Part 32 (1/2)

'Yes. I don't love him, though.'

'Oh, you shouldn't say that. Best to try to love him. Makes life more bearable if you can convince yourself.'

'The man I truly loved went away,' Jianna found herself saying. 'I wanted him more than anyone else I have ever met. He is in my mind constantly.'

'Ah, we all have someone like that,' said Samias. 'What was he like?'

'Handsome, with eyes of sapphire blue.'

'Why did he go away?'

'I wouldn't marry him. I had other plans. We travelled together once, through a forest.

Looking back I think it was the happiest time of my life. I can remember every day.' Jianna laughed. 'We were hungry and we came across a rabbit with its leg caught in a trapper's noose. He went to it and knelt beside it. The little thing was trembling, so he stroked it.

Then he carefully cut the noose. I looked at him and said: ”Well, are you going to kill it and cook it?” He picked the rabbit up and stroked it again. ”It has such beautiful eyes,” he said, then put the rabbit down and walked away from it.'

'Soft-hearted then? Some men are.'

'In some ways he was. In others he was ruthless. We were attacked in the woods.' Jianna fell silent. 'Ah well, long ago now,' she said at last, realizing she was coming too close to the truth.

'Who attacked you?'

'Robbers,' said Jianna swiftly.

'How awful!' said Samias. 'What happened? Did your lover fight them off?'

'Yes, he fought. He was a fine fighter. I must go now. My . . . husband will be waiting for me.' Jianna rose from her seat.

'Try not to dwell upon the past, dear,' said Samias. 'We can't change it, you know. We can only live with what we have now. Once I loved a man with all my heart. He was the sun and moon of all my desires. He was a soldier of the King. You know, the old King, Bokram.

He was sent out into the forest of Delian after a murderer. We were due to be wed within the month. He was killed there. And that was it for me. My life all but ended.'

'I am so sorry,' said Jianna, surprised that she meant it.

'A long time ago now, Sashan. And my husband is a good man. Oh, yes. Very kind.'

'Did they catch the murderer?'

'No. He was an awful man. He murdered the people who raised him after his father died.

Cut them up, he did. Tortured them. Can you believe that? Then he fled the city with a young wh.o.r.e. My Jeranon and a group of soldiers almost caught them. That's what I was told. There was a fight and Jeranon was killed. Some others too. And the evil pair escaped.

They were never found.'

Jianna felt a sudden chill touch her heart. 'Did he have a name, this murderer?'

'Aye. His name was Skilgannon. I never heard the wh.o.r.e's name.' Samias shrugged. 'The Source will punish them, though. If there is any justice.'

'Perhaps the Source already has,' said Jianna.

As Jianna made her way back to the royal park she thought of how Askelus would have enjoyed listening to her conversation with Samias. Never before had Jianna considered the lives of those soldiers who had almost trapped her in the forest of Delian. They had just been men with swords, ordered to capture her. She tried to remember their faces, but only one came to mind, a bearded man with florid features and savage eyes. He had wanted to rape her, but was overruled by the others.

Skilgannon and she had parted an hour earlier, after harsh words. It was difficult now to recall exactly what the argument had been about. Once they left the city, and were travelling together, they seemed to grate on each other. Looking back with the full wisdom of her twenty-five years Jianna could see now that the tension was s.e.xual. She had longed to be intimate with the young warrior. She smiled. Abstinence had never been agreeable to her. It was much the same for Skilgannon. So they bickered and argued. Finally, two days after escaping the city, they had agreed to separate, Jianna striking out north towards a tribal settlement where she believed she would be safe.

An hour later she had been surrounded, and chased down by soldiers. Fleet of foot, she had almost escaped them. She had been scrambling up a steep slope when she grabbed hold of a jutting tree root for purchase. The root snapped off, and she tumbled back down the muddy slope. They grabbed her then.

'Got to be her,' said the soldier with the florid face. 'Look at her.' Grabbing her by the neck he dragged her head down, and ran his hand over her shorn hair. 'See, there's still traces of the blond dye.'

'What's your name, girl?' asked another man. Jianna couldn't remember his face now, except that he was thin. She didn't answer him.

There were five soldiers in the group and they gathered round her. 'What did she do?'

someone asked.

'Who cares?' answered the florid man. 'Boranius said she was important. That's all that matters. Beautiful legs and a.r.s.e, hasn't she?' he continued, running a calloused hand over her thighs. 'Reckon we ought to sample this one.'

'No, we don't,' said someone else. Jianna wondered now if this was the young man Samias had spoken of. 'We just take her back.'

'I am the Princess Jianna,' she said. 'The tyrant wants me dead. He has already killed my mother and father. Take me north and I shall see you rewarded.'

'Oh, yes, you look like a princess, right enough,' said Florid Face. 'Stupid b.i.t.c.h! You need a better story than that.'

'It is the truth. Why do you think you were sent out? What wh.o.r.e would be worth that trouble? I'll wager you are not the only troops out here.'

'Suppose she's right?' said someone else.

'What if she is?' demanded Florid Face. 'Nothing to do with us. There's a new king now.

New kings always kill their rivals. And how would she reward us, eh? There's nowhere safe for her. The only reward she can offer is between her legs. And we can have that now. I never drilled a princess before. Think it's any different?'

'You'll never know,' came the voice of Skilgannon. Jianna still remembered the leap in her heart. It was not because she thought she was rescued. In that instant she believed them both to be ruined. It was merely the sound of his voice, and the knowledge he had come back for her.

The soldiers turned to see the young man. He was standing some ten feet from them. In his right hand he held a short, stabbing sword, in his left a wickedly sharp hunting knife.

Sunlight gleamed upon the blades.

'Would you look at that?' said Florid Face contemptuously. 'Be careful with those blades, boy. You might cut yourself.'

'Let her go or die,' said Skilgannon calmly. 'There are no other choices.'

'Will someone take those swords away from him?' said Florid Face. 'He is beginning to annoy me.'

Two men drew their sabres and advanced on Skilgannon. He stood very still for a moment, and when he moved the effect was startling. One man fell back, his throat gouting blood.

The second cried out as the hunting knife plunged into his chest, spearing his heart. Before the other soldiers could react he leapt forward, the shortsword cleaving into the belly of another soldier, even as the man struggled to draw his sabre. Jianna's hand reached out, pulling a knife from a scabbard at Florid Face's side. He was too surprised at the sudden violence to notice. He was even more surprised when the blade lanced into his chest just below the sternum. It went deep. He gave a groan and, releasing Jianna, staggered back.