Treasures of Fantasy - Margaret Weis [102]
Xydis grunted his satisfaction and hastened off. Raegar groaned and slumped back against a stone wall.
“What is the matter?” Treia asked in perplexity. “The news is good. Skylan knows the secret—”
“That is what is the matter!” Raegar shouted, rounding on her in a fury. “Skylan knows the secret. And I arranged to have him killed!”
CHAPTER
14
* * *
BOOK TWO
Zahakis brought Aylaen back to the Torgun slave compound early the following morning. She was wan and upset and refused to talk to Bjorn when he asked her what had happened. She brushed past him.
Skylan did not make an attempt to try to talk to her, knowing he would be rebuffed, as usual. He was therefore astonished beyond measure when Aylaen walked up to him.
She did not speak. Her gaze was searching, pleading. If he had said something to her, she might have told him everything, but he was so startled he was tongue-tied and paralyzed. Aylaen sighed, lowered her eyes, and walked away.
Skylan came to his senses and started to go after her, only to feel Zahakis’s hand on his shoulder.
“Mistress Chloe wants you.”
“Not now,” said Skylan brusquely, forgetting where he was, who he was. Forgetting everything. Aylaen wanted him, needed him.
“I beg your pardon, my lord,” said Zahakis. “I will tell Mistress Chloe to wait until you are at leisure.”
The next thing Skylan knew he was rolling around on the ground, groaning from a jab to the kidneys from the butt-end of a spear.
“Ah, my lord, I see you are at leisure,” said Zahakis, and he hauled Skylan to his feet.
Skylan stood in the opulent bedroom shifting from foot to foot to try to ease the pain in his back. The female house slave, Rosa, spread a silken coverlet over Chloe’s legs and placed a bowl of chilled grapes within the girl’s reach. Rosa opened the doors to the atrium, filling the room with sunshine. A gentle breeze carried with it the perfume of a multitude of flowering plants.
“Leave us, Rosa,” said Chloe to the slave.
The slave bowed and took her place in a shadowy corner.
Chloe frowned at her. “I said leave us.”
Rosa seemed uneasy. She did not move.
“In a minute, I shall grow angry,” said Chloe severely.
“She can’t leave,” said Skylan. “Your father told her to stay here to see that I don’t harm you.”
Chloe laughed bubbling, gurgling laughter. “And if you were going to hurt me, Skylan, would Rosa be able to stop you?”
“No,” said Skylan, smiling in spite of himself. “But she could scream. And then the twenty armed soldiers Zahakis has posted outside your door would come rushing in and kill me.”
“And would you fight for you life?”
“Of course,” said Skylan.
A dimple flashed in Chloe’s cheek. “I’d like to see that. Perhaps I’ll scream. Should we try it?”
“Twenty Southlanders to one Torgun warrior is hardly a fair fight,” said Skylan. “Your father would be angry at me for slaying his soldiers.”
Chloe laughed. “Rosa, go tell my father that he is a simpleton.”
Rosa shook her head, terrified.
Chloe heaved an exasperated sigh and raised her voice. “Zahakis!”
There was silence, then the inner door that led from the main house into the bedroom opened. Zahakis stepped inside.
“Yes, Mistress Chloe.”
“I’m sure you and your men have better things to do than stand guard outside my door. Go away. And take Rosa with you.”
Zahakis might have said he was not accustomed to obeying orders given to him by fifteen-year-old little girls, but he knew he would only be putting off the inevitable. Chloe would next appeal to her father and her dimpled smile would bring Acronis to his knees and he would end up ordering Zahakis to remove the guards. Zahakis might as well save them all time and effort and humiliation.
“I can scream quite loudly myself, Zahakis,” Chloe added mischievously. “Do you want to hear me?”
Zahakis was not amused. “I will remain within earshot,” he told her. He gestured to Rosa, who skittered out after him and shut the door.
“Now, that is better,” said Chloe. She pointed to a chair. “Sit down. You are fighting in the Para Dix tomorrow