by Victor Poole
Ajalia had not cried then, and her tears dried up thoroughly now. I hate my father, Ajalia told herself dully, and then she made a ball of her own red light gather up into the tips of her fingers. She pressed this light against the skin where her father's lips had touched her, and she sighed at the burning that the red light made. I will burn all of the skin away, Ajalia told herself, and I will sit here in this room until Delmar comes to find me. She had meant to wipe the mud and tracked-up straw away from the ground before she laid down on it, but now she found that she really didn't care. She flopped back onto the floor, and stared with dry eyes up at the two windows.
I could go and find my black horse, Ajalia told herself, and the tears started up into her eyes again. She curled up into a ball, and she cried.
The light had begun to fade outside the windows when Ajalia heard the door open. She heard Delmar speaking to Savage in a low voice; Savage replied, and then Delmar came in, and closed the door behind him.
"Hello," Delmar said, coming and sitting down next to Ajalia. Ajalia moved her head into his lap, and he began to stroke her hair. They sat for a long time without saying anything.
"I don't want a priest to marry us," Ajalia said finally. Delmar nodded. She sniffed. "I guess we could get married when we go East," she said. Delmar lifted her hand, and kissed her fingers. "I thought we might be married by now," she added with a sigh. Delmar gathered her up into his arms, and snuggled her face against his neck.
"Savage has appointed himself as your personal bodyguard," Delmar said, stroking Ajalia's hair. She made a muffled noise against his beard. "If you were saying something, I did not understand it," Delmar said. "I think Savage is quite thoughtful," he added, and kissed Ajalia's temple.
"Do that again," Ajalia said, and she began to cry. Delmar made soothing noises, and rocked her back and forth. When Ajalia stopped crying, she sat up, and looked at Delmar. "I can't see you very well," she said. She dug in her bag, and lit up the clear rock she had put there.
"I like that rock," Delmar said, watching it give off brilliant white light. Ajalia tossed the rock onto the wooden table, and then sat down across from Delmar.
"Now," she said. "What are we going to do first?"
"Well," Delmar said, "I was going to kiss you a lot."
"Yes, but after that," Ajalia said. "Are we going to stay in Talbos tonight? How did things go? Have you got your aunt and uncles settled? And why is Corintha such a horrifying name?" Delmar smiled impishly.
"You look like you feel better," he said. Ajalia took a deep breath, and met his eyes. Delmar laughed. "Corintha is the name of an old witch. She is supposed to have been the witch who convinced the people to turn against the first sky angel."
Ajalia tried to remember what she had heard, or seen, about how the sky angel fell. She knew there was something about the sky angel being torn down from the sky by the people in Slavithe. Her brain felt fuzzy. She could not put the pieces together, of who had told her what, and of what she had pictured in her mind. Ajalia shook her head.
"I can't remember," Ajalia said. "Did someone make the angel die? I remember a picture of her flying, with wings," Ajalia said, "and I think I saw her fall, but I might have been imagining it, to get a clearer idea of how it happened." She looked at Delmar, who was watching her soberly.
"It is said that the sky angel must have the faith of the people with her," Delmar said. "People say that the sky angel fell because no one believed in her anymore."
"Because of something Corintha said?" Ajalia asked. Delmar shrugged.
"Something like that," he said.
"And what about your relatives?" Ajalia asked with a sigh. She put her hands through her hair, and rested her chin on her knees. "Are your uncles seeking revenge?"
"Coren thinks that Elan is all right," Delmar said. "Both Elan and Fallor have crossed through the purging wall. I've put up a shell of the blue magic over the whole palace, and beneath it," Delmar said. "No one can get in without passing through the light."
"That was clever," Ajalia said. Delmar watched her, as though expecting her to make fun of him. "It was," she said, and Delmar smiled.
"Coren is my several-times-removed cousin," Delmar said. "Coren is a family name."
"And does Coren think he has privileges because he is related?" Ajalia asked warily. Delmar laughed.
"He thinks he does," Delmar said, "but I am watching him."
