By Anne Fraser and Barbara Zuchegna
With assistance from Sharon Pickrel and Jean Lamb
Copyright 1999

Chapter Eighteen

(Liliana is recalling a conversation she had with Mac, the handyman-who-is-not-what-he-seems at Dinah’s Place.)

Liliana sat in front of her dressing table and studied her face in the mirror there. Mac was right; she was getting thinner and more haggard looking by the day, and she had to do something to stop it.

"Ask yourself if you want to make this man responsible for what you're doing to yourself," he said to her. That word ... responsible. He could not know what that word meant to Richard. But she knew.

Last night, asleep, she had gone to him again, and he had told her, over and over again, that he loved her. She knew it, but hearing the words, while his eyes looked down into hers with all his heart in them, had shaken her resolve all over again.

"If he's worth what you're already going through, he's worth finding a way to fix what's wrong," Mac had said. "No matter what."

He was right. If there was a way ... if there was any way at all...

She could not just continue to go to him while he slept. She could not stay away from him. She didn't know what she could do.

She needed to talk to Doni.

Decided, she stood, took up her flannel bathrobe from the bottom of the bed and slipped it over her flimsy nightgown, and transported herself to the Refuge.

Donalore sighed as Stephen withdrew from her body and gathered her in against him.

He laughed. "Was that a 'finally' sigh?"

She wriggled into a more comfortable position, her head resting in the hollow between his neck and shoulder. "That was a fat, happy, very self-satisfied sigh," she said.

"Self-satisfied?"

"Of course. If I had to settle for just one man ... and I did ... I think I didn't do too badly in the one I chose. It was a close thing, though. Remember that young Italian stud at the intake center ... the one with the permanent hard on and the gorgeous black curls? If I had opted for him, instead..."

"There wasn't any Italian stud there at the time," Stephen said firmly. "And if there had been, how could you possibly remember him from that long ago?" His free hand moved slowly, lovingly over her.

"If I had opted for him, instead," Donalore continued, ignoring the interruption, "I wouldn't have had to share him with dozens of strangers who demand his attention at every hour of the day and night. There is a most definite downside to being in love with a leader of men, my love. But when you spare the time for me, you do make a good job of it. I'll give you that."

His head lifted. In the meager light from the banked fireplace, his eyes were very serious. "Sweetheart, I'm trying..."

"Oh, Stephen." Laughing, she pulled his head down and kissed him. Against his lips, she said, "I was teasing, my love. I know how busy you are, and I know it never keeps you from coming to me a dozen times a day to make sure I'm still okay. Which, by the way, you have got to stop doing. I'm a Healer, Stephen. I'm entirely well; I would know if I wasn't."

"You would. But you wouldn't necessarily tell me."

"And I wouldn't lie to you. I'm entirely well; I swear it." Her smile widened. "And I'm fertile right now. Maybe one of those little wigglers you've been so free with tonight will get his little tail in gear and hit the jackpot, hmmm?"

It was what he longed for more than anything on this earth, she knew. And he had made her long for it, too. He kissed her again, lightly and then not at all lightly, his hand moving slowly over her, and then he whispered, "Maybe we should send in reinforcements, just to be sure?"

She was definitely warming to the idea, when suddenly she drew a sharp breath and turned her mouth away from his. There was a clear alarm in the sudden tension in her body. "Doni?" he said, frowning. "What is it?"

She pushed him back and sat up, her head tilted in an attitude of listening, and then she looked at him with sudden fear in her eyes. "Stephen, it's Lily. She's here ... over in the main building, at our old suite."

They had only recently moved into the novitiate, and Lily would not know that. And if she had come here this late at night, there had to be something wrong...

Stephen threw back the covers. "I'll go," he said quickly. He didn't take time to put his clothes on; he covered himself with a robe with a thought, and vanished.

Doni had time to find her nightgown on the floor, slip into it, and put on her own robe and slippers before she heard the ugly sound of Lily's grief coming from her parlor and knew that Stephen had returned. When she opened the door between the two rooms, she found Stephen standing in the middle of the room, holding Lily's tiny body close against him while she sobbed with an intensity that tore at Doni's heart.

