To Stand Beside Her (18 page)

“
Nalick
loves you,” Kay said to her friend.
Leila stopped reaching for the spoons.
Shivers tingl
ed at her back even
though
she was not cold. It was strange to hear the words said aloud.

“I know,” Leila did not turn around
to respond
to her friend.
“I can see it in his face.”
Leila felt a mix of emotions for Nalick.

Kay patted Leila shoulder as she reached for the spoons.
“You know it is acceptable for you to fall in love again
;
i
t has been
two
years
already
.”

Leila nodded without turning around.
“I’ll be up in a minute,”
Leila
told Kay
,
who left her alone.
Leila wiped the tears that were forming in her eyes.
It had been
two
years since Roger’s oldest son Erich died.
The loss had been devastating.
Erich was not just Leila’s partner
;
he was her future husband.

Leila walked over to the table in the dimly lit room and sat down upon it.
She rested against the shelves and looked at the opening in the ceiling across the room above the stairs.
Leila
could hear the voices of her friends outside laughing
.
Can I
really fall in love again?
T
here was no one else in the world that was as perfect for her
as Erich
was
.
He understood her and her need to run free.
He never tried to stop her and instead just followed and helped her accomplish anything she tried.
He had been her support over the years and had never wavered.
Leila
admired every quality of his and could never imagine a world without him.
When
Erich
died,
Leila’s
world had been shattered.
She
c
ould never depend on another person,
and
she would
eventually
grow strong enough to support herself.

“Are you going to join us any time soon?”
Kay
asked
down the opening
.

Leila quietly stood and walked back to the staircase.
She looked around the room.
Nothing had changed over the years.

Can I really change
?
she asked
herself
.

Leila took the bowl and sat near the men outside around the fire.
Nalick nodded his head to her
while
question
ing
with his eyes.

“Can it get any colder?” Theo asked
while
grabbing his jacket and putting it on.

“You sleep outside in this weather?” Macarius asked Leila.
She laughed nodd
ing
.

“Well, don’t get use to this,”
Leila
watched as they both looked relieved.
“It is even cold
er
where I am taking you tomorrow.”
Both men were disappointed.
Everyone moved to go to bed
, but Leila did not join them.
“I am going to make a check of the area,
just
to be safe,” she said.
Kay understood.
Though she was in the company of three men that would lay down their lives to protect her, Leila still did not feel safe enough to truly rest.

Leila did not object as
Nalick
followed her to the entrance of the camp.
He carefully
stepped
behind her
in her exact steps
.
Every now and then,
Leila
would stop and check traps that were set.
After she seemed satisfied, instead of turning and going into the camp she continued to walk.
Nalick trailed in silence.
He
was surprised as he
followed her to a lake
.
Near the edge was not sand as most shores are, but large boulders.
E
vergreen trees
surrounded the lake
and across the way in the distance
,
were the mountains that Leila called home.
In the moonlight Nalick could see
that
the tips of the mountains were covered with snow.
Leila carefully climbed from one rock to the next until she stopped and sat down.
Nalick joined her.
Together they sat ten feet from the shoreline surrounded by the water as the wind gently blew against the rocks.
From their seats they could see the mountains and the stars that lined the sky.
Leila
lay
down and looked up into the sky.

“You know even though it is warmer in Lexia, the stars still
look the same,” she said to him.
Nalick shivered at the coolness of the rock beneath him.
H
is life had been very busy
,
and he could not remember the last time he
just
sat and just looked at the sky.

“I told Kay that if you want to stay here you can,” Nalick said
,
but Leila did not respond.
“I really do mean it.
I know you made a deal with me, but if you are happier to stay here, then I would be willing to break the deal.”
Leila still didn’t respond.

“If I asked you do you miss your home when you are far away, how would you reply?” she asked him.

Nalick thought for a moment.
“Do I miss the people that live where I call home, or the place itself?”
He asked for clarification.

Leila laughed quietly.
So he did understand the question
, she thought.
Exactly how I would reply
.
Leila thought for a moment
before sitting up
and t
aking
his hand into her own.

“I will be returning to Lexia with you.
See
,
I will always miss the people at home like my mother and father, but not so much the place.
It stopped being home when I started my runs as a courier.
I discovered the world.
In fact this is more like home to me, outside in the fresh air where you can feel the breeze in your face,” Nalick was relieved.
I
n his heart he didn’t
really
want to let her go.
Suddenly Leila
stopped talking and looked around the lake
.
Startled
,
Nalick tried to look around the lake in the dim light.
Leila sighed.
“Wait here, I will be right back.”

