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

Chapter Thirty-Six

Richard watched Adrian, who was bent over the spilled paper clips with every evidence of total absorption. Jake saw a sort of impatient little twist of Richard's lips, but instead of the expected extreme courtesy, Richard suddenly rose and said, "If you'll come with me for a moment, Jake, I'll show you what I mean..."

Jake had no idea what he was talking about. But Richard wasn't giving him a chance to ask. Bemused, Jake got up and followed him into the outer office.

There weren't quite as many busy little men around the tables there now, but the phones were still ringing fairly incessantly, and under cover of their noise, Richard drew Jake close and said, very quietly, "The vehicles are waiting out front for the drive to Sa'idi. Find T'beth and wait for me there. I will be no more than a few moments."

He turned away immediately and went back into his office. Richard usually gave orders, when he gave them at all, in that way. Hanging around just meant giving the orderee the chance to ask why. Jake would have loved to ask why. Instead, he went to find T'beth.

Adrian had drawn a handful of paper clips into a pile on the floor and was adding to it, one by one. "Fifty-three, fifty-four..." There were at least a thousand of them scattered about.

Richard walked across to the windows that overlooked the square in front of the palace. At the curb, directly below, the Sa'idi vampires, dressed in a giddy array of color and sumptuous fabrics, were piling into the line of automobiles and trucks. In the lead, Will Scrope sat disconsolately in the back seat of the big ATV, and Liliana stood beside the vehicle, looking up at the palace. It was obvious that Will was not looking forward to the trip across the desert with Richard driving. An empty, jeep-like vehicle, intended for Adrian, Jake, T'beth and Ed, was right behind.

Richard turned away. To Adrian, he said, "Ardeshir is planning an extravagant celebration in our honor. I'm told there are to be fireworks. While I'm aware of the existence of these, I have never seen them. I'm told they are quite exciting."

Adrian didn't lift his head. He mumbled, "Exciting ... yes ... sixty-six, sixty-seven..."

"It is unlikely that we will ever have reason to be in Sa'idi again, after tomorrow," Richard went on. "I find it saddening. We have made good friends there."

"Friends," Adrian said, his head still bent down. "Seventy-three, seventy-four..."

Richard glanced back out the window. Liliana had climbed into the ATV now ... under the wheel, he could not help but notice. Will seemed happier. Jake, T'beth, and Ed Perry had appeared on the steps and were walking down, talking together.

"Oh..." Richard turned abruptly from the windows. "I very nearly forgot ... excuse me, Adrian, there are instructions I must leave before we go."

"Instructions," Adrian murmured, absently. "Eighty-one, eighty-two..."

Richard walked purposefully across to the door and through it, pulling it closed behind him. Very carefully, and soundlessly, he turned the big, heavy key in the lock, withdrew it, and pocketed it. To the man sitting closest to the door, he gave unhurried instructions and then turned and walked on out into the corridor, toward the open doors to the square.

Jake and T'beth were still on the stairs. Ed had climbed in under the wheel of the jeep. "Where's Adrian?" Jake asked. Richard only looked at him for a moment, then said, "If you will get into the vehicle, Jake, we will be on our way."

"But where's..."

T'beth gave Jake an ungentle elbow to the ribs. "Do what the man says, Jake," she said. Her eyes were on Richard's. They understood each other very well.

Richard turned away, walked quickly to the ATV, and got in on the passenger's side. Liliana started the engine immediately.

T'beth was pulling Jake down the stairs. "I don't get it," he complained. "Nobody ever tells me what the hell's going on..."

But he got into the jeep, as she did, and following Lily, the whole convoy roared on out of the square, off to Sa'idi.

Adrian was so absorbed in picking up and counting the paperclips that he was only peripherally aware that Richard and Jake had left the room. Maybe there really was something to the folklore, after all, for there was no point in him continuing the joke without an audience.

"One hundred-three, one hundred-four ... wha-?" His curly dark head whipped up as it finally dusked* on him that he was alone in the office. The sound of ATV engines roaring to life and the departure of the same vehicles could plainly be heard even in the office.

