'Yes,' she whispered.
'You will return here to me when I call you.'
'Yes,' she sobbed.
'You will remember that my reach is long. I can punish you even in the heart of the k'sheyna Vale if I choose. Starblade has put my stamp on their Heartstone, and I can reach within at my will.' His eyes glittered, and he licked his lips, slowly, deliberately.
'Yes.
'Do not think to truly escape me. I created you, flesh of my flesh, my dearest daughter, and I can destroy you as easily as I created you.' He reached down and ran a talon along her chin, lifting her eyes to meet his, and in spite of herself, she thrilled to his touch.
She said nothing; she only looked helplessly into his eyes, his glittering, cold, cruel eyes.
Should you try to hide, should you reach k'sheyna Vale I will call you even from there. And when you come to me, you will find that what you have enjoyed at my hands will be paradise, compared to what I deal you then.' He held her in the ice of his gaze. 'You do understand, don't you, my dear daughter?' She wept, silent tears running down her cheeks, and making the mage-light above his head waver and dance-but she answered him. Oh, yes, she answered him.
'Yes, Father.
'And what else?' he asked, as he always asked. 'What does my daughter have to tell her doting father?' And she answered, as she always answered.
I-I-I-love you, Father. I love you, Father. I love and serve only you.' And her tears poured down her cheeks as she repeated it until he was satisfied.
*Chapter Fourteen ELSPETH
Kata'shin'a'in was a city of tents.
At least that was the way it looked to Elspeth as she and Skif approached it. They had watched it grow in the distance, and she had wondered at first what it was that was so very odd about it; it looked wrong somehow, as if something about it was so wildly different from any other city she had ever seen, that her mind would not accept it.
Then she realized what it was that bothered her; the colors. The city was nothing but a mass of tiny, brightly-colored dots. She could not imagine what could be causing that effect-was every roof in the city painted a different color? And why would anyone do something as odd as that? Why paint roofs at all? What was the point?
As they neared, the dots resolved themselves into flat conical shapes which again seemed very strange.
Brightly colored, conical roofs? What kind of odd building would have a conical roof?
Then she realized: they weren't buildings at all, those were tents she was looking at. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tents.
Now she understood why Quenten had said that Kata'shin'a'in 'dried up and blew away' in the winter. Somewhere amidst all that colored canvas there must be a core city, with solid buildings, and presumably inns and caravansaries.
But most of the city was made up of the tents of merchants, and when trading season was over, the merchants departed, leaving behind nothing at all.
She glanced over at Skif, who was eyeing the city with a frown.
'What's the matter?' she asked.
'Just how are we ever going to find the Tale'sedrin in there?' he grumbled. 'Look at that! There's no kind of organization at all-'
'That we can see,' she interrupted. 'Believe me, there's organization in there, and once we find an inn, we'll find someone to explain it to us.
If there wasn't any way of organizing things, no one would ever get any business done, they'd be spending all their time running around trying to find each other. And when in your entire life have you ever known a successful disorganized trader?' His frown faded. 'You have a point,' he admitted.
