Free The web of wizardry by Juanita Coulson Page B

some of his rough manner replaced with subdued respect. He indicated that Danaer should precede him, then thrust back the drape and a raven-hued gauze beyond it.
    They had arrived at the Zsed's heart. Rich fabric peaked into a high roof, and red and green joined the black and gold among the furnishings' colors. There were many plump cushions and booty chests and a number of carven tables inlaid with gems. One of these was set with wine and meat, and a darkly handsome man sat at the table, enjoying a late meal.
    He had laid aside his mantle, baring his black hair. His sleeves were turned back that he might better rub the power-giving fat of his eating on his flesh. The man did not deign to look up when Danaer and Gordyan entered.
    A woman sat beside him; not so forbidding as her companion, she smiled and rose to greet the Siirn's

    bodyguard and the soldier. "Ah! This is the messenger you promised us, Gordyan?"
    "True it is, and I grant him that he fights well, army though he be."
    Danaer watched the big man sidelong, intrigued by the change in Gordyan. The deep voice had softened and the brute strength was caged. There was even a slight stammer in his words, more than warranted by uncertainty of phrasing. Gordyan's gaze did not stray from the woman but devoured her as a man might the sight of the goddess's image.
    "So, you fight well, soldier?" she asked teasingly. "What else do you do?"
    "My lady, I have a paper from the hand of General Nurdanth, for Sovereign Gordt te Raa."
    "That is a most charming accent, soldier," the woman said. "Now I have placed it—^Nyald. We have not heard good news of Nyald Zsed these past years, I fear. What is your name?"
    "Danaer, of the clan of Tlusai."
    He was trying not to stare boldly at her. The woman's dialect was as outland as Danaer's own, though of northern, not southern, extraction. Her silken brown hair was tied back simply from a fine-boned face, and her eyes were cave-dark, as black as a moonless night. A warrior woman, she wore shirt and breeches and vest, but those emphasized her slender body. A half-skirt and bejeweled tola-belt about her hips marked her bound to a man, and of high caste among the Destre. Despite that, she looked over Danaer frankly, from helmet to sword to boots, then shook her head, bewildered by the contradictions in his dress. As she did, the eiphren suspended upon her high brow sparked with green fire in the light of the tapers. This was a woman out of the ancient tales, one who seemed to radiate a sexuality as old as humanity, and she was most adept at using her femaleness as a weapon.
    A servant rushed into the tented chamber and set down a tray of confections. The woman gawked ingenuously at Danaer. "Why, he is a soldier! Gordyan did not joke about that, Lasiirnte."

    Lasiirnte? Princess of the Azsed?
    Danaer's emotions reeled. Had he been talking so casually with Lasiirnte Kandra, ruler of the Ve-Nya tribes, consort of the Siirn Rena?
    "Bring wine, for later, Esbeti," Kandra said.
    With a sigh, the man at the table pushed away the remnants of his meal and at last regarded Danaer. His face was a mask that revealed nothing, but his dark eyes cut holes through Danaer's hard-bought confidence. This was Gordt te Raa, chieftain of the Vrastre from Deki on the River to the Plains-of-No-Ending beyond Barjokt. He could command the death of an army scout—or an army—^by no more than a nod and a word.
    "Gordyan tells me that you bring a letter from Nur-danth," Gordt te Raa said. There was little patience in his manner and voice. Reluctantly, Danaer delivered the now somewhat soiled paper, then stepped back to his place and waited apprehensively.
    Danaer was impressed to see that Gordt te Raa needed no scribe to translate the scrawling. This was a rare Destre who could read, and he pored over Nur-danth's message thoughtfully. "Your General speaks well, on paper. But dare a Destre trust a lord of The Interior?"
    Uncomfortable in this new role of emissary, Danaer