Realizing that the wind wall could just as easily blow Regdar off his feet if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Naull padded closer to him. As she moved, and the still air of the room ruffled her silk chemise across her skin, Naull felt all the more vulnerable. She had never worn armor and was more comfortable in light attire than Regdar had become, but if she was going to fight for her life, she wanted to at least be dressed.
Regdar saw her approaching, and he held out his free hand to stop her. She touched the elbow of his sword arm. When he glanced at her she jerked her head back once and whispered, "Back up."
He narrowed his eyes at her, confused and impatient. In response, Naull wiggled her fingers and arched an eyebrow. The crude, improvised sign language registered on Regdar quickly enough and he stepped back. Just then, a shadow slid across the draperies.
The intruder appeared human enough, but the shadow's size could have been exaggerated by the light. The thing could have been the size of a halfling or a stone giant.
Naull stepped in front of Regdar and brought her hands up, twisting the fingers of her left hand into the spell's first position while her right hand reached for She didn't have her pouches. She didn't have the material component for the spell.
The shadow moved to the door. Naull could sense Regdar's huge sword in the ready position behind her. She turned, held one finger up to stop him, and took three fast, long strides to the nightstand.
The polished brass door handle turned slowly just as Naull's fingers found the right pouch and reached inside. There was a barely audible click as the door unlatched. Naull's hand wrapped around a feather and a miniature silk fan no longer than her little finger.
The door moved, a torturously slow quarter of an inch at a time, as Naull began casting the spell. She tried to whisper but the intruder must have heard her, or perhaps sensed the growing magic in the air of the room. The door stopped opening but made no move to close.
Warm air washed over Naull as she completed the spell, and she had to close her eyes against the blast. When she felt her chemise flip up over her face she was momentarily embarrassed, but quickly regained her wits. She stepped back, keeping one forearm over her eyes. The sound of the wind in the confined space was deafening but in a few steps she could at least see again.
The door to the veranda blew open, revealing a young woman struggling with her own wildly uncontrolled clothing. One of the glass panes shattered and the woman shrieked, ducking away and losing her footing in the gale. Regdar dashed forward, and Naull saw that he no longer held his sword. Her skin crawled with fear when she realized what would happen if he'd dropped the sword in the swirling wind. The blade would become a whirling, wind-driven, razor-sharp menace, chopping down anything unfortunate enough to cross its unpredictable path.
"Regdar!" Naull screamed into the wind wall. "No!"
He was forcing his way into the wind, bending low and pushing through the wall. Naull knew he was strong but she hadn't imagined he was that strong. He was passing through the wall of air, reaching out for the woman. The intruder was in serious danger of falling off the veranda and suffering the fifty-foot drop to the lamplit street below. Naull wasn't entirely certain why Regdar wanted to prevent that
"Regdar!" she screamed again.
Just below the roar of the wind, Naull could hear a woman scream. Regdar reached the doorframe and held on tightly, still reaching with his other hand for the woman on the veranda. He turned to Naull and shouted something that she couldn't hear. She would have read his lips, or tried to, at least, had her chemise not blown up into her face again, leaving her blind and naked from the waist down. She struggled to pull the silk away from her face but the wind and her own panic made her tug too hard. She heard something tear and felt the garment shift to one side. The material came away from her face in time for Naull to see Regdar pulling the strange woman into the room.
Naull searched her mind for a useful spell but there was little left after the examination of the crime scene. She hadn't planned her day with the expectation of fighting off intruders in what was supposed to be the most secure inn in the duchy.
Regdar and the woman fell hard onto the marble floor, and Naull's chemise blew up in her face again. She could hear Regdar shouting but couldn't understand him. She grabbed at the silk in front of her face.
"-that damn thing stop!" Regdar shouted, his voice echoing in the suddenly quiet, still air.
The wind blew itself out all at once and Naull was left standing with her chemise over her head. She felt her entire, largely exposed body blush as she fumbled with the twisted material. When the garment finally came away from her face, Naull could see Regdar sitting on the floor next to the young woman, whose own skirt had blown scandalously high up her thin, milk-white thighs.
Naull took a deep breath, then felt a chill. Regdar looked up at her and stifled a laugh, his own face turning red. When Naull looked down she realized that the tearing sound had been one of the thin straps of her chemise ripping away. One side of the neckline sagged far enough to reveal what it was intended to hide.
Naull drew the silk over her breast and said, "I…"
Regdar looked down at the young woman, who was straightening her own garments and breathing heavily. She was beautiful, young, and dressed in fine clothing that was no less attractive for its windblown condition. Her long, blond hair was almost playfully in disarray, a gentle curl falling over her alabaster face, caught up in a diadem knocked askew across her forehead.
Regdar stood, showing an uncharacteristic lack of dexterity, and almost fell on the confused, frightened girl. He reached out and helped her to her feet, quickly withdrawing from her as she shuffled backward toward the door. Her sandaled feet crunched broken glass on the marble.
The girl looked as if she was going to say something but she yelped and jumped back when Regdar's greatsword clattered onto the floor at her feet.
"Naull," Regdar said, his face red, sweaty, and confused, "may I present the duke's daughter, the Lady Maelani."
Naull froze, unable to breathe, think, or move.
Maelani didn't seem any less surprised to see her.
13
"Are you…? " Maelani said, her voice shaking along with the rest of her. "I mean, is she…? Are you and…?"
Naull stepped closer, still holding her chemise up with one hand, and said, "Why are…? Where did…?"
"Is this…?" Maelani said, looking back and forth between Regdar and Naull. "Are you two…?"
"Does anyone…?" Naull pressed on, wholly unable to synch her mouth with her mind. "Did you…?"
"Please," Regdar cut in, "I think…"
"No, it's…" Maelani replied.
"It's not…" said Naull.
"I mean…" Regdar started.
If Naull could have ever imagined an instance in which she'd be happy to have a huge bed flip up off the floor and smash into her back, driving her face-first onto a hard, cold marble floor, this might have been it.
She was unconscious before she knew for sure.
His fighter's instincts took over. Regdar reached out to pull Maelani safely behind him the second the bed came off the floor. Something pushed it up, flipped it over, and took Naull down with it.
Maelani was more fleet of foot than Regdar expected, though, and she flinched just out of his reach. Regdar extended his arm a little too far so that when the edge of the mattress came down on him, his effort to dodge out of the way only sent him sprawling onto the hard, cold floor.