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Topiara - Chapter 17
Jilan had indeed learned much during the weeks that they had been traveling together, and Lyara was eventually resigned to having his company on the trail. As the days passed, she was able to accept his decision to travel with her more and more; and eventually decided that it was not unpleasant to have a companion. Neither she nor Jilan mentioned their disagreement again, although Lyara occasionally would catch Jilan looking at her with the same light in his eyes. At those times, Topiara would speak to her with words that she refused to accept, and Lyara would canter ahead to give herself thinking time before looking at Jilan again.
The further south they traveled, the warmer the weather became, although it was the cold season even in Talandri. There was no way to escape the chilled winds and snows, but they seemed to become less severe the further south they came.
"Are we going to stop at Korlan?" Jilan inquired as they approached the familiar-looking bluffs. "We could resupply there."
"I don't think it would be very wise," was the comment. "Your father probably knows by now that you have gone north and may have left word for you not to be welcomed if you try to return."
"I'm willing to take that chance if you are," Jilan in sisted. "Look. We need more food than just the meat we've managed to hunt, as well as more acceptable clothing. There's no way we're going to be able to travel in Talandria dressed like Kauwluts."
Lyara looked down at her garb in surprise. So used to the furs and leather garb of the Kauwlut had she become that they were now a part of her. It was with a shock that she realized that she had partially readapted to the ways of her early child hood that would take serious effort to unlearn. She was Kauwlut, but would have to force that part of herself into the background again if she was to be able to . . . do what?
Topiara had been curiously silent the further away from the Kauwlut camp they had ridden. As she approached Talandria again, Lyara was no longer sure at all what her next action might or should be. Topiara had led her to the land of her fathers and given her back her memories, and then seemingly abandoned her there.
"You're right," she admitted finally after a long silence. "Besides, I think it could do us both good to settle somewhere for a while until the weather is a little more agreeable."
"Korlan is a good place to wait out the snows, Lyara," Jilan remarked, pointing to the very top of the bluff and in the general direction of the village. "But we had better ride clear of my uncle's hall. We don't need to put ourselves any closer to trouble than necessary."
"You're right!" Lyara pulled on the reins and veered Surefoot to the right of the more familiar path up the bluffs that would have led to the hall they had visited the first time they had passed this way. "It will add a day or so, but we will be warm and comfortable in the inn in Korlan before the next storm hits." Topiara warmed on her breast for the first time in days and spoke softly in her mind. "I have a feeling that there may be some news waiting for us there."
Jilan had long since given up trying to outguess Lyara's "hunches", but having heard so few of them voiced in the past few days, he had to actually suppress an urge to question her on the statement. Lyara did not notice either his surprise or struggle. Surefoot had responded to the knee in his ribs with a start and a canter, and Jilan had to press Fleetwind for several moments to catch up with her.
They paused in a clearing a short distance from the path to change back into Talandri garb before entering the village. "I didn't realize how warm those furs could be!" Jilan remarked with a shiver as he bundled his Kauwlut garb into a nondescript package to bind onto the back of his saddle.
"We're spoiled," Lyara responded with a agreeing nod and corresponding shiver of her own. She would be glad to be in any kind of dwelling again, and the thought of the warm hearth-fire and food sure to be found at the inn had made her anxious to finish this part of the journey. "Are you ready?" she asked after pulling herself back into Surefoot's saddle with a groan.
"I can feel that fire now," Jilan quipped, grabbing Fleetwind's reins and mounting. "And it will be wonderful to sleep on something besides rocky ground for a change." He gazed at her evenly. "To tell the truth, I could go for several days without seeing a saddle with no problem either."
"You're going soft on me all of a sudden," Lyara laughed and chucked on the reins to urge Surefoot into a walk.
"You wish," Jilan responded quickly.
