might have once been straw-colored, though it was now thin and wispy at the top and shaded to whitish gray in the fellow’s beard.
“Lord Forlane, welcome,” he said. “You must be bringing the new house slave our mistress mentioned.” The elder human turned to look a Strongwind. His expression was unreadable.
“My name is Wandcourt.”
“Call me Whalebone,” Strongwind said as he entered.
Lord Forlane followed him inside. “Is the Lady Thraid in?” asked the ogre nobleman.
“Yes, my lord, expecting you both, in fact,” Wandcourt replied with a bow.
The elder slave led the ogre and Strongwind through a stone-walled anteroom that seemed remarkably plain in its appointments, given the size of the chamber. The Highlander got the immediate impression that this place hadn’t been occupied for long.
That notion was reinforced as they passed under a high stone archway into the apartment’s great room. There was a large hearth in the opposite wall and several bearskin rugs in the center of the room, with a chair and a large divan arranged there. Several lamps burned in alcoves in the walls, but-like the anteroom-the rest of this chamber seemed barren, as if still awaiting more furniture. It called out at least for the softening touches of a few additional bearskins.
Only then did Strongwind realize that someone occupied the divan-an ogress who faced away from him and was partially screened by the back of the long, couchlike seat. Wandcourt led him around to face her, and he quickly bowed.
“Lord Forlane! What an honor to see you, personally,” declared the ogress, in a voice like a purr-the purr of a very large, and very dangerous, bear. She pushed herself to a sitting position and extended a hand, which Strongwind’s escort bent to take.
“My Lady, I would never pass up the chance to spend a few moments in your charming presence. When His Majesty asked me to see to the delivery of your new house slave, I marked it an opportunity for a visit.”
“This is the slave?” Thraid murmured. Strongwind, still bowing, felt her attention shift to him, though he couldn’t read her tone. “Straighten up and let me look at you.”
He did as she bade and returned the inspection as she looked him over. He was startled to see a creature of softness and curves, with rouged lips, and eyelashes outlined in henna. He recognized her at once-she was the ogress who had watched him debark, had waved to him as he was taken off of the galley. She shifted slightly, leaning to balance on an elbow as she partially reclined on the divan. The slave king had a sense of helplessness, as if he were a small rodent being inspected by a cat, the feline pondering whether the snack had enough meat on its bones to make it worth the trouble of the kill.
He was tempted to make some remark of greeting but decided that his new status made it safer for him to wait until she addressed him. Again she purred, her full lips curving into a small smile.
“You look as though you will do quite nicely,” she remarked. “How are you called?”
“I am Whalebone, my lady,” replied Strongwind. “It is an honor to be considered for your service.”
She chuckled. “Very nice, indeed. One cannot assume that such manners will be ingrained in all those of your countrymen. You are a Highlander, are you not?”
“Indeed, my lady.”
“Of noble birthright, perhaps?”
Strongwind shrugged. “There are some who would say so.”
“I have heard something of your battle prowess,” she said, musing. “There was even a suggestion that you might be, well, dangerous, but I had a feeling that first time I saw you, when you came ashore from the ship … a sense that you would be a good slave, that I can trust you. Surely you realize-as Wandcourt or Brinda will tell you- there are many worse postings for a slave than in the house of a noble ogress.”
“I do not doubt that for a moment, lady,” Strongwind replied evenly.
Thraid Dimmarkull rose very slowly from her divan. She did not so much stand up as undulate into an erect posture. She was as tall as the Highlander king, and again he noticed the exaggerated contours of her shape. Her tusks were barely visible behind those full, pouting lips. She reached out a hand and placed it on Strongwind’s shoulder. The king stood still, not knowing what to expect-but he was too astonished to resist when she suddenly pressed downward with a hammer blow of force, dropping him to his knees.
He grunted and strained to rise, but she held him down with one hand while with the other she took his chin and forcibly tilted up his face. Her expression was mildly amused-except for the spark of fire he saw in her eyes. Clearly, she was enjoying this very much.
“Pretty words,” Thraid said, her lips pursing in an expression that Strongwind couldn’t read. “So long as you remember your place-and fall to your knees when I so command-you will do nicely.”
She squeezed his cheeks, and Strongwind’s temper flared, but he exerted all of his self control to mask his feelings.
“Wandcourt, show … ‘Whalebone’ … where he will be staying. You and Brinda take some time to acquaint him with the household and with his tasks. For now, leave me with Lord Forlane-I have important matters to discuss, things that are not for human ears.”
“Very well, my lady,” replied the elder slave.
Strongwind rose stiffly and followed him through the archway and down a smaller, darker hallway. The slave king resolved to pay attention, to learn what he could. Always he would remain alert, analyzing his new masters for the weaknesses that undoubtedly existed in Winterheim’s tenuous relationship with its slaves.
The King’s Rampart was the loftiest platform on Winterheim’s outer slopes. Only the summit itself, ice- draped and sheer, rose above it. Several paths climbed to this flat, square surface which, by tradition, was intended only for the feet of the monarch of Suderhold.
Grimwar Bane stood alone here, wearing his black bearskin robe, staring into the northwest, where the sun was nearing the horizon, bringing the end to an early autumn day. He looked between the Ice Gates, across the bright stretch of the White Bear Sea. The air, even at this lofty elevation, was cool but not cold.
He thought fleetingly about his cloak, the only black bear pelt he or any other ogre had ever seen. He had captured it from what he thought was a simple village of Arktos peasants nine summers earlier. His warriors had slain every man of that tribe, and with only a few females and young escaping into the hills, he had thought the band eradicated.
How ironic that it had been one of those women who had become his most vexing foe! It was she who had led her people to Brackenrock, reclaiming the long-abandoned stronghold from the savage thanoi who had taken up residence there. It was she who had made the place a true fortress, a bastion that stood against his most devastating attack.
The human woman was dead now, slain with her elf companion in the catastrophic explosion that wracked Dracoheim, yet she continued to fascinate him. This was one reason why the captive warrior, the slave he had sent into the house of Thraid Dimmarkull, was interesting to him. That man had been willing to give his life for the Lady of Brackenrock, and sooner or later the king intended to ask him why.
He had more important matters to concern him for the immediate moment. Indeed, he had many things on his mind, did the king of Suderhold.
One of these was paramount. The matter of his vexatious wife demanded resolution, a resolution that would allow the king to proceed with his life, his future, in a manner of his own choosing. If Stariz remained attached to him, she would be his doom, a cancer eating away his manhood and his rule until he was an emasculated hulk, a mere puppet for the priestess-queen.
He had blustered and threatened, pleaded and dealt with her, but ever she remained the same. For all this time he had sought a solution that would work with Stariz ber Glacierheim ber Bane. Now, finally, he could see the error of diplomacy. There could be no solution with her, for she herself was the problem.
He realized now that he had to send her away. He would wait until she had performed her ritual sacrifice at the ceremony of Autumnblight, then he would make his announcement to his wife and to his people.
His marriage would end, and the rest of his life would at last begin.
