“You're so trusting. That's part of what I love about you.” She kissed him, and then checked herself in the mirror. It was not true that vampires did not reflect; she was stunningly lovely in the form-fitting dress. Her hair coursed like a pale river to her knees.
“Oh, Virtue!” Benny breathed. “You are so much more than your body, but your body is matchless.”
“You haven't seen the Amazon in a formal yet.”
He laughed, embarrassed. How could any dress improve on Helena naked?
“Exactly.”
That didn't help.
Dinner was a banquet with so many exotic entries that Benny could not identify or even count them. Benny reached to fill his glass, but Virtue stayed his hand. That was all the warning he needed; he found another pitcher.
Helena was seated across the table from them, wearing a kind of skullcap. She caught Virtue's eye. “We must talk,” she said tersely. “After dinner, privately.” Virtue nodded.
In due course dessert was served, in the form of a cake in the shape of a peacock with his tail spread wide. The servers cut pieces from it for each guest.
Then music started. Benny couldn't see any orchestra; it seemed to come from the walls.
Dale stood up from his place at the head table, and the servers quickly slid it away and out of the room. He crossed to their table and stood by Helena. “Will you do me the honor of the first dance?”
The Amazon stood. Now Benny saw her outfit, which had been concealed by the table and a napkin. It was startlingly apt, metallic blue that covered her breasts but displayed her figure to perfection. She drew off the skullcap and let her hair tumble down around her shoulders in soft waves, like a field of wheat in a breeze. The dreadlocks were completely gone. She was so beautiful that Benny froze in place, staring, until Virtue unobtrusively nudged him.
“I will,” Helena agreed, and took his hand.
Benny and Virtue stood, and the table slid away. Now the center of the room was clear.
Dale and Helena danced, and Benny was amazed again. They were exquisite, a perfect couple, their steps exactly matching both the music and each other. He knew they could fight, but this was a completely different venue.
Virtue took his hand. “I will guide you,” she murmured, and he felt her presence in his mind. Then they danced with similar finesse, and Virtue was as spellbinding as Helena, albeit in a gentler mode.
Then, an instant or an hour later, they were back in their room. There was a knock on the door. They expected Helena, but it was Dale. “May we talk?”
“Sure,” Benny said, surprised as they took seats. “I thought you'd be with the Amazon.”
“She elected to retire, suddenly. I fear I may have angered her, which was the last thing I wanted to do.” He looked at Virtue. “I thought you might have an insight.”
Virtue shook her head. “I can't read minds well in public. There are too many, and their traces tend to overlap, so it’s like a mass of interlocking spaghetti. I am not good with Amazons anyway; they tend to be hostile to vampires in more than one manner. But I will say that you looked like the perfect couple.”
“I thought we were. I wasn't going to try to despoil her for the tournament; I just wanted to talk with her, to get to know her better. I've never encountered an Amazon socially before.” He took a deep breath. “I think I love her.”
Just like that? Yet Benny had fallen for Virtue as rapidly. “But what of Nadia?” he asked.
“There is another part of the framework. I lied about our situation; we are separated. Her current interest is in a younger, more handsome man. I was too embarrassed to admit it publicly.”
“That must be why she's away from the inn,” Virtue said. “She knew I'd read her mind if she got close to me.”
“Yes, I think so,” Dale agreed. “So now I am free to seek another woman. I thought a princess would be fine, if I won her. But now, suddenly, today, all I can think of is Helena. And she seems not to want to talk with me. I don't know what to make of it.” He sighed. “I thought maybe you, Virtue, being another woman, could tell me.”
Virtue shook her head. “I think for that you need another Amazon. I am not party to their thought processes.”
“Still, you may help. Since you bit me and suppressed my evil side—and I don't fault you for that, I bless you—I seem to have lost a lot of memory from the events of my life after I killed the orphans at Alsbury. It might be some divine act of mercy, since the new-found guilt of my actions might lead me to suicide. You—the two of you—knew me then, so you might have some insight. Could there be something from there that Helena knows about and remembered? I know I did a monstrous amount of evil.”
