D spent the next few days of travel cursing that slip-up. He'd been calling her 'woman' intentionally, for the same purpose of distancing himself from her as caused him to address Donder and Dragos only as 'you': he no more wanted to be a 'part' of their group than he wanted to join a circus (most days, the latter seemed the more sane of the two). Calling her by name was just another indicator that he'd been talking to her too much, had grown too familiar, a fact he daily tried to ignore.

It wasn't really like him, which was the most disturbing aspect of it. He had never before desired to have frequent, or even occasional, conversations with another person. And, in fact, that taciturnity was what had forced him to speak to Lissandra in the first place. She was the only one of the leaders who seemed a logical choice if he had to deal with one of them--Dragos, obviously, was out of the question, as D had no patience for him, and neither Donder nor Toirasci had the authority of the other two and answered to one of them anyway.

But, somehow, that simple once-in-a-while briefing with her became more and more frequent and started involving long, drawn out tête-à-tête. Whether she sought him out or if it were the other way around, it seemed not a day went by when the two of them did not manage to have some sort of talk or debate, usually ending with D fuming in Lissandra's triumphant wake.

Even now, while they were traveling across barren country, heading for the Adrietti Pass, they would end up riding their horses side-by-side, Lissandra goading him into a cyclical discussion (she was expert at this), or sitting her saddle quietly as she waited for him to speak (and he always would), or even talking to Left Hand. The parasite found this confusing, even annoying, but as the days wore on became, it seemed, more and more attached to the only other being capable of matching his sharp tongue. D did not understand her patience when it came to the dour parasite's incessant banter and pointless ranting, and occasionally would pull on his left glove right in the middle of one of their conversations just to quiet them both. Otherwise, their strange woman-to-hand exchanges could carry on from sunup to sundown.

But, whenever D could get a word in edgewise around his garrulous freeloader, he found Lissandra's icy mien did not compel her totally to silence or terse dialogue. She had an uncanny ability to strike his interest in sometimes completely uninteresting topics, though there were far more interesting ones that they covered as well. Speaking with her was, D thought, a lot like speaking with himself, her opinions and character very like his own. She was more prone to bitterness than he, and he not as capable of expressing his thoughts in words, owing to centuries of isolation from any companion other than Left Hand, but mostly their thoughts seemed always to flow in the same way and at the same speed.

And so, strangely enough, D found himself growing used to another person's continuous presence, something he thought would never happen to him.

Though he was very careful always to call her 'woman' from then on. And, he noticed, she'd gone back to calling him 'lord.'

Good enough.

------------

Though not so, apparently, for Left Hand. The parasite was becoming, frankly, intolerable of late. Admittedly, not much different from his usual state of being, but his intentional prodding of his host now centered on a slightly more bothersome subject.

One night, about a day's travel from the mouth of the Adrietti Pass, D lay on the hard, cold ground, unable to sleep, when Left Hand's raspy voice suddenly broke his brooding silence.

"Something bothering you, D?"

The hunter did not reply.

"Ahhh…something's wrong. I can always tell with you."

D closed his eyes resolutely and forced his mind blank so that the parasite could not see that he'd been mulling over that day's conversation with Lissandra.

"It's the woman, isn't it?"

D kept his face still, though he gritted his teeth in perturbation.

"I knew it! What is with you two, anyway?"

"Why do you insist upon dragging up this pointless theory? I've told you, there is nothing "with" us. I talk to her because she is my superior and the only other member of this team worth talking to."

D felt the parasite writhe and force his hand, which lay across his chest, up a fraction to eye the hunter's impassive visage. Too late, D realized what he'd said.

"Other member! Now we're a member, are we?"

D flattened his palm back out, muffling Left Hand's mutterings, and for a moment, D thought he'd won, but then the old, croaking tones were echoing in his head.

What next, going to marry into the family? Can't possibly waste any more time that way than you do with her already...

Parasite, I have told you countless times to leave this alone and leave me be. You are seeing a bond where none exists.

Then why are you still awake?

Silence for a long instant. Then, D thought simply I was only thinking about the things the woman told me today, about the rogue Barbarois in the Adrietti Pass.

I didn't hear her say anything about rogue Barbarois! You're lying.

I am not. You can ask her yourself. Several pockets of them, certainly, and rumors of an entire Barbarois village somewhere near the other end of the Gorge.

A...a whole village of those nasty, bloodthirsty...violent...

And the parasite apparently had nothing else to say, for he fell abruptly mute, leaving D to his thoughts and, eventually, to the velvet black of sleep.