I grinned. 'Not a very good effort at sounding angry, bascha. Want to try again?'
An answering if drowsy smile curved her lips. She reached out a hand. 'You won the dance.'
I met her hand with my own. 'I won the dance.'
'Was it Abbu?'
'No, he wasn't there. Somebody named Musa. I didn't know him.' I arched both brows. 'I take it Nayyib told you what Umir planned?'
'He said Rafiq and the others were quite taken with the idea of facing you in a circle in order to execute you.'
'I think everybody was quite taken with the idea of facing me in a circle in order to execute me. Fortunately, they forgot I wouldn't be so enamoured of it, myself.'
'Are you hurt?'
'Nope.'.
Her eyebrows indicated subtle doubt. 'Nothing?'
'One little cut along a rib.' I traced it against my burnous. 'Honest, bascha. You can see for yourself the next time I'm naked.' I wiggled eyebrows at her suggestively, then let go of her hand to stroke a lock of hair out of her face, letting fingertips linger on the curve of her brow. 'What about you?'
'I,' she began, 'may now rival the Sandtiger himself for the dramatic quality of my scars.'
I winced. 'I'm sorry, bascha.'
'Why? Did you attack me?'
'No, but—'
' 'No, but' nothing,' she said firmly. 'The last thing I remember is going down beneath the sandtiger. That I'm alive and uneaten likely indicates you killed him before he could kill me.'
'Yes, but—'
'No 'yes, but,' either,' Del declared. 'Understood?'
I knew when to appear to surrender even if I disagreed. 'Fine. Now give me details.'
She caught my hand in hers again. Neither of us was the clinging sort, but we did like physical contact. 'I will do very well, Tiger. The wounds are almost healed, thanks to you, Nayyib, and the Vashni healer. The poison is out of my body. Mostly I'm a little tired still, and bone-sore, but that will pass.' She grimaced. 'Except the healer keeps sending me to bed. I'm tired of naps.'
Having years before been badly wounded and poisoned myself by a sandtiger, I knew very well why the healer kept sending her to bed.
'But we can go in the morning,' Del said.
It caught me off-guard. 'Go where?'
'After Nayyib.'
'Where is he? And why do we have to go after him?'
'He's looking for you.'
'He left you here?'
'When it became obvious I was fine, and when I insisted, yes. He did.'
'You're not 'fine.' '
'Fine enough. Anyway, two days ago I sent him to look for you.'
It astonished me. 'You sent him to Umir's?'
'Yes.'
'Why?' An idea occured, preposterous as it was. 'Did you expect him to rescue me?'
Del contemplated my aggrieved expression in silence a moment. 'Actually, I expected to rescue you. But I needed Neesha to scout for me first.'
'Neesha?'
'Nayyib. Neesha is his call-name.'
'You sent Nayyib-Neesha to scout for you, so you could come rescue me?'
'That was the plan,' she confirmed gravely.
I was only half teasing. 'You didn't think I could handle it on my own? A sword-dance? When I've been dancing for almost twenty-five years—which is likely longer than the kid you sent has been alive?'
'You've been dancing longer than I've been alive.'
Which was a devastatingly effective way to remind me just how old I was, and how old she wasn't.
'Hoolies,' I muttered.
Del was laughing. She carried my hand to her mouth, kissed the back of it, then rested it beneath hers against her chest.
I noted again how thin her face was, and there were shadows beneath her eyes. 'Did you really think I'd lose?'
''Only an idiot believes he may never be defeated,' ' Del quoted. 'You said that, once.'
'Yes, but I didn't expect you to believe it. You're supposed to believe I can do anything.'
'And so you have.'
Well, so far. Sort of.
'Anyway,' Del continued, 'I think we should go after Nayyib.'
'Why? He should have reached Umir's by now, and he'll know what happened. I won. I left. I'm here.'
Del gazed at me. 'What if he needs rescuing?'
This whole conversation was bizarre. 'Why would he need rescuing? He's not worth anything.'
'That's unfair!'
'To Umir,' I elucidated. 'He's not worth collecting. He's just a kid.'
'He's twenty-three.'
'That's a kid.'
'I'm twenty-three, Tiger.'
It shut me up, as she fully intended.
Del smiled, pleased to have won. 'As for not being worth anything to Umir, of course he is. Neesha can tell Umir and any other interested parties where I am. Because they know wherever I am, you will eventually be.'
'He could simply not tell them.'
'Under torture?'
I scowled. 'Why doesn't he just tell them you're dead? You almost were.'
'Well, perhaps he will. But that doesn't mean he won't be tortured before he says it.'
'Then he should have stayed here.'
'He went looking for you. Isn't that worth something?'
'I don't know,' I growled. 'Depends on if you think I'm worth something.'
'Sometimes.'
I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, rubbed a hand over my face.
'He saved my life, Tiger.'
'I thought I saved your life.'
'You, and Neesha, and the Vashni healer.'
I squinted at her. 'This isn't another of your cockamamie female ideas, is it? I mean, he's human, a man, not a cat or dog. He's not astray.'
'You were.'
'I was?'
'Yes. All those years ago when the shodo accepted you for training. He took in a stray human and gave him a home.'
I drew myself up. 'And I repaid him by becoming not only his best student but the South's greatest sword- dancer …' I thrust an illustrative finger in the air. '. . . which is, I might add, a title very recently reaffirmed.'
Del's tone was elaborately innocent. 'I thought you said Abbu wasn't there.'
I glowered. 'We're not talking about Abbu. We're talking about the kid. And now you're telling me you want me to ride back into Umir's domain, even though there will be men looking to kill me?'
'But you just reaffirmed you're the South's greatest sword-dancer. Will anyone challenge that?'
'Yes!' I cried. 'Likely all of them!'
