Ayawa sighed as the sun began to brighten the morning sky. They had ridden well into the night and camped under some trees well off the road. Tavis was sound asleep while she lay to his left with her arm over his chest. She hated the thought of having to be on the move, but they had two last stops to make. It had been three days since they parted with Ivers. Since then they had sent four more men north to Gersius.
Thankfully, all of the men had lived on isolated farms or small villages. They were all easily located without incident, and quickly on their way. Gedris had even taken the opportunity to shop, insisting she needed materials to bathe with and wanted more clothes. She also purchased perfumes of all things.
She looked down at the slowly rising and falling chest of the man beside her. She ran a finger across a dark mark on his skin. It was a black crescent where a magical rune had once been written. Now traded as a means of control and turned into a burn. She felt sorrow for Tavis and his people. They were once a great nation built on the power of weaving and shaping, the two magic schools of the land.
Legend said they once had buildings that floated in the air and gardens of fire. It was all lost in some ancient collapse that robbed his people of much of their knowledge. The ancient schools burned and the prize of their culture, the great library of Ji'Alluhin, sank into the sea.
He told her it was all legend. It had happened so long ago his people didn’t even remember the details. There were still ruins in places and statues from an age gone by, but none of them remembered who built them.
His people still practiced weaving and in particular fire weaving. They remembered some of the powerful weaves of fire that many feared to use. They feared it because they could no longer control it. They had once mastered some technique of safely using fire but the secret of how sank with the library beneath the waves.
Now they used a treacherous method to contain the fire. They tattooed magical marks into their skin. These marks could be traded as a means of control. If they ever lost control of the fire, they could call on a mark to snuff it out. In return, the heat of the fire was absorbed into the mark, turning it into a blackened burn on the weaver's body. A man could only have so many marks, and Tavis had used them all. They called it the ash price because the marks were made with specially prepared ashes that were magically bonded to the skin, and of because of how the skin burned to ash when the mark was traded.
She ran her finger over another black mark and then another tracing a map of pain, a price paid to keep control. He swore never to use the fire again when he ran out of marks, but then came that fateful day.
She took another deep sigh. It was her fault, and she knew it. She made the mistake that led to that day. She put them in a situation where he was desperate to save her. He called on the fire, and he lost control.
A tear ran down her cheek and dropped to his chest, wetting one of the old burns. He still woke up sometimes from terrible dreams where he relived that day and heard the screams of the people.
She rubbed the tear with her thumb as if trying to wash away the burn, wash away the memory of the pain.
The sun slowly climbed higher, and she knew it was time they got up. She leaned over him and planted a gentle kiss tugging at his lower lip.
His eyes came open, and he smiled up at her as his warm arms wrapped her up.
“Someday I am going to hold you forever and never let go,” he whispered.
“I hope that day will be soon,” she whispered back.
“Is it time to get up?”
She nodded and gave him another quick kiss. “Get up and help me get that stupid dress on.”
They both moved stiffly, and she looked across the little clearing to the woman sleeping on a proper bedroll, another item from her shopping list.
Gedris was in a simple green shirt and pants her hair washed but blown in the wind over her face. Ayawa smiled to see some of it was tangled in her mouth. The woman never seemed to smile, and Ayawa didn't blame her. In two of the villages, they had visited since Ivers; they encountered angry men and women. Angry because a woman of Ulustrah had lived there but been dragged away by a priest of Astikar or a local militia. In one village, the woman's husband and son had even attacked the priest, and they were beaten and dragged away with her for the crime of loving her.
Gedris was enraged with every story, and Ayawa began to question how wise it was to keep her with them. Sooner or later that rage was going to boil over and when it did she only hoped it didn't get them killed.
They dressed, and when her laces were pulled tight, she turned back to Gedris. Ayawa walked over to where she slept and nudged her with a foot. “Wake up. We need to get moving.”
Gedris yawned and then choked as she inhaled her own hair. Ayawa smirked as the woman grumbled and brushed the hair out of her face.
“I need to take a bath,” Gedris said Ayawa walked off.
“We don’t have time for that. We are many hours ride from the last two men.”
Gedris huffed and scowled. “Don’t you ever bathe?”
Ayawa smiled. “I bathe at night. I washed in the stream at the last camp.”
“You said you were going out to watch the camp!” Gedris snapped. “You should have told me you were bathing!”
