“Without her tree, you mean? Five or six days. Seven at most. She’ll weaken each day.”
“And so will you, I presume. We’ve had her for three days and she’s already peaked. I imagine you’ll hold up better-because of your, how shall I say, bovinity.”
“If you mean I’m fat, why don’t you say so?” I snapped. “My lovers call me voluptuous, but you wouldn’t know about that with your skinny little frame.” I tried to struggle to my feet but sank back onto the skin. “Why don’t you let Kora go? You have her pendant.”
“Aren’t you interested in how I captured you?”
“You must have drugged me. I don’t know how, since I didn’t drink your wine.”
“No, and I had to lend you one of my friends.”
I was slow to grasp her meaning. “The Strige?”
“Exactly. He relieved you of some excess blood. You see, his tongue is like a delicate needle. He inserted it into your neck without your feeling a thing and drew forth just enough blood to make you faint. Fortunately for you, we removed him before he had drunk his fill.”
“Why doesn’t he drink your blood?”
“It’s yellow. He only likes green or red. You see, he’s very particular, the dear little fellow.”
I was quick with questions. “And Kora. Why did you buy her from the Panisci?”
“They captured her for me in the first place. For a price, of course.”
“But why?”
“Bait.”
“For Eunostos!” I shuddered. “You had her captured to bait him into your hive.”
“Exactly. I entered into negotiations with a Paniscus chief-Phlebas, is he called? But he refused to deliver Eunostos without maiming him. Said it was quite impossible. He suggested that Kora would be easier handling and accomplish the same purpose.”
“But what do you want with a harmless Minotaur calf?” As if I needed to ask!
“A young bull, I would say. Have you noticed his horns? The best drone is barely adequate as a lover. Consider the one you met, Sunlord. Would he satisfy you?”
“I would rather remain a virgin than give him a try.”
“Exactly. However, if a Dryad can mate with a Minotaur, why not a Thria? A full-grown Minotaur, to be sure, would be a trifle large for me. At the very least, he would muss my wings. But Eunostos is only six feet. It will be interesting to see what offspring he sires. Something more animated than a worker and more manly than a drone, I trust. Perhaps a winged bull like those you see in Hittite monuments.”
“But isn’t it true that the drone who mates with a queen is”-and my voice fell to a quaver-“doomed?”
“Our mating is somewhat turbulent. The drone is generally-and forgive my coarseness, but then I can’t shock you, can I? — gutted.”
CHAPTER VI
I had partially recovered from my loss of blood to the Strige and not yet begun to feel the effects of separation from my tree. Thus, I was still alert if not exactly vigorous. But Kora, poor thing, was fading like a plucked chrysanthemum. Marmoreal whiteness had become unhealthy pallor, and the solar twinklings had departed from her hair. Her movements were slow, lethargic, labored. She needed immediate sustenance.
The waxen walls thudded dully but failed to crack when I smote them with my fist. The wooden door, bolted from the outside, creaked but did not yield beneath the weight of my shoulder. Our hastily constructed room was a constricting prison. Well, then, they must come to us. I stamped on the earthen floor and let out the roar of a wounded she-bear. Almost at once the flutter of wings announced the approach of visitors. Saffron, flanked by two gray workers, glared at me from the doorway. With my somewhat whimsical fancy, I pictured her as honey poured between slices of wheaten bread and imagined the three of them being devoured by a Cyclops.
“Are you trying to bring down the walls with your bellowing, you old cow?”
“I’m a Dryad, not a female Minotaur. There’s no such thing. My friend is hungry and so am I.” The workers were armed with bamboo spears, like giant stingers, narrowed to lethal points.
“Honey and pollen tea? Sorry, my dear, the offer is withdrawn. Or perhaps the partridge you brought me? It would hardly be gracious for a guest to eat her own gift. Besides, I’ve eaten it myself, and it was quite palatable. That’s more than I can say for the acorns. I almost broke a tooth on the first one I bit.”
“If there are any left,” Kora began.
I hastened to interrupt her. If Saffron suspected that we craved acorns, she would feed them to the squirrels. “I expect they were a little stale. Honey then? Pollen bread?” I pleaded.
“Food is in short supply while my workers are building the hive. Why should I waste it on temporary guests?”
“If we die too soon, you won’t be able to show us to Eunostos and have your way with him.”
“My beauty and my wiles should suffice.”
“Not if he thinks you’ve killed us.”
“I’ll simply tell him you’re my captives. I don’t have to say whether you’re dead or alive.”
“He’s been on his own for a year and he isn’t easily fooled. You’d better keep us handy in case you need some proof.”
She managed to scowl without wrinkling her flawless forehead. Her mouth curved down like an overturned bowl.
“Oh, very well, I guess I can spare you something.” The bowl righted itself. “I’ll send you a special dinner before I call on your friend.”
Special dinner. Perhaps she intended to poison us.
“Never mind,” I said to Kora when Saffron had left the room. “Eunostos will come looking for us. Did you know he’s been scouring the forest ever since you disappeared? He got himself beaten up on your account.”
“Is he badly hurt?” she cried.
“No, just a bit sore. He’s recuperating in my tree.”
“I’m not worthy of him. He thinks of me as a heroine out of his favorite epic, Hoofbeats in Babylon. People interpret my silence however they like. To Eunostos, it means mystery and wisdom.”
“You may not be worthy of him, Kora.” I was her best friend but also her frankest critic. “But you’re worthier than most. He’ll find us, you know, and when he does, see that you show your appreciation.”
“Will he, Zoe?” Her voice lacked conviction. “I would give my Centaur pendant-if I still had it-to see him now.”
“You never encouraged him much when you had the chance.”
“Not in the way you mean. He seemed like a younger brother. Always stumbling over his hooves.” I did not tell her that in some ways both of them were still children and that she, from her seemingly sublime eminence of eighteen years, was likely to stumble over her dreams. That is, if she lived to continue dreaming them.
Speech was beginning to tire her but silence was frightening to both of us. If any sounds came to our ears, it was the faint whirring of wings or the mellifluous piping of Saffron as she directed the workers. Finally the piping stopped. She’s gone to my tree, I thought.
Then the workers brought us the promised dinner.
Saffron had sent us the uneaten acorns.
Eunostos opened his eyes and stared at the thatched roof above his head. He saw the walls which I had hung with tapestries commemorating my lovers, the square windows which filtered the light through a lattice of foliage. He smelled the bark and leaves of my tree. Zoe’s house, he thought. But how did I come here? At last he remembered.
“Zoe.”
“No. Saffron.”
He recognized the queen who had spied on him in his garden. “How did you find this house?” he asked angrily.
“Zoe herself gave me directions. And she left the door unlatched. Of course I don’t need ladders, though there was one handy if I did.”
He was not in the least impressed with her fabled beauty. Yes, she was prettily formed, like a cowslip or a buttercup. Yes, her skin was as smooth and golden as honey, and her wings were a tremulous translucence as she stood above his couch and smiled down at him with what seemed to be admiration and expectation. But she doesn’t have Kora’s height, he told himself, nor Zoe’s opulence, and there are too many bracelets on her arms, and her wings look as if the faintest breeze would shred them. Actually, he was not prepared to see anything good in a woman who might be responsible for Kora’s disappearance.