Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

I t felt like an eternity that Zev lay on the grass, Marieke's sagging form held in his arms. And yet, it was over far too quickly.

Marieke seemed to have relaxed completely, but Zev's heart was still hammering when she started to stir. The climb had been terrifying enough in itself, but more alarming had been the visible waning of Marieke's strength as he shadowed her up the cliff. He'd been afraid every moment that she would suddenly pass out and peel off the surface, dropping like a stone before his helpless eyes.

When Marieke started to push backward, Zev loosened his grip at once, trying not to let his reluctance show. Much as he wished she'd stay in the safety of his arms forever, the last thing he was trying to do was hold her prisoner.

Marieke pushed herself to a sitting position, running a hand over her eyes.

"Are you all right?" he asked, as he also sat up. He brushed grass off his legs absently, his eyes on Marieke's face.

"I will be," she assured him. "I just need to rest. I'm very weak. "

He gave an incredulous laugh. "Whatever else you are, you're not weak. Marieke, that was unbelievable. I can't believe how much strength you have."

"I don't, though," she said, shaking her head. "I know the limits of my abilities, and that was far beyond them, trust me. I don't know what happened, but it was something unnatural, even in magical terms."

She leaned back on her hands, her eyes closed as she lifted her face toward the sun. Zev stared hungrily at her features, willing her to speak the truth when she said she'd be all right. Her lovely face was paler than he'd ever seen it.

Not that it did anything to lessen the perfection of the features he'd come to see in his dreams as clearly as he saw them before him now. The straight nose, the high cheekbones, the frame of dark hair—albeit currently disheveled and full of gravel. The soft lips, parted slightly as she breathed in the fresh air of his homeland.

"It's not the climbing that weakened you, is it?" he asked gruffly, trying to redirect his thoughts. "It was your songcraft that used all your energy, right?"

"Hmmm."

Marieke kept her eyes closed as she considered her reply. He could almost see her skin soaking in the sunlight, his eyes riveted to her face as he reveled in the rare opportunity to study her unobserved.

"It's not that I spent too much energy on songcraft, exactly," she said. "It's more that the volume of magic I just manipulated was too much for my body to handle." She opened her eyes at last, blinking rapidly as if trying to clear stars from her vision. "Even the memory of it is overwhelming for my senses."

She gave him an apologetic look. "I don't think I can move from here anytime soon. I passed out when I fought the fire, and this was more intense than that in a lot of ways."

"You don't have to do anything," Zev assured her. "But I do think we should move further back from the canyon. Do you object to me lifting you?"

Marieke bit her lip, a feature Zev forced his eyes not to flick to. "I do not," she said, her tone hard to read.

He knelt on one knee, scooping her slight form into his arms before standing. He relished the warmth of her nestled against him as he strode further from the edge, across the road that ran parallel to the canyon. He recognized the area. It wasn't too much further until the turn off that led southward toward his family's farm.

"Speaking of asking permission," Marieke's soft voice surprised him, "I'm sorry I didn't back there. When I used magic to enhance your attack on the elf."

Zev glanced down at her in interest. "That's what it was, then. And here I thought all those hay bales I lift had paid off."

Marieke chuckled weakly. "Sorry to disappoint. It's a little trick I learned from a friend who's trained in combat song. Normally, though, I imagine the members of a team would have blanket permission from each other to use magic on one another in that way." She looked up at him uncertainly. "Are you angry I did it without checking?"

Zev smiled as he came to a stop under a stand of trees, his grip on her tightening for a moment before he lowered her to the ground. "I'm not."

"Are you sure?" Now standing, Marieke didn't immediately step back, her face turned up to him as she stood still within the loose circle of his arms. "I didn't mean to force you to interact with magic if you didn't want to."

"Marieke." Zev gave a slightly strained chuckle. "Interacting with magic is the only reason I'm in one piece and freely standing back on Aeltan soil rather than being an elf's captive or worse. We may not be in a combat team, but you can consider yourself to have blanket permission from me to use magic to enhance anything I'm already choosing to do."

