His eyes lit up from within, and again he laughed, long and heartily, and this time the beasts laughed with him in gravelly growls.
'Darkwind! The son of my dear friend Starblade! What delicious irony. Has Starblade seen you, my dearest?'
She shook her head, baffled by his words.
'What a pity; he'd have been certain to recognize you, as you would recognize him if you saw him.' He laughed again, and she dared a question. Starblade??
'I have seen him, this Starblade?'
'Of course you have, my precious pet. He was my guest here for many days.' Mornelithe's smile deepened, and he licked his lips. 'Many, many days. You dined upon his pet bird, do you not recall? And I gave him the crow to replace it, once he learned his place beneath me.
Nyara's eyes widened, as she remembered the Tayledras Mornelithe had captured and broken; how she had been so jealous of the new captive, who had taken her place, however briefly, in Mornelithe's attentions.
How she had so amused Mornelithe with her jealousy that he had chained her in the corner of his bedroom, like a pet dog, so that she was forced to watch him break the new captive to his will.
And he, the former captive, without a doubt would remember her.
'My little love, if you can contrive a way for Starblade to see you, I should very much be pleased,' Mornelithe said caressingly. 'It would enlarge my vengeance so well, to know that he knew that I had an agent in place on his ground, subverting his beloved son. It would be delicious to know how his mind must burn, and yet he could do and say nothing about it.'
'I do not think I can manage that,' she told him timidly. 'He never leaves the Vale, and I may not go within it.'
'Ah, well,' Mornelithe said, waving the idea aside. 'If you can, it would be well. But if not, I am not going to contrive it at the moment.' His expression grew abstracted for a moment.
She ventured another question. 'Is there something that I should know, my lord?' He looked down at her, and smiled, shaking his head. 'It is no matter.
There are other matters requiring my attention just now, a bit weightier than this. My vengeance has waited long, and it can wait a little longer.' She sighed with relief, thinking that he was finished with her, that he had forgotten about Treyvan and Hydona-Only to have her hopes crushed.
'The gryphons,' he said, suddenly looking down at her again, and piercing her with his eyes. 'Tell me about the gryphons. Everything.' Compelled by his will, she found herself reciting all that she knew about them, in a lifeless, expressionless voice. Their names, the names of their two fledglings; what they looked like, where they nested. Why they had chosen to nest there.
And that there was going to be another mating flight shortly.
He sat straight up at that-and she huddled in on herself, shivering, her teeth chattering, free from his compulsion and sick inside with her own treachery.
She looked up at him, from under her lashes. His eyes were blank, his thoughts turned entirely within. Even his guardian-beasts were quiet, holding their breath, not wanting to chance disturbing him.
Then-he stared down at her, and pointed his finger at her, demandingly, the talon fully extended. 'More!' he barked, his words and will lashing her like barbed whips. 'Tell me more!' But she had nothing more to tell him, and so he punished her, lashing her with his mind, inflicting pain that would leave no outward signs, nor anything that a Healer could read, but whose effects would linger for days.
And the more he hurt her, the more she yearned for him, burned for him, until the pain and desire mingled and became one obscene whole.
She groveled and wept, and did not know whether she wept because of her shame or because of her need.
Finally he released her, and she lay where he left her, panting and spent, but still afire with longing for him.
'Enough,' he said, mildly, softly. 'You will learn more. I will call YOU again, when my other business has been attended to, and you will tell me what you have learned. You will try to ensnare Darkwind, if you can, but you will learn more of the gryphons.'