With the next storm threateningly close on the horizon, the main thoroughfare of the village was empty of people, and the smoke from the chimneys curled in friendly welcome instead. The innkeeper was surprised to have guests in his business as such an inclement time of year, and seated the two weary travelers at a low table for warm ale while their rooms were pre pared.
"Okay," Jilan said as the warm brew began thawing him from the inside out and he could see it doing the same for Lyara, "after this, where are we going next?"
Lyara busied herself with her mug, swirling the liquid around. "I'm not sure yet," she admitted. "South, I think."
"South?" Jilan shrugged and then nodded. "Okay. How far south?"
"I'm not sure yet."
Jilan would have pursued the issue, but could see how uncomfortable he was making Lyara. Changing the topic, he asked, "Are you going to stop in Tandri and see Lyndon?"
"Maybe." Lyara looked up, blushing in embarrassment. "I'm sorry I'm so noncommittal. I told you can't explain it, but it hasn't been decided."
The two of them looked up as a small knot of village men burst through the door of the inn and seated themselves at another table and loudly summoned the innkeeper to bring them stout ale. One elbowed his companion and nodded in the direc tion of the two strangers talking softly together. Lyara caught the gesture and frowned slightly.
"Let's take our belongings upstairs and then go see about the ponies," she suggested suddenly, getting to her feet quick ly. Jilan shrugged agreement and trailed along behind as she led the way up the narrow staircase.
Below, the knot of men drew together and began talking animatedly, pointing once at the direction in which the strang ers had gone.
The beds were soft; the straw of the mattresses fairly fresh and sweet smelling for the time of year, and Lyara was bone-tired. She splashed some of the cold water from the basin onto her face to wash away some of the road grime, and then set about braiding her hair the way she had before she had become so Kauwlut in her ways. It was a funny feeling, she decided, sitting so neatly between two totally different ways of life. The fetish she pulled from its accustomed place and stroked it absently, finding it comforting in this Talandri place.
Remembering the looks and expressions on the faces of the villagers downstairs, she removed her short sword from its pack and placed it beneath her pillow before lying down. The soft bedding made it easy to drop away to sleep right away.
It seemed only moments later when the sensation of a sharp blade pricking at her throat roused her from her deep sleep. She came completely awake with a start, staring into the feral eyes of three of the village men who had gathered around her bed with drawn blades. Lyara knew that, for a few moments, her safety would lie in playing the role of defenseless maid. "What do you want?" she stammered in a frightened tone of voice.
One of the men turned away to begin to paw through her bundles. One went over to the door to listen, and the last kept his blade close to her throat as he laughed in ugly triumph. "No guardian sleeping at your door, Lady? How thoughtless!"
Lyara's hand slipped unseen to grasp the hilt of her sword as it lay beneath her pillow. "What do you want of me?" she repeated for the benefit of her assaulters. "I've nothing of value to you."
"No?" came the voice of the man busily disassembling her bundles. He straightened up, dangling her specie-pouch for his comrades. "See what we have here!"
When the man with the blade turned slightly to respond to his friend's urge, Lyara surged up and out of her bed, sword drawn and at the ready. "Put it down!" she ordered in a loud voice that she prayed would rouse Jilan to her aid. "Get out of here before you regret it."
"The girlie has a knife," said the second man, who dropped the specie-pouch and drew his own blade as he neared the bed. "I wonder what else she might have hidden?" he sneered, pointing at the bulge beneath Lyara's tunic.
"What you got in that pouch, girlie?" the first man growled, reaching for the tunic.
Lyara's blade flashed once, and the first man let out a scream of agony and dropped his sword as Lyara's blade nearly severed his hand from his arm. "Get out!" she screamed again, using her slashing sword as a shield and working her way into a corner where she could defend herself.
"Get her!" the first man roared, clutching his damaged limb to his chest. The third man drew his sword now and came closer to help his comrades.
"What's going on here?!" roared a new voice, and Jilan charged into the room with his own sword drawn. Lyara whipped her sword into play and disarmed the second man with very little effort. Jilan parried and dodged the third man's inept swings until the moment came when he could slip beneath the man's defenses and slice up hard on the arm that held the weapon.
