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Cold fear knotted Jherek's back as he watched the blade slide toward Glawi
Tarmorock looked down at the blade through his chest in disbelief. His arm dropped and Jherek saw that the captain's blade had missed Glawi
Moving quickly, Glawi
A moment later and Glawi
Touched by the moment, wishing he knew of something he could believe in so fiercely, Jherek dropped to his knees beside the paladin and bowed his head as well.
XII
16 Flamerule, the Year of the Gauntlet
"Lady, may I have a moment of your time?" Glawi
Surprised, Sabyna looked up from the spellbook she'd been studying. Arthoris, Azla's ship's mage, had given Sabyna two new spells that she believed she was capable of understanding.
"Is something wrong?" She stood up from the small bed. Her heart beat a little faster, and her first thoughts were of Jherek.
"Nothing's wrong," Glawi
Sabyna placed her spellbook into the bag of holding at her side and Skeins curled around it. Crossing her arms over her breasts, she walked to the window and looked down at the ocean.
The pirate crew stripped what they could from the skeletal hulk that had once been Black Champion. With her hold flooded and having her deck partly disassembled and hauled away, the ship listed even more heavily into the ocean, creating increasing drag on the slave ship Azla claimed as her prize. The deck tilted at an incline now and had for the last two days.
Ship's moldings and cleats, the rudder, extra sailcloth, and the remaining rigging were the first items the pirate crew reclaimed. They'd used a block and tackle to take even Black Champion's two good masts to replace the broken ones on the slave ship.
They could not seat the masts while at sea, but after finishing the salvage operation, Azla pla
"What did you want to talk about?" Sabyna asked.
Glawi
"No," Sabyna said. "You're way over."
"Perhaps I should go. I thank you for your time, and I ask your forgiveness."
Sabyna pushed out her breath. "Wait." She sensed him standing there, rigidly at attention. "Has Jherek told you what I said to him?"
"No, lady," Glawi
"Why did you come?"
"To offer solace and share company." Glawi
Sabyna was surprised. "I didn't know you drank."
"Rarely, lady," the paladin said, "and never in excess. May I enter?"
"Of course." Sabyna went to one of the small cabinets built above the bed and took out two wooden cups. "The service is rather humble."
"But adequate for our purposes. If I may." Glawi
Sabyna returned to the bed and sat, accepting the cup the paladin handed her. "Say what you have to say."
Glawi
"I come from a large family whose lives were spent crowded aboard one ship or another," she explained. "I learned to speak my mind early. Perhaps you're a little sensitive."
"Lathander help me, but I knew this would not be easy," Glawi
"If it isn't a pleasant task, perhaps it would be better if it were over sooner."
Despite her calm demeanor, Sabyna's heart beat faster than normal. Since she'd talked to Jherek and explained to him how she felt, they'd hardly spoken at all. The young sailor stayed busily engaged with the salvage work.
"It's just that I've become aware you aren't talking to each other."
"Have you talked to him about it?"
"No."
"Why talk to me first?"
"Because he won't listen to me."
"And you think I will?"
Glawi
"If he would talk to me, I might."
"He doesn't know himself," Glawi
"Does he think I'm dense?"
"In his eyes he feels he isn't worthy of you."
"Because he is wanted somewhere for something?" she asked. "I told him that didn't matter."
"Maybe not to you, lady, but it does to him. In his own way, though, I don't think he quite fully understands it. He strives for perfection."
"I've never met a man who didn't have his faults," Sabyna said. "Though, I admit you've come closer than anyone."
"My faults?"
"You're a busybody," Sabyna told him. "I thought paladins knew enough to keep to their own affairs."
The knight blushed. "I beg your forgiveness. I struggled with this decision, and I'd hoped I'd made the right choice."
"You have," she conceded. "If I'd spent another day like this, with no one to talk to, I think I'd have gone out of my mind."
"I thought you talked to Azla."
"She doesn't understand Jherek any more than I do."
Glawi
Sabyna looked away from the paladin. "It's never been like this for me. I've seen handsome men and wealthy men, and men who could turn a woman's head with only a handful of pretty words, but I've never met anyone like Jherek."
"Nor have I."
Tears stung Sabyna's eyes. "I've never pursued a man before. Climbing that rigging to tell him my feelings was one of the hardest things I've ever done."
"But, I wager, not as hard as the climb back down."
"No," she said. "Do you know what he told me?"
Glawi
"Aye…" Sabyna didn't trust her voice to speak any further.
"If it helps at all," the paladin stated gently, "I believe he tells you everything he knows."
"There's a lot he won't tell me."
"Can't tell you, lady, not won't. There is a difference."
"You defend him very well."
"I didn't come here to help him, lady. I came to help you."
"Me?"
Glawi
"What course?"
"To becoming the kind of man he wants to be," Glawi
"Will he be that man?"
Hesitation furrowed Glawi
The solemn way the paladin spoke pushed Sabyna's pain away and replaced it with fear.
"And what are we to do?" she asked. "What am I to do?"
"The only thing we can, lady. Give him the freedom to make the decisions he needs must make"