Regrets: 3

Gring held her breath and waited. They hadn't even reached the mountains but she was certain they were surrounded by humans. Somehow someone had known her plans. She couldn't even begin to guess how that had happened. She was certain it had though. There was nothing wrong with her sense of smell.

Waving Karia to attention she stepped forward and released a full burst from her glands. That should make certain whoever stalked them knew they had been spotted. She wanted help, not a fight, and telling them she knew that they knew was a good start.

Something stirred in the air. A few birds took off and a rustling in the undergrowth suddenly demanded her own attention. They were closing in, and she still didn't know whether there would be a fight or not. Now was the time for her to decide.

She dropped her weapons and made herself a perfect target. She was honour bound after all.

#

Karia jumped as the forest burst into life. He'd known something was out there stalking them, but woods weren't something he was used to. Too many trees and too few mountain peaks for his taste. Now, at least, he knew what it was that had followed their trail.

As khraga went Gring was all but petite. The ones arriving were anything but. It was apparent they ate better here, but he wisely held that thought to himself. They had come for help, not to insult people.

Aphitus whispered a question, but Karia shook his head. The moment for drawing weapons had come and gone. He was certain of that. The way Gring spoke with her own only confirmed that thought.

Knowing he had nothing to add Karia ordered his men to start making camp. They wouldn't go anywhere more this day, and an early camp would go a long way toward restoring some of the strength only rest could give. They needed that rest. He could feel it in his bones, and if he tried to fool himself all it took was a look at the drained faces of his sworn men to recall him to reality.

Making camp took even less time than he had hoped, or feared. They were lacking in supplies now. Only their horses had enough, but they would make do with what they had. He watched the sorry excuses for shelters they put up. At least the forest provided both branches and firewood. They would get a warm night's sleep.

He left the camp and joined Gring in hopes of learning what was happening, but she was still talking in the language of hers, and for once she didn't use her gift to invite him into understanding. He knew he shouldn't feel offended but he did.

He sat down and listened anyway. As the conversation continued the feeling of being left out dissipated and he relaxed and merely watched. Had anyone told him the voices of khraga would be soothing before he met Gring he would have scoffed at the concept, but now he allowed himself to be lulled to sleep by the rhythmical grunting and growls with a sharp, indrawn, hiss thrown in from time to time.

#

Gring growled in approval when Karia's snores interrupted the meeting. Falling asleep in a circle of true warriors. That took some audacity.

She noted how the leader bared his tusks when he shared her thoughts. Some expressions didn't need a mindwalker to decipher. Then she traced Karia's men as they made the camp ready. To her surprise they hardly gave her or the new arrivals any notice. They had been brought to the brink of exhaustion and she feared some were already dangling on the wrong side of it.

"They can't go on much longer," she said to the leader, a male in magnificent white fur, almost the colour of pure snow rather than the bony white she recalled seeing in Gaz.

"You are a bold one, little mindwalker. By all rights you should be dead now."

She stared at him. "If you want to kill us, do it now and don't talk about the deeds you shy away from." She slowly realized that Karia and his men weren't alone in breaking down from fatigue.

Her last response earned her a surprised smile. "We were on our way to do that. We heard a mindwalker scout from Gaz had brought mercenaries to Ri Khi to kill those loved by the crown."

Gring was too astonished to answer. She just glared.

"Then we heard a halfman from Khi and a halfman jump mage from Khanati had joined you. That tickled our curiosity." He growled. "Imagine our consternation when rumours spread about sworn men from Braka following you."

That wasn't too hard. Humans from Gaz didn't meet halfmen from Braka other than on the killing field. For both of them to be joined in one cause either party must be guilty of betrayal. "I am the renegade. Karia and his men are true warriors. They have lost no honour"

"You are truly a surprising one. You would have halfmen valued as humans?"

"Don't you dare call them halfmen! Any and all of them are twice what you can ever hope to become!" Gring wondered about the vehemence in her own voice. For the first time for as long as she could remember she involuntarily emptied her predator's glands. Stupid! So stupid.

Eyes widened, but to her astonishment not a move was made to attack her.

"You are tired little one. I apologize. Let my shame be part repayment for the honour I have sullied. I am in their debt. Will you tell them so?"

Gring growled with mirth. "Are we really that simple minded? They haven't understood a word. How could they feel insulted? There is nothing to repay. Mine is the shame. You could not know the kind of honour they carry as a warrior's badge." She bowed in the halfman way, because she had once heard humans in Ri Kordari had adapted to halfman ways along with other oath breaker trappings.

The leader bowed back. "Would you tell me if we have to kill you or not?"

That was a question as politely worded as any. By rights she should have done so long ago. "Vengeance. One we had promised to protect met a bad death."

"What would make sworn enemies share one duty to protect?"

"I followed a taleweaver," Gring replied. That statement brought a few hisses, but at least they understood. Allegiances had no value compared to the sacred duty to protect the taleweavers. "Nakora, the woman whose death we must honour, shared my duty. Her own men killed her?"

He looked nonplussed. "A female war leader from Ri Khi?"

"I'm not familiar with halfman customs in this part of the world, but yes, I heard it wasn't common."

She got a sharp grunt in reply. That sound was apparently shared among humans no matter where they lived.

"Less than common?" she asked more to confirm what she had just learned than anything else.

Another grunt.

"Someone paid men to mate with her against her wish. We were on our way to you for help."

"That was a bad death indeed."

"Will you help us?"

"Why should we help you rather than kill you?"

Gring thought. She was tired, not stupid. "Because Imperial Colonel Trindai de Laiden would have wanted you to had he known what became of one of his officers," she chanced.

The hiss told her she had chosen well. "You have gathered strange friends, little enemy of Gaz."

Very well. Those last words were worth a future home for her. Enemies of Gaz. The only human enemies of her old home lived here, and they had just told her she was one of them. A full season of tension ran off her, and with it her remaining strength. She sat down on the ground no longer caring if they would see it as a sign of weakness. Home, she was home at last.