She couldn’t tell Darz all that, though. So she said only, “I need some time.”
He didn’t answer. Nervous, she focused on her opal to make a spell of soothing—and realized it was gone.
“No!” she cried. “My charm. We have to go back—”
“Ginger-Sun.” He stopped her by laying his fingers on her lips. “Don’t you remember?”
The moment he touched her mouth, she thought of when Dirk had gagged her. With a frantic reflex, she shoved away his hand. “Remember what?”
“You dropped your rock while you were asleep,” he said sharply. “I stopped to retrieve it and let the horse rest. It’s in the bags.” Then he added, “And damn it, don’t push my hand. I don’t like it.”
Ginger froze. “My apology.” With tense formality, she added, “Thank you for picking up the opal.” Would he be like Kindle after all? Her mood dimmed.
The desert stretched endlessly around them, shimmering. Heat hadn’t yet parched the day, and the golden rolls of land were just touched by the lightening sky. It was beautiful, but unfamiliar. She had no idea where they were and recognized no landmarks.
“Do you know where this is?” she asked. Immediately she regretted the words. If he didn’t like her pushing his hand, he would probably resent even more any implication that she doubted his judgment. Spark always reacted that way, and the Archivist.
Darz just said, “Yes, I’m pretty certain. We’re traveling southeast, which is the right direction.”
“Ah.” She heard how stiff that sounded.
He swore under his breath. “Listen, I’m not the most tactful man alive, all right?”
Bewildered, she said, “All right.”
“Someone once shoved my hand like that,” he said. “Several times, actually. I was eleven. It was my father’s cousin. He told me I was stupid, and he knocked away my hand because I was trying to wear armor and I couldn’t get on the helmet. It’s a silly memory that shouldn’t bother me, but it did. So I yelled at you. I shouldn’t have.” He sounded relieved, as if he hadn’t been sure he could get it all out.
Ginger had no idea how to react. No man in Sky Flames would ever offer an explanation. It just wasn’t done. It took her a while to find her voice. Finally she said, “I thought you were angry at me for saying I needed more time before we, well…” She couldn’t so easily forget the taboos, even of speaking about such subjects. “You know.”
“For saints sake! Do you think I’m a monster?”
Ginger winced. “No. Just loud.” Too late, her common sense caught up with her mouth and she realized how much tact that reply lacked. This morning her mind was full of cotton. It wasn’t surprising given the way she had spent the night, but she didn’t want to alienate Darz before she even had a chance to know him.
To her surprise, he let out a hearty laugh. “So everyone tells me.” He leaned forward so he could see her face. “Take as much time as you need. You are so delectable, though, I can’t promise I won’t misbehave. If I do, just slap me, eh?”
It took her a moment to comprehend he was teasing her. Men in Sky Flames never teased. They also rarely gave compliments. She knew her father had loved her mother, but she had never heard him tell her so or say she was beautiful.
Her shoulders came down from their hunched posture. She was beginning to suspect that behind Darz’s bluster was a man with more kindness than he felt it appropriate for a warrior to show.
“If you misbehave,” she said, her lips curving upward, “I shall send you to your room without dinner.”
“Is that a smile I see?” He sat up straighter behind her. “You should do it more often. It’s lovely.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
They continued in silence, but it was less strained. Darz let Grayrider walk, to rest the horse. Sunrise, another aspect of the Sunset, spread her rosy glow across the desert. Every now and then Darz brought Grayrider around to face the way they had come. For several moments he would scan the desert. Then they would continue on their way.
Eventually he said, “No one seems to have followed us.”
“Good.” If they were lucky, the elders wouldn’t send anyone after her.
“Those riders last night,” Darz said. “Have you seen them before?”
“I think so.” His question felt off, she couldn’t say why. “I don’t know where. I don’t think they’re from Sky Flames.”
“How can you tell?”
She realized what was odd: he listened to her. The Elder and Archivist often dismissed her observations. Spark never paid attention. Darz just talked to her, naturally, without strain. It was a good question, too. She wasn’t sure how she knew the riders.
After a moment, she said, “Their manner of dress.”
“You could tell from so far away, in the dark?”
“It’s their hoods, with those peaked cowls. No one in Sky Flames wears those.” Suddenly it hit her. “They were in the plaza! Two men from Jazid, I think. Nomads. They had those charcoal scarves knitted from a thick yarn.”
“Saints almighty,” Darz said. “You could get all that while you were being dragged to your death?”
“Well, they were right in front of me.”
“I wish my trail scouts were that observant,” he muttered. “Why would two nomads from Jazid be in Sky Flames?”
“I’ve no idea. But we aren’t that far from the border.”
Darz was quiet for a while. Then he said, “Your brother’s group was carrying lights. We weren’t. If the nomads followed anyone, it was probably them. They might not have seen us leave.”
She shifted uneasily. “Why would they follow us?”
“Did they see you in the square?”
“Dirk and Spark dragged me right past them.”
“So they saw you bound to that pole up on the platform?”
Her face heated. “Yes. They and half the village.” It hadn’t actually been that many, but it felt that way. “Why?”
