retribution, trailed behind him.
Ba”al”uz? Ba”al”uz? Where are you?
“Setkoth,” Ba”al”uz managed to get out on his fifth attempt at mouthing the word.
“Setkoth.”
Not far from Aqhat then.
“Three days, Great One, no more.”
Excellent. Ba”al”uz, you do need to hurry. I should not want to have to use someone else
to carry out my desires.
“I will hurry, Great One. I will.”
You must, you must. Nearer and nearer draws the time.
Ba”al”uz lurched on, one insane footstep after the other.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The FarReach Mountains, Southern Kyros
They”d made good distance over the past few days, mainly because Salome was no
longer feeling quite so fatigued. The two guides traveling with her were palpably relieved, to
Salome”s grim amusement.
What man ever liked a weak woman?
Gods, she hated them, too.
StarDrifter was not far ahead. Salome could sense it. She wasn”t sure why, or how she
knew this—perhaps that extraordinary sexual magnetism somehow communicated itself to her,
even now—but just ahead he most certainly was.
The weather was sliding deeper into autumn. The mornings were frosty, the nights had
that edge of ice to them associated with winter, and made sleeping uncomfortable. Salome was
glad that StarDrifter was still this side of the FarReach Mountains. At least she could deal with
him now, finish what lay between them, without having to voyage through the mountains in
ever-deteriorating weather.
On this day they were traveling at a brisk trot along a little-used path, heading directly for
the mountains that rose perhaps a day”s ride away; pink and purple massifs that wore tangled
clouds about their snowy peaks and promised enormous hardship for those foolish enough to risk
the passes. The guides had told Salome that few people dared to try—the FarReach Mountains
effectively cut off Isembaard from the Northern Kingdoms.
Salome didn”t care about the mountains.
All she wanted was her chance at StarDrifter.
In the midafternoon, when she was tired enough that her attention had begun to lag, one
of the guides murmured a caution.
“Someone approaches.”
Salome jerked to full attention, looking ahead.
A lone rider, a man, approached them on the road. He was bare-headed and unarmed, and
did not appear surprised to see the three travelers halting their horses.
He pulled his own horse to a stop a few paces away from Salome and her guides.
“My name is Maximilian,” he said. “Of Escator.”
Salome frowned, trying to remember where she”d heard that name. It may not have come
to her so quickly, had not she noticed the sudden servile demeanor of the guides.
“Oh,” she said, “you”re the King of Escator.”
He smiled very slightly. “Yes. I am the King of Escator.”
Salome”s frown deepened. There”d been some trouble with the King of Escator. In fact,
there had always been trouble, of one sort or another, associated with this man”s life. Salome
tried to remember the details, but her life had been so centered on Coroleas and on her own
schemes that she”d paid scant attention to what happened elsewhere in the world.
“I”m sorry,” she said vaguely, and hoped that would cover most eventualities in this
man”s history.
His smile widened, his dark blue eyes danced, and Salome suspected she had just made a
complete fool of herself.
“That is very good of you,” he said, and Salome knew she had made a fool of herself.
She opened her mouth to make a tart comment (for the gods” sakes, this man was a
nobody king of a nothing kingdom!), but Maximilian continued speaking, addressing the two
guides.
“I assume you are here to guide the Lady Salome?”
Salome”s mouth, already open, hung a little wider in her shock. How had he known who
she was?
One of the guides nodded. “She hired us in Narbon, sire, to bring her south. She”s looking
for a man.”
“StarDrifter SunSoar,” said Maximilian. “Yes, I know.” He looked directly at Salome.
“He is back at my camp, Salome, waiting for you. An hour”s ride away.”
Then he addressed the guides again. “The lady has paid you? Yes? Then your task is
done, my good men. She and I thank you, and I shall take over the lady”s care from this point.
You may return to Narbon.”
Salome had managed, by this stage, to wrench her mouth shut. She was torn between
irritation with this Maximilian who had just ridden into her life and decided to take it over, and
the continuing bewilderment she felt as to how he”d known who she was and who she hunted
(and what was the King of Escator doing out here, anyway?). She was also torn between a thrill
of excitement and a growing self-righteous anger now she knew StarDrifter to be so close.
