Brynn looked at the older man hard, locking his gaze and not blinking. ?Why do you wish me strengthened?
Is my cause your cause?"
"I do not know," the mystic admitted.
"Then why?" Brynn asked. ?Why did you risk your life to pull me off the battlefield outside of Dharyan? And why did you then bring me all the way to the south? Would you have done as much if it was another you had saved? Would you have taken another - even Ashwarawu himself - all the way here and opened the secrets of your order to him?"
"No," Pagonel admitted without even considering the words.
"Then why?"
The mystic took a deep breath and leaned back a bit as Brynn leaned in eagerly toward him. After a few moments, he looked away.
"Because I see in you so much of my own heart," he said a short while later, and he turned back to stare into Brynn's puzzled expression, that beautiful face only an inch from his own. ?You understand Jhesta Tu - I knew that you would. I knew that both of us would benefit..." He stam-mered a bit, at a loss for words for the first time Brynn had ever seen.
She stopped him, then, putting her finger over his lips. ?I know," she said. ?I knew it, too, when first we met at Ashwarawu's camp."
She moved her finger away, but Pagonel didn't resume speaking. He just sat there, staring at her, and she at him.
All that Pagonel wanted to do at that moment was kiss her. But he didn't holding back and reminding himself that he was twice Brynn's age.
All that Brynn wanted to do at that moment was kiss this man, but she wasn't bold enough to initiate that level of intimacy, though in truth, to her physical intimacy between them could be nothing more than an extension of the emotional intimacy they had been sharing all these months.
They were so in harmony, spirit and soul, that Brynn hardly cared about any age difference.
But Pagonel held back, and Brynn, so innocent and unawares in matters of physical intimacy, would not take this first step.
They stayed on the field with Runtly until late that afternoon, then walked together up the long staircase back to the Walk of Clouds, Pagonel's home and Brynn's welcomed sanctuary.
PART 3 ENLIGHTENMENT Chapter 21 The Relief of Resignation
"^X J^" akim Douan was truly surprised to learn that the Chezhou Kaliit, the master of that warrior order, was in Jacintha to meet with Jl him, for though the Chezhou-Lei were dedicated to the Yatol priests, serving as bodyguards who would throw their own bodies in front of a spear aimed for a Yatol, the Kaliit, an old barrel-chested man named Thog Timig, rarely left his home village, some hundred miles south of Jacin-tha. His mere presence told Yakim Douan that something extraordinary was afoot.
The door to the private audience chamber cracked open and Merwan Ma entered, leading the old and bent man. The Kaliit was hunched at the loulders, and while his torso had retained the size and strength of his for-mer warrior years, his arms and legs were spindly things, withered and crooked from an assortment of injuries. But if there was any infirmity in the Kaliit's physical body, it didn't show in his dark and sparkling eyes, strong and intense. He fixed a glare on Douan from the moment he strode through the door, one that showed appropriate respect, but also conveyed the inner power of the man.
"Welcome, Kaliit Timig," Douan greeted warmly. ?I have oft feared that I would not have the chance to greet you again before Yatol took one of us or the other to his side."
The Kaliit stiffly, but with great dignity, slid into a chair beside the Chezru Chieftain.
"It will not be long," he replied dryly. ?Every storm rages in my body be-fore the sky has clouded."
Douan nodded and smiled, more to himself than to his visitor. He had no idea of the Kaliit s true age, but the man was very, very old, ancient even. Thog Timig had risen to the position of Kaliit early on during Douan's reign as Chezru Chieftain, but while Yakim Douan had been barely more than a boy at that time, those few decades ago, Thog Timig had already been a middle-aged man. ?Which makes your decision to visit me at this time all the more mysteri-ous, I must admit," Douan said a moment later, when the God-Voice noted that the Kaliit seemed to be staring