“If I’m going to die anyway why not tell me?” she asked her teeth chattering as if from cold. But she wasn't cold. She was angry. She was going to roast this pig like he was on a spit. What she wanted was information.
The challenge cost her. He punched her square in her face again and she became dizzy from the impact.
“Don’t you know I’m Jadoc? I can hear all those little thoughts rolling around in your head. You think you’re going to roast me. You think I’m that stupid.”
Ariana suddenly felt as though all of her limbs were paralyzed. Her body went numb and she lost control of all movement and could not focus her thoughts. Jadoc! She had not known he was Jadoc! He had seized her mind. Taken control of her body. If she tried to set him ablaze he would know it before she did it and would wrest control of her powers away from her. Now she was in a panic. She watched helplessly as he freed his cock from the fly of his breeches and maneuvered himself between her legs.
She tried to scream, tried to burn him, but it was no use. He had total control over her.
Then suddenly he jerked, his eyes going wide as his knife hand came up to clutch at his head. He whirled around, a garbled sound coming out of him. Ariana saw what he did.
Mordol. Mordol was looking at a perfect duplicate of himself. The new Mordol was staring at the one on top of her with a cold calm. The man on top of her began to seize, blood running out of his nose.
It was over in seconds. Mordol collapsed onto her body, his full weight hitting her and knocking the wind out of her. But now motor control had been returned to her and she shoved and kicked at his body until she was no longer beneath him and she was standing, breathing hard, staring at the remaining Mordol.
Then there was a flicker and her perception changed. Suddenly Mordol was no longer Mordol. His face was now one she was very familiar with.
“Dendri!”
“Shh,” he said shortly. “I am here to bring you home. I have been waiting for an opportunity to get close to you and let you know I am here, but none presented itself to me. Until now. I have horses waiting for us outside in the temple gardens, close to where you and Mariah were just walking. We almost overtook you there, but you turned back before we could reach you. Where is Mariah?”
“She will return shortly.”
“Dress yourself, Triumvir,” Dendri said softly, reminding her that she was nude and wet. She grabbed for a towel and rapidly dried herself. She dressed, but was left barefoot and without a cloak. She wouldn’t get very far like that. If they were going to journey back to Saren, she would need to be better prepared.
“I must go back to my rooms.”
“I will walk with you, but others will see me as Mordol.” Dendri picked up Mordol’s body and dumped it behind a large stone flower planter. It was not an adequate cover, but unless someone was looking for it the body would be missed at first glance.
Ariana washed the blood from her face with bathwater, then walked to the entrance of the bath and looked down the corridor. Right next door to the bath was Sin’s rooms. She was mere steps away from him.
She was about to embark on an escape. If she succeeded, the odds were she might never see him again. But this was the moment, the opportunity she had been waiting for! This was what she had wanted from the first moment she had been taken.
Wasn’t it?
She should want to be free. She should want to escape this place and all the chains it put around her. Only she hadn’t felt chained in a long time. It had felt as though she had voluntarily been there instead of under guard. Had she just grown complacent?
She had. That was all. She had simply grown used to her surroundings. It didn’t change the fact that she was a prisoner.
Now that she was faced with the imminent possibility of leaving Sin, she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to leave him.
“Triumvir, we must go quickly,” Dendri urged her. “The men in the gardens might be discovered at any moment.”
“Mariah,” she said absently.
“Where would she be?”
No sooner had she said her name then the lady maid was walking down the corridor toward her. Mariah deserved to go home, she realized. She had to go if for no other reason. That, and Dendri and his men were risking their lives for her. She could not let them down.
“Mariah, remain here,” she said shortly. “We’re leaving this place.” She quickly explained who ‘Mordol’ was since Dendri had adopted his disguise once more. “Dendri, did you happen to find out who it was that sent Mordol to kill me?”
“No my lady, I did not.”
She bit her lip. Someone had sent Mordol to kill her. They had seen her as a threat. The only one who might see the woman of the raja as a threat would be someone who had something to lose should she wed him and produce heirs with him.
“Vich. It had to be Vich,” she murmured.
“How is that important now?” Dendri asked a little impatiently.
“It means he is willing to do anything to secure his place as heir. Sin must be warned.”
“You cannot warn him without giving away your escape,” Dendri counseled her. “If you take the time to show him evidence of Vich’s betrayal you risk exposure and our window of opportunity will be gone.”
“Then I must write him a letter. One that will not be found immediately…but that will be found.”
“Get the key to my room off of the body,” she instructed Dendri. She hurried out into the hall and headed for the one place she knew had pen and paper. Sin’s study. She could also leave the note in the most recent place of the ledger he was last working on. It would take a good deal of time before he would find the letter, however. Once he knew she was missing working his ledgers would be the last thing he would want to do. But he would go back to them eventually and he would find the note.
