He would have to see to it she and Doisy had a conversation about it. But it had to be done delicately or she’d get her back up again. He wanted her to know he wouldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t just use her and leave her to deal with the consequences alone. He was a bastard, but not that much of one.
But he wasn’t going to be anyone’s father either. Or significant lover. He was cursed. And he was on a mission. He didn’t have the right or the inclination to become close to anyone. That was why he liked his men. No one was looking for any great friendships or any kind of attachment. There was no responsibility to that. They could just as easily leave him as stay.
The same was true of her. She could take him or leave him. She was no more into attachments than he was. He was sure of it.
“Have you been on your own all your life?”
“Since I was eleven.”
“That’s young for a girl.”
“My mother died. There wasn’t much of a choice.”
“But she was good to you. Your mother?”
“Yes. As good as any mother, I guess. She loved me, if that’s what you mean. I never doubted it. But life was hard on her. She had to scrape by. We starved sometimes. She worked hard to make a life for me, but it shouldn’t be that hard. You shouldn’t have a child if it’s going to be that hard.”
Ah. Now he understood her fear of becoming pregnant. She had grown up the hard way. Not that it was easy for anyone in this world.
“My father was the condant of a small city. As the children of the ruler of the city we had…I guess you could say a comfortable life. But my father was hard on us. Cold even. He expected us to become great warriors and make our own way in the world. My eldest brother, Dethan, was meant to be condant upon my father’s death and he was, but he was very rarely at the city. He was heading a massive army, acquiring cities as a child would acquire a collection of toys. He fought in the name of Weysa and for the glory of it all. He wanted to be immortalized, wanted to be remembered for all of the days of the future.”
“And did he reach that goal?”
He grimaced. “He did. But it was not all that he thought it would be.”
“It never is,” she said.
Airi felt more comfortable right then. Relieved, in fact, that he had finally deigned to share something of himself with her.
“How did you survive on your own at eleven? It must have been very hard for a small young woman like you.”
“It was hard. I learned to do what needed to be done to take care of myself.”
“You learned to steal.”
“Some. I worked for my food and board too, you know. I’m only a thief when I have to be. I stole from you because it was either that or go hungry.”
“And now look where you are. Comfortably rich in a matter of days. Isn’t it funny how fate turns us?”
“Believe me, I’m thanking Hella every day.”
“The goddess of fate and fortune has very little to do with it. She doesn’t care about what happens to you, you can bet on that.”
“You say that, and yet you talk as though you believe in the gods.”
“I believe the gods are there. And they are, trust me. But the gods don’t have time for us the way people pray they do. They are selfish, cruel creatures.”
“They sound no better than the rest of us mortal beings.”
“They aren’t. Come on. Let’s go. We’re still two days out from Corm if the innkeeper was telling me true. But it’s right along this road.”
“That will make for easy going. That’s something I guess.”
“We will find the temple,” he said firmly. “And we will get that blade.”
She didn’t respond to that. There was nothing to say. They would or they wouldn’t. Fate and fortune would guide the way. Of course, it didn’t hurt to hedge bets.
Sunset approached and Maxum chose a campsite for them before heading off into the forest to be by himself.
One of these days, Airi was going to follow him. She had already made that agreement with herself. She would follow him in secret and get the answers she wanted. However, it would be hard to do that with four babysitters watching her every move. She would have to be clever and devise a plan. If there was one thing she was good at, it was getting what she wanted when she wanted it badly enough.
She set up her bedroll close to the fire they built and then very obligingly set up Maxim’s bedroll for him—on the opposite side of the fire. She didn’t want him to think their truce meant she was going to give him the opportunity to make good on his threats.
Kilon hunted for food, managing to skewer two rabbits. They were plump and well fed, so there was plenty to go around. Airi made certain a portion was set aside for Maxum. Full, she leaned back against her saddle and closed her eyes. Doisy began to sing one of the Songs of the Gods very softly. She supposed that knowing Maxum would not be coming back until after juquil’s hour he felt it was safe to do so. He sang one of the songs about Kerion, the mortal lover of the goddess Meru. She found that to be a coincidental choice considering they were looking for Meru’s temple.
The tale said that Meru fell in love with Kerion when she happened upon him bathing in a stream. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Even more beautiful than the gods. But she feared he would be vain and shallow and decided to test him. She appeared to him as a homely young woman. Kerion was with his companions that day and bragged that with his beauty he could seduce any woman, young or old. His friends saw Meru in her homely appearance and they challenged him to seduce her. Being beautiful Kerion was used to a certain amount of adulation from others and he expected he could seduce even the homeliest woman. But Meru resisted his attempts to seduce her at every turn, frustrating the arrogant young man. After a time the bet was considered lost and Kerion had to pay for his failure. But he did not mind that for finally he had found a woman worth winning. She cared nothing for his beauty and he cared nothing about her ugliness. Eventually he learned to like her for who she was and eventually he came to love her. Once she was certain he had learned his lesson and learned humility, she finally allowed him to seduce her in her homely disguise. And afterward still he loved her. So she stood up, discarded her disguise, and showed the blinding beauty of her countenance to him.