"He tried to pledge fealty to me," Ajalia said. "I told him to stop that, and he said he would."
"Coren is not as useful as he thinks he should be," Delmar said. "I have not let him be in charge of anything, and I think he is sore over that."
"So what are we going to do?" Ajalia asked. She looked around at the narrow oval room, and thought about the dragon temple.
"Well," Delmar said. He sounded hesitant. "I don't want to stay in this palace."
"I'm glad you said that," Ajalia told him. "I hate it here."
"The whole place is kind of nasty," Delmar admitted, and Ajalia thought that he was thinking of the piles of dragon skin that had been below the palace.
"Does it rain in Slavithe?" Ajalia asked suddenly. She was noticing that she had dried out from the drizzling that her clothes had received earlier in the day, and she thought again of the cushions and rugs that lay atop the dragon temple.
"No," Delmar said. "It never rains in Slavithe." Ajalia stared at him.
"Why not?" she demanded.
AJALIA COLLECTS A NEW BOY
"The city is supposed to be made of the vapor of clouds," Delmar said. "There is nowhere for any rain to gather in the sky, because the moisture soaks right into the stones and plants."
"Do you actually believe that there is a kingdom in the sky?" Ajalia asked Delmar. He hesitated, and then laughed.
"You know," he told her, "we fought off the dead skins of evil dragons today, and we are planning on making horses that can fly."
"Are you saying that there is a kingdom in the sky?" Ajalia pressed. Delmar's lips twisted, and Ajalia thought that he was afraid she would make fun of him.
"Will you laugh, if I say yes?" Delmar asked. Ajalia studied his face.
"Have you been there?" she asked. Delmar shook his head.
"No," he said. "No one can get there without flying."
"But the first falcon flew into the kingdom in the sky," Ajalia said.
"That is what all the stories say," Delmar agreed.
"And that knife is magical," Ajalia said, pointing at the dagger Delmar wore at his side. "According to the stories," she added.
"Well, yes," Delmar said.
"Can we make Talbos into a nicer place, then?" Ajalia asked. Delmar's face broke into a smile.
"How do you mean?" he asked. Ajalia grinned back.
"I don't know, Thief Lord," she said. "Haven't you got any ideas?" Delmar's grin widened.
"Well," he admitted, "yes, I do." Ajalia stood up, and extended a hand to Delmar.
"Come on," she said. "I still haven't seen the house that Philas has taken." Delmar's eyes reflexively darkened at the mention of Philas. "I do not want to stay in this palace," Ajalia told Delmar, and he nodded, and sighed.
"I don't like Philas," Delmar said.
"Well, the sooner we get him to Saroyan," Ajalia said, "the sooner we can forget about him." Delmar studied Ajalia's face.
"I still feel like," Delmar said slowly, "Philas knows more about you than I do." Ajalia looked into Delmar's eyes, and then sat down on the floor again.
"Is Savage out there still?" she asked. The door opened a crack, and Savage's face appeared.
"I am way down the hall," Savage said, with a smooth face. "I shall not hear a word." He withdrew, and closed the door softly behind him. Ajalia laughed, but Delmar looked chagrined.
"That is what a bodyguard does, you know," Ajalia told Delmar. "He hears everything. It comes in useful, sometimes."
"Do you hear everything that your master does, when you are in the East?" Delmar asked.
<
br /> "I am always with my master, when I am at home," Ajalia said. "I am his double. Unless I am travelling, or carrying out his errands, I never leave his side."
"I suppose your master knows you better than I do," Delmar said.
"I doubt it," Ajalia said. She moved forward until she was sitting in Delmar's lap. He made a dissatisfied noise, and put his face into her neck. "Kiss here," she directed, pointing at the place she had touched with the burning red light.
"Why?" Delmar asked, looking up into her eyes.
"My father touched me there once, with his mouth," Ajalia said. "It bothers me. You can fix it." Delmar looked at her with burning eyes, and then Ajalia saw a burning rim of gold appear at the tip of Delmar's tongue. "I told you to stop doing that!" Ajalia exclaimed, but she was pleased.
