Harlen said. "Yes, and two groups seem to be coming this way." He looked again. "Perhaps thirty in total."
She sighed. "I cannot fight off that many again, betrothed." Said quietly. "It would kill me."
He looked at her a long moment. "I know." He said. "Can you walk farther?"
She nodded, but it had no emphasis to it. "A ways, but not far." She said.
"Then come, we will leave the pass and hide to let you regain your strength." He said, taking her hand and guiding her northward. They explored up high onto the side of the mountain, peering into its crevasses and under its stone-littered sides. Harlen was cautious the whole time to mask the signs of their passing. Finally, he found a small hollow under a large boulder, and they took shelter within. It was barely large enough for the two of them to lie flat and side by side, but neither seemed to mind.
Harlen stacked stones in his best guess of the look of random rubble outside the entrance to mask it from all but the closest scrutiny. They then laid within and rested, and spoke softly, at the times when they were both wakeful.
Hyandai was very concerned that there may be more elves of minds akin to Lotharon's. She did not relish returning the ehladrel to her folk, only to have it again seized by zealots.
Harlen shrugged at that. "I don't see how it can be protected absolutely." He said. "You need it, but are afraid to use it. Not a pleasant dilemma."
She agreed. "The dichotomy of power, I guess." She murmured into his neck. She began kissing his exposed throat.
Touching her bare spine beneath her half top, Harlen smiled and said. "You seem to be recovering your energy. We should probably go in the morning."
She responded to his gentle touch by pressing herself against him more firmly. "Would that I had the energy for a night of love." She said wistfully, kissing his neck again.
Harlen smiled and stroked her hair and back. "I do to." He whispered into her pointed ear.
They both dozed fitfully through the night, and finally the sky began to brighten with the coming of the sun. Before the orb of fire could clear the near horizon, they were moving among the rocks of the pass, keeping to cover as much as they could, and warily scanning the paths before them. Hyandai heard the tread of heavily booted feet first, and pulled Harlen into a small cleft between two stones, turning her back to the outside and flipping up her hood. A group of half a dozen orcs moved past, led by one of the big brutes. They seemed engrossed in discussing what they would do to the human and elf witch if they caught them. What the orcs lacked in imagination, they made up for in cruelty.
After the group had passed out of hearing, the couple slipped onto the path again, and by mid afternoon had reached the top of the steep descent to the valley between the ranges of jagged-edged peaks.
Harlen scanned the valley floor for any sign of motion and found four groups of under a dozen orcs were down there, but none near the pass at the moment. The couple descended as fast as they dared risk, several times falling for a short distance and hurting an arm or leg, but nothing serious. They finally reached the bottom just after full dark, with Hyandai gently guiding Harlen by the arm and whispered verbal directions. She led them from the bottom of the path and out into the broken stone piles and crevasses.
They found a good-looking spot and made camp for the night. The last of their food was used then, and they also emptied their water skins. Harlen said. "We can refill the bottles once out of the mountains, for certain. And I can hunt us some game when we get to the forest."
She nodded as she ate her bread and hard tack. Suddenly, she leapt to her feet, grabbing at the ehladrel with both hands. Her eyes adopted the cold look again, and her face set with determination. Then she was gone, Harlen blinking at her sudden disappearance. He drew his sword out, but did not see far in the moonless overcast sky.
There were sounds in the rocks, the singing of steel on steel then grunts of pain or surprise. A few moments after it started, it stopped. An eerie dead silence fell on the area, and Harlen could hear his own heartbeat. Pounding hard and fast in his chest as he breathed shallow and fast, as well, worried for his lover as much for the danger she represented as that which she was exposing herself too.
A minute or two later, she reappeared near him. "Why did you not say something?" He demanded as he made out her shape nearing him.
"I could not, Harlen." She said. "There was no time, the orcs had to be dealt with." Her eyes were still cold and hard as ice.
He looked at her with wide eyes. She squatted beside him and put the heirloom down. "Please, Harlen, do not hold the actions I take while holding that thing against me." She whispered, with tears in her eyes.
He shrugged. "It seems you elven folk have a lot of times that you can act without wanting to be held accountable." His face showed a bit of anger, and resentment. "Do you never take credit for your own actions?"
She could not meet his eye. "I ask much of you, I know." She said. "But I would not ask for your forgiveness for them if I felt I was not worthy of it." He could see tears running down her cheeks. "I am trying to get both of us out of this alive, betrothed." She said, now looking at him. "For I wish to spend many, many more days with you, and would not have them cut short."
Harlen's expression softened somewhat. "I know, Hyandai." He said. "But I am a grown man, please stop behaving as if I cannot be part of our protection."
She nodded. "I will try." She said. "But, that weapon was crafted before man was forging metals and tilling fields." She looked at him sidelong. "It does not realize that man is a race that stands proud this day, and does not need looking after, as they did in those times."
He tried to think of time in such a scale, but could not; he had no frame of reference. It was widely known that elves had the first real civilization in Feldare, and that they taught many secrets to men who lived lives as little better than animals. That was even in the Book of the One, which called elves the angelis feldaris, or the angels of the land. They were exempted from the Church, unless they sought it out, and were not to be proselytized to, as the Book requires devotees to do to other men, for they were already blessed by the One.
He thought about her words. "I'm sorry, angel." He said, recalling that term from the Book. Then looked at her lovely face, with its tears. "I wish I could stop making you cry." He murmured and kissed her on the forehead.
She smiled. "My fears make me cry, not you." She said, touching his arms. "I fear you ultimately finding me too alien to love." Her eyes were earnest, and she seemed to be examining him in the darkness. "I sometimes feel that I am, that all elves are."
Harlen laughed at that, a bit more loudly than was probably a good idea, given their circumstance, but it raised Hyandai's hopes, nonetheless. "You think yourself too alien to love?" He asked. "I fear you will find that I am not a worthy vessel for yours, being only a human."
They laid upon the blanket, touching each other gently in the darkness. "There is nothing about being a human to be called only, my betrothed." She said. "Despite your short lives, you accomplish, with ease, things that elves spend more than a lifetime of man trying to master." She touched his arm. "Did you know our generals in time of war are often humans?"
He shook his head. "I did not." He said. "Why is that?"
She smiled. "We are horrible strategists." She said, giggling. "We can do fine in small fights, but when it comes to the art of making real war, humans are, without contest, the masters."
Harlen gave a small smile. "A dubious honor, I concede." He looked up at the low-flying clouds.
She said. "Perhaps. But there are other ways in which you of the third race make us nearly livid with envy." She cast her mind back. "Your children, for example, and your ability to live nearly anywhere in Feldare, and thrive. How blessed would be the lives of the elder race if we could dwell, like man, in the hills, and on the plains, and even in the mountains."
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