I thought in aDwD that "leal" was just yet another Kindle OCR mess-up for "loyal" until I found out it actually really is a word - an old English word for "loyal"! Goes to show... something, I guess! :)
That's why I really like reading with the Kindle app. The dictionary is only a tap away. I'm now in the habit of looking up every word I don't know.
Also, leal means loyal in spanish, that's how I knew, when I was reading that book :)