Virtue was uncertain. “I am sure there are folk who will never forgive you. But I did not hear of you interacting much with Amazons, and in any event they are a hard-nosed lot, cynical to the point of cruelty. Helena would have understood your evil side better than most, and not entirely disagreed with it. In any event, if she carried a grudge from there, she would have let you know upfront, and challenged you to a duel of honor. She did not.”
“Instead she danced with me,” Dale said wonderingly. Then he got an alarming notion. “Could she have been vamping me—no offense—to garner my interest, before coldly shutting me down?”
Virtue shook her head again. “As I said, I really don't understand Amazons. But all that I do know of them is that they are not much for social subtlety. If she wanted to hurt you, she would do it with her sword, not her beauty.” Her mouth quirked. “She would use her body to distract you to make you vulnerable to her sword, not to win your heart.”
“Yet it is her beauty that is doing it,” Dale said. “When I first saw her, I wanted to get her for a night in bed, and move on in the morning. But now I'd rather marry her.”
Virtue spread her hands, as perplexed as he.
Benny brought out the twin-barreled pipe that Cycleze had given him. “I wonder if this would help? It offers peace and insight when correctly smoked.”
“I remember that pipe,” Dale said. “It is very special. It provides mental purity. Cycleze used charms like that a lot. He was one of the most powerful beings I ever knew.”
Benny laughed. “You defeated Cycleze in combat when the two of you fell out. In fact you killed him.”
“Maybe. My memory is foggy there, too. But if I had not made it to the Monastery of the Protector, I would have died from my injuries from that fight. He transformed into a chimera and nearly ripped me in half...you saw the scars from his teeth. The only way I defeated him was by going berserk. Even then I barely survived.” He stood. “I think I have intruded more than enough. I apologize again for what I did to your mouth.” He departed before Benny could try to reassure him on that score.
“So we don't know what's with the Amazon,” Virtue said. “I thought she would come to see me.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” Benny said. He looked at her. “Virtue, you are so beautiful tonight. Would--”
She cut him off with a kiss and led him to the bed. She was well familiar with his passion, and always obliged it.
In the morning they woke to a knock on the door. It was a servant delivering breakfast on a cart. “Room service,” the maid explained.
Benny and Virtue exchanged a look. They had never heard of this. But of course they were unaccustomed to upper class life.
“When you are through,” the maid said, “just push the cart out into the hall. It will find its way back to the kitchen.”
“Uh, thank you,” Benny said faintly.
Soon they met Dale in the great room. “The Imperial City is on the top of a mountain,” Dale said. “The only way to actually get there is by air ship. There's a ferry from the local village.”
“Then we'd better catch it,” Benny said.
“No need. The estate includes such a ship. Purp will sail it.”
Virtue glanced around. “Where is Helena?”
“It seems she departed before dawn, on
her own.” Dale grimaced. “I must really have teed her off.”
And the Amazon had not even stayed to talk with Virtue, after arranging it. That was curious indeed.
“Maybe she intends to return,” Benny suggested. “After fetching something she urgently needed.”
“No,” Dale said firmly.
“Why not?”
“Because she left the gold coin in her room, on the carefully made bed,” Dale said grimly. “She paid for her keep in money. She's gone.”
“Oh, that's too bad,” Virtue said, wincing.
“Bad?” Benny asked. “What's wrong with it?”
“It's a deadly insult,” Virtue said. “It means she bought his hospitality rather than accept it as a friend. It means she's not his friend.”
“And I am insulted,” Dale said. “I love her, but I hate her.”
“Why the conflict?” Benny asked, still not quite getting it. “Why not just dismiss her as a prospect that didn't work out, and go after the Emperor's daughter?”
