her features well. They would not betray her— if there was aught to betray.
She faced him at last, full in the rays of the sun slanting through the port, crimsoning beneath the golden patina of her skin. Her flashing eyes belied the blush.
'I lied to Redbeard when I said we were betrothed! I said it because I thought it might aid us— you. That he would then leave us alone. I did not know that he— that he wanted me for himself.'
'Any man would want you,' Blade said softly. 'You are very lovely, Taleen. And very young, with very much to learn. I will be glad when we come at last to Voth and you are again safe and happy in the life you knew before. As for what you said to Redbeard— I thank you. I know you tried to help me. And all ended well.'
Her smile was no real smile. There was a vixen in it. 'I am glad you understand me, Blade. I would not have you think I would throw myself at a man, or in any manner force myself on a man. I have had suitors aplenty, thank you, without asking a stranger in scarecrow's breeches to marry me!'
Blade struggled to keep his temper. This could be an exasperating child.
He folded his arms over his massive chest and regarded her coldly. 'It seems to me that you make a great deal of those breeches. Yet I— '
She did not let him finish. 'And it seems to me that, at least once in ten days, you might have sent for me! Or even for that gallows bird servant of yours. We were afraid. We knew nothing of your state. I nigh to perished of anxi— '
She halted abruptly and turned so that he might not see her eyes. 'Now I begin to see that you were never in great peril of death! Not with a High Priestess to tend you. Did you tell her, Blade, that you killed one of her sisters that night in the wood?'
Taleen glared at him, her words dripping with spite.
'I did not tell her,' he replied. 'She told me. Which requires a question, Taleen. Did you tell her about that night— and what we saw?'
Her brown eyes widened in honest amazement. 'Me tell her? You must think I am a fool as well as a child, Blade, and I am neither! I told her nothing. I said I spoke but once with her. That is the truth, I swear it on Frigga, and I told her nothing.'
'And yet she knew,' mused Blade.
Taleen was eyeing him with new speculation. Very softly she said: 'She knew? And you live yet. I think I begin to understand, Blade. Matters I had not dreamed on, because Drus are sworn celibate. But yet— ha! I do understand.'
'You understand nothing,' he shouted harshly. She had taunted him into loss of temper and he was helpless to resist it. He took subterfuge in the weakest of excuses, and knowing it so, lost his temper even more.
'You'd best go,' he told her, 'My thanks for coming to inquire of my health. But I confess to feeling a bit faint just now and I would rest. If you see Jarl send him to me, please, and likewise that rascally man of mine.'
'You are well consorted,' she told him bitterly. 'You and that squinting knave. Ay, you go well together. Like master, like man— it is well said.'
A sharp pain began to materialize again in Blade's head, then vanished abruptly.
'Yet it was I who saved you from Queen Beata's dogs and men,' he reminded her now. 'I who came for you when you had been dragged by Lady Alwyth. I who fought bears for you at Beata's court, and later put you behind me and killed three brave men for you. I who fought and killed Redbeard for you, and like to died of a poisoned dirk, all that I might bring you safe once again to your father in Voth— '
'Lies! Liar!' she screamed. 'Liar— liar! You fought to save your own life as well, and that you might bring me to Voth, as you say so piously, but only to seek and establish favor with my father. You have always meant to trade me, Blade, for favor and substance with my father, the King. Oh, you are brave enough! But you are also a great schemer and a liar— and as blind as the furred mice that flutter in twilight. You claim you are a wizard! You say you are Prince of London— wherever that is— and I admit you command well and can go grave and sage of mien when it pleases you. Yet I say you are a fool— and blind into the bargain. Blind— blind— '
Her loss of temper had restored his own. Blade gave her a sweet smile of tolerance.
'Wherefore am I so blind, then?'
Taleen picked up a stool. Blade, eyeing it, moved a step back.
'That I will not answer,' she snapped. 'If you cannot see it for yourself I will not tell you. But I am not blind! Do you think it any secret how you so near won that bitch Queen Beata over? Why you were given time, not slain at once, why you were permitted to fight bears instead of being flayed? And a false fight at that, with only that scummy servant of yours in real danger! I know, Blade, I know! Such things are not secret long. You must be a monster yourself to have gratified that red whore!'
Blade smiled at her. 'That also I did for you, Taleen.'
She hurled the stool at him. He ducked and it shattered against the wall.
At the door she hurled back a glance tipped with venom. 'We left Beata in her cage, though Jarl spared the lives of her people yet alive. She was sniveling for mercy when last I saw her, crying to be killed and put out of pain. Jarl might have granted her this, but I said nay. I hope she still lives, Blade. And suffers. I wish you could have seen her, Blade. They had taken away her wig and her bald gray head was pitiful in the rain. Aye, she was a loathesome creature. I admit your taste was better with the silver Dru.'
She was reminding Blade of things he did not want to remember, and he lost his temper for the second time.
'You speak of matters you know nothing about,' he said coldly. 'I had begun to doubt myself, but now I see that I have been right all along. You are a child! A willful and nasty child with the body of a woman. You need taming, and I know how it should be done, but I'll not be the one to do it. Now go, wench, before I lose all my temper and box your ears! A thing your father, king though he may be, has not done often enough. Get out!'
Halting in the door, she said: 'I had always thought to have you whipped, Blade. Then I favored flaying, and I admit that hanging has entered my mind. But now I know what is best, and when we come to Voth I will see to it. There is a man, Blade, who wants me more than he wants his own life. He is to come for me. And I will go to him— if he
