VirtualWarrior (18 page)

Lien’s stick seemed inadequately light and brittle. No one
challenged them when they passed over the drawbridge and wandered down to the
lake. It had a pebble shore, so he skipped stones while Ardra paced.

He decided she was either regretting the sex or just overly
shy.

Finally, she came to stand near him. “The goddess gave me a
potion to turn over to Samoht.”

So much for male intuition. “I gather it’s not the right
one.”

“You gather rightly. She mixed it up from stores on her
shelves. What am I to do?”

“Search?” He groaned and raked his fingernails on his wrist.

“What are you doing?”

“Shh. Lower your voice. I think the goddess must be around. Close,
in fact.”

“How do you know?” she asked in softer tones.

“Well, I’m beginning to think this rash wasn’t caused by my
tunic. The itching ebbs and flows. It’s at its worst when Cidre’s around. And
it’s pretty bad right now.”

“A woman cannot give a man a rash.”

“Why not? She can give him a headache.” Ardra didn’t laugh.
“Never mind. Look, I didn’t get the rash until I entered the Wood, and when she
touched me, the red dots—” he pulled up his sleeve and showed her the rash,
“prickled hot.”

Ardra leaned very close. He felt her breath on his skin. Was
it his imagination that the terrible itch subsided in just that spot? Wishful
thinking, probably.

“You must be sensitive to all this lush foliage. Did bathing
help you?”

“A little bit. And Einalem gave me an oil to rub on it this
morning.”

“I’m sure she did.”

He decided to push her buttons a bit more. “She wanted to
rub it on for me, but I said you’d be pissed.”

“Pissed?” She frowned. “Piss is urine.”

“In Ocean City it also means angry.”

She tossed her head. The hair thing really did it for him.

“I am not angry,” she said. “I am merely disappointed that
she would try to tempt a pilgrim.”

Lien hid a smile. “How soon you forget your own tempting
kisses.”

“Oh.” She touched her breast and licked her lips.

The gesture caused an immediate reaction in him. He wanted
to carry her to a soft patch of grass and finish what they’d started. “Look,
Ardra, this is where we have the morning-after talk. We get all our regrets out
in the open.”

“Do you have regrets, Lien?”

“I’m sorry you fell asleep.”

Her eyes were dark amber, wide, unsure. “Forgive me for
eating the bread. I know you must think me a fool.”

“You didn’t know the bread was drugged.”

“I stopped you before I ate the bread.”

He nodded. “Yeah, you did. Why?”

“I have never felt that way before. It was a small madness.”

“It wasn’t regret?”

She shook her head. Her hair slid across her breasts and
shoulders. He remembered what it felt like against his chest.

“I have only one regret.”

His heart began to thud. “And that is?”

“You found no happiness.”

“Happiness? Oh, I was very happy.”
And Mr. Happy is
getting damned elated talking about it.
“It was probably for the best; I
was feeling a bit out of control. I don’t need to leave any little Liens around
when I go.” She suddenly moved off a few feet. “Look, you have more important
things to think about than my happiness,” he said. “How can I help you?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it and extended her hand.
A flat stone lay on her palm. “If this were the potion, where would you hide
it?”

“In with a bunch of other pebbles.”

“Aye.” She threw the pebble into the lake. “I think I need
to inspect Cidre’s herbarium with someone who knows potions. She has so much
there, I fear the vial could be in plain sight and I would not know it. Do you
think Nilrem would help me?”

“You’d have to be sure Cidre wasn’t around. And that sounds
mighty dangerous.”

He took her hand. A warmth suffused his skin, and the
itching at his wrist eased. Was it wishful thinking again, or something more?
He certainly couldn’t remember thinking about his rash while caressing her.

“Ardra, there are just some things that are life truths. One
is, don’t spit into the wind. Going into Cidre’s herbarium while she’s loose in
the fortress is asking for trouble.”

Several of Ralen’s men walked over the drawbridge and stood
there chatting, looking in their direction.

“A cloud crossed your brow just now. What is it?” she asked.

“I’m thinking of something Ollach told me. I cannot appear
intimate with you in front of these men.”

Ardra’s hand slid from his. It was a loss. Damned celibacy.