Ayawa shook her head and walked back to where Tavis was rolling up the bedrolls.
“Why do you enjoy aggravating her?” Tavis asked.
“I don’t want her to be comfortable here,” Ayawa said. “She should have gone north with some of the others. She has refused to go with every man we have sent.”
“She doesn’t trust traveling with priests of Astikar,” he said with a glance over at her. “She barely trusts us.”
“She is a danger to our mission,” she said. “She is a storm waiting to break. If we happen on any trouble with another woman of Ulustrah, she is likely to act before she thinks.”
“You were the one who said we needed to go after her,” Tavis reminded her.
“I wanted to know what had happened. I had no intention of keeping her with us for the whole journey,” she said.
Tavis carried the bedrolls to the horses and began to tie them to the backs of the saddles. He noted Gedris was smelling her clothes and sprayed herself with perfume.
“She is clearly not accustomed to hiding in the wild,” he said.
“I bet she has never gone a day without a bath until she met us,” Ayawa replied. “She is a soft woman who likes gentle things.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Tavis asked.
“I prefer strength,” Ayawa said as she watched the woman. “Weakness nearly cost us too much.”
Tavis turned to her and put his hands on her waist.
“When we settle down you will remember how to be a soft woman,” he said.
“Not a chance,” Ayawa snapped. “If you want a soft woman, you need to find another!”
He laughed and started to sway her hips. “You don’t see yourself in a sunny dress like this, walking to the market for some meat to make me dinner?”
Ayawa scowled at him with narrow eyes. “You have been talking to her too much.”
“You keep riding on ahead. I have no one else to talk to,” he laughed.
“Well, I will be here for the morning. We should be fine for the first two hours or so. When we get close to the roads, I will take the lead.”
He nodded and released her waist.
They all mounted up and made their way out of the trees heading further east into the grasslands.
After an hour of riding silently, Tavis decided to ask a question that had been puzzling him.
“Do you know what Ivers meant by saying his wife was silent?”
Gedris nodded. “It is a term for a priestess who no longer serves in a temple.”
“Why is it called silent?” Ayawa asked.
“She is known as a silent priestess because she longer lifts her voice in song to the Goddess in a temple,” Gedris replied.
“So she abandons her faith?” Tavis asked, not believing that could be the answer.
“No, not at all. In many ways she has attained a higher form of it,” Gedris said. “Though many women dread the idea of being silent. To not be able to stand in a temple and praise the Goddess is hard on some. Some women refuse to marry to avoid it.”
“So what does it all mean then?” Ayawa asked.
Gedris looked far away as she put her thoughts in order.
“In our order, a woman has two roles. She is a priestess to the Goddess, and she is a mother in training.”
“A mother in training?” Ayawa repeated.
Gedris nodded. “We train not only to help others with their relationships but also to build our own. It's assumed that all women in our order will one day marry and then begin to have children. When they do, they are expected to give up their titles and leave the temple.”
“So they ARE expected to abandon their faith?” Tavis asked again.
“Will you let me finish!” Gedris said firmly. “She doesn't abandon it. She becomes the priestess of her house. Her home becomes her temple, and she serves the Goddess by keeping an orderly home and filling it with love. She is to be a crown to her husband, a warm embrace to her children and a shining light to her community.”
“So is she still a priestess?” Ayawa asked.
“She is, but she is silent. She is not permitted to speak on behalf of the temple or the Goddess outside her own family. She is expected to set her blessings aside unless it is in defense of her family. Only a priestess who serves in a temple may call on the Goddess for power to bless the people.”
“So she is still a priestess, but she can't act as one outside her own household?” Tavis summarised.
“That is correct,” Gedris said. “She must focus her heart and her prayers on her family. By doing so, she becomes a light to the community and in many ways does just as much good as a full priestess. Her husband is loved, her children well behaved and her household a shining example to all.”
“That sounds good, but I would think many of your order would indeed not like the idea,” Tavis said.
“Many don't. Some women seek love from other women to avoid it. The Goddess does not condemn such a choice, but neither does she bless it. A woman's role is to raise a family, and that requires a man.”
“Hmm,” Ayawa said with a smirk. “It sounds like your Goddess respects the natural order.
Gedris shook her head. “She desires love first and foremost. Women can share love with one another just as strongly as they could with a man.”
“But they will never know the love of a child,” Ayawa said.
