"What's your name?" she finally asked.
"I'm called Yasi." He laughed when she wrinkled her nose. "Don't blame me. I didn't choose it."
"It's a silly word for someone like you. What's your real name?"
Lucivar hesitated. Eyriens were one of the long-lived races. He'd had 1,700 years to gain a reputation for being vicious and violent. If she'd heard any of the stories about him . . .
He took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Lucivar Yaslana."
No reaction except a shy smile of approval.
"What's your name, Cat?"
"Jaenelle."
He grinned. "Nice name, but I think Cat suits you just as well."
She snarled.
"See?" He hesitated, but he had to ask. Zuultah's guessing he'd killed that slave and knowing for sure would make a difference when he was stretched between the whipping posts. "Is your family visiting Lady Zuultah?"
Jaenelle frowned. "Who?"
Really, she did look like a kitten trying to figure out how to pounce on a large, hoppy bug. "Zuultah. The Queen of Pruul."
"What's Pruul?"
"This is Pruul." Lucivar waved a hand to indicate the land around them and then swore in Eyrien when the chains rattled. He swallowed the last curse when he noticed the intense, interested look on her face. "Since you're not from Pruul and your family isn't visiting, where are you from?" When she hesitated, he tipped his head toward the boat. "I can keep a secret."
"I'm from Chaillot."
"Chai—" Lucivar bit back another curse. "Do you understand Eyrien?"
"No." Jaenelle grinned at him. "But now I know some Eyrien words."
Should he laugh or strangle her? "How did you get here?"
She fluffed her hair and frowned at the rocky ground between them. Finally she shrugged. "Same way I get to other places."
"You ride the Winds?" he yelped.
She raised a finger to test the air.
"Not breezes or puffs of air." Lucivar ground his teeth. "The Winds. The Webs. The psychic roads in the Darkness."
Jaenelle perked up. "Is that what they are?"
He managed to stop in mid-curse.
Jaenelle leaned forward. "Are you always this prickly?"
"Most people think I'm a prick, yes."
"What's that mean?"
"Never mind." He chose a sharp stone and drew a circle on the ground between them. "This is the Realm of Terreille." He placed a round stone in the circle. "This is the Black Mountain, Ebon Askavi, where the Winds meet." He drew straight lines from the round stone to the circumference of the circle. "These are tether lines." He drew smaller circles within the circle. "These are radial lines. The Winds are like a spider web. You can travel on the tether or the radial lines, changing direction where they intersect. There's a Web for each rank of the Blood Jewels. The darker the Web, the more tether and radial lines there are and the faster the Wind is. You can ride a Web that's your rank or lighter. You can't ride a Web darker than your Jewel rank unless you're traveling inside a Coach being driven by someone strong enough to ride that Web or you're being shielded by someone who can ride that Web. If you try, you probably won't survive. Understand?"
Jaenelle chewed on her lower lip and pointed to a space between the strands. "What if I want to go there?"
Lucivar shook his head. "You'd have to drop from the Web back into the Realm at the nearest point and travel some other way."
"That's not how I got here," she protested.
Lucivar shuddered. There wasn't a strand of any Web around Zuultah's compound. Her court was deliberately in one of those blank spaces. The only way to get here directly from the Winds was by leaving the Web and gliding blind through the Darkness, which, even for the strongest and the best, was a chancy thing to do. Unless . . .
"Come here, Cat," he said gently. When she dropped in front of him, he rested his hands on her thin shoulders. "Do you often go wandering?"
Jaenelle nodded slowly. "People call me. Like you did."
Like he did. Mother Night! "Cat, listen to me. Children are vulnerable to many dangers."
There was a strange expression in her eyes. "Yes, I know."
"Sometimes an enemy can wear the mask of a friend until it's too late to escape."
"Yes," she whispered.
Lucivar shook her gently, forcing her to look at him. "Terreille is a dangerous place for little cats. Please, go home and don't go wandering anymore. Don't . . . don't answer the people who call you."
"But then I won't see you anymore."
Lucivar closed his gold eyes. A knife in the heart would hurt less. "I know. But we'll always be friends. And it's not forever. When you're grown up, I'll come find you or you'll come find me."
Jaenelle nibbled her lip. "How old is grown up?"
Yesterday. Tomorrow. "Let's say seventeen. It sounds like forever, I know, but it's really not that long." Even Sadi couldn't have spun a better lie than that. "Will you promise not to go wandering?"