Upon reaching the study, she left Mariah and Dendri outside of the door. She knew that if they entered with her it would look suspicious. She went to the desk where she hastily scribbled a few lines about his brother’s potential betrayal, then hesitated. There was so much she wanted to say to him. She knew leaving him would be a betrayal in and of itself. She would be causing him a great deal of pain. But that could not be helped, she thought as she bit her lip. There were too many people at risk for her to blindly follow her heart.
But where was her heart?
She didn’t know anymore. Was it still with her people who needed her, or was it here…with him? Her people needed her, but it was clear Sin needed her just as much.
Tears of frustration burned into her eyes as she jotted down the only thing she could think of to say. She put sealing wax on the envelope then pressed her dainty little signet ring into the wax to seal it. She slid the envelope into the ledger and closed it. She placed the ledger in the center of the desk. So if he sat there, it would be opened first. She came around the desk and joined Dendri and Mariah in the hallway. Together they walked back to her room. She entered and found her boots and cloak. She remembered the day he had given her the boots and her heart ached.
“Should I bring something more to wear? It’s a long trip and I—“
“There isn’t time,” Dendri said. “We have all the necessary supplies.” They got Mariah her walking cloak and headed out of the building toward the gardens where the horses awaited them. Panic infused her with every step. She was leaving him. She was truly leaving him.
This was for the best, she forced herself to recognize. There was too much at stake for her to waver now. There were too many people risking their lives to rescue her. Still, she could simply have them come into the court as diplomats of Saren, smooth it over so everyone remained friends.
However, that didn’t change the fact that the people of Saren needed her.
“You’re doing the right thing,” Dendri said softly to her as he walked beside her.
Of course. As an Aspano majji he was a master of the mind, able to read her thoughts even though her safeguards were pretty strong. But
they had not been strong enough to protect her from an attack earlier and they certainly weren't strong enough to keep out a man of Dendri’s awesome skill.
“I would appreciate it if you left me the privacy of my mind,” she said.
“I am not in your mind. It is written all over your face,” he said quietly.
Chagrined, she reached out and squeezed an apologetic hand around his. He gave her hand a reassuring pat and then they were coming around a thick copse of trees to find five riders with three empty horses mounted and waiting for them. Dendri guided her to the first horse.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to ride astride,” he said. “There are no sidesaddles in Kilt.”
“I know. I am used to it. I will be fine. But Mariah does not know how to ride.”
“I will guide her horse. All she need do is remain in the saddle.”
“She is a smart girl. She will learn quickly,” Ariana said.
“Be prepared, my lady,” he said grimly. “There is a great deal of rough country ahead of us. We will be sore, tired and cold for the duration of this trip.”
“Not unlike the trip we took to get here. I am well aware of the discomforts that await me.”
With that he helped her into her saddle, then did the same for Mariah. Within minutes they were all riding into the wild country that was the temple’s backyard.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sin began missing her by about an hour later.
“Where is Ariana?” he asked his mother who was sitting with him. “It is late. She should be here by now.”
“Such demands you make of her, my son,” Fatima scolded. “She barely has room to breathe. Give her space. She will come back on her own.”
Sin grinned, knowing that his mother was right. But when she still had not returned by the time Fatima was ready to leave and find her bed, he called for Lindo, who came immediately.
“Find Ariana for me please,” he instructed. “She said she would walk and then take a bath. I imagine it is too dark now to be walking, so perhaps the bath or her rooms. She may have fallen asleep.”
He grinned mischievously as he thought of why she might be tired. Lindo left the room and Sin waited impatiently for his return. Or for Ariana’s. Preferably hers.
Then he heard the shout that ricocheted down the hall just outside his door. Someone was calling for guards. It was Lindo. There was no mistaking the urgency in his friend’s voice. Sin threw back his covers and grabbing for his robe he levered himself out of bed. Walking slowly to accommodate his sore body, he was frustrated by his inability to run to his companion’s side and find out what was wrong. He made it down the hall to the bath, finding the door crowded with the bodies of men.
“Move!” he commanded, his voice booming. The group of men parted and he stepped into the room just in time to see Lindo pulling Mordol’s body out from behind a planter. Sin felt a sickening feeling of dread sink onto him.
“Was he guarding her today?” he demanded of Lindo.
“Yes. He hasn’t been dead long. His body is not stiff. By the way he is without obvious injury, I’d say it wasn’t Ariana who did this. She’s not strong enough to overpower him. Not without using her natural ability…and not even then. I chose him for a reason. He is a very powerful Jadoc. Powerful enough to circumvent her natural abilities. Look, there’s a knife on the ground here.” Lindo stooped to pick it up.
“But you said there was no injury,” Sin said as panic threatened to overwhelm him. Her guard was dead…and she was gone.
She was gone.
“I want every available guard scouring the temple. If they cannot find her then I want them scouring the countryside. She can’t have gotten far. She has no horses…no help…and see if you can find Mariah. She wouldn’t leave here without her. If she has left Mariah behind then, wherever she is, it is against her will.”
“And if Mariah is gone?” Lindo asked.
