By the time the light had begun to fail them, they had about a quarter the length of braided vines they would need. All that day, the thunder had rumbled around them and the air had been close and heavy, but the storm had not broken. Knowing it would still be foolhardy to make a fire and unable to continue their work without it, they settled themselves for a second cold night at the base of a sheltering tree.
N'rak still felt a twinge of self-consciousness as he looked at their blankets and remembered how they had awoken that morning. His feelings of course had suffered terribly from Tay's senseless death and his own oath-breaking by the murder of Sur-Pashno, and his only reason for continuing to live had been his decision to carry the memory of Tay in his heart forever. Still, try though he might, N'rak could not keep the most extraordinarily intimate thoughts about Maia from stealing into his mind. She was exotic and warm and smooth and firm and in every way perfect, but how could he commit yet another betrayal? He had not mourned his loved one's death for even two days before beginning to think steam-filled thoughts of Maia. N'rak's brutal training had taught him to ignore his feelings completely, but his clandestine affair with Tay-Vasani had caused years of denied emotions to erupt from within him. It seemed that the tighter he tried to contain those feelings now the more fiercely they burned.
Maia on the other hand seemed not to give the least thought to their growing attraction. As they prepared themselves for the night, she unfastened her robe and hung it on a low branch with no evidence of even realizing she was naked. She sat down on their blanket and then looked quizzically at N'rak.
"You've worked very hard today. Shouldn't you let your clothing air out overnight?" Her expression – as much as N'rak could tell – gave no hint of any double meaning to her statement. It actually irritated him a bit that she could be so completely sensible and at the same time drive all sense out of him. All he could do was mumble his agreement with her logic, turn away, and begin undressing. When his clothing was stretched upon branches, he quickly burrowed under the blankets, his sword lying at his side.
She was beneath the blankets already and moved to press up against him as though it were the most natural thing in the world – which, given the cold night and the lack of a fire, it probably was. N'rak's mind was racing. One part of him was appalled that he was even the slightest bit hesitant about taking every advantage of what Maia represented. Another part was appalled that he was even allowing such thoughts to cross his mind. The worst part was that he had been so brutally indoctrinated for so long in thinking and acting swiftly, practically, and without any emotion that he was unaccustomed to figuring out these warring feelings. And when Maia's skin melted against his, he had just about decided that his life might end without warning at any moment so he might as well enjoy while he could, when suddenly he remembered one more thing – his curiosity!
"Your promise? You said you'd tell me tonight."
N'rak felt more than heard her deep sigh. "Yes," she said simply. "Yes."
With a tacit understanding that they would not want to move as Maia's story was being told, they each shifted slightly to find the most comfortable positions, and N'rak found that the most comfortable position for Maia seemed to involve as much bodily contact as possible. N'rak could not hope to hide his own body's response to her nearness, but she made no move to divert his attention from the tale she had promised to tell.
"My family – my people – my home is across this river and then three days' hard ride. There were several hundred of us, living far from any traveled roads, peaceful, in our own world. It was a paradise, but growing up I had no idea how precious it was.
"Your people are so very different. Life on this side is so harsh, so ugly, and so cheaply taken "
A chorus of frogs a long way off began croaking rhythmically. N'rak waited, knowing without asking that Maia needed to tell her story at her own pace.
"When I grew up, our people had no government, no organization, no leaders. When something was needed we all took care of it. We were so – happy. Our days were so filled with love.
"I know you see mainly the outward differences between us, but all I see is the brutality here, the lies, the cruelty. And I compare it to the beauty that surrounded me growing up.
"We knew about your kind, but it was not our way to be jealous of anything you had. We were able to hide ourselves from the occasional traveler or hunter or explorer from your side."
There was another pause and then Maia asked, "You are very special here, aren't you? You are not like the others here."
This brought N'rak up short when he realized just how true it was. "Yes. I am an assassin. I've been trained to kill – efficiently."
He felt her shake her head, "No, I don't mean your physical abilities. I mean your sense of what is right and true. Without that, you would never have attracted Tay. You would not have cared so deeply about her death. You would have thought nothing of lying about the death of the heir to maintain your position and privileges. Even now you can hardly imagine these things. There are others like that on this side, but they are so few.
