When Dallan was through eating it was my turn. The last thing I wanted just then was to eat, but my preferences didn’t matter. I brought the bowl to my owner, had him approve the dish, then stuffed it down while he watched. I was just finishing up the third selection, some sort of fowl in a thick sauce, wondering where I would put any more, when the bowl was taken out of my hands. I looked up to see Dallan reaching toward me, and suddenly realized that his desire had grown too strong for him to hold back. I’d been sunk so deep in my misery that I hadn’t been aware of his feelings, but once he had taken me in his lap and arms I became more than aware of them. The flames washed over me as his lips took mine, his heartbeat became a pounding in my ears, the hot blood surged from his body into mine, forced from flesh to flesh as he crushed me up against him. I knew the reactions I was feeling weren’t my own, but they were absolutely overpowering. I gasped once for air, trying to protect myself or fight back, but it was already too late. The fire burning within him was too wild, his hold on me too strong, for me to be able to break loose. He swept me up as easily as his arms lifted me in the air, and by the time we, reached the bed furs, I was completely lost.
Hours went by that way, and I had the distinct impression Dallan was trying to make up for all the time he’d lost as a servant-slave in Aesnil’s palace. At one point I told him truthfully that I had nothing left to give, that he’d taken all there was to take, but all he did was laugh and prove me wrong. I couldn’t seem to resist the way he touched me—or the way he kissed me—or the way he thought when he looked at me. I’d been forced into sharing my emotions from the very first, and the man was glorying in the sensations as never before. He was enormously pleased with his new belonging, and I was beyond desperation.
I’d been napping for a short while in Dallan’s arms when I was awakened by a loud knock on the door. I raised my head when Dallan called out for whoever it was to enter, but I knew who it was before he did. Ferran, commander of the guard, came in, walked four or five paces from the door, then nodded his head to Dallan.
“My Drin, those you alerted us to expect have arrived,” he said, his mind more curious than his tone. “They await your pleasure in the courtyard.”
“Good.” Dallan nodded in turn, taking his arms from me as he sat up. “Offer them refreshment after their long ride, and tell them I will be with them shortly.”
“At once, my Drin,” the man agreed, turning back to the door after a single glance at me. His mind had started to growl as was usual with Rimilian men, but sight of the small-linked bronze bands I wore had changed the growl to a hum. Apparently their society found humming over a five-banded woman acceptable, while growling was not. Growling led to swordplay, and Ferran wasn’t about to challenge his drin.
“You may arise now, wenda, and clothe yourself in this,” Dallan said, dropping something on the bed furs as he passed them. “We have guests awaiting us, and I do not care to have them wait overlong.”
He, himself, headed for his haddin, and when I looked at what he’d dropped on the bed, I found it to be a gown very much like the ones I’d worn in Aesnil’s palace. The thing was backless and veed in front, but instead of butterfly sleeves there were full sleeves, gathered at the wrist the way imad sleeves were, but not with leather. Sheer silk ties closed the sleeves, of a silver matching the delicate silver of the rest of the gown. As much as I wanted to be out of the playtime outfit I was then wearing I glanced over toward Dallan before beginning to undress. The silver gown gave me an odd feeling of foreboding, as though something very unpleasant was going to happen, but Dallan’s mind gave no indication of what it could be. The Prince of Gerleth was very pleased about something, not to mention lighthearted; if there was going to be trouble, it was nothing he was expecting. I threw away the slave-rag as he began buckling on his swordbelt, and paid attention to getting myself dressed.
By the time we left the rooms. I was glad it wasn’t me waiting for Dallan. He’d had himself ready in almost no time, but he called the three women back to see to my hair and reperfuming, and he hadn’t hurried them. He stood and waited patiently until the job was done, watching me carefully, determined about something even though he didn’t think it was a good idea. I could see that from the way he kept pushing away a fully understood doubt, but I didn’t know what the idea was, or which part he was doubtful about. The teasing hints nagged at me, taking my mind off the way I was being primped and preened. The woman Ladir seemed to have caught Dallan’s mood and was no longer amused, but she wasn’t the only one.
The next room past the bathing room was a reception room, full of cushions and small tables, but no bed. Beyond that room was a marble corridor, and that was where we picked up our escort. Eight l’lendaa fell in behind us, scarcely walking in step but still guards for all of that. We walked down the long, wide corridor to its end, then stepped through airy double doors onto a wide balcony of sorts, that moved away before us to a broad set of descending steps. When I stopped to look over the balustrade with a gasp, Dallan stopped with me and gestured widely.
“The land of Gerleth,” he said, referring to the miles and miles of country I could see, way, way down below us. There were tiny towns, and tinier individual houses, and neat rows of farmland in between the towns and houses and small stands of trees. I was looking down into a mountain valley, the entire area settled and cultivated even to the foot of the slopes. The mountain had to fall away into the valley on this side only, considering the road leading to it on the other side. I wondered how long circling that valley to the far side of the mountain would have taken and then I remembered it didn’t matter any longer.
“The land of Gerleth is very lovely,” I said, turning away from the valley to look at Dallan. “It is now clear why you missed it so greatly.”
“It is said that once a man sees it, he may never again leave it.” Dallan smiled, running a gentle hand over my hair. “Possibly it will hold true for a woman as well.”
His comment was an odd one, but before I could ask him what he meant he had taken my arm, heading us toward the broad stairway that led downward. He was still firmly suppressing his doubts, and as we approached the stairway I suddenly knew why. I couldn’t see him as yet, but at the foot of that stairway waited Tammad.
I must have tried stopping in my tracks; the first thing I realized after discovering who was waiting was that Dallan’s grip had tightened, and I was now moving forward only because I was being pulled. I really didn’t want to go down those stairs, but another sudden revelation made me stop hanging back. Knowing who was waiting below told me the Dallan intended to fight Tammad for possession of me, and it was my presence at the fight that he had been unsure about. Dallan knew well enough that I could cripple his mind so badly that he would lose, but he was bringing me there anyway. Did he intend making me choose between them—or was he too proud to hide anything from me, even if he died for it? I felt the silver gown fluttering in the light breeze as we approached the top of the stairs, and also felt the new alertness in Dallan’s mind. He knew I was aware of what was happening and was waiting for me to react; as far as that went, I was waiting for the same thing.