Finally, she would get her hands on him.
She”d drifted off again, and realized suddenly that the two guides had turned their horses
and were cantering back down the track.
Maximilian was still smiling at her.
“They did say good-bye,” he said, “but your thoughts had wandered.”
“I”m sorry,” she said again, and then flamed in humiliation. What had happened to her
famous poise?
“You do not have to apologize for everything,” Maximilian said. “Come, ride on. We
have a way to go, and we can talk as we go.”
“How did you know who I was?” said Salome, kicking her horse after Maximilian”s.
“And who I hunted? And how it was that I was here?”
“I am traveling into Isembaard,” said Maximilian, “hunting my wife, who was stolen
from me. I have a somewhat disparate group of individuals within my group. StarDrifter, who
you seek—”
“Does he still have the Weeper? I want it back.”
“Yes, we have the Weeper, but I doubt you will „get it back.””
“It is mine.”
Maximilian gave a small shrug, his eyes on the road ahead. “I think the Weeper chooses
his own companions. Now, please, allow me to finish.”
Salome gave a curt movement of assent with her head, wondering how it was that this
man could make her feel so small with such a simple statement.
“I also have in my group four Icarii—I assume you know of the Icarii?”
“Yes,” Salome said, “of course. They fluttered uselessly about Yoyette from time to
time.”
That earned her an unreadable look from Maximilian, but he made no comment on her
words.
“I also have two marsh women with me,” he said. “Witch-women who walk the
boundaries between the dream world and this one. Their names are Venetia and Ravenna, mother
and daughter. Venetia knew you were coming, and asked me to wait for you. She knows you hunt StarDrifter, and—”
“Does she know why I hunt him?”
Maximilian”s look of sympathy at that point almost undid her.
“Yes,” he said. “At least we know some of it—of what happened after StarDrifter stole
the Weeper and left you to suffer the hatred and revenge of the Corolean court.”
“They murdered my son!” she hissed. “Murdered him!”
“And you were poorly treated, too,” Maximilian said. “I am sorry, Salome. You have our
sympathy for it, know that. Although I will not allow you to physically harm StarDrifter, I am
prepared to stand back and watch whatever else you deal to him.”
Salome humiliated herself yet further by bursting into tears. She had been deeply angry
and emotionally overwrought for many weeks. Maximilian”s unexpected sympathy caught her so
unawares she could not prevent the emotion spilling over.
“I want to kill him so badly,” she managed to get out between the sobs. “I want to…but I
can”t…I can”t.”
Maximilian pulled his horse to a halt across the path of Salome”s horse, making it stop as
well. He didn”t say anything, but he reached out a hand, resting it on her shoulder, and Salome
dropped her reins, lowered her face into her hands, and cried as she”d never allowed herself in
her life previously.
StarDrifter rose to his feet as he saw the two riders approaching.
Nerves fluttered in his belly.
Everyone else—the Icarii, Maximilian”s two guardsmen, Venetia and Ravenna—stood
slightly apart from him, distancing themselves both physically and emotionally.
The sound of the horses” hooves grew louder, and StarDrifter forced himself to look at
Salome.
She was still lovely, but the suffering she”d experienced at the hands of the vengeful
Coroleans (at his hands) showed clearly on her face and in the brittleness of her eyes.
She and Maximilian pulled their horses to a halt, Maximilian dismounting and then
helping Salome off her mount.
Salome”s eyes did not leave StarDrifter for one moment.
She was dressed in men”s clothes, leather trousers and boots, and a jerkin over a thickly
woven undyed linen shirt, but StarDrifter could still see that she”d lost a lot of weight.
Maximilian bent down and said something very quietly in Salome”s ear.
She gave a tight nod, then walked over to StarDrifter.
The atmosphere was so tense that StarDrifter could barely breathe. The sheer weight of
the guilt he felt was almost too much to bear.