"Leave be!" The first man bellowed as he surged desperately toward Lyara, hand outstretched. Even as he gained a firm grasp on her tunic, her sword penetrated his chest as if meeting no resistance. The man's eyes bulged in surprise; and with a dying effort, yanked down on the woman's garment. The tunic gave way and allowed the man to hit the floor as he died. Lyara scrambled to pull the torn pieces of her garment together as the innkeeper pushed his way into the room.
"You three at it again? Seems ye've met one who's yer match then." His gaze brushed Lyara in mute admiration and respect as she turned away modestly to search her bundles for another tunic. He motioned to Jilan. "We've a good place for this like in the tuber cellar. Open t'door." He gave a curt nod at the two remaining thieves. "Grab up Torvin, you two, and bring 'im along." He retrieved a sword from the floor as the thieves struggled to do as he said, and then he and Jilan es corted the intruders from Lyara's room.
Lyara found the other tunic and replaced the damaged garment in the bundle, and then pulled one of the warm furry robes around her shoulders. The attack had come and gone quick ly, and she found herself left with a nervous shivering that seemed as if it would never stop. It had been the first time Topiara had been threatened since they had become so attached, and the shock and fear of losing her constant companion had been more than she had anticipated. That must be the reason for her shaking. What else could it be?
After many long moments, Jilan knocked softly on the door and let himself in.
"Are you alright?" he inquired anxiously at the sight of her pallor.
"I'm unhurt," Lyara answered with a visible shiver. "I'd forgotten what it's like to have to fight like that."
Jilan came over next to her as she sat on the bed. "I came as soon as I woke up and heard the racket."
"I know," Lyara nodded and shivered again. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't usually react like this."
Jilan thought for a moment, remembering what had happened the last time he had tried to touch her, but then decided to try again. Ever so gently, he placed his arm about Lyara's shoulder and pulled her closer to him. "You didn't need to wake up to something like this. But you were prepared, and you're unhurt now."
Lyara's senses pricked at the first touch of his arm, her mind screamed its need to remove itself from the strange touch of the young man; but she was far too tired and in need of comfort to actually stiffen or move away. She suddenly realized that she could not remember the last time she had been so in need of a shoulder to lean on. She relaxed and allowed her head to be cushioned on his shoulder. Then she shivered again violently.
Jilan carefully brought his other arm up and cradled Lyara's face gently as if warming it would stop the shivering. Slowly he lowered his lips to her forehead to brush them in the faintest of kisses and then lay his cheek against her hair. Then, as if knowing he had reached the end of Lyara's tolerance, he stayed perfectly still and held her softly.
Lyara's insides twisted with the gentle touch. Half-remembered terrors were suddenly faced with the opposite experience of gentleness and a desire to comfort rather than harm and torture. How unlike Stepan's rough embraces were these tender and tentative caresses. Without thinking, she allowed her right arm to slip slowly from between them and fix itself around his waist. Topiara warmed on her breast between them and spoke into her mind, asking if it was so terrible to be held so, and Lyara found that she had no answer.
Not daring to move for fear of breaking the moment, Jilan held Lyara cautiously as if she were of the most fragile glass. Many were the times since they had left the Kauwlut camp that he had allowed himself to fantasize about such a moment as this. But he'd never dared imagine that he could actually be a part of his fantasies.
She lay motionless in his arms even longer, and Jilan moved his head back slowly to look at her face. Exhaustion had caught up with her, and Lyara had fallen once more into a deep sleep. He now had his choice of laying her back against her pillows and returning to his own room or continuing to hold her. Cautiously, slowly, he worked his way to where he could stretch out on the bed next to her and laid them both down into the pillows. In her sleep, Lyara snuggled closer to him, and Jilan kept his arm around her shoulder to hold her even closer. Then sleep caught up with him as well.
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