“That is not easy,” Virtue said. “Helena is good looking, she's a warrior, and she honors the warrior code. She is very much his type of woman. When she accepted his hospitality, and even danced with him, she signaled her amenability to courtship, knowing his interest. Then, once she had the hook in, she dashed it, knowing he could not simply dismiss her. That's deadly. It bespeaks malice aforethought.”
Benny remained confused. He had not gotten any impression of malice from the Amazon; she had seemed like a fair-minded person. “But—but couldn't something have come up unexpectedly, so she had to depart immediately? So she left the coin to show she didn't mean to cheat him, and left?”
“No,” Virtue said. “She could have explained to Dale or a servant on the way out. Instead she lacked the courtesy even to tell him why. She threw his generosity in his face. That compounds the insult.”
And Dale did not question her analysis. This was bad indeed.
“We must get moving,” Dale said.
And what would happen when Dale encountered Helena in the tournament?
Chapter 10
The air ship was a huge cylindrical balloon with a tiny gondola below. But when they boarded the gondola it turned out to be a full house in itself, complete with family room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms. Purp, piloting it, was not to be seen; it seemed the cockpit was separate.
Benny and Virtue gazed out the round windows, thrilled to see the landscape below. The field of vision expanded as the craft floated upward, showing fields, forest, ponds, and the local village.
Then they approached a single high mountain with a flattened top, as if a giant had cut it off with a monstrous knife; a mesa. The mountain slopes were steep cliffs bare of vegetation; indeed, there was no access here, unless there was a spiraling tunnel within the mountain itself.
On that top was a walled city. “Why do they need a wall?” Virtue asked. “Nobody is going to raid from outside unless they come by air, and then they would float over the wall.”
“To stop folk from accidentally stepping off the edge during a thick fog,” Dale explained.
“Where do they get their water?” Benny asked.
“They have a deep central well. Very deep. Mostly they harvest water from the frequent fogs. They have some very nice gardens, completely without weeds or invasive species.”
The air ship glided down outside the wall, in fact just off the edge of the plain. There was a huge gate set below the top surface. The ship hovered while signals passed between it and the proprietors of the gate. Then the gate slid open and the ship entered what turned out to be the largest tunnel Benny had ever seen or imagined. Odd unflickering torches lined its circular wall, showing the route.
The gate slid closed behind them. There would be no invasion by this access either. This mountain was secure.
They docked and were tied in place. Guards intercepted them as they emerged from the gondola, demanding information. Purp started to speak, but they rudely brushed him aside.
“Stay with the ship,” Dale told him. “They won't bother you there. I will get you a pass, in due course.”
Purp nodded and returned to the ship. Benny couldn't blame him for being annoyed.
Dale showed his identification and vouched for Benny and Virtue. Then each had to dip his or her left hand into a pot of blue dye. It didn't hurt, but it marked them quite plainly as visitors, not residents. “It'll wear off in a week or so,” Dale said. “But by then we should be done here.”
They climbed a narrow stairway to the surface. Immediately it was clear that the Imperial City was huge and lovely, a virtual garden paradise. They saw citizens going about their routine business, garbed beautifully, male and female. They cast dark glares at the visitors.
“They don't even know us,” Benny said, nettled.
“They hate all blue hands,” Dale said. “Ignore them.”
“Smells like bigotry to me.”
“They have their reasons.”
The coliseum where the tournament would be was a huge round edifice with its own guarded entrance. Dale identified himself again, and they were admitted. They were required to park their weapons and take special magical non-lethal weapons akin to wooden swords but more sophisticated, as these would signal the referees whether any given strike was to be considered incidental or lethal.
Now they were divided into groups for combat. Virtue, as a noncombatant, was given a seat in the amphitheater; Benny and Dale were given opponents.
Benny pondered again just why he was here. He had no need to compete, and was by no means a top warrior. Yet somehow he had gone along. Now, suddenly, he knew why: if he won the keg of gold and jewels, he could use the money to purchase the best possible treatment for Virtue's ailment. That was more than reason enough.
