Fortunately the searcher paused to examine the travel pouches. He bent over to open the clasps, intent on examining the contents. Sariana gathered herself, felt the scarlet-toe gather itself simultaneously, and then she shoved at the wine cask with all her might. Lucky hissed.
The man below jerked upright as he heard the scrape of wood on wood. The beam of his light caught the cask as it toppled downward and he cried out in startled anger.
Sariana watched, frozen in shock as the man tried to throw himself to one side. He was going to dodge the cask, she thought. Frantically she shoved at the next barrel in line and then the one stacked next to it.
A loud, groaning rumble filled the warehouse as half a dozen small casks of expensive wine went crashing down onto the hard floor. Somewhere in the midst of the noise a man’s scream rose shrilly and then ended with heart-stopping suddenness. The vapor lamp winked out.
A moment later the last of the cascading barrels rolled to a halt and all was quiet.
Moving unsteadily, Sariana climbed down the large casks to the floor below. The scarlet-toe was hissing softly again.
Sariana tripped and nearly fell when her bare toe struck a fallen cask. Stifling an exclamation of pain, she scrambled through the maze of toppled casks, seeking her travel pouches.
She stumbled over the intruder’s still form first and nearly screamed. But the man did not move. Sariana untangled herself from his short cape and frantically groped for her things. They were splashed with wine. She could smell it in the darkness and feel the dampness under her fingers.
Shoving her feet back into her slippers, she folded her travel cloak over one arm and grabbed up the pouches.
“Let’s get out of here,” she whispered to the scarlet-toe who signaled its agreement with a low grumble. Sariana was intent only on fleeing the warehouse. “This is all Gryph’s fault. I wouldn’t be in this awful position if it wasn’t for him. And since I am in this mess, you’d think the least he could do would be to come to my rescue. But no, I have to rescue myself. Typical of a man not to be around when you need him. They’re more than ready to hop into bed with a woman but where are they when she’s in trouble?”
She was chattering to the scarlet-toe out of anxiety, Sariana realized. It was ridiculous. It was a sign of how badly frayed her nerves were.
Finding the small warehouse door she let herself out onto the street where she struggled to balance her burdens.
“We should report this to the town guards,” she muttered to the lizard. “But if we stop long enough to do that we’ll never get away.”
She hesitated, torn between civic duty and the need to escape. In the end the need to get out of town won. Sariana hurried down the empty street toward the wharf.
She reached the waterfront and heaved a sigh of relief. Dawn was still an hour away, but here and there vapor lamps provided enough light to see the outlines of the windriggers tied up to the docks. The sleek sailing ships creaked in the darkness and water slapped the pilings.
Sariana saw no one as she made her way toward the nearest windrigger. She wondered how long she would have to wait before she found a captain willing to let her book passage.
Sariana was making her way along a pier when the scarlet-toe hissed in her ear. She froze, aware that she was once more being stalked.
Sariana whirled around, dropping the travel pouches and her cloak. A man loomed up out of the darkness. He wasn’t more than a few meters away from her. The wings of a short, hooded cape that shielded his features were pushed back over his shoulders, freeing his arms. In one hand he held an object Sariana knew must be a blade bow.
This time there was no place to hide and she could not outrun a blade bow. She was trapped.
“You have given us more trouble than we expected,” the man grated. “But it’s over now. You will come with me, woman, or I will put a blade through your throat. Come here.”
Sariana darted toward the edge of the pier, seeking the dubious safety of the black water below. Anything was better than facing a blade bow. She saw the man’s hand lift higher as he swore viciously and took aim. She was never going to make it into the cold waters of the bay. She tried to scream, but no sound emerged from her tight throat.
But in the next instant someone else started to scream. The man aiming the blade bow jerked violently and the sound was choked off. He started to turn toward the dark alley that separated two warehouses but he never made it. He was already falling. He toppled over the edge of the pier, clutching at his chest. There was a moment of horrifying silence and then a soft splash announced his entry into the water.
Sariana swung her stunned gaze toward the alley just as Gryph stepped out into the pale glow of a vapor lamp. He was resealing the weapon kit as he strode toward her.
A dizzying sense of relief swept through Sariana. Without a second’s hesitation she ran toward him.
“Gryph Chassyn! By the Storm, you bastard, it’s about time you got here. This is all your fault, do you hear me? Twice I’ve nearly been robbed and murdered tonight. Twice. And it’s all your damn fault.”
Gryph opened his arms and she flung herself against him. He absorbed the impact easily, locking her tightly into his strength.
“I appreciate punctuality in a woman,” he grated into her hair as she buried her face against his shirt. “But you didn’t have to get to the wharf this early. We aren’t scheduled to sail for another hour.”
In that moment Sariana gave up. She was literally shaking with relief. She buried herself in Gryph’s warmth, savoring his reassuring strength. There was no point running from him. A part of her would always be glancing back over her shoulder to see if he was following. She knew that with a deep certainty. For a long moment she clung to him and he held her without speaking, his arms hard and protective.
