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Because of that, Su and Dranna were already back on the bank and drying by the time 1 got to washing. They offered to wait until I was finished, but that would have left mem standing in their drying cloths while I hurried to get clean, and we were all too tired for standing or hurry- ing. I told them I would be perfectly fine and that there were soft lounging robes waiting for them in their pavil- ions, and those two items of a.s.surance and information helped make up their minds. They carefully gathered up their filthy clothes-keeping them well away from their now-clean bodies-and their soap jars, and left the wash- ing area to the one who had formed it.

I took my time with the washing, delighting, as always, in the feeling of being really clean, and then I left the stream to take up my drying cloth. It was getting a good deal closer to sundown by then, and I stood all alone in the middle of the large, bush-screened area, the very soft gra.s.s cradling my feet, looking out over the stream toward the far bank and the forest there, the long, thick drying cloth held in front of me while I patted at my face with it. The sun was just above the trees and flaming out its anger over being forced to abandon its realm to darkness, the sullen red painful to the eyes but forcing a soothing, quiet calm on everything that would soon become part of the silence of night. 1 loved the look of sundown and the view of it from that spot was magnificent, a view of peace that that world more than owed us. It was . . .

"That's not fair," a voice said suddenly from behind me, unexpectedly close behind me. "The scenery in this part of the stream is much nicer than in ours."

I whirled immediately to see Zail, standing no more man five feet away, his drying cloth wrapped around his middle, his smooth chest bare except for that small, golden medallion, his arms folded easily and comfortably before him. Strands of wet, dark hair fell on his forehead over those pretty gray eyes, and when I realized his faintly amused stare was resting on me rather than on the sunset, it came to me with a shock that the entire back of me was bare!

"Zail, you're not supposed to be here!" I blurted.

feeling my cheeks going red as fl.u.s.ter covered me a lot

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more thoroughly than the drying cloth did. "You have to leave. . . !"

"But why?" he interrupted to ask, his faint grin amused as he unfolded his arms and began to move slowly toward me. "You don't think I'd hurt you, do you?"

"Well, no, of course not," I stumbled, still blushing and horribly upset, my hands clutching the drying cloth to my throat, my feet desperate to back away from his ad- vance. "But I really don't. . ."

"The water has made your hair a little darker," he observed, stopping in front of me to raise one hand to the dripping strands. "I like it better when it's dry, pale and soft as silk, draping your shoulders like a priceless fur.

And your eyes are the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen, light and very deep, drawing me closer like twin, exqui- sitely matched jewels. I could never hurt anything as perfect as you, Laciel. You believe mat, don't you?"

He was looking down into my eyes, his body no more than a breath away from mine, his hand still touching my hair, and once again I found that the ability to speak had abandoned me. Of course I knew he wasn't going to hurt me, but my heart still hammered inside my chest, setting all of me to trembling with the heavy thud of it, and 1 couldn't fight my way through me shivering confusion his nearness caused. I wanted to ask him to turn his back until I got the drying cloth wrapped completely around me, but I just couldn't do it.

"Of course you believe me," he murmured, sending a glow through all of me with his warm, beautiful smile.

"You know I'd never lie to someone who obviously sun- bathes rather often with no clothes on."

His smile turned to a grin and laughter when my face flamed to an even hotter red and 1 looked down with a horribly embarra.s.sed, "Oh!" but his amus.e.m.e.nt wasn't mocking. It was a clear attempt to share something inti- mate, and when his hand came gently to my chin, I found out what that something was.

"Close, personal friends never have to be shy with one another, lovely girl," he said, making me look up to see that the warm smile was back. "And besides, you have nothing to be embarra.s.sed about." *

127.

His head lowered toward mine then, and until it hap- pened I didn't understand that he was going to kiss me. 1 wasn't innocent, not at all, not even if I had never been kissed like that before; it was just that 1 hadn't expected him to kiss me while I was soaking wet and practically naked. With his warm, gentle lips on mine it came to me that his arms were also around me, holding me tight to his body, my own arms a flimsy and ignored barrier between us. I should have been struggling to push him away, telling him how improper that was, but all I could do was stand there and begin to really taste the kiss he was giving me.

"You know something?" he said very softly when he finally let the kiss end, his strong arms still firmly around me. "You're delicious as well as delightful, and I'm very glad you made this place so private. It's perfect for giving each other a very special gift, one mat can be exchanged again and again and again, and be more precious each time it is. We're going to give each other that gift now, aren't we?"

He had asked me another question, but I knew without doubt that he was going to answer it for me just the way he had done with the other. One of his hands was on the bare flesh of my back, moving slowly, in soft circles, and I found that I really did want him to answer the question for me. I felt terribly odd, and my breathing was more uneven than it had been at any time that day, and 1 couldn't bear the thought of his letting me go. . . .