“It's true that a blessing of fertility will do two women no good, but that doesn't mean they can't be happy,” Gedris replied.
“You could always get a donor,” Tavis joked.
Both women turned to glare at him, and he suddenly wished bandits would ambush them.
They rode on for another hour, eventually cresting a hill and saw the distant road. A line of wagons moved down the road with men walking beside.
“Are those the same wagons?” Tavis asked.
“It can’t be,” Ayawa said. “There are a lot more people with these.”
“It looks like the same ones,” Gedris added. “Only the front one is covered the rest are open boxes.”
“But people are riding in them,” Tavis pointed out as he gestured to the distant formation.
Ayawa stood tall in her saddle and put a hand over her eyes. “Tavis, cast your sight. There is something wrong with this wagon train.”
He sighed and handed his reigns to Gedris and then got down off his horse. He made his way to the side and sat down to begin his chant. With a low droning tone, he began to dance his fingers in the weave, and then he sat motionless as his sight raced ahead.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“What do you think is wrong?” Gedris asked.
Ayawa shook her head. “We assumed this wagon train was going to Calathen. But it is moving across the south roads heading in roughly the same direction as us.”
“So?” Gedris asked.
“It seems the only cargo it has picked up are people,” Ayawa said.
Gedris tried to see the distant line more clearly and frowned as her mind began to think of dark things.
Tavis pressed his sight over the grasslands racing on toward the wagons ahead. As he got closer, he could see that it did indeed look like the farmers from before. However, now there were women in the backs of the wagons, and some walking behind them. As he pressed closer, he nearly dropped his tone as he choked on what he saw. The women's hands were all bound, and their mouths gagged. The ones that walked were leashed to the wagons by ropes. The men that followed used spears to prode them along as the wagon train made its way down the road. He didn't need to see any more to know what he was looking at.
His tone ended, and his eyes came open.
“It’s a prisoner caravan full of women,” he said as he started to stand up. “My guess is they are more of these silent priestesses.”
Gedris’s nostrils flared as she turned to glare at the wagons.
“We have to help them!” she said in a dark tone.
“There are twenty men down there at least,” Tavis said. “We three will be hard pressed to take so many without killing them.”
“Who said we weren’t going to kill them?” Gedris asked.
Tavis looked up at Ayawa, who was shaking her head.
“We can’t afford to attack a force that large. Freeing you was one thing, but that will be a hard fight even if we do kill them,” she said.
Gedris growled under her breath and shook in her saddle. “We can’t just leave them to this fate!”
“What else can we do?” Tavis asked as he climbed back up on his horse. “Even if we free them, they will be caught again. We can't take care of so many people, and we can't waste time. Even if we tried to shelter them all, we would move so slowly that we would miss our timeline.”
“Not to mention they will leave a trail a child could follow,” Ayawa stated. “You do remember we are being hunted by assassins?”
Gedris shook her head. “I have seen none of these assassins you speak of.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Ayawa sighed.
“I am not going to abandon them!” Gedris said. “These are my sisters!”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Tavis interjected. “Most of them are in simple dresses.”
“They are probably silent priestesses,” Gedris said. “This is not the reward such a woman deserves for trying to build a loving home.”
“We can’t help them,” Ayawa stated flatly. “We don’t have the strength.”
“I could help them,” Tavis said with a far off look.
“No, you can't!” Ayawa snapped. “You have nothing left to trade!”
He looked over to her with heavy eyes. “I can manage it.”
“Tavis! No!” she said with a face of stone and a tone of finality.
“What happens to them if we don’t?” Tavis asked.
“We don’t know!” Ayawa snapped. “And we are in no position to find out! You said so yourself we can’t care for so many! We would have to leave them to fend for themselves!”
“But giving them some chance is better than none?” he said as he looked into her eyes.
“I said, no!” Ayawa shouted.
It was then they both looked up as Gedris pushed her horse and raced down the hill.
“By the earth mother!” Ayawa shouted and urged her horse into a run after the woman.
Tavis took a deep breath and readied himself as he ran after them.
Ayawa drew her bow from the tie on the side of her saddle. She hated shooting from a horse, but she needed to give them every advantage she could. Gedris was twenty paces ahead and making a straight line for the wagons. She braced her knees and took aim. The first arrow sailed clear of the men and wagons, but the noise it made caused them to look up. The second arrow hit a wagon, and now shouts went out, and fingers pointed. The third arrow drew blood.
