"I feel so free!" Gillian exclaimed, as they rode over the bridge out of town. She looked up at the mountains, silver in the late-morning sun, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of fresh, spring-scented air.
"We cross this bridge almost every day. Look," Argis said, pointing to the creek bank. "You picked nirnroot from this very spot just last night. You're wearing armor. That means work, you know."
"I know, stop trying to steal my joy," she laughed. "It's the principle of the thing. We're on the way out of town, so…it's different. And since the Forsworn episode, we always wear leather armor. No big deal. And hey, no helmet!" They rode in silence for awhile, the only noise the rushing river, waterfalls, and wind whistling through the mountain passes above. Every so often, bees buzzed across the path, and once, a family of foxes darted around the rocks at the base of the hills. She thought about what awaited her in Whiterun. What if Eorlund was involved? He'd been like a respected uncle to her for so long, she couldn't imagine him associated with something so despicable. But like Aela said, deeply-held beliefs made people do crazy things. She was also nervous about keeping up pretenses with Vilkas; they'd faked an explosive, public argument before she left, but if he didn't expect her…
She was so deep in thought, she didn't notice her horse had started veering off the road for a snack of thistles growing in a small, grassy patch a few feet away. "Hey, watch out," Argis said, reaching out to snag her reins and gently guide the horse back on the path. "Well, since we're pretty far out of town, can we have that talk we were going to have anyway, today? I still have questions."
"I know," Gillian said with a sigh. She had questions, too. "What do you want to know first?"
"Ah…ok. Not really the most important, but the most intriguing: why does Aela wear your face in the Keep, and how did she learn that trick in the first place?"
"Aela's cover at the Keep is as Calcelmo's new assistant or intern or whatever. She works for him, for very little pay. Maybe no pay. Not sure, doesn't matter. Last night, I went to the Keep to give her an alibi. I've done it a few times. If someone sees her where she's not supposed to be, or thinks she had a hand in something…troubling, there's always a guard or two who can say it wasn't her, she was at work all night. Or in bed all night."
Argis nodded, "makes sense. But has no one mentioned how much you and she look alike?"
"It's never come up; no one's caught her yet. We've never been in the same place at the same time, and people tend to see what they expect to see. How she learned to change her appearance is a long story, but the short version is, she studied with some insane illusionist in Riften. Down in the Ratway. It's also where she got that gray mask that must have a killer chameleon enchantment. I'm not sure, she never lets it out of her sight. She had a slight…conflict of identity several years ago, before the final fight with Alduin, and took a couple of years to study magic, primarily illusion magic. She's incredible." She looked over at him. "Next?"
Argis thought for a few minutes as they passed by a roadside shrine to Dibella. He hoped it was a good omen for their travels, since they were doing Dibella's bidding. After taking a moment to ask the goddess's blessing, he turned to Gillian and finally asked what troubled him the most. "Why become a Thane, if you didn't want to stay in Markarth? You could have torn that mine apart with all your power. Why the secrecy and intrigue?"
Gillian was silent for a moment. After last night, things had...shifted between them, and she felt horrible at having deceived him. Well, she thought, nothing for it but to tell the truth and let him in, if he wanted in. "Farkas wanted to blow up the mine. That was his first thought, you know, if the mine's gone, problem solved." She looked up at a towering waterfall to her right and a hawk circling overhead. "And maybe I could have done it, but what about the prisoners, the workers, the people forced inside? Most of my power, as you found out last week, isn't precise. I can't pinpoint it, and I wasn't willing to kill innocent people if there was another way."
She paused and took a drink from her waterskin. "Not to mention possibly destabilizing the entire city. Once blowing up the mine was off the table, we didn't know how far up the conspiracy went, and we weren't sure how easy it would be for Aela to move unhindered in the Keep. So... me, as a contingency. But mainly, I serve as one big distraction. You've noticed our house has become sort of a landmark, right? Residence of the Dovahkiin," she said, in a singsong voice. "That's one of the reasons I like Whiterun so much. Everyone knew me when I was just a Jorrvaskr whelp, and we kept the dragonborn thing a secret for so long, I was…anonymous. Even now, people really don't care." Gillian smiled at Argis's raised eyebrows. "But in Markarth, I'm sort of a circus act. I was pretty sure the jarl and everyone on his council, Silver-Bloods included, would be suspicious of me, and wonder if I had ulterior motives, if I was a spy, etc." Gillian laughed and pointed at Argis's face as his smile faltered and he shifted in his saddle. "Ha! I'm right! The jarl asked you to watch me, right? See, it worked. We figured if they were busy thinking I was some sort of spy or saboteur, they wouldn't think too much about the mage's assistant."
