Perilous Seas (46 page)

Rasha!
The spider at the heart of the web. “Then let us go right away!”

He
was angry at having revealed weakness. “There is no hurry. Have you a
shawl or something ... for the walk?” Inos nodded and ran ahead indoors
to find a cloth to cover her hair and shoulders. Kade came close behind her.

Jeweled
amber eyes rolled to inspect the visitors, and the carven demon face writhed
into speech. “State your name and business!” On the other flap of
the door, the matching demon merely curled its wooden lips in a sneer.

“Sultan
Azak of Arakkaran and Queen Inosolan of Krasnegar! “ No occult fakery
could teach Azak anything about sneering.

“Who
is the other one?”

“Her
Royal Highness Princess Kadolan. “

There
was a pause then, as if the grotesque were reporting to its mistress. The
corridor was dim; it felt as cold as a Krasnegarian midwinter. Inos was trying
not to shiver, absurdly glad that Azak was there beside her. She doubted she
would have had the courage to come and face the sorceress alone. Then she
sensed him looking down at her. She glanced up.

“She
has power,” he said coldly, and there was no doubt to whom he referred, “but
remember what she is. And what you are, Cousin. “

I
am nothing! “Of course, Cousin.”

He
nodded and went back to outsneering the demonic faces on the door. Inos’s
black mood darkened further.

He
said he had not changed, but he had. He was sultan again, as he had been when
she first met him. On the dock, back in the palace yard, he had spurned the
fawning princess, made strong men leap to obedience with one cold glance. She
had forgotten just how intimidating he was in his royal role.

And
she had changed. She was a queen no longer. Royal status was much more
important to Azak than it had ever been to her. Now she was an outcast, like
one of the banished princes who sank to being family men in other palaces, or
lionslayers serving tradesmen. Although he denied it, he despised them as
failures. Rasha’s nudge had come before they had finished their talk-had
he been about to offer Inos marriage, or escape to Hub, or steady employment as
a breeder of sons? Which did she want?

Rasha’s
curse still kept them apart.

“The
two of you may enter, the third may not,” the carving stated.

“No!”
Kade looked ready to argue with the door.

Inos
kissed her cheek. “You go back and wait in the suite, Aunt. Don’t
hang around here. We may be some time.”

“I
think it is my duty-”

“Go!”
Azak boomed, and Kade capitulated.

Inos
watched sadly as her aunt wandered back along the long gloomy corridor, and she
felt loneliness settle aver her like hoar frost.

Then
a squeal from a hinge made her jump. The double doors had swung open.

She
entered at Azak’s side, and saw at once that the Kinvale influence had
been discarded. Again the great circular bedchamber was overflowing with chests
and tables in every possible style. The sumptuous floor was hidden again below
a discordant mismatch of rugs, and the lewd wall hangings and erotic statuary
that Kade had banished had now been replaced. Inos had been shocked by the
first collection, and the replacements were even worse; she blushed to see
them. The air reeked with syrupy scents.

Beyond
the two big windows stood the white vertical blaze of noon. Light spilled also
down the central well of the spiral staircase, and yet it was curiously muted
... smoky? ... less bright than Inos remembered or expected, so the big room
seemed oddly dim, and cool.

The
doors closed with a boom and a fading echo like a drum roll. The two visitors
continued to advance, heading for the bottom step. Then Azak halted, and so did
Inos. The enormous canopied bed still stood at the far side of the room, beyond
the stair, and the sorceress was standing at one corner of it, leaning
provocatively against the carved post as if embracing it.

Inos
felt a shiver of apprehension and disgust as she saw that Rasha was in her
seductress mode, more voluptuous than ever. Only a small space around her eyes
was actually uncovered, but the mist of gauze and jewels that floated over the
rest of her concealed nothing-not the long fall of russet hair, nor the hot
glow of nipple and areola, nor the many ropes of pearls looped around her body
and limbs, next the skin. Nor the skin either, the hot, ruddy skin of a nubile
djinn maiden. Nothing above the bright enamel of her sandal straps was leaving
any mysteries to tempt the imagination. She looked no older than Inos. Did men
really appreciate such an obscenity? Did they not see the vulgarity, or the
contempt?

