it’s so cold!” That much was certainly true. “Hide me, I beg you!”
The portal opened wider; one eye peered through. “Is this a trick?” Daxus
grumbled. “Stand back so I can get a look at you. Say, you haven’t got a stitch
on!”
She thanked the gods for her foresight. But it was freezing! It might be a good
touch, she decided, if she sank to her knees, so she did. “I had a dress, but he
ripped it off. Tried to rape me, the drunken oaf!” She hoped she was whining
convincingly. Was Daphne really worth this kind of humiliation?
The portal slid all the way open, and the watchman poked his face out, glanced
from side to side as far as the opening allowed, and licked his lips. Decision
gleamed in his eyes as he grinned at her. “Well, I’ve got a fire that’ll warm
you, sweet. Warm you through and through.”
The portal scraped shut. Chenaya heard the heavy bar lift on the inside of the
gate. It started to swing back.
She rose swiftly and grabbed her sword. She remembered that lustful look on his
face and how it repulsed her; she loathed the role she had assumed to trick him;
on top of that she was chilled to the bone. For those reasons, she hit him a lot
harder than was needed. Fortunately for Daxus she only used the pommel of her
weapon.
Moving quickly, she dragged him back inside, then retrieved her garments. She
pushed the gate closed, took a moment to throw the cloak around her shoulders,
then bent over his unmoving form. The length of chain came free from her belt,
and she fumbled for the wire-thin probe in her tunic sleeve.