‘I was hungry…’ – she shrugged – ‘and I didn’t have time to stop. The wolf didn’t taste very good, but he was raw. If I’d had time to cook him, he might have been better.’
‘You’re a strange woman, my beloved.’
‘That’s why you love me, isn’t it?’
‘Well – it’s one of the reasons. Are you sure we can’t talk about our problem?’ He was obviously coming back to a subject they had discussed before – many times.
‘There’s nothing to talk about. We have to be married twice – once in Atana and then again when we get back to Pelosia. We won’t be really married until we’ve gone through both ceremonies.’
‘We’ll be half married after the ceremony in Atana, won’t we?’
‘Half married isn’t good enough, Kring. I’m a virgin. I’ve killed too many men protecting that to settle for “half married”. You’ll just have to wait.’
He sighed. ‘It’s going to take a long time, you know,’ he said mournfully.
‘It’s not that far from Atana back to your country. I’ll race you there.’
‘It’s not the journey that’s going to take so long, Mirtai. It’s the two months you’ll have to spend in my mother’s tent before the wedding in Pelosia. You’ll have to learn our practices and ceremonies.’
She gave him a long, steady look. ‘You said I have to what?’ There was an ominous tone in her voice.
‘It’s the custom. A Peloi bride always lives for two months with the groom’s mother before the ceremony.’
‘Why?’
‘To learn about him.’
‘I already know about you.’
‘Well, yes, I suppose you do, but it’s the custom.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’
‘Customs often are, but I am Domi, so I have to set a good example – and you’ll be Doma. The Peloi women will have no respect for you if you don’t do what’s expected.’
‘I’ll teach them respect.’ Her eyes had turned flint-hard.
He leaned back on his elbows. ‘I was sort of afraid you might feel this way,’ he sighed.
‘Is that why you didn’t mention it before?’
‘I was waiting for the right time. Is there any wine in that basket? This might be easier if we’re both more relaxed.’
‘Let’s wait. We can get relaxed after you tell me. What is this nonsense?’
‘Let’s see if I can explain it.’ He rubbed his head. ‘When my people say that the bride is “learning about her husband”, it doesn’t really mean that she’s learning about what he expects for breakfast or things like that. What they’re really talking about is the fact that there’s property involved.’
‘I don’t have any property, Kring. I’m a slave.’
‘Not after you marry me, you won’t be. You’ll be a very wealthy woman.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Peloi men own their weapons and their horses. Everything else belongs to the women. Always before, whenever I stole something – cattle, usually – I gave it to my mother. She’s been holding my wealth for me until I get married. She’s entitled to some of it. That’s what the two months is all about. It’s to give the two of you time to agree on the division.’
‘It shouldn’t take us that long.’
‘Well, probably not. My mother’s a reasonable woman, but the two of you will also have to find husbands for my sisters. It wouldn’t be so hard if there weren’t so many of them.’
‘How many?’ Her voice was very hard now.
‘Ah – eight, actually.’
‘Eight?’ She said it flatly.
‘My father was very vigorous.’
‘So was your mother, apparently. Are your sisters presentable?’
‘More or less. None of them are as beautiful as you are though, love – but then who could be?’
‘We can talk about that later. There’s some kind of problem with your sisters, isn’t there?’
Kring winced. ‘How did you know that?’
‘I know you, Kring. You saved mention of these sisters until the very last. That means that you didn’t want to talk about them, and that means there’s a problem. What is it?’
‘They think they’re rich. That makes them put on airs.’
‘Is that all?’
‘They’re very arrogant, Mirtai.’
‘I’ll teach them humility.’ She shrugged. ‘Since there are only eight, I should be able to do it all at once. I’ll just take them all out into the nearest pasture for an hour or so. They’ll be very humble when we come back – and eager to marry any men your mother and I choose for them. I’ll make sure they’re willing to do anything to get away from me. Your mother and I should be able to settle the property division in the morning; I’ll civilize your sisters in the afternoon, and you and I can be married that same evening.’
