Kushiel's Scion - Jacqueline Carey [177]
And at my throat, the keen edge of a dagger.
"What do you want with the Unseen Guild?" Claudia whispered in my ear.
My eyes flew open. A jolt of pure terror went through me, and I reacted unthinking, whipping my head backward with as much force as I could muster. There was a smothered cry as the back of my skull cracked hard against her face, and I felt a stinging pain at my throat. I caught her right arm, forcing it outward, and drove her backward with my own weight.
There was a scramble as I whirled to confront her. Claudia was strong, but I was stronger; and I had been taught to wrestle. I pinned her to the bed, grabbing her right wrist and digging my thumb into its underside until her hand opened involuntarily.
The dagger dropped, harmless.
"Damn it!" she swore irritably.
I lay naked atop her, panting, blood dripping from the graze at my throat, and stared at her in shock and disbelief. "What in hell is the Unseen Guild?"
"Let me up." Claudia struggled futilely, the scowled at me. Her lower lip was swelling where my head had struck it. "Oh, please! It's just a test. I wasn't going to harm you. I didn't expect you to be that fast."
I shook my head. Shifting, I braced one forearm over her throat. "Talk," I said. "And no shouting for help. I can crush your throat before the first servant arrives."
She rolled her eyes. "You won't."
"I will," I said grimly.
Claudia merely laughed, wriggling her fulsome body beneath me. Impossible as it seemed, I felt the stir of desire returning. A gleam of triumph lit her eyes. I cursed and sprang off her, scrambling for the fallen dagger.
"Feel better?" she asked wryly, sitting up and twisting her hair into a loose cable.
I felt like an idiot, actually, crouched naked and wielding a dagger in the private chamber of a woman I had just bedded. I could smell her juices on my skin. But the damp trickle working its way down my throat was blood, my blood. I stared at her. She sat, naked and unperturbed beneath my gaze. Slowly, my desire-besotted, terror-frozen mind began to work.
"This is about covertcy," I said. "Isn't it?"
Claudia Fulvia blew me a kiss. "Congratulations, Prince Imriel."
* * *
Chapter Thirty-Seven
We talked long into the night.
Once I let her off the bed, Claudia tended to my graze. With my wary permission, she rang for the servants, who brought clean water and supplies. Dipping a kerchief, she wiped away the blood and cleaned the wound, then dabbed it with alum to halt the bleeding.
It stung like fury. "Ouch!"
"Poor boy." She sounded amused. "Wasn't it worth it?"
I regarded her dubiously. "Was it?"
"Oh, gods, yes!" Her wicked smile left no doubt. She folded another moist kerchief into a cool compress, holding it to her swelling lower lip. "Though I'm not sure how I'll explain this."
"Deccus doesn't know," I said slowly. "Lady, who are you?"
"Claudia Tadia Fulvia," she said. Her gaze was frank. "Sister of Lucius Tadius, wife of Deccus Fulvius. And no, neither of them know. But I'm not pretending to be anyone I'm not, Prince Imriel de la Courcel."
Clad in a borrowed robe, I paced the bedroom, while Claudia sat on the bed and watched me, volunteering nothing. At length, I fetched up before her, helpless and ignorant. "All right," I said. "So. What is this Unseen Guild?"
"A coterie of people with skills and interests in common," she said. "One that extends beyond the borders of any single nation or city-state."
"Spies," I said.
Claudia shrugged. "Some of them, yes. The Guild exists to discern and trade information, but it has influence, too. There are members with hands on a great many strings, and they can cause events to fall out in a certain way."
"And Anafiel Delaunay de Montrève was one such," I said.
"No." She shook her head. "He was approached, yes, while he was a student here at the University. And he was intrigued enough