[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Mephistis paced the room.
"She says she did not stick him."
Dane rubbed his chin, trying to mask his incredulity. "And you believe that?"
He finally said in a flat voice. "Two of those blades were poisoned. Sa'necari
do not poison their blades, they rune them. Death Lotus and hydra venom. Hard
things to come by, and yet..." Not hard for someone like Bodramet and Dane had
seen him and Margren talking too often together. Bodramet could have provided
them to Margren.
"No. However, there's no way to prove it without breaking her mind. I made
her too strong. I will not do that." Mephistis paused, to regard Dane with
eyes gone hard as stone. "I need her fully aware and in one piece. I will not
make a meat puppet of her the ways you vampires do."
Dane nodded. "The room was crowded, she could have been among them. He is
strong of will. Stubborn. But someone knows what he is. Who he is. No one
wants him, Mephistis. The Light does not want him. The Darkness will not have
him. Not even the nethergod would allow him to live. He is anathema to all
creation. What can you possibly be thinking? Let him die. It would be a
kindness." Despite his words, Dane did not wish Isranon to die, only to see
Page 226
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the youth's suffering at an end, certain that only death could bring him peace
and escape  unless he could convince Isranon to come away with him, and he
knew already that the youth would not.
"I did not ask your opinion, vampire. I said, heal him."
Dane smiled thinly. "So be it. But once he is well, my people and I are
leaving. This last episode has been too much."
* * * *
It took two days of wheedling and teasing and talking and threatening, but
Tamlestari finally got enough out of Aejys about her meeting with Tehmistoclus
to become furious.
"Who the fucking hell does that priest think he is?" Tamlestari shouted,
pacing back and forth.
Aejys, sitting in the window chair, shrugged. "Knew you'd react this way,"
she muttered.
"What?"
"I didn't want to tell you, Estari... You didn't exactly leave me many
options..." Aejys said, half apologetic, half exasperated.
"Huh! You should not have had any!"
"Estari, it would be better if you calmed down first," Aejys suggested.
"We're guests here... You can't go storming the temple."
"Oh, can't I? If he doesn't back off I'm going to kick his High Holy Ass up
between his ears," Tamlestari said, lowering her voice but still bordering on
shouting. She turned her back on Aejys, stalking to the stairs. "And I mean
it."
Aejys just nodded: she had run out of words.
Laurelyanne, who had been listening at the bottom of the stairs, jumped out
of the way as Tamlestari raced past and out the door. The old mage stood
shaking her head in the prince's wake. "It's been a centuries since anyone
really took a swing at Tehmistoclus," she mused, mostly to herself.
"She'll do it," Aejys said, drawing Laurelyanne's eyes to the head of the
stairs. "I wanted to tell him that he was dealing with a Sharani hellion, not
some sweet, innocent young girl."
"He would not have appreciated the information..." Laurelyanne said, gravely.
"Then let him learn the hard way," Aejys laughed suddenly and Laurelyanne
joined in.
"The hard way. Yes. Yes. Yes," Laurelyanne laughed, adding, "This time I'd
say he deserves his lumps."
* * * *
The gardens around the temple were already beginning to brown under the chill
autumn weather and the priests were scattered throughout, gathering in the
last of the herbs they grew, their green robes bright against the brown. Their
Page 227
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
movements were slow and thorough, completely at peace until Tamlestari
arrived. She stormed down the walk, through the browning privet hedge, and
into the gardens.
Spying the nearest young priest, she marched up to him. He stood instantly,
straightening his robes with a flick. "You there!" she shouted, grabbing him
by collar and pulling up on his tiptoes.
The priest flinched, dropping his eyes in confusion and dismay. "Yes?" he
queried softly.
"Just where the hell is Tehmistoclus," she screamed in his face, "and who the
hell does he think he is sticking his nose into my relationships?"
Priests looked up from their gardening, some leaning on their baskets, others
settling cross-legged with lapfuls of various herbs, to watch her. Other than
that no one moved, but everyone in the courtyard heard her. It would soon be
all over Vallimrah, passing from village to village, that the High Priest had
blundered and endangered the Promise.
"Please," a soft-spoken brother in brown robes touched her arm lightly to get
her attention. She spun, releasing her captive with enough force to send him
tumbling to hands and knees. He quickly scampered away, disappearing rapidly
into the temple.
Tamlestari glanced significantly at the hand on her arm before knocking it
away when the newcomer did not move fast enough to suit her. "What do you
want?"
The brother winced. "To take you to Father Tehmistoclus."
"About time!"
* * * *
As soon as the door opened, the brother who had brought her fled.
Tehmistoclus rose from his seat in his study and greeted her. "My lady," he
said softly, "You wish to speak with me?"
"I want to know what right you have to be interrogating my lover?" Tamlestari
demanded, her face still flush with anger. "Who I sleep with is my business
and no one else's!"
Tehmistoclus paled a little before her anger and straightforward speech. What
he had expected the princess of Vallimrah to be like was nothing like what he
found. The small, furious warrior in tunic and trousers with the steel rose of
the Odarens embroidered on her shoulder, her short black tipped hair held in
place by a beaded head band, was clearly a woman to be reckoned with and not
the delicate young girl that most Valdren women were at her age. He realized
that it had been a mistake not to become acquainted with her before taking
Aejys to task about their relationship. There was no longer any question in
his mind that Tamlestari would not allow anyone to take undue advantage of
her, even in their speech.
"Did Aejystrys Rowan tell you about your ma'aram?" he asked quietly, waving
his hand for her to sit.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Tamlestari reined her temper in
enough to stop shouting and sat down.
Page 228
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
He joined her. "Perhaps you should discuss this child and your choice of mate
with your ma'aram," Tehmistoclus suggested diplomatically.
The flush faded from Tamlestari's fair skin. She felt as if reality had just
dropped out from under her as the implication of his words sank in.
"Kalestari? But she's dead."
"That, my child, is a matter of definition." Tehmistoclus's expression
relaxed as he re-took control of the conversation. "You know the tale of her
death? Of how Aurean the Golden, Queen of the sa'necari of Waejontor, changed
into a dragon before the gates of Sharatier? Of how your ma'aram put aside her
mortal form and challenged her as a fireborn?"
"Yes," she said quietly, "I have been collecting the stories of her. My amita
was going to write a history of her. I intend to finish it."
"An admirable undertaking. Then you must know the parts that only our people
know. The fireborn blood is strong in your line. As is the dragon blood among
the royal line of the Waejontori. The dragon fire and the phoenix flame filled
the night. When the battle ended Aurean had died and your ma'aram lay mortally
wounded. But dying, she had fallen behind the Waejontori lines..." The lines
in his face deepened then with pain and anguish. "Before we could break
through..." He exhaled heavily. "One of their initiates had taken mortgiefan,
the death gift, from her. Do you know what that means?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]