“I should think it is obvious.”
“It’s not to me.”
He cleared his throat. “You are very pretty and very, shall we say, womanly in your shape, Ginger-Sun. You also obviously didn’t have anyone’s protection. They probably wanted to see if I was going to strand you in the desert. They would have picked you up.”
“You really think they would have helped me?”
He gave a harsh laugh. “Hell, no. The T’Ambera nomad tribe in Jazid sells pleasure slaves.”
“Oh.” The more she learned about the world she had thought would be so exciting, the less she liked it.
“Do you remember that scream in the temple?” Darz asked.
“It was awful.”
“You’ve reminded me where I’ve heard it before.” His hand tightened on her waist. “In battle. It’s a Jazid war cry.”
It made no sense to Ginger. “Why would a Jazid warrior come into the temple and scream? Were they chasing you?”
“It’s possible. But it doesn’t make sense. Why attack me? We and Jazid fought on the same side. Besides, if they were after me and knew I was there, they would have killed me.”
“Then why scream in my temple?”
“To frighten you. Same with the blood in your room. They hound their targets. You were guarded, so they wanted to panic you, drive you into the open or into doing something unwise.” He spoke grimly. “You’re lucky Harjan posted guards that night. You’re even lucky Spark followed you to the Dragon’s Claw. If you were the one the nomads wanted, those guards are probably the only reason you’re here with me instead of in chains.”
She didn’t want to believe her freedom could be that ephemeral. “They wouldn’t kidnap a priestess.”
He snorted. “They would damn well take any woman they wanted. Besides, Jazid doesn’t have priestesses. Their temples serve the Shadow Dragon.”
“The Shadow Dragon is evil.”
“Oh, Ginger.”
“He’s not a myth.”
He w
rapped his arms around her. “I certainly have no doubt the nomads exist. They won’t get near you. I swear it.”
“But I don’t understand why they were in Sky Flames.” It was ludicrous to think they would travel to some isolated village in Taka Mal on the off chance they might find a nubile priestess to carry off.
“They might be the ones who attacked me,” Darz said uneasily. “I was actually glad your Elder sentenced me to stay up on that promontory. It was the most inaccessible place in this region, and he posted guards to ensure I didn’t sneak off. I was safer there than in town.”
“But it gets so cold! And how did you bring supplies?”
His voice lightened. “You should have more confidence in your husband. I’ve dealt with worse conditions in training exercises.” After a pause, he admitted, “Carrying my gear up wasn’t easy. But once I was there, I just wrapped up in the blankets and slept for most of four days.”
“So even if the nomads knew, they couldn’t get to you.”
“Apparently.” He shifted his arms protectively around her. “Or they might have nothing to do with me. They may just be travelers looking for Taka Mal women.”
“Whatever for?”
He answered obliquely. “Jazid is an incredibly wealthy country. They have even richer mineral deposits than we do. But the population is sparse, given the rough land and climate. They’ve long offered incentives to miners to immigrate—free land in the most lucrative areas. In return, the miner gives a portion of his profits to the government.”
“It sounds sensible,” Ginger said. “But I don’t see what that has to do with Taka Mal women.”
“Only men come. Few women want to go to a country with such harsh laws, where legally they’re property.” He shifted her in his hold. “And girl infants don’t always receive the same care as boys. So their mortality rate is higher. Add it all together, century after century, and you get an imbalance. Estimates of their population range from sixty to eighty percent male.”
“Gods,” she murmured. “That’s even worse than Sky Flames.”
He guided Grayrider more to the north. “Taka Mal had similar problems in the past. We’ve changed a lot, though, and the balance is much better here. But in Jazid the customs are too entrenched. The rarer women become, the more restricted their lives.”
It sounded unpleasant. “I can’t imagine Sky Flames would be a place to look for more. There’s so few of us.”
“It would be an odd choice,” he acknowledged.
She shivered in his arms, though the day was warming as the sun rose. “Maybe those riders were spirit executioners sent by the Shadow Dragon to find you.”
“Shadows, eh? I better watch out.”
“Don’t laugh. You were the one who told me about them.”
“I did?”
“Yes. Or perhaps you said assassins.”
“Oh. You mean the political sect.” The humor faded from his voice. “They’re very much men, not spirits. Supposedly the former King of Jazid, the Atajazid D’az Ozar, formed their sect. It could just be a story, though.”
Her alarm surged. “Darz! They must be looking for you. They might try to assassinate you again.”
“Slow down,” he said, laughing. “We don’t even know if the assassins exist, much less that two Jazid nomads who happen by your village are secret killers out to get me, of all people.”
“Have you ever antagonized anyone in the Jazid army?”
He didn’t answer, and that made her wonder.
Eventually he did say, “No, I don’t think so.”
She spoke uneasily. “Why did you wait so long to answer?”
“I know nothing about you. Yet you want me to trust you.”
She blinked at that. “You mean you don’t?”
“How do I know you have nothing to do with those nomads?”
“How can you even ask such a thing?”