But by the time she reached them, Lily was fighting herself back under control. She was pushing away from Stephen already, swiping the back of one wrist against her streaming eyes with clear annoyance, while she allowed Doni to take her other hand and pull her toward the couch by the fireplace.

"My god, Lily, you're freezing." Julian and Stephen had provided the novitiate with central heating, with a great deal of careful mental engineering, but the main building still used space heaters in the rooms, and the corridors were cold at night now. "Stephen, get a blanket ... and see if you can find another pair of my slippers in there ... or slipper sox."

Stephen, bless him, would probably step into the bedroom, create the stuff she wanted, and give them a minute before he came back. Doni took advantage of that minute to get Lily to sit down on the couch. She was already sending her Healer's probes into Lily through the contact with her hand, searching Lily herself, and the baby...and not happy with what she found.

"I'm all right," Lily insisted. She looked more mad than sad now. "I just ... I was just ... I went to your rooms, and there was someone else there, and they said you were over here, but I didn't know where over here, and I was just so damned frustrated, and I sort of screamed for you...and then Stephen was there, and I just kind of blew it..."

She was tugging her hand free and Doni let it go. "I'm sorry," Doni said. "We just moved over here; I should have let you know. But I didn't think you'd be showing up in the middle of the night. Lily, talk to me. What's wrong?"

"Nothing! I just wanted to see you..." Lily stopped, her eyes on Doni's, and tears began to well up again. "Oh, damn!" she said, furious. "Damn, damn, damn..."

"Okay." Doni sat back, away from her, and made no attempt to touch her again. "Do whatever it takes. Get hold of yourself. Throw something, break something, run down and throw yourself in the duck pond. I'll wait."

Stephen came back, with slipper sox that clearly were too small for Doni, and a plaid wool blanket. He wrapped the blanket around Lily, but she would not allow him to put the slipper sox on her feet. She did it herself, thanking him, and by the time she was done, she had control of herself again.

Stephen looked from his mate to Lily and back. "Girl talk?" he asked. They stared at him. He sighed. "Girl talk. I'm leaving." He went back into the bedroom and closed the door.

But even when he was gone, Lily couldn't seem to find a way to start. She asked, instead, "Are you okay now? Really okay?"

"Entirely okay. And trying my damnedest to get pregnant." She had already said it before Doni remembered that it might not be the happiest of subjects for Lily right now. She was right. Lily turned her head away, to fight the immediate renewal of burning in her eyes. "Lily," Doni said, "you're falling apart, and you've got to talk about it. I'm here, and I want to help."

"Oh, God, Doni..." It was the barest of whispers.

"This is about Richard." It wasn't even a guess. Nothing else could have torn Lily apart like this.

Lily wouldn't look at her. Her head still turned away, hugging herself tightly inside the draped blanket, she said brokenly, "I can't stay away from him. I tried ... I did try, but when I fell asleep, I went to him anyway ... I don't even know where he is, but it's half a world away. It's daytime there, and for some reason, he sleeps in the daytime, and when I fall asleep, I go to him..."

Doni was startled. "Physically?" she asked.

"Not at first. It was just my mind, touching his ... but it's not, now. I wake up with my mouth swollen and ... and all the other things ... and I know we've really been making love ... and I can't stop it, Doni. I want him so much, so damned much, and I can't stop it..."

Damn the man. Donalore knew her anger was pointless, but the two women she cared for more than any others in the world were both in misery over this one man, and there didn't seem to be a thing she could do about it. "And he's just content to let you zap in and out of his life on a nightly basis?" she said, and she couldn't keep the anger out of her voice.

"Oh, Doni." Lily turned to look at her now, shaking her head. "He doesn't know. He thinks he's dreaming, and I leave before he wakes. But last night..."

She stopped, and Doni pushed. "Last night ... what?"

"Last night, when our minds were joined, he was thinking...not just that he loved me ... He does love me... but how this is different from anything he's ever felt before. He was thinking that he wasn't my champion, or my master, or my fantasy ... some impossible ideal; that he was my lover, and that was something he'd never been before…"

Tell Anne and Gilly, Doni thought, and then made herself knock it off. Lily was no romantic teenager. She was no fool. And she knew Richard as no one else in the world could possibly know him because of the complete bonding of her mind and his and her gift of empathy that allowed her to feel everything he did. Whatever else Richard might have done, he was not casually using Lily. He could not possibly deceive her; if she said he loved her, then he did. And where did that leave Anne?

