The lamp flame reached Ruha's side. She beckoned it around behind her, scorching her insteps as she guided it between her sandaled feet. Soon, the witch felt a tongue of fire licking at her fingers; then she caught a whiff of burning hemp. She began to move the flame back and forth, never allowing it to rest beneath her bindings for more than a second at a time. The syrupy perfume of minced ylang blossoms still hung in the air, but not so heavily that she dared let the acrid fumes of a rope fire spread through the chamber.
When Prince Tang finally raised his head, he had regained the characteristic composure of the Shou. 'What can half-man tell Vaerana Hawklyn?'
Wei Dao lowered her eyes. 'isss impossible to sssay. Guards do not sssee him leave Cinnamon House during night, but neither do they sssee witch go-and we find her in apartment of Lady Feng.'
'Then we assume most wretched prossspect.' The prince took a copper beaker from a shelf and held it beneath the drainage spout of the oil press, then opened the valve. The sound of trickling fluid echoed through the vault, and the tangy smell of the ylang blossoms grew overwhelming in its cloying sweetness. 'Perhapsss half- man report mother's abduction, but that isss crime of Cypress, not Ginger Palace.'
'Vaerana Hawklyn… woman,' Wei Dao observed.
'She know we do anything to ransssom mother!'
'But she doesss not realize we must.' Tang did not look up as he spoke. 'It is no sssecret that Lady Feng hasss won favor ofYen-Wang-Yeh. Ssso, when Vaerana Hawk- lyn hear of worthy mother's abduction, what doesss she think?'
Wei Dao furrowed her carefully plucked eyebrows.
'That Cypress needsss Venerable Scholar of Eighteen Hells to sssteal spirit ofYanseldara, ofcourssse.'
Ruha nearly howled as the lamp flame scorched her knuckles, for she had been listening so intently to her captors' conversation that she had neglected the tiny fire.
Having deduced already that Lady Feng had been abducted for the purpose of stealing Yanseldara's spirit, the witch found it less surprising that the Shou would cooperate with the kidnappers than that they seemed to think Cypress remained in good health. She moved the lamp flame a safe distance behind her and resumed eavesdropping.
'… more.' Prince Tang closed the drain valve and car- ried his copper beaker to a marble-topped table. 'Vaerana Hawklyn hasss no reason to think Cypress requires more from usss to complete ssspell.'
A sly smile crept across Wei Dao's painted lips. 'Ssso she is looking wrong way at aussspicious time. Perhaps it is good… essscaped, wise husband.' The princess cast a spiteful glare in Ruha's direction. 'Now only witch threaten sssafe return of worthy mother.'
'That sssoon change.' Tang removed the stopper from a small earthenware flask and poured the contents into his copper beaker, then pricked his finger with a needle.
He dribbled several drops of blood into the mixture.
'When ssshe drinks thisss, her only wish isss to obey me.'
Feeling herself flush with outrage at the prince's plan, Ruha took several deep breaths. Her best chance to leam more about the theft of Yanseldara's spirit lay in exploit- ing Tang's base cravings, and the witch knew such a plan would fail if anger showed in her face. She tried to calm herself by thinking of the Alam'ra Wall, a beautiful oasis where the sweet waters poured from a cliff of white stone. At the same time, she beckoned the lamp flame closer and resumed the burning of her ropes. One way or another, she would need her hands free. Whether she succeeded in manipulating the prince or not, she had no intention of allowing him to pour his potion down her throat. Besides, Ruha knew better than to think the princess would stand idly by while she tried to win Tang's confidence. The witch had seen the antagonism between her father's wives often enough to know that Wei Dao was jealous of her position and would do what- ever was necessary to keep her husband from taking a consort.
Prince Tang stirred his concoction with a long glass rod, then poured it into a pewter chalice. He motioned to Wei Dao and started toward Ruha.
'Do not frighten wu-jen,' he said. 'For bessst effect, she mussst drink potion of her own accord.'
The witch tested her bonds, found they still held, and lowered the knot into the lamp flame. Even she could not smell the hemp being scorched, so thickly did the cloying reek of ylang oil hang in the chamber. She continued to strain at the rope until her captors were almost upon her.
Then, fearing they would notice a wisp of smoke or a flickering reflection behind her, she beckoned the fire into her hands and smothered it between her palms.
Tang and Wei Dao arrived with the love potion. The prince kneeled on the floor before Ruha and pulled her gag over her chin. His wife stood behind him, with one hand close to the wasp knives hanging from her black waist sash.
'If you still have no wish to become my concubine, drink this,' Tang said in Common. He held his chalice to Ruha's mouth. 'It makes you forget what you see in Gin- ger Palace, so we can release you without fear.'
Gently working her wrists back and forth against her seared bindings, Ruha stared down her nose at the oily pink concoction. It looked about as appetizing as camel's blood, and its syrupy sweetness was twice as nauseating.
The witch could hardly bear to sniff the stuff, much less drink it.
'I have no wish to forget what I have seen in the Gin- ger Palace.'
'Then you do not leave.'
'Be that as it may, I still will not become your concu- bine.' Ruha raised her chin. 'Such a thing would not be fitting. I am a sheikh's daughter.'
Tang's eyes shined with a hopeful gleam and, mercifully, he lowered the chalice. 'What do you mean?'
'In Anauroch, a man may take as many wives as his camels can feed.' A muffled grinding sounded between
Wei Dao's clenched teeth, but Ruha ignored the noise and looked deeply into Tang's eyes. 'I suppose a Shou prince can feed as many wives as he wishes.'
'Her insolence is beyond forbearance!' Wei Dao pulled a knife from her sash. 'I slay this savage!'
With a movement so swift that Ruha saw only a blur, Tang's hand lashed out and caught his wife's wrist. In Shou, he said, 'It isss for me to decide what is insssolence.'
'You cannot take barbarian for wife.' Wei Dao protested. 'Emperor never invite usss to return.'
The prince shrugged, then pushed Wei Dao's hand toward her sash. 'We need wu-jen if we are ever to be sssafe from Cypress.' He turned back to Ruha. 'Please to pardon princess. She is only wife for many years and can- not help being spoiled.'
Ruha continued to work at her bonds and graced the princess with a benevolent smile. 'After she grows accus- tomed to the new arrangement, I am certain we will become great friends.'
Wei Dao's only response was to thrust her dagger into its sheath, but Tang accepted Ruha's reply with an equally gracious nod. 'Of course that is possible, but what of obligations you speak of earlier? If they interfere with being concubine, how do they not interfere with becoming wife?'
'If you are willing to marry me, then you must also be willing to make one accommodation,' Ruha replied.
'I tell you thisss no good!' Wei Dao scoffed. 'If you value mother's life and honor of Ginger Palace, you let me kill her now.'
Ruha cast an impatient glance at Wei Dao. 'I suspect our discussion would proceed more smoothly if we were alone. Prince Tang.' She felt something slip in the knot behind her, but her hands did not come free. 'Perhaps you could ask the princess to excuse us?'
'Do not be fool. Witch cassst spell on you.'
Prince Tang looked at his wife out of the corner of his eye. 'It is better to have princess here-as long as she behaves courteously. Otherwise, perhaps I do as you sug- gest, wu-jen.' He returned his gaze to Ruha. 'Now, tell me of this accommodation you desire.'
'I have every desire to see Lady Feng released, but not at Yanseldara's expense,' Ruha replied. 'If you will stand with Vaerana Hawklyn against the Cult of the Dragon, becoming your wife would not interfere with my obligations.'
'What do I tell you, wise husband? Witch never be good wife.' Then, in Shou, the princess added, 'Ssshe baits you like witless bear.'
