“Don’t worry. No one performed an autopsy on the creature’s body. It had obviously been burnt to death and the cutter was lying nearby. When the Warriors, who heard your screams, arrived on the scene they jumped to the obvious conclusion. The Hazzini has been dumped overboard, so there’s no chance now of anyone else discovering the truth.”
“Good …” she murmured. She couldn’t keep her eyes open.
“Sleep,” he told her and she did.
There was a knock on the door hidden by the pink drapes that covered the walls and the ceiling. “Yes?” called Mary Anne. Ceri, Mary Anne’s hand-maiden, entered the dressing room through a gap in the drapes. Ceri, like Jan, was an ex-slave and wore the same tattooed circle around the black star on her cheek. But though an ex-slave, Ceri wasn’t a Freewoman either; Mary Anne had said she was a Bondswoman and as far as Jan could see this was just another term for slave. The difference was that being a slave in the Aristos’ section of the Sky Lord was far preferable to being a slave anywhere else on the ship. She had liked Ceri at first sight. The hand-maiden was a slim girl with very fair hair and green, attractive eyes. Her face displayed both intelligence and sensitivity, two qualities that Jan already knew were in short supply on board the Sky Lord. But she had to admit she rather liked Mary Anne as well, even though the woman was patently stupid.
Ceri inclined her head respectfully towards Mary Anne and said in her soft, pleasant voice, “Prince Magid wishes to know if you and your guest are ready yet, Mistress. He is waiting in the saloon.”
“We’ll be out shortly, Ceri darling,” Mary Anne told her.
As Ceri withdrew Mary Anne fussily tucked a stray hair back under Jan’s tiara. “Not long now before your moment of glory,” she said breathlessly. “You must be feeling very excited.”
“Oh, very,” said Jan and smiled at Mary Anne’s reflection in the mirror.
Prince Magid, Lord Pangloth’s High Chamberlain, looked just as absurd to Jan as he had when she’d seen him on the day of her capture. With his long, somewhat skinny legs clad in red-and-orange striped tights and his voluminous, puffed-up jacket, he reminded her of some bizarre bird. And she found it hard not to smile whenever she glanced at the bright green leather box that covered his genitals. Knowing the thing was called a ‘cod piece’ didn’t help.
He was standing at one of the windows with his back to them as they entered the saloon. He turned and said, in his usual reedy voice, “Ah, here you are at last.” Fingering his pointed beard, and with his other hand resting on the hilt of his ceremonial sword, he made a great show of inspecting Jan, walking all around her and making odd noises through his nose. She considered how easy it would be to grab him by the throat, whip out his sword and stick it through his heart. But apart from a brief satisfaction such an action would achieve nothing, so instead she gazed out at the magnificent view through the row of outward slanting windows that made up one entire wall of the saloon. The sun was setting behind a distant mountain range and clouds were lit up in a brilliant red.
“Well, I suppose she’ll do,” said Prince Magid reluctantly.
“Oh, Phylus, I think she looks absolutely splendid!” cried Mary Anne, clasping her hands together.
“For an amazon she is suitable,” he said pointedly. “Now let us go. We don’t want to keep Prince Caspar waiting.”
“You mean you don’t want to keep Lady Jane waiting,” she said with a sniff. Prince Magid glared at her and she visibly wilted under the intensity of his look.
As she accompanied the pair of them along the wide, carpeted corridor Jan said hesitantly, “Ah, Prince Magid, I thought I was going to meet Lord Pangloth himself tonight. …”
He gave an exaggerated sigh and said, condescendingly. “There is no Lord Pangloth, girl.”
It was the fourth or fifth period of wakefulness. “What are you doing to me?” Jan asked as she surfaced out of the deep well of sleep. Milo was bending over her.
“Calm yourself. I’m just changing your dressing, that’s all. I’ve given you another shot of pain-blocking hormone so you won’t feel much.”
“Want to see,” she said trying to raise her head.
“I wouldn’t advise it.”
But, stronger now, she was able to lift her head and look down along her exposed body. “Oh Mother God …” she sighed and let her head drop back on to the hard pillow. What she had seen was a ragged incision running down between her breasts all the way to her lower stomach. The sides of the incision were held together by crude, black stitches which looked as if they’d been inserted by someone who was very drunk at the time. Jan felt that if she sneezed or made some other too-violent movement the stitches would break and her body would simply open up, spilling out her intestines and other organs. …
“Mother God,” she murmured again and closed her eyes tight. She tried to take very shallow breaths.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Milo told her.
This information did nothing to cheer her. “Leave me alone and let me die.”
“No, really. You’re healing fast, which is to be expected. The stitches can come out in a few days.”
“No!” she cried, alarmed. “Those stitches are all that’s keeping me together!”
She found Milo’s ringing laughter quite hurtful.
But Milo was right. Three days later Jan was strong enough to get out of bed and, with Milo’s help, walk all the way to the latrine. She was also able to switch from the strong broths he’d been feeding her to solid foods.
She was glad to be partly mobile again because she’d come to resent both her total reliance upon him and the enforced intimacy this had produced. At the same time she had to admit that he hadn’t taken even the slightest advantage of the situation and was actually a very skilled and efficient nurse. But once again Jan found herself sliding even deeper into his debt and she didn’t like it. Eventually she would have to repay him, but the price was getting bigger all the time.
She was grateful, though, for his company as she lay there recuperating. He’d explained that he’d been excused duty to look after her. The order had come from the Aristos, not Bannion, he stressed. “You’re the flavour of the day with them,” he told her. “It’s something we might be able to take advantage of. …”
On the fifth day Milo pronounced her sufficiently healed for the stitches to be removed. Because the supply of pain-blockers had been exhausted Jan found it an uncomfortable experience. She shut her eyes and put her thumb between her teeth, trying not to cry out.
After what seemed hours Milo said, “I’m finished.” She raised her head and looked. The long wound had changed drastically in appearance since that first day. It still looked red and ugly but it had definitely healed to the point where it now seemed to be just a superficial incision. The wounds on her ankle and upper arm had similarly healed. “Thank you,” she said.
“My pleasure.” He said it in a teasing tone of voice. Then Jan became aware that he had left his hand resting on her left thigh. She suddenly felt naked and exposed under his gaze. She pushed his hand away and hurriedly pulled the thin blanket up to her chin.
He regarded her discomfiture with amusement. “Now that you’ve changed your mind about blowing up the Lord Pangloth, and me along with it, I see no reason why you shouldn’t fulfil your side of our little agreement. Can you?”
After a long pause she said, in a small voice, “No. …”
“Good. When you’re completely well I shall expect your full co-operation.” He got up from the bed. “Now try and get some more sleep. I’m going to the village to buy food. I won’t be long.”