Gedris plowed right into the closest man using her horse as a ram. He flew to the side from the impact and tumbled into the road. She quickly turned the house and tried to run down the row of wagons to ram as many men as she could. She missed a second man, and the third one threw his spear. She heard her horse cry out as the spear struck its chest. It reared up and toppled her from the saddle throwing her in nothing but her dress into the dirt.
Ayawa saw her fall from the horse and put an arrow into the spear thrower. He cried out in pain as the shaft tore into his shoulder. She tried to ride in quick circles to stay in range of Gedris as men started to race in from all sides. She fired another arrow, but the unstable horse caused her shot to sail high, and men ran to bring her down. With a sigh of regret, she put her bow down and leaped from the saddle drawing two knives.
Gedris stumbled to her feet in a daze. The horse had thrown her into the road, and she hit her head. She staggered to standing just as a man wrapped his arms around her using his spear as a brace.
“Quickly, tie her up and gag her!” the man yelled as three others came running in.
“That bloody archer killed Lars!” one of the men yelled.
“She won't last long!” the man who held her yelled. “Tie this one quick, and we will bring the other one down!”
Gedris yelled as the men arrived and struggled to grab her hands. A second man stretched a length of rope between his hands and went to press it into her mouth, then the sky went red, and all eyes turned to the right.
Ayawa met three men head on and with dancing blades quickly cut two down. Just as she was about to engage the third, she saw the glow.
“Tavis, no!” she shouted as she turned around.
Tavis stood on the roadside with his hands out. His fingers were dancing in a pattern, and he sounded as if he was singing in a series of low notes. Around him, two pillars of fire were twisting in the air, and as he moved his hands, they danced with him following his motions.
“He's a damn fire weaver!” a man shouted.
“Impale him!” a second man yelled.
Spears were thrown into the air and raced toward him. He lifted his hand and made a gesture as if swatting a fly away. The pillars of fire lashed out, striking spears from the sky with a roaring sound.
Gedris struggled as the men tried desperately to tie her while others ran toward Tavis. His hat was tipped low, and all that could be seen of his face was a wicked smile. His whole body moved as if he was fighting with swords and the pillars of flame moved with him swatting men and turning them into bonfires.
Screams filled the air as burning men rolled away from him. He slowly walked toward the wagons, his voice sounding more and more strained as he called out in the tones of the weave.
Ayawa ceased trying to wound and slit the throat of the third man. She quickly ran for the wagons, and when two men tried to stop her, she ended them quickly. She was known as a good shot with the bow, but when it came to blades, her people revered her skill. She proved that now as she danced between the longer reach of spears and ended men's lives with quick slices. She arrived at the wagon and quickly began to cut the ropes that tied a small barrel to the side.
The men trying to bind Gedris dropped her as Tavis drew closer. They hurled spears, but he batted them away with the flames and when the only option left was to draw daggers and stand against him, they ran.
All around the wagon train, the remaining men turned and fled abandoning the prisoners and their own wounded. Gedris rose to her hand and knees and looked up in awe as Tavis turned his head to regard her. From her low viewpoint, she could see his full face and the eyes of orange light that burned like coals.
“By the Goddess!” she gasped just before a barrel of water broke over his head.
Gedris watched him stumbled, and fall as the water washed over him, and the flames suddenly went out.
“Tavis!” Ayawa cried from where she had thrown the barrel. She ran into the pool of water and scooped him up. “You damn fool!” she cried as she wrapped her hands over his face.
Gedris crawled on hands and knees to where he lay in Ayawa’s lap. He looked fine aside from being wet and bleeding slightly from a bump on his head.
“You made him do this!” Ayawa shouted at her as she crawled up. “What did you think you were going to do against all those men?”
“I just wanted to help them,” Gedris pleaded.
“You are a bigger fool than he is!” Ayawa shouted as she rocked him.
“Let me heal that bump,” she said, lifting her hands to his head. She closed her eyes and went into the sweet song of Ulustrah as golden light spread over her hands.
With a cough, he suddenly came round and looked up into Ayawa's face.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You promised me!” Ayawa said with tears in her eyes. “You promised me you would never do it again!”
He glanced around and saw Gedris with the wagons behind them. He saw the women standing on the wagons still bound and gagged watching them.
“There were too many,” he said. “It was the only way. I only wanted to frighten them.”
