«Yes,» said Blade. «You can leave me alone to get some sleep.» Nothing was going to happen for at least twelve hours. After that a lot might happen very fast, and Blade wanted to be ready.
Brigeda nodded and left on silent feet.
She was back again only a little more than the twelve hours later. She was not silent as she stormed through the door, waving a bloodstained piece of paper, but cursing like a fishwife. Her eyes blazed and her finely chiseled nostrils flared. Blade could see her breast heaving under her tight bodice as she sucked in air.
Then she burst out furiously at Blade.
«You wretched, slimy traitor! Do you know what your men did? They took Jeshorn prisoner, and they're holding him and torturing him and-oh gods! They sent this message back, and-what are you doing? What-you-mmmmfggggg!» as Blade rolled out of bed, scooped her up with one arm, and slapped the other hand over her mouth.
He carried her to the bed, clasped both her hands in one of his, and kept the other over her mouth. «Do you promise not to move or speak until I've finished?» Silence. «If you don't, I'll have to bind and gag you, and that would be silly.» She nodded. «Don't play any tricks, either. If you do, you'll certainly never get my support even if you live long enough to need it.» Brigeda moaned, and nodded frantically.
«Good.» Blade let her stretch out on the bed, then stepped over to the door, locked it, and stood with his back to it.
«Now, Sister. Let's put an end to this playing of children's games. You must have thought me a fool, if you thought I would blurt out my plans simply at your little threat. But you made me wonder what you might be planning. So I had to arrange for your steward to be captured to provide for my own safety-just in case. I would have been just as big a fool if I had not done that. All this has taken nearly a day, a day that's been practically wasted. I don't think we have that much time to waste.
«You want to do something to-or about Duke Tymgur and Durkas, don't you?»
«Only Durkas,» said Sister Brigeda quietly. «We know Duke Tymgur is beyond our reach. But Durkas-«She broke off and clenched her fists until the knuckles were white.
«Very well, Durkas.» Again Blade decided a part of his plans should remain secret. «So do I-so do we, in Talgar. I think you want my help. In fact, I think you desperately need it, otherwise you would not have threatened me. And if you could have found anyone to work against Durkas before this, he would not be troubling either of us.»
Sister Brigeda's face was working as she listened to Blade strip her plans and schemes naked. Before he had finished, he saw tears glistening in the corners of both dark eyes.
«So why play any more games?» he finished. «I think we have a common purpose and a common enemy. If you will tell me why the Sisters of the Night call Durkas their enemy, I will tell you the same for the Sea Cities. Then we can begin planning.»
Brigeda's mouth dropped open. «You want to see-hear — why we hold Durkas an enemy?»
«Yes.»
She hesitated. «May I call one of my household?»
Blade nodded. «Certainly. But no tricks.»
«I promise.» Brigeda rose and went to the door, opened it, and called down the stairs.
«Send Sister Clarda to the Fourth Chamber.» Brigeda closed the door and turned back into the room.
«Durkas-«She swallowed. «Durkas is a man of-strange tastes. He loves-pain, and women screaming. Sister Clarda went to him some years ago on a contract. She came back, but no other Sister has ever gone since. He must make do with girls from the slave pens or kidnapped from other households.»
Blade nodded. «He must do fairly well. I heard a woman screaming when I was in his garden the other night.»
Footsteps sounded on the stairs outside. Then came a soft voice. «Brigeda, it is I, Clarda.»
«Come in, my Sister.»
The door opened and the young woman with the veiled face slipped in. She stood silently for a moment, and Blade found himself oddly uncomfortable under her stare. Then Brigeda nodded and said quietly, «Remove your veil, Clarda.»
The veil dropped to the floor. Blade kept his face straight with an effort as he saw what lay underneath it. Clarda had been beautiful-once. Then someone had slashed her face deeply from scalp to chin, using a sawtoothed edge, leaving a dreadful gouge and taking out her left eye. She wore a green silk patch over what must have been a mutilated and empty socket, for which Blade was grateful.
«This was Durkas's work,» said Brigeda. «Do you need to look at it any longer?»
«No,» said Blade.
«You may go, Clarda.» The younger Sister pulled her veil back on with desperate haste and fumbling lingers, then vanished out the door.
Blade turned to Sister Brigeda. «I begin to think that I can indeed trust you. If Durkas did this. . You want vengeance on him?»
«For this and much else. If you will help bring him into our hands, he will suffer as have all his girls before we leave his head before Tymgur's gate.» She paused. «And now-you promised to tell me, why the Sea Cities had a quarrel with Durkas.»
Blade had his answer ready. «He is conspiring with our Autocrat for War, Stipors, to sow dissension and civil war in Talgar. He has dreams of using the war between us and the Fishmen to give himself influence in the Sea Cities.»
«Durkas has these dreams?» said Brigeda. «Not Duke Tymgur, his master?»
«Not that I know of,» said Blade. He hoped he was still able to lie with a straight face well enough to deceive Brigeda.
Apparently he was. She sighed with obvious relief and stood up. «Then it is settled, Blade. If you will give your men proper instructions, I will give the same to mine. We can easily lay a trap for Durkas, and when that trap springs shut, he will be in our hands. And then he will suffer. Oh, how he will suffer!»
Once more Blade kept his face straight. Durkas was not going to be thrown to the Sisters of the Night for their vengeance, although he certainly deserved to be. He was too important to the future of the Sea Cities-and the Sea Masters. Some complicated planning would be needed to get Durkas safely away without unnecessary bloodshed. But Brigeda had told him to give his men proper instructions. He would certainly do that. Some of those instructions, though, might come as a surprise to the Sister.
Then he looked at Brigeda. She was still standing, looking down at him. Her eyes were no longer tear-filled, but they were wide and glittering with a strange intensity. She licked her lips and spoke.
«Blade.» Silence. «I–I am a Sister who receives two thousand gold crowns for one night. One night. Yet-somehow I feel that tonight-I want to be only a woman. No, not even that. A girl-an ordinary girl, perhaps with her first man. You-you have answered so many of my dreams and prayers, Blade. Answer one more for me, for you are-beautiful.»
Blade didn't need much time to interpret that sort of invitation or to respond to it. If he ever did, he would probably be getting unfit for his job.
He crossed the room in two quick steps. Brigeda's arms rose to meet him and go around him. They were surprisingly strong arms, as slender as they were. What was not surprising was the skill of those swift-moving hands of hers.
They stroked his eyes and up over his forehead, then down his cheeks, across his ears, plucked at his earlobes, then went on and on and on. After a while Blade realized they were gliding down off his face and down inside the heavy chamber robe he wore. He bent his head and tipped up Brigeda's, until their lips met. Her lips were as experienced and expert as her hands. So was her tongue, sleek, warm and wet, crawling out and curling under and over his. Blade began to feel a warmth that wasn't in the air of the chamber, and his breathing quickened. His hands drifted down along Brigeda's back, pressing into the elegant curve of her spine and on her small perfectly formed buttocks. He heard her gasp.