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"This is our last campaign."
    "Really? What will you do next?"
    "Epor wishes to work with the herds. I'd thought of being thea to little ones." She twisted about in the saddle to give me a sly look. "Perhaps thea to your babes."
    My face flushed again. "I'm not pregnant, Isdra."
    She chuckled. "You're young, Lara. Keir is virile. There'll be babes."
    I bit my lip, suddenly angry. Had she slept with Keir? I tried to push that little thought out of my head. Their ways were different, and I knew that Keir had probably been… active. But the thought of him with another woman burned in the back of my head.
    "As to that," Isdra continued. "We need to make sure you understand our language completely, lest there be errors made. There are many words for 'sleeping' in our language.
    Let us go through them, starting with—" she broke off her words and looked to her right.
    I turned as well, to see Keir riding off to the side. Dressed in his armor, his two sword hilts jutting over his shoulders, he looked every inch the Warlord. It lifted my heart to see his dark hair and those bright blue eyes that had captured my love the first time I saw him. Even covered in dust, and with a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead, he looked wonderful.
    Keir rode a bit closer, with an apologetic expression. "If I can break the bells, I'd ask for the Warprize, Isdra."
    She nodded, and removed the bells from the horse's mane. My rescuer rode closer, and swept me into his saddle, much to my great relief.
    Keir took me in front of him, sideways across the saddle. As I settled in place, he claimed a kiss, a kiss that spoke of hunger, desire and our separation. Any fears that I had of his feelings for me were swept away by the heat that flashed through my body. I understood exactly what Isdra meant by 'fire of my heart'.
    He broke the kiss off, and smiled ruefully at my flushed face. "Hold on, Warprize."
    As I put my arm around his neck, he urged the horse into a trot, away from the main body of the army. When my normal bodyguards made as if to follow, he waved them off. As he guided the horse, it gave me a chance to study the face of the man who had my heart. It hadn't taken me long to learn that the Warlord of the Plains, the feared Cat, Ravager and Destroyer had an odd sense of the ridiculous. Sometimes when Keir was being stern, he was laughing deep within. This was one of those times, for he had the oddest look on his face, the look he gets when he finds something funny but doesn't want to show it. I looked at him closely. "What amuses you so?"
    "Look behind us."
    Puzzled, I pulled myself up, looked over his shoulder, and gaped in surprise. Every warrior had a clump of bloodmoss somewhere on his or her person, their hair, their cloaks, their horses.
    Gils had spread the word well. They had all gathered bloodmoss. I choked back a laugh.
    "Now why do I think that you might have something to do with that." Keir's voice was solemn, but humor danced in his eyes. I couldn't help it. I laughed right out loud.
    Keir held me tight, allowing his grin to escape. "Care to tell me why all my warriors have weeds adorning their persons?"
    "It's bloodmoss. An herb."
    "I gathered that." Keir replied, this time in Xyian.
    I rolled my eyes and laughed again. Keir's command of my language was much better than my understanding of his.
    Keir continued, mock growling at me. "It's hard for my ravening hordes to strike terror in the hearts of the enemy when they are adorned in weeds."
    "It's very useful."
    "How so?"
    I explained, talking about its usage and offering to cut myself to show him how it worked. That brought a bellow of laughter from him, even as he declined my offer. I didn't pay much attention to our direction until Keir brought the horse to a stop. "Let's hope that you don't need that much bloodmoss anytime soon."
    We'd ridden a ways off from the army, to a large clump of alders, their branches thick with small leaves just starting to turn yellow. A warrior held