"Hey!" Adrian exclaimed. "They're leaving without me!"

He raced for the door and gave it a tug. The door refused to budge. Locked! Richard had locked him in! The bloody damn king couldn't take a joke? Surely he wouldn't really have gone to Sa'idi, leaving Adrian locked in the palace?

Adrian pounded on the door furiously, shouting to be let out. He heard voices on the other side, but nobody seemed to be in a hurry to release him. He applied all his vampiric strength to the door, but the palace had been built to last. He took a running jump at it and finally succeeded in kicking it open, sending the office workers on the other side scattering like chickens.

"Why didn't anyone open the door?" he demanded, red-eyed and angry.

"Vaje Richard said you were engaged in important work, Vaje Ah-drian," replied someone timidly, from under a desk. "He said you were not to be disturbed."

"Damn him," Adrian swore. He'd have to run like hell to catch up to the ATVs, maybe run all the way to Sa'idi.

Just because he'd played a joke? This seemed a bit unfair on Richard's part.

He tore down the nearest stairs and out the front door of the palace, barely acknowledging the guards. He was leaving smoke in his path by the time he hit the square, and he traveled across it in record time. Then, just around the corner, he found the ATVs waiting. Ed was sticking his head out from the driver's side of a Jeep, grinning.

"Yo, Adrian!" he called out.

Adrian sighed. Everyone wanted to yell "Yo, Adrian!" at him at least once, and everyone thought they were the first ones to ever pull that joke. He glared at Richard.

"Have you quite finished your task in the office?" Richard asked. Courteously. So courteously that whatever Adrian had been going to say died in his throat. He just nodded. "Excellent," Richard continued, "then please get into the Jeep so that we may proceed to Sa'idi without further delay."

Sulking, Adrian climbed in beside T'beth. She was snickering. He curled himself up and refused to talk to anyone for the rest of the trip.

(*Vampires are allergic to dawn in any form)

The drive from Saravan to Sa'idi, over the darkened desert and without roads for most of the way, was still a tedious and uncomfortable one. More uncomfortable, very likely, for those in the jeep, with a sulking vampire huddled in one corner of the back seat, feeling more than a little put upon.

Richard was not in the best of spirits either, since Liliana had put her small foot down about who was going to drive earlier in the day. "I am quite capable of driving the vehicle," he had said, with more frost in his voice than he had ever managed to use with her before.

She wasn't impressed. He would never be able to put anything over on her. She slid her arms around his waist, reached up to kiss him lightly, and said, "I'm sure you are, my love. But I want to drive, and you are unable to deny me anything I want." Her small smile was delightfully lascivious. "I've certainly never been able to deny you anything you want."

She just happened to find something he wanted. He forgot all about driving, or who would do it, or why it was an issue in the first place. Liliana, being persuasive, was a sea of joy in one small body, and he was perfectly willing to allow her to persuade him. He would spend some effort, he thought, for the rest of his life, on finding things she could persuade him into.

But, once underway, watching her skillfully maneuvering the ATV over the rough ground of the desert, he longed to get his hands on the wheel. Will, sitting behind him, dreaded the moment when his king would suggest trading places to his lady.

The Sa'idi vampires, in high good spirits ... for vampires, had gone on ahead, racing each other across the desert through the night, zipping around clumped bunch grass and rock outcroppings with their extraordinary keenness of sight, their voices raised in laughter and cat-calling back and forth. Lily made no attempt to keep up with them. They could overturn a vehicle, break bones and heads, and get up and walk away. She and her passengers couldn't.

Once in a while, as they drove, Ed pulled the jeep even with them, and Lily would get a quick glimpse of reddened eyes glaring over at them from the back seat of the other vehicle. Obviously, Adrian was upset about something, but there was a certain smugness about Richard that warned her not to ask. T'beth, whom Liliana was slowly getting to know, looked gleefully satisfied. Jake looked apprehensive.

Lily sighed. Her dear love and his dear friends were not going to be an easy bunch to understand.

