Heir of Iron

Chapter 3

Taleg stirred in the bed. His breath warmed Mandhi's cheek. Her hand rose to find his cheek. He withdrew his arm from where it rested across her stomach, kissed her forehead, and sat up.

"It's nearly dawn. I have to go."

Mandhi rolled over and rested her head for a moment against his thigh. Her hand rubbed his calf and reached down to his toes. "So go already."

A laugh rumbled in his chest. "Good to hear you won't be missing me."

She leapt up, grabbed his beard, and pulled his face down for a long kiss. "Were you expecting something else?" she said. "Today is the offering in the Ruin, and you have to purify yourself before you go. Just make sure you come again as soon as possible."

Groaning, he rose to his feet and pulled on his loose cotton pants. "Tonight. Every night, if I can make it."

"Eventually you'll get tired of me."

"I doubt that." He bent down, grabbed her beneath her arms, and pulled her into the air, where she slid down onto his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and buried her in kisses.

Several minutes later she caught her breath. "You were leaving," she said. "If you're here when Cauratha wakes up...."

"I know." He lowered her back into the bed and turned toward the opaque curtain over her door. "Once I go through that curtain, I'll just be your escort and sometime friend. You understand that, right?"

"Yes." She had lived with that arrangement for years. She could live with it another day.

He nodded. With a heavy sigh, he parted the curtain and left.

Immediately a curse sounded in the hallway, and voice other than Taleg's responded. Mandhi's stomach twisted. She wrapped the sheets of the bed around herself and bolted to the door, throwing the curtain aside to see a red-faced Taleg standing over the sulking form of Navran in the dim narrow hallway.

Navran. At least it wasn't Srithi or Cauratha or someone that she cared about. "What in the world are you doing here at this hour of the morning?" she hissed.

Navran glanced from the half-clothed Taleg to Mandhi's improvised covering and gave half a nod, without any change in expression. "I was awake."

"Were you spying on us?"

"No."

"I swear, if you're lying I'll have Taleg throw you over the railing."

"Mandhi, that's not necessary," Taleg said. "He was only out for a walk. Dumb luck that he happened to be passing your room when... when I left."

"Aren't normal people asleep at this hour?"

Navran shrugged. "I don't know."

"Is that all you can say? By light and blood, if you tell anyone---"

Navran's face hardened into a grimace. "I don't care what you and your manservant do at night. Leave me alone. I'll leave you alone."

"My name is Taleg," Taleg said. "And I'm not exactly her manservant."

"So I see."

"What I mean is---oh, never mind. You'll figure it out later." He looked at Mandhi with an expression of cautious optimism. "But now that he knows, maybe he can help. It would not hurt to have a co-conspirator."

"I prefer one that I can trust." A vagrant like Navran would sell her out at the first opportunity. At least his taciturn nature might delay their doom for a while. She waved him away. "Get out of here. Don't say anything."