A Man of His Word by The Complete Series 01-04 (epub)

Author:The Complete Series 01-04 (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 2017-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

4

Hospitality was a duty to the God of Travelers. Violence within Tall Cranes itself was extremely unlikely—Azak had said so at supper. He had then ruined the reassurance by pointing out how few men were present in the village. The rest, he had suggested cheerfully, might well be preparing an ambush for the morrow, at some respectable distance.

Nevertheless, Fourth Lionslayer escorted the ladies back to the encampment grounds. It was a distance of a few hundred paces only, and the worst dangers it offered were barking curs, but the way wound along between the tiny settlement’s squat stone cottages, and therefore was not a journey women should make without a man to guard them. There was also the matter of passwords when the duty lionslayer challenged—passwords were men’s business. This attitude riled Inos to frenzy, but Kade rather enjoyed being treated as a fragile halfwit, having cultivated the role for years at Kinvale.

The air was cool already, because of the altitude; the desert sky was a fiery tessellation of stars so low that they seemed to peer over people’s shoulders. A few clouds sailed in dark majesty on that sparkling sea.

Fourth delivered his charges to their tent and went off with his arm tight around his beloved Jarthia, who had already told him about her night’s winnings, understating them by four-fifths.

Inos made no move to enter the tent. She leaned back against a palm tree and folded her arms and said, “ Ha!” in a gloating manner.

Kade no longer felt sleepy at all. She felt very apprehensive.

And rather foolish.

“Can I have an explanation now, dear?” she asked, annoyed that she could not keep her annoyance out of her voice. There was enough wind to muffle quiet conversation, and the rest of the encampment seemed to be asleep.

“I’ll try,” Inosolan said grimly. “But it’s not easy to talk about—is it?”

No, it wasn’t. But Kadolan had thought it often enough. Sheik Elkarath had gained Azak’s trust, and Azak normally trusted nobody. Sheik Elkarath had persuaded Inosolan to embark on the mad flight from Arakkaran into the desert—and although she was often impulsive, that had been an absurd venture even for her. And finally, Sheik Elkarath had apparently succeeded in eluding any pursuit by Rasha. Who but a sorcerer could outwit another?

So Elkarath must have occult power. Either he had stolen Inosolan away from the sultana to play the same sort of political game she had been playing, or he was her minion, her votary, and Rasha had used him to hide the merchandise in the desert until her bargaining with the wardens could be completed.

Of course the sheik might be a votary of someone else—one of the wardens, probably, and most likely Olybino, warlock of the east. But in that case, why had Inosolan been allowed to continue her journey unmolested? If she had political value, it was as queen of Krasnegar, not as a pretend wife to a pretend lionslayer in the middle of a desert. Weeks had gone by while the caravan traversed the desert.

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