Her first encounter with T'beth had been typical. The female vampire came across her in the early evening, in the garden by the swan pool, and at first Lily thought it was a chance encounter. It wasn't.

"Will Scrope says you can get papers for the two women from the harem who don't belong here," T'beth said, rather stiffly. Lily looked blank for a minute, and T'beth went on, "One of them is from Canada, the other from the U.S., and their papers were taken from them. They need passports, visas, things that will let them travel home."

"Oh." Lily concentrated for a moment, and there was a small, book-like object in her hand. "Something like this?"

T'beth took it and opened it. It was a blank American passport, with an impressive array of stamps. It had appeared out of thin air. She looked up at this tiny, doll-like woman more closely. "Yeah. How do you do that?"

Lily was well aware of being judged. "Just a knack," she said. "If you'll bring the women to me, so I can get all the information I need, I can do the job up right."

"This is all part of the Awakened thing Jake talks about, right? And the way you just pop up wherever you want?"

"Yes."

T'beth hesitated. Generally speaking, she didn't have much use for the ultra-feminine, soft-looking females of the world. This one was certainly beautiful, and she had a fastidious daintiness about her that was usually a turnoff, but she also had an air of quiet competence and absolute confidence in herself that was unusual. "And the way that other woman healed Niloufar ... that was an Awakened thing, too?"

"Yes. It's not magic. We ... manipulate matter, I guess you'd call it."

T'beth thought about it for a moment, and then thrust out her hand. "I'm T'beth. I'm a friend of Adrian's and Jake's."

Liliana took the hand without hesitation. Her own grip was firm and confident. "And of Richard's. I know. I'm Liliana ... Lily, to my friends." She smiled warmly. "I know you and Richard have been a bit more than friends, T'beth."

T'beth's eyes narrowed. "And that doesn't bother you?"

Lily's expression was rueful. "At the time? I could cheerfully have torn you limb from limb. Now? No, it doesn't bother me. He values you highly; so do I."

T'beth studied her for a moment, and realized that she was being perfectly honest. Relieved, she plunked herself down on the bench beside the smaller woman. "Good. I'd rather not have any bad feelings." Her grin was forthright. "It won't happen again ... as I'm sure you know. But I can't say I'm sorry it happened at all. He's an experience in the sack."

"Yes, he is," Lily agreed. They looked at each other for a moment more, two very different women who had something more in common than either of them had imagined, and suddenly they were both giggling. "You hit him," Lily managed, between explosions of laughter. "I wish I'd seen it."

"He hit back," T'beth said, her hand going to her cheek, remembering. "Jake was sure he was going to belt you one, too, when you laid into him."

Lily shook her head, still giggling. "I was smart enough to hit him before, not after," she said, and sent T'beth into another outburst.

"I'll say this for him," T'beth said, when she got her giggles under control. "He's a lot more deadly with the mouth on him than he is with his fist. He could cut diamonds with the edge on his tongue."

Liliana, who had experienced something of this from Richard, too, couldn't have agreed more.

Over the following weeks, they had not seen each other often ... T'beth had her own agenda, and was not often seen by anyone. But they had formed a tentative friendship. And the best part of it was the look on Richard's face when he saw them with their heads together, laughing.

Richard did not attempt to talk her into letting him drive for part of the way, to Will's great relief. When they arrived in Sa'idi, Ardeshir and his household were lined up, waiting to welcome them, the women bright-eyed and curious, the younger men graciously formal. They were ushered into the house ... a far roomier and more comfortable place that Lily would have guessed from its outward appearance, and shown to their various rooms to freshen up. There would be dinner and entertainment later, and tomorrow night, the entire town would fete them throughout the night.

This first night was long enough. Liliana wasn't used to staying up all night yet, and Richard made excuses for them both well before the rest of the group broke up. Before leaving the room, though, he hesitated for a moment. "If you'll wait here for me," he said briefly, leaving her at the entrance to the corridor.