"Your former king, the Benevolent One, he was like that."
N'rak nodded, "He was a man as well as a king."
Maia pressed even closer against his body, "You are such a man, N'rak. It is excellent fate that we have found each other."
There was another pause and then N'rak asked, "What are your people called?"
Maia's silver bell of a laugh caressed his ear, "We were never 'called' anything, we just were. We were us, apart from you to be sure, but just we ourselves."
Maia's voice faded again, and N'rak sensed that she was working up the courage to tell him something painful. He waited patiently, feeling her heart beating next to his own.
"There was one of us who was always so much more curious, and who began to feel a hunger for anything he did not possess. He explored more and more away from the seclusion of our place. He would return with stories of travelers he had spied upon, travelers from your side. We listened to the stories, but it must have been clear to him that we didn't share his deep interest in them. Finally, one day after he had been exploring for a very long time, he came back and told us that he had joined a group of travelers, had traveled with them, had been to your side of the river, and had seen the great walls and armies and market places."
Maia shivered slightly. "That was never our way, to spy on others like that. Privacy was always highly respected." And again, she lapsed into silence.
Finally, N'rak thought to help her return to her tale by asking a small question, "Do all your people look like you do, Maia?" She nodded in the dark. "So how was this one able to join a group of travelers without drawing attention to himself?"
"For us, outward appearance is easy to change. He made himself look like one of them."
Maia now seemed to hold to N'rak even more tightly. He gently pulled her to him even more closely, thinking she was cold – or desperately lonely, but not that she was seeking at all to fan the carnal flames that were still so evidently burning elsewhere in N'rak.
With a quiet sigh, Maia continued, "We told him he mustn't do that again, that it was wrong, that it was not our way – that it was just wrong. He became angry. None of us had ever seen the kind of anger he showed then. The things he told us, the – the disdain he had for – for all that we held so dear – for life itself. He was like a thunderstorm raging across a plain, mindless. The next morning, he was gone. We felt it then, we all felt it. A sadness, a fear, a deep concern for our whole way of life. It was agreed that we must find him and know what he was doing.
"I was sent to look for him."
"Why you?" N'rak blurted out before thinking.
Another long silence was at last broken by her reply, "I knew him well. He often sought me out to be the first to hear his stories. He seemed to want my approval. We thought I might have the best chance of turning him away from the path he seemed to have chosen."
This time it was N'rak who fell silent while Maia's story sorted itself in his mind. "Were the two of you – ?"
"No," she said simply. "But it might be that he wanted that."
The frogs croaked, the river lapped against the banks, the leaves rustled around them.
"N'rak?"
"Yes, Maia."
"This is so much more painful than I thought it would be."
"Let's sleep now. We'll cross over tomorrow. You tell as much as you can each night."
"I'm not trying to hide – from you." Her words seemed to hold even more meaning for her than was obvious to him.
"I know." On impulse, he kissed her forehead, and then settled in to go to sleep – hoping his body would follow suit.
A lone rumble of thunder echoed slowly across the sky, silencing the frogs but disturbing the horses. Under their shared blankets, N'rak and Maia sank into a deep sleep almost as one, and the next morning, N'rak was momentarily surprised when he realized the entire night had passed and they had not shifted their positions at all. In fact, for just an instant N'rak had the feeling that he and Maia actually were one single living thing instead of two separate ones.
As he came fully awake, N'rak immediately recognized that his body – which nearly always started the morning in a state of general arousal – was reacting very strongly to Maia's warm touch. He almost chuckled aloud wondering if he had been in that condition the entire night.
Maia opened her eyes, all white with no pupils at all, but N'rak could somehow tell she was looking directly at him with them. She smiled, unexpectedly kissed his chest, and then rolled easily out and stood, took her robe from the branches fastened it about her. N'rak followed suit and shivered as he donned his clean but cold and still damp clothing.
"The first thing we do once we're across and safe is build a big blazing fire and get ourselves warm and our clothes dry," he said with a playful grumble.
"No point in drying them now though. We'll get plenty wet crossing today," she answered.
They ate quickly, packed their gear, and returned to their task of gathering vines and grasses suitable for braiding into rope.
