"There, there," said my rescuer as she handed me a bowl of warm soup."There, there," said my rescuer as she handed me a bowl of warm soup. "You will be all right." "Who... who are you?" "My name is Cyl'Dia. I am a woman of Darachmod." That last word made me look up and take notice of her, Aimee', because I had heard of Darachmod. It was a city, rumored to be in the very mountains my family had been riding through when the bandits had attacked. She smiled tightly. "I see you have heard of us. The legends are mostly true. Drink up. I will return in a little while." She was gone again, and only Huna and I were left together. I held onto Huna and she let me, being the only thing in my recent life that had had any stability and kindness to it. I watched the women in the camp moving about easily, seriously; there seemed to be little humor about them. Slaughtering a camp, even one filled with spirits as ugly as Stuyr's, could have held no glee to them. They were all beautiful, tall, strong. All of them wore heavy armor that hid what sorts of bodies they had underneath, but as they stripped it off they revealed tightly-fitted, warm clothing that showed the shapes underneath to be very obviously female. But I wasn't to learn just how female until later that day. Cyl'Dia returned shortly with another woman behind her. "We are returning, so your eyes must be covered until you are trustworthy. Do you understand?" I nodded, still frightened. She reached out and stroked the dog's head for a moment. "Huna, huh? She's a good dog. What's your name?" "Bethsany." I blurted it out as one word. "Beth'Sany, huh?" Her voice had a curious stop indicating that she had divided my name into two parts like hers. "That's a pretty name. Beth, this is my commander, Dyn'Valas. Dyn, this is Beth'Sany, who we rescued from the centaurs. |