She saw him cross over to a lovely young woman who was sitting at the far end of the long table. Ardeshir's women had served, first, and then as the evening progressed, they had joined the others at table. This girl, if Lily remembered correctly, was a niece or something of that sort, and her name was Hanan.

Richard leaned down to speak to the girl briefly, and Lily saw her eyes light up for a moment before she bowed her head down, acquiescing to whatever he had said. Richard turned and came back to take Lily's arm and lead her toward their room at the rear of the house. "What was that all about?" she asked, sleepily.

His face was sober, but there was an untrustworthy glint in his eye. "I was making arrangements for Adrian's breakfast," he said.

She looked up at him, puzzled. Adrian hadn't said a word to Richard all evening. "His breakfast?" she said.

Richard smiled, a very self-satisfied smile. "Among other things," he said.

The air stirred above Adrian's ear. As he made the eyeblink-heartbeat transition from dead to the world to fully alert, he knew he was not alone in the room. There were three ... no, four ... humans in here with him. His eyes flared red, fangs extended, fingernails turned to talons. He rolled over, prepared to kill, prepared to die fighting.

And stared right into Hanan's face. Already her bright smile of welcome was fading into fear.

"Va-Vaje Adrian?" she asked, backing away from the thing on the divan.

A heartbeat. Two. He could hear the hearts of four frightened girls pounding the rhythm of their fear. Three heartbeats. Four. The fangs retracted, his eyes banked their coalfires, his claws became ordinary cracked fingernails that needed a manicure.

"Hanan," he said softly, seductively. "No, don't be frightened. You startled me. Didn't anyone ever tell you to leave sleeping Exalted Ones lie?"

He was hungry. He always woke hungry. But he was too tired for sex. He knew that this trip was nearly over, that soon he must return to Toronto, to the routine of the classroom and of rehearsals for Midsummer Night's Dream. He had not the strength to take on four girls at once.

In a moment of clarity, he knew that Richard had set him up. Couldn't the damn king just take a joke?

"I ... I am sorry, vaje-ye," Hanan stammered.

"It's okay," he reached out his hand and she took it. The other three girls sighed enviously. "You will get your turns," he assured them. "But only one at a time."

Damn Richard.

He drank from Hanan's wrist, savoring the honey taste of her, constantly stroking her back to soothe her. Damn, damn Richard. Didn't he know that Adrian could have killed these girls? Why hadn't Jake stopped him?

Oh, right, Lafeeta. Jake was occupied.

He took Ghazal next, spice to counteract Hanan's honey. Looking deep into her eyes, he ordered her to remember wonderful sex, the sex he could not find it within himself to actually perform. When he got back to Toronto, he vowed, he would return to his path of celibacy. None of his encounters here in the Middle East, not the eager Baluchi boys, not the pretty doe-eyed girls, not hulking Shapour ... none of them had actually satisfied him, fulfilled him, made him happy, or taken the loneliness away.

The little one ... what was her name? Tart and fresh, lemon-lime? It had been too long since he had tasted any citrus. His hunger abated, withdrew, and a calm slowly took its place. The hell with Richard. If he couldn't take a joke, then curse him. This was some revenge the king had played, sending four girls to gangbang Adrian.

The fourth one, Zorah, he barely nipped. She would have been hurt and bewildered had he refused her offer. He "honored" her by taking her blood. Pah. He would be glad to be rid of these people, with their "Exalted Ones" and strange idea that they were honored if they were used as a snack, and get back to civilization where vampires were regarded as ravening beasts to be destroyed.

The girls fled when he dismissed them, Hanan with tears in her eyes. Damn, damn, damn. He'd offended her. Useless to apologize. He swung off the divan, wiping the last traces of blood from his lips. Clothes. Find some damn clothes and go and have it out with the damn king. He was sick to death of wearing burnooses and kaftans and whatever, too. He hunted for his Banana Republic outfit. His questing fingers found his make-up case first, and the small suitcase with the outfit he had worn as Mrs. Richard Plantagenet.

He paused. His fingers stroked the teal silk of the dress that so matched his eyes. There was a hunger in those eyes that had nothing to do with blood. He shuddered at the artificial boobs, then unearthed the expensive jewelry.

