Page 126 of Swordheart
Zale had to stop and think about that for a few minutes. “Well… hmm, I suppose metal polish isn’t that expensive, is it? Err… a nice whetstone, maybe?”
Sarkis stared at them until the priest threw their hands in the air. “Fine, all right, I accept you’re not interested in her money.”
“I most certainly amnot.”
“It’s just… sheltered widow from the south… um… immortal warrior from the Weeping Lands…” Zale made vague hand gestures. “I grant you, they say that opposites attract…”
Sarkis rubbed his forehead. “She is lovely and kind and generous of spirit and someone has to keep her from walking off a cliff.”
“And they say romance is dead.”
Sarkis snorted.
“Do you often fall in love with your wielders?” asked Zale.
“Never. Hell, most times I don’t even respect them very much.”
“Ah, but do you respect this one?”
“… not her singing voice, certainly,” said Sarkis, as Halla attacked a chorus as if it had personally offended her.
“You broughtthaton yourself.”
“Indeed I did. Well. At first… no, I did not. I thought her another decadent native of this weak, decadent land. Ah… no offense intended, of course.”
“I have added it to all the other offenses I am not taking, given that you are a barbaric northerner and cannot be expected to understand civilized behavior.”
Sarkis inclined his head to the priest.
“Later, though?” said Zale, who sometimes reminded Sarkis more of a terrier than a rat.
“Later…” Sarkis spread his hands. “Well. Yes. I have begun to. She is not a warrior, but… I don’t know. Sometimes I simply want to see what ridiculous question she will ask next.”
“Ah, the questions…” Zale laughed. “I admit, I find that delightful. It is so rare that I meet someone who asks questions because they want to know the answers.”
Sarkis frowned at them. “What? Why else do people ask questions?”
Zale began ticking off possibilities on their fingers. “To be seen asking the question as if they do not know… to get a specific answer which they desire… to force someone to answer the question publicly… to be given a chance to lecture on the subject… to—”
“I yield, I yield!” Sarkis held up both hands, laughing. “Yes, I know the sorts of questions of what you speak.” He had a memory of the Leopard holding a knife to a rival’s throat, saying, “If I search this house, will I find something that makes me angry?” (The man had said, “No.” He had been wrong about that, and had not lived to answer any more questions.)
“Which is not to say that Halla does not sometimes ask questions to throw people off. But she is, I think, like many children born in poverty. Intelligent… curious… but never given beyond the most basic education. In boys, that sort of thing is valued, in girls…” Zale shook their head. “Had she come to theattention of the Rat, we might have made a scholar of her. As it is, she has learned to be quiet and agreeable and to appear quite stupid when it is convenient. But the curiosity still comes through.”
“That’s part of it,” said Sarkis. “Despite everything, it seems the world has not broken her. We hidbodies,for the great god’s sake, and still she is… I don’t know how else to explain.”
Zale smiled. “The world tries to break everyone,” they said gently. “But sometimes when it fails, it fails spectacularly. Why do you not say something to her?”
Sarkis groaned. “Because I have too much power over her fate right now.”
Zale raised an eyebrow. “You’ll have to explain that one for me.”
“For a number of years, I was a mercenary captain. And there were jobs where I could say yes, and jobs where I could say no. And then there were jobs where, if I said no, I made sure that we were on the way out of the country when I said it.”
The priest had never been slow on the uptake. “You don’t think she’ll feel safe saying no to you?”
“I am not willing to risk it.” He poked the fire, raising a flare of sparks. “A few more days, and she is safe in her own home, and a wealthy woman. Then I’ll know that she is not weighing whether I will still get her home safely if she rejects me.”
Zale nodded slowly. “It would be the same for me, I admit. A breach of professionalism, until the job is done.”
