“Have you taken this matter to the garrison?”
She stared him right in the eye. It was a long, uncomfortable moment.
“We’re whores,” she said at last. “This is the Promise.” She didn’t have to say more than that.
Raggahs, he thought. Could they be back in the slave trade? He remembered Daphne’s experience at their hands, how those desert bandits had kidnapped and sold her into prostitution on Scavenger’s Isle. The Promise of Heaven would be easy pickings if those bastards had decided to resume business.
If it was the Raggahs, though, then he had a personal stake in this. Daphne was his pupil. An affront visited upon her was visited upon him as well.
“Have any . . .” he searched for a delicate word, then shrugged helplessly, “bodies turned up?”
“No,” she answered- “No traces at all. They simply vanished. Easy enough to do in Sanctuary, and if it was just one or two girls I wouldn’t question. But one a night for more than a week?” She gazed around as if she could see through the shrubs and bushes into every corner of the park. Then, she raised the hem of her dress to reveal a small dagger thrust through a garter on her right thigh. “My ladie? are scared. I’m scared.”
“I’ll see what I can leam,” he promised, unsure of what exactly to do. He pursed his lips, then drew a deep breath. “Anything else?”
She also took a breath and let it out slowly. “Just gossip. All those workers who’ve moved into Shambles’ Cross are causing quite a stir. Trouble-making bunch of misfits, all seeking a quick fortune. They like to rough a lady up a bit, you know9 They try it up here, and they’ll be sorrier than hell.” She patted her weapon through the thin dress.
“Doesn’t that scare away your customers?” he wondered, amused.
“Easy enough to hide it in this darkness,” she answered, grinning weakly. “But it’s always within reach.”
They stepped out of the foliage and onto the walkway. Once more, Dayme caught her hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed it. “I’ll try to help,” he promised again before he turned away. He glanced over his shoulder, but she didn’t follow. When he turned a second time she was gone. Asphodel knew the park far better than he did.
Sanctuary, he thought. The Promise of Heaven. So many funny names for a town with no sense of humor.
Sunlight shimmered around Daphne as she stepped from her silk palanquin at the Processional Gate. She had prepared for this meeting, dressing in her favorite gown of exquisite blue. It split enticingly to her right hip and draped low, just covering her breasts, leaving both arms bare. She had spent much of the morning piling her hair upon her head, pinning it in place with pins of gold and polished oyster shell. Small silver sandals adorned her feet. A perfume of rare citrus floated about her.
She was not so stunning as Chenaya, but she was beautiful. And before she granted him any divorce, Kadakithis would acknowledge that. So would Shupansea, the woman who wanted her place at his side.
She turned to Leyn and Ouijen who manned the front poles of her transport. “Thank you, brothers,” she said formally to the two gladiators. They had helped often with her training, and she bore them great respect. It delighted her heart that they had volunteered to bear her today. The two at the rear poles were new men. She didn’t know their names, but if Dayme had chosen them they also deserved her respect. She made a short bow. “Thank you for this honor you’ve done me.”
“We’ll wait here,” Leyn said. Then, he put on a grin. “Give ’em a taste of hell.”
He was a beautiful man, blessed by Savankala with the same golden hair as Chenaya, tall and strong with the classically sculpted body that only a gladiator’s training seemed to give. She looked into his richly blue eyes and smiled half-sadly. Why was it not Leyn she loved?
“I’ll try not to leave you long in this sun,” she answered. “And a taste of hell? I’ll serve them a gods-damned banquet.” She made an ugly face that instantly transformed to an expression of innocence. “Of course, I’m just a sweet, boring little princess of Ranke.” But as she said it, she drew a finger across her throat and turned thumbs down with the other hand.
They laughed together, startling passersby who moved along the Processional on their morning business. Then, Daphne passed alone through the gate, crossed Vashanka’s Square, and entered the Hall of Justice.
The hall was empty. Kadakithis had given up any real pretense of governing the city, himself- He rarely held court at all- She paused at the bottom step of a high dais. At its top rested the throne from which the prince once had delivered his judgments.
For a moment her resolve faltered. She sank down on one knee, staring upward, recalling how she had first arrived in this gods-cursed city with her husband. Kadakithis had been so full of ideals then-almost bloated with plans and schemes to improve this filthy city his halfbrother, the emperor Abakithis, had given into his care. She had loved him at that time, even forgiven him for the harem he had brought along from Ranke. And she, too, had shared his ideals and dreams. Most of all, she had rejoiced at the changes that command had seemed to make in him.
But none of it had lasted. The ideals were shattered and scattered into dust. Kadakithis had so easily relinquished his command, first to Shupansea and her Beysibs, and then to Molin Torchholder and his cronies. She grieved for the Kadakithis that had journeyed-an enthusiastic boy-man-to this city. She despised the Kadakithis he had become.
It was not his fault, of course. It was the city. Sanctuary corrupted from the inside out. First, it shattered your ideals, then it ground your face against the broken edges, held you down with its foot on your neck until you no longer felt the pain. Until you were just numb.
She was proof of that. A once-delicate princess who lived, ate, slept like a gladiator, who cursed like a street whore, who had killed and reveled in the flow of blood. Oh, Sanctuary had worked its brutal magic on her.
Daphne rose from the step, passed through the rearmost door meant only for the prince and his entourage, and into the palace proper. She did not see Lu-Broca, the major domo, anywhere, so she grabbed the arm of the first guard that crossed her path. “There are four good men outside the Processional Gate.” She saw by the gleam in his eyes that even a mere palace guard knew who she was, and she smiled inwardly- Intimidation came so easily to her these days. “You, personally, will take them the best goblets and the finest vintage wine you can beg, borrow, or steal from the kitchens. Fail me in this-” She patted his shoulder and winked, “Well, don’t fail me.” She had his dagger from his belt sheath and under his chin before he could draw a breath. “Oops!” she said, passing it back by the point. “You nearly dropped this.”
She walked serenely down the corridor, leaving him. Neither Rankan guard nor Beysib dared to bar her way. They knew her. Princess Daphne, who once had dared to call their Beysa a whore to her face and laughed about it before all the city’s gathered nobility. They hated her, but they accorded her a measure of awe, perhaps because not even their fishgoddess, Mother Bey, had dared to strike her down.
Or, perhaps that was only her imagination. Sometimes her mind ran away with her. She couldn’t really guess what they thought other, Beysib or Rankan. Nor did she care. It was Chenaya she strove to please, and Dayme and Lowan Vigeles. And herself. Beyond that, she no longer gave a damn about Ranke or the Beysibs or Kadakithis.
Her loyalty was to Land’s End. Chenaya had rescued her from Scavengers’ Isle, and Lowan had offered her a home. Dayme and his gladiators had put strength in her arm, courage in her heart, and a sword in her hand. To them she owed loyalty and love. Anyone else was less than the dirt under her sandaled feet.
She found Kadakithis in his private quarters. It amused her that he thought such intimate surroundings could sway her decision. Well, let him keep his littie vanities a while longer. A guard stood by his door, opened it for her, and remained at her side until the Prince stepped through a curtained archway.
Kadakithis smiled his most reasonable smile.
Daphne stifled a sigh. He was still in so many ways the boy she had once loved. He had the same babyish face, the same hair, same thin and spotty beard that probably would never become a man’s full mane. He was too scrawny, a mere stick beside Dayrne or Leyn. Yet, she had truly loved him.