They had found the panel. It was over.
Through a veil of tears she watched Jordan examine the panel. It was a complicated work depicting a bed of yellow flowers at the apex of the panel where three winding streams joined paths. “Daffodils,” he said. “I should have known…”
He remembered the story she had told him of the first panel she had made. So many memories, so many ties, and now all to be forgotten, broken.
“I’m sorry, Marianna,” Then he burst out violently, “No, by God, I’m not sorry. I’m glad this damn battle is over. Now, forget about it. Let me worry about the tunnel and Nebrov.”
“I can’t forget about it,” she said. “I’ll never be able to forget about it. I promised my mother, and you’re making me break my word.” She blinked and quickly lowered her eyes to the ground. “You’ve got what you wanted. May I go back into my tent?” Her voice shook. “I don’t want to look or talk to either of you for a very long time.”
He nodded curtly. “Go on.”
She walked heavily into the tent and closed the flap.
It was over.
You’ll have to ask her about this Zavkov,” Gregor said.
“I’ll talk to her after supper. She’s had enough defeats for one day.”
“Yes, she took it very badly.” Gregor looked down at the panel. “Do you think these three streams are branches of the tunnel?”
“I don’t know.” And at the moment he didn’t care. All he could see was Marianna’s drained face in that moment before she had gone into the tent. He thrust the panel at Gregor. “Study it and see if you can make any sense of it. I don’t have the stomach to look at it right now.”
“This is only half the answer to the puzzle. What if she won’t tell us about the Zavkov?”
“I hope she doesn’t. Then I’ll have an excuse for going after Nebrov now instead of later.” He smiled savagely. “Extracting information from that bastard will bring me infinite delight.”
The sun was setting when Jordan strode into the ravin’s tent. He glanced at Alex, who was sitting by his mother’s pallet. “Run along to your sister. She needs you.”
“Marianna?” Alex frowned. “Why?”
“Just go to her.”
Alex looked uncertainly at the ravin. “Will you be able to do without me?”
Ana nodded, her gaze on Jordan’s face. “I will be fine.” She added with irony, “I have my son here to care for me.”
Alex ran out of the tent.
“You’re angry with me,” the ravin said. “I admit I’m puzzled. It’s difficult to commit any heinous acts while lying flat on one’s back.”
“I’m not angry.” He paused. “Marianna needs to have the boy with her. I know you’re ill, but from now on I want you to do without him.”
“Marianna asked you to intercede?” the ravin asked slowly. “Why didn’t she come to me herself?”
“She didn’t ask me. She just said…” Jordan stopped. “Last night after she left you, she took the Jedalar from the wagon and hid it in her tent. This morning I took it away from her.”
“And now you’re filled with guilt and want to give her everything in your power to take away the pain.” She smiled faintly. “We are very much alike. I had a similar reaction quite recently.”
“We’re not alike,” he said. “I don’t run away and leave the people who belong to me.”
She stiffened. “Ah, at last it’s out in the open. No, you run away before they belong to you. That way you never have to risk them leaving you.” She shook her head. “But it doesn’t help, does it? There are always those who slip under your guard. I think this
“Keep the boy away. You don’t need him.”
“Keep him away yourself. Do you think I’m chaining him?”
“Yes, it’s what you do to all of us.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“You keep us all chained to you. Ask Gregor. He’s been at your beck and call since you were children.”
“We’re not talking about Gregor. You said us. You?”
He was silent a moment and then said slowly, “From the time I was a child, they told me I was like you. I thought about you a good deal when I was growing up. I had precious little in common with my dear father.” He smiled crookedly. “Did you know that for a while I actually hated him because I blamed him for driving you to your death?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“It was quite a shock when I found that I had blamed him unjustly. I felt cheated and foolish, and I thought I hated you as much as I did my father. I fought Gregor about coming here, but he made me come anyway.”
“I told him to make you come.”
“Then I met you, and you were exactly what I imagined you to be. All the force and fire and strength. I’m sure you’ll feel very triumphant to know it was you who drew me back here until I came to love Kazan.”
She started to raise a hand as if to reach out to him, but then let it drop when she saw the hardness of his expression. “You didn’t want to tell me this. Why did you?”
“Because I know that you’ve always wanted it from me. Now I’ve given it to you. You don’t need another captive at your chariot wheels. Release the boy and give him back to Marianna.”
“Christ, you do think I’m-” She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them. Her voice was trembling when she spoke. “Marianna knows that she could take the boy, if she wanted to. She chose not to do so.”
“I don’t believe you. She said you had stolen him.”
“Then she had her own reasons for telling an untruth. I wish you would go away and discover them. I believe I’m very tired.”
She was pale and drawn, and for the first time since he had met her he became aware that she was no longer a young woman. He had been filled with frustration that he had been forced to come and bargain with her, and he had deliberately tried to hurt her. She had such strength, he had not thought he would succeed to this extent. “If I’ve been mistaken, I apologize,” he said. “Marianna was upset. Perhaps she said things that-”
“I cannot find Marianna,” Alex said from the entrance to the tent. “Did she go for a ride?”
Jordan stiffened. “She’s not in the camp?”
Alex shook his head.
Jordan turned and moved quickly toward him. “Go find Gregor and tell him to meet me at Marianna’s tent.”
“Her own reasons,” the ravin repeated from behind him. “Gregor said she was not the usual sort of woman. Poor Jordan, and that painful confession for nothing. You put her in a cage, and she refuses to stay there. I’d wager your
“And left Alex? There’s only one thing that would have made her do that.”
“Ah, the tunnel. But you said you had the Jedalar.”
“That’s what she wanted me to think. Christ, she played me for a fool.”
He strode out of the tent.
Gregor was waiting for him when he reached Marianna’s tent. “She is not here. There is a slit in the back where she must have slipped out.”
“Is her horse gone?”
“I have not had time to question the guard. I would assume it is.” He paused. “I did go to the wagon and counted the panels. Three are missing.”
“The one Nebrov destroyed, one to practice her little trick on us, and the real Jedalar. She must have taken two panels from the wagon last night and hidden one outside the tent.”
“And is now on her way with the real Jedalar to get this Zavkov.” Gregor gave a low whistle. “You have to admire the dove. It was well done.”