"You're right," he admitted, "but I'll have you know I did no such thing. Like I said, unless you're trying to assassinate someone, your security is my only business."
Gillian hoped Argis would say something else: that he understood, that he didn't blame her, that he…what did she expect, she asked herself. A hand on her back didn't equal a declaration of undying love and an amulet of Mara. Even if it had been her lower back, and there had been an ever-so-slight caress involved, before that fun-ruiner, Aela, brought his attention to it. They rode in silence for another hour before he finally spoke again.
"Want to stop for a break? There's a short path off to the right, up here, and we can pull off the road."
"Sounds good," Gillian moaned. "If I don't get down and walk for a bit, I might never be able to again. I'm not used to riding anymore." They nudged the horses to a canter, and a few minutes later, stopped at a fork in the road, one path headed downhill and heavily wooded. "What's down here?"
"Nothing much, just a hunters' camp. We're close to Lake Ilinalta, so lots of wildlife here," Argis said, dismounting and leading the horses to a patch of grass and thistles.
"Oh, are we in Falkreath? I heard the jarl here is a bit of a prick."
Argis laughed. "He is indeed. He's more concerned with town intrigue, though, than what goes on in the wilds, so most of the Hold just lets him be."
They took turns walking down the path to take care of business and stretch their legs, and then sat down on a large, flat rock to bask in the late-afternoon sun and have a drink and a snack. The rock was big enough for them both, and Gillian felt like a housecat as she stretched her arms over her head, and closed her eyes. Argis leaned back on his hands and turned to watch her, heavily conscious of the scant inches separating his body from hers. If Aela was right…he imagined the potential scenarios that a stolen kiss could precede, and decided to take the risk. He turned on his side and started to lean over, but as he moved closer, he saw a flash of movement in the woods.
Acting on instinct, he moved into a crouch and jumped over Gillian, his sword out, as three sabre cats rushed out of the woods. The horses shrieked and pulled at their ties. Gillian had fallen asleep on the rock for a few minutes, just enough to make her groggy and thick-headed as she sat up, her heart racing as she Shouted a sloppy, incomplete fire breath at two of the cats on the left side of the rock.
Argis hacked and slashed at the burning and yowling cats, trying to ignore the ice spikes Gillian threw in between his swings. Between ice, fire, and steel, the cats finally died, but not before he ended up with slashes on his bicep, forearms, and inner thighs, and was losing more blood than he'd like. He started to hobble over to the calmed horses to get a healing potion from the packs, but Gillian called him over, a golden glow pulsing in her hands. No self-respecting Nord wanted to admit it, but Argis loved healing spells. He limped over and sat down on the rock beside her, and she wrapped his arms and legs in soft, warm light that sank under his skin and took all the pain away, leaving small red lines where the gashes used to be.
He wiped some of the blood and sweat off his face and looked up at her. "That…that felt really good. Thank you."
She drew in a deep breath and exhaled hard through her nose, throwing one arm around him and pulling his forehead to hers, softly sobbing. "No, thank you. I should have been watching. What was I thinking of, falling asleep out here? You could have…I…" She couldn't believe how close they'd come to being mauled by three apex predators. If Argis had fallen asleep… "How did you see them?"
He wiped away her tears, and looked down at the other hand she held clenched in her lap. He took it in his hands and kissed it, still dedicated to taking that risk. "I was watching you rest and saw them move out of the corner of my eye. I was actually debating whether or not to kiss you, so I guess-"
Gillian moved her hand from his back to his jaw, and quickly pressed her lips to his. Argis pulled her close, ignoring the pains in his healing arm as he returned her kiss, gently and carefully, his heart pounding in his chest as the kiss deepened. Their mouths opened a little, tongues brushing each other's lips for the smallest second. He pulled back slowly, capturing her lower lip for a moment before they broke apart. "I've wanted to do that since you said that ridiculous thing about me being 'as whole as the next man.' I saw myself rushing to you and kissing you senseless, but instead I fell on that rock, laughing." He smiled and kissed her once more. "Let's go. I want to get to Riverwood before the rest of the predators come out."
Gillian let him pull her up, then drew him into a tight side hug, her head resting on his shoulder as they walked back to the horses. "Too bad Ilinalta's full of slaughterfish," he said. "I could do with a bath."