"Sony to interrupt, but I'm afraid I have something rattier important to discuss," a voice came suddenly, star- tling Zail as well as me. "I would have waited, but this has waited too long already."

"Come on, Rik, give me a break!" Zail protested, running a hand through his still-wet hair as he looked at the other man in exasperation. "Another hour or so won't make that much of a difference, and I promise I'll come straight to your tent after ..."

"Sorry, Zail," the miserable, low intruder said again, his bronze eyes looking as though they were struggling to keep from being amused. "The discussion I have sched- uled isn't with you, it's with her. I'm sure you understand."

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Zail hesitated at that, his body stiffening slightly, his expression going neutral but faintly guarded. He stared at Rik in silence for a moment, then shrugged in an off-hand way.

"Well, if it's that important, 1 suppose I can wait a little while," he grudged, really trying to sound unconcerned.

"Go ahead and get it done."

"Zail, privately," Rikkan Addis said, his voice soft and unexcited, his body tall and shoulders straight. He was wrapped in a drying cloth just the way Zail was, but somehow he gave the impression of being fully clothed and well armed. Zail stiffened even more at the two calm words, and suddenly 1 realized what Su and Dranna had said was true.

"Zail, it's all right," I said quickly, reaching one hand to his arm before remembering about the cloth I held and bringing it hurriedly back. "I'm sure mis will only take a minute, and then you can come back. I'll send a bird to your pavilion."

He looked startled as he glanced at me, obviously hav- ing forgotten that I was a sorceress, but the reminder rea.s.sured him just the way I'd intended it to. He nodded once, as though to something he was thinking, men turned back to kiss me lightly -

"1*11 be waiting and listening for the flutter of wings,"

he murmured, touching one hand to my face. "Try not to be too hard on him."

He seemed to find a lot of amus.e.m.e.nt in mat comment, so much mat he actually nodded pleasantly to his good friend Rik as he headed for the exit through the bushes.

Said good friend nodded back and waited until he was out of sight and the sound of footsteps had faded, and then his attention was all mine.

"Okay. now that we're alone I have a question," he began, his voice and stare equally direct. "How long do you ..."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to get just a little more comfortable before we start this discussion," I said, find- ing a lot less satisfaction in interrupting him than he had undoubtedly gotten from interrupting Zail and me. "If you'll turn your back, it will only take a moment." .

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"It's hard to see how you can get more comfortable man that," he observed dryly, for an instant looking as though he were about to refuse, those eyes moving slowly over me. Then he turned himself around, his back and shoulders to me rather than his face, and I lost no time wrapping the drying cloth firmly around me. I hadn't liked the way he'd looked at me, and decided not to let it go by unnoticed.

"AH right, you can turn around again," I said, ready, now, to give him a piece of my mind. "And before we go any further, let me tell you a thing or two ..."

"Hold it!" he snapped, raising a finger to point at me even before he was fully turned, those bronze-colored eyes filled with a new expression. "Since this discussion was my idea, we'll start with what / have to say. As I was about to ask you before, how long do you expect to keep this up?"

"Keep what up?" I demanded with a frown, having no idea what he was talking about. "You are the rudest, most insolent man 1 have ever ..."

"I also happen to be the leader of this expedition," he cut in, still angry. "That's the part you seem to be having no trouble overlooking, and I've had enough of it. The wizard told me to give you time to get used to the idea, but he didn't say 1 had to put up with your nonsense until the quest was over. Now: are you going to back off and behave yourself, or do we have to settle this another way?"

He had moved slowly forward toward me until he stood no more than five feet away, the same distance Zail had started from a few moments earlier. Despite my fl.u.s.ter I hadn't really minded having Zail that close, but the feeling wasn't the same with this man. His shoulders were too broad, and his upper body and arms were too well-muscled, and he was looking down at me with a directness that made me want to bare my teeth. He was trying to take something that was mine with words instead of ability, and he'd never live to see the day I'd let him get away with that.

"Settling this shouldn't be hard at all," I told him, folding my arms over the drying cloth as I looked up to meet his gaze, "All you have to do is step down to the

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place you belong in, and there'll never be another harsh word exchanged between us. I'm the proper leader of this expedition, and there's nothing you can do to aiter that."

He stared at me in surprised silence for a moment, his fingers on his hips near the top of his drying cloth, quite a lot of his anger having disappeared, and then he shook his head with what seemed like confusion.

"You sound like you didn't hear a word the wizard said," he observed, those eyes now studying rather than staring. "We were all given our places on this expedition, and yours wasn't leader. I've spent the last ten years leading men into battle from one side of my world to the other: it's what I was born to do, what i was raised and trained to do.

What makes you think you could do it better?"