Looking at it logically, trying to distance herself from it, Doni realized that, if her love for Richard had made it impossible for Lily ever to go back to Rafe, then Richard's love for Lily might very well have made it impossible for him ever to go back to Anne. And if that was so, then Lily's sacrifice, the agony she was putting herself through, was for nothing at all.

Doni remembered the major redecorating Anne had done in her apartment, just down the corridor. What Anne had originally made into a man’s polished wood and leather haven was now a feminine bower of light and flowers. Anne knew.

And yet Doni could not bring herself to say it. She had sat with Anne for hours, listening to her talk about the man, about all her memories of him, the love for him that had shaped her entire life, and she could not tell even Lily, her best friend in the world, to destroy what little chance there might be that he would go back to Anne. Instead, she said, "Lily, I don't know how to help you. But you've got to do something, because you're hurting yourself ... and you're hurting the child."

"I know. God, I know." There was an infinity of misery in Lily's voice. "I showed him to Richard, Doni. I let him feel the baby's mind, and if you could have seen his face, felt the joy and the pride and the gratitude in him ... he was already seeing his son growing up, becoming a man, and remembering the others, the ones who didn’t..." Tears had come back, and Lily was rocking back and forth now, holding the blanket tight around her. "He wants this child so much. He treasures children; he wants more, a family..."

Well, getting three women pregnant at the same time was a good start, Doni thought, and sighed. "Lily, sweetheart, somehow you have to start to rest and to eat and to take care of yourself, or he's going to lose the child and you, too. I could give you something that would make you sleep ... and probably dull your mind enough to keep you from dreaming."

"No!" Lily's answer was immediate and somewhere between furious and frightened. "I don't want..."

Her voice trailed off, and after a minute, Doni said, "You don't want to stop going to him."

She didn't. Even though each time she woke the pain was worse, she didn't want to stop going to him. She let the blanket fall to the couch and stood up. "I shouldn't have bothered you with all this," she said, straightening her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Doni. The truth is that you're right. I don't want to stop. I don't think I could anyway, but I don't want to. I would rather have any part of him, even his damned dreams, than nothing of him at all."

"Lily, you're killing yourself. You can't keep on like this."

"I won't." But beneath the determination in her face, the misery was still there. "Don't worry, Doni. I'll eat. I'll rest. I just had to stop fighting it ... and I have. Thank Stephen for me."

"Lily, don't go..."

But she already had. There was a small sound, an inrush of the air that caused the fire to flare and sent dancing shadows around the room, and she was gone.

In her room at Dinah's, Liliana shed her robe and the idiotic slipper sox, lay down, and turned off the light. She didn't have to go to sleep; now that she had stopped fighting it, she had only to free her mind to search, and she was with him. He was in the same small room, with the slatted shutters that allowed bands of sunlight to lie across the foot of the bed. He turned to her in his sleep, smiling, expecting her now, and profoundly grateful that she was there. Lily reached for his mind, opening the bond wide as his mouth closed over hers, and accepted that this was all she would ever have and that she would make the most of it.

Before the daylight claimed him, Adrian managed to have a brief conversation with Hanan. She nodded, her big black eyes comprehending, and when the daytime sleep took the Exalted One, she carefully tucked him in. The first thing she did was go and tell her great grandmother that the Exalted One had honoured her by taking her blood. Leaving a very happy old woman behind her, already composing verses, Hanan rooted out a few other village girls to help her and set about obeying the Exalted One's commands.

At nightfall, she brought the results to Vaje Adrian. He kissed her, and gave her an exultant slap on the backside for good measure, then hastily pulled on his clothes, gathered up what she had brought him, and went to find Richard.

The ex-king was with Ardeshir, looking over a small stockpile of knives and bullets. Silver! Adrian backed away from the display, and Richard turned at once to him. Ardeshir bowed and left the room.

"I am sorry to cause you discomfort," Richard said, "but I think you can understand the necessity for such weapons."

