Despite her nerves and confusion, Lirael could at least tell that if he'd wanted to shoot her, he could have. She lowered the bell a trifle, but that didn't mean she trusted whoever this was. In fact, she was still pretty wary. That wariness was all that kept her able to speak-- that, and the distraction of a battle above that made her think it was probably more important to ask questions than to stammer.

"Who are you?" she asked, a little less forcefully, but not a lot. "What are you doing here? Did you bring me to this... this place?" He was the first person she'd really seen, after all, since she'd landed facing away from the group that's now well back in the trees, and just kept running.