[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Henta wanted to shake her. "All you think about is yourself. What about him?
Or maybe you don't care how he feels."
"I love him."
Henta snorted. "You love him. Don't make me laugh. He deserves better than
your infatuation with his physical beauty."
"It's not infatuation." She pushed her hands through her hair. "Maybe it was
at first. Or maybe it was the challenge of him. But it's gone beyond that.
He's in my head and I can't get him out."
"You hardly know him."
"Visitation. That's all I ask."
"And what will you 'ask' after that? No. Bring him back or I'll call a
Tribunal."
"I know you won't."
"You're wrong. You've gone too far this time." Henta opened the door and spoke
to the guards. 'Take Manager Miesa into custody."
"Wait," Savina said.
"Put her in jail," Henta told the guards.
"Henta, stop," Savina said. "Listen to what I have to say."
As the guards surrounded Savina, Henta held up her hand. When the captain
tilted her head, Henta said, "Wait outside."
After the octet withdrew, Henta shut the door and crossed her arms. "This
better be good."
246Catherine Asaro-
"What do you want for Sevtar's Calanya contract?"
Henta closed her eyes. When she opened them, Savina w, still standing there
with a perfectly serious expression on h face.
"You're being irrational," Henta said.
"That's not an answer."
"Miesa could never afford a Fourth Level. Especially 01 likeSevtar."
:
"Just answer the question."
"The question is demented."
"How muchT
"Ten million denai, five First Level Calani, and two Seoi Levels."
Savina gaped at her. "That's absurd."
"It's very reasonable. The only ludicrous proposition here yours."
"Miesa doesn't have two Second Levels."
Henta went over to her. "Neither does Miesa have anythit close to ten million
denai in assets. And I hardly think seven i your Calani want to leave. You
only have nine, for wind's sak Have you forgotten four of them are Akasi? Not
to mentk that you only made two of them Calani because you couldi marry them
otherwise. They can't play Quis worth spit. Wha 'ever possessed you to think
Sevtar has any desire to be hu band number five? Are you crazy or what?"
"I don't want to hurt my Akasi. But you don't understan You think I glut
myself on love but you're wrong." Sav spoke awkwardly. "They aren't happy with
me. Winds, Hent they would be glad to leave Miesa, to find a woman who lovi
them. No matter how much I try, no matter how much they t to love me, I need
something they can't give. All my life I' looked for it and I don't even know
what it is." She swallowe "Now I've found it. It's in Sevtar, in his mind
somehow, in h heart."
"I'm sorry. But it's impossible."
"What if I gave you a trade equal to the Second Levels?"
"You don't have anything worth two Second Levels."
"I do." Savina took a breath. "The Wardship of the Mie:
Plateau."
The Last Hawk 247
In the stillness that followed the words, a rush of images jumbled in Henta's
mind: Bahvia victorious over mighty Kam and Varz, Bahvia alive with new vigor,
Bahvia flushed with the power and wealth of the Plateau.
Then the images faded, replaced by memories of her friendship with Savina. "I
can't let you cripple Miesa."
Savina grimaced. "I'd rather you had the Plateau than Kam or Varz. Your Estate
has the assets and experience to manage it, so they won't have grounds anymore
to take it. And Henta I'll have a Fourth Level who's a true genius."
"He doesn't want to be your Akasi."
"What if he does?"
What then? Henta blew out a gust of air, "If Sevtar asks to go to Miesa,
then and only then will I consider the trade."
Kelric spent the morning wandering through the fortress, thinking about
Rashiva's son. His son. He tried to stop brooding. He wished he could forget
Rashiva had ever existed.
Eventually he returned to his room and sat on the bed. He buit a Quis
structure of the fortress, then transferred its layers onto the quilt and
studied the architecture. He became so absorbed in the patterns he barely
noticed when day faded into night. This castle had stories buried in the arch
of its flying buttresses, the placement of its crenellations, the sweep of its
staircases. It told him about the ancient queen who ruled from this keep, an
atavistic warrior who bequeathed to her descendants a ferocity that still
lurked beneath the civilized facade of the Modern Age.
"I've never seen structures like that," Savina said.
With a start, Kelric looked up to see her in the doorway. "How long have you
been there?"
"A few minutes. You were concentrating so hard, I didn't want to disturb you."
"Did you talk to Henta?"
Savina walked to the bed. "My plan backfired." She winced. "I'm lucky Henta
didn't throw me in jail. She said absolutely no visitation. If you aren't back
in Bahvia by morning she will call a Tribunal against me."
Her news punctured the sense of well-being he had built
f
248 Catherine Asam-
while playing Quis. She had breached the battlements guardl
ing his heart and now she came to tell him it was all a mistake that she had
no way to follow through on her promises of love No. He didn't care. He
wouldn't be hurt again. "When do. we leave?" "Sevtar " "What?" "You aren't
sorry it turned out this way?" | He gathered up his dice. "I
didn't ask you to drag me u here."
'4.. "But last night I thought " "Are you going to take me back or not?"
"You were so warm last night. Now you're like stone." ' Stone never cries,
he thought. "Why did you bother with J kidnapping? Why not just buy me from
Henta? That's the wa it's done with Calani, isn't it?" She paled. "Don't say
that." Kelric knew if he stayed any longer his painfully buil||, defenses
would collapse. Ignoring Savina, he got off the bedE and strode out of the
room, into the night-black corridorl Debris rattled at his feet. His only
warning, as he stalked down the hall, was the groa of cracking stone and then
the floor collapsed. He hurtled downward with a shower of debris and dust,
landing on a pilej of rubble. He wasn't sure if a rock hit his temple or if he
hit his', head, but he felt blood run down his face, tasted it on his lip. |
He lurched to his feet and took off again, limping through the dark ruins.
| Several times he heard Savina
calling his name. He evaded her voice as he would evade an enemy soldier,
until the call faded in the distance. | It
was the air, or lack of it, that finally forced him to stop.
The atmosphere was too thin. In a room where wind whistled* through broken
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]