Adrian's teal blue eyes met Richard's brown ones. "Oh, yes," he said, his face once more set in harsh planes that made him look older and not nearly so pretty. He smiled, but with a wry edge to it that made Richard think that his friend was still in a dangerous mood. "Look what I brought for you, vaje-ye," he said with a bow. He opened the bundle that Hanan had presented to him. Inside was a small pile of sharpened wooden stakes and wooden bolts for the crossbow.

"Great minds, Richard," Adrian said simply. "Yours is just a little greater in this case. Silver's surer than wood. Any blow from silver that cuts the skin will cause debilitating pain. As I can attest."

Richard regarded him steadily. "I concluded that these vampires must have known that silver would cause pain to T'beth because they themselves are affected by it."

"Damn," said Adrian. "Never occurred to me. It should have. Silver doesn't affect all vampires, though."

"It affects these ones," Richard said with certainty.

"We still need more information," Adrian said. "We need someone to get into the harem and talk to the girls without scaring them out of what wits they have left. And no, I am not going back into drag; not for you, not for T'beth, not anyone."

"I would not ask you to do so," Richard assured him. "Who, then?"

"We can't ask any of these girls to risk themselves, even though I'm sure they'd do it if an Exalted One asked. It has to be Alexis, Richard. She can do it. She won't be taking any risks, because she's a ghost. She can get in and out of the palace undetected. She's an American, so the American and Canadian girls will talk to her. And she's clever; she'll think of ways to get them to open up."

"You’re certain that she cannot be injured or detained?" Richard asked.

"As certain as I can be," Adrian replied.

"Very well," Richard nodded. "Let us go and find her."

They found Alexis with Jake and Ed, both of whom had Baluchi girls hovering in the background. This stayover in Sa'idi had certainly been ... er, productive, in one sense.

"Alexis, may we speak with you for a moment?" Richard asked.

"Of course." She waved to the other two. "Be good. Or if you can't, be sure to tell me all the details." She joined Richard and Adrian. "You two look serious," she said, dropping her toujours gaie tone. "Is there something I can do?"

"Yes, there is," Adrian said. He naturally assumed he was the one to appeal to Alexis' spirit of adventure and willingness to help. Richard and Alexis tended to rub each other the wrong way. But Adrian knew that Alexis liked him, not least because he so resembled her son Stephen; and to get what he wanted he was more than willing to exploit her maternal instincts. "Alexis, we need you to go into the harem in the palace of the Ayatollah and find out what happened to T'beth there."

She knew, because she'd been there, how little information Adrian had been able to get out of the harem. "Well, thank God you're not going to try it in drag, dear," she said. "You might be able to fool French customs officials, and people on the train, and so forth; but in a room full of actual women, you'd be found out in a second."

"I wasn't going to try it in drag," Adrian assured her. "I know we need a real woman, in more than one sense." He tried a boyish grin out on her, though he didn't feel much like it. It didn't work very well, but Alexis was already agreeing to go.

"I can float over there, and through the walls, and get into the harem in no time at all," she assured them. "No need to drive me there; my way is safer. I'll do my best to find out what happened to T'beth ... though the women may not know. They probably don't get told things. Still, they must have some information. Wish me luck!" She started to fade out, then solidified for a moment and gave Adrian one of her patented Looks. "And if you ever try another boyish grin on me, it will go very hard with you." She faded back out once more.

They all knew a girl had died, and they were scared. Alexis found her presence readily accepted; new women appeared and disappeared with such regularity that nobody even noticed that the guards hadn't brought this one in. Alexis had cleverly waiting until someone had opened the door, then had thrown herself in, turning around and spitting at absolutely nobody, solid from the moment she stood up and saw curious female faces. To all appearances, it was as if she'd been unceremoniously shoved into the harem.

The broken lock on the door had been discovered, and the guard had died for it. Since the women all protested they knew nothing about the broken lock, Zanjani had simply failed to have them sent their dinner that night. So Alexis was dealing with a couple dozen or so frightened and hungry women. Fortunately, she had managed to bring her "mom" purse with her and dispensed some cookies; while not particularly nutritious or satisfying, they did break the ice considerably.

