"You would command much more at the Imperial City."
I grumbled at him under my breath but really didn't fault him too much. If he'd known I was going to get sick, he probably would've sold me.
He glanced at me, and I saw the sparkle in his eyes.
"You are not funny," I told him.
"I do not try to be, ugly one. I did receive offers, and you would fetch more at the Imperial City. But I do not wish to sell you."
"Because I amuse you? Or was it your honor that demanded a higher price?"
"Honor has no price. You are also beautiful, and you have a good heart, even if you are confused."
I started to respond and then stopped. Did he compliment me or insult me? Or was he being … him and speaking his mind without intent to do either?
"If you decide to sell me, will you tell me in advance?" I asked.
The corners of his lips quirked up in his half smile. "So you can run, lamb?"
I hate that tone. The low growl, the one that told me was pretty serious about sinking his teeth into me, was nothing short of terrifying. "Maybe I'll try to kill you instead. I've seen you chop off enough heads I might be able to do it."
"You cannot skin a rabbit, goddess. How will you harm a man?"
I couldn't. I knew it. He knew it. "You won't sell me, will you? One day I'll be too old to be beautiful and too bitter to make you laugh."
"No, Moonbeam. Even then, I would not sell you."
I couldn't figure this guy out. His teasing was almost too subtle for me to catch it, and his dedication to duty and honor so singularly focused, it didn't seem possible. How did someone obsessed with honor slaughter everyone who came within arm's reach?
"At least you admit I'm not ugly," I said, taking what small victory I could with the perplexing man beside me.
He smiled without responding.
We rode for most of the day. I didn't make it to noon before exhaustion overtook me. It then became a challenge to stay awake, despite the relative discomfort of being on horseback and sweating in the late summer sun.
So entrenched was I in not falling off my horse or dropping into the sleep beckoning me that I didn't notice the city of mushroom tents until we were nearly upon them. Startled at how dulled my senses were, I blinked to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. They were really there. Several hundred tents flanked on three sides by herds of animals. Someone I took to be a guard rode out to us when we were half a mile away.