“Come, Lien, we must have help. Let us consult Nilrem.”

It was the first time she had made it a “we” venture. He
wasn’t sure he wanted that much involvement.

“Look. I don’t think there’s anything you can do during the
day. How about after everyone’s in bed, in the middle of the night? Take a
really long nap during the day, then let’s hook up…er, get together and search,
just the two of us.”

“Why did you hesitate just now?”

He wasn’t about to tell her that “hook-up” referred to
casual sex. He told her a partial truth. “Oh, I was just wondering how I would
know when ‘later’ was. In Ocean City, we have timepieces to mark the hours.”

“We have the same. Come, I will show you.”

They walked up to the fortress and over the drawbridge. The
men loitering at the massive gate nodded to Ardra in a rude, perfunctory
manner. She returned their nods in the same elegant way she always did. He was
completely ignored.

Her spine straightened even more after the snub. She was
positively sailing across the courtyard.

“Ardra. Slow down. Why were those men rude to you?”

“It has been so since Ralen took control. They defer to him,
but I no longer have their allegiance.”

He would talk to Ralen. If he didn’t, he might end up
shoving his stick down one of the warriors’ throats, and that would not do.

“Why is there only one kind of flower here?” she asked.

“Hmm. I hadn’t noticed.” She was right. Large or small, the
flowers were the same. So were the vines, whether the lacy ones on the inside
walls or the thick ones on the outside.

Everything here was so different from…home. Even something
as simple as a shadow held different shades of color. The lavender sky over the
lake was now streaked with green and gray. It looked angry and powerful at the
same time.

In the courtyard, Ardra led him to a simple sundial
surrounded by tiles.

“Uh. Yeah. I know how this works. But won’t we be in the
dark?”

She laughed and had a coughing fit. He pounded her back.
“You don’t laugh very often, do you?”

Ardra ducked her head. “I have no time for laughter.”

The urge to embrace her was almost overwhelming. He shook it
off. “Speaking of time…” He tapped the sundial with his stick.

“When it is dark we consult the stars. Or we know the time
by the sound and rhythm of the fortress. You lie awake and listen. Guards make
their appointed rounds. Cocks crow. You listen to the night sounds.”

Like the sounds of lovemaking. Like Ardra’s sharp little
gasps and stifled moans. He needed some distance. “Why don’t we make use of the
daylight hours to consult Nilrem? I don’t even know what this vial is supposed
to look like. Once we talk to him, we should rest. We can’t stay awake all day
and then expect to be up all night.”

They walked into the hall. Nilrem was stretched out on his
back on a bench, fast asleep. When Lien shook him by the shoulder, the wiseman
awoke quickly.

“Eh. Pilgrim. Ardra. What may I do for you?” A burst of
laughter drew their attention to where Samoht, Einalem, and Ralen still sat at
the long table with Cidre, who had returned from her herbarium.

“How can they sit there doing nothing?” Ardra asked. Nilrem
answered her.

“They have no cares. It is only you who has a care.”

“That’s not quite true,” Lien said. “I assume this Vial of
Seduction means something to Tolemac or it wouldn’t have been locked away in a
vault. Let’s get outside.”

He led them into the courtyard and crouched down by the
sundial. The day was marked off in the same twelve-hour increments as at home.
“Ardra has only so much time to find the vial. If she fails, Samoht wins her
fortress. But that doesn’t solve his problem. The Vial of Seduction will still
be missing. If I read him right, he’s going to drag his feet and hamper your
quest until the eight days are over…then—”

Nilrem finished for him. “Then his men will draw their
swords, as will Ralen’s, and they will take this fortress down, stone by
stone.”

“Is that what you think too, Lien?” Ardra asked.

“Pretty much. Can’t you feel the tension among the men?
They’re only kept in line by Samoht’s orders, I’ll bet. Cidre doesn’t have that
many guards. She’s pretty unprotected, if you ask me.”

“I had not expected violence,” Ardra said.

“Well, think about it.” He stood up. “So, Nilrem, what does
a Vial of Seduction look like anyway?”

“It is most unexceptional in appearance. A thick brown
bottle, made of a soft stone, not glass as some vials are. The potion, which
some consider a spice, looks a bit like dirt.”