Some of the women had scars. A couple were pregnant. All of them knew the only way to get out of the harem was dead. Most had been torn away from their families, snatched off the streets and smuggled here; anyone who thought the white slave trade was a thing of the distant past was seriously fooling themselves.

When Alexis had them calmed down, she found a few of the English-speaking ones from her own continent, if not actual country, and got them over into a corner. "I'm a spy," she told them, watching their eyes widen. "I'm here with a group that's going to do something about Zanjani. We will help you to get out of this hellhole. But I need some very important information first; believe me when I say that we'll do nothing to help you unless you first help me."

The captive women conferred. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" demanded one, whose Hoosier accent betrayed her place of origin.

"Would they have let me keep my 'mom' purse if I really was a captive?" Alexis asked. "You know what's in a mom purse. I could break out of Sing Sing with what's in this thing. But for the moment, you are safer here. If I let you out now, it will be too dangerous for you."

"What do you need to know?" asked the lady from Indiana.

"A few weeks ago, there was a woman brought here," Alexis said. "Not like anyone else, a warrior woman, a hunter. A mix of Middle Eastern and African blood, so she's dark-skinned, exotic-looking, but lots of muscle. She would have been in silver chains."

"Oh, T'beth," chuckled another woman. "She was different, all right. She wanted to get us out of here, but those chains ... they hurt her. She was in a lot of pain, but she still managed to fight the enforcers every inch of the way. They ordered us to clean her up, and we had to ... leaving the chains on, of course. When the enforcers tell you to do something, you do it, or else..." she poked at her neck with two fingers. "You do know that Zanjani uses vampires, don't you?" she asked. "Sounded crazy when I first got here, but I learned." She turned her head so that Alexis could see the bite marks. "The good old Ayatollah lets them snack on us if we're bad," she said simply. "And be bad once too often, and you don't come back from the snack."

"I know all about the vampires," Alexis assured them, "and so do my friends. We're prepared for them. You must know that T'beth is one, too, but one of the good guy vampires. Do you know what Zanjani and his enforcers did to the other 'good' vampires, the ones from Sa'idi?"

There were more headshakes. "He poisoned them." "We don't know how." "Thought you couldn't poison a vampire." "But we saw them being carried out, to be left in the sun." Similar responses assured Alexis that the women simply did not know what had been done to the Exalted Ones.

Time to get back to business. "Tell me about what happened to T'beth."

Again a conference, and there was the distinct sound of muffled giggles, probably something not often heard in this scented prison.

"She was taken to Zanjani," said a pretty brunette with no discernable accent, "once we'd cleaned her up and made her pretty. She didn't seem to mind that much, really, except for the chains. But ... we don't know for sure what happened, but the Ayatollah wasn't up to par for a few nights after." She collapsed into laughter.

Alexis looked around at the shining eyes and smiling mouths. "She did something to him?" she asked.

"Kicked him hard in the nuts is my guess," said the Hoosier girl briskly.

Some of the women had to put pillows or scarves over their mouths so that the guards wouldn't hear them laughing.

"He sure wasn't interested in fun and games for awhile," said another woman with a wistful sigh.

"And T'beth?" Alexis pressed. "I haven't much time. I have to know."

"We never saw her again," said the Hoosier girl sadly. "They took her away."

"Where?"

Shrugs and blank looks. They didn't know, and they were sorry. They'd liked T'beth, liked her spunk and her assertiveness, liked her warrior ways in a world where women were supposed to be non-aggressive.

"Only Zanjani and his damned enforcers know," said the Hoosier. "They took her, but I don't think they killed her."

"Yeah, Zany wasn't too happy with them, cause they disobeyed his orders." This was the brunette. "But they wanted to keep her alive, to sweeten her up and bring her around to the cause." She rolled her eyes. "So I'm pretty sure they've got her stashed somewhere; but of course they don't tell us things like that."

"Well, thank you, you've been helpful," Alexis said, hating to go and leave these women to Zanjani's cruelty. "Please have hope. We will get you out of here."

And, since she couldn't afford to wait until the door happened to be unlocked and opened again, she simply faded away, leaving some very astounded women behind. Some women who actually allowed themselves to hope. Those who weren't trying to convince themselves that it had been an illusion caused by hunger...