The engagement ring flashed its diamonds at him, the wedding ring simply reflected dull gold. They were a woman's rings; they'd only had to be adjusted very slightly for his slim fingers. He slipped them on one last time and stared down at them, fighting ... what? Anger? Tears? Pain?

He knew that those few hours on the plane and train were the closest he would ever come to being really married; to having that connection, that commitment.

Ah, Toni!

He pulled the rings off and palmed them, heedless of the diamonds that threatened to cut into his hand. It would be dishonest to keep these, however tempting it would be to sell them. He found some clothes, not really caring what, dressed carelessly, and went in search of Richard.

There's a ship lying rigged and ready in the harbor

Tomorrow for old England she will sail.

Far away from your land of warmth and sunshine

Back to my land of rainy days and hail.

And I must board that ship tomorrow,

Though my heart grieves at this last farewell.

For you are beautiful.

And I have loved you dearly,

More dearly than the spoken word can tell.

(The Last Farewell, by Roger Whittaker. Used without permission)

The diamonds on the wedding ring were hurting his hand.

As Adrian, with the false Mrs. Plantagenet's very real jewelry in his hand, made his way towards wherever Richard happened to be, he passed by T'beth. He'd actually seen very little of his "sister" since her rescue. They'd had different pursuits. She was sitting comfortably on the floor, lotus positioned, listening to the triplets. This eerie threesome of ancient little ladies gave Adrian the serious fantods, but T'beth seemed to be getting along with them just fine. They were all gabbling in a language that was not Farsi.

The female vampire looked up as her bloodkin paused. "Why, look," she exclaimed in English, "it's the Brat Prince. What mischief are you up to now, oh wayward one?"

"I'm simply returning some property to its rightful owner," Adrian replied with dignity.

"How unlike you."

"I am not a thief."

She snorted. "Thief of Hearts," she hissed. "Lord knows you stole mine. Is it imperative that you return this property this second? I would like to talk to you."

He looked from her to the triplets, who gave no sign of understanding this exchange in English. "All right," he conceded, and gracefully lowered himself to the floor beside her, nodding at the three little old ladies. They, predictably, beamed at him. "This isn't going to be a lecture, is it?" he asked warily.

"No, much as you deserve one." T'beth reached out and touched his clenched hand. "Just ... I haven't had the chance to say 'thank you'."

He almost toppled over in surprise. "You're welcome," he choked out. "T'beth..."

No. A vampire never, ever asked another vampire what drove them back home to seek the solace of their native earth. It was an unthinkable violation of privacy, even to Adrian. He held few things sacred, this was one of them. He would have hated to have anyone ask him the question if he felt compelled to go back to England.

"Yes?" her cafe-au-lait eyes were searching his teal ones, seeking what he truly wanted to say.

"Whatever it was that made you come here ... and I don't want to know what it was," he said hastily, "I just want to know ... it wasn't anything I did, was it?"

She snorted again. "You have one big ego, little brother. Everything isn't about you, you know. It had nothing to do with you." She unfolded her legs and stood up. "Nothing at all."

'Nothing and everything,' she amended silently, thinking of a now year-old-or-more conversation with another vampire, D'Arcy. She yanked Adrian to his feet. "Anyway, hopefully it will be another five hundred years before I feel the need to come back, but the ladies here," she curtsied, actually curtsied, to the triplets and they beamed at her, "have told me they will ensure that my name is passed down in Sa'idi legend so that I am assured of protection should I ever return."

"That's good." Adrian bowed to the ladies. If possible, they beamed even brighter. "I have to go find Richard."

"Adrian. Don't do anything to screw up your friendship, you hear? Richard's a good man, and he's probably the best friend you'll ever have."

"Jake is the best friend I'll ever have," Adrian replied and stalked off.

T'beth shook her head and sighed.

Adrian found Richard and Liliana sitting companionably, sharing coffee and watching the preparations for the party. There were going to be fireworks, which Richard had never seen. Adrian gave the king a somewhat sullen glance, resenting Richard's relaxed posture and obvious love for and from the woman beside him.