His breath stirred her hair. “What happened to me was no robbery that escalated into violence. They wanted me dead, and the harder I fought, the more viciously they ripped me apart. Now you’re bothered because I don’t trust the lovely, vulnerable maiden who tended me back to health and I somehow ended up married to her under threat of death from her brother. A girl I really don’t know at all. Would you trust you, if you were me?”
“Probably not,” she admitted. Softly she said, “We live in such a violent world. It’s a wonder any of us survive.”
“I know. And something else.” Tension crackled in his voice.
“Yes?”
“We had trouble getting to you in the plaza last night. It wasn’t just the sentinels trying to stop us. The place was crowded with people who wouldn’t let us by.”
“But you got through.” She would be forever grateful.
“Well, that’s just the thing, Ginger. Everyone suddenly started to run away. Not from us. From the plaza.”
“Oh.” She knew what he was getting at now. Sweat broke out on her brow.
“I might believe that sparks from the stake started fires in one or two of the buildings around the plaza,” he told her. “But all of them? At exactly the same moment?”
“The Dragon-Sun was making his displeasure known.”
“Like hell.”
Ah, well. She hadn’t really expected that to work. She gazed at the topaz desert with its rolling landscape. “What do you think caused it, Darz?”
“What I think,” he said, “is that you don’t need that rock to do spells.”
She decided that was better left unanswered, lest she provoke him into abandoning her out here.
“Ginger, answer me,” he said.
“I don’t know what you expect me to say.”
“This dragon-powder Kindle created—I think it may have a great deal of military potential.”
She wasn’t sure why he switched topics, but it relieved her. “You saw what it could do.”
“He says you told him how to make it.”
“Not me. A scroll in the archive. The one he gave me last night just before we left.”
“Did you make that up so he wouldn’t suspect you caused the explosions?”
“What!” She saw what he was getting at. “I absolutely did not cause any explosions, Darz Goldstone.”
“No explosions.”
“None!”
“Just fires.”
“Yes.” Too late, she realized what she had admitted. “Damn,” she muttered.
He chuckled. “I thought priestesses didn’t know such language.”
He was devilishly clever. Would he condemn her now that he realized the extent of her transgressions?
“How do you do it?” Darz said.
Ginger blinked. In Sky Flames, they had only one response for unwelcome behavior: censure the guilty person. A simple, “How do you do it?” was outside of her experience.
“I don’t know,” was all she could say.
“I had thought it was linked to your opal,” he mused. “But I had the rock when the fires in the plaza started.”
“I thought it was the opal, too.” She felt defenseless, exposing her vulnerability. “But it may be the shape. A round window in the Arch-Tower worked. It wasn’t as strong, but it was larger, so it gave—gave me—” She stopped. After years of hiding, she couldn’t reveal so much, especially not here, where she had nowhere to go if he cast her off.
“What’s wrong?” he said.
“Are you going to turn me out?”
“Gods above, why would I do that?”
“They did in the village.” To put it mildly.
“That was their stupidity.” His hair rustled as he shook his head. “Look at what they had. A priestess who genuinely wanted to improve their lives, someone who enjoyed dedicating her life to them. A girl who shouldered far more responsibility for their temple than they had any right to expect, and who has done it since she was a child. Without complaining. Someone who found time to educate herself, and who knew how to unearth valuable knowledge
in their archives. Someone who might have abilities that could benefit their entire village, gifts of warmth, light, comfort. An incredibly beautiful girl that the men in that town should have been down on their knees courting. And what did the idiots do with this gift from the gods? Try to burn her at the stake. Right. They didn’t deserve you, Ginger-Sun.”
His viewpoint was so different, it took a while to turn it around in her thoughts. Finally she said, “You have an unusual way of seeing things.”
“That was tactful.” He gave his vigorous laugh. “Better than, ‘You’re a strange man, Darz Goldstone.’”
Ginger began to relax. Apparently he didn’t plan to turn her out. In fact, he didn’t seem angry at all.
“Tell me something,” he said. “If I had asked you to go away with me before all this happened, would you have?”
Leave the familiar? He had the allure of the unknown, of exciting places and events, but she couldn’t have imagined her life away from Sky Flames.
“The elders would never have allowed it,” she said.
“What about what you wanted?”
“They choose a husband for the priestess.”
“For flaming sake. That practice stopped ages ago.”
“Not in Sky Flames.”
He gave a snort. “You know why? Because they all wanted you in their bed. They didn’t want to admit it, though, because they aren’t supposed to think of you that way.”
“Darz!” Her face was hot. “You think about sex too much.”
His laugh softened. “What do you expect, when I have my sexy bride sitting in front of me with her body rubbing mine every time the horse takes a damn step? It’s driving me mad.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Is this where I get to slap you?” She would have never dared tease a man in Sky Flames that way. She didn’t know what possessed her to do it now.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Darz grumbled. “You’ll never let me forget.” Although he kissed the back of her neck. “I saw you smile, Ginger. Someday yet I may get you to laugh.”
She flushed, and this time it wasn’t from embarrassment. He stirred reactions she wasn’t ready for, she enjoyed them.
But then she said, “I think not yet.”