first thing I saw was Del seated at a table with a man. She faced the doorway; his back was to me. Short of twisting all the way around on his stool, he wouldn't see me. Del's expression didn't change, but I did note the way she lifted a hand as if to smooth back hair, and saw the quick, subtle gesture with fingers: goaway. Not polite, perhaps, but it got the message across: He wasn't an innocent customer making time with her but a threat, and she was making time with him to control his intentions. I tilted my head toward the back hallway, sending my own message, then soundlessly moved to our room.
By the time Del joined me, I had sandals and harness on and the saddlepouches packed. 'We're leaving,' I said. 'Go back and keep him company so there's no suspicion, then meet me at the livery when you've got a chance to get away. I've got all of our things; I'll have the horses ready.'
Del nodded and disappeared. I waited until I was fairly certain she owned his attention again, then made my way to the cantina's back door.
Fouad met me there. 'Trouble?'
'The man with Del is a sword-dancer, likely on my trail.' 'Ah. I wondered why she sat down with him.' He offered me an armload of filled botas. 'When Del disappears, I'll send Silk out to him with drugged wine. That'll delay him.'
I opened the door. 'He may have someone riding with him.'
He shrugged. 'We'll deal with him, too.'
I grinned. 'Kind of nice having another partner.'
Fouad made a sour face and shut the door behind me.
It took Del a bit longer to arrive at the livery than I expected. Both the stud and the white gelding were tacked out and ready to go as we lingered in the stableyard; I tossed Del the reins to the gelding and swung up onto the stud. 'What took you so long?
'He was very curious about your habits.'
She wore a fresh, pale burnous and had wound her hair up on top of her head in some kind of arcane knotwork fastened with a carved bone rod. Wisps straggled down her neck most fetchingly. 'I doubt it was me he was asking about!'
Del mounted, gathering reins as she hooked her right foot in the stirrup. 'Not initially, no. But we got around to you.' She paused. 'Where are we going?'
'North—' But I broke off as the stud sashayed sideways, snorting. I felt the tension in his body, the quivering of muscles. 'What's your problem?'
'I think it's my gelding,' Del said, amused.
'What—again?' But it was possible. Horses could be rather obtuse sometimes. I reaffirmed my control over the stud. 'As I was saying, we're going north. We'll get out of town a ways, then find a place to stay the night.' I shot her a glance over my shoulder. 'Guess you got your wish.'
'What wish?'
'To ride out after Nayyib tonight.'
Del's smile was swift as she took out the hair rod, tucking it away in a saddlepouch. 'Guess I did.'
'And I, meanwhile—unlike a certain someone I could mention, who spent most of the day unconscious—did not get to sleep in a real bed.'
She brought the gelding up next to the stud as we turned onto the main drag. 'Take solace in the knowledge you are repaying a debt.'
'Solace isn't as comfortable as a real bed.'
Del nodded, tucking now-loose hair under the neckline of her burnous. 'I did tell him you were a disagreeable soul. Cranky, even.'
'Told who?'
'Ahmahd. The sword-dancer back at the cantina. A very courteous soul, he was—offered to buy me liquor, dinner, and a bed.'
'So long as he wasin the bed.' 'Well, I suppose he had hopes, yes.'
I shook my head, grinning; so … predictable. Just like me. 'This way …' I turned the stud and led Del through one of the narrower alleys, twisting about like a tangled skein of yarn. When at last we left the last hedge of buildings behind, we were free of the town entirely, striking out northward beneath a star-pocked sky. 'I suspect they won't think I'd head back into Umir's domain.'
'I suspect Ahmahd won't, since I suggested otherwise.' Del brought the gelding up next to me again. 'I explained we hadn't seen one another for weeks. That you'd been hauled off to Umir's by Rafiq and his friends, and that was the last I'd seen of you. But before then you'd talked of going to Haziz to take ship back to Skandi. I was hanging around hoping you'd show up but was beginning to worry that you'd gone without me.'
I grunted. 'I doubt he believed you.'
'There was no one left in the cantina who'd seen us together. Fouad had different girls working, and everyone else who'd seen us talking had left. Ahmahd will learn the truth, of course, at some point, but at least it will buy us a little time.' A trace of dry amusement laced her tone. 'Men tend to believe me, if I wish them to.'
Present company included; nice of her not to mention that. 'Here.' I led her off the road. We rode some distance away, winding through scrubby trees and shrubbery, until I indicated a cluster of vegetation forming a leafy blockade against a rill of windblown sand and soil. It sloped into a slight hollow, good enough for a smidgen of shelter. 'No one would believe anyone would camp out here, this close to Julah. This close to real beds.' A glance southwards showed the flickering lights of the city, sparking against the dark horizon. 'We should be safe. Come dawn, we can head for Umir's domain. And let's hope Nayyib's there, or this is all for nothing.'
'He is.' Del swung down off of her gelding even as I dismounted. 'I asked Ahmahd.'
Well, that was something. More than we had known. 'Did he say if the kid was being held against his will?'
'That he didn't know. Just that Neesha arrived and had not yet departed when Ahmahd and his friend left.'
'So it's likely the kid would have heard about any reward for me.'
'It seems so.'
'And how do we know Nayyib didn't tell Ahmahd about Fouad's cantina, hoping for a cut without involving himself personally?'
Del flicked me an icy glance.
'All right, fine.' I was grinning as I dismounted. 'We'll assume he didn't.'
'He wouldn't. But if he had, don't you think Ahmahd and his friend would have arrived in Julah sooner?'
'Possibly,' I conceded.
'Oh, and I did neglect to mention something Ahmahd said about you.'
'About me? In between seducing you?'
'He did not seduce me. He attempted to seduce me.'
'Ran out of time, did he?'
'He said,' Del began, ignoring me, 'that he had seen you dance there at Umir's and was quite impressed by your skills.'
'At least he's being honest.'
'He said you were better than he expected—especially for an old man.'
I began untacking the stud. 'He did not. You're saying that.'
'Ahmahd said it.' Del's expression was blandly serene. 'Right before he asked me what a woman my age was doing with a man your age.'
I scowled at the stud, undoing thongs and buckles, and changed the subject. 'I don't suppose this friend of Ahmahd's felt in need of a bath.'
'As a matter of fact, Ahmahd said he did go to the bathhouse. Why?'
'Because that's where I was when someone decided to interrupt my soak by taking off my head. Fortunately, I was ready. Last I saw of him, he was wrestling with curtains.' I deposited the saddle on end, plus the tied-on saddlepouches, then peeled blankets off the stud's back. They were only slightly damp; we hadn't ridden long enough for the horses to work up a true sweat. 'Did your friend Ahmahd happen to mention how many others