They were lovers from that point onward. Meru lifted him from his mortality, making him a demigod, allowing him to live by her side in the eight heavens with all of the gods.
This was only the happy story of Meru and Kerion. There was a second story where Kerion betrays Meru by sleeping with a mortal woman and falling in love with her. In a jealous rage, Meru turned the girl into a doe and then sent a hunter to hunt her. The hunter killed the doe, but Meru’s rage was not satisfied. She stripped Kerion of his beauty, turning him into a hideous beast and banished him to a labyrinth in the middle of a vast desert where he would live out his immortality.
Yet another example of the ways in which the gods could be just as fallible as the mortals they were supposed to guide and protect. Was it any wonder that many had stopped worshipping the twelve gods? But still there were many who did. She was not a worshipper herself. As far as she was concerned there were far more mortal things to worry about than to worry about the existence of the gods.
“Doisy,” she said when he was done, “what god do you worship?”
“I am a cleric for Mordu, of course, the god of love!”
Airi laughed. “I should have guessed!”
“Indeed you should have.”
“And you are a healer.”
“Among other things. I can cure many ills and prevent them from coming in the future. Not entirely of course, there is no healer who can do that. But to some extent I can help keep a body healthy.”
“What could you do to keep me healthy?”
“You are quite healthy enough on your own,” he said. “But now that you mention it, I can prevent you from getting with child.”
That made her go still inside. ?
??How can you do that?”
“There is a potion you can drink.”
“Why would you tell me about this now?” she asked suspiciously.
“I will not try to hide it from you…our leader asked me to mention it to you if the opportunity arose.”
Airi’s face burned hot suddenly and so did her temper. “Oh, he did, did he? Well you can tell him that it won’t make a difference! I still wouldn’t fuck him if he were the very last man alive!”
“I think you can tell him that yourself,” Doisy said with a chuckle. “I think I should like to keep out of the middle of it. But should you need the potion you only need to ask. Perhaps you can use it in the future for some other…purpose.”
As hot as her temper was, there was something tempting about Doisy’s potion. She had kept out of men’s beds for almost all of her life for fear of getting with child. Doisy’s potion meant that could change if she wanted it to.
“Could you show me how to make this potion? In case I need it in the future for someone else.”
“I most certainly can do that. It is actually quite simple and you can obtain the ingredients in any town apothecary.”
“How long does it last?”
“From one woman’s blush to the next. It is expelled with your blush and then must be renewed.”
“I see. And it never fails?”
“Never. I give it to every woman I bed before I bed her. It has never failed me.”
She gave him a slow smile. “Show me how.”
—
When Maxum returned to the campsite it seemed the truce he’d established with Airi had been obliterated somehow. She made no secret of her temper with him and he wondered what he had done since leaving the campsite earlier.
The mystery of it was solved when Doisy enlightened him. The cleric informed him that she had not taken kindly to being steered and manipulated. But, the cleric also informed him that she had learned how to make the potion and had ingested it to try its flavor.
Or so she said. Maxum saw it as if she had waved a battle flag, commencing an attack. Now there was nothing stopping him from seducing her if he wished to. All he had to do was get past all her prickles and temper. If only she would stop fighting him. He knew she desired him. Whether her mind had wanted it to or not, her body had responded to his.
He could use that. If he waited for her to come around to the idea in her mind he would be waiting a very long time he suspected. That meant a full-on seduction was called for, and he was a man of many talents when it came to that.
He found it intriguing how fired up he was over her. His focus had been so pure before she had come to the group. He had a goal: to gain as much power as possible and then fight and kill a god. Only then could he be free of this damned curse. Sabo’s cruelty knew no bounds. He would never lift the curse of his own accord. No. Death was the only way.
But then she had come and now he found his focus split. Now he found himself wanting to conquer two goals. One far more pleasant than the other. And why shouldn’t he? When he attacked Sabo at last there was a good chance that the god could strike him down in spite of all these magically imbued items he was collecting. After all, it was the gods who had made the weapons in the first place, wasn’t it? Could they not just as easily destroy them?
He didn’t know, but he was gambling that they couldn’t. Just as he was gambling on his ability to win over a very stubborn thief. He would win her and enjoy her—one last human delight before he threw his life to the wind.
Yes. The more he thought about it…the more he knew he would make it happen. He would conquer both goals. He would win.
He would win.
The next day went pretty much the same as the first. Maxum tried to call another truce with Airi, but this time she wasn’t biting. She turned up her pert little nose and turned her back on him. She spent the day riding with either Doisy or Dru. She even chose Kyno’s company for a little while rather than ride beside him.
But that was okay. The challenge of it lightened his spirit so much he began to whistle as he rode.
