"But the touch of a unicorn's horn will slay a Demon!" Jermayan gasped in shock. He got to his knees, releasing Kellen.
Shalkan knelt down and placed his head in the woman's lap. She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face in his fur. Great wracking sobs shook her.
Kellen glanced back at Jermayan—if there was one thing all Jermayan's lessons had taught him, it was never to take your attention off your enemy until that enemy was unconscious or dead. Preferably dead, though of course he had absolutely no desire to kill Jermayan.
But Jermayan no longer seemed interested in fighting. He was staring at Shalkan and the woman with an expression as close to utter shock and dismay as Kellen had ever seen on his face, as if everything Jermayan had believed in had been brutally overturned, all in a single moment.
"Still so sure of yourself?" Kellen muttered crossly, rolling to his knees and getting to his feet.
"Apparently," Shalkan said caustically, keeping an eye on them both, "things are not what they seem. And we need to be gone from here before that brute that was trying to kill this child wakes up. Gentlemen, shall we:
"Go on," Kellen said to Jermayan, still not really willing to trust him too near the woman he'd just rescued. While Jermayan seemed to have had a change of heart—or at least a profound shock—Kellen didn't really trust what he didn't understand. He never would have thought that Jermayan would attack him, after all, and a moment ago, he had. "We'll be right behind you."
As Jermayan silently went in search of his dropped sword, Kellen shook himself like a dog, that being the quickest way to set his armor and surcoat straight.
He sounded, he thought ruefully, like an entire blacksmith's shop fall' ing downstairs.
Not that the noise he and Jermayan had made fighting had been any quieter.
Carefully, he approached Shalkan and the strange woman. He was thankful he'd had the foresight to leave the keystone on the unicorn's saddle this morning—if it hadn't gotten broken in the brawl in the hut, it certainly wouldn't have survived Jermayan's attack afterward.
"Uh… hello?" he said tentatively.
The woman raised her head from Shalkan's neck with a gasp, and cringed back. She was much younger than Kellen had originally thought— a girl, not a woman, someone close to his own age. And terrified.
"Don't worry," he said hastily. "I'm not going to hurt you. Nobody is. Not even Jermayan. Not now that Shalkan's proved that you aren't—what you look like."
Very tactful, Kellen.
"He's my unicorn," Kellen added, rather awkwardly.
"It would be more accurate to say," Shalkan drawled, "that you're my boy. But let it pass."
"Anyway," Kellen said, hurrying on, "we've got to get out of here before the bas—I mean, the fellow who was hurting you—wakes up and causes more trouble. Do you think maybe you could ride Shalkan if I helped you mount?" He crossed his fingers mentally as he said it, hoping that would be okay with Shalkan as well. But the unicorn had let her touch him…
She blinked up at him, doubtfully, as if she didn't quite believe what she was hearing. "I… yes," she said in a trembling voice.
Shalkan stood up and backed away so that she could stand, and she reluctantly held a hand out to Kellen. He took it without hesitation, drawing her to her feet.
She was limping badly, unable to put much weight upon her right foot at all, and after a few steps Kellen simply picked her up and set her on Shalkan's back. Shalkan made no objection.
"Free with my favors, aren't you?" Shalkan said in a voice so low that only Kellen could hear.
"Come on," Kellen said, pointing off to where Jermayan and the mule had gone.
NOW that the Obligation had left him, Kellen felt the mild disorientation he'd come to expect after the Wild Magic was satisfied, but that didn't stop him from thinking clearly as he walked along beside Shalkan. Yes, the strange girl looked the way he'd been told Demons looked—red skin, slitted pupils, claws, horns, and all. And Jermayan had certainly thought she was one.
But he'd also said that all Demons were evil, and could not bear the touch of a living unicorn's horn… and she'd certainly proven that she could.
And the Wild Magic had sent Kellen to rescue her as the price for Jermayan's healing. And Kellen knew he wasn't Tainted—confused, maybe, but not Tainted. Whatever might happen in the future, whatever his ancestors might have done, he'd so far paid every price the Wild Magic had asked of him willingly. And Shalkan… Shalkan was perfect.