By the time they stopped for a midday meal, N'rak suspected they were nearly ready. He went down to the river bank and paced off some rudimentary measurements to estimate the width of the river there. Then Maia helped him stretch out their rope, and he paced it off.
"This'll do for the crossing anchor. Once we finish braiding the rest, it ought to be enough to hold the raft together."
He noticed Maia gazing downstream in the direction of the soldiers they had seen. He waited quietly, but after a moment, she returned to their camp to finish braiding rope.
N'rak lashed the raft together and tied to it as much of their gear as they could comfortably carry without the horses. He then tied the long rope onto the raft – not in the middle of a side or directly at a corner but in such a position that the raft would be at an angle to the river's current, an angle that would help drive them to the opposite bank. Meanwhile, Maia walked upstream along the bank with the other end of the long rope and followed the bank as it curved sharply around the bend. She soon reached a spot from which she could look straight down the middle of the river going downstream from the bend. A little farther and then she found a solid tree trunk around which to anchor the rope.
Maia then hurried back to join N'rak. He removed all the tack from the horses and gave them each a gentle slap to urge them to freedom, then he too hurried to join Maia at the raft.
The length of the rope was in the water now and the current was already beginning to tug at the raft. Together, N'rak and Maia slid their makeshift craft down the muddy bank and into the river. The raft floated freely in the water and the current quickly pushed it downstream. N'rak held his breath when the long rope grew taut, but it held! The current pushing along the angled side of the raft forced it now to swing out into the center of the river and on. Maia turned to face the bank where they would soon land, searching for any sign of hidden dangers there. They drifted closer as the current pressed upon their raft.
They were nearly there when N'rak was suddenly struck by the fact that he was leaving his land, probably forever. He was crossing more than a physical frontier. He turned to look over his shoulder at the bank they were leaving behind. As he looked, a movement caught his eye immediately. A soldier was stepping out of the trees. He saw the rope and the raft and the passengers on it. With practiced ease, he quickly freed his bow and nocked an arrow.
"Maia," hissed N'rak in warning. He watched the arrow rise. It was coming straight toward them. "Maia!" he repeated urgently. The arrow seemed to slide off course slightly as the cross wind caught it. N'rak watched the arrow closely, seeing its course would now miss the raft narrowly. But then the fickle wind shifted again!
Years and years of relentless training had honed N'rak's reflexes, but it had also instilled in him an instinct not for self-preservation, but to protect his charge. He did not consciously think about shielding Maia with his own body. He did it in the same way he would have yanked his own hand away from a hot flame. With the blurring speed he had worked so hard to perfect, N'rak turned toward his companion, blocking her back with his even as he shoved her off the raft and into the water.
He had been bruised, beaten, slashed, and stabbed during his training, had learned not to be distracted by pain from fulfilling his duty to protect the heir. At this instant, N'rak was in every way the body guard he had sworn to be. He saw Maia enter the shallow water and look back at him. His mind registered her safety even as it took note of the arrow piercing his own torso. He drew his sword, slashed the ropes securing their gear, slashed the long rope holding their raft, and then sheathed the sword in a quick blinding motion. Then he grabbed their gear and – with an enormous effort – threw it to the bank even as the raft began to move downstream. He saw Maia trying to reach for him, and it was her movement toward him that caused him to leap with all his strength and without hesitation from the raft and onto the shore. She mustn't slow down on his account.
His feet slid a bit on the muddy embankment, but he dashed on, snagged the gear with one hand, throwing it on into the nearby tree line, while with the other he grabbed Maia's arm, pulling her up onto the bank after him as he now sought the protection of the trees.
Maia wrenched her arm free of N'rak's grasp and took hold of the gear as they both drove deeply into the woods and out of the bowman's sight. In the space of a few heartbeats, the two had forced their way through the trees so far they could no longer see the river behind them.
N'rak's feet and hands seemed to be weighted down by something and the cold of the river water and his damp clothes suddenly seemed to knife through his whole body. His training required him to assess the situation now, and he did. That was when he looked down at the arrow point coming out of his body and the full realization of what had happened struck him. He knew perfectly well the vital organs that arrow had necessarily pierced. He knew the blow was fatal.
A strange peace settled over N'rak. He looked at Maia's alabaster face and he thought of honor and duty and love, and he felt death coming. And he welcomed it.
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