L. Modesitt - Mage-Guard of Hamor

Her smile was far warmer than the late-winter sun. "Just by looking, you can make a woman feel like an empress."

"Only you… only you."

"From anyone but you, Rahl, those would be empty words."

"You don't know how much I have thought and dreamed and thought of you." He paused. "I had no idea… You only wrote that you would soon come to a decision. I feared… much as I hoped…" Slowly, seemingly so slowly, he reached out and took her hands.

Then… both had their arms around each other.

When they stepped apart, Rahl's face was wet, but so was Deybri's.

There was so much he wanted to say, and to ask, but the first question was the safest and the simplest. "How?"

"Your overcommander arranged it. I would not have dared without his assurances." Her eyes dropped. "I am not so brave as you."

He shook his head. "You chose to come. That is brave. I had no choice. That was merely enduring." After a moment, he added, "We have to find you someplace safe to stay…"

"Ah…" Deybri flushed. "I'm supposed to report to the Mage-Guard Regional Overcommander. I'm a mage, in Hamorian terms… remember?"

Rahl should have thought of that, but he grinned. "I think I can take care of that. I can even provide an escort. Would you mind waiting just a bit while I talk to the ship's master? I need to make arrangements…"

"You're on duty." She smiled, warmly and not quite mischievously, an expression Rahl somehow had not expected. "I understand."

"I'll try not to be long." Rahl turned and strode up the gangway, but he did remember to ask the duty mate, "Permission to come aboard?"

"You're more than welcome, Mage-Guard."

Once aboard, Rahl inclined his head to the captain, standing just beyond the quarterdeck. "Ser, the overcommander asked me to confirm the cargo personally…"

The captain had the manifest in hand, as if he had expected no less. Even so, checking for the items Taryl had emphasized was tedious, not because it took all that long, but because Rahl was all too conscious that Deybri stood on the pier, although she was now in the company of Rahl's troopers.

After that, more time passed while Rahl made sure the priority items were off-loaded into the wagons. Only then could he afford to return his attention to Deybri, much as he would have wished otherwise.

Sovarth had taken the initiative of riding over to the mage-guard station and requisitioning one of the two officers' mounts there for Deybri.

Rahl looked to the trooper. "Thank you, Sovarth. Both the healer and I appreciate it."

"Be my pleasure, ser." The trooper flushed.

After loading her rather large duffel behind her saddle, Rahl held the reins while she mounted, then mounted himself and led the way out from the harbor.

He did address the pier guards as they passed, although he had to remind himself because his eyes kept drifting to Deybri. "There will be cargo wagons coming from the Kienelth."

"Yes, ser."

Once on Harbor Road, Rahl and Deybri rode side by side, and he could not help but notice that the three troopers lagged behind them at a greater distance than they usually followed him.

He finally said, "I still cannot believe you're here, that you're really here."

"I am." She smiled again, both warmly and tentatively, then added, "You've grown."

"I think I had to."

"Except for those few moments when you saw me and held me, I haven't been able to sense anything… nothing."

"Taryl insisted on it. He said I'd never survive if I didn't."

"And when you addressed that other mage-guard, I could feel the power. He just wilted, and you never raised your voice…"

Rahl shrugged, somehow embarrassed. "I was just trying to get him to understand." He flushed. "Not just that, but he walked off the ship as if he were doing everyone a favor, and he had that junior mage-guard carrying everything. Thousands of men died taking Nubyat from the rebels, and… somehow his attitude didn't seem right."

"It wasn't." She grinned at him. "But it did remind me of someone else several years back."

Rahl flushed more. "I wasn't that bad… was I?"

She shook her head. "But you did have some unthinking arrogance."

Rahl kept his face calm, but winced inside. "I'm fortunate you saw beyond that."

"I didn't. I was attracted to you despite it. Aleasya was the one who insisted you'd get over it. She said I'd be a fool to avoid you because of that."

Aleasya? The muscular arms instructor? That did surprise him. "Then… what changed your mind?"

"You'd already changed a great deal when you returned to Recluce, and I could see more of that in your later letters. And that you wrote. Uncle Thorl told me that each one cost you at least three silvers to send. You spent more on letters than some earn in half a year. I'm not sure I'm worth that."

"You're worth far more than that," he said quietly.

"I'm glad you think so."

They rode for a time without speaking. While Rahl had so much to say, little of it was what he wanted to blurt out on horseback and in public. But he did keep looking at Deybri. In the mage-guard greens, she was more beautiful than he had recalled.

"Your hair is shorter."

"It's easier to take care of that way. I also thought it might be better for a mage-guard."

Rahl paused as he studied the southern square ahead. Then he caught sight of one of the new patrollers, striding along the south side, and he nodded. They needed to be seen, especially now, although having some real mage-guards in place would help in the days to come. The patroller turned at the sound of hoofs, then raised his truncheon in acknowledgment. Rahl lifted his arm to acknowledge the greeting, and the patroller stood and watched as Rahl and the others rode past the ancient Imperial statue and through the square.

When they reached the base of the road up to the Residence and compound area, Rahl could see that the crew of rebel prisoners was still working on scrubbing the blackness and soot off the paving stones around where the lower barricade had been.

As he neared the guard squad, the squad leader nodded. "Afternoon, Majer."

"They've almost got it taken care of, I see."

"Another day or two, ser. Be more, weren't for you."

"You're kind, squad leader, but it took all of us." Rahl projected appreciation.

Once they were well past, Deybri turned and glanced at him inquiringly.

"They're rebel prisoners. They'd built some barricades to keep us from taking the Residence and compound up there. They're cleaning up the mess." Rahl gestured.

"You were here, weren't you?"

"Yes. We lost hundreds just on this stretch of road."

"How did you take it?"

"Commander Shuchyl's engineers got oil bladders, and catapulted them onto the wall. They caught fire, and that cleared the wall enough so that they could storm it."

Deybri turned in the saddle. "There's more, isn't there?"

"Yes, but I'd rather not talk about it now." Somehow, Rahl felt that telling her what he'd done would have been bragging, and he didn't want to do that, not when he recalled how many had died. "If you don't mind."

She nodded.

Again, there was a silence between them.

Rahl waited until they reached the top of the road and had turned back southeast. "The large villa ahead-that's the Administrator's Residence, and where we're headed. It's more than that, really, because the lower level is mostly for his staff. There aren't many now, of course. The next villa is the overcommander's, but Taryl is using the Residence right now because he's both administrator and overcommander. Then, the buildings with the low walls behind them-that's the permanent compound for the troopers normally stationed here. All the tents and shelters are what we're using for quarters for those who can't fit in the compound. Some are quartered in the city as well, of course."