‘It’s not done that way, my love.’
‘It will be this time. I’m no more enthusiastic about waiting than you are. Why don’t you come over here and kiss me? Now that everything’s been settled, we should take advantage of this opportunity.’
He grinned at her. ‘My feelings exactly, love.’ He took her in his arms and kissed her. The kiss was rather genteel at first, but that didn’t last for very long. Things turned slightly savage after a moment.
‘That’s going to work out just fine,’ Danae said smugly. ‘I wasn’t sure how Mirtai was going to take to the idea of living with Kring’s mother, but she’s got everything in hand now.’
‘She’s going to upset the Peloi, you know,’ Sparhawk said.
‘They’ll live,’ the princess shrugged. ‘They’re too set in their ways anyhow. They need somebody like Mirtai to open their eyes to the modern world. Let’s move on, Sparhawk. We’re not done yet.’
‘How long has this been going on?’ Stragen asked in a slightly choked voice.
‘Since I was a little girl,’ Melidere replied. ‘My father made the dies when I was about seven or so.’
‘Do you realize what you’ve done, Baroness?’
‘I thought we were going to drop the formality, Milord Stragen.’ She smiled at him.
He ignored that. ‘You’ve struck a direct blow at the economy of every kingdom in Eosia. This is monstrous!’
‘Oh, do be serious, Stragen.’
‘You’ve debased the coinage!’
‘I haven’t really, but why should it make any difference to you?’
‘Because I’m a thief! You’ve devalued everything I’ve ever stolen!’
‘No, not really. The value of the coins doesn’t really have anything to do with their true weight. It’s a matter of trust. People may not like their governments, but they trust them. If the government says that this coin is worth a half-crown, then that’s what it’s worth. Its value is based on an agreement, not on weight. If the coin has milled edges, it has the value that’s stamped on its face. I haven’t really stolen anything.’
‘You’re a criminal, Melidere!’
‘How can I be a criminal if I haven’t stolen anything?’
‘What if they find out about what you’ve been doing?’
‘What if they do? They can’t do anything about it. If they say anything or try to do something to me, I’ll just tell the whole story, and every government in Eosia will collapse because nobody will trust their coins any more.’ She touched his cheek. ‘You’re such an innocent, Stragen. I think that’s why I’m fond of you. You pretend to be depraved, but actually you’re like a little boy.’
‘Why did you tell me about this?’
‘Because I need a partner. I can handle these affairs in Eosia, but taking on Tamuli as well might strain my resources just a bit. You have contacts here, and I don’t. I’ll teach you the business and then lease Tamuli to you. I’ll buy you a title and set things up so that you can start immediately.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Why?’ he demanded. ‘Why are you being so generous?’
‘I’m not being gen
erous, Stragen. You will pay your rent every month. I can see to that. And you won’t pay in coins. I want bullion, Stragen – nice, solid bars of gold that I can weigh – and don’t try mixing any copper in, either. I’ll have your throat cut if you ever try that.’
‘You’re the hardest woman I’ve ever known, Melidere.’ He sounded slightly afraid of her.
‘Only in some places, Stragen,’ she replied archly. ‘The rest of me is fairly soft. Oh, that reminds me. We’ll be getting married.’
‘We’ll what?’
‘Partnerships aren’t made in heaven, Milord; marriages are. Marriage will give me one more hold on you, and I’d be an idiot to trust a man like you.’
‘What if I don’t want to get married?’ He sounded a little desperate now.
‘That’s just too bad, Stragen, because, like it or not, you will marry me.’
‘And you’ll have me killed if I don’t, I suppose.’
‘Of course. I’m not going to let you run around loose with this information. You’ll get used to the idea, Milord. I’m in a position to make you deliriously happy – and fabulously wealthy to boot. When have you ever had a better offer?’
