I know I dropped off for a short time; I awoke to the delightful aroma of flower petals and felt the touch of hands on my body, spreading something warm and thick over my back. It felt so good I almost fell asleep again, but when the hands reached my behind and thighs I got a shock that woke me all the way. The mind behind the hands hummed, and the hum belonged to Daldrin.
“Lie still, dendaya,” his voice came as I tried to turn over and sit up. “I am ordered to tend your body and shall do so. The lotion must be used before it cools.”
The back of his arm shoved me face down again even as his mind chuckled; he was nothing but an innocent servant-slave, following the orders of his masters. I gasped as his hands did more than massage me and tried to crawl out from under his too-close attention, but one of his arms circled my waist while the other continued the ministrations.
“Daldrin, release me!” I hissed, trying to keep my voice down while still putting a snap into it. “There are important matters to be discussed between us. There is no time for this foolishness!”
“How might this insignificant slave discuss matters of import with a dendaya?” he murmured, tightening his hold around my waist. “I must do as I was ordered to do, else I shall be beaten. I do not wish to be beaten, dendaya.”
“You misbegotten son of a lame seetar, release me!” I snarled, trying to squirm loose with the oily help of the lotion on me. “Have you no sense in that thick blond head? Have you no desire for escape? Why will you not list—oh!”
“There is need for the lotion even there,” he commented while I kicked and struggled and tried to make him stop. “Somehow I feel that that place will require a good deal of lotion. Why do you not force me to release you as you did earlier in the day?”
“I cannot,” I gasped, dizzy from what he was doing to me.
I needed tight control of my emotions for a projection, but his touch on me was producing the mental equivalent of an earthquake—and I was sure he knew it.
“Just as I thought,” he said with a good deal of satisfaction without stopping what he was doing. “Now, what is this about escape? I thought you understood my reasons for remaining here.”
“Your escape—will assist in your brother’s escape—as well,” I panted, barely aware of the fistfuls of carpet fur I held to. “Daldrin—I cannot think when being done so! You must release me!”
“I need do nothing of the kind,” he denied, his mind hard with decision. “Should you wish to speak to me, I will listen for a short while. After I have listened I will then decide what must be done. In any event, you are sure to figure prominently in whatever the results come to be.”
I didn’t like the ominous sound of that, but I had very little choice. I had to get it said while I could still talk.
“There are two men confined in this palace who are close to me,” I got out, the words spilling over one another in the rush. “Should you help them to escape they will surely take you with them to find the others who await them nearby—and who will return to attack the place where the vendraa are held. In such a way will you be able to free your brother. Now, release me.”
“There seems little reason for them to return, not to mention launching an attack against the vendra ralle,” he mused, ignoring my last words. “Perhaps there is some point you have neglected to mention—such as the presence of another of their number in the vendra ralle?”
“Yes, yes, of course!” I raged, struggling. “The third of them has been declared vendra, and they will not desert him. They cannot desert him. Daldrin, please! I cannot bear it!”
“I shall consider your proposal,” he said in a very neutral way, then finally stopped torturing me. “Lie still now, for there is lotion which still must be used upon you.”
I shuddered as he resumed spreading lotion, from relief as much as from dread. What would I do if he refused to help? What could I do? And more to the immediate point, what was he going to do to me? What I’d done to him earlier in the day hadn’t been pleasant; would he see that rd only been defending myself, or was he out for revenge? His mind was calm and his emotions were completely under control, and I couldn’t see a damned thing one way or the other to help me out.
When the lotion had been spread down to my ankles, I was ordered to turn to my back. I obeyed with reluctance, then watched his big, hulking form as he began spreading lotion up the front of my legs. I finally noticed that he was working automatically, his eyes seeing and his hands doing without the supervision of his mind. His intellect worked at another job, turning here, twisting there, poking and prodding. It almost seemed as though he’d already made his decision, but his mind still hadn’t stopped working. When he reached my ribs his hands finally stopped spreading lotion, and his eyes came to my face.
“The two you speak of,” he said, holding my gaze. “I believe I know which ones they are. They were brought to the servants quarters not long after your arrival, badly beaten by the whips of the guard. They have been toiling in the kitchens ever since, for there are no other female guests to tend at the moment.”
“Will you help them to escape and go with them?” I asked, needing to know which way he had decided.
“This third one, the one who has been made vendra,” he said, ignoring my question, “is undoubtedly the l’lenda who took you from your own land, the one who could not follow you even had he wanted to—which he did not. It is obvious you wish to free him so that he might rescue you.”
I suddenly found it very difficult meeting that steady blue gaze. I turned my bead to the side to stare at a nearby pile of orange and yellow cushions, but Daldrin’s hand came to my face and turned it back to him.
“You would not be so foolish as to run from him once his freedom was assured,” he stated in a fiat voice, staring at me narrowly. “Not even a wenda such as you could be so foolish as to refuse rescue.”
“I will rescue myself once his l’lenda have attacked,” I said, trying to ignore the flush I could feel on my cheeks. “The diversion will be enough to take all eyes from me, so that I may go my own way. There is little hope for me if I remain to be—rescued.”
“You have done something to anger him,” he said in exasperation, for some reason annoyed. “What have you done, wenda, and how badly will you be punished for it?”
“I will not be punished at all for I will no longer be here,” I told him, pushing at his hand to make him let my face go. “As for what was done, that does not concern you. Will you assist me, or do you prefer rotting here the while I assist myself? I will make the attempt with or without you, no matter the consequences.”
“I do believe you would,” he said, shaking his head as he continued to stare at me. “Never before have I seen so stubborn a wenda—and one so badly in need of a strong hand to guide her. I will assist you in freeing your l’lenda, for I, too, wish to see him free and myself as well. Let us finish with this lotion so that the task may be done.”
“I wish no further lotion,” I said, taking the opportunity to roll away and sit up when he turned to reach for the lotion jug. “And I would know why you wish to see Tammad free. That you wish freedom for yourself is easily understood, yet not so the other. Why should his freedom be of interest to you?”
“My reasons are not your concern,” he answered, his mind as calm as his gaze. “Return yourself to me so that this lotion may be applied.”
“I know not why that misbegotten lotion concerns you so!” I snapped, bothered by his answer—or lack of one. “Give it here and I will apply it myself.”