Page 122 of Swordheart
This did not endear him to the bandit, but the sudden burst of laughter from off to his right told him that Halla was alive.
Alive. Not dead. I didn’t fail her.
Sheer relief made him slow to dodge the axeman’s charge. He had to dive out of the way and felt his ankle twinge a warning. He ignored it, put his sword in the axeman’s kidneys, and yanked it back out again, which pretty much ended the matter.
He looked around the campsite again, listening for crossbow strings. “Anyone else?” he asked.
No one stepped forward. This did not really surprise him. Bandits were in it for a profit, and there was pretty obviously no profit in fighting a very dangerous man who had appeared out of nowhere with a sword. He’d be surprised if half the group hadn’t followed their colleague’s example and melted away into the trees.
He walked to the tree where Halla was sitting.
She had her hands tied in front of her. Zale and Brindle were sitting next to her. They appeared unharmed. Brindle was busily gnawing away at his ropes, bits of hemp falling out of the sides of his muzzle.
Sarkis grabbed Halla’s hands, sliced through the ropes, pulled her upright, and said the first thing which came into his head, which was, “We are never going down this stretch of road again! Never! I do not care if we must go a month out of our way and bribe three kingdoms for passage!”
Halla blinked at him. “Um, we could just take the north road up past the sheep downs next time?”
“Yes!” roared Sarkis “We will do that!”
She nodded. He nodded.
Great god.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her. He wanted very much to kiss her, but he stopped himself. This far was safe. A friend might embrace her like this, particularly after a frightening experience.
A friend would not have had his lips pressed so tightly against her hair, but she could not see that and did not have to know. His heart hammered in his ears so loudly that it seemed like she had to be able to hear it, but perhaps a friend would feel that, too.
“It’s all right,” said Halla, patting his shoulder as if comforting him.
He held her at arm’s length. She smiled up at him. “I knew you wouldn’t let anything happen to us.”
Sarkis stared into her face and saw that she was telling the absolute truth.
She trusts you.
She trusts you to keep her safe.
Pride warred with sudden dread. He would fail. He hadalreadyfailed. Everyone who trusted him to keep them safe had already died, most in the space of one single bloody day.
Halla didn’t know about any of that. Sarkis felt as if his unworthiness was branded across his face, and yet she was looking up at him without a trace of fear, trusting his competence and his care.
Great god, I must tell her what the sword says. I must tell her soon, before she finds out on her own.
“I wasn’t worried.”
“You should have been worried!”
Halla relented. “All right. I was alittleworried. I mean, the one in charge didn’t seem angry, just really confused and sort of frustrated, but he did talk about torture—”
Sarkis saw red. “I’ll kill him. Where is he?”
“He ran away,” said Zale, from the ground. “After you killed the fellow with the axe. Which was quite sensible of him, I suspect.”
Sarkis lifted his head and scanned the trees, eyes narrowed.
“Before you charge after him, could you untie me? I mean, when you’re done with the hugging.”
“Oh dear…” Halla stepped back. Sarkis released her immediately. “Sorry, Zale.”
