Part 11 (1/2)
”Pellia,” she said quickly. ”Please! The knife!” Dumarest lowered it from where it had rested against her cheek, a spot of blood mute testimony to the sharpness of the point. A wound which would heal without trace but the threat of marring her beauty had been enough.”I've seen you before. When the s.h.i.+p landed you were watching from beneath some trees. During the time of bidding.
Why? What did you hope to see?”
”The bidding!” Her tone held contempt. ”Why must you indulge their whims?”
”The Choud?” Dumarest eased his grip on the cropped hair. It was silken beneath his fingers, as soft as her voice, as the body he had touched beneath the blouse. A woman's softness overlaying firm muscle and well-constructed bone. As a child this one had never starved. ”Why do you serve them? You do serve them, don't you?”
”I am one of the Ohrm, yes.”
”And you serve?”
This time she made no answer but he needed no words. A servant, one who had learned to move quietly in the shadows and to watch and listen and learn-how little those who ruled realized how much they betrayed. And yet between her and those others he had seen in the house lay the difference between a pygmy and a giant. Were there others of as great a difference elsewhere?
She remained silent when he asked then shuddered as he lifted the knife.
”You would cut me? A woman!”
”I want answers. I'm looking for the mistress of the house.
Ursula. Have you seen her?”
”No.”
”People gathered on the lawn-yours?”
”A few. They come to watch but they did no harm. That I swear.”
The truth or partly so, certainly they had done no harm to the sward and, had Ursula been attacked, she would have screamedor left traces he would have found. As it was he had only the fragment of cloth. Had she turned and gone the other way?
”Why are you watching?”
Again the silence, maintained even when he rested the knife against her cheek. For a long moment she stood rigid as the steel touched her flesh then, as it lowered, she released her breath in a gusting sigh.
”You didn't cut me.”
”No, why should I?” Dumarest slid the blade back into his boot. ”I'm just a visitor here and what lies between you and the Choud is your business. But take some advice, girl. When someone who threatens you asks a question give him an answer.
It needn't be a true one as long as it satisfies.” Then, without change of tone, he added, ”Just why were you standing on the path?”
”Belain told me to. He-” She broke off, one hand lifting to her mouth. ”You tricked me!”
”Yes. Is Belain your leader?” Her eyes gave him the answer.
”Never mind. He set you to watch and to give a signal if anyone should follow, right?” Again he watched the flicker of starlight reflected from her eyes. As a conspirator she lacked practice.
”What is going on?”
”You said you weren't interested.”
”I'm not, just curious. Maybe I could help?” He waited then said, ”Just as you wish. Are you sure you didn't see Ursula?”
”No, but I heard something before you came. Someone running up the path.”
”A woman?”
”It sounded like a woman, yes.”
Ursula, seeking heights and brightness and not depths anddarkness, in that he had been wrong. Or she could have some private place in which she could sit alone to nurse her injured pride. To think and, perhaps, to plan her revenge. Sardia had been a fool and to delay longer would be to accentuate her folly with his own.
He said, ”Pellia, tell me, has your mistress a favorite spot on an upper level? Ursula is your mistress?”
”No.”
An a.s.sumption he had made without foundation- why should she belong to the household simply because he had discovered her close? And yet no establishment in a place like this was isolated; servants would talk, gossip would flow and the habits of one would be the knowledge for all.
”But you would know if she had such a place,” he said gently.
”Somewhere she would choose to be if hurt or upset in any way. I need your help. It is important that I find her and soon.”
”Then ask another of the Choud.”
”How would they know?” His hand fell to her shoulder, rose, a finger softly touching the spot of blood which marred her cheek.
”For this I apologize. If you know where Ursula is to be found tell me and I will forget I've seen you here tonight. A bargain?”
”She is fond of heights,” said the woman and her voice held bitterness. ”It pleases her to look down on others. It pleases all the Choud. But if she has been thwarted you will find her on the upper terrace. There is a turret of stone surmounted by a crouching beast. In it she plots her revenge.”
It rose like a ghostly castle in the starlight, a miniature palace set with fretted stone, dark with sprawling lichen, the beast above it a snarling, fanged shape radiating fury. Inside it was thick with shadows but the air held the taint of a familiar perfume and a section seemed lighter than the rest. A patch which moved and a face which caught the starlight and reflected it in the colorless semblance of a corpse.”Ursula?” Dumarest stepped through the opening. ”Are you here, my lady?”
”Why have you followed me?”
”I was concerned.” The air held more than the odor of the perfume she wore, there was an acridity which spoke of insects and cobwebs and things which hid during the light of day.
Imagination, probably, if she used this place then servants would have kept it clean. Or did she have a perverse attraction for mold and decay? ”I came to escort you back to the house.”
”So your harlot can gloat?”
”So she can apologize.”
”Why?”
”She is a trained dancer, a prima ballerina. Almost her entire life has been spent in learning how to manipulate her body. The challenge was a farce from the beginning and one she should never have taken advantage of. It was the wine-she rarely drinks. And, too, I think she was more than a little jealous.”
”Of me?”
”Can you doubt it?” Dumarest found a bench and sat down beside the woman. ”Must I ill.u.s.trate the obvious? You are younger than Sardia and she resented it. Your beauty also.
Always until recently she has been the center of attraction and, in you, she saw mirrored what had been and would be no longer.
Youth, charm, the ideal of men. Can you blame her for taking the only advantage she had?”