“You can’t take a risk like that!” Ayawa cried. “You don’t have anything left to trade!”
He nodded and pointed at the wagons. “We need to cut them free.”
Ayawa looked up and remembered the women. With a sigh, she stood up and pulled him to his feet then took a knife and set to work. Hands were cut free and gags removed from women who cried they were so grateful.
They all told stories of how the wagons visited farms or villages and began to round up any woman suspected of serving Ulustrah even if she had been long silent. They were being taken to a camp where they would be held as a bargaining chip to keep the order of Ulustrah at bay. Two of the women were full priestesses, and they had come from a town where the women were ready. They fought back with two others of their order and drove them off. Priests of Astikar were called in, and the other two were slain in the second battle.
“So they are killing us now,” Gedris said sorrowfully as she worked with two others to heal her horse.
All the women were gathered up and told of the coming battles between Gersius and the Order of Astikar. No details were given, and Ayawa refused to let the women know about Windcrest.
“Why can’t we tell them?” Gedris asked. “They could help us!”
“Most of these women will be recaptured again in a week,” Ayawa said angrily. “One of them will talk and Gersius will be ruined.”
Gedris fumed at the woman’s stance but relented and held her tongue. They were instructed to go home and hide, or flee to Eastgate, and many parted with tears in their eyes.
When the last of the women were finally on the march, Ayawa took Gedris aside.
“That was very foolish of you!” Ayawa said. “You forced us into a fight we didn’t have the strength to win!”
Gedris glared back at her with a firm scowl.
“What was I supposed to do? Stand by while my sisters were dragged away to slavery?”
“Better they marched to slavery and were freed later by Gersius than we die here on the road, and he fails!” Ayawa corrected.
“What do you think was going to happen to those women in those camps?” Gedris asked.
“Despite how wicked the Father Abbot is most of the priests of Astikar are very honorable. I doubt they would so much as laid a finger on one of them inappropriately.”
“None of those men were priests of Astikar! They were all bounty hunters collecting the prize for turning in women. Some of those women weren’t even priestesses! They were just kidnapped from their homes to try and make more coin.”
Ayawa sighed and folded her arms. “We can’t fight all these battles, not yet! The day will come when Gersius marches to liberate the whole of the empire.”
“We're not in the empire!” Gedris said. “This is the common lands! None of these people owe Calathen or the old empire a thing. Will he wage war on the kings of common lands to set things right?”
Ayawa looked down at the woman before her. She was angry and daring, but she was soft. She was far from a warrior and lacked discipline. She might have armor and a weapon, but she was of little use with them. She hadn't even thought to get her weapon out before she charged in. Now she was burning with anger and out of control.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” Gedris snapped.
“I am trying to decide what to do with you,” Ayawa said. “I worry that you are too great a risk to us and our mission. You are not cut out for this kind of work, few people are.”
“I can help!” Gedris said defensively. “I can heal, I can cover our tracks with growth, I can grow food!’
“All good skills, but we know when to pick a fight and when to avoid one, you don’t!”
Gedris stood defiant, but Ayawa continued.
“You are a woman more accustomed to caring for a home. You are soft. You are thoughtful, and you have strong passions. I mean my words as no shame to you, they are to your credit, but a woman like you belongs in a temple or a husbands bed. You don't belong hiding in the wilds running from assassins, and bounty hunters.”
“So I have no value to you then?” Gedris asked.
Ayawa shifted her stance. “I will not deny your value. I only question your ability to do what must be done! What were you planning to do when you charged down the hill in a dress! You didn't even have your weapon out!”
Gedris shook her head with wild eyes. “I only wanted to help. I couldn’t bare to stand by and watch this cruelty.”
“You put us in a losing battle and forced Tavis to take a great risk to save us. You are a cellic! Do you not realize what might have happened?”
Gedris looked away. “He might have lost control.”
“And all those wagons would have burned with the women tied in them!” Ayawa growled. “You would have saved nothing! And he would even now be hearing them scream in his head, as the stink of their charred bodies filled our nose. The guilt would be eating him alive!”
Gedris visibly shook as she looked into Ayawa's face. “I'm sorry. I only wanted to help. I didn't know he was so strong. I didn't mean to put him at risk. I haven't seen a fire weaver that powerful before.”
