“I will tell you why, my lady.” The Master made a short, brutal gesture with both hands. “He did not wait because he knew of Elega’s intentions. He knew our danger was greatly increased by the fact that Orison would be betrayed from within by Prince Kragen’s allies.
“Think, woman. How could High King Festten have known that Orison would be betrayed to Alend? By Imagery, his Monomach can enter or leave the castle – although how this is done remains a mystery. But access to our halls does not give him access to our secrets. Who but a traitor would tell Gart that Elega meant to poison the reservoir, depriving us of water and exposing us to summary defeat?”
“No,” Terisa murmured. She wanted to collapse into a chair. “No.”
Master Eremis ignored her protest. “And who but Geraden knew the danger?”
“But he was attacked,” she objected. “By Imagery. Twice. They tried to kill him – Gilbur, Vagel—”
“Whelp of a bitch!” Eremis sounded furious. “Those were ploys, woman. Tricks. They show only that Gilbur and Vagel are desperate that you do not turn against their ally. By attacking Geraden, they make him appear innocent. The truth is that they feint his death for the same reason that they actively desire yours – so that you will not expose him.
“If he had not been rescued as he was, I assure you that they would have recalled their insects before he was slain.”
She was no longer looking at the Imager. She wasn’t looking at anything. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “How could I expose him?”
“You have been with him for many days. You have watched him, spoken to him, studied him. And you met in private in your own world, before he translated you here. You alone possess the knowledge – the experience – that will persuade the Congery of his treachery.”
“No,” she repeated softly. She wasn’t speaking to him, however. She was speaking to herself. She hardly heard what he said: she heard only his voice, his anger, the threat of losing him. Geraden was no traitor. Of course not. She knew that precisely because she had spent so much time with him. But she was being forced to a choice. No, more than that. She was being forced to do something about what she believed. She couldn’t defend Geraden without turning her back on Master Eremis and everything he represented.
“You said you wished to help Mordant.” He spoke in a hectoring tone that reminded her of her father. “While you protect the man who betrays us, we are doomed.”
What could she do? She couldn’t argue with him. She had never been able to argue with her father. She could only take his side or refuse. That was clear enough.
Quietly, she asked, “What are you going to do to me?”
“Take off your robe,” he snapped. “Your body, at least, will not disappoint me.”
Now at last she understood the anger and secret triumph she had so often heard in her father’s voice, the desire to inflict pain. For that reason, what she had to do was clear to her in the end – clear and simple – and so difficult that it was nearly impossible.
Her hands were on the sash of her robe. Deliberately, she pulled it tighter.
“No,” she said to the Master.
She thought that he would shout at her or strike her. He started toward her, and his expression sharpened into a grin of violence. Instead of shouting, however, he whispered intensely, “My lady, I have claimed you. I have placed my hands and my kisses where you will never forget them.” He was close enough to grasp her shoulders. Echoing firelight, his hot gaze held her. “Every curve of your flesh and pulsebeat of your womanhood desires me, and I will not be refused.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her forcefully. Somehow, her robe was gone from between them. He felt as hard as iron against her inexperienced belly.
She didn’t struggle: she was too weak to struggle. But her body had gone cold; her nerves and her sore heart no longer responded to him. His kiss was only pressure against her face, nothing more. His hardness had lost its fascination.
No, she protested. I said no.
Someone knocked at her door so hard that it thudded against the latch.
Swearing viciously, Master Eremis pushed her away. For an instant, he measured the distance to the wardrobe. “Do not answer!” he hissed.
She was about to faint. “I forgot to lock it.”
Without waiting for admission, Geraden burst into the room and slammed the door behind him.
But when he saw Terisa standing near the entryway to the bedroom with her robe open and Master Eremis near her, he stopped as if he were turned to stone.
Convulsively, she jerked the robe closed and sashed it. Surprise and mortification made her feel like a lunatic. She sounded like a lunatic as she asked, “How is Artagel?”
The Master’s eyes were savage.
Geraden stared at Terisa as though she were appalling. “I didn’t go see him.”
“Then what did you do, boy?” inquired the Imager. “It must have been quite interesting, if it drives you to enter a lady’s bedchamber so discourteously.”
“Terisa.” With the light of the hearth behind him, Geraden’s features were dark. His gaze glittered at her out of the shadows. “Tell him to leave.”
Master Eremis made a snickering noise in the back of his throat. She was facing Geraden: she didn’t know that the Master had moved until she felt him beside her. He put one arm around her waist. With the other, he slid his hand into her robe and began to fondle her breast. “The lady Terisa,” he said, “does not wish me to leave.”
Shame flushed down the length of her body. “Please,” she breathed to Eremis, to Geraden, on the verge of weeping. Don’t do this to me. It doesn’t mean what you think. “Please.”
“In fact, it was interesting,” Geraden replied in a voice thick with blood. “I had a talk with Saddith.”
Terisa felt Master Eremis stiffen. Slowly, he took back his hand, although he didn’t release her. “What an odd thing to do. Almost as odd as the urgency you attach to it. Are you quite sure you are well, boy?”
With an effort, she swallowed the distress that clogged her throat. She felt that she was fighting for her life. “What did Saddith say?”
Without a glance at the Imager, Geraden retorted, “Your guards told me you were alone. How did he get in here?”
She knew immediately that Master Eremis didn’t want her to answer. She could feel his will in the harsh strength of his grasp.
“The wardrobe,” she said thinly. “The secret passage.”
Geraden nodded once, abruptly. “And how did he know it was there?”
In an even tone, as though he were in danger of becoming bored, Eremis drawled, “He had no idea it was there. He was exploring a passage new to him and found the lady Terisa’s rooms by chance.”
The Apt turned a gaze like stone on the Master. Shadows shifted along his jaw. “Actually, that’s not true.” Then he addressed Terisa again. “How did Saddith become your maid?”
She was having difficulty breathing: the pressure growing in her chest seemed to cramp her lungs. “King Joyse told her to take care of me.”
“Did he choose her himself?”
It was astonishing how vividly the memory came back to her. The King had said, Saddith will attend upon you as your maid. He had even greeted her by saying, Just the one I wanted. But he hadn’t looked pleased.