silver links.on flagstones sounded loudly.
'At the very least,' Sunbright finished to a rapt audience, 'let me suffer the same punishment as the elf-maid. Return us to our cells together.' His voice almost broke as he said the last, and his knees trembled, for the fearsome memory of confinement haunted him. He prayed his quivering stomach wouldn't puke up his meager breakfast at the king's feet. Yet he failed to notice that the crowd discerned the truth: this wild man feared imprisonment over death.
The One King, as he had proclaimed himself, sat a long time on his cold throne, staring without blinking, and again Sunbright thought of a hornet and not a man. Finally the king signaled for the barbarian to move backward, and Angriman to come forward. Low tones conveyed orders, and guards led Sunbright away.
Whirling around, the barbarian glimpsed Greenwillow looking after him with a proud smile. But too, he saw Ruellana lick her lips and drop a sly wink.
Then he was hustled from the hall.
This time he was incarcerated, not in a whitewashed jail cell, but in a luxurious suite of rooms on the top floor of the castle. Couches with pillows filled the place, painted murals lined the walls, and a bed heaped high with fluffy pillows invited sleep. While guards blocked the door and removed his trailing manacles, serving girls minced in and out, covering a low table with jugs of wine and silver platters of food. Sunbright went immediately to the window to stick his head out and thumped it on some invisible shield. So this was a cell too, despite the luxury and fine view of the city of Tinnainen and the mountains beyond. The door was just as solid as the one in the dungeon.
It took all Sunbright's courage not to batter his raw fists and sore shoulders against the door and walls and window shields. But he'd tried that last night for hours, for naught. If, he argued to himself, he and Greenwillow were to get out of this place alive, he had to restrain himself, harbor his strength, and think his way clear.
So, semi-resigned, he sat on a couch, tore a wing off a chicken, buttered black bread, and ate and drank ravenously.
Until a slim pair of hands dropped over his eyes, and a familiar voice giggled, 'Guess who?'
Reacting as if to an attack, the barbarian grabbed both hands and yanked. A slender female form catapulted over his head and crashed onto the table, scattering crockery and silverware and wine. The young man let go of the slender wrists in astonishment. 'Ruellana?'
'Ooh,' the girl groaned. Rubbing her back, which arched her breasts nicely, she wiggled off the table, then slipped cool arms around Sunbright's shoulders. 'I mean, oooh, you're so strong!'
'Ruellana… how… where…?' He couldn't even frame a coherent question. 'How in the name of Mystryl did you get-'
'Hush, love.' She planted red lips on his, chewed at his mouth hungrily.
No, Sunbright thought, this wasn't real. It was trouble. Whatever Ruellana was, she wasn't a simple farm girl who'd gotten lost in the forest a hundred leagues from here. To travel that distance and be here in Tinnainen, she would have to either have magic or be a magical creature. She was a mage, or succubus, or witch, or nymph-not to mention the One King's consort in the One King's castle.
With a groan, he pushed her away. 'Wait! Ruellana, how did you get here? Tell me, before I go mad!'
'Oh, but I'm mad too,' she breathed warmly into his face. Her green eyes shimmered before him like spinning jade orbs of enchantment. 'Mad for you! I've worried so, Sunbright! I'm so glad you came to rescue me!' Her tongue tickled his lips. Still he spluttered, but she only smiled. 'You don't like kisses there? How about…'
A warning clanged in the young man's mind, a premonition that should have sent him running in a blind panic. But he was helpless as she plastered her warm curves against him and his body responded in the ultimate betrayal.
Well, he thought philosophically, he'd survived the last time.
After an afternoon with Ruellana, Sunbright found himself reluctant to leave the comfort of the bed. Ruellana brushed her hair in front of a bronze mirror, then blew him a kiss. 'I'll be back quick as I can.'
Rising, he snagged her arm. 'Wait. I must have answers. It's not possible you're here. I mean, it is, obviously, but-'
'Silly!' she chided. 'I came through a secret panel.'
A touch to a painted mural made a wooden wall inset swing inward. A black staircase descended from the opening. Sunbright gaped while the girl slipped inside. 'Later, love. Be good!' Then, before he could grab her, she pulled the tiny door shut in his face.
Growling with frustration, the barbarian inspected the panel from every angle, tugging at the edges until he chipped the paint, banging on it lightly at first, then harder.
Curiosity warred with caution, but finally the former won. Plying a carving knife, he dug away at the corner of the mural, destroying a pond painted with placid swans, until he could insert his finger into the hole. An inch inside, he felt rough stone. Wondering, he gouged away a knight's black chest in the middle of the panel. He found rough stone behind it, too.
No staircase.
Ruellana had slipped through solid stone.
Sunbright was napping when the door rattled and four guards came to escort him away. Again he was taken to the rear of the throne room and made to wait. Though sundown was near, the One King still sat at his throne dispensing wisdom and justice. It was eerie, Sunbright thought, the man's icy calm. He wanted to ask the guards if the king ever left his throne to eat or piss, but decided against it.
Another speech came and went; then Angriman took charge and escorted the barbarian into the presence of the king. Again Greenwillow gave him a brave smile, but it quickly turned into a frown as he was distracted by a simpering, red-clad Ruellana.
Without preamble, the One King proclaimed, 'I have a task for you. Fulfill it, and you and the elf Greenwillow may depart unmolested.' Muck up and die, Sunbright mentally finished. 'There lies a cave south of here. Within dwells the dread red wyrm Wrathburn. In the wyrm's possession is a great book crowned with a ruby and laden with great and arcane lore. Fetch the book.'
Wyrm? Sunbright's brain numbed at the word. Dimly he heard Greenwillow gasp. Did the king mean…
As Angriman towed him to the back of the hall, the barbarian followed like a wooden doll dragged by one arm. Wyrm? Did he mean…
'You're a lucky man,' Angriman told him at the rear alcove. 'You, like your unfortunate friend the elf, offered the king defiance, which is not tolerated in this kingdom. But the king cherishes forthright virtues such as honesty and bravery and loyalty, even misguided loyalty to a comrade. You're very lucky.'
'When he said wyrm,' Sunbright finally got out, 'did he mean…'
'Dragon, yes. Wrathburn is the great red dragon that's recently made a home in the Windswept Mountains. He's known to be unusually cruel, rapacious, and powerful, which is why no one's challenged him yet, though he's accumulated a vast hoard. The opening to his cavern is not far from here. That's how the king, who is himself a mighty mage, learned of this book. He could sense its mystic aura even at this distance. The tome holds the collected wisdom of an ancient, vanished race who predate humans. The king wishes that knowledge and has chosen you to fetch it for him. You're a very, very lucky young man. And if you can fight as well as you talk, you'll succeed.'
Sunbright managed a weak 'Thank you,' before the guards escorted him upstairs. They largely dragged him, for his legs had suddenly failed.
That night the barbarian lay abed, nowhere near asleep. He tried to sort out events in his mind and figure out how he'd come to this pass. He didn't know much about kings, but it didn't seem fair that this One King could order him hither and thither at a whim. But then, he'd learned early that life wasn't fair.
There came a tiny click. He sat up, thrust out his hand, and felt a warm form covered by thin cloth.
Ruellana giggled and creaked onto the bed, running hot hands over his chest and downward. 'You're so clever, Sunbright. You'll escape and make the king look a perfect fool! But we'll be long gone by then.'
'Hunh?' Sunbright had a thousand questions to ask her-about secret panels and if she was truly the king's
