eight.’
‘You actually killed a man at that age?’ Emban asked her incredulously.
‘Two, Emban. The one who screamed for two days also died.’ The Atana looked
at Engessa, her glistening eyes a bit doubtful. ‘May I claim that one as
well, FatherAtan?’ she asked. ‘He might have died anyway of something
else.’
‘You may claim him, my daughter,’ he judged. ‘It was your knife-thrust
that killed him.’ She sighed. ‘I’ve always wondered about that one,’ she
confessed. ‘It clouded my count, and I didn’t like that.’
‘It was a legitimate kill, Atana. Your count is unclouded. ‘
‘Thank you, Father-Atan,’ she said. ‘It’s a bad thing to ‘be uncertain
about so important a matter.’ She paused, collecting her memories. ‘I
didn’t kill again for almost half a year. The Arjuni took me south to
Tiara. I did not cry at all during the journey. It is not proper to let
your enemies see you grieve. At Tiara, my captors took me to the
slave-market and sold me to a Dacite merchant named Pelaser. He was fat and
greasy, he smelled bad, and he was fond of children.’
‘He was a kindly master then?’ Baroness Melidere asked her. ‘I didn’t say
that, Melidere. Pelaser liked little boys and girls in a rather peculiar
way. The Arjuni had warned him about me, so he wouldn’t let me near any
knives. I had to eat, however, so he gave me a spoon. He took me to his
home at Verel in Daconia, and I spent the entire journey sharpening the
handle of my spoon on my chains. It was a good metal spoon, and it took a
,very fine edge. When we got to Verel he chained me to the wall in a little
room at the back of his house. The room had a stone floor, and I spent all
my time working on my spoon. I grew very fond of it.’ She bent slightly and
slid her hand down into her boot. ‘isn’t it pretty?’ The implement she held
up was a very ordinary-looking ‘spoon with a wooden handle. She took it in
both hands, twisted the handle slightly and then pulled it off the shank of
the spoon. The shank was thin and narrow, and it came to a needle-like
point. It had been polished Until it gleamed like silver. She looked at it
critically. ‘It’s not quite long enough to reach a man’s heart,’ she
apologised for her spoon. ‘You can’t kill cleanly with it, but it’s good
for emergencies. It looks so much like an ordinary spoon that nobody ever
thinks to take it away from me.’
‘Brilliant,’ Stragen murmured, his eyes glowing with admiration. ‘Steal us
a couple of spoons, Talen, and we’ll get to work on them immediately.’
‘Pelaser came to my room one night and put his hands on me,’ Mirtai
continued. ‘I sat very still, and so he thought I wouldn’t resist. He
started to smile. I noticed that he drooled when he smiled like that. He
was still smiling – and drooling – when I stabbed both of his eyes out. Did
you know that a man’s eyes pop when you poke them with something sharp?’
Melidere made a slight gagging sound and stared at the calm-faced Atana in
open horror. ‘He tried to scream,’ Mirtai went on in a chillingly clinical
way, ‘but I looped my chain around his neck to keep him quiet. I really
wanted to cut him into little pieces, but I had to hold the chain in both
hands to keep him from screaming. He began to struggle, but I just pulled
the chain tighter about his neck.’
‘Yes.’ Rather astonishingly, it was Ehlana’s doe-eyed maid Alcan who cried
her hoarse approval, and the quick embrace she gave the startled Atana was
uncharacteristically’ fierce. Mirtai touched the ‘gentle girl’s face fondly
and then continued. ‘Pelaser struggled quite a bit at first, but after a
while, he stopped. He had knocked over the candle, and the room was dark,
so I couldn’t be sure he was dead. I kept the chain pulled tight around his
neck until morning. His face was very black when the sun came up.’
‘A fair kill, my daughter,’ Engessa said to her proudly. She smiled and
bowed her head to him. ‘I thought they would ‘ kill me when they discovered
what I had done, but the Dacites of the southern towns are peculiar people.
Pelaser wasn’t well-liked in Verel, and I think many of them were secretly
amused by the fact that one of the children he usually molested had finally
killed him. His heir was a nephew named Gelan. He was very grateful that
I’d made him rich by killing his uncle, and he spoke to the authorities on
my behalf.’ She paused and looked at the princess, who was still nestled in
her lap holding the gleaming little dagger. ‘Could you get me some water,
Danae?’ she asked. ‘i’m not used to talking so much.’ Danae obediently
slipped down and’ went over toward one of the cooking-fires. ‘She might be
a little young to hear about certain things,’ Mirtai murmured. ‘Gelan was a
rather nice young man, but he had peculiar tastes. He gave his love to
other young men instead of women.’ Sir Bevier gasped. ‘Oh, dear,’ Mirtai
said. ‘Are you truly that unworldly, Bevier? It’s not uncommon, you know.
Anyway, I got on quite well with Gelan. At least he didn’t try to take
advantage of me. He loved to talk, so he taught me to speak Elenic and even
to read a bit. People in his circumstances lead rather tentative lives, and
he needed a permanent friend. I had been taught that it was polite to
listen when my elders spoke, and after a time he would pour out his heart
to me. When I grew a little older, he bought me pretty gowns to wear, and
sometimes he’d even wear them himself, although I think he was only joking.
Some of his friends wore women’s clothes, but nobody was really very
serious about it. It’s something they laughed about. It was about then that
I started to go through that difficult time in a girl’s life when she
starts to become a woman. He was very gentle and understanding, and he
explained what was happening so that I wasn’t afraid. He used to have me
wear my prettiest gowns, and he’d take me with him when he was doing
business with people who didn’t know his preferences. Daconia is an Elene
Kingdom, and Elenes have some peculiar ideas about that sort of thing. They
try to mix religion into it for some reason. Anyway, the fact that Gelan
always had a young slave-girl with him quieted suspicions.’ Bevier’s eyes
had a stunned look in them. ‘Maybe you should go help the princess look for
that water, Bevier,’ Mirtai suggested to him almost gently. ‘This was a
part of my childhood, so I have to talk about it at this time. You don’t
have to listen if it bothers you, though. I’ll understand.’ His face grew
troubled. ‘i’m your friend, Mirtai,’ he declared. ‘I’ll stay.’ She smiled.
‘He’s such a nice boy.’ She said it in almost the same tone of voice
Sephrenia had always used when saying exactly the same thing. Sparhawk was
a bit startled at how shrewdly perceptive the Atan girl really was. Mirtai
sighed. ‘Gelan and I loved each other, but not in the way that people
usually think of when they’re talking about a man and a woman. There are as
many
different kinds of love as there are people, I think. He had enemies,
though – many enemies. He was a very sharp trader, and he almost always got
the best of every bargain. There are small people in the world who take
that sort of thing personally. Once an Edomish merchant became so enraged
that he tried to kill Gelan, and I had to use my spoon to protect him. As I
said before, the blade’s not quite long enough to kill cleanly, so the
incident was very messy. I ruined a very nice silk gown that evening. I
told Gelan that he really ought to buy me some proper knives so that I
could kill people without spoiling my clothes. The idea of having a
twelve-yearold girl for a body-guard startled him at first, but then he saw
the advantages of it. He bought me these.’ She touched one of the
silver-hilted daggers at her waist. ‘I’ve always treasured them. I devised
a way to conceal them under my clothes when we went out into the city.
After I’d used them on a few people, the word got around, and his enemies
quit trying to kill him. ‘There were other young men like Gelan in Verel,
and they used to visit each other in their homes where they didn’t have to
hide their feelings. They were all very kind to me. They used to give me