“So you said,” Terceth agreed, cocking his head in wonder. The Prince took a deep breath. He stood straighter. The weariness in his face smoothed away. His eyes cleared.
“Now, that must be your ‘health drug,’“ Terceth crowed, his eyes alight.
“Yes,” said the Prince. “That’s what it feels like.” He spoke as though he were drugged or drunk, but his fingers curled around the unused packet.
A sound came from the darkness at the back of the cavern, a rock falling, a scraping. They all started.
“Dunnel,” murmured Terceth, jerking his head in that direction.
Dunnel took a torch from his belt and followed its beam into darkness. Genevieve glanced meaningfully at Awhero. Awhero pinched Dovidi, making him wail in pain and surprise. Genevieve exclaimed and took the baby from her, put him on her shoulder, and began walking to and fro, patting him into quiet. Each time she turned, she came closer to the cave entrance.
Dunnel called, “There’s a man back here, sir. Bound and gagged.”
“Bring him here!”
Genevieve said in a casual tone, “The captive is my father. He planned to take me from my husband and child, and give me to Prince Delganor. Prince Delganor planned to sell me in return for the drug. My father was dragging me away by force when my friends stopped him. That’s why he’s tied up!”
“So you’re one of the women who was going to be sold, are you?” asked Terceth in an interested voice.
“I am not the Prince’s property to dispose of,” she said. “Neither my husband nor I belong to Prince Delganor!”
“All the Prince’s subjects belong to the Prince!” the Marshal shouted, staggering into the lamplight, his face contorted with rage.
“I am not the Prince’s subject,” retorted Genevieve. “Nor are you. We are both subjects of the Lord Paramount. You seem inclined to forget that, Father.”
“You know the Lord Paramount?” Terceth asked her, in a deceptively casual manner.
“I have met him, yes,” she said, looking over the Marshal’s shoulder at Aufors. Joncaster had helped him rise, and he stood in the shadows.
“And what else might you know about long-life stuff?” Terceth asked.
“Just what I’ve told you,” she said. “It’s given only to men, and its expensive, and they get it from off-planet.”
“Hah!” shouted the Marshal, his rage outrunning his good sense. “The presumptuous chit knows more than that. I heard them talking out here! She knows where a supply of the stuff is, a great supply!”
Genevieve’s spinning shadows collapsed upon themselves, and she waited for nothing more. Even as Terceth turned toward her with a triumphant shout, she darted out the entrance and down the slope, Dovidi on her shoulder. On the pebbled beach she evaded the astonished group of Trackers and raced out along the serpents tail. The tide was low. She splashed through the shallow water that led to the hump, then over the hump through deeper water to climb up the neck of the serpent and onto its head, where she grasped the horn and stood silhouetted against the last of the light.
Terceth stalked angrily down the slope, gathered the Trackers, and went out onto the tail stone.
“She’ll jump if you threaten her,” Awhero screamed from up the hill. “She will!”
“She won’t jump with the child,” growled Terceth to his men, staring up at Genevieve. The neck stone was the height of five or six tall men, and it was slick with spray. Genevieve stood with one arm clutching Dovidi, the other grasping the stone horn, her face turned outward to the sea and her body leaning dangerously above the deep.
Terceth snarled at two of his men, “Go up there and get her.”
They began to splash toward the neck stone.
At the first splash, Genevieve opened her mouth and called. The great sound went out of her visibly, plangent and sonorous, the air wavering as though from rising heat, the cry undiminished by distance. Even when she closed her lips, the air throbbed vibrantly for an endless time. Before the sound faded, a wave leapt up from the deep and came swiftly toward the shore to wash the Trackers from the stone and tumble them in the surf. Another, larger wave threatened all those on the shore, and they fled before it.