“Come
closer,” said the moist red lips.

Azak
and Inos advanced more slowly, stopped. Inos waited for his cue, until she
realized that he would not bow to a dockside trollop. She had set her own
precedents long since, and to change them now would be a defiance, so she curtsied.
Rasha acknowledged the move with a flick of one shapely eyebrow.

Then
Azak fell to his knees and steadied himself with his hands. That fall had not
been voluntary, and had probably hurt. “You seem to have learned no
lessons, Muscles,” said Rasha. “Oh, but I have!” Azak’s
ruddy-stubbled face parted in a joyful gleam of white teeth.

“Do
tell. “

“I
have learned that you are no match for Warlock Olybino!” Rasha leaned
even more seductively against the carved post of the bed, stroking it with her
breast. “So what do you expect to happen now?”

He
shrugged. “I suppose, when he gets around to it, the warlock will come
for you, to claim your words of power. But I hardly expect that an aged,
malformed, mutilated whore will be of use to him. He will torture the words out
of you and have your throat cut like a pig’s!”

“You
would like to be there to watch, of course.”

“I
would enjoy few things more.”

“And
volunteer to help?”

“Why
not? You have caused me enough pain in the past.” Now it was Rasha who
shrugged, and the gesture seemed to involve her whole body. She turned her gaze
of languid contempt on Inos. It felt like impudence from a girl so young.

“I
offered my help and you spurned it. Now you have been disinherited. You are a
homeless refugee.”

Woe!
So it was true. Skarash might have been lying, but a sorceress had no need to
lie.

“Your
help seemed to involve marrying a goblin,” Inos said, keeping her words
slow and level.

The
sorceress slid around, so the post was behind her. “If you just keep your
eyes closed, honey baby, they’re all much the same. Some are heavier than
others, some hairier, some hurt more. That’s all.”

“I
can hardly keep my eyes closed all the time.”

“You
have never had them open! You are a fool.”

Inos
felt no anger, only apprehension. “It would seem that my kingdom was
disposed of without my presence being necessary. In that case, your help would
have been no help. There never was any way you could put me on my throne-the
Protocol forbade it.”

The
sorceress’s eyes flashed in fury.

Inos
did not wait for a comment. “I appreciate that you had good intentions,
your Majesty. Now I humbly ask that you return my aunt and myself to Krasnegar,
where you found us. “

Rasha
laughed hard scorn, like hail. “I may keep the dog as payment for
services rendered, though? How about compensation for the votary I have lost
because of your stupidity? No, Inosolan, you forfeited any claim on me when you
fled from my city. “

Her
city? Azak growled wordlessly.

“You
organized that whole affair!” Inos shouted, and at last she began to feel
anger. “It was all your idea, and-”

“It
was your idea, kitten. I did not put it in your head. And had my sorcery not
prevented him, that slab of brawn on the floor there would have had you with
child by now. “

Fury!
How dare this slut speak such lies? Inos took a very deep breath--

“Be
silent, or I shall make you silent. He cannot look at you without half choking
on his lust.” Rasha chuckled softly, and shivers ran down Inos’s
spine. “No, we shall keep you here. We shall teach the royal parasites
how to be useful. Your aunt we shall put in the sculleries, scrubbing floors.
And you-you I shall assign to one of the guards. I have one picked out already.
He has unusual tastes in recreation.” She was watching Azak as she spoke.

Oh,
Gods! She had found another way to torture him, by torturing the woman he
loved. Inos felt her hands start to shake and clasped them behind her. She
would suffer to make Azak suffer. Every humiliation inflicted upon her would be
reported to him so that he would be humiliated also. He might even be forced to
watch.

Silence.
No one spoke.

Then
the sorceress jeered at the man on his knees before her. “And you,
Wonderstud? Let me give you some disappointing news. “

Azak’s
eyes narrowed, but he still did not speak.