In a way, it was a kind of problem in Maths… you couldn't end up with evil if there hadn't been evil in the equation to start with.
And he knew with a conviction too deep and certain to put into words, that she wasn't evil. But what was she, then? Could you look like a Demon, but not be one?
The answers to that would have to wait until they reached a safe stopping place.
The three of them caught up with Jermayan at the point where the goat track plunged over the edge of the hill. Jermayan untied the mule's lead-rope from Valdien's saddle and tossed it to Kellen without a word, then headed Valdien down the trail. He didn't look back, either at Kellen or at Shalkan and his new rider.
Apparently the truce that Shalkan had forced upon the Elven Knight was something Jermayan was finding very hard to bear.
"I'll wait till he's down, then follow him down with Lily. You wait till I've gotten down with her, so falling gravel doesn't spook her, okay?"
"I will," the girl said softly. She'd pulled the hood of her cloak up again as she rode, and her face was in shadow once more, as if she was ashamed to be seen.
Maybe she was. Or maybe it was just good sense. It stood to reason that just about anyone you encountered was going to try and kill you if you looked like a Demon, after all! Unless, of course, they were Demons.
Which, if you weren't a Demon, but only looked like one, might be even more dangerous…
Kellen glanced around. From the hilltop he had a good view of the surrounding countryside, and he could see that the right-hand fork of the trail looped around the hill and seemed to run parallel to it. They might as well take the left-hand fork if they wanted to get anywhere, and no Finding Spell needed. That was a relief.
The bruises he'd gotten from the fight at the cottage were starting to ache, and his skin was probably the color of Jermayan's pretty blue armor in places by now, between the shepherd's club and Jermayan's fists. If there'd been any additional price to be paid for his magic, Kellen was pretty sure he'd paid it—in full.
Valdien reached the bottom of the twisting track. To Kellen's relief, Jermayan didn't just ride on, but waited for the others to join him. Kellen started down, leading the reluctant mule. His metal boots slipped and skidded on the dusty trail, and the mule set her feet and grunted her displeasure, but they reached the bottom without mishap.
He'd hoped—now that the two of them had a little privacy—that they might talk things out, but Jermayan continued to ignore him utterly. Kellen set his jaw. Fine. Let him.
"I'm here," Shalkan said.
Kellen turned and regarded the unicorn, suddenly realizing they had another problem. He wasn't looking forward to spending the rest of the day on foot, and it would slow their speed enormously. On the other hand, he knew the girl couldn't walk, and there was absolutely no point in asking Jermayan to take her up behind him on Valdien. He could Heal her, but he wasn't sure he wanted to risk another spell—both because of adding another layer of obligation, and because of the possibility, which seemed much more real now, that the enemy might be watching.
"I can carry both of you. She doesn't weigh much," Shalkan said. "And I'm a great deal stronger than you think. She gets down, you mount, then she gets up again behind you. Simple."
Simple it might be, but it took a few minutes to accomplish, and when it was done, Shalkan's back felt rather… crowded. But as soon as they were both settled, Shalkan trotted off, leading the party down the left-hand trail and leaving Jermayan to bring the mule, quite as if he was in charge now, and not the Elven Knight.
Perhaps he was.
IT was only after they'd started off that Kellen realized he'd just assumed without asking that the girl was going to come along with them. It had been obvious he couldn't leave her where she was. Even though he and Jermayan were riding into danger, she'd been in danger when he'd found her.
"Um… I know this is a little late to ask, but… is there somewhere safe we could take you? Do you have any family?" Kellen asked.
"Safe? Me?" The girl laughed bitterly. "I have no family, or none that would not hate me on sight. You've seen my face, gentle Knight. Is there anyone in all the world who wouldn't slay me the moment they saw it?"
"Well," Kellen said after a moment's thought, "I didn't."
There was a moment of surprised silence from behind him.