The Girl and the Guardian

  Shelley watched from the island in mingled joy and anguish as Quickblade disappeared. It was her first real kiss, and she did not know if she would ever be the same, or begin to turn into a woman on the spot, but she did not care. At last she rowed across and joined Korman, and they went back to the cave, where Korman had lit a fire and cooked some pan-bread. He did not try to talk to her. He saw that she was too happy for speech or questions.

  Then, in between long periods of smiling and staring into space, Shelley told Korman she was now more determined than ever to go with him to Ürak Tara and be initiated. Now there was a sacred pact with Quickblade, which she would never break: to meet him at Ürak Tara. She would do it all for love, and meet up with him on the other side, somehow, though all the mindwebs and thorn thickets of the Aghmaath lay between them. ‘He’ll break through the thorn blockade somehow, I know, and ride to Ürak Tara in triumph,’ she said.

  Korman smiled, and listened, and kept his misgivings to himself.