"My name is Barbara Loring. I heard that you Vogarians had demanded that we agree to surrender. I came down from the hills to disagree."
"Is a resistance force meeting here?"
"Do you think you could make me tell you?"
"There are ways—but I'm not here to use them. I am not your enemy."
A little of the hostility faded from her face and she asked, "But how could a Vogarian ever not be our enemy?"
He could find no satisfactory answer to the question.
"I can tell you this," she said. "I know of no resistance organization. I can also tell you that we're not the race of cowards you think and we'll fight the instant Father Brenn gives the word."
"For one who speaks respectfully of Brenn," he said, "your recent words and actions weren't very religious and refined."
Fire flashed in the green eyes again. "Up in the Azure Mountains, where I come from, we're not very refined and we like being that way!"
"And why do you carry guns?" he asked.