Part 6 (1/2)
”My lord came back from the Holy Land and fell ill with plague,” Korvel told her. ”I was his steward, and succ.u.mbed to the same illness while tending to him. We were buried within a day of each other.”
”So he comes home and infects you. Nice boss.” The c.r.a.ppy tattoo was actually a series of flat keloids with a strange green tint to them. Each was so thick she couldn't make a dent in them with her fingernail when she prodded them. ”How long did that sheriff leave you hanging?”
”I cannot say. Weeks. Perhaps months.” He stared down at her. ”What is it? Do you wish to study me as well?”
Alex jerked away from him. She did not want to take a skin sample from him. She didn't care what had happened to his neck.
She wanted Michael, this minute, so badly she thought she might scream. ”Just bored. You can go back to patrolling the castle now.”
”I wished to speak with you.”
If he didn't quit being so G.o.dd.a.m.n polite, she would scream. ”We're speaking.”
He hesitated, as if searching for words. ”You rouse the men too much.”
She'd certainly kept them busy chasing after her. ”Look, pal, I didn't ask to be brought here.”
”As you have made plain to the entire household,” he a.s.sured her. ”I do not refer to your attempts to escape.”
Alex frowned. ”Then what?”
”Your presence disturbs the men. You have made them very restless. They become more curious about you each day.” Korvel moved to the window and closed it before looking at a spot on the wall behind her. ”I have made my lord aware of this.”
”Gee, thanks.” Alex still wasn't sure what he was trying to tell her. ”Are you saying I'm getting on everyone's nerves? I do that with people I like.”
”No. You are too vulnerable, too open.” Now he looked down at her. ”If you wish to remain safe, you must begin to conduct yourself properly, as do the other women in the castle.”The other women in the castle kept their mouths shut, looked at the floor a lot, and curtsied to Richard every five seconds. ”Not going to happen, Captain. Your men will just have to put up with me.”
”They wish to do more.” A muscle under Korvel's right eye twitched. ”Stefan and the dungeon master already plan how they will share you between them when Richard gives them permission to use you.”
Share her? ”Very funny.”
He shook his head slowly. ”Soon I think even my lord's permission will not matter to them. I cannot watch you and protect my master every hour of the day and night.”
He wasn't kidding. Alex wasn't blind; she'd noticed how every Kyn male in the castle with the exception of Korvel and Richard had been looking at her. After a year of living with Michael, she also understood that most of the Kyn didn't behave like modern men. In their time, women had no rights, no value, and generally were treated worse than farm animals.
Which was how, apparently, Stefan and the dungeon troll wanted to treat her.
It should have made her furious, and probably would when she thought about it, but Korvel was doing her a favor by warning her like this.
”I'm not deliberately leading them on,” she a.s.sured him. ”I wouldn't; I'm not stupid.”
”This I know.” His voice lost some of its edge. ”You must take care not to be alone with any of the men.”
”Right.” She pressed her fingers against her temples, which were pounding. ”What makes it stop?”
”Keep your emotions in check. Freeze the anger you feel. The more emotional you become, the more scent you shed. Do not think about Cyprien.” He crouched down to put himself on her eye level. ”I shall do what I can, but you must discipline yourself.”
She was shedding scent now; the whole room smelled of lavender. For the first time she caught his scent, too. It was something like pound cake fresh out of the oven. Vanilla pound cake.
Kyn bodies gave off an appealing sweet scent that acted like a superpheromone; it enabled them to hunt and mesmerize humans long enough to feed on them. Alex didn't realize the scent affected Kyn as well, but then thought of how often the scent of roses-Michael's scent-had aroused her. Other Kyn scent didn't have the same affect. Phillipe's made her feel warm and secure. Valentin Jaus's had brought a familiar, comfortable sensation, like a hug from a friend.
As tasty as it was, Korvel's scent only made her want to punch him.
Someday Alex would study Kyn pheromones and figure it all out. For now, she had to find out how much trouble she was facing here. ”eliane said what I'm feeling-this sygkenis separation anxiety-would get worse. Can I control that?”
”To test the bond between master and sygkenis invites torment,” Korvel said. ”To deny it drives those who suffer to madness and violence.”
”What?” She was appalled that Michael had never told her about this. What else didn't she know? ”How soon does it happen?
How will I know?”
He stood up and suddenly wouldn't look at her. ”You are different. My master says, more human than we are. It may not be the same for you.”
”Give me a ballpark, then.” When he didn't answer, she added, ”Korvel, I didn't know anything about this, and I can't fix what I don't understand. Talk to me.””You cannot fix this. You will lose all control.” He faced her. ”It will either destroy your bond with Cyprien or your sanity.”
The only time she had lost control was with Michael, and that had been strictly s.e.xual. ”I just don't see that happening.”
”As I said, you are different.” Korvel shrugged.
Alex felt like slapping him, but only because what he had said made sense. She was running on nerves, not thinking clearly-and anger had been her best friend lately. Then there was Thierry Durand, and the insanity he had suffered after believing that his Kyn wife had been tortured to death. ”If I do this-become violent-will Richard give me back to Michael?”
”He may, if you do as he asks,” Korvel said as he went to the door.
”And if I don't? What then?”
”If you lose your bond to Cyprien, likely nothing. But if you lose your mind...” He glanced back at her. ”He will have me take your head.”
What Adelie had told Nick sent her out of the inn to make some rounds of the village shops. She bought a few overpriced trinkets in order to coax more stories out of the shopkeepers and clerks, but it wasn't all that difficult to get them to talk. No one liked the chateau any more than they did its surly caretaker.
”Two Gypsy families came through town a month ago,” the grocer told her. ”They camp by water, and found a place near le chateau where the Basque did not see them.”
Nick spotted an impact wrench kit sitting next to a refrigerated meat case and picked it up. ”This for sale?”
”No. I do not sell such things.” He frowned at the kit. ”Someone must have left it here.” He looked at Nick. ”The Gypsies always stay here for the summer, but they left a day after they arrived. The woman came here for supplies before they went north. She told me that the water turned red under the moonlight, and that their dog never stopped barking until dawn.”
Nick gathered some other interesting gossip about Father Claudio and the chateau. The village priest had been repeatedly called upon by the parish to visit Father Claudio and bless the ruin, but he flatly refused to go within a mile of the old man or the chateau, and repeatedly warned his congregation to stay away.
A wayward cow from a valley dairy had strayed onto the chateau's property, and never gave milk again. The butcher's wife, a robust and cheerful woman who had never been ill a day in her life, had become ill with a mysterious rash that seemed to drain away her vitality more each day until her husband took her to the hospital. The doctors claimed it was a bad case of anemia, but the villagers knew better.
”That wretched place is cursed,” the flower seller confided to Nick. ”I for one will sleep better when it is demolished.”
The scents of the flowers made Nick's stomach roll-she hated flowers-and she gritted her teeth. ”Are there any plans to do that?”
”No,” the old woman admitted. ”Only talk of diverting the stream away from le chateau.”