will you invite me in?’
‘Oh!’ She realized that despite everything he’d said and done, she’d still been doubting herself. ‘Of course.’
As they went inside, he shut the door firmly behind them. He put his crystal down on the stool by her lectern, then slipped his arms around her before she could do the same. He drew her close and kissed her with the white pyramid caught between them. When his hands slid down to her buttocks, she felt so aroused that she nearly dropped the precious crystal. He laughed, caught it in one broad hand, and turned away to put it down next to the black.
Hwilli pulled her dress over her head and let it fall to the floor. She lay down on her bed, so narrow that he barely fitted next to her, but once his arms were around her, it became all the comfort they needed.
After their love-making, she drowsed in his arms, only to wake when a pale grey light filtered through the window. He woke as well, to turn onto his side and contemplate her face. He was smiling, and with a gentle finger he traced the shape of her lips.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he said. ‘I’m honoured that you’d favour a man like me.’
‘Oh don’t say daft things.’ She kissed his fingertips. ‘I’m the one who’s honoured.’
‘Indeed? You’re a healer, you can read and write, and what am I? Just a fighting man who happens to know horsecraft.’
‘I’d say you know women just as well. I –’ Hwilli stopped, abruptly surprised. ‘Wait! I’m understanding every word you say. The crystals are still over there.’
Rhodorix sat up, twisting to look at the lectern and the stool, where indeed the two crystals sat some five feet distant.
‘Ye gods!’ He lay back down. ‘Well, that’s a handy thing, then.’ He started to say more, but the priestly gongs began announcing the dawn in a racket of struck bronze. Rhodorix swore and winced, then waited till the sound died away. ‘Why in the name of every god do they keep making that wretched noise?’
‘In the name of every god, just like you said.’ Hwilli grinned at him. ‘It’s the priests’ duty to mark the points of the passing days, and the days themselves, the cycles of the moon and the sun, the rising of some of the stars, all of the heavenly things. That’s why the prince built this fortress up so high, so the priests would be closer to the stars.’
‘I think me that the sun would rise without them making all that cursed clamour.’
‘So do I, but the priests don’t.’
‘Ah. Like the cocks that crow on the dungheap, then, and the sun obeys.’
She laughed until he kissed her again, and neither of them had any need of words or laughter.
Yet once their love-making finished, sunlight was flooding in the window, and he needed to leave to rejoin his men out in the horse yard. Hwilli lay on her side and watched him pull on the funny, baggy legging-things he called brigga.
‘Will you come back tonight?’ she said.
‘If you’ll have me back,’ Rhodorix said.
‘Of course!’
He paused to grin at her, honestly thankful that she would want him. Me, she thought. He loves me. Nalla was right!
‘Well, then, let’s settle somewhat.’ Rhodorix turned solemn. ‘From now on, you’re my woman. I don’t want you looking at any other man.’
‘Fear not! There’s not a man in this fortress I’d want, not after you.’
He smiled again, as bright as the sunlight coming through the windows. ‘Let me take the crystals with me,’ he went on, ‘and at the morning meal today, I’ll tell the guard captain that if any other man looks at you wrong, he’ll have me to answer to.’
‘Truly?’
‘Truly. That way if I get you with child, everyone will know the child’s mine, so you’ll not have to worry that I’ll refuse to maintain it.’
His generosity surprised her so much that she had a hard time answering with more than a murmured ‘my thanks’. He sat down on the edge of the bed to pull on his boots. She cuddled against his back and tried to think of some generosity she could offer in return.
‘Rhoddo?’
‘Imph?’
‘Then from now on, your people will be my people, and if I have a child, I’ll raise him that way.’
‘Well and good, then.’ He turned to look at her. ‘That’s a grand thing you’re giving me.’
‘You’ve done the same for me. I’ll swear it on your gods, because they’re my gods now.’
‘Then swear it by Belinos and Evandar.’
‘Evandar’s not truly a god, you know.’
‘Of course he is! Our priests said so. When he saved my life, I promised him I’d swear all my vows on his name.’
If it pleases him, she thought, why does it matter? Belinos she knew nothing of, but if Rhodorix considered him a god, then she would honour him too. ‘I swear by Belinos and Evandar,’ she said.
‘So do I, that you’re my woman now.’
They both smiled, yet deep in her heart she felt sombre, as if a cold wind had touched her. Somehow, she knew, they’d sealed some sort of bargain, one that resonated far beyond the first days of a love affair.
The guardsmen ate in Prince Ranadar’s great hall, a long narrow room with tables enough for several hundred men. At one end stood a narrow dais, where the prince dined with his intimates. Frescoes covered the walls with pictures that reminded Rhodorix of those in Rhwmani villas, though these were far more magnificent. Painted roses bloomed in a vast garden that wrapped around the entire room. In the landscape behind the garden, one wall sported a view of rolling hills and forest; the other, a distant city on the far side of a river. A spiral made of bits of white glass covered half the ceiling. At night this spiral glowed with an eerie blue light, but during the day it merely glittered in the sun streaming through the windows.
Since Rhodorix sat next to Andariel at the warband’s head table – an honour, he realized, to a stranger who knew so many useful things – he could talk with the captain through the crystals. When he told Andariel that he considered Hwilli his property and his alone, Andariel relayed the warning to the guardsmen, who mostly laughed and saluted him with their wine cups.
‘She’s always been the stand offish sort,’ Andariel remarked. ‘Cold as ice, we all thought. I’m impressed that you could warm her up, and so are the rest of the lads.’
As the days went by, the warning had the desired effect. From time to time, Hwilli came down to the terrace to watch the riding lessons. The other men made a great show of looking elsewhere whenever she did, and if for some reason they needed to speak to her, they made the encounter as brief as possible.
‘They’re afraid of you,’ Andariel