Carefully
,
Leila climbed back between the rocks until she was on the land around the lake.
Not wanting to leave Nalick’s view she waited for the approaching man to come to her.
Nalick watched intently as Leila waited.
Slowly the man approached and stopped within feet of Leila.

“It’s good to see you are ok
ay
,” Roger said to Leila
,
unsure if she was mad at him or not.

Leila walked over and gave him a hug.
“Did you have any doubts?
I have been in far worse situations before.
Look,” she said spinning in a circle, “no cuts for you to fix up.”
The older man chuckled and hugged the
much
younger girl again.

“So that’s him?” Roger asked nodding his head towards Nalick.

“Yes,” Leila replied.

“
And
you will be staying in Lexia for the time being?”
Roger
asked

“Yes,” she responded again.
Roger
probably knew of her agreement with Nalick only moments after she said yes.

“
H
e has told you about the deal,” Roger guessed.
Leila nodded her head.

Leila walked over to the nearest boulder and leaned against it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“First
,
I was afraid you would not come back if you felt I had betrayed Erich
,
and then after you started to take all the hard missions
,
I felt if I told you, you would go do something stupid,” Roger shook his head.
“I should have told you, but I just didn’t know how.
All I wanted to do was protect you.”
Leila nodded.
“I brought you supplies,” Roger said
,
handing Leila a bag.
“Everything should be in there that you will need for now.
I have runners near or in Lexia weekly, so if you need anything else, just contact one of them.”

Leila took the bag.
“How long have you known
he was looking for me
?” she asked him.

Roger smiled.
Leila was the best courier he had ever trained, and he had known from the day he met her
that
she was not meant to stay in the
North Country
.
As they stood in the darkness, the moonlight on her face showed Roger she still had the same all
-
knowing eyes
as the first time they met
, wise beyond her years.
She was smart and resourceful.
Often times
,
her stubbornness and quick tongue got her into trouble, but her dedication to excel at everything made her worth the extra effort that was needed to keep an eye on her.
It was hard for Roger to look at the woman before him and not think of her as the young girl she once was.

Roger sat beside Leila
,
“I got a report after your last trip from Dria that he had changed his mind on the deal we had.
After you got hurt the last time, I was actually relieved that I could take you off assignments all together and then would not have to explain to you why you couldn’t go to Lior.
But
,
as always, I couldn’t keep you from doing what you wanted to do.”

Leila patted Roger on the shoulder.
Roger had always cared for her like a daughter.
When she was hurt, he always was there to fix her up.
When she wanted to learn a new technique, he would spend hours watching over her until she got it correct.
When his oldest son asked her to marry him, Roger was just as happy as Erich that she said yes.

“But I thought my stubbornness
is
my best trait,”
Leila
joked.

Roger laughed.
“I don’t know about the best, but strongest trait I would agree.”

“Would you like to meet him?” she asked nodding her head towards Nalick who was sitting patiently.

“Not tonight.
I just wanted to stop by and drop off your pack so that you could check it over before you left in the morning, in case I forgot anything.”
Roger stood and hugged her again.
“You will make a great queen,” he said as he slowly made his way back into the woods.

Leila climbed back onto the rocks that Nalick was sitting on.
She was relieved that Roger was not mad at her for her decision to stay in Lexia.
Nalick stood as she near
ed
him.
As Leila was about to climb up on the boulder Nalick was standing on, he easily picked her up and moved her onto the same boulder as him.
Again her heart raced at his touch
,
and she tried to keep her tone casual.

“Just Roger,”
Leila
said
,
sitting back down on the edge of the rock.
Her feet dangled several feet above the water.
“He wanted to drop off my pack,” she patted the bag hanging from her shoulder.
Nalick looked worried.
“It is full of medicines and herb
s
,” she explained.
“I kind of got my
self in a little trouble the last assignment.”

“What kind of trouble?” Nalick wondered.

“The kind you don’t exactly heal overnight from
.
” Leila shook her head
,
“
i
t was a stupid mistake.
Actually just a little miscalculation.
I am sure Roger will want to check it over before I leave tomorrow
to make sure everything is healing correctly
.”