The blanket would prevent their quarry from teleporting away or using the translocational gates rumored to be still functional inside the city, but that only meant the phaerimm would be even more dangerous and ferocious than usual. According to the Shadovar scouts and diviners, there were still close to thirty thornbacks inhabiting the ruins' subterranean levels, and if the attack was to succeed, most would have to be slain in their own lairs. For the first time in her life, Vala wished she could write. She would have liked to set down some thoughts for her son before the blade work began.
Vala dipped a magic wing toward the rolling meadow at the western end of the city and landed in the trampled grass outside Escanor's pavilion tent. The prince was waiting in the entrance, his coppery eyes watching every move as she undid her breastplate so she could remove the wing harness. His retinue of aides and subcommanders was there as well, though most seemed more interested in watching him watch her.
Though Vala had never been particularly shy-and even less so after her time among the elves-Escanor's gaze made her uncomfortable in a way that even the hungry leers of her own Vaasans never had. Instead of turning away, however, she smiled and cocked a playful eyebrow as she raised her tunic to undo the chest buckles. "Never seen a girl take off her wings?"
Something that resembled a grin crossed the prince's face. "It was not your wings that caught my eye." Escanor left the pavilion tent, not coming to her so much as emerging out of the shadows at her side. "You are growing more comfortable with them?" "Not comfortable enough to sleep in." Vala turned her back to the prince, placing the wings more or less in his hands. She let the shadowsilk straps slide through the slots in the back of her tunic, then began to roll her weary shoulders. "We are going to sleep before the assault, aren't we?"
"That will be up to you." Escanor waited for Vala to put herself in order again. When she had, he said, "I have some news."
Vala's heart sank. Her thoughts flew at once to Galaeron and Aris, but when she turned, she asked, "Something has happened at the Granite Tower?"
It was impossible to say whether Escanor meant his fang-filled smile to be reassuring or mocking. "Not at all. I am speaking of Galaeron."
"Galaeron?" Vala said, feigning disappointment. She had been considering this moment since they departed the enclave and had come to the conclusion that there was only one way to play it "He actually left?" The prince's eyes flared red. "You knew of his plans?"
"Knew?" Vala shook her head. "I thought it was just shadow talk. He started it after you asked me to come along on this assault. You made him jealous, I think." "And you didn't tell the Most High?"
"Why would I tell my personal business to the Most High?"
"It is not only your business," Escanor said. "The knowledge he carries belongs to Shade Enclave."
Vala smiled and patted him on the cheek. "I guess you should have thought of that before you invited me on this trip." She picked up her wings and started for her tent. "I've got to go wash. When's dinner?"
Escanor walked alongside her. "You're not worried about him?"
"Should I be?" Vala did not stop walking. In this, above all things, she had to appear indifferent. If Escanor knew how she really felt, he would conceal his knowledge and play on her emotions to make her reveal what she knew. "The Most High had turned him against me. You saw." "Then you can't tell me where he is?"
Vala almost smiled. If the Shadovar didn't know where Galaeron was, he was still free. "I'd watch for him at Evereska, were I you."
"That is the obvious choice, of course," Escanor said, "but he knows we have an army there. We were thinking he might have intended to go to Waterdeep, instead."
"Might have," Vala said. From the little she had overheard after leaving the dinner, that had in fact been Galaeron's plan. "It's going to be hell finding him. Anauroch’s a big desert."
"Particularly on foot. We found their veserab and flying disk, with all of their water-but no sign of them." Escanor took Vala's arm and stopped her. "If you know where they're going, you must tell me-for their own sakes. Without their waterskins, they won't last a tenday, even if they can find the oases." "Then they won't last a tenday," Vala said.
Though Escanor was right about their chances of surviving Anauroch-at least about Aris's-the Shadovar had already guessed the little she knew, so there was nothing to be gained by admitting her own small involvement.
She glared at the dark hand grasping her arm expectantly and said, "At least it will save me the trouble of hunting Galaeron down after he is completely lost to his shadow."
Escanor released her arm. "You truly don't know where they are?" "Isn't that what I said?" "And you are not in love with Galaeron?"
"I have more self-respect than that." As she told this lie, Vala made a point of staring directly into the prince's eyes. "All I am to him is a promise."
Escanor surprised her with an obviously sincere smile. "Just as I told the Most High." He waved her toward his tent. "Please, you will stay here tonight. It will be more comfortable."
"Comfortable?" Though Vala was cringing inside, she forced a playful half-smirk. "Don't you think we need our sleep tonight?"
"When we are done, you will sleep like a lioness after her kill," Escanor replied, showing his fangs. "In truth, I had thought your flirtations no more than a low attempt to mask your betrayal behind a veneer of desire, but I see now that Melegaunt's reports about the women of Vaasa were not exaggerated." "Reports?" Vala demanded.
"That you are always in season," Escanor said. He took her hand affectionately between his. "Bodvar's daughter was a favorite of his."
"Bodvar's daughter?" Vala pondered this for a moment, then gasped, "Granna?"
"Have no fear. Even if Melegaunt is your grandfather, we are many generations apart. Our blood is hardly the same at all." He pulled her toward his pavilion. "Clear my tent!" Vala stopped cold. "Wait!" Escanor's eyes flared red. "You are not sincere?"
"I'm always sincere," Vala said, grimacing inwardly at the distasteful looks the Shadovar cast her way as they streamed from the pavilion tent, "but we've been on the wing for four days and pulling shadow all day for a fifth. I've got to wash."
"I have water in my tent," Escanor said. "You can wash here."
" Wash' is a figure of speech," Vala said. While hardly above sharing a man's bed for her own reasons, she was not in the practice of allowing herself to be ordered into one. The prince was pushing too hard, too fast. He was up to something, and she had to buy time to puzzle out what. "What I really have to do is-"
"You can do that in the garderobe behind my tent," Escanor interrupted. "It opens into the Gray Wastes."
"All right," Vala said, feigning surrender, "but we've got to eat first. I'm famished, and with the day we have tomorrow-"
"That will be no concern to you," Escanor said, leading her into the empty pavilion. "A prince's consort is not expected to fight."
"What?" Finally seeing her opening, Vala stopped. "Consort?"
"Of course," Escanor said. "We Shadovar are not barbarians. We do not cast a woman aside after we have used her." "And I have to stop fighting?"