Miller smiled. 'It's a good job you're going, Mallory — for you. I know all your secret codes now… in everything you say. You can't fool me.'
'Miller, you are so wrong, you've got wrong tattooed on your forehead.'
'Just tell me one thing, Mallory.'
'Go on — hit me.'
'What did you do before you came here? I need to know… so I can understand you.'
For an instant, Mallory felt as though night had fallen in his mind. But then it cleared, and he looked around him, at the brothers shuffling towards compline, and the buildings, and the darkening sky where the first stars were appearing. 'You know what, Miller. It doesn't matter.' And he was right.
They spotted Sophie approaching from the flourishing groves where she had been meditating quietly. She smiled and waved.
'Don't let her lead you astray, Mallory,' Miller teased in his innocent fashion. 'She's an infidel. And, by God, she's a woman.' 'She's my Combat Honey, Miller, and don't you forget it. She could hold her own with any knight.'
'You're a lucky man, Mallory.'
'Yeah, that's the bit I don't get. Everybody keeps telling me I'm a lucky man, but nobody tells her how lucky she is. What's that all about?'
Sophie gave Miller a big hug and whispered something in his ear; they both looked at Mallory and laughed. He looked away impassively, and that made them laugh all the more.
Then Miller came over and shook Mallory's hand. 'You look after yourself,' he said, both seriously and honestly.
'I'll do that. And you, too, Miller.'
Miller flashed them both a smile before slipping off into the twilight.
'He's got great things ahead of him,' Mallory said. 'I tell you, in a few years' time they'll be writing stories about him. That'll never happen to you and me.'
'Speak for yourself.' Sophie mounted the horse and together they trotted out towards the shattered gates. 'You sure you still want to do this, Mallory?' she asked.
'If you go, I'll go with you. If you stay, I'll wait.'
She glanced at him askance. 'Are you being sarcastic?'
'I don't know the meaning of the word.'
He spurred his horse, and they moved out into a better world.
