This was a good question. Sperian was close-mouthed and spoke to few people. He was a solitary man, who could be trusted. Molaire, on the other hand, was a chatterbox. ‘Where was Greavas intending to take you?’ he asked. ‘Once he got you from the city.’
‘East, into the mountains. There are tribes there who are still loyal. Will you stop looking at my breasts? It is making me uncomfortable.’
He jerked his gaze from her. ‘My apologies, princess.’
‘Probably best if you don’t call me that,’ she pointed out.
He paused, and turned towards her. ‘I am not usually this much of a dullard,’ he told her. ‘Forgive me. You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. It is muddling my senses.’
‘My name will be Sashan,’ she said, ignoring his comment. ‘Try it. Say it.’
‘Sashan.’
‘Good. Now about your servants?’
‘I shall tell them both I met you at the bathhouse, and that your name is Sashan, and you will be staying with me for a while. I will get Sperian to give you an allowance. Thirty silver pieces a week. That should help allay suspicion. You should take the money, and go to the market. Buy yourself.
. whatever you like.’
‘I see that you know the going price for whores, young Olek.’
‘Indeed I do, Sashan. And so should you.’
She laughed, the sound rich and throaty. ‘Were I a whore, you could not afford me.’
‘If you were a whore I’d sell everything I had for a night with you.’
She took his arm again. ‘And you would not regret it. Not a copper coin of it. However, I am not a whore. What sleeping arrangements do you have in mind?’
‘Oh, we have many spare rooms.’
‘And how will that look to your servants? You bring a whore home and then do not sleep with her? No, Olek, we must share a room. But that is all we will share.’
Back at the house he introduced Sashan to Sperian and Molaire. The gardener said nothing, but Molaire was outraged. She swung to Sperian.
‘Are you going to allow this?’
‘The boy is three weeks from his majority. It is his choice.’
‘I think it disgraceful,’ said Molaire, ignoring Jianna, and storming from the entrance hall. As the princess wandered through to the living room Sperian looked hard at Skilgannon.
‘Is that who I think it is?’ he whispered.
‘Yes. Say nothing to Molaire.’
‘She is very convincing in that yellow tunic.’
‘Aye, she is.’
Jianna came back into the hallway and smiled at Sperian. ‘I fear your wife does not like me.’
‘More a problem for me than you, Sashan,’ Sperian told her. ‘It will be like having a wasp in my ear tonight. I doubt I’ll get any rest. Why don’t you and Olek go out into the garden. I’ll bring a little food and drink.’
After the servant had gone Skilgannon led Jianna through to the garden. The sun was setting beyond the western wall, and it was cool in the shade. She sat down in a deep chair, her long legs stretched out.
Skilgannon tore his gaze from her thighs, and stared hard at the blooms in the garden. ‘He knows, doesn’t he?’ said Jianna.
‘Yes. But then he already knew that Greavas was hiding you — and he sent me to Greavas. I guessed we wouldn’t fool Sperian. He will say nothing. Not even to Molaire.’
‘He would be wise not to. Trusting that fat sow with a secret would be like trying to carry water in a fish net.’
‘She is a good woman,’ said Skilgannon sharply. ‘You will not speak ill of her.’
A look of surprise touched the girl’s face, immediately followed by a flash of anger that made her grey eyes glint with a cold light. ‘You forget who you are talking to.’
‘I am talking to Sashan the whore, who is living in my house for thirty silvers a week.’
She looked away, and he studied her profile. It seemed to him that her face was beautiful from any angle. Even with the badly dyed yellow hair, and the red ringlets at the temple, she was stunning. ‘How long must I stay here?’ she asked.
‘At this moment soldiers are scouring the city, and all the gates are manned. In three weeks the Festival of Harvest begins. Farmers and merchants will be coming here from all over Naashan. Once the festival is over they will return. There will be huge numbers leaving the city. That will be the time, I think.’
‘A month then?’
‘At least.’
‘It will be a long month.’
Skilgannon had not known just how long a time a month could be. He began to realize it that first night, as he and Jianna retired to his west-facing room above the garden. The bed was wide, and made for two.
Even so he lay awake, feeling the warmth emanating from her. The scent from her hair wafted to him every time the night breeze blew. In the night she awoke and moved silently from the bed. He saw her naked body silhouetted against the window. His arousal was swift and painful. She stretched her arms above her head, and ran her fingers through her hair.
Skilgannon drank in the lines of her, the sleekness of her waist, and the long perfection of her legs. She padded across the room and poured herself a goblet of water. Skilgannon closed his eyes, and tried to force the image of her from his mind. It was a useless exercise. He felt her slide in alongside him once more.
‘Are you awake?’ she asked.
He thought of ignoring her and pretending sleep. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I am awake. Is the bed uncomfortable? Is it stopping you sleeping?’
‘No. I was thinking of my mother. I was wondering if I will ever see her again.’
‘Greavas is a clever man. I am sure he will succeed.’
‘She carries poison, you know. Hidden in a ring. If they come for her she will swallow it.’
‘Do you have poison?’
‘No. I shall escape. I will avenge my father, and I will see Bokram dragged down.’
‘No easy task, Sashan. He has the support of the Emperor. Even if you raised an army to match Bokram, you would still have to face the Immortals. They have never been beaten.’
‘Gorben will fall,’ she said. ‘His ambition is too great, his pride colossal.
My father understood this, but his timing was wrong. Gorben will not stop. He will continue to enlarge his empire. One day he will take a step too far. Against the Gothir perhaps, or the Drenai.’
‘What if he doesn’t fall?’
She rolled towards him. ‘Then I shall find a way to woo him. None of his wives have given him sons. I shall give him sons. Then I will drag Bokram down.’
‘You do not lack confidence,’ he said. ‘I do not believe, though, that Bokram is quaking in his boots at this moment.’
‘I hope that he is not,’ said Jianna. ‘He seeks two women who are, at worst, a nuisance. His only fear is that I will escape and be wedded to a prince with power. Even that will not worry him unduly, for there is no single prince with the fortune or the army to overthrow him.’
‘Then how can you succeed?’
‘There are at least fifty princes and chieftains who would like to wed me.
Combine them and we have an army to sweep across the land.’
‘You plan to wed fifty princes? I think playing the whore has gone to your head.’
‘Malanek said you were intelligent, and quick-witted. Was he wrong?’
‘Strangely my wits are not enhanced by lying so close to a naked woman.’
She laughed. ‘The story of men everywhere. And now I shall sleep.’ She rolled away from him.
Somewhere in the night he managed to doze a little, but every time she moved he would awake and feel restless. Once she turned and her arm fell across his chest, her head close to his shoulder.
Just after the dawn he awoke, bleary-eyed and weary. Jianna still slept.
