not sleek-fleshed like this. A scent of rich perfume came from her body, not the clean fragrance of wind and wild things he had come to associate with her.
This was not Sioned.
A sudden flare of fire outside in the brazier reshaped and sharpened the shadows within the tent. The woman turned her head in alarm, and Rohan got a good look at her profile. The violence of his reaction made him shove her completely off the bed and she sprawled on the carpet, sobbing for breath.
“Ianthe,” he whispered at the same time the guards outside shouted that there was fire.
“Hide me!” she pleaded frantically. “If anyone finds me here—”
“Get out! I don’t give a damn what happens to you!” He rose and tore the blanket from the bed to cover his nakedness, feeling sick. “I’ll distract them, but you’ll have to run fast. Go on!”
“Rohan, please—”
Her face was eerily lit in blue by the flames through the silken tent. “You want to be found in here with me!”
“Yes!”
He hauled her up by an elbow and shook her. “Did you think you’d force me into marriage by tricking me into dishonoring you? You fool! Get out!”
“You wanted me!” she flung at him.
“Shut up.” He pulled her over to the entrance and drew one of the flaps aside. The guards were trying to stamp out the small fire that had leaped from the brazier onto the grass. “If you’re here when I come back, I’ll see to it everyone knows you for the whore you are. Wait until I’ve got their attention, then run!”
He pushed through the flaps and tightened the blanket around his waist, feeling a total fool. He ordered the guards to run and get water buckets; they obeyed. Only he glimpsed Ianthe’s flight. Other people emerged sleepy-eyed from their tents, and Rohan sent them back with calming words. The fire was out, and there was no more danger.
When all was quiet, he returned to the brazier. The green grass should not have caught fire. He inspected the patch that was now soaked with water, expecting to find it charred. It was not. There had been no fire—not of the usual kind.
Rohan looked around him, and in the far shadows thought he saw a slim shape in a dark dress. He started for her, but one of the guards approached him with apologies.
“My lord, I don’t know how it happened! The fire leaped right up out of the brazier!”
“Never mind. No damage done.” He went back inside his tent, for the shadow had vanished. Just inside the doorway he stopped as his bare feet contacted a few small, hard objects on the carpet. He bent, picked them up, and slowly smiled. How had she gotten them in here? he wondered. While Ianthe was leaving and he was speaking to the others? It seemed probable.
“So you yourself were watching over me tonight,” he whispered. “May I always defend you as effectively, love.”
He held the stones a little while longer, then placed them in his jewel coffer next to the emeralds he’d won that day.
Chapter Fourteen
Against every evidence of the night’s wispy clouds, the next dawn saw a prodigious downpour that kept everyone in their tents until at least noon. Most of the highborns woke at the first thunder, heard the rain, shrugged, and rolled over to go back to sleep. Their suites did much the same, except for a few luckless souls who had to get fires started in anticipation of the inevitable morning calls for steaming hot taze later on.
Lady Palila’s servants on board the barge were fortunate. They had no need to rig up protection for cookfires, and could provide her and her early guest with a full breakfast prepared in the galley. If they were astounded that it was Princess Pandsala who shared their mistress’ meal, they spoke of it only in whispers, and only among themselves.
“So Ianthe tried to make a whore of herself last night,” Palila said, her eyes mirroring the satisfaction in Pandsala’s. “From what I’ve seen of our golden-haired hero, he’s not the type to appreciate it.”
“You should have seen her, coming back to the tent with her hair in tangles and her feet covered in dirt.” Pandsala laughed.
“She’s still there, pretending she went for a walk and took a chill so she won’t have to face anyone. I wish her much joy of Naydra’s remedies.”
“And Lenala’s scintillating conversation! It was good of you to come tell me about it and keep me company