His first opponent was a frost giant: a big blue-skinned man with an ax. His blue left hand hardly showed against his skin. He looked dangerous, but Benny reminded himself that this was a non-lethal tournament whose weapons were magically enchanted to deliver signals, not wounds. There was no actual danger here, other than the humiliation of getting trounced. Which was probably Benny's early destiny. But Virtue was watching, and other members of a vast audience, and he had to make a bold show of it.
Actually an ax was not considered to be comparable to a sword. All the target had to do was avoid the swing, and counter with an inside stroke to finish it. Even Benny could do that much.
The referee stood impassively. He would not intervene unless there was a breach in protocol. Each ring had its own referee.
The combatants strode toward each other. Benny raised his sword to a guard position, ready to try for a good technique. But the frost giant lacked any subtlety at all. He simply charged in, swinging his ax with horrible velocity right at Benny's head. He had no time to parry or duck; the blade swept in to chop his head in half.
Then the giant was stumbling, unbalanced. Benny whirled and swung his sword, aiming for the neck, in an automatic reflex. He got it.
A klaxon sounded. Benny had scored! In fact he had figuratively beheaded the frost giant, abruptly winning the match.
Belatedly he realized that his talent had manifested. The threat had not been real, but it seemed that his magic was not sophisticated enough to distinguish reality from appearance. When the ax seemed about to chop half his head off, he had ghosted momentarily. It had passed through him, and the giant had lost his balance, expecting solid contact. That had made him vulnerable, and Benny had taken advantage of it without thinking. So he was a first round winner, to his surprise. He glanced at the referee, but there was no reaction; it seemed magic was permitted as long as it was not lethal.
Virtue caught his eye and nodded. He truly had won.
Meanwhile he saw that Dale had fought in another ring, against an elf. Elves were small and slender, but they knew how to fight, and Dale had had to be careful because any small error could lead to his undoing. His care paid off, and he defeated the elf, w
inning the round.
Helena was in a third ring, naked except for her tattoos, handily dispatching an ogre. There were two other rings, with other competitors.
Then the second round came. Benny faced a swamp troll, a vaguely manlike figure covered in fungus. Its left hand was blue and it wielded a clumsy-looking club. But Benny knew that was deceptive; the clubs of swamp trolls were not used for concussive force so much as for messing up the weapons and perceptions of opponents. He would try to avoid contact with it.
But the troll gave him no choice. It came at him swinging that club. Benny backed away, parrying with his sword, and muddy chips flaked from the club. They dropped to the floor, where they bounced like little balls. One struck the cuff of the referee's trouser-leg, and the material burst into flame. Just so.
The troll swung again, and Benny blocked it again. But this time the blade of his sword sank into the club and stuck there. He yanked, but it did not come free. It was trying to disarm him!
The troll hauled his club back, and Benny was drawn with it, unable to let go lest he lose his weapon. He was being lifted into the air! So he jumped higher, and clubbed the troll in the face with both feet. The troll went down, and Benny landed beyond, sword still stuck.
He spun around, put a foot on the troll's arm, and yanked on his sword with both hands. The club did not let go, but the troll did; now the club was held by the sword. The troll scrambled up again and charged. Benny heaved the sword around, and the stuck club bashed the troll. It fell, unconscious, knocked out, ironically, by its own weapon.
The klaxon sounded. Benny had won, again. He knew it was more by luck than skill, but often it was that way in battle. He stood on the club and hauled on his sword with both hands, finally freeing it.
Meanwhile Dale fought a dwarf. Again, size was no indication of skill; some dwarfs were deadly. This one had a stout club which he swung viciously at Dale's legs. Dale, used to larger foes, had difficulty orienting on the quickly moving low figure. He had to keep jumping to avoid the blows, as parrying them was awkward. Finally he did it the inelegant way: he bashed straight down with his club, striking at the dwarf's head. The dwarf dodged, but Dale swung again, and again, repeatedly, very fast, like hammering in a spike, and finally scored, winning the match. “Good game!” the dwarf said with no ill favor. He was of course unhurt.
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