He already knew the answer even before Sin said, “Then she has left willingly and is likely heading for home. We must stop her before she gets too far.”
An hour later, when neither she nor Mariah could be found he had to face the truth.
She had left him.
Sin couldn’t help the sense of utter betrayal the words left him with. After everything that had passed between them, after everything they had been coming to mean to one another, she had simply shrugged it off and left him.
Perhaps he had been imagining it all. Perhaps he had made it all up in his mind. Perhaps he had been deluding himself all along.
No! Such passion as they had shared could not be felt without leaving a mark of some kind on a soul. If she had left it was because she had felt more strongly about leaving than she had about staying. And if she left it was for the sake of her people, the one thing he knew he could not compete against. The one thing that would rip her from his arms without a second thought. But perhaps there had been a second thought, he thought hopefully. Perhaps it had not been as easy to abandon him as it seemed. Still, she had gone, and thinking she had struggled with the decision was only an exercise in comforting his wounded ego.
The people of Saren had beaten him. As surely as if they had been the victors in a war, they had beaten him. They had won in a competition against him in her heart.
He should not want a woman like that. A woman who thought of him second to something else, but he could not fault her for it. His people would mean just as much to him…only he had put her and her needs above them time and again, that was how much more he loved her. But Ariana was not used to indulging in her feelings. Over the time they had spent together, she had told him that even from a young age much had been expected of her. She had been laden with responsibility at a time when she should have been playing and learning to be a child. He too had had to grow up quickly, so he understood her in that regard. But at least he had had a childhood. Until his father had died he had been given the leeway to be young and as carefree as a Kiltian youth was able to be. Faced with overcrowding and disease, there had not been much in the way of childhood joys. But he had had them all the same.
Ariana’s father, she had told him, had given her lands and peoples to control and be responsible for at the age of twelve. She had never known anything outside of being responsible for the well-being of others. She knew nothing of what it meant to take something selfishly for herself. She did everything, everything, with the contentedness of others topmost in her mind.
Except for him. He realized that. He realized that her decision to become his lover had been a selfish act in her mind. She had taken for herself without regard for anyone else. What she did not understand was that when it came to matters of the heart, there should not be anything else to consider save the other person involved. At least, that was as it should be in his mind. It was why he had risked so much to have her.
As the hours wore on it was obvious they were not very likely to find her. It was also obvious she had had help of some kind. Someone had killed Mordol, and it had not been Ariana. And anyway, he did not think Ariana had it in her to kill an innocent man just for the sake of making her getaway clean. There had been someone far more cutthroat than she was capable of.
Or was he mistaken? Ariana was more than capable of making hard, unpalatable decisions; it was a fact of life for a ruler. But still he knew she would prefer to find a peaceful solution over a deadly one. He had learned that much about her at the very least.
And when they found the hoof prints in the snow of the gardens, they realized it was more than one someone. It was a large group. They were half a day behind them by the time they found the tracks in the snow, and began following them immediately in the hopes that they could catch up in daylight hours, since they had clearly been traveling in the dark of night.
And that was when it began to snow. Not a light snow, but a fast, driving snow. One that quickly obliterated the tracks they were following. Added to that was the fact that the group had ridden through many streams in order to co
ver their tracks. They knew what general direction they were heading in, and then suddenly they would change direction and go a way out of what should be the normal way to get to Saren as the crow flies.
And Sin was stuck at the temple, unable to ride.
When Lindo returned to the temple defeated in the middle of the next night, Sin knew they would never find her. The only thing they could do was chase after her and reach Saren right on her heels. But odds were they were on guard against just such an arrival and they would be most unwelcome if they tried. He might find himself a prisoner of a foreign court, forced to stand trial for the crimes he had committed against their ruler.
But he could not and would not give up. He could never make the trip in his current condition, the doctor having told him it would take six weeks for him to heal from the injury’s inception date. But he wasn’t about to wait that long. He would give it another week…maybe two. As soon as he no longer felt pain. Then he would travel the barren, cold landscape between there and Saren.
He thought of her out in this cold, on the run and afraid of being caught. She would be pushing herself to her exhaustive limits…all in her bid to escape him. It sickened him to think of it. To think she despised being with him that much. Had she known she would be leaving the last time they had made love? As they had eaten dinner together? Lindo had not been around at all that day, so her thoughts would have been her own. Even so, Lindo had stopped reading her thoughts long ago, when it had become obvious that she wanted to be there as opposed to her just being imprisoned there.
He had not been wrong about that. She had wanted to be with him.
As time wore on, as the interminableness of healing dragged out his ability to chase after her, he began to doubt even that much. Finding himself at loose ends and with no ability to vent his frustrations, he went into his study and opened his ledger to the final pages. The book fell open easily and he realized there was something pressed between the pages. He pulled out the sealed letter, turning it over and inspecting the wax seal. He recognized the imprint of Ariana’s signet instantly and ripped into the letter the moment he did.
A Kiss of Fire Page 25
