Free In Treachery Forged (The Law of Swords) by David A Tatum

talk some more, okay?”
    She sniffed slightly, but nodded – the smile back on her face, although it was weaker than it had been.
    The questions had been answered for Maelgyn. As he pulled out the bandages and medicine to dress her wounded forehead, he wondered what those answers would mean for them.
    The one thing he was damned sure of, though, was that he was keeping his promise to her. The people who hurt her would pay... even if he had to win the war by himself to do it.
     
    Maelgyn had set up the tent and led the both of them inside so that he could finish treating Euleilla’s head injury out of the rain, but that was done and now he wanted to talk some more.
    “So,” Maelgyn said, packing up the extra dressings. “Why didn’t you tell me you were blind?”
    “I can’t see, but thanks to magic I’m not blind,” she answered emphatically.
    Maelgyn frowned. “That doesn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you tell me?”
    She shrugged, adjusting her damp hair to once again cover her scarred eyes. “Secret,” she muttered, looking distinctly embarrassed
    Maelgyn supposed he could understand that, but it still bothered him. “You knew it would make a difference in the route we needed to take, right?”
    Euleilla shrugged, her enigmatic smile showing itself in full force once again, masking her earlier unhappiness. “Perhaps.”
    “And you decided not to tell me, anyway?”
    “No.”
    He sighed. “So, back to this ‘one word answer’ thing again, are we?”
    “Yeah,” she admitted, letting her smile grow back to what it was before she ran into the branch, starting this whole conversation. Without being able to see the scars thanks to her hair, and with the tear streaks effectively washed off, it was almost possible to forget her as the crying and vulnerable young woman he’d held in his arms just minutes before.
    Almost, but not quite. He doubted he’d ever forget that.
    “Well, you should have. I wouldn’t have taken you here if I’d known.”
    She coughed deliberately. “That’s why.”
    “What?”
    “I want to cross the mountains,” she explained emphatically, “and I knew you’d never take me.”
    “Well, there you were wrong,” Maelgyn snapped. “Don’t assume things about people, good or bad. If I had been the sort of person who would have left you behind because you were blind – sorry, because you ‘can’t see’ – after having seen you handle yourself in the everyday world, well... then you shouldn’t have asked me to guide you in the first place.”
    “Didn’t.”
    “Didn’t?” he started. “Didn’t what?”
    “Ask.”
    Maelgyn laughed. “No, you didn’t, at that! But you know what I mean.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Anyway, I’m fairly certain I still would have taken you... but I wouldn’t have taken you by this route, that’s for sure.” He finished packing his kit, and sighed. “Which might have been the right call, anyway, in this weather. Unfortunately, this may be the only route through the mountains that isn’t monitored by the Mar’Tok Dwarves. I’ve been trying to make this trip in secret, but humans traveling through Dwarven lands inevitably will attract attention. If we don’t concern ourselves with Dwarven eyes, however, there are several easier ways across than this route. We just have to develop some sort of cover story for why we’re traveling through their lands and we should be all right. Some reason two humans would need to go from Largo to Sopan that wouldn’t reveal to them who I am.”
    “Okay,” she agreed simply.
    “I’m open to suggestions, by the way,” Maelgyn noted dryly.
    “Really?” she said, “smiling” again.
    “I’m guessing you don’t have any,” he laughed.
    “None.”
    “Well, we have some time, yet,” he said. “We need to get back down the mountain – hopefully before it kills us – and then hike up north for a day or two. There’s a small village where we can stay for a bit and sort things out. I