inhibiting spells Lythande wove about her. She had not needed the potion,
however, to summon an attraction towards the handsome soldier nor to coax him to
his feet and then to her bed.
Zaibar protested that he was not himself and did not understand what was
happening to him. Myrtis did not trouble herself to argue with him. Lythande’s
potion was not one to rouse a wild, blind lust, but one which endowed a lifelong
affection in the drinker. The pure qualis played a part in weakening his
resistance. She held him behind the curtains of her bed until he had no doubt of
his love for her. Then she helped him dress again.
‘I’ll show you the secrets of the Aphrodisia House,’ she whispered in his ear.
‘I believe I have already found them.’
‘There are more.’
Myrtis took him by the hand, leading him to one of the drapery-covered walls.
She pushed aside the fabric; released a well-oiled catch; took a sconce from the
wall then led him into a dark, but airy, passage way.’
‘Walk carefully in my footsteps, Zaibar – I would not want to lose you to the
oubliettes. Perhaps you have wondered why the Street is outside the walls and
its buildings are so old and well-built? Perhaps you think Sanctuary’s founders
wished to keep us outside their fair city? What you do not know is that these
houses – especially the older ones like the Aphrodisia – are not really outside
the walls at all. My house is built of stone four feet thick. The shutters on
our windows are aged wood from the mountains. We have our own wells and
storerooms which can”supply us -and the city – for weeks, if necessary. Other