she continued to face Tang.
'Prince Tang, we all wish to see your mother delivered from the hands of her captors. Does that not make us friends?'
'No!' Tang snapped, with surprising vigor in his voice.
His eyes briefly flickered past Ruha's shoulder and returned. 'I serve the Emperor of Shou Lung, and you serve… a lesser master.'
'But we all oppose the Cult of the Dragon.' Though she was aware that Wei Dao had stopped a short distance behind her, Ruha kept her attention fixed on Prince
Tang, determined to win his friendship without becoming a Virtuous Concubine. 'In the desert, we have a saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'
Tang's eyes flashed in anger; then he slipped around the basking stone so swiftly that Ruha barely had time to turn around before he was standing between her and the gates. The witch found herself looking over his shoulder at Wei Dao, who was standing ten paces away with one of her slender daggers cocked to throw.
'I say no,' Tang said, speaking to his wife. 'Put wasp knife away.'
Wei Dao did not lower the weapon. 'Foolish Husband, you turn back on spy! Why do you place yourself in dan- ger? What is wrong with you?'
'What is wrong with. you?' Tang countered. 'Do you defy command of Imperial Shou Prince?'
Wei Dao's eyes flared in surprise and hurt. She looked past Tang's shoulder and shot Ruha a look as deadly as her wasp knife, then reluctantly lowered both her weapon and her gaze.
'I do not mean to disobey Exalted Prince.' The Princess bowed deeply to her husband. 'I think only of your safety'
Ruha felt herself take a deep breath; then she slipped from behind Prince Tang and executed a bow of her own, to Wei Dao. 'You have nothing to fear from me. Radiant Princess. I come as a friend to Lady Feng and the Ginger Palace, nothing more.'
Wei Dao's lips curled into a sneer. 'Yes, spy always comes as friend. But do not think me stupid, Witch. You care nothing for our troubles, and I watch to make cer- tain you do not harm Beloved Husband.'
Recognizing that it was impossible to make peace with Wei Dao, Ruha turned to the prince. 'I thank you for sparing my life, Wise Prince. I assure you, I will repay the favor with friendship.'
'It is not friendship I desire,' Tang replied. Deftly, he reached down and pulled Ruha's jambiya from its scab- bard, moving so swiftly and smoothly that she did not realize what he was doing until he held the weapon in his hand. 'In Ginger Palace, you serve me, or you serve no one.'
Eight
Gagged with her own silken veil and forced to kneel upon the brick floor with her wrists bound behind her back to her ankles, Ruha glared at her captors. Tang and Wei Dao stood at the far end of a long lime-washed vault, mincing blossoms and filling the air with a tangy perfume as sweet as cassia. Though clean and tidy enough, the chamber was crammed with all manner of vats, ovens, and other spice-refining apparatus.
Tang and Wei Dao set their knives aside, then gathered up the minced blossoms and carried them to a large screw press in the corner. As soon as their backs were turned, the witch fixed her gaze upon a flickering oil lamp near the door and slipped her gag as the Harpers had taught her, by retracting her lower jaw until she could use her tongue to push it over her lip onto her chin. Beneath her breath, she uttered the incantation of a simple sun spell.
The flame coiled around itself, then leapt off the wick and pirouetted to the floor. Ruha tried to point toward a huge ceramic cask sitting in the corner but, with her hands tied behind her back, she failed miserably. The fire danced across the bricks toward a gleaming copper vat, which caught its light and sent a reddish glint skipping across the ceiling.
Wei Dao's head cocked slightly.
Ruha bent her finger sharply, directing the flicker toward a black iron caldron. She barely managed to guide the flame behind the pot's sheltering bulk before
Wei Dao turned to scan the ceiling. The witch tongued her gag back into place and waited until her captor's scrutiny fell on her, then glowered at the princess with a frown that she hoped would look as helpless as it did hateful.
Wei Dao smirked at the witch, then allowed her gaze to roam across the room until it came to the unlit lamp. If she noticed the faint wisps of smoke still rising from the nameless wick, she paid them no attention. The concern vanished from her face, and she turned back to Prince Tang.
'Thisss… dangerous, my husssband.' Wei Dao spoke in Shou, unaware that a wind spell was carrying her voice to Ruha in the Bedine language. Unfortunately, the magic did not work well in the still air of the vault; the words were so breathy and soft that the witch sometimes missed them. 'We ssshould… her and be done with it!'
'She ssserve us better alive.' Tang turned the press screw, then glanced at Ruha and allowed his gaze to linger on her naked face for an indecent time, at least by Bedine standards. 'We have need of wu-jen.'
'… much trussst in love potion!' Wei Dao pointed a dagger-sharp fingernail at her husband. 'Witch use love magic on you, wise husssband.'
Prince Tang shrugged. 'It doesss not matter, as long as she love me more. We need wu-jen, and Ruha is wu- jen.'
Wei Dao's face grew crimson and stormy. The princess was no fool and believed Tang no more than Ruha did; the prince needed the witch's magic, but he coveted her womanhood.
'How witch love you more?' Wei Dao demanded. 'You sssayyiang… not potent.'
'Potent enough for now. When fresssh blossoms arrive, I make better potion.'
Ruha pointed her finger toward the wall behind her.
The wayward flame danced from its hiding place and began to skip across the floor.
'You are bad ssson! You risssk mother for-for-' Wei Dao's sentence sputtered to a halt, and she flung her arm in Ruha's direction. 'You risssk mother's life for barbarian concubine!'
There was that word again, concubine. Ruha ground her teeth into her gag, biting down until her jaws ached.
She did not leave the golden sands ofAnauroch to become a prince's bauble; if the Shou thought differently, she would show them barbarian.
'Not for concubine, for wu-jen.' Tang's head started to turn in Ruha's direction, and she barely managed to guide her dancing flame beneath a brazier before his lecherous gaze fell on her face again. 'And risk is mossst sssmall.'
Wei Dao shook her head violently. 'Already… over the wall!'
Whatever the princess said to the prince, it drew his attention away from Ruha. The witch gestured with her finger, and the lamp flame darted from its hiding place.
'What you think he tell… Hawklyn?' Wei Dao demanded. 'What you think witch say ifssshe essscape, too?'
Ruha forgot about her dancing flame. Fowler had escaped! She doubted the half-ore could report anything useful to Vaerana, but at least the witch would not have to add his death to her already overburdened conscience.
She circled her finger, guiding the lamp flame, which had curled toward her captors, back toward her.
Prince Tang scowled at his wife. 'Why do you not tell me sssooner?'
'You at work in lizard park, leaving me to chase ssspies!' Wei Dao countered. 'Perhapsss wise prince ssshould…'
Whatever the princess said, it angered her husband greatly. Tang raised his fist; then, when Wei Dao did not flinch, he turned away and swept a shelf clean of several porcelain jars. They shattered on the floor, releasing a cloud of fine, multihued powders. The prince let his chin drop and stared into the billowing dusts, his eyes focused someplace far beneath the bricks.