Rasha
straightened up and laid hands on hips, thrusting her dainty chin forward in a
curiously inappropriate gesture. “It is true that Elkarath’s
allegiance has been turned, so Olybino broke my spell. Possibly he does have
more power at his disposal than I do, for he has votaries to aid him. But I did
not put my full power into the spell-sorcerers almost never do, for this very
reason. I still have power in reserve, and he can’t know how much. More
important, I am in my stronghold.” She waved both hands high, triumphantly.
“Why do you suppose sorcerers build towers? The whole palace is shielded,
and it will take enormous power to defeat me here. If he sends in votaries, I
may turn them. If they blast their way in, then the entire complex may be razed
by the energies released. Think again, Pretty Man. “

Azak
studied her for a moment and then said quietly, “And did the warlock of
the east spell me, also?”

Rasha
hesitated, and Inos sensed that the tension had somehow changed.

“Not
that I can see,” the sorceress remarked cautiously. He sighed deeply.
That news would be a great relief to him. “Let me up, please.”

Please?

Rasha’s
smoldering eyes widened a fraction. “Rise, then.” Azak rose,
rubbing a bruised knee. He drew himself up to his full height and crossed his
arms. “On your promise to behave yourself, your Majesty ... I invite you
to my wedding, three days hence. “

Inos
gasped. Rasha’s face blazed with fury at such defiance. Before she could
speak, Azak repeated softly, “Your Majesty. “

It
was the royal title she coveted. For a moment the silence seemed to grow
unbearably, then Rasha said warily, “And what of the curse? She will char
in your arms.”

“I
humbly request that you lift it, as your wedding present to us.”

Humbly?
Rasha made an effort to recover her disdain. “Lift it for all women, or
just for her?”

There
was unholy bargaining going on, and Inos groped to catch all the floating
threads of it.

“All
would be preferable, of course, but just for Inosolan would be acceptable.”

Inos
cried, “Azak!” and stopped, stunned. From him, this was an
unbelievable declaration of . . . of love?

And
surrender.

He
could have offered nothing more, not even the whole of his realm.

Rasha’s
eyes glinted in a slow smile that chilled Inos’s blood. “Only three
days?”

Azak
was as taut as a bowstring, his face unreadable. “Seven days might be
more seemly,” he said hoarsely.

She
stepped close and looked up at him in challenge. “And until then?”

“As
you wish.”

Horrors
crawled on Inos’s skin as she watched Rasha’s slow smile of
triumph. With delicate fingers, the sorceress unhooked her yashmak and let it
fall, then raised her face to be kissed. Her appearance might be soft and
youthful, but the open lips were too eager for any pretense of maidenly
innocence.

But
Azak knew all about that. He took her in his arms and kissed her.

She
can inflame any man to madness he had said once. When the long embrace ended,
he was breathless, and his alwaysruddy djinn complexion burned red as a
furnace. He kept his eyes on the seductress’s, and did not look at Inos.

Then
Rasha changed. The young beauty shrank and aged, reverting to the hideously
battered, squat old woman whom Inos had glimpsed twice before. The jewels and
filmy gauzes became a dirty brown wrap, her hair a gray tangle, the silken skin
shriveled and wrinkled.

Having
to bend farther this time, Azak kissed her again. Inos looked away, until she
discovered she was staring at the contorted bodies of obscene sculptures.

Elkarath
had known: “If he would only compromise! Bow the knee just once. Say the
words she wants to hear.”

And
when the second kiss ended, Azak continued to clasp the sorceress in his arms.
He lifted his lips from hers just far enough to speak-softly, but without
hesitation. “Inosolan, you have seven days. Go and prepare our wedding.”

“Seek
to find the Good, “ They had said, “and above all ... remember
love! If you do not trust in love, then all will be lost. “ Without a
word, Inos turned and fled from the chamber. Rasha had won.

Female
of the species:

When
the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,

He
shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.

But
the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant, tooth and nail

For
the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Kipling,
The Female of the Species

Out Of The West

“Nice
little place they’ve got on the hill there,” Gathmor shouted.

Holding
tight to the gunwale, Rap leaned sideways and peered under the sail at the
great white and green city-rich and beautiful, seeming strangely cool in the
blazing sunlight.