‘Well?’ he asked and had his own opinions confirmed when Huy answered,
‘Drav. No doubt of it.’
‘Carried by the pagans?’
‘Perhaps they were taken from dead Dravs, or stolen.’
‘Perhaps,’ Lannon nodded. He was silent a while longer then he looked up at the young officer. ‘You have done well,’ he said and the lad flushed with pleasure. Lannon turned next to Habbakuk Lal. ‘Can you take us on another night run to Opet?’ And the admiral smiled and nodded.
Lannon and Huy stood together at the stern rail and watched their island merge into the darkness as the galley drew swiftly away, leaving its wake shimmering in the light of the moon.
‘I wonder when we will next return here, Huy,’ Lannon asked softly, and Huy moved restlessly beside him but did not answer. ‘I feel as though I am leaving something behind here. Something valuable which I will never find again,’ Lannon went on. ‘Do you feel it also, Huy?’
‘Perhaps it is our youth, Lannon. Perhaps these last few days were the end of it.’ They were silent then, swaying to the easy motion of the galley under oars. When the island was gone Lannon spoke again.
‘I am sending you to the border, Huy. Be my eyes and ears, old friend.’
‘It is not for long, my heart,’ Huy apologized, although Tanith had said nothing, and was fully engaged in daintily devouring a bunch of purple grapes. ‘I will be back before you know I have gone.’
Tanith pulled a face as though one of the grapes were sour, and Huy studied her face with exasperation. It was serene and lovely and as unyielding as that of the goddess herself.
Huy had come to know all of Tanith’s moods, every expression or tilt of the head that heralded them. He had watched with fascination as she changed from child to full woman, from bud to ripe bloom, and he had studied her with the patience and dedication of love, but this was one mood he had not learned how to distract.
Tanith licked her long tapered thumb and forefinger with the tip of a pink tongue, then examined her hand with interest, twisting it from side to side to catch the light.
‘There is nobody else that the king can trust to send on this mission. It is a matter of grave importance.’
‘I am sure,’ Tanith murmured, still examining her hand. ‘Just as there was no other who could go with him to stick fish.’
‘Now, Tanith,’ Huy explained reasonably. ‘Lannon and I have been companions since our childhood. We used to go out to the islands often in the old days. It was like a pilgrimage to revisit our youths.’
‘While I sit here with a bellyful of your child, alone.’
‘It was but five days,’ Huy pointed out.
‘But five days!’ Tanith mimicked him with her cheeks flushing, signalling the change of her mood from ice to fire. ‘I swear on my love of the goddess, that I do not understand you! You profess your love for me, yet when Lannon Hycanus crooks a finger you run to him, panting like a puppy dog and roll on your back that he may tickle your belly!’
‘Tanith!’ Huy began to grin. ‘I swear you are jealous!’
‘Jealous, it is!’ Tanith cried, and snatched up the fruit bowl. ‘I’ll give you jealous!’ She hurled the bowl, and while it was in flight she was reaching for fresh missiles.
Old Aina, nodding in the sunlight at the end of the terrace, awoke in the midst of the storm and joined Huy in flight. They found shelter behind an angle of the wall, and from there Huy cautiously reconnoitred the field and found it deserted, but he could hear Tanith weeping somewhere in the house.
‘Where is she?’ quavered Aina.
‘In the house,’ answered Huy, combing fruit from his beard and mopping at wine stains on his tunic.
‘What is she doing?’
‘Weeping,’ Huy said.
‘Go to her,’ commanded Aina.
‘And if she attacks me again?’ Huy asked nervously.
‘Spank her,’ instructed Aina. ‘Then kiss her.’ And she gave him a toothless but utterly knowing grin.
‘Forgive me, Holy Father,’ whispered Tanith and her tears were warm and wet upon Huy’s neck. ‘It was childish of me, I know, but every moment I spend away from you is a piece of my life wasted.’
Huy held her, stroking her hair, gentling her, and his chest felt congested and swollen with the strength of his love for her. He was close to tears himself as he listened to her voice.
‘Is it not possible for me to go with you this time?’ She made one last appeal. ‘Please, Holy Father. Please, my love.’
Huy’s response was regretful but firm. ‘No. I go fast and hard, and you are already in your third month.’
She accepted it at last. She sat up on the couch and dried her eyes. Her smile was only a little lopsided as she asked, ‘Won’t you tell me again of the arrangements you have made for the baby?’
She sat beside him, soft and warm, with her pale skin glowing over the faint bulge of her belly and the new heaviness of her breasts m the lamplight. Her eyes were intent as she listened, and she nodded and smiled and exclaimed as Huy told her how it would be - of the foster mother he had selected in the cool and healthy air of the hills, on the estate at Zeng. He told her how the child would grow healthy and strong, and how they would visit it there.
‘It?’ Tanith demanded playfully. ‘Never it, my lord - her!’
‘
