swollen and warm and hard-tipped and fitting perfectly, encupped in his big hands, He sought to be tender, yet he wanted her terribly by this time and, when still she held him off and cried that she was afraid, he pressed her down and opened her slim legs by main strength and thrust softly into her. Gently at first, then the animal in him took over and he stabbed her to the core and did not hear her moans. Moans that changed gradually to sobs and then to a wild laughter and crying out as she came up to him and entwined about him and bit at him in frenzy. As Blade was himself spending he felt her final convulsive shudder and knew that for the first time in her short life the Princess Taleen had come at a man's urging.
For a long time they lay wrapped in moonlight, gossamer tendrils ensilvering their naked flesh, whilst each made his separate way back from the small death. Taleen, her legs all entwined in his, sighed at last and said most unsteadily: 'So that is what it is like, Lord Blade! Thank Frigga I know at last— and that it is you who have taught me. What fools young girls are! They jibber and jabber and prate wise of what they know not. But I see the why of it now— making love is not a thing one can guess of. It cannot be known without the doing.'
Blade kissed her ear. 'You are calling me Lord Blade again. Am I to take it, then, that I am not to be hanged and flayed after all? Not even with a golden rope?'
She thrust her tongue into his mouth for an instant. Then: 'I will always call you Lord Blade. You are my lord now. For all time. I will never want another.'
Blade, with the cynicism of his age, and knowing it did not greatly matter, said nothing to that. Instead: 'I am to see your father tonight. What is the clock?'
Taleen stroked his thigh.
'Not this night, my Lord. I have spoken with my father and the audience is put off until tomorrow. He is an old man, and weary from the recent fighting with Fjordar, and it was no great problem.'
'I begin to see,' Blade chuckled, 'who rules in Voth.'
'You will rule in Voth,' she answered fiercely. 'And I at your side. My father will not live long.'
Blade, watching her through half closed eyes, wondered at her meaning. She was a marvelous elfin child, barbaric and savage, and blood on her hands was somehow innocent because she knew no difference. Her mind was not as befouled and complex as his had been, and was coming to be again as the computer of Lord Leighton probed again and again for him.
Taleen lay against him and whispered in his ear. 'I have talked with Abdias, my father's High Councilor. He operates a net of spies. I have learned much that is of import to us.'
Blade, again ready for jousting, would have topped her but she pushed him back. 'Nay. Listen to me first. I have heard that the Lady Alwyth is dead and Lycanto taken leave of his wits. I am pleased, and thank Frigga for both, but it is a matter you should know of.'
'Why should I care what happens to Lycanto and his lady?' he asked impatiently.
The truth was that his memory of recent events was growing dimmer by the moment. Taleen would never understand that.
She kissed him fiercely. 'Be patient and I will tell you why. It is said that Alwyth was taken flagrant in adultery, and plotting against Lycanto, and so stoned to death. Much too easy a death, I think. Lycanto has fallen into drink, will not be parted from his beer horn for a moment, and many say he is lunatic, or stricken by a Dru curse— it really does not matter which— so he no longer rules Alb.'
Blade raised on an elbow and feigned interest while kissing one of her firm breasts. 'Who does rule in Alb, then?'
'Cunobar the Gray. He has deposed Lycanto— and even now marches north to Voth, with all the Albian army behind him. They will be at our gates in less than a week.'
Blade, his lips brushing a rosy nipple, could find no vast excitement in this intelligence. 'So what of this? Is not this Cunobar a friend to your father, and you?'
'That is true enough. But there is a difference now, my Lord. And it is all of my doing. Or most of it, for Cunobar the Gray has long wanted me for his wife. He spoke for me when I was still a child, as is the custom. I have liked him, but have not loved him, and I never gave him promise. Until— '
Blade left off kissing her breast. 'Until?'
'Until recent days, when I was greatly angered with you. Because you treated me as child and would not see my love. I sent a message to Cunobar the Gray. I— '
It explained so much. Blade held up a hand and said, with a weary laugh, 'You asked Cunobar to march up here and win your hand in fair and honorable combat— by killing me!'
She would not meet his eye. 'I did. I was regretful in the instant, but the messenger had gone. But it is no matter, Lord.'
He followed her glance. She was looking at the great bronze axe, newly burnished by Sylvo, gleaming in the rays of the moon.
'You will slay Cunobar easily enough,' said Taleen. 'He is not as old as his hair tells of him, and he is a fine warrior, but none can stand up to you. I am not worried.'
'Nor am I,' answered Blade. 'Because I am not going to fight Cunobar, in fair combat or foul. I am weary of blood and sick of killing.'
Taleen drew back to stare at him in amazement. 'This cannot be Lord Blade that speaks! You must fight Cunobar— else he can take me for his own. And name you coward to the world.'
A little star of pain exploded in Blade's head. He grimaced and fell into a flurry of temper.
'Let Cunobar take you, then. And the devil too, for that matter!'
The word lingered in the chamber. Devil? The Blade that Taleen knew would have said: Thunor!
Taleen's horror changed to concern. She eyed Blade with a new tenderness. 'You are not well? Frigga help me, I know something is wrong. You do not look the same, my Lord Blade, nor do you speak the same. What is it?'