“All you saw was a fraction of what he can call on, and all he will dare to use. He has already paid the ash price. He has no more marks to call on. If he loses control again, he either lets it rage or pays the final price.”
Gedris nodded as she understood.
“I want to make sure you understand,” Ayawa said, coming right up to her. “He would have paid the price rather than hear those screams. You nearly took my husband from me. You nearly took a man I abandoned my family and my people for. A man I have suffered to protect and dedicated my heart to. Don't you ever put him at risk again!”
Gedris nodded her head as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. “I'm sorry. I just wanted to help them, and I acted before I thought.” She sighed and shook her head as she chose her next words. “You're right; I am not a warrior. I am a woman who dreams of having a family someday. I want to fight my battles against a stove and a pile of laundry. I want a family to love and care for. I don't want to be hard like you.”
“I see my foolish heart has put you and your mission at risk. I never wanted that to happen, and I am sorry. I promise I won't make a mistake like that again. I will never act without your permission, and I will follow your lead, but please! Don't send me away! I can't hide in the east and pretend this isn't happening. I have to help. Please let me help!”
Ayawa stood strong. “If you can't keep your feelings under control you can't stay with us. I want no repeat of this foolishness!”
“I promise, I will bow to you,” Gedris said.
“From now on you do as I say,” Ayawa affirmed.
Gedris nodded.
Ayawa sighed and turned away. “Get on your horse we need to get away from here. Those men will reach nearby towns and may return with priests of Astikar in the hour.”
Gedris sniffed and walked to where Tavis was waiting with the horses. She saw only the frown on his face as she took the reigns from him.
They rode on in silence following Ayawa as she led them across the grasslands, desperate to avoid the roads. When night finally came, she was grateful for the stop. Her heart was heavy, and she struggled to put her feelings together. She looked at them both as they spoke to one another, and the love they shared was evident.
It was only after they shared a kiss he finally walked over and spoke to her.
“What you did was foolish, but we both understand why,” he said his hat obscuring his eyes.
“You forgive me?” Gedris asked.
Tavis nodded. “Ayawa is a little over protective. She should not have yelled at you like that.”
“No, she is right to be angry. I was stupid,” Gedris admitted.
Tavis finally smiled and nodded his head. “We all make mistakes. Sometimes though, the costs are higher than we intended.”
“Has she always been so hard?” Gedris asked.
Tavis glanced back to where Ayawa was brushing her horse. “No, she was always a warrior, but she wasn't afraid to be gentle and loving like you. She liked dresses and beautiful flowers, and she used to sing.”
“What happened?” Gedris asked.
Tavis took a deep breath. “I told you, we all make mistakes. One day, she made hers, and she has never forgiven herself.” He sighed and looked back at Gedris. “You two have a lot in common.”
Gedris studied his aura as he stood up. The light was a picture of deep sorrow.
“Ayawa is going to take a look at that stream, and I'm going to weave and cast my sight. I will sit with my back to you if you want to change,” he said.
Gedris smiled at his offer. She had a better idea in mind, and now she had the means to put it in motion.
She heard him sigh as he sat down with his back firmly to her across the clearing. She watched as he fell into his weave and projected his sight. Ayawa walked away into the trees with bow in hand scowling.
She didn't bother changing. Instead, she got up and began to walk around the camp, singing a gentle tune and casting her hand over the ground. When she was done she settled in and waited until Ayawa returned.
“The stream is clean. I want you to refill our water in the morning,” she said.
Gedris nodded. “I would like to take a bath and put on a clean dress.”
“We won’t have time to take a bath in the morning,” Ayawa said.
Gedris frowned as she stood up and walked to the horses.
“What are you doing?” Ayawa called.
“I meant I would like to take one now,” Gedris said as she fished her soap and a rag from her saddlebag.
“Don’t go farther than the stream,” Ayawa said firmly.
Gedris nodded again and picked up her dress.
Ayawa shook her head as Gedris walked passed her into the night to find the stream.
Gedris smiled as she walked down the slope and saw the water ahead. She playfully set her dress aside and threw off the rest of her clothes. She took a moment to stretch and throw her hands high before stepping into the water. There was a thought in her mind and she hoped she was right about it. She took her time, slowly bathing as the moonlight illuminated her. There was no rush, no hurry. She just wanted to make sure he had plenty of time.
Back in camp Tavis suddenly choked and flinched but quickly regained his tune as a broad smile spread over his face.