Children of Chaos

The disputants eyed each other warily and declared a truce.

Benard folded his massive arms. 'How do you plan to escape the Cutrath disaster?'

'I shall need your help. As my nearest male relative, you have a duty to escort me to Tryfors.'

He pouted. 'Satrap Horold would rather I remain here in Kosord, in an unmarked grave.'

'We'll discuss it tonight,' Ingeld said firmly. 'Um, everything all right for tonight?'

He grinned with what seemed like sheer boyish glee. 'She's willing!' He did not deign to explain to his sister who was willing to do what.

'Get your hair cut,' Ingeld said, sounding more like a mother than dynast of the city. 'I'll send a chariot for you. The brother of the bride must be present at the feast. Did your robe arrive? I'll send one for Thod, too!'

Benard's huge grin flashed back, wiping ten years from him. 'He'll eat himself sick and his mother will die of pride!'

'That's what feasts are for.' Ingeld waved to the boy to bring the chariot.

Fabia had just taken her first proper look at the three silent bystanders, the marble goddesses. Horth would give gold by the bucket for such art. 'Benard, you carved these? But they're ... beyond words! Oh, I am so proud to have a brother who can do this. This is holy Mayn, of course? And this one? ...'

twenty-nine

INGELD NARSDOR

whipped up the team and sent the chariot rattling across the yard. That had gone very well. She had not blushed like a child on seeing her lover and Benard had behaved himself as well as could be expected. Fabia could have no reason to guess their secret.

'Does he remember?' the girl asked.

'Remember what?'

'His parents giving him away—our parents.'

'Yes he does. It scarred him terribly. The first time I met him, he was curled up in a ball. It was a sixday before he would uncurl long enough to feed himself.' For a thirty or so, she had been the only person who could get him to straighten out. A year later—when he had finally stopped following her around the palace all the time, when he would sometimes talk with other people, even play with other children—any mention of his family, his home, the war, any of those, and he would promptly just curl up again. On some level, he was still doing it.

Fabia said, 'Is he bitter?'

'Very.'

'I don't. Remember, I mean. I was a baby.'

'Of course not. Curse my sister-in-law! She is going to drag you away before we can even begin to get to know each other.' But Fabia's arrival could have been a serious impediment to the lovers' planned flight, for she would certainly notice their disappearance, even if everyone else was too busy partying. So bless Saltaja for whipping her away again so promptly! 'And you'll miss most of the feast. You don't have to eat until you're sick, but you are entirely free to do so.'

The girl laughed, neither too much nor too little. She was strong and deep-breasted, not sylphlike like Benard's goddesses, but she sparkled with youth and health, and her royal breeding showed in poise and diffidence, wit and intelligence. Broad shoulders must run in the family. She would be wasted on Cutrath, who had not yet discovered that women had uses outside bedrooms.

Fabia might also be a spoiled brat, accustomed to getting her own way, overindulged by a wealthy father. Her demand that Benard drop everything to escort her, while not absurd, could have been more tactfully phrased. Her flat assertion that she would never marry a Werist was as unrealistic as some of his crazier logic. It was a rare bride who had any say in the selection of her husband, and girls with dynastic claims never did, as Ingeld well knew. Fabia would be taken to Tryfors under guard, and there her choice would be wedding ring with or without thumbscrews.

'Benard is stubborn, isn't he?' Fabia asked.

'Bena? Why, he flows as smoothly as the Wrogg.'

'And only one way?' She was quick.

'Exactly one.' Ingeld waved to acknowledge cheers. 'He refuses to see trouble until he steps in it. Who was the man who came with you?'

'My foster father, Horth Wigson. Saltaja brought him along as hostage for the hostage. I suspect Eide is currently looting his home and business.'

'Very likely. I saw him dissolve into the crowd. It was smoothly done.' His absence might tempt Fabia to try an escape, Ingeld thought, and wondered if the girl knew how dangerous Saltaja Hragsdor was. 'Will he be all right?'

'He will own half of Kosord within the year.'

It was Ingeld's turn to laugh. 'We have Ucrists here, too.' Fabia's grin was impish. 'Pity them.'

¦

Ingeld swept into the palace like a spring flood. She summoned the flankleader of the palace guard; sent for a pair of golden rods; committed Fabia to the tender care of San-sya, who rushed her away, both of them chattering happily in Florengian; established that Saltaja had been given a room but was now closeted with Horold and thus