Lion's Bride - Iris Johansen [145]
It was Kadar.
Selene had already reached him and grabbed the reins. “You’re late. You broke your promise. You said eight days.”
“I had a few problems discharging my task.” He got down from his horse. “And I knew you would wait. It’s not often people are gifted with such a splendid individual in their midst. You would have been most depleted by—” He broke off. “Tears, Selene?”
She angrily brushed them from her cheeks. “I always cry when I’m angry. You should have kept your word. You should never have gone.”
“But you told me to go.” He reached out and touched the child’s wet cheeks with exquisite gentleness. “What a beautiful treasure tears can be. I thank you for the gift.”
“Are you mad? I didn’t tell you to go,” Selene said. “I would never have told you to do the bidding of that Old Man. I want to slap you.”
“But Sinan didn’t set me this task. You did.” He turned and glanced back the way he had come. “You said you wanted your boxes of embroidered silks. It was not easy. I had to find horses and someone to drive the wagon, and then we had to dodge both Richard’s and Saladin’s forces on the way here. At one point we had to backtrack and go around—”
“You went after our embroideries?” Thea interrupted, stunned. “You have them?”
“Ali should be in sight any moment—Ah, there he is.” Kadar gestured at the wagon silhouetted against the horizon. “I could not bear the slowness of the wagon, so I hastened ahead to—”
“We thought you went on Sinan’s task,” Ware said gruffly.
Kadar was genuinely surprised. “Why? I said nothing about Sinan.”
“You said nothing about anything,” Selene said. “You just left.”
“More tears. Your anger must be truly great.” He smiled coaxingly. “Will it lessen if I promise I’ll tell you when I go to pay Sinan’s price?”
“No, it will never lessen. You’re stupid and without kindness or—” Her voice broke and she stalked away from them.
Kadar sighed. “I thought I was doing a good deed. It’s going to be difficult being owned by such a one.” He hurried after her. “Think of your beautiful embroidery I saved from the weather and the ants. Does that not deserve praise instead of harshness?”
She did not answer.
“And consider the risk I ran to bring it to you. Let me tell you of the travail I suffered, the nights I did not sleep….”
Thea could no longer hear Kadar’s words, but she could see his lips move and the persuasive smile she knew so well. She hoped Selene would forgive him. She was as irritated as her sister, but his intentions had been good and his gift beyond price.
Evidently, Selene had the same thought. She was tilting her head as if listening, her pace slowing.
She stopped and turned to Kadar. A luminous smile lit her face.
His head went back and his laughter rang out.
“Why are you frowning?” Ware asked as he slipped his arm through Thea’s. “Kadar is safe and you have your embroideries.”
“But what about next time?” she whispered. “Kadar will never truly be safe. Sinan will always be like a huge spider spinning his web to draw him back.”
“He’s a match for Sinan. Kadar has survived for nineteen years, and he gains more weapons as time goes on.”
“But Sinan has weapons we don’t even know about.”
Ware suddenly chuckled. “Do you know what you’ve said? My love, none of us are safe. I’ve been trying to convince you that both you and I will be forever in mortal danger, and you worry about Kadar.”
“That’s different.”
“Because God saved me once and you’re convinced he’ll not allow His handiwork to be ruined?”
“Not as long as I’m with you and here to remind Him.”
He brushed her temple with his lips. “Then I’ll most certainly have to keep you safe just to preserve my own life. How clever of you to so obligate me.”
“But women are far more clever than men. Do we thunder about and try to kill one another? No, we try to build, not tear down. That’s why the more I consider it, the more relieved I am that Asherah is an aspect of God. She must be the part that furnishes not only fertility, but wisdom as well.”