"I am taking care of you," Delmar said firmly. He put one hand around her back and with the other he clasped the back of her neck.
"I don't want you to take light out of yourself," Ajalia protested.
"Mm," Delmar said, and he pushed his tongue against the place. A shiver like fire went all through Ajalia's body, and she wrapped her arms around Delmar's head. When he had licked the place thoroughly, he drew her face down towards him, and put his tongue into her mouth. Ajalia uttered a mild protest, but by then Delmar had closed his arms so thoroughly around her that she gave up, and wound her fingers into his hair.
"Now," Delmar said firmly, when he had kissed Ajalia into a warm puddle of sentimental goo, "I am sure that Philas never made you feel anything like that. Now we can go and see the house that Philas has taken."
Ajalia sighed, and pressed her lips against Delmar's jaw.
"Or we could stay here," she suggested. Delmar laughed, and lifted Ajalia out of his lap.
"Now I know we can go," Delmar told her. "Once you start saying we can stay in the palace of death, just so that you can be next to me, I am sure that you are quite loyal."
"Did you think I would ever go back to Philas?" Ajalia demanded, feeling betrayed.
"No," Delmar said. "But he looks at me askance sometimes. I don't like it. Now he can look askance all he likes. He's never kissed you that thoroughly."
"Well, he didn't," Ajalia said, blushing, "but how do you know that?"
"Because your eyes melt, when you look at me right now," Delmar said, "and you have never even begun to thaw around Philas." Ajalia laughed at the idea of her eyes being a relationship barometer, but Delmar held out a hand, and helped her to her feet with a somber face. "I predict," Delmar said, "that Philas will pick a fight with me, as soon as he has kissed Fashel."
"And why do you predict that?" Ajalia asked. Delmar pulled her close again, and kissed her deeply.
"Because I threaten Philas," Delmar said, "and he wants to prove himself against me. He tried to get you to fight with me, but that didn't work. He'll start a fight with me, just to feel better about himself."
"But why would kissing Fashel make Philas feel better about himself?" Ajalia asked. Delmar kissed her one more time, and then went and opened the door.
"Savage," Delmar called. The large priest appeared below on the stairs. "We're going out," Delmar told the man, and Savage came and stood near the door. "Because Fashel is a good woman, like you are," Delmar said to Ajalia, as if there had been no interruption. Ajalia saw that Delmar was getting the knack of speaking freely before servants. This pleased her. She saw Savage watching her, and she grinned at him. Savage, who, it seemed, had been nervous of being sent away by Ajalia, smiled shyly back.
"I'm not a priest anymore," Savage whispered to Ajalia. Savage glanced at Delmar. "Sorry to interrupt," Savage said, "but I wanted her to know."
"Have you dedicated your life to the Thief Lord?" Ajalia asked.
"No," Savage said. "I am following you." Ajalia glanced at Delmar, to see how he would take this. Delmar looked rather pleased.
"I like him," Delmar told Ajalia. Ajalia grinned at Savage.
"I think that's lovely," she told the former priest, and Savage resumed his post by the door, his expression like that of a bored man. Delmar was watching Savage.
"You look just like that," Delmar said, nodding at Savage's face, "when you're working over someone. Why is that?" he asked, turning to Ajalia. Ajalia glanced at Savage, whose face did not indicate that he had heard, and then she began to go down the stairs.
"People who want things get emotional," Ajalia said. "If you betray emotion, the opposing party will know what you want, and if they know what you want, they can make you pay for it."
"So you hide what you feel, in order to get what you really want?" Delmar asked.
"You already do this," Ajalia told him, "only you smile a lot, and no one can tell when you're really serious." Delmar blushed, but looked pleased.
"Is that the right way?" Delmar asked.
"There is no right way," Savage murmured.
"Savage is right," Ajalia told Delmar. "The only thing that matters is winning."
"But what if you aren't trying to win anything?" Delmar asked, frowning. Ajalia looked back on the stairs, and met Savage's eyes.