Jaenelle sighed. "I promise not to go wandering in Terreille."
Lucivar hauled her to her feet and spun her around. "There's one thing I want to teach you before you go. This will work if a man ever tries to grab you from behind."
When they'd gone through the demonstration enough times that he was sure she knew what to do, Lucivar kissed her forehead and stepped back. "Get out of here. The guards will be making the rounds any minute now. And remember—a Queen never breaks a promise made to a Warlord Prince."
"I'll remember." She hesitated. "Lucivar? I won't look the same when I'm grown up. How will you know me?"
Lucivar smiled. Ten years or a hundred, it would make no difference. He'd always recognize those extraordinary sapphire eyes. "I'll know. Good-bye, Cat. May the Darkness embrace you."
She smiled at him and vanished.
Lucivar stared at that empty space. Was that a foolish thing to say to her? Probably.
A gate rattling caught his attention. He swiftly rubbed out the drawing of the Winds and slipped from shadow to shadow until he reached the stables. He passed through the outside wall and had just settled into his cell when the guard opened the barred window in the door.
Zuultah was arrogant enough to believe her holding spells kept her slaves from using Craft to pass through the cell walls. It was uncomfortable to pass through a spelled wall but not impossible for him.
Let the bitch wonder. When the guards found the slave in the boat, she'd suspect him of breaking the man's neck. She suspected him when anything went wrong in her court—with good reason.
Maybe he would offer a little resistance when the guards tried to tie him to the whipping posts. A vicious brawl would keep Zuultah distracted, and the violent emotions would cover up any lingering psychic scent from the girl.
Oh, yes, he could keep Lady Zuultah so distracted, she would never realize that Witch now walked the Realm.
2—Terreille
Lady Maris turned her head toward the large, freestanding mirror. "You may go now."
Daemon Sadi slipped out of bed and began dressing slowly, tauntingly, fully aware that she watched him in the mirror. She always watched the mirror when he serviced her. A bit of self-voyeurism perhaps? Did she pretend the man in the mirror actually cared about her, that her climax aroused him?
Stupid bitch.
Maris stretched and sighed with pleasure. "You remind me of a wild cat, all silky skin and rippling muscles."
Daemon slipped into the white silk shirt. A savage predator? That was a fair enough description. If she ever annoyed him beyond his limited tolerance for the distaff gender, he would be happy to show her his claws. One little one in particular.
Maris sighed again. "You're so beautiful."
Yes, he was. His face was a gift of his mysterious heritage, aristocratic and too beautifully shaped to be called merely handsome. He was tall and broad-shouldered. He kept his body well toned and muscular enough to please. His voice was deep and cultured, with a husky, seductive edge to it that made women go all misty-eyed. His gold eyes and thick black hair were typical of all three of Terreille's long-lived races, but his warm, golden brown skin was a little lighter than the Hayllian aristos—more like the Dhemlan race.
His body was a weapon, and he kept his weapons well honed.
Daemon shrugged into his black jacket. The clothes, too, were weapons, from the skimpy underwear to the perfectly tailored suits. Nectar to seduce the unwary to their doom.
Fanning herself with her hand, Maris looked directly at him. "Even in this weather, you didn't work up a sweat."
It sounded like the complaint it was.
Daemon smiled mockingly. "Why should I?"
Maris sat up, pulling at the sheet to cover herself. "You're a cruel, unfeeling bastard."
Daemon raised one finely shaped eyebrow. "You think I'm cruel? You're quite right, of course. I'm a connoisseur of cruelty."
"And you're proud of it, aren't you?" Maris blinked back tears. Her face tightened, showing all the petulant age lines. "Everything they said about you is true. Even that." She waved a hand toward his groin.
"That?" he asked, knowing perfectly well what she meant. She, and every woman like her, would forgive every vicious thing he did if she could coax him into an erection.
"You're not a true man. You never were."
"Ah. In that, too, you're quite right." Daemon slipped his hands into his trouser pockets. "Personally, I've always thought it's the discomfort of the Ring of Obedience that's caused the problem." The cold, mocking smile returned. "Perhaps if you removed it . . ."
Maris became so pale he wondered if she was going to faint. He doubted Maris wanted to test his theory badly enough that she would actually remove that gold circle around his organ. Just as well. She wouldn't survive one minute after he was free.
Most of the witches he'd served hadn't survived anyway.
Daemon smiled that cold, familiar, brutal smile and settled next to her on the bed. "So you think I'm cruel."