The look in Stragen’s eyes, however, was one of sheer panic.
‘Now that was something I didn’t expect,’ Danae said as she and Sparhawk crossed the lawn.
Sparhawk was almost too shocked to answer. ‘You didn’t know about Melidere’s little hobby, you mean?’
‘Oh, of course I knew about that, Sparhawk. Melidere bought her way into mother’s court several years ago.’
‘Bought?’
‘She paid an old countess to step aside for her. What I didn’t expect was the direct way she approached Stragen. I thought she might soften things a little, but she was all business. She carved him into neat little slices, and she didn’t give him any room to move at all while she did it. I think I’ve misjudged her.’
‘No, actually you misjudged Stragen. She used the only technique that had any chance of success with him. Stragen’s very slippery. You’ve got to pin him to the plate with a fork before you can carve him. He probably wouldn’t have listened to an ordinary marriage proposal, so she was all business with him. The marriage was only an incidental part.’
‘Not to her, it wasn’t.’
‘Yes, I know. She did it right, though. I’m going to have to tell your mother about this, you know.’
‘No, actually you’re not. You heard Melidere. Mother wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, and all you’d do is worry her.’
‘They’re stealing millions, Aphrael.’
‘They’re not stealing anything, Sparhawk. What they’re going to do in no way changes the value of money. When you get right down to it, they’re actually creating wealth. The whole world will be better for it.’
‘I don’t entirely follow the logic of that.’
‘You don’t have to, father,’ she said sweetly. ‘Just take my word for it.’ She pointed. ‘We want to go over there next.’
‘Over there’ was beside the moat, where Sephrenia and Vanion walked side by side along the grassy bank. Sparhawk was growing accustomed to his de facto invisibility by now, but it was still strange to have one of his friends look directly at him without acknowledging his presence.
‘It would depend entirely on what kind of fish were locally available,’ Vanion was explaining. Sparhawk could tell that Vanion was explaining because he was using his ‘explaining’ voice, which was quite a bit like his ‘preaching’ voice. Vanion had put whole generations of Pandion novices to sleep – both in the lecture-hall and in chapel.
‘Why is he talking like that?’ Danae asked.
‘Because he’s afraid,’ Sparhawk sighed.
‘Of Sephrenia? Vanion isn’t afraid of anything – least of all Sephrenia. He loves her.’
‘That’s what’s making him afraid. He doesn’t know what to say. If he says the wrong thing, it could all fall apart again.’
‘Now,’ Vanion continued to lecture, ‘there are warmwater fish and cold-water fish. Carp like the water to be warm, and trout like it colder.’
Sephrenia’s eyes were starting to glaze over.
‘The water in the moat has been standing for quite a while, so it’s fairly warm. That would sort of rule out trout, wouldn’t you say?’
‘I suppose so,’ she sighed.
‘But that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t plant some other kind of fish in there. A really good cook can do wonders with carp – and they do help to keep the water clean. There’s nothing like a school of carp to keep standing water from turning stagnant.’
‘No,’ she sighed. ‘I’m sure there isn’t.’
‘What on earth is he doing?’ Danae exploded.
‘It’s called “walking on eggshells”,’ Sparhawk explained. ‘He probably talks a great deal about the weather, too.’
‘They’ll never get back together if he doesn’t talk directly to her about something that matters.’
‘He probably won’t do that, Aphrael. I think Sephrenia’s going to have to take the first step.’
‘I found her!’ Talen’s shout came across the lawn. ‘She’s up in this tree!’
‘Oh, bother!’ Danae said irritably. ‘He wasn’t supposed to find her yet – and what’s she doing up a tree? She wasn’t supposed to climb any trees.’
‘We may as well go on over,’ Sparhawk told her. ‘Everybody’s drifting in that direction. You’d better turn off your spell.’
‘What about Vanion and Sephrenia?’
‘Why don’t we just let them work it out for themselves?’