Alexis materialized in the large central room of Ardeshir's house, where she had left the rest of the group only moments before. The outfit she had assumed for the trip had fit in perfectly in the harem but caused a sudden rash of raised eyebrows here. In her excitement, she had forgotten to change.

Richard's eyes raked over the almost obscene transparency of the thing, then he grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind him to the kitchen, where the silver-plated knives and bullets still lay on the table. Adrian, unable to suppress a smile, trailed behind. Once there, with the door closed behind them, Richard said, "Lady, we can wait while you cover yourself."

As always, sparks flew immediately. Alexis, who a moment before had been determined to get the hell out of there long enough to do just that, now smiled with feral sweetness and said, "I'm quite comfortable, Richard. If you are not, I suggest you cover your eyes." Defiantly, she sat herself down at the table and gave every evidence of being firmly rooted there.

There was a long moment of silence. Adrian could have sworn he could see Richard mentally counting to ten. Then Richard sat down at the table, opposite Alexis, and with his eyes directed at hers instead of at some of the more interesting things she was displaying, he said, "Forgive me. The choice, of course, is yours. Were you able to discover anything of importance?"

If he could get down to business, Alexis clearly decided that she could, too. But when she began to talk, none of them had to pretend anymore. The picture she drew of a world of captive women, grossly mistreated, was not a thing any of them could regard lightly. The one significant thing she had been able to learn sobered them all. If they were to find out where T'beth had been taken, if they were to learn what had happened to the comatose Exalted Ones, they would have to get that information from Zanjani himself or from his enforcers.

The only good news she had for them was that T'beth had been able to do a little punishing of Zanjani all by herself. "The harem women already liked her," Alexis said, "because she was so defiant. But when they understood that she had ... um, incapacitated the Ayatollah for a few nights, they were ready to confer sainthood on her." She smiled, genuinely, at Adrian. "My dear, when they took her from the palace, she was still undamaged. We have no reason to believe that has changed."

Adrian had taken a place at the table by now, too, and he looked down at his clasped hands with unrelieved worry. "That was weeks ago," he said. "If they've kept her chained in silver all this time..."

Alexis's hand came out to cover his. "They wouldn't have, Adrian. They didn't want to destroy her. They disobeyed Zanjani when he ordered her destroyed."

Adrian could understand that. To expose to the sun the Exalted who had fought them would have been hard enough; to do it again, to a woman they had no quarrel with, would have been harder. Vampires can easily be roused to fight and even kill each other, over issues of territory or the choice of victims, but for those to whom the sun is deadly, the idea of exposing any of their kind only reinforces their own fear and vulnerability.

Richard said, "There is no profit to be gained in speculation. Adrian, we must speak with Zanjani himself. Ardeshir says he rarely leaves his palace; we must go back there if we are to gain access to him."

Adrian was nodding his agreement. After last night, he was eager to speak with Zanjani. He hoped it would take some persuasion to get Zanjani to speak with them. "There's no point in taking anyone else, Richard," he said. "They can't help, and there is always the risk they would be seen waiting for us."

Richard was busily loading the silver-plated bullets into ammunition clips for the automatic pistols. He didn't ask Adrian to help; he knew Adrian could not touch silver. With one clip loaded, he snapped it into place in the butt of one gun and held the gun out to Adrian. "Can you use the weapon with silver inside it?" he asked.

"Yes." Adrian took it with no difficulty. "I can feel the damned stuff; but there's no pain unless I touch it."

Richard tossed him the belt holster and Adrian strapped it around his waist and secured the gun, snapping the leather flap over it. Richard took one of the ten inch, silver-plated daggers from the table and slid it into its scabbard before handing it, too, to Adrian. The scabbard snapped into place over his belt, beside the gun.

"Uh ... my dears," Alexis said, as Richard got his own weapons ready, and they both turned to look at her again, "there is just one little thing more..."

They waited, while Alexis looked just a tiny bit embarrassed. She said, "I promised the harem ladies that we were going to get them out of there."

Before Richard could spit out the violence gathering in his eyes, Adrian said quickly, "Dammit, Alexis, we can't be sure we can do that!"

She refused to argue. "I made a promise. If you had been there, you would have done the same. What's being done to them is utterly appalling, and it has to be stopped."

