kaeritha agreed with a slight, sad smile.

'Yet as badly as I wish she hadn't done it, I know why she did. And you're right-whatever else it may have been, it wasn't the decision of a weakling or a coward. And so, despite all the grief and the heartache this will cause me and Hanatha-and Leeana-I'm proud of her.'

He shook his head, as if he couldn't quite believe his own words. But then he stopped shaking it, and nodded slowly instead.

'I am proud of her,' he said.

'And you should be,' Kaeritha replied simply.

They gazed at one another for a few more seconds of silence, and then he nodded again, crisply this time, with an air of finality . . . and acceptance.

'Tell her -' He paused, as if searching for exactly the right words. Then he shrugged, as if he'd suddenly realized the search wasn't really difficult at all. 'Tell her we love her. Tell her we understand why she's done this. That if she changes her mind during this 'probationary period' we will welcome her home and rejoice. But also tell her it is her decision, and that we will accept it-and continue to love her-whatever it may be in the end.'

'I will,' she promised, inclining her head in a half-bow.

'Thank you,' he said, and then surprised her with a wry but genuine chuckle. One of her eyebrows arched, and he snorted.

'The last thing I expected for the last three days that I'd be doing when I finally caught up with you was thanking you, Dame Kaeritha. Champion of Tomanak or not, I had something a bit more drastic in mind!'

'If I'd been in your position, Milord,' she told him with a crooked smile, 'I'd have been thinking of something having to do with headsmen and chopping blocks.'

'I won't say the thought didn't cross my mind,' he conceded, 'although I'd probably have had a little difficulty explaining it to Bahzell and Brandark. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that anything I was contemplating doing to you pales compared to what my armsmen think I ought to do. All of them are deeply devoted to Leeana, and some of them will never believe she ever would have thought of something like this without encouragement from someone. I suspect the someone they're going to blame for it will be you. And some of my other retainers-and vassals-are going to see her decision as a disgrace and an insult to my house. When they do, they're going to be looking for someone to blame for that, too.'

'I anticipated something like that,' Kaeritha said dryly.

'I'm sure you did, but the truth is that this isn't going to do your reputation any good with most Sothoii,' he warned.

'Champions of Tomanak frequently find themselves a bit unpopular, Milord,' she said. 'On the other hand, as Bahzell has said a time or two, 'a champion is one as does what needs doing.' ' She shrugged. 'This needed doing.'

'Perhaps it did,' he acknowledged. 'But I hope one of the consequences won't be to undermine whatever it is you're here to do for Scale Balancer.'

'As far as that goes, Milord,' she said thoughtfully, 'it's occurred to me that helping Leeana get here in the first place may have been a part of what I'm supposed to do. I'm not sure why it should have been, but it feels right, and I've learned it's best to trust my feelings in cases like this.'

Tellian didn't look as if he found the thought that any god, much less the War God, should want one of his champions to help his only child run away to the war maids particularly encouraging. If so, she didn't blame him a bit . . . and at least he was courteous enough not to put his feelings into words.

'At any rate,' she continued, 'I will be most happy to deliver your message-all of your message-to Leeana.'

'Thank you,' he repeated, and the corners of his eyes crinkled with an edge of genuine humor as he looked around Yalith's office. 'And now, I suppose, we ought to invite the Mayor back into her own office. It would be only courteous to reassure her that we haven't been carving one another up in here, after all!'

Chapter Twenty

'To what do I owe the pleasure?' the richly dressed nobleman asked sardonically as soon as the servant who had ushered Varnaythus into his study departed, closing the door silently behind him.

'I was merely in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by and compare notes with you, Milord Triahm,' the wizard-priest said smoothly. He walked across to one of the comfortable chairs which faced the other man's desk and arched his eyebrows as he rested one hand atop the chair back. His host nodded brusque permission, and he seated himself, then leaned back and crossed his legs.

'It's possible things will be coming to a head sooner than we'd anticipated,' he continued. 'And a new wrinkle