Free Midnight Quest by Honor Raconteur Page B

truly necessary. “You had no allies in that place. Why did you stand firm?”
    “Two reasons, really. One,” she reached up to cup his cheek with one hand, the beard ticklish against her bare skin, “I knew you were coming. Well, not you precisely, but Elahandra had assured me that help was coming. All I had to do was wait for you to come. Even if you failed, for whatever reason, I could not afford to cave to their demands. If I did, then they would think they could treat the next high priestess the same way. This cycle would just continue and a lot of good people would suffer as a result.” She paused, struggling to explain something to him that she only felt. “Rialt, most people treat me like an incapable child because of my blindness and small size. And yet, despite those things, I was chosen as the sole person who could protect our entire country. It’s a heavy burden at times, but I knew it would be when I took the position. But more than a burden, it’s a chance for me to return the help that everyone has ever given me.”
    He reached up and squeezed her hand. “Eh, sound reasons, all of them. But I trust you know you will never face that danger again.”
    A glow of pure happiness filled her chest, so strong she felt almost weightless. “Yes, I know.”
    ~*~*~*~
    Rialt looked at the woman napping so peacefully against his chest. He did no know what to think anymore. When Elahandra first called, he had gone for two simple reasons: he did no want the barrier in some Thornock minister’s hands and he wanted a chance to give the priestess a firm talking to.
    But the situation was no as he had thought. In fact, it was well beyond his ken. He had to struggle to wrap his head around it.
    But the fact that stuck in his craw the most was that this wee slip of a thing was the Guardian of the Barrier. He knew ten year old children taller than her! He could cart her about on one arm. What was Elahandra about, putting this woman-child in charge of Evard’s barrier?
    Lovenanty! For that matter, what eijit would order a blind woman to scurry about the country on a near-impossible task?
    He raised a hand and wearily rubbed at his eyes. Vexious, that be what the situation was.
    He dropped his hand so that he could look at her again. Poor thing. Despite the jars and bumps of the road, she had fallen sound asleep no an hour past. Atween the cold dungeon floor she had been on and death hanging overhead, he could no imagine she had gotten much sleep. Still, it made him squirm a bit inside that she trusted him so completely that she could snuggle against him and dream without a by-your-leave. He had nearly abandoned this woman because he had no wanted to leave a warm bed.
    Just the memory of it had him cringing.
    Rialt blew out a low breath and let his eyes close for a moment. Feeling the urge to protect, that he could ken. He had been in fights since he could lift a sword. He had spent the past ten years in skirmishes against the Daath. At the ripe age of twenty-five, he had seen more of battle than most of Evard combined. Love of Ramath had kept him going through those harsh winter campaigns. Eh, the drive to protect, that he kenned.
    He flashed back to that moment when Sarvell opened the cell door and revealed her standing there. Fair skin smudged with dungeon grit, dark hair in tangles around her, white gown almost grey and her putting on a brave face as if two strange men opening the door did no terrify her. In that moment, every protective instinct he had had surged to the fore. Eh, and the more he knew, the stronger he felt it.
    Madness, it was. He barely knew the lass!
    But he could no shake the feeling. In truth, he did no even try. She was a sweet lass, this one, with guts. She deserved a full complement of guards to protect her. (A point that he intended to take up with Elahandra. Soon. ) But all she had in this moment was a Ramathan soldier and a merchant’s son.
    His family and goddess would be crabbity when he