Gryph nodded. “That’s what I thought, what I expected. Delek, it wasn’t like that between Sariana and myself. The lock burned like a white-hot torch. We didn’t get a sense of mild disorientation, we got a full load of each other’s sensations. I had been wounded that night and she felt the pain of the wound as if she had taken the blade herself. I could feel everything she experienced when I took her. Her shock, her pain, her anger. I was running a fever and she also felt that. And the crossover seemed to magnify and reflect back. My wound hurt more than it had before the link. My fever felt several degrees hotter.” He shook his head. “I can’t explain it. I just know it was much more intense than I had been led to believe. I actually wondered if I had been told a few minor lies all these years.”
“No, young Shields are not fed a pack of lies about linking or anything else. My first time with Penela wasn’t anything like what you’re describing. There was a lot of passion on both our parts and I was well aware of her excitement just as she was aware of mine, but that was about it. It sounds like you went through a very unusual linking, but I have no explanation for it.”
Gryph sat back in his chair. “I was afraid of that. Do you miss Penela, Delek?”
Delek raised his eyebrows. “Penela was sexy as hell when we were linked. That woman could drive me out of my mind with lust. The rest of the time she was a complete pain in the ass. You’re old enough to know that linking doesn’t always mean loving. It doesn’t even always imply a good friendship. You want the truth? The day I heard she had broken her fool neck on a wild dragonpony, I felt as if a part of me had been torn out. But there was also a sense of relief. I was free. Alana has more than filled up whatever emptiness my Shieldmate left behind in me.”
“I understand.” Gryph wondered if any woman, Shield-mate or lover, could fill up the empty place inside him that Sariana would create if she were to leave him now. It startled him to realize just how much a part of him she had become in such a short time.
A half hour later, their plans made, Gryph said good-bye to his friend and started back toward the windrigger.
He had passed the fairgrounds on his way to Delek’s house. Now he found himself stopping on a whim. He really shouldn’t waste any more time. There was much that had to be done by nightfall.
But it would only take a moment to choose a trinket for Sariana. She wasn’t going to appreciate having been cooped up on the ship all day. Maybe he could win a smile or two from her. He browsed the craft aisles, searching for something that would suit her, something refined and simple in design.
He had just paid for an elegant cloak pin and was wondering if Sariana would give him one of her dazzling smiles when he presented it to her when his whole body tensed.
Sariana was nearby and she was in danger.
The sensation was so overpowering that Gryph didn’t stop to question it. She was somewhere in the vicinity.
Prowling like a hunting cat through the crowds, Gryph homed in slowly on his goal.
He found himself standing in front of a large, eyedazzling structure that he recognized as a familiar fair attraction, a House of Reflections. It appeared to be closed, but a small boy was standing at the entrance, trying to get the attention of a nearby adult.
“She’s inside, I tell you. She didn’t come out with the others. There’s a lady still inside. You have to open the door,” the boy wailed.
The attendant brushed aside the boy’s clutching hand. “There’s no one in there. Now get out of here. The House of Reflections is closed for repairs for the next hour or so. Go on, kid, get out of here.”
Gryph stepped forward, his attention on the youngster. “Who’s inside, boy? What does she look like?”
“I tell you there’s no one in there.” The attendant was reddening with rage.
“You’re a Shield, aren’t you?” the youngster said suddenly. “You’re wearing a weapon kit. A real one.”
Gryph crouched in front of the youngster. “I’m a Shield,” he said softly. “Now tell me who’s inside.”
“Her name is Sariana. Are you going to get her out?”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Gryph rose and turned to confront the attendant only to find himself facing a fleeing back. He turned back to the boy. “It looks like we’ll have to get her out by ourselves.”
“You want me to help you rescue Sariana?” the youngster demanded, fascinated at the prospect.
“If you do, I will be in your debt,” Gryph said gravely. The boy’s eyes widened. “In my debt? A real Shield would be in my debt?”
“Yes,” said Gryph. “Who knows? Someday you may want me to return the favor you’re doing me today. By my lock, I swear I will repay you.” Gryph touched the prisma lock of his weapon kit as he swore the formal oath.
“Wow.”
“What’s your name, son?”
“Keri.”
“I’ll bet you’ve been inside this House of Reflections before, haven’t you?”
“Yes, sir, lots of times, but this time it was different just inside the entrance. I got separated from Sariana and then the man who runs the house said everyone had to get out. But Sariana didn’t come outside with the rest of us. She’s still in there, but no one believes me.”
“I believe you,” Gryph said as another jolt of Sariana’s fear went through him. Deliberately he shut it out so he could think more clearly. “Let’s go find her.”
He opened the weapon kit and withdrew a small metal instrument. The door to the House of Reflections shattered into a thousand glittering pieces when he slammed the tool into the glassy surface.
Keri led the way inside, but Gryph discovered he didn’t need the boy’s guidance. Already his awareness of Sariana was focusing in a certain direction. He moved down a kaleidoscopic hallway and found himself in a room that reflected his own image endlessly. Keri was on his heels.
