"Let me go. My brother will chop you into little pieces. He'll—"
"Yes, yes, you've said this."
Zared realized that he was toying with her as she struggled against him, as a child and a parent might play. But his hands were roaming over her hips and thighs. With a push she shoved away from him to land back on the cot. She put her chin up and looked at him.
"Take me, but do not sneak up on my brother. I will go with you and be your prisoner if you will not harm my brother. I will… do whatever you want if you will but keep your army from attacking my brothers."
Tearle looked at her a long while, knowing she meant every word she said. For all her boy's hair and clothes, there was a woman underneath, a woman capable of sacrificing all for love.
"I am here to harm no one. Your brother believes I am called Smith and that I have been sent here by Lady Liana."
Zared gaped at him, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. "Liana sent you?" she gasped.
"No, of course not. Eat your food, and I'll tell you all."
"I'll eat nothing a Howard gives me."
"That is your choice, but you will perhaps get hungry, as I am to care for you and your brother for the next three days."
"Care for? A Howard care for a Peregrine? You mean to poison us." She started to get up, but he pushed her down again, and she didn't fight him. "Where is Severn?" she whispered. "If you have harmed him, Rogan will—"
"You are a bloodthirsty wench. I have harmed no one. Your brother is on the fields waiting his turn to knock some fool off his horse."
"As he will knock you down," she said. "You have seen what a Peregrine blade can do," she said, referring to the cut she had given him.
"And it still pains me. You owe me much for that, as well as for saving your brother's name."
"No Peregrine owes a Howard," she said. There was a noise outside, and as Tearle turned to look Zared leaped from the cot and headed for the door. Tearle's foot tripped her, but he caught her before she fell.
"Where are you going?"
"To get my brother. To escape you. To fetch the king. Anyone!"
"If you call your brother and he kills me, an unarmed man, then my brother will attack that heap of stones your brothers own and kill all the Peregrines." Tearle gave her a bored look. "Go. You are free to call your brother. Get my death over with, but please, beg him to use a very sharp sword. I do not wish to die a lingering death."
Zared stood there blinking at him and felt as though she'd lost the war before the first battle. Everything he'd said was true. If Severn did kill the man, it could mean the deaths of all the Peregrines.
Feeling very heavy, she sat down on the edge of the cot. "What do you want?" she whispered. "Why are you here?"
"I have come to help," he said brightly. "From what I had heard of your family, I correctly guessed you would come to the tournament in rags."
"We do not wear rags," Zared said indignantly.
He curled his upper lip as he looked at her worn and greasy tunic. "Rags," he repeated. "Days ago I sent one of my men to my brother to fetch clothing. I regretted he did not return in time to prevent this morn's disaster, but now your brother wears more suitable clothing."
Zared was beginning to recover from the shock of waking to find a Howard bent over her. She went to the tent doorway and looked out. Standing near the lists was her brother, and he was wearing a black tunic over his armor. She could not be sure from a distance, but it looked to be embroidered in gold.
"My brother," Zared spoke slowly and evenly. "My brother is wearing clothing given him by a Howard?"
"Yes, but he doesn't know that. He believes it comes from his lovely sister-in-law."
Zared sat down again. "Tell me all," she whispered.
"After you made a fool, an ass, a laughingstock of yourself yesterday over that colorless, weak, simpering Colbrand, I—"
"When I want a Howard's opinion, I will ask for it. Tell me what treachery you have done."
"Treachery? I? I have been kind and generous while your Colbrand— All right, I will tell you. After you lost your senses I came to your rescue and took you from that spineless—"