'Who, Alys?' Mika asked intently. 'Who do you see?'
'Yet how can it be him?' Alys went on eerily. 'Oh, but it is. That is all that matters. I run to him. Yes, I run to him, to throw my arms around him. But…' Her body began to shake violently. 'What is wrong? He is… he is so cold. And the smell-like the damp, fetid earth.' Her voice rose to a scream. 'No! Don't touch me! His kiss… his kiss is filled with writhing worms!'
Mika gripped the young woman's shoulder fiercely. 'Who, Alys? Who is it you see?'
Alys's cry of anguish froze Mika's blood. 'Oh, Robart! What have they done to you?' The young woman collapsed into Mika's arms, sobbing.
'Who… who is Robart?' Mika finally managed to ask.
Marga's voice was so faint Mika had to strain to hear it. 'Robart was Alys's lover. He was executed by the inquisition almost a week ago.'
Mika swallowed the metallic taste of fear, trying to grasp the implication of Marga's words. The sound of murmuring brought her head around. Alys was chanting the queer melody once more.
'Whose kisses drown me,
With sweet, cold breath…'
Mika watched through the grimy window as the peasant woman led her blankly staring daughter away down the muddy street. There was little hope Alys would ever recover her sanity. The imagined sight of her dead lover-or perhaps real, Mika dared to think after her strange experience in the charnel house-had struck too deep a blow to Alys's psyche. Mika had visited the asylum in II Aluk more than once. There she had seen men and woman who, like Alys, had also witnessed things so unspeakable their minds were shattered. Lost Ones, they were called- lost, because they never found their sanity again.
Mika shivered, wishing there was someone there to hold her, to speak geRtle words of comfort and help her forget the day's disturbing events. But there was no one. She felt utterly and completely alone. She lifted the golden locket that hung around her neck and opened the tiny latch. Inside was painted a portrait, small as a robin's egg, of a young man with kind brown eyes. Suddenly Mika found herself shaking-not with sorrow-but with anger.
'Why, my love?' she whispered bitterly. 'Why did you leave me? How could you leave me alone in this dark and terrible world?'
Somehow she had always forgiven little Lia-she was just a child-but Geordin was her husband. He should have clung to life. But he had given up. Geordin had died, abandoning her.
Mika clutched the locket tightly, tears of rage streaming down her cheeks. 'How could you be so cruel, Geordin?' she said hoarsely, choking on her words. 'How dare you leave me alone like this?' She jerked the locket from around her neck. The gold chain snapped. At long last she spoke the words that burned inside her. 'I… I hate you, Geordin!' she cried, hurling the locket across the room. 'I hate you for leaving me alone!'
Sobbing, she collapsed into a chair, curling herself into ball like a small, frightened child.
An hour later, as the blood-red sun waned slowly on the western horizon, a courier entered the room to find Mika in that same position. He cleared his throat.
'Ahem.'
Startled, Mika leapt to her feet, seeing that she was no longer alone. She roughly wiped the dampness from her pale cheeks.
'I am sorry to disturb you, my lady,' the courier said with a half-bow. He was clad in a frilly suit of pale blue silk, and he wore a powdered wig.
'Not at all,' she finally managed to voice the words.
The courier went on in a bored tone. 'I am pleased to inform my lady that the baron has requested her presence at the keep this evening. A carriage awaits outside, and he has sent my lady this gift.' He snapped his fingers, and a page with a powdered face and rouged lips scurried into the chamber carrying a puffy mound of satin the exact lavender hue of Mika's eyes. He plopped it down on the table. It was a gown.
'May I inform the baron that my lady will be accepting his invitation?'
Mika's lips started to form the word No. She didn't dare visit Caidin at the keep again. It would be tantamount to a rabbit paying the wolf a house-call. Abruptly she halted. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a dull glint of gold on the floor-the locket. Again a wave of bitter loneliness swept through her. The voice that spoke hardly seemed her own.
'Tell the baron I will gladly accept his invitation.'
The courier bowed again, retreating from the room with the page.
'What have I done?' Mika whispered in a quavering voice, but it was too late. The courier had gone, and she was expected.
Twilight was wrapping its thick, gray mantle around the spires of Nartok Keep as Mika stepped from the carriage. The smooth satin of the gown felt almost delicious against her skin, and the thought that something the baron had chosen now touched her body so intimately made her feel vaguely wicked. The white-faced page led her through labyrinthine corridors, so that soon she became utterly lost. At last they stopped before an ornately carved door. Mika stepped through it and found herself in a chamber richly appointed with crystal, gold- threaded damask, and gilded wood. Baron Caidin rose from a divan of crushed velvet to greet her.
'My lady,' he murmured in his rich voice. 'You look ravishing.'
He kissed her hand lingeringly. She started to snatch her hand away, then stopped. Why shouldn't she wish to be touched and caressed after so many years alone? The baron glanced up at her, surprise and delight apparent in his vivid green eyes. Gripping her hand, he led her deeper into the chamber. He poured her a glass of dark, ruby- colored wine. She gulped it down.
'More,' she breathed, holding out the goblet.
He arched an eyebrow wonderingly, then complied. Greedily, she drained the glass. Warmth flowed through her, dulling the horrors of the day and the regrets of the past. At last she set the empty goblet down. The baron regarded her with a bemused expression. He wore only a pair of tight-fitting breeches and a loose white shirt unlaced at the collar. She could easily make out the muscular lines of his chest beneath the delicate material.
For a moment Mika wondered if she should leave. The baron was a dangerous enigma to her. On her last visit to the keep he had displayed great kindness for an ill servant. Yet this was the same man, she knew, who was waging a brutal inquisition in his fief- dom-an inquisition that had stolen the life of Alys's lover and left her a Lost One with a shattered mind. Then there was Wort. Why had Caidin warned her to stay away from the bell tower? Did he truly believe that his half brother might harm her? Or did he have some other, darker motives she could not fathom?
Caidin gestured to a table set with gold and crystal. 'I thought we could dine together, my lady.'
Slowly she shook her head. 'No, Your Grace.'
He regarded her in puzzlement. 'I'm sorry, my lady?'
Satin rustling softly, she approached the baron. 'I am not hungry for dinner, Your Grace.' She reached out and ran a finger along the smooth line of his jaw.
His expression was one of total shock. He looked almost like a small, startled boy whose secret dreams had wonderfully and quite unexpectedly come true. The baron's lips parted in a toothy grin. Languidly, Mika shut her eyes. Strong hands moved down the sides of her body, and warm, moist breath caressed her neck. It had been so very long since she had been touched this way.
'My beautiful doctor.'
The voice filled her senses. For the space of a heartbeat, Mika found herself trying to picture a face-the face of a man with kind brown eyes. But all she could envision was darkness. Reflexively, she reached up to touch the gold locket that always hung at her breast. Instead her fingers closed around a warm, strong hand. Slowly she opened her eyes.
'Your Grace…'
Her words were willingly drowned in the passion of his embrace.
In her private chamber, Jadis slipped out of her customary green-gold gown to stand naked before a full- length mirror. Tonight was the perfect night to pursue her investigations. She had managed to neutralize the
