She walked stiffly across the room and sat on the end of the bed. Meliu straightened her dress and pulled the covers over Noran's bare legs in an attempt at decency.
'You've fucked more men than the female population of this city, who are you to judge your sister?' Noran said.
'That is true,' said Luia, smoothing a hand across the blankets. 'I would not think twice about this squalid little tumble between you. In fact, if I had known you were looking for some bedroom action, I would have helped you myself.'
'So why are you looking so smug?'
'My husband expects the least from me,' Luia said, leaning back with all the contentment of a cat with a rat. 'I am not sure he would be so forgiving of my sister. And I never sleep with any of his friends or subordinates.'
Meliu's expression was of growing realisation of what they had done and her voice broke into sobs when she spoke.
'Ullsaard will kill us,' she said.
Noran dismissed her worries with a shake of the head.
'No, not for this.' He turned back to Luia. 'And besides, he is not going to find out, is he?'
'If you are worried about him finding out, then you are worried about how he will react,' said Luia. 'You are close friends, but Ullsaard is a territorial man, used to being in command. He does not like it when his wishes are disobeyed, and more importantly he gets very angry when his expectations are not met. You know this. And he is a violent man by nature.'
Noran leapt out of the bed and lunged for Luia, but she skipped away and he tripped on his falling trousers, landing flat on his face. Luia's laugh filled the room.
'What are you going to do to silence me? Kill me? That is not going to work, is it? Threaten me? You cannot, there is nothing you know that is as damaging as what I know.'
'For the sake of your sister?' suggested Noran, awkwardly hauling himself back onto the bed. 'She will be blamed as much as me.'
'Meliu is safe because she is also Allenya's sister. Ullsaard will beat her, severely I would say, but he knows she is dim-witted but harmless, and he will suspect you of seducing her. If he hears the story from the wrong person…'
'What is it that you want from me?' asked Noran as he secured his trousers and tightened his belt. 'Money?'
'I do not know… Yet.' Luia approached Noran and he flinched as she reached a hand out towards his groin. 'Perhaps it is you I want.'
'No, no, no!' Noran backed away. 'To sleep with one wife might be forgiven, but I am not repeating the mistake.'
'This was a mistake, was it?' There was a brittle timbre to Meliu's question and Noran had to choose his words carefully.
'It was a mistake to be caught, but what happened between us was not wrong. We needed each other and found each other at the right time. That is all.'
'Shameful!' laughed Luia. 'You show no remorse at all for fucking your friend's wife. Does Ullsaard mean so little to you now? Perhaps I would be doing my husband a favour by telling him of your disdain. Betrayal can grow so quickly, you know. First you take one of Ullsaard's wives, next you will be heading back to Askh to gain favour with the king by hanging Ullsaard out to dry.'
'I would never do that!'
'A year ago you would never have slept with me,' said Meliu, jumping from the bed. Noran dragged his gaze away from her swinging breasts and looked at her distraught face. 'Was this some way of getting at Ullsaard? Were you going to use me?'
Noran had to laugh with the shock of it all, a bitter snorting that threatened to engulf him.
'You really are a stupid cow if you believe this bitch.'
'I think you had better leave,' Meliu said primly. 'Urikh will be back shortly.'
'It might be best if you leave the city altogether,' said Luia. 'To avoid the temptation of a second performance. I have to protect my sister's reputation.'
Noran looked at the two women, who were now standing side by side. He tried to comprehend what was happening, but found no reasonable explanation. Noran was forced to conclude that the pair of them had either conspired to trap him, or were most certainly insane. Leaving the city sounded like a fine idea.
'I shall pack my things and leave before dusk,' Noran assured them. 'I will go to Ullsaard and explain to him what has happened. If he chooses to kill me, so be it. It might even be a relief.'
Noran hurried from the room, confused and angry. Luia's laughter followed him down the passageway. He stopped on the landing, turned around and strode back into the bedchamber.
'Get out!' he snapped at them. 'This is my room!'
Anrair
Spring, 209th Year of Askh
I
A town's mood was like the weather; you could sense when it was changing. Gelthius knew what it was like to live in a place where the harvest had failed, or the local chieftain had died to be replaced by a better or worse man. He could sense the mood of Talladmun in the quiet of the markets; the nervous manner of people in the streets; the houses left empty by families that had fled.
The town knew war was coming soon.
'There he is.'
Gelthius looked at his companion, the general's eldest son, Urikh. He was pointing at a third captain standing with a company of legionnaires at the duskward road leading into the market. The officer was tall and thickset, with a flat face and straight-cropped hair poking out from under his helmet. Urikh passed Gelthius a folded piece of parchment sealed with a blob of wax.
Gelthius headed across the market with the message, ambling through the thin crowd looking at the wares on display. It was meagre fare. Only those farms within a couple of days' of the town had brought their winter stores. Everybody farther afield was too scared to travel, though whether it was the renegade legions or the hillmen brigands that frightened them more Gelthius couldn't say.
He stopped at one wagon laden with limp spring cabbages and listened to the farmer asking for far more than they were worth. The woman shopping shook her head and walked away. It was the same all over the town. No ore meant the forges had gone cold. No food meant prices were rising so quickly only the governor and his legion could buy anything, and often they did, taking all of the available food, leaving the people of the town to go hungry.
Crossing the open pavement to where the third captain stood, Gelthius performed his 'tripping up' routine. Rather than shouting at him as usually happened, the captain stepped up to help Gelthius to his feet. Surprised, the Salphor almost forgot to slip the message to the captain. He pushed the parchment into the officer's hands with a whisper.
'Read it later, in private.'
With that, Gelthius staggered away, leaving the confused Askhan captain looking dumbly at the letter for a few moments before he carefully folded it and pushed it down into his breastplate.
'My brother is an idiot,' Urikh muttered when Gelthius rejoined him. 'Let us just hope he has not forgotten how to read.'
