Don’t laugh at me.” She threw the gown at his head.
“Ouch.” He pulled the gown from around his face and gingerly touched the scratch on his cheek. “You could have removed the pins.”
“Go away. Go to that hideous old man and walk your dark path. What do I care? I don’t want to see you-”
He was heading for the door. Panic raced through her.
“Wait.” She struggled for words. “You cannot leave with this gown half finished. I won’t-”
“Shh.” He smiled at her, his warm, beautiful smile. “I’m not going to Nasim. I’m going to take a walk in the courtyard. I’ll return before the hour has gone.”
She tried to hide her relief. “It’s nothing to me where you go.”
“My God, you’re stubborn.” He sighed. “Sometimes I wish you were not quite as strong as you are. It would make my lot much easier.”
She didn’t feel strong. She was shaken. He had never spoken to her of his past and his struggles before. Seeing beyond that cool, mocking facade made him seem infinitely closer. She didn’t want him closer. “If you’re going for a walk, do it.” She snatched up the gown again and began to stitch. “Don’t come back tonight. I won’t have you waking me up.”
The night was clear and cool, and a full moon cast a silver luminescence on the gray stones of the courtyard. It was the kind of night Kadar had hated when he had been in training here. It was difficult to move with the deadly invisibility Nasim required on such an evening, and failure was met with swift and brutal punishment. But he had learned; moonlight merely meant adjustments, distractions, and a-
“So she released you from woman’s duties?”
Kadar turned to see Nasim coming toward him. “I released myself.” He wasn’t surprised Nasim knew what transpired behind a closed chamber door. Nasim made it his business to be aware of everything that happened. “I felt in need of air.”
“Why do you let her dishonor you in this way?”
“To learn a new skill is never a dishonor. It may be useful later.”
“You wish to make more gowns for women?” Nasim asked contemptuously as he fell into step with him.
“No, but sewing a gown requires the same skill as stitching a wound.” He glanced at Nasim. “What do you want?”
“Perhaps I also need air.”
“Then you would go to the battlements, as you usually do. I’d wager you saw me down here and decided to join me. Why?”
“I feel you’re wasting my time,” he said bluntly. “You’re here to do me service and you spend your time with that woman, stitching.”
“We’ll discuss service when your messenger arrives. Have you heard from him?”
“No, but we’ll discuss service now. I want your promise.”
Kadar shook his head.
“You’ll give me the service you promised Sinan, and for the same reason.” Nasim smiled maliciously. “If you don’t, you’ll find your friends in Scotland most uncomfortable. I’ll have to decide whether to raze their castle myself or send the Knights Templar to do it for me. Do you doubt I’d do either?”
“No.”
“Then give me your word.”
“You always told me lies were the weapon of a clever man.”
“But it’s one lesson you never learned. You don’t break your word, and I want that chain on you. Give me your word or I’ll send Balkir and a force to Montdhu at dawn.”
The bastard meant it. He had no choice. “Very well, you have my promise to do
“I thought you’d agree.” He smiled. “And I’ve thought of a useful and amusing way for you to serve me while we wait.”
“I promised only one service.”
“Oh, I believe you’ll accommodate me in this.” He gazed up at the sky. “It’s a full moon tonight, a good sign. The soothsayers say a full moon brings fertile earth and good crops.”
“You don’t care about good crops. You make tribute.”
“True. But I’ve become very interested in fertility of late. It comes as a surprise to me.” His gaze remained on the night sky. “Sinan wished you to follow him as master here, you know. We discussed it often. I approved his plan. It would be stimulating to control you as I did Sinan. It would only take a word from me and you’d slide into your place as head of the assassins.”
“It holds no interest for me. It’s too limiting.”
“You lie. But you’re stubborn. You could yet go your own way.”
“You may count on it.”
“I count on nothing that doesn’t please me. Still, I must take precautions. Men do die.”
“No one should know that better than you.”
Nasim chuckled. “Yes, I’ve made a study of death. A master should be able to pass such knowledge on to one worthy. I’ve found no such acolyte but you, Kadar.” His smile faded. “So I’ve decided you shall provide me with another.”
“And how am I to do that?” he asked warily.
“The woman.” Nasim frowned. “Though she’s displeased me by yoking you to needle and thread. It’s an insult to me.”
“It has nothing to do with you. There’s no connection.”
“Everything you do is connected to me. Because I choose it to be so.” He paused. “That’s why you will bring the woman to the tower every night for the next two weeks.”
Kadar went still. “I told you that she was ordinary, beneath you.”
“She must be very ordinary, since you sleep on the floor instead of in her bed.”
“She doesn’t interest me.”
“She interests me. She’s bold, and it’s always exciting to break the bold ones.” He smiled. “But I fear you must develop interest in her. It’s you who will couple with her.”
“Why?”
“I want a child by her. Your child.”
Kadar inhaled sharply. “What madness is this?”
“I cannot sire children. I’ve tried several bitches, but nothing has come of it.” He lifted his chin. “It has nothing to do with my manhood. I’ve decided that, when a man is given special powers to wield, Allah sometimes does not see fit to let him perform as other men. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have what I want. If I cannot have you to mold, I’ll take a substitute.”
“I’ve no desire to get her with child.”
“Ah, yes, she has no interest for you. Still, it will happen.”
Nasim had made up his mind, Kadar realized with frustration, and it was never any use to argue with him when he had made a decision. He would have to try to work around it. “If you wish me to sire a babe, send a whore to the tower room. At least she would have the skill to amuse me.”
“Our whores are lacking in spirit. The foreign woman has the boldness I want.”
“You detest her boldness.”
“In a woman, not in a child she would birth.”
He tried another tactic. “It could be a female child. What would you do then?”
“Kill it. I have no use for bitches. But you would not father females, Kadar. We are too much alike.”
“I don’t
“You will. Remember the tower room, Kadar?”
Kadar’s gaze went to the tower. Yes, he remembered it. The sweet smell of hashish, naked bodies on silk cushions, the ultimate in acts of debauchery. He felt himself hardening, thickening at the memory.
“You see?” Nasim smiled maliciously. “It will happen.”
That was what he feared. “And what will happen if I refuse?”
“Then she will still bear a child, but it will be by one of my men who is far less worthy. In fact, I may have to