"That's good to know," she said softly. "Because I think we make an amazing team."

Zev drew in a long breath and dropped his arms at last, trying to get enough air to clear his head from the intoxicating nature of her nearness. She wobbled a little, and he quickly put one hand back on her shoulder to steady her.

"Well, let's put our best team effort into figuring out how to get you back to my farm," he said. He flashed her a grin. "Much as I'd like to impress with my strength and romantic demeanor, I can't actually carry you all the way home." There was a hint of regret hiding under the humor in his voice.

Marieke's eyes flicked to his at the word romantic , and color crept up her cheeks, but she kept her tone light.

"It's a shame," she said. "Trina's rubbed off on me, and I was entertaining daydreams of you carrying me off into the sunset."

Zev's laugh became deeper and more natural. "She really was precocious, wasn't she?"

Marieke's smile was also more relaxed, the strain of their near miss dissipating, although her form still sagged with weariness. "Just promise you won't run off with her when she's old enough to achieve her dream of leaving the canyon, and inevitably hunts you down."

Zev laughed again. "I think that much I can safely promise you."

Marieke drew a breath as she looked around her. "So your plan is to go back to your farm?"

Zev shrugged. "It's close, and it's safe. Where else would we go?"

Marieke once again worried her lip. "Would I be welcome at your home? "

"Of course," said Zev quickly. "I'm inviting you to come, aren't I?"

"Zev." She met his eyes with a touch of impatience. "I'm not talking about you, and you know it. Will your family be comfortable with you bringing me there?"

"I guess we'll find out," he said, forcing a cheerful tone. "Because that's where we're going." He turned his back to her. "Come on. I can carry you on my back a fair way."

"What?" Marieke sounded aghast, and he swiveled around to see her staring at him in horror. "You're not carrying me like a rucksack."

"Look at you," Zev challenged. "You can barely stay standing on your own. There's no way you can walk all the way."

"Of course I can," Marieke said stubbornly. She shifted away from his anchoring hold to prove it. Unfortunately for her argument, she took only half a dozen steps before she had to stop and lean against a tree, a hand to her brow in a way that suggested her head was spinning from the minimal exertion.

"Not so much," Zev said. "Unless you've got any better ideas, you'll have to swallow your pride and let me give you a ride on my back, Marieke."

"Why don't you just give me a shoulder ride, like a small child?" Marieke said, her outrage making his lips twitch.

"I said better ideas, Marieke. That would be harder for me, not easier."

"Zev…" The warning growl in Marieke's voice was more endearing than threatening, but happily the promised squabble was cut short by the sound of hooves.

Zev stepped out into the road, flagging down the approaching wagon with an authoritative gesture. He didn't recognize the driver, who pulled his horse to a stop as he drew alongside the pair .

"Afternoon, friends," he said pleasantly. "How've you gotten yourselves stranded out here, then?" His gaze grew astonished as he took in the filthy and disheveled state of their clothes.

"Just an unlucky mishap," Zev said, keeping his voice light. "Any chance you could give us a ride?"

"Of course," said the man with the obliging manner Zev would expect of anyone in his local farming community. "Where you headed?"

Zev gave the direction to his farm while he helped Marieke climb up onto the seat of the wagon.

"That's not far out of my way at all." The farmer nodded, pleased. "You'll have to ride in the back with the sow, I'm afraid."

Zev eyed his companion calculatingly as he pulled himself into the back of the wagon. She looked docile enough.

Marieke twisted around to look at him. "I'd offer to give you the seat and sit in the back myself, but…I'm not going to." She grinned, the expression infectious enough to make him chuckle.

"No man worth his salt would let his lady ride with the pig while he sat up here," their driver pointed out.

"Oh, I'm not—" Marieke started to protest, but Zev cut her off.

"Quite right. So where were you headed before we interrupted you?"

"Home," he said. "Further east from here, not far south of the canyon."