She looked up at Richard, ready to do battle. She knew perfectly well what she had done. Even if they removed Zanjani, even if by some miracle they were able to remove his vampiric enforcers, the palace and its harem were guarded by dozens of perfectly mortal guards and there was no way to spirit a couple dozen women past them. To free those women, they would have to take control of the palace itself, and of the local government. She had, with one promise, vastly increased the scope of what they were committed to do here.

Richard had pushed himself to his feet, and Adrian looked up at him, prepared to defend Alexis if necessary. But he watched Richard take a deep breath, assuming this burden as he had assumed all the rest ... T'beth herself, and then the comatose Exalted, the villagers of Sa'idi ... and now the whole damned Saravan district. If this keeps up, Adrian thought wearily, we're gonna end up taking over the whole country. Shah Richard of Iran?

Richard sighed. "That was ... unwise, lady," he said with a gentleness that must have been supremely difficult to maintain. "But, as you say, you were there and we were not. I must trust your judgment. Adrian, we should waste no more time. We will need all the hours of darkness possible to ensure success." He came around the end of the table and startled Alexis by seizing her hand and raising it to his lips. "Lady," he said, with what seemed real sincerity, "you have my heartfelt gratitude for your service to us this evening. I owe you an apology. You have proven beyond doubt that you are a valuable member of our team. Thank you."

Adrian could have laughed out loud, and Alexis would probably have tried to kill him if he had. She was all prepared to take on a furious and viciously courteous Richard, and he had taken all the wind out of her sails with one quiet apology. She was actually blushing when he released her hand. "No apology is necessary," she said, trying to regain her composure. "I was happy to do my part."

Richard, fastening his own weapons in place now, looked back at Adrian. "I must talk with Will," he said. Will was not going to be happy. "I'll wait for you outside."

When he had gone, Adrian reached out to pat Alexis's hand. "All that clever venom," he sympathized, "and nowhere to sink your fangs."

"The man," Alexis pronounced, jerking her hand away, "is impossible."

Adrian stood and bent to brush a quick kiss on her smooth cheek. "So, my dear lady, are you," he said.

By the time Adrian got into the main room, the thunderous silence was a pretty good indication that Richard had announced that he and Adrian were going alone, that the others there had been bold enough to comment in some way, and that Richard had been very courteous indeed. Jake's face was somewhere around the color of boiled lobster, Will Scrope looked sicker than he had just after he'd been shot, and Ed Perry, sitting back in his corner, was observing Richard with a very speculative eye. But nobody had anything else to say.

Richard turned on his heel and stalked out of the house and Adrian, with a small farewell gesture to those who were staying behind, followed. "I take it," Adrian said, as they walked across the almost empty square, "that someone didn't agree with the plan?"

Richard didn't answer for a moment, but then he took a deep breath, sighed, and the scowl disappeared from his face. "Forgive me," he said. It seemed that half of what Richard said these days was prefaced with the phrase. "I am not accustomed to having my orders questioned, and it is not always easy to remember that they are not soldiers."

They were on their way to the stable where the ATV was kept, Adrian knew. He said, "Where's the driver?"

Richard didn't stop walking. He said, "We have no need of a driver, Adrian."

Uh-oh. Adrian stopped walking. It took Richard a minute to realize it, and he turned, thunderclouds gathering in his eyes again. "Now what?"

Adrian held out his hand. "I'm driving."

"That isn't necessary." The clouds darkened. "I am quite capable of managing the vehicle."

He wasn't fooling Adrian for a minute. He'd been lusting after that damned ATV since the moment he first saw it. Adrian dug his heels in. "I'm sure you are. But I'm driving."

Richard came walking back to him, contained fury in every step. "And why," he seethed, "do you feel so strongly about this?" There was a challenge in the words as clear as if he had thrown down a gauntlet.

"Because," Adrian said, "we can't use the headlights, and my night vision is infinitely superior to yours." His hand, palm up, waited.

Richard stared at him, those dark eyes snapping as if they alone should be able to reduce Adrian to quivering obedience. They didn't. After a long moment, Richard made a small sound of disgust, took the keys from his pocket and slapped them into Adrian's hand.

Adrian drove.