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He lowered his voice, for Morgaine seemed asleep.

"I shall watch," Vanye said. "I am not good for long; yours is next, then hers."

The youth Ryn might have found some silly protest; he had been sullen at his father's orders when they first rode together into Morija. Now he nodded assent to that justice of things, and sought a bare cot himself, 161

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while Vanye took his sword and set himself on the front steps of the guesthouse, point set between his feet, hands gripping the quillons, head leaned against its hilt. In such position he could stay awake enough. In such a ma

And considering himself then, he reflected wryly that he had seen such occupations of Morija's lower guesthall only when there was some marginally honorable hill-clan passing through, bound for other pastures and asking road-right. Some bandit chief asleep in the guesthouse, his men lounging about swilling cheap wine and scarring the furniture with their feet, while, seal upon the door, some man more villainous looking than the rest sat the steps as door-warden, sword in arms and a sour expression on his face, terrifying the boys who lurked to see what visitors had come among them.

It was a warning to other would-be guests that they would be mad to seek that shelter, and must look elsewhere. Villainy had possessed the only beds, and unless the lords in the hall would take arms and dispossess them, so it would remain until the morning.

So the Brothers found him.

He came fully awake at the first tread upon the flagstone walk, and sat there with his sword between his knees while the gray-robed Brothers came cautiously up to the steps with earthen jars of food.

They bowed, hands tucked in robes. Vanye recognized i

"May we ask?" It was the traditional question. It could be refused. Vanye bowed again, full courtesy to the honest Brothers.

"We are outlaws," he said, "and I have stolen, and we have killed no few men in the direction from which we come: but none in Baien. We will not touch flock nor herd, nor field of yours, nor do violence to any of the house. We ask sanctuary."

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"Are—" There was hesitance in the question, which was always asked, if questions were asked at the granting of sanctuary. "Are all among you true and human blood?"

Morgaine had not worn the hood when she rode in; and she was, in the white furs and with her coloring, very like the legends, one survivor of which had come to die a holy man at Baien-an.

"One of us may not be," he acknowledged, "but she avows at least she is not qujal." Their gentle eyes were much troubled at that answer; and perhaps through the legends they knew who and what she was, if sanity would let them believe it.

"We give shelter," they said, "to all that enter here under peace, even to those of tainted blood and those that company with them, if they should need it. We thank you for telling us. We will purify the house after you have gone. This was courtesy on your part, and we will respect your privacy. Are you a human man?"

"I am human born," he said, and returned their bows of farewell.

"Brothers," he added when they began to turn away. They looked back, sunta

They bowed together. "That is of no account. We will pray for you," said one. And they went away.

The sunshine felt cold when they had done so. He could not sleep, and watched far beyond the time that he should have called Ryn to take his place. As last, when he was very weary, he went down the steps and gathered up the earthen jars and took them inside, letting Ryn replace him on the step.

Morgaine wakened. There was black bread and honey and salted butter, a crock of broth and another of boiled beans, which both were cooling, but wonderful to Morgaine, whose fare had been less delicate than his the last 163

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many days, he suspected; and he took Ryn his portion out upon the step, and the youth ate as if he were famished.

The Brothers brought down great armloads of hay and buckets of grain for their horses, which Vanye saw to, storing the grain in saddlebags against future need; and in the peace of the evening, with the sun headed toward the western mountains, Ryn sat in the little doorway and took his harp and played quiet songs, his sensitive fingers tuning and meddling with the strings in such a way that even that seemed pleasant. Some of the Brothers came down from the hill to stand by the gate and listen to the harper. Ryn smiled at them in an absent way. But they grew grave and sober-eyed when Morgaine appeared in the doorway; some blessed themselves in dread of her, and this seemed greatly to sadden her. She bowed them courtesy all the same, which most returned, and retired to the i

"We must be out of this place tonight," she said when Vanye knelt there beside her.

He was surprised. "Liyo,there is no safer place for us to be."

"I am not looking for a refuge: my aim is Ivrel, and that is all. This is my order, Vanye."

"Aye," he said, and bowed. She looked at him when he straightened again and frowned.

"What is this?" she asked of him, and gestured toward the back of her own neck, and his hand lifted, encountered the ragged edge of his hair, and his face went hot.

"Do not ask me," he said.

"Thee is ilin,"she said, a tone that reproved such a shameful thing. And then: "Was it done, or did thee—?"

"It was my choice."

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"What chanced in Ra-morij, between you and your brother?"

"Do you bid me tell you?"

Her lips tightened, her gray eyes bore into him, perhaps reading misery.

"No," she said.

It was not like her to leave things unknown, where it might touch her safety. He acknowledged her trust, grateful for it, and settled against the warm stones of the hearth, listening to the harp, watching Ryn's rapt face silhouetted against the dying light, the pine-dotted hill beyond, the monastery and church with the bell-tower. This was beauty, earthly and not, the boy with the harp. The song paused briefly: a lock of hair fell across Ryn's face and he brushed it back, anchored it behind an ear. Not yet of the warriors, this youth, but about to be, when he made his choice.

His honor, his pride, were both untouched.

The hands resumed their rippling play over the strings, quiet, pleasant songs, in tribute to the place, and to the Brothers, who listened.

Then the vesper bell sounded, drawing the gray lines of monks back into their holiness on the hill, and the light began to leave them quickly.

They finished the food the Brothers gave them, and gave themselves by turns to sleep for most of the night.

Then Morgaine, whose watch it was, shook them and bade them up and make ready.

The red line of dawn was appearing on the horizon.

They were quickly armed and the horses saddled, and Morgaine warmed herself a last time by the fire and looked about the room, seeming distressed. "I do not think that they would have any parting-gift of me,"

she said at last. "And there is nothing I have anyway."

"They bade us be free of the matter," Vanye assured her, and it was certain that his own gear was i