cloth but Toetzer was before him, a napkin busy as it soaked up the wine. If the hand had been cut there was no trace but the red wine could have masked any blood.
'You must pardon me.' Chenault swayed a little as he straightened. 'Stress and fatigue together with my recent indisposition-I'm sure you understand. A momentary weakness but I think it best to retire. Jem, please attend me.' He turned as he neared the side of the hall, Toetzer at his side. 'Goodnight all.' He waved his hand at the assembly. 'I bid you all good night.'
As he left the hall Massak turned to Dumarest, smiling. 'Well, Earl, what now?'
* * *
They gambled, one against the other, elbows to the table, biceps straining as each tried to force the other's hand to the board. Mercenary's fun with a candle glowing to give added incentive to win. A game Dumarest had played often enough with glowing coals instead of candles and, at times, the bared steel of a naked point. A hard game for hard men and he guessed why Massak insisted on playing it.
'You're hard, Earl.' Massak rubbed the back of his hand. 'Hard and fast and as tricky as they come. The kind of man good to have at your back when the trouble starts. Once more for luck? Double or quits?'
'Try it with someone else.'
'I can beat them all. Even Shior.' A man hurt with a dislocated shoulder; the last of his targets had been alerted and had fought back. Now Shior rested in drugged slumber and Massak was impatient to regain his eminence. 'Once more, Earl. I insist.'
And, losing, would be sullen. Dumarest knew the type too well and, even if he beat the man, would gain nothing from his victory. Yet to yield was not enough; like the mistress of the Karroum, the mercenary had his own concept of honor.
'The last time, then.' Dumarest took his place at the table. 'Double or quits.'
'As you say.' Teeth flashed white as Massak grinned. 'The candles, Tyner.' He waited as flames rose from the wicks Lopakhin kindled. 'Now!'
A surge and he had thrown all his strength into the combat. Dumarest felt his arm begin to yield and fought back, not to win but to give the illusion of a hard-won battle. A moment of strain and, slowly, Massak's hand was forced back, to stand almost upright, to bend slowly toward the other side. Sweat shone on his face as, baring his teeth, he resisted the pressure, forcing Dumarest's arm back, back, bending it until the back of his hand hung over the leaping flame of the candle.
Lifting as Dumarest fought back.
Falling again to hover as hair singed and the flame licked flesh. A guttering flare which died as Massak forced the hand to quench the wick.
'I won!' His roar of triumph filled the hall. 'By God, I won!'
'Try him with knives!' Toetzer, returned, yelled the challenge. 'Face him with naked steel and I'll give you odds of twenty to one.'
'No!' Dumarest was curt.
'Why not?' Elated by his victory Massak was eager for combat. 'First blood, Earl. Just a touch to decide who is the better man.'
A single cut which would lead to others and to final maiming or gory death. A combat without reason, profit or cause. Dumarest recognized this but knew he could never get Massak to accept. The mercenary was too much a barbarian for such logic and, his blood heated, wanted nothing but to fight.
'Wait!' Dumarest looked at the ring which had formed, the avid faces. 'You want a battle, right? Then we'll give it to you. Here!' Steel flashed as he drew his knife and sent it to quiver, point in the board, halfway down the table. 'You at the far end, Ian. Jem, give us full goblets.' Dumarest lifted his own, Massak doing likewise. 'We drink and go for the blade. Who'll give the word?'
'I will!' Toetzer shouted down the others. 'You ready? Go!'
Dumarest sipped his wine, threw the goblet and its contents at Massak, was down the table and gripping the freed knife before the mercenary guessed what was happening. His roar of anger echoed from the roof.
'You cheated! By God, you cheated!'
'Did I say we were to drink it all?' Dumarest sheathed the knife, smiling, one hand falling on Massak's shoulder in apparent friendship. 'If you can't win fair, my friend, then you have to win foul.' In a lower tone he added, 'Stop this before one of us winds up dead.'
And Massak had no doubt as to who that would be. The shower of wine had sobered him, that and the sight of the naked blade, the face of the man who had held it pointed at his throat. Death had been close then and he knew it. Knew too that Dumarest, by cheating, had given him an out.
One he took as, laughing, he clapped his own hand on Dumarest's shoulder and called for wine to celebrate a draw.
'To the finest companion any fighter could hope to find. One hard, fast, cunning-and who can take a joke.' He lifted his goblet. 'To Dumarest!'
That toast was followed by others and it was late when Dumarest finally made his way to his room. His head ached a little though he was far from drunk, having pretended to drink far more than he had actually swallowed. Under the cold sting of the shower he thought of Massak and how he had left him; swaying, bawling mercenary songs and reliving old campaigns. A man who could have been an enemy but who now swore he was a friend. As Mirza Karroum had done. As Chenault had promised to keep his word.
The spray ceased and Dumarest stepped from the shower to dry himself and, killing the lights, lay naked on the bed. Starglow from the window filled the room with silver, making a screen of the ceiling on which he projected mental images. Chenault standing in the clearing, tall, silent, almost as if graven from stone. Chenault in the hall leaning against the table as if for support. The same man who had spilled wine over his chin. Who had smashed a goblet in his hand.
His face had been the same as it had in the study before his attack. His body, even his stance, but had there been a subtle wrongness? A man affected by drugs would have acted as he had done, a little unsteady on his feet, a shade unaware. Had Toyanna doped him so as to make a necessary appearance when Mirz had arrived with her demands? And, if she had, would he be fit enough to tell what he knew about Earth?
A worry accompanied by another: if Avro was still alive then his personal danger was very real. He could have guided the woman to him-but no, the last thing he would want was for her to take her revenge. Instead he would use other methods and Dumarest never made the mistake of underestimating the power of the Cyclan.
He dozed, starting awake to a faint rattle from the door, the sound as of someone trying to get into the room. Rising, he jerked away the chair holding it fast and opened the panel. In the passage outside Govinda shrank from the glittering menace of his knife.
'Earl! I-'
'Come inside.' The door closed behind her, the chair again rammed into place. 'What do you want?'
A stupid question; the answer was in her eyes, her face. In the heat of her body felt as she stepped close to him. In the message of her arms as they lifted to close around his neck.
In the burning demand of the kiss she imprinted on his lips.
'I love you,' she whispered. 'Earl, my darling, I love you.'
He said nothing, the knife hanging at his side, his free hand rising to caress her hair.
'Since the moment I saw you I knew we belonged together. I can sense such things. As I sense the void in your heart. The space you ache to fill.' The pressure of her body was a warm and succulent invitation. 'A space I can fill, my darling. My dearest darling. My love!'
A woman enraptured, enamored, hopelessly in love-or one pretending to be.
'Hold me, Earl! Take me in your arms, my darling. Kiss me! Kiss me!'
Words to excite the senses, and gestures to match but all were the province of every actress and even the most inexperienced harlot knew how to emulate passion. Again he caressed her hair, running his hand over the contours of her body, finding nothing but heated flesh beneath the gossamer thinness of her robe. Yet weapons could be hidden in unsuspected places; drugs placed beneath the nails could bring quick unconsciousness once their points had pricked the skin and an ampoule, crushed between the teeth, could vent numbing vapors when impelled by a kiss.