"Are you quite through getting even?" Adrian snarked at him. "I think my stupid counting joke didn't warrant so much revenge."

"An apology would not be amiss," Richard said.

There was silence for a moment until Adrian realized that Richard was expecting him, Adrian Talbot, to apologize. Adrian never apologized for anything.

He slowly opened his hand. Dark red vampire blood glinted in the torchlight, staining the gold and diamonds, making Lili frown. "Richard," Adrian said, showing the king the jewelry and watching Richard's eyes widen with recognition, "I want a divorce."

More silence. Liliana's eyes flicked back and forth between her dear love and his dear friend, and she felt Richard's dismay keenly, although nothing of it showed in his face. Slowly, he extended his hand. "You have it, of course," he said, in that light, expressionless voice she knew too well.

Adrian dropped the rings into Richard's palm, along with a drop or two of his strangely dark blood. He hesitated the barest fraction of a second, and then, his face as haughtily proud as a strutting falcon's, he spun on his heel and stalked away. Richard watched him go with no expression at all in the fathomless dark, dark eyes, until a swirl of gaily costumed Sa'idians cut off all sight of Adrian's rigidly straight back.

Richard slipped the rings into a pocket and turned his attention back to Lily. "Forgive me," he said. "I have forgotten what we were discussing."

She wasn't going to let him get away with it. "What we were discussing doesn't matter worth a damn. What was that all about?"

He looked momentarily regretful. Life with Liliana would require a certain amount of adjustment; it was impossible to deceive her about what he felt. This had immeasurable benefits he would die before giving up, but it had a few small difficulties, as well. He said, "Adrian thought to make a small joke at my expense, and I reciprocated, perhaps more extensively than was wise."

He would. Adrian should have known that he would. Richard was utterly incapable of allowing himself to be beaten at anything; it was as instinctive as breathing. And he recognized no rules except one: the only reason to fight was to win.

She knew him so well. There was nothing in him that was hidden from her and nothing in her that she kept hidden from him ... except for the one little bit of information about Gilly she had blocked from him, and the current troubles at the Refuge. She didn't try to probe his thoughts. What mattered was what he was feeling, and she found that unbearably sad. Adrian could have no idea what he had done.

Maybe someone should tell him.

She could do nothing immediately. She allowed Richard to turn the conversation to other things, and together they watched while the final preparations for the open-air banquet and the fireworks display were set up. Places were being prepared for all the Exalted and the westerners at one long, low table, along with the Sa'idi elders and Ardeshir, and colorful cushions were piled all along behind it, to provide seating. Out in the center of the square, the younger girls were still practicing their formal dances, while the young men watched and made soft, sighing, longing remarks to the girls and to each other. Dark, liquid eyes flashed from boy to girl and back, and assignations for later were silently arranged with little smiles.

Jake Fowler, with an exotically lovely, dark-skinned girl on his arm, made an appearance, settling down on the far side of Richard while the girl hurried to get coffee. Liliana took advantage of the opportunity to say, "Talk to Jake, my love, while I find T'beth. She's promised to introduce me to the little ladies who keep the town's history."

Richard looked up at her, frowning, as she rose, but he made no move to stop her. The bond between them did not betray her as totally to him, and he could not be certain she was dissembling. But the suspicion was there, in his eyes. She smiled at him, all love and innocence, and turned away. T'beth was clearly visible, across the square. Adrian was not.

"Where is he?" Lily asked, as soon as she was close enough. She didn't bother specifying whom she meant. She and T'beth understood each other.

"I don't recommend messing with him right now, Lily." Impervious, Lily waited without answering, and T'beth shrugged. "He's over at the cemetery. He's got a major case of feeling sorry for himself going, and it seems he had a thing for someone who got killed on their way here." She shook her head, irritated and at the same time concerned. "If he keeps this up, don't be surprised to find him digging down to share the grave."

"If he keeps this up," Lily said grimly, "I'll do the digging for him. Where's the cemetery?"