Screams echoed from another hall that emptied into the same room. An instant later three teenage boys tumbled into the room, clearly in a panic. Sariana was right behind them.
“Gryph!” she shouted.
And then she was running straight into his arms. As he reached out to catch her he decided this was not the moment to point out how easily she had picked out the real Gryph Chassyn from among a thousand reflected images.
“What’s going on here?” Gryph asked icily, his gaze on the cowering boys.
“These three young idiots were having a great time trying to terrorize me. To tell you the truth, they did a pretty good job.”
“Wait outside with Keri,” Gryph ordered. He put Sariana’s hand in that of the boy’s. “He knows the way out.”
“But what about you?” she breathed.
“I’ll be along shortly. First I’m going to have a talk with these three.”
‘‘Now, Gryph,” she began dubiously.
“Sariana, once in a while you will do me the favor of following my orders,” he stated flatly.
“I will?”
“Yes, you will. And this is one of those times. Go.” Sariana went.
Chapter
13
“WHAT did you do to those three boys?” Sariana demanded a short time later as Gryph steered her through the streets of Little Chance. He had emerged from the House of Reflections looking grim and thoughtful. That wasn’t a particularly strange expression for Gryph, but she hadn’t liked the grim expression in his eyes. He had said good-bye to Keri and thanked the boy in a surprisingly formal manner, and then he had taken Sariana’s arm in a firm grip.
“I asked them a few questions.”
“Gryph, that’s not what I mean. What did you do to them?” Sariana demanded anxiously.
“Not as much as I had planned.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? What had you intended to do?” Sariana had to take occasional skips in order to keep up with Gryph a
s he towed her back to the windrigger.
“After I got the answers to my questions I decided to give them a taste of fear. I thought they ought to know how it felt to be on the receiving end.” Gryph’s eyes gleamed through his lashes as he glanced down into Sariana’s face. “But I discovered that wasn’t necessary. You and the scarlet-toe had already done a good job of terrorizing all three of them. That was an oversized image of Lucky they saw in one of the reflecting chambers, wasn’t it?”
Sariana nodded, her spirits reviving rapidly. “I found the distortion chamber and hid Lucky under my cloak on the floor. When the boys stormed into the room I yanked the cover off and there Lucky was with a mouth big enough to swallow all three kids and enough teeth to do the job. The boys panicked.” Sariana grinned in self-satisfaction. “Clever of Lucky and me, if I do say so myself.”
“Not nearly as clever as staying on board the windrigger would have been. We’ll get to your reasons for disobeying orders later. I’m sure they’ll be intricate, detailed and fascinating. In the meantime, we’ve got things to do.”
“You didn’t tell me what questions you asked the boys or what answers you got,” Sariana pointed out.
“I asked them who had paid them to corner you in the House of Reflections.”
“Someone paid them to do that?” Sariana dug in her heels with sufficient force to slow Gryph momentarily. He paused long enough to yank her back into motion and then he nodded abruptly.
“That’s right. Did you think it was all a coincidence that you got stranded in the fun house with three teenage monsters?”
“Well, I did wonder where everyone else had gone. I even lost track of little Keri.”
“Someone bribed the attendant to close the place for a while, leaving you alone inside. Then that same someone sent those three kids in after you.”
Sariana stared at Gryph in bewilderment. “But why?”
“The kids said they were told it was all a joke. That some man paid them to frighten you into the southwest corner of the House of Reflections.”
“What was supposed to happen there?” Sariana groped for logic in an illogical situation.
“The boys said that the man who had paid them wanted to play hero. Something about wanting to impress you. He was supposed to appear at the last minute and grab you from their clutches.”
“It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yes it does,” Gryph countered roughly. “It makes a lot of sense if you figure that what was really going on was another kidnapping attempt.”
Sariana could have screamed with frustrated anger. She recalled the two men who had stalked her in Serendipity. “But why would anyone want me?”
Gryph shook his head at her obtuseness. “I’ve explained that. If someone gets hold of you, he’s got hold of me.”
“I don’t understand.”
Gryph halted without any warning and swung around to confront her. His face was a tightly controlled, unreadable mask. “You keep saying that but it’s not true. You’re smart and you’re clever and you’re educated. You do understand. At least you understand some of it. You just don’t want to admit how involved with me you really are. And you have a bad habit of ignoring facts that don’t happen to suit your version of events.”
It was too much. Sariana decided she had been through enough that day. Her eyes narrowed. “It’s not my fault if some stupid local has assumed we’re married and that you’ll do anything to keep your newfound breeding machine.”
“It may not be your fault, but it’s a fact,” Gryph retorted heartlessly. It was obvious he, too, felt he’d suffered enough lately. He was in no mood to pacify his outraged wife.