She remained untouchable all the way to the village of Corm. Once they entered the village Maxum stopped by the first house he saw that was occupied and asked after some refreshment. The man invited them in and traded some bread and stew for gold. He also was forthcoming about the story of Isa.
“It’s made us famous that story. The village is three times bigger than it used to be. And people come by all the time in search of that temple. You got the look of you. You won’t find it, you know. No one ever has.”
“So no one knows what direction it might be in?”
“North or south, people have looked both ways for centuries. You won’t find it, I tell you.”
“Thank you for your time and your stew,” Maxum said politely and they took their leave of the man. “Let’s find the river and go from there. We’ll search south for a few days then come north and search that way. We’ll find it.”
“So we’re looking for Meru’s temple?” Doisy asked. He whistled long and low. “Not much treasure to be found in a temple.”
“The treasure will come,” Maxum promised. “We just have to do this first.”
Airi looked at him dubiously. She knew full well that after this he planned to search for Faya’s Wrath. There wasn’t likely to be much reward in that search either. All they knew was that it was in an inky well in the middle of the Golan Desert. Desert travel was tough going, especially when searching blindly for something that likely didn’t exist at all. She wondered how long his party of men would put up with such a search. Not very long she wagered.
They were leaving the old man’s cottage when Airi saw a small half-naked child in the middle of the muddy street. It had been raining a soft drizzle for most of the day and now the ground was soft. The child looked very thin and its eyes were too big for its head, its head too big for its frail body. The child was so dirty she couldn’t even tell if it was a girl or a boy. Her heart turned over in her chest. She walked away from Hero and approached the child.
“Where are you from?” she asked.
“My mum’s house.”
“Where is your mum?” she asked with a smile.
“Over there.” The child pointed to a ramshackle cottage on the edge of the muddy street. There was no door on the sagging framework, the thatching on the roof had gone threadbare in places. Airi walked over to the door and peered inside. There, lying in a wooden pallet, was a sickly woman.
“How do you fare, my lady?” she asked gingerly from the door. “I’ve come across your child.”
“He’s not being a bother to you, is he? He’s usually such a good boy,” she said, the congestion in her chest making her cough mid-sentence.
Airi looked around. She saw wet spots on the dirt floor where the rain had come through those threadbare portions of roofing.
“Your boy is fine. But I worry for you, my lady.”
She laughed at Airi’s address. It was probable no one had ever called her “my lady” in her life. The laugh led to horrendous racking coughs.
“Have you no one to look out for you?” she asked the woman.
“It’s just me and Lorre,” she said as she struggled to sit up and get to her feet. Airi hastened to stop her.
“No need to get up, little mother. I am no one special.”
Airi sat her back onto the bed then knelt beside her so she wouldn’t have to look up to see her face.
“Please,” Airi said softly, “let me help you.”
She went into her thieves’ belt and withdrew two gold coins, enough money to feed a family of two for two months. Then she thought better of it and came up with four coins. She pressed them into the woman’s cold, frail hand.
“Enough to feed you and the child while you are ailing.”
“I cannot! It is too much! I have always taken care of us by myself.”
“Get well and then you may support him on your own. There is nothing wrong with accepti
ng help when it comes.”
The woman bit her pale lip. Her eyes filled with tears. “I cannot say no. We are starving. My boy is starving. I thank you, my lady,” she said fervently.
“Get well. Care for the child. That is thanks enough.”
Airi rose to her feet and walked out of the cottage. Standing in the doorway was Maxum, and he had a most curious expression on his face.
“What?” she demanded of him.
“Nothing,” he said, holding up his hands.
He was quiet as he followed her, but she could feel his amusement. It danced in his eyes. She ignored him and went to the blacksmith’s shop.
“Sor, do you have a thatcher in town?”
“I’m the thatcher round here.” He eyed her. “You got a roof that needs thatching?”
“Yes. See that house right there?” She pointed to the woman’s house.
“Farra’s place?”
“Yes. I want you to thatch her roof and do it as soon as possible. Here’s one gold for the job.”
It was an exorbitant price to pay, far more than was required, but she didn’t really care.
“All right. Will do it!” The man took her money. Airi turned around to leave and nearly ran into Maxum’s chest.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” she demanded of him.
“Not when this is such an interesting a place to be.”
“What’s so interesting about it?” she asked him, her tone hard and warning.
“I find it interesting that the woman who has been harping on me for giving my money away since I met her is suddenly throwing hers away left and right.”
“I’m not throwing it away. I am doing it to help somebody. There’s a big difference between doing it to help someone and doing it just because you want to get your way.”
“If you say so,” he said.
“I do,” she said with a stubborn lift of her chin. “Now shut up about it.”
“You know what I think?”
“That isn’t shutting up,” she pointed out in a surly tone.
“I think you see some of yourself in that child. He reminds you of what it was like to grow up all alone with your mother.”