Page 34 of Warrior’s Mate

"Not with Elder Sava in that chair."

"I can carry him."

"You can carry one person. There are twenty-three elders in this group."

His frustration sharpened, and Maelis finally understood its shape. Kaiven's mind fixed on the person directly in front of him and asked how to save them; hers followed the whole stream and asked how to keep everyone moving.

Neither instinct was wrong. The danger was believing only one counted. She stepped close enough that no one else would hear.

"Don't solve the wrong problem."

His eyes narrowed.

"I'm not."

"You are. You're looking at Sava because you can lift him. I'm looking at the road because if the road stops, one hundred and forty people stop with him."

Kaiven glanced toward the slow-moving column. Then he nodded.

"What do you need?"

"Two people to the rear to keep families from bunching. One scout ahead. And get me a functioning lift cell for that chair before the next incline."

He issued the orders without argument. Maelis watched him for a fraction of a second before returning to the route display, unsettled by how much his willingness to change affected her.

The solmatu recognition had been a shock, an intrusion into a relationship she had not even admitted was becoming personal. Watching Kaiven revise his behavior because she had shown him a better way reached someplace deeper. Biology could identify a possibility; character had to prove what he would do with it.

A distant detonation shook fruit from the trees. People flinched.

"Keep moving," Maelis called. "Storage complex is less than two kilometers."

A little boy looked up at his mother.

"Are we going home tonight?"

The woman did not answer. Maelis looked away. Her wrist unit vibrated with incoming local traffic.

SOUTH FARM CLUSTER 17: REQUEST ROUTE. EAST ACCESS BLOCKED. 63 PERSONS.

She answered with a path through irrigation maintenance. Another message.

MEDICAL RESIDENCE TRANSPORT STALLED. 41 RESIDENTS + 8 STAFF.

She routed a grain crawler to them. Another.

ORCHARD SCHOOL GROUP SPLIT. 22 CHILDREN AT PACKING SHED 4.

Maelis stopped walking.

"Kaiven."

He was beside her immediately.

"Children."

She showed him.

"Distance?"