“And if you had to help villagers with a bandit attack?” he persisted.

She laughed. “Give my advice and go for help!” she replied. “Not that anyone would be likely to take the military advice of a dumpy, bookish female who’s half blind, no matter what uniform she was wearing. But riding Aleirian, I’m as fast as any Herald, faster than any other messenger, and once I’m within Mindspeech range of any other Herald, I can relay my information.”

:Another good answer. She’s full of them, isn’t she?:

:She’s full of… something.: He sighed. She wasn’t intimidated by him, not in the least, difficult creature that she was. She didn’t care that he was Alberich of Karse, only half trusted even by the Heralds. “I know all about you from Henrick. And from Geri as well, of course,” she’d said on meeting him, meaning Gerichen, once-Acolyte, now Priest; Geri, who’d become as much of a confidant as Alberich ever made of anyone. Simple sentences, but the way she’d said them had left him wondering just what it was that they’d told her. And later, he wondered what, and how much, she had written down, for she seemed to be always writing everything down in little notebooks. She always had one with her. When she wasn’t writing things, she stared in a way that made him feel she was memorizing everything, so that she could write it down later.

:So how are you going to answer her?: Kantor prompted. :She has a good point; you’re never going to make her into any kind of a fighter. You were just thinking that the first thing that anyone seeing her would go for is those lenses, and then what?:

Then she’d be blind, of course, and utterly helpless. No, she was right, very right, the best thing she could ever do if attacked would be to run away.

Could running be the answer, then?

:It should never be said that Herald Alberich refused to find a better way when one existed,: Kantor said. :Besides, if she can’t fight, they won’t send her to the front lines; they’ll use her to replace a Herald who can fight and send him instead.:

“Put that away,” he said abruptly. “You are right. I would be no kind of Weaponsmaster if I could not match the weapon to the student, not the student to the weapon. And escape might be the answer, however unlikely that weapon might be. Come into the salle, into the sitting room, and we will discuss this.”