neetha Napew - The Paths Of The Perambulator

Mudge’s sarcasm was grounded more in the otter’s personality than in truth, for the argument soon gave way to recriminations and apologies. Before long, Jon-Tom and Talea were talking amiably and quietly. That was rapidly replaced by whispering, he doing a lot of smiling and she doing a lot of giggling.

“Bloody disgustin’,” Mudge said, observing the congenial couple.

“I take it you’re not looking for a permanent mate,” Colin commented.

“Wot, me? Listen, mate, the only thing that would ever slow this otter down would be two broken legs, an’ even then I’d do me damnedest to crawl out of any potential ‘ouse’old.”

“I feel differently. Not married yet, but I hope to be someday. I just haven’t found a lady with whom I’d feel comfortable for the rest of my life.” He hesitated a moment. “I find talking about personal relationships with females difficult. I’m much more comfortable when the conversation has to do with casting the runes or the arts of war.”

“Is that so? Well, then, if you’d like, I’d be ‘appy to give you the benefit o’ me extensive experience in that particular area in which you confess to a certain deficiency. If you can talk war, you can talk love, guv’nor.”

“I know some folks consider the two not dissimilar.” He eyed the otter warily. “It’s just that I’m interested in the diplomatic angles, and I think you’re more involved with subversion.”

“Nonesense, mate!” Mudge put a comradely arm around the koala’s broad shoulders. “Now the first thing you got to know is ‘ow to . . .”

“I’ve been through several different kinds of hell this past year,” Jon-Tom was telling Talea. “No matter where I was, in what danger, I was always thinking of you.”

“I never stopped thinking of you, either, Jon-Tom. In fact, there was a time when I thought I’d made up my mind about us. I tried to seek you out, only to find out that you’d gone off on some fool errand clear across the Glittergeist Sea.”

“Clothahump was deathly ill,” he explained to her. “I went because he needed a certain medicine that was only available in a certain town. As it turned out, the whole expedition was unnecessary, but none of us knew that at the time. We didn’t find that out until it was too late.”

“There are so many things in life we don’t find out until it is too late,” she murmured, waxing uncharacteristically philosophic. “I’m beginning to learn that myself.”

It required a tremendous effort of will for him not to press his affections on her, sitting there winsome and vulnerable as she was. But during their on-again, off-again relationship he’d learned one thing well about Talea: It was best not to push her, to insist on anything, because her natural reaction was not to acceed but to push back. Having found her again under the most unexpected circumstances, he was going to be as careful as possible not to drive her away again.

“It’s all right. I understand. All of us need time to learn about ourselves. We have plenty of time.”

She looked up at him sharply. “That’s not what you said before. You wanted a permanent commitment right then and there.”

“I’m not the same person I was before. I’m a full-fledged spellsinger”—that was only a small fib, he told himself— “I’ve been around, and I know a lot more about myself as well as about the world around us. Enough to know to let love or just friendship take its course.” He reached out to caress her cheek with one hand. “Right now it’s enough just to see you again, just to be near you. I just wish the immediate situation wasn’t quite so desperate.”

She nodded solemnly. “It’s all so bizarre and crazy, but I keep telling myself it must be so because you and Clothahump both wouldn’t lie to me.”

“We wouldn’t lie to you separately.”

“So I have to accept it. The proof of it is that I’m here.”

“I feel the same way.”

She hesitated. “If this is a matter of magic, Clothahump could be the one to handle it. You and I could leave.”

“I can’t.” He swallowed. The pressure of her hand in his sent fire racing up his arm. “I owe Clothahump too much. I have to help him see this business through to the finish, even if it means the end of me. Of us.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” she said with relief.

“It is?”

“I was afraid that part of you, that bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, that committment to justice when confronted by indestructible evil, might have changed also. I wanted to make sure it hadn’t. I couldn’t love you if you’d gone sensible on me.”

“Thanks—I think.”

“I know from what you’ve told me that we have to free this perambulator thing from its captor up there.” She indicated the fortress just above the place where they had paused prior to making the final assault. “I wouldn’t leave now even if you agreed to. I’ve been used. I feel used. I want to make that unseen bastard pay. He almost had me killed, which isn’t so bad. But he tried to make you do it. That’s dirty. I don’t like dirt, Jon-Tom. I like clean. There’s something up there that needs cleaning up.” She put both hands on his shoulders. Her lips were every close. He leaned forward.

“Maybe,” she whispered lovingly to him, “if we’re lucky, we’ll have the chance to chop and slice and dismember him all by ourselves.”

He licked his lips, sat back, and regarded the light in her eyes and the bloodthirsty grin on her exquisite face. This was his Talea, no mistake about it.

“Uh-yeah, maybe. Let’s try that leg again, okay?”

“Okay.” She let him help her up. When he let go, she took a few steps. The leg was stiff and it was hard going at first, but the rest had definitely helped her mobility. “Much better.” She put her hands on her hips and tried jumping a few small rocks. “It’ll get better still.”

“I’m glad.” He put his arms around her and this time had no second thoughts about kissing her. Finally they separated, and she pointed to her right.

“The hinny I’ve met, but I don’t recognize your short fat friend.”

“His name’s Colin, and he’s not fat, he’s as solid as iron. He’s a rune-caster, a reader of the future. Sometimes, anyway. His skill with the runes is about like my skill with the duar.”

“That bad, hmm?” Seeing the look that came over him, she smiled and patted his cheek affectionately. “Just kidding, spellsinger. Speaking of which, you have your duar. Can I borrow your ramwood staff?”

“Lend ‘er another staff o’ yours, mate!” Mudge howled gleefully.

“I should’ve split that otter years ago!” she said through clenched teeth. Picking up one of the vanished clone’s swords, she started chasing Mudge over the rocks. The cackling water rat eluded her with ease, taunting her each time she took a swing at him.

Colin strode by, intent on making certain their supplies were strapped tight to Dormas’s back. “Glad to see your fiancee’s leg’s better.” He glanced in the direction of the chase. “Sword arm seems okay too.”

“They’re old friends,” Jon-Tom told him.

“I know. I can see that.”

Eventually a winded Talea gave up and re-joined Jon-Tom. “One of these days I’ll feed that foulmouthed otter his works.” She reached up to push red hair out of her eyes. Then she put the sword aside to wrap both arms around him.

“Promise me something, Jon-Tom.”

“If I can.”

“When we find this evil one, let me be the one to slay him. I’ll make him bleed slowly.”

“Talea, sometimes I think you enjoy fighting too much.”

She stepped back from him, pouting. “If it’s a frothy petite woman you want, then you should never have fallen in love with me, Jon-Tom.”