Lien took Nilrem’s arm. “Come on, Ardra, let’s walk. I want
to check out the territory. And isn’t that a little door over there? Let’s see
where it leads.”

“Excellent proposal, pilgrim. We also do not want to draw
too much attention to ourselves. We look like we are having a meeting.”

Ardra walked a bit ahead of them. They left the fortress
through the small door. It opened into an orchard redolent with the scent of
apples. Lien picked one up from the ground. It was smaller than those he was
used to, and when he bit into it, less juicy. But it was still an apple. He
never thought he’d admit it, being a pizza and burger kind of guy, but he
missed the green stuff.

Nilrem also picked up an apple and munched away, talking of
the weather. Lien dodged apple spit as he talked.

Ardra finally halted by a carved wooden seat. Nilrem sank
down on it and scratched his belly. She was seething with something, Lien could
tell. It soon popped out.

“Nilrem. How dare you create these…these treasures. If you
had not concocted this potion, none of this would be happening. My son would be
safe.” Tears glittered in her eyes.

Lien wanted to take her in his arms, but he could see a
woman picking apples a few rows of trees away.

“I did not concoct the treasures, Ardra. I
found
them. Each one comes from one of the eight chiefdoms. They ancient treasures,
created in ancient days.”

“Ancient! That is just a way of making something seem sacred
to fools. Well, I am not a fool. It is evil to seduce someone against his or
her will. Evil.”

Nilrem patted the wooden bench beside him. “Sit, Ardra. I
will tell you a story.”

“Nay. I have no time for stories.” She looked off to the
horizon, and Lien knew she was thinking of home and her child.

“This one you will.”

Ardra perched on the edge of the bench. “When I was a youth,
I traveled about the chiefdoms, always wandering. Each chiefdom had its
fantastic tales of treasures and mysteries. But each treasure also caused great
grief—”

“And continues to do so.”

“Aye.” He patted her hand. “So I collected them and buried
them. But eventually they were returned to the council, and I thought it right
and proper at the time. I still do. Who was I to bury them? Who was I to take
them in the first place? I felt comfortable that they were in the Tolemac
vaults, heavily guarded.”

Lien watched the slow progress of the young woman who
wandered through the orchard. “See that girl there?” They turned. The girl
seemed to inspect each individual apple before plucking it from a tree. Was she
really so fussy or was she watching them? “I think Cidre put us to sleep to
protect her. She was being reprimanded that night for wandering off. Cidre
seemed to be very concerned our men not see her.”

As if to confirm what he’d said, a boy ran through the
trees, took the young girl by the arm and tugged her away to the fortress door.

“She is lovely,” Nilrem said.

Ardra tapped her foot impatiently on the ground. “Lien.
Nilrem. You must concentrate on the vial. Cidre may find a way to use it. She
may trick some honorable person. At least we know Samoht will not be able to
use the potion if we find it.”

“Yeah, explain to me how that works.” Lien sat on the ground
and stretched out his legs. He craved a long run on a hot beach.

“One of the reasons the treasures cause so much trouble is
they can only be used by an honorable person. In the case of the Vial of
Seduction, I suspect honor also implies a state of innocence.”

“You’re saying that even if Samoht gets the potion, he knows
he can’t use it. He’ll just have to lock it up again.”

“Aye, but I believe the council will look most favorably
upon their leader if he returns the treasure himself.”

Lien said, “And who will know if he used just a bit of the
powder before returning it to Tolemac.”

Nilrem nodded. “But unless he can find a way around the
honor bit, he is stuck.”

Ardra began to laugh. She rocked back and forth.

“What’s so funny?” Lien asked.

Nilrem lifted a shaggy gray brow.

“Do you not see?” Ardra asked. “I have been wondering who
stole the treasure from the vaults. It had to be someone who had access. A
councilor only. One of the very men who challenged me to find it.

“And I assumed the man sold it to the goddess to make a
comfortable life for himself. Now I learn the potion must be administered by an
honorable person, perhaps an innocent one as well.” She wiped her eyes with the
backs of her hands. “Here we sit in the orchard of the goddess, the most
dishonorable woman alive. Why would she want the potion? She, of all people,
could never use it.”