"Then you lose," Ajalia said, and she went into the hall at the bottom of the stairs, and looked about in the darkness. "Show me how to get back to the place where I left my horse," she said to no one in particular, and Delmar led the way down the passage and into a room that lay towards the center of the palace. "Now tell me why Philas kissing Fashel makes Philas feel good about himself," Ajalia said, as she followed Delmar. Savage melted along behind Ajalia, being as noiseless as a shadow. Ajalia found, to her surprise, that she rather liked having a personal bodyguard. She wondered what magical skills Savage possessed, and if he would be amenable to learning to fly.
"Well, Fashel is good, like you are," Delmar explained. "You can't just go around kissing good women. They won't let you, until they love you." Ajalia smiled, but she knew that Delmar could not see her face.
"Did you know I was a good woman, when you first met me?" Ajalia asked.
"I thought you were," Delmar said. "Then I waited for a while, until I knew for sure."
"And how did you finally know?" Ajalia asked. She felt rather amused as she thought of the way Delmar had been, when they had first met. She would never have thought that Delmar had been apprising her moral character. He had seemed almost vacant then, and had not worked up to kissing her until he had gotten her alone on the road to Talbos, the first time they had come to Talbos.
"I just knew," Delmar said. "You're honest, and you're kind to everyone." Ajalia wanted to look back at Savage, to see what he thought of what Delmar was saying, but then she told herself to calm down. Savage probably does not care what Delmar thinks of me, she told herself. She was wrong, but Ajalia had never been particularly adept at judging the reactions of men to her femaleness.
"You used to tell me all the time that I was mean to you," Ajalia reminded Delmar.
"Well," Delmar said easily. "I wanted you to think I was the best, and you didn't." Ajalia did not know what to say to this, so she said nothing. They came through another room in the darkened palace, and Delmar hesitated. Savage stepped forward, and led the way through a labyrinth of halls and rooms.
"Are you mad at me?" Ajalia whispered to Delmar, when Savage was ahead of them. Delmar looked down at Ajalia. She could not see his face in the darkness, but she could hear the quizzical expression he was making when he spoke.
"No," he said. "Why would I be mad at you?" Ajalia shrugged. They came finally into a larger room where lamps had been lit along the walls, and Ajalia studied Delmar's expression. She wanted to curse, when she saw his eyes. "What?" Delmar asked with a laugh, when he saw the furious expression on her face.
"You really love me," Ajalia said.
"Yes, I do," Delmar said. "Why should that make you angry? I know where we are now," Delmar told Savage, and Savage melted back into the background. Delmar took Ajalia's hand, and led her through the lighted room, and into a long hall that was lined on both sides w
ith windows to the night air outside.
"I thought you would be selfish," Ajalia said. "I want you to like me only for how useful I am."
"Why?" Delmar asked. Ajalia had gotten a lump in her throat, and she no longer wanted to talk out loud. Delmar looked at her in the bare moonlight that was stretching into the sides of the hall, and reflecting in Ajalia's eyes, and he put his arm around her waist, and hugged her to him. "You'll get used to being loved," Delmar said. "Probably no one has ever loved you before, and it's confusing."
"I don't know," Ajalia said, sniffing back a trickle of tears that was threatening to tumble out of her eyes. "I just feel badly."
"But you love me, too," Delmar told her. She sighed, and looked ahead at the end of the hall. "Well, you do," Delmar told her.
"Yes, but I don't want you to love me more than I love you," Ajalia told him. Delmar paused with his hand on the door, and looked at her.
"But why?" he asked. Savage cleared his throat in the background. Delmar turned to Savage. "Are you about to dispense some wisdom to me?" Delmar asked. His voice trembled between annoyance and amusement.
"If I may," Savage murmured quietly, "I believe I could explain."
"You're going to explain Ajalia's feelings to me?" Delmar asked. He sounded skeptical.
"Yes," Savage said with dignity.
"Do you know why I like this guy so much?" Delmar asked Ajalia, turning suddenly to her.
"No, why?" she asked.
"Savage is the first man we've met who has not immediately started to make eyes at you," Delmar said.
"Rane didn't start for several hours," Ajalia reminded him.