The farmer was friendly, and having succeeded in getting him talking, all Zev and Marieke had to do was nod politely and rest for most of the journey. Zev was glad of the time to think. He'd projected confidence for Marieke, but in truth he didn't know how his family would respond when he arrived with her in tow. He'd like to think they'd swallow their disapproval enough to be polite and passably hospitable, as they had last time. But things had changed since then. He'd changed, and his family were smart enough to know that Marieke was the reason for that change. But he didn't know where else to take her. She clearly needed rest, and if there was a possibility Rissin might pursue them up the cliff face, he didn't want to take any chances.

By the time his farm gate came into view, Zev's stomach was clenching with hunger, and he had no doubt Marieke felt the same way. He could see her form sagging a little on the wagon's bench seat, and he was eager to get her lying down as soon as possible.

"This is it," he told the driver as the gate neared.

"I won't stop," the farmer said. "But I'll come in so I can turn around in your farmyard if that's all right."

"Of course," Zev said.

"What was that?" Marieke had seemed barely awake, but she stirred at Zev's words. "What do I feel?"

"I don't know." Zev edged around the pig, who was watching him lazily. He pushed himself to a crouch in the back of the wagon so he could put a hand on Marieke's back. "Are you all right? Are you going to fall?"

"I'm fine," she said quickly. "It wasn't in my body I felt something. It was something in the land. Magic."

Zev frowned, as much over the stranger's reaction to Marieke's words as over the words themselves. Revealing where he lived had been inevitable, but he'd been hoping to share as little about Marieke as possible.

"You felt magic?" the driver repeated, as he navigated his vehicle through the open farm gate. "Are you a singer, then?"

"Yes," said Marieke, clearing her throat wearily in order to manage the words. "Don't hold it against me. "

"Of course not!" The stranger was far too fascinated for Zev's comfort. "It's exciting. I've never met a singer before! They're not common in my region."

"Or this one," Marieke assured him. "Or the area where I grew up, in Oleand. That's a farming region, too, and singers are rare."

"You're Oleandan, as well? I wouldn't have guessed it." The farmer looked her over as though surprised that her country's name wasn't written across her forehead. "Well, what a day." He pulled his wagon to a stop in the yard of Zev's property. "This morning started like any other, and now here I am driving an Oleandan singer around."

"Yes, well, thank you." Zev's tone wasn't encouraging as he vaulted over the edge of the wagon and offered his hand to Marieke. "We appreciate the ride. I'd offer you something to drink, but since you said you can't stay…"

The farmer had brightened at the mention of a drink, his eyes still on Marieke, but when Zev finished the sentence, he let out a sigh.

"I did say that, didn't I? I'd best get this lady home in time for her supper." He jerked his head toward the sow.

"Thank you for the ride," Marieke said, the quiet tone of her voice telling Zev that she was close to passing out from exhaustion. Not knowing her, the farmer had no way to recognize this fact, and he took his leave with the same cheerfulness that had kept him chattering all the way along the road.

Once they'd waved him off, Marieke turned to Zev. "You know," she said, her expression severe, "where I come from, that non-offer of refreshments would be considered downright inhospitable."

"It's inhospitable here, too," Zev said, no remorse in his words. "But what choice did I have? You need to be more careful, Marieke. I don't think it's a good idea to advertise information about ourselves to strangers."

"Being a singer is not something I feel the need to hide," she said coolly. Her eyes flicked to the house and back. "Regardless of what some might think."

"It's not that," Zev assured her. "It's the fact that we just narrowly escaped from two separate groups intent on getting their hands on us. If either the elves or the monarchists sent someone to find us, it wouldn't be hard for them to learn of the Oleandan singer and local farmer traveling together alongside the canyon. You know how quickly any news, big or small, spreads in a community like this."

"Oh." Marieke considered this observation. "I hadn't really thought of that."

Of course she hadn't. She wasn't brought up to value privacy as highly as physical safety. But if she was going to keep asking unpopular and potentially dangerous questions, she would need to learn.

"Hopefully they won't come looking," Zev said, giving his clothes a final slap to try to clear the dust. "Come on."