“It would appear half of Serendipity was following me tonight,” Sariana finally muttered, pushing hair out of her eyes.
“If you hadn’t convinced yourself that you had to try to escape me, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself into this mess.” Gryph took hold of her arm and started back along the pier to where she had dropped her travel pouches and cloak. “I want your word of honor you won’t pull another stunt like this, Sariana. By the time I realized you had left the villa, it was almost too late.”
A large portion of her initial relief gave way to the more familiar sense of frustration. “Why should I promise you anything?”
“Because I’m your husband and you owe me at least some measure of respect.”
He picked up her travel pouches and handed her the cloak. The first tendrils of dawn lit his eyes as he looked down at her. Sariana saw his quietly implacable expression and wished she knew how to fight it. She was too tired to figure out what to do next. She had been through too much during the past few days.
“How many times do I have to explain to you that I don’t consider myself married?” Sariana asked wearily as she put on her cloak. The scarlet-toe hopped around, adjusting itself until it was happily perched on the shoulder of the outer garment.
“You are married. Sariana. And I want your word that you won’t run from me again.”
“Why? Because you don’t want to be put to the nuisance of coming after me?”
He shook his head. “No. Because it’s too dangerous for you. I almost lost you tonight. As it was, things were much too close. I don’t want to go through that again. By the way, when we’re safely on board the ship you can tell me exactly what happened in that warehouse.”
Sariana was violently aware of the morning chill in the air. “You found the first man?” she asked in a low whisper.
“I found him. I’ve been a few minutes behind you ever since you left the villa. Unfortunately, it took me a while to figure out which way you’d gone. By the time I did, those two clanless outlaws had picked up your trail. You’ll never know how I felt when I discover
ed the first one.”
“Was he dead?” Sariana was afraid of the answer.
“No. But he won’t wake up for quite a while. Probably not until the warehouse manager finds him later on this morning. The assumption will be that he tried to steal a few casks of wine. That should get him locked up for a decent length of time. As for the other one…” Gryph finished the sentence with a careless shrug.
“What about him?” Sariana demanded as Gryph led her along the pier. “We should find a town guard and report this incident.”
“None of this concerns the town guards. It’s Shield business.”
“Damn it, you keep saying that. What do the Shields care about a couple of street thieves?”
“The man who ended up in the bay tonight was the one who attacked me the night of the ball. He’s probably the one who killed Brinton. As for the one whose head you dented with a wine cask, he was undoubtedly the accomplice who helped the murderer to escape the first time.”
Sariana was dumbfounded. “You didn’t tell me Brinton had been killed. You mean you think the two men who trailed me tonight were involved with the theft of the cutter?’
“Yes. But even if they had been just a random pair of thieves roaming the streets in search of easy prey, they would still be Shield business.”
“Why is that?”
“Because they chose you to hunt down,” Gryph explained. “And you are most definitely Shield property.”
“I want to go home,” Sariana said in a small voice. “I’ve had enough of this crazy place. I just want to go home.”
“One of these days I’ll take you to your new home. In the meantime, we have a journey to complete.”
“Why must I accompany you?” she demanded.
“Because I can’t take the risk of leaving you behind while I go after the cutter.”
“You’re afraid I’ll run away from you?”
He shook his head. “That’s the least of my concerns. I can always find you if you decide to run, Sariana. Remember that. Even if you go all the way back to Rendezvous I’d find you.”
“But in Rendezvous you would no longer have any claim on me,” she pointed out. “Under the laws of the eastern provinces I’m not married.”
“My claim on you is not dependent on any law. I think, deep inside yourself, you know that. It’s the real reason you tried to run from me this morning.”
She ignored that because she was getting very tired of arguing the point. It was hard to argue with someone who arrogantly refused to see the logic or justice of his opponent’s side. Sariana walked beside Gryph in silence for a few moments. With every step she felt increasingly trapped.
“You said you aren’t afraid I’ll run away if you leave me behind. So why are you afraid to take the risk of leaving me here?” she finally asked moodily.
“Whoever is responsible for stealing the prisma cutter has probably figured out what I’m doing on the scene. I think he’s also learned that you are involved with me. That’s why those two were after you. It wouldn’t take much intelligence to decide to use you to stop me.”
“Why would whoever it is make the assumption that I’m a vulnerable point for you?”
“Because you are a vulnerable point,” he said simply. “You’re my Shieldmate. Everyone in the western provinces understands how important a Shieldmate is to her lord and his clan.”
“Everyone except me.”
Gryph smiled crookedly. “But you’re learning, aren’t you?”
A typical summer dawn broke over the distant mountains a short time later. Sariana watched it from the deck of a windrigger in full sail. She gazed at the coastline slipping past and listened to the creak and snap of the skillfully designed sails. The ships of the western provinces were faster and more maneuverable than those of the east. Sailing was another area in which the experimentally inclined westerners excelled. The westerners were even working on a vapor fueled engine that might someday power their sleek ships.
Sariana was feeling resentful of clever westerners and just about everything else this morning. Life had not seemed very fair lately.
