‘My dear, I had not expected to see you here. !s that yours?’ She moved her head
towards the door through which Jiro had conducted the frightened Bercy. ‘She’ll
probably run away, you know, once you take your eyes off her.’
‘I wish I thought so, Myrtis. But no such luck, I fear.’
‘You had better tell me the whole story,’ Myrtis said, and listened to
Lythande’s brief, succinct account of the affair.
‘And if you laugh, Myrtis, I take back my spell and leave your grey hairs and
wrinkles open to the mockery of everyone in Sanctuary!’ .
. –
But Myrtis had known Lythande too long to take that threat very seriously. ‘So
the maiden you rescued is all maddened with desire for the love of Lythande!’
She chuckled. ‘It is like an old ballad, indeed!’
‘But what am I to do, Myrtis? By the.paps of Shipri the All-Mother, this is a
dilemma!’ . ^
‘Take her into your confidence and tell her why your love cannot be hers,’
Myrtis said.
Lythande frowned. ‘You hold my Secret, since I had no choice; you knew me before
I was made magician, or bore the blue star -‘
‘And before I was a harlot,’ Myrtis agreed.
‘But if I make this girl feel like a fool for loving me, she” will hate me as
much as sheJeves; and I cannot confide in anyone I cannot trust with my life and
my power. All I have is yours, Myrtis, because of that past we shared. And that
includes my power, if you ever should need it. But I cannot entrust it to this
girl.’
‘Still she owes you something, for delivering her out of the hands ofRabben.’
.
Lythande said, ‘I will think about it; and now make haste to bring me food, for