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Glawi
"That's what Captain Ty
"Have you ever heard of Vurgrom before?"
Jherek shook his head.
"So he could be telling the truth and he could be telling a lie?"
"Aye, and I wouldn't know the right of it."
"Then why do you pursue him?" Glawi
"Personal reasons."
"With the demeanor and focus you're wearing, I wouldn't have thought it was any less," the knight said sagely.
Jherek didn't feel comfortable not telling the knight all of it, so he did. He tried to trim down the way he'd felt about being the recipient of the pearl disk, but he found he couldn't do that completely either.
"So you don't think the old priest was right in giving that disk to you?" Glawi
"No."
"Why?"
Jherek shook his head and forced a smile he didn't feel. "If you knew me better, Sir Glawi
"Ah, the wisdom of youth."
"What do you mean by that?" Jherek asked.
"To be young and think I know so much again," Glawi
"One thing I do know and am sure of," Jherek said, "is that they wouldn't have anything to do with me."
Still, Jherek remembered the voice that had haunted him since childhood. He almost asked the knight about it, but stopped himself. Once he'd dealt with one fantasy, he didn't need to start working on another.
Glawi
"That's where he's got to be headed. He told Ty
"Oh, I agree entirely, young warrior. Have you ever been to Westgate?"
Jherek shook his head.
"That will be the first city Vurgrom heads for," Glawi
"You've been there?" Jherek asked.
"A number of times. None of them pleasant or particularly long. Nor were they in any way uneventful." Glawi
"I don't know," Jherek admitted.
"The trip to Westgate is at least a tenday's ride, young warrior, even at the pace we've been pushing these poor horses and with the shortcuts I know from having journeyed there before. You'd better give your actions some thought."
"I will," Jherek said, then added: "I am."
"And Westgate is no place for a lady."
"Aye," Jherek replied. "I tried to get her to listen to reason and go back with Breezeru
"I gathered that from the way she was acting toward the captain when I arrived."
"I still don't understand Ty
"You don't?"
"No."
"And you read those fantasies?"
"What do those-"
"It's as obvious as the nose on your face," Glawi
The paladin's words hit Jherek like physical blows. Now he understood better why Ty
"I see you have some feelings for the girl yourself," the knight said.
Jherek forced himself to speak. "I like her."
"And that's all?"
"It's all I know," the young sailor said.
"But you enjoy reading those fantasies of yours," Glawi
"Because it's all I dare," Jherek answered. "I'm no highborn prince or liege man or warrior of high renown."
"You're a warrior. You stood at the battle of Baldur's Gate, and you stood up to that ship's captain without a sword in your fist."
"I'm no warrior," Jherek said, uncomfortable with any confusion that placed greatness on anything he'd done. "I'm just a man who's fought for his life."
"Most soldiers feel the same way."
"As for Ty
"You would have let him kill you?"
"I don't think he would have."
Glawi
"I could not have fought him," Jherek said. "He wasn't my enemy."
"Ty
Jherek felt uncomfortable. He rolled the apple between his palms, but the anticipation of taking a bite had already tightened his mouth. "I didn't take her away."
"You were the reason she left."
"I didn't ask her. I asked her to stay."
"And if you did," Glawi
"She's stubborn," Jherek said. "And willful."
"Qualities that can work for good or ill in a man or woman."
"If she loves him," Jherek said, "she should have stayed with him. She owed me nothing that would come between them."
Glawi
Hope flew in Jherek's heart, but it only took remembering that it was his father who slew Sabyna's brother to quash it. Even if that had not stood between them, what did he have to offer her?
Glawi
Acting on the small amount of irritation he felt, Jherek asked, "Why do you keep calling me that? I have a name."
"Malorrie?" Glawi
Jherek's face colored and he felt shamed by his continued lie. Perhaps he could have told the knight his real name if they'd met alone, but Sabyna was there. She already knew he hadn't told her the truth about his name, but he couldn't give it, either, in case she'd heard about him being unmasked as one of Bloody Falkane's pirates.
"It's the name I choose," he replied.
"Yet hide your true name? I have to wonder what else you hide."
Jherek returned the man's level gaze. "I must ask you to judge me on what you see, not what a name may contain. If you choose not to trust me, I ask only that you take the lady to safety."
Glawi
"Why are you here?" Jherek gladly shifted the conversation away from him.
"I'm on a quest, commanded by Lathander himself."
"He speaks to you?"
"Not in words," Glawi