‘Because he’ll go on talking about fish for the next ten years, that’s why.’
‘Sephrenia will only listen to lectures about fish for just so long, Danae, then she’ll get to the point. Vanion isn’t really talking about fish. He’s telling her that he’s ready to make peace if she is.’
‘He didn’t say anything about that. He was just about to start giving her recipes for boiled carp.’
‘That’s what you heard him saying, but that wasn’t what he was really saying. You’ve got to learn to listen with both ears, Danae.’
‘Elenes!’ she said, rolling her eyes upward.
Then they heard Kalten shout, ‘Look out!’
Sparhawk looked sharply toward the spot where the others were gathered around a tall maple tree. Talen was up among the topmost branches, inching his way slowly out on a very slender limb toward the wild-eyed Mmrr. Things weren’t going well. The limb was sturdy enough to support Mmrr, but Talen was too heavy. The limb was bending ominously, and there were unpleasant cracking sounds coming from its base.
‘Talen,’ Kalten shouted again, ‘get back!’
But by then, of course, it was too late. The tree-limb did not so much break off from the trunk as it did split at its base and peel down the side of the tree. Talen made a desperate grab, caught the confused and terrified cat in one hand, and then plunged headlong down through the lower branches of the tree.
The situation was still not irretrievable. The Church Knights were all versed in various levels of magic, Sephrenia was there, and Aphrael herself rode on Sparhawk’s shoulders. The problem was that no one could actually see Talen. The maple tree had large leaves and the boy was falling down through the limbs and was thus totally obscured by the foliage. They could hear him hitting limbs as he fell, a series of sharp raps and thumps accompanied by grunts and sharp cries of pain. Then he emerged from the lower foliage, falling limply to land with a thud on the grass under the tree with Mmrr still loosely held in one hand. He did not get up.
‘Talen!’ Danae screamed in horror.
Sephrenia concurred with the opinion of Sarabian’s physicians. Talen had suffered no really serious injuries. He was bruised and battered, and there was a large, ugly knot on his forehead from his encounter with the unyielding tree-limb which had knocked him senseless, but Sephrenia assured them that, aside from a splitting headache, he would
have no lasting after-effects from his fall.
Princess Danae, however, was in no mood to be reassured. She hovered at the bedside, reacting with little cries of alarm each time the unconscious boy stirred or made the slightest sound.
Finally, Sparhawk picked her up and carried her from the room. There were people there who probably shouldn’t witness miracles. ‘It got away from you, didn’t it, Aphrael?’ he observed to the distraught Child Goddess.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You had to tamper with things – trying to fix things that would have fixed themselves if you’d just left them alone – and you almost got Talen killed in the process.’
‘It wasn’t my fault that he fell out of the tree.’
‘Whose fault was it, then?’ He knew that logically he was being grossly unfair, but he felt that maybe it was time for the meddling little Goddess to be brought short. ‘You interfere too much, Aphrael,’ he told her. ‘People have to be allowed to live their own lives and to make their own mistakes. We can usually fix our mistakes by ourselves, if you’ll just give us the chance. I suppose that what it gets down to is that just because you can do something doesn’t always mean that you should do it. You might want to think about that.’
She stared at him for a long moment, and then she suddenly burst into tears.
‘Tikume’s bowmen will help,’ Vanion said to Sparhawk a bit later when the two stood together on the parapet. ‘Ulath’s right about Trolls. You definitely want to slow them down before you fight them.’
‘And Khalad’s idea about the crossbows isn’t bad either.’
‘Right. Thank God you brought him along.’ The Preceptor pursed his lips. ‘I’d like to have you take personal charge of Khalad’s training when you get him back to Cimmura, Sparhawk. Make sure that he gets instruction in politics, diplomacy and Church Law as well as in military skills. I think he’s going to go a long way in our order, and I want to be sure he’s ready for any position.’
‘Even yours?’
‘Stranger things have happened.’