Sentinelspire - Mark Sehestedt [72]
"She hopes that I will be able to use Erael'len's powers," said Lewan.
Sauk snorted. "I mean you no insult, Lewan, but you are just a boy. It was a fool's hope to think that even your master could help us. Given years of study and training… who knows? I think I see a hunter's heart in you." He looked at the mountain top. "But we don't have years."
"That's it?" said Lewan. "You mean to send me on my way while you go back to die? That's your plan? That's what passes for honor with you? Some sort of noble death?"
Sauk looked down on him, an amused look on his face. "Nothing noble about death, boy. Death means you lost. If I die, I'll die fighting, and the Beastlord will greet me with my enemy's blood on my teeth."
They looked at each other in silence for a moment, then Sauk held out the medallion again.
"Here," he said. "Put leagues behind you before dark."
Lewan looked at the medallion, then up at Sauk. "I can't," he said.
"Why?"
"It's… complicated." Lewan stared at the nearby stream, at the sparkling of sunlight on the water.
Sauk's words had stung him. You are just a boy, A fool's hope. Was he right? Was Lewan a fool to think he had any hope in learning Erael'len's secret? Still… I think I see a hunter's heart in you. Lewan thought that was as close to high praise as the half-orc ever came. Would he ever be anything more than a scared boy if he ran now? Even if it was a fool's hope, he had something else calling him back to the fortress.
"Women are complicated," said Sauk.
Shocked that Sauk seemed to have guessed his thoughts, Lewan looked up at the half-orc. Sauk grinned and shrugged. "There are many secrets in the Fortress of the Old Man, but who is sharing whose bed is seldom one of them. You think you love her, but you don't. That feeling you're feeling isn't love. It's just the excitement of the first legs you've ever parted."
Anger rose in Lewan, and he stood. He'd intended to face Sauk, but even as he came to his full height, he found himself looking up at the half-orc's chin, and fear joined his anger. He swallowed, took a deep breath, and said, "You don't know what you're talking about."
"No?" Sauk smirked.
"No."
Sauk looked down at the medallion in his and sighed. "Your death is on your own head, then. I tried. One thing, though." "What?"
"Best not to tell Talieth of this conversation. I did you a kindness with the offer. Now do me one and forget my offer. Agreed?"
Lewan felt a pang of pride that he managed to hold the half-orc's gaze. "You're afraid of her," he said. It wasn't a question. "Damned right I am," said Sauk. "You should be too."
Chapter Twenty-Three
What was the little fool doing? Sauk wondered.
He'd found a good spot-a ways uphill from the boy, well-shaded by a large larch, but still with a good view of where Lewan sat next to the pool. Taaki was off to Sauk's left, settled and comfortable in a patch of soft sand beneath an overhang of the mountainside that offered her a wide view of the entire stretch of wood. Sauk couldn't see her, but through the bond he shared with her as a zuwar, he knew right where she was. He could've pointed to her like a man with his eyes closed could point to the noonday sun.
Afternoon was turning to evening, and the air up on the mountain had turned cool. Still, the boy hadn't moved in a long while. After Sauk had left him and settled in to watch, Lewan had stripped off his boots and clothes and bathed in the pool. The way the boy moved in the pool and ladled water over his torso with his cupped palms had more the look of ceremony than a true washing. This struck Sauk as nothing unusual. Most faiths had rites of ceremonial cleansing-his included, though the Beastlord's worshipers slathered themselves in blood more often than water.
Sauk knew that earlier that morning, Talieth had ordered servants into the gardens with a list of things to gather- acorns, mistletoe and holly leaves, a sprig of oak leaves. So early in the season, the acorns had