Gabrielle would agree! Eventually. After a lot of arguing and causing other people headaches with the insistence that there had to be another way. (If she had a dinar for every time she'd said "There has to be another way," she could afford new boots, a horse of her own, and a lifetime's supply of scrolls.)

She couldn't help shivering a bit. "Sorry," she quickly apologized. "That . . . reminded me of something unpleasant."

Dahak wasn't an ancient evil, granted, and Sauron would probably laugh at him, but evil wasn't one of Gabrielle's favorite concepts now. Or ever. But mostly now.

"So you're guardians, in a way," she surmised. "Like a hereditary duty. Do you love your land that much, that you accept it?"