Honor-Bound [ Lore of Penrua: Book... - Chapter 33: Chapter 33

Ealin stirred as the smells of cooking bacon and beans began to waft from the campfire. She rolled over onto her stomach, glancing over at the two men from under a curtain of pale hair. Once, Uachi would have gone to her and smoothed back her hair from her face.
The memory stirred complex emotions in him. He settled on revulsion.
"Can you sit up?" he asked.
She did, propping herself on her elbow and then stretching out her legs. In an undertone, she said, "I need to make water."
A flush rose to Uachi's face. He hoped it was not visible in the early morning light. Ealin met his gaze with a challenge in hers. "Uarria does, too. She always does in the morning. Let me take her."
"That's out of the question," he said. "You will not touch that child again."
Pressing her lips together, Ealin stared at him, silently daring him—to what, he didn't know. He glanced at Diarmán, who was busy at the cookfire. "I'll untie your feet," he said.
"And my hands. You must."
"No." He took a knee and began to work at the knots that had cinched her feet together. It would have been easiest to cut them, but their supplies of cord were limited. Ealin winced when he pulled one of the cords a bit too roughly; he refused to meet her gaze, but he did begin to work more cautiously.
Once her feet had been freed, he took her by the arm again and led her toward the copse of trees near which they had camped the previous evening. She stumbled on her feet, and he tried not to walk too quickly. He did not wish to be cruel. "Here," he said.
Ealin stood, sullen, glowering at the ground before his boots. "Untie my hands."
"I said no. I can't trust you, Ealin."
She glanced up at him under her lashes. Why did she seem so different now? Before, she had been sweet, gentle, timid. Now, she was sullen. Sultry. "You trusted me before. It is cold here, Uachi. Do you not want a woman to keep you warm?"
A feeling unlike any he had ever felt toward her rose up in Uachi's breast. It was disgust and It was shame and it was resentment and it was horror. He turned his back. "Do your necessary. And be quick."
There was a rustle as Ealin struggled with her skirts, and then he sensed her squatting down, her back against the tree. He walked on a few paces, wanting to give her what privacy he could without leaving her unattended. He listened closely, attentive to any suggestion that she was going to take flight.
When silence fell again, he glanced over his shoulder and saw her standing, her face turned away, back the way they had been heading.
"Where were you going, Ealin?" he asked.
She looked back at him, her expression unreadable, and said nothing.
Uachi took her by the upper arm again and guided her back toward their camp, where Diarmán was dishing out their breakfast into a pair of wooden bowls.
"Don't suppose you have more bowls in your pack, madam?" Diarmán asked with distant courtesy, eying Ealin as she chose a seat near the cook fire again.
"No," was Ealin's only response.
"Well, then. We'll share." Diarmán looked at Uachi, and then, perhaps judging what he saw in the ranger's face, he sighed. "I'll share with you." Under his breath, so that only Uachi could hear, he muttered, "We'll be fast friends, I know it."
"Uarria," Uachi said, reaching out a hand to the princess. "Do you need to make water?"
She sat up, pursing her lips. Looking between Ealin and Diarmán, she nodded, hesitantly.
"It's all right. Come with me."
The little girl lifted her arms, and Uachi easily hefted her onto his hip, carrying her off to the trees. He set her down as he had for Ealin and turned his back.
I will do my best by her, Matei, he thought, gazing off into the distant trees. I will do my best by her.
"Well," Diarmán said cheerfully as Uachi returned with Uarria by the hand, "Breakfast is ready, and then what?"
"I suppose we'll set off toward where you're heading," Uachi said, sinking down to sit by the cookfire. He accepted a bowl of beans and bacon from Diarmán. He spooned up some of the beans and tested their heat against his lips before offering the spoon to Uarria. "Careful, firefly; it's a little hot."
Uarria tentatively tasted the food, and once she had satisfied herself that it was not too hot, she was eating as quickly as she could chew.
"Where are we going?" Ealin asked from the other side of the fire. Diarmán had sat next to her and was stirring the food in the bowl. When he held up a spoonful, she tilted her head away, scowling.
"Breakfast," Diarmán muttered. "Muscles over there isn't going to let me untie you, so you'll have to content yourself with the full service."
He offered the spoon again. Ealin lowered her head, and he shrugged, popping it into his mouth instead. Around the mouthful, he asked Uachi, "Are we telling her or is this a secret mission?"
"I want to be sure of where she was headed before we tell her anything. And why. And I want to know what your plan is for keeping everything in line."
"We can talk about that on the way today. There's a small issue, Uachi: four of us and only two horses."
Uachi had thought about this already, and no satisfactory solution had presented itself. He couldn't let Uarria ride with Ealin; she might fall, and he didn't want to equip Ealin with a horse she could use to make a break for it. Besides, Uachi and Diarmán on a single horse was a ridiculous notion.
That left either Diarmán or himself to ward Ealin, and he figured it would have to be himself.
"We'll manage," he said stiffly, not yet quite sure how. "Ealin, tell us where you were headed with Uarria."
She sat with her head hanging down, the curtain of her hair veiling her face. Uachi sighed, looking down at the princess, who was still busily spooning breakfast into her mouth. He reached out a large hand and laid it over the bowl. "Slow down, little one. You'll make yourself sick. Do you know where you and Ealin were going?"
Uarria looked up at him, her lips wet with sauce from the beans. She licked her lips, gazing at Uachi.
"Do you know where you were going?" he repeated. "Why Ealin took you away from Mother and Father?"
The princess handed Uachi her spoon. She lowered her head, her chestnut curls falling over her brow.
"Firefly, why won't you speak to me? You need not be frightened any more."
She was weeping. He could tell from the way her shoulders shook, although she had hidden her face by turning it away and now raised a hand to cover her eyes. He set the bowl aside and gathered Uarria into his lap. "There, now," he murmured. "You're brave, Uarria, braver than anyone I know, and I know a lot of very brave people. You've been strong all this long while and you must continue to be strong we get you home. It will be soon. I promise you that. But you must tell me, please: where were you going?"
The girl's chest rose and fell with her unsteady, hitching sobs. Ducking his head to try to meet her gaze, Uachi brushed her hair back from her face, but she did not look at him, and she continued to cry.
With a sigh, Uachi laid a hand on the back of Uarria's head, pressing her cheek to his shoulder. "There, there, now. Don't cry. Don't cry. You're safe now, and soon enough we'll put everything to rights."
The horrors she had seen must have seeped into her heart, into her soul, silencing her tongue. Uachi had heard of it happening to children, a result of abuse or of the traumas of war.
Diarmán was watching them thoughtfully. He smiled, and even in the early morning light, that smile was as handsome an as sharp as a well-crafted dagger. "I can help with the small matter of unraveling yon brassy maiden's secrets."
"I won't have you hurt her," Uachi said at once. Ealin had looked at Diarmán with an expression of muted alarm.
"Oh, I promise you, Uachi of the North: this will not hurt a bit."