Soon she would have to go below to the cabin Gryph had booked. She had avoided it until now because she did not want to face the single bed she would find there. There was very little possibility that Gryph had booked himself into a separate cabin and she knew it. As far as he was concerned, he was a married man. Furthermore, he had decided she was in need of protection.
After what had happened in the dark hours before dawn, Sariana was forced to wonder if Gryph was right about that last detail. Two men were dead and she had almost been kidnapped. The search for the prisma cutter had turned into a far more serious affair than she had anticipated.
It was frightening the way things had a habit of getting out of control in the west. Sariana sighed. Just when she had thought she was making progress toward her ultimate goal of salvaging her future, everything had gone wrong.
The scarlet-toe hissed in sympathy and cuddled closer into the curve of Sariana’s shoulder.
“What am I going to do now?” Sariana asked the scarlet-toe.
“Unpack,” Gryph suggested as he came up behind her. He leaned one arm on the rail and looked down at her.
Sariana jumped and fixed him with a brief glare. Then she pretended to study the shoreline once more. “Gryph, we have got to talk about this situation. We’ve got to come to some sort of understanding.”
“It all seems clear to me. What is it you don’t understand?”
Sariana’s hands tightened on the rail. “You simply are not going to be reasonable about this, are you?”
“You have no idea of how reasonable, patient and understanding I am being,” he told her.
She bit off her useless protest and stood beside him in depressed silence.
Gryph was quiet for a while, too, but in the end he was the one who broke the charged silence with a weary groan. He leaned both of his arms on the rail and looked out to sea.
“You probably won’t believe this, but I didn’t intend things between us to become so complicated, Sariana. I swear I had every intention of going slowly. I told myself I would give you time and court you carefully. I knew you were unaccustomed to our ways and I wanted to introduce you to them gently. But the other night when I stupidly let myself get sliced by that blade, everything changed. I went to bed groggy from the painkiller the medic had given me and I woke up with a fever. When I saw you sitting in the chair beside my bed all I could think about was how much I wanted you. You wanted me, too. I knew that beyond a doubt. I decided I would explain all the details in the morning. But the next morning you were all business again, intent on keeping me at arm’s length while you decided what to do next. You wouldn’t even listen to me. It was as if nothing important had happened between us during the night.”
“As far as I was concerned, the only thing that had occurred was a rather unpleasant attempt to start an affair with you. I should have known better. I can’t understand what prompted me to even think about getting involved with you in that way. I must have been out of my mind.”
Gryph winced. “I know it wasn’t the most auspicious beginning for a relationship.”
“It certainly was not,” she shot back. “I’m still sore in places.” Then she flushed and gritted her teeth as she realized what she had said.
“I’ve told you, I’m sorry about that. Please believe me, I had no idea the link would be that strong. Nobody warned me, either. But with practice we can both learn to control the crossover effects.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sariana stormed, “but I do know that on top of everything else that happened that night you lied to me.”
He stiffened and the humble apology went out of his voice. “I’m not accustomed to being labeled a liar. The fact that you’re my Shieldmate does not give you any special
privileges when it comes to making such accusations.”
“Don’t go all haughty and arrogant on me, Gryph. You lied to me and that’s a fact.”
“What, precisely, did I lie to you about?” he demanded icily.
“You said you were as inexperienced as I was!” She lifted her chin and waited for him to admit the falsehood.
Gryph relaxed slightly and turned back to the rail. “Oh, that.”
“Yes, that.”
“Well, it was true. I have never linked with any other woman.”
“I’m not talking about linking, whatever that is. I’m talking about sex, damn it. Pure, simple, straightforward sex. You were no virgin, Gryph Chassyn,” Sariana accused.
“I’m supposed to apologize for that, too?”
She glared at his profile, uncertain of his mood. “Are you laughing at me?”
He shook his head quickly. “No. I swear I’m not. I’m just realizing that there was a slight communication problem that night and you got the wrong impression. For that I apologize.” He made a sweeping gesture with one hand. “Hell, I apologize for everything about the clumsy way I handled our first night together. If anything, my bungling should prove just how inexperienced I was. I wasn’t any more prepared for the crossover effect than you were.”
“What is all this nonsense about a crossover effect?” Sariana demanded.
“It’s what happens when a Shield and his Shieldmate make love.”
Sariana’s eyes widened as she remembered the explosion of pain and passion and the way she had seemed to be absorbing everything he had been feeling that night as well as her own jumble of sensations.
“You’re telling me I wasn’t just hallucinating because of all that punch I drank?” she asked weakly.
“You weren’t hallucinating,” he assured her softly. “We were linked and you were picking up on my feelings as well as your own. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in great shape that night. My shoulder hurt, I was running a fever and I was still recovering from the effects of the medic’s anesthetic. To finish it off, there was the unavoidable discomfort that comes from tuning into the prisma the first time. Poor Sariana. You had enough new sensations of your own to deal with that night. I’m sorry you got hit with everything I was feeling and the prisma, too.”