Sariana felt her spirits plummet once more. The fight went out of her as Gryph steered her up the gangplank of the windrigger. “You’re not even going to bother to deny it, are you?” she asked listlessly.
“Deny what?” Gryph was no longer paying close attention. He was scanning the deck for a member of the crew.
“That you think of me as nothing more than a breeding machine.”
“Sariana, I haven’t got time right now to soothe your feminine ego.” He gave her a small push toward the entrance to the lower deck. “Go pack your things and mine, too. We’re leaving the ship in a few minutes.”
She started to demand an explanation for this latest irrational decision but it was too late. Gryph was already striding toward the captain’s quarters. Sariana reached into her cloak pocket and touched the inquiring nose of the lizard.
“One of these days, Lucky, that man is going to find out that not everything functions according to his master plan. if I didn’t want that cutter back as badly as he does I swear I’d walk off this ship this instant and disappear.”
It was as she turned toward the cabin that it belatedly occurred to Sariana that disappearing might be exactly what she did if she got off the ship without Gryph’s protection. The memories of the genuine scare she had received in the House of Reflections were still very vivid in her mind.
Late that afternoon Sariana found herself on a small craft called a river sled. It was another clever western invention, she was forced to concede as she sat in the bow and stared at the wide, lazy river unwinding in front of her. It required only one person to run the simple but efficient mechanism that propelled the small boat through the water with a system of meticulously designed blades. It came as no great surprise that Gryph knew how to manage the sled. Apparently there wasn’t much he couldn’t handle. Sariana felt a certain amount of resentment about that.
They had left Little Chance a couple of hours earlier, following the wide, meandering river that rolled lazily down from the distant mountains through farmland, plains and canyons. The last farm had been passed some time ago and Sariana had seen no further sign of civilization.
The flatlands and gently rolling hill country were giving way to more rugged scenes, but the river was still tame and manageable. Gryph appeared to be quite competent with the little boat. Sariana glanced back over her shoulder and saw that he was caught up in his own thoughts. There was an expression of concentration on his face.
The late afternoon sun painted the rough landscape a spectacular shade of yellow and mauve. Sariana began to relax for the first time that day. Idly she speculated on what sorts of convoluted, irrational, and no doubt cryptic thoughts a Shield might entertain while in the frame of mind Gryph was obviously in at the moment. The passing scenery lulled her into a passive mood. Almost casually she let her mind drift, opening herself to any stray thought that happened to float into it.
She nearly fell off the narrow bench on which she was sitting when an image of herself as seen from the rear formed in her mind. She was completely nude. Her back was gracefully straight, her head was held at an imperious angle, her waist looked small and her derriere…Sariana nearly choked as she realized that from this angle her rear end appeared to be quite lush and sensuously curved. Never in her life had she seen herself in this way.
And then it occurred to her that she wouldn’t be viewing herself this way right now if it wasn’t for the fact that someone else was seeing her this way. She resisted the urge to turn around. It was impossible. She refused to admit that the alien image of herself was coming straight from Gryph’s head. Her imagination was running wild.
She blinked a few times to clear her befuddled brain and the disturbing image vanished. Experimentally she tried to recall it but it was gone for good. Sariana breathed a small sigh of relief and went back to studying the landscape.
The river was beginning to wind through small canyons now. Occasionally the water became rough for a short time, but under Gryph’s expert handling the river sled bounced merrily through the light rapids and back into gentler waters without a protest.
The canyons became more frequent, their walls higher and more forbidding. Heavy shadows began to cloak the river.
“We’ll stop here for the night,” Gryph finally announced as he slowed the river sled and angled it into a serene cove.
It was the first time he had spoken in hours other than to issue curt commands relating to the boat.
Sariana lifted her chin. “I think you should know I have never camped out in my life.”
“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. Don’t worry, I’m an expert.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” she countered. She glanced around curiously. “At least it’s warm and it’s not raining.”
“I’ll build a fire ashore and we’ll cook our evening meal there, but we’ll sleep on board the sled. There are hawk-beetles in these canyons.”
“What a pleasant thought.” Sariana got to her feet and stretched. The scarlet-toe, which had been dozing on her shoulder, awakened and yawned. “I think I would like a bath before dinner. Are these waters safe?”
Gryph was rummaging around in the travel packs. “Safe enough here in the shallows. You can have your bath. I could use one, too.”
“Good. I think I’ll just trot around that little bend up ahead and find a nice, private spot.” Sariana was feeling more cheerful as she contemplated her bath.
“You will stay right here in the cove,” Gryph ordered without even bothering to glance at her. He was busy opening the food lockers. “I’m not letting you out of my sight again today.”
“Now, Gryph,” Sariana said soothingly, “there’s no reason to overdo the protective bit. As long as I stay within shouting distance, what can go wrong?”
“You tell me. I’m afraid to guess. To be on the safe side you will stay within eyesight, not just shouting distance.” He took off his boots and stepped over the edge of the flat sled. The clear waters lapped lazily at his bare feet.
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