Sword Maker-Sword Dancer 3 (24 page)

compete with Del. "He's taking me to bed! I'm going to win the wager!"

Del smiled coolly. "By all means."

"Wait a minute," I said, scenting trouble. "Right now I don't much care about who's taking who to bed--that can wait till later... what I want to know--"

Del interrupted. "You never could wait before."

I smacked down the brimming cup. Aqivi ran over my hand. "Look, bascha--"

Kima looked Del up and down. "You don't belong in here. What are you doing here?

There's no room for another girl. And you can't have him."

Del's smile widened. "I already have."

Women can be nasty... I stood up, scraping my stool so hard it fell over against

the wall, and looked Del dead in the eye, which isn't a problem for me. "Can you

just wait a minute? I'm trying to find out something."

Del assessed Kima. "Five coppers, perhaps."

"No, no--" I began, but Kima was swearing in outrage.

By this time the turmoil was of interest to the rest of the cantina. I overheard

wagers being laid on which of the women would win. Or if either would be worth

it.

Which made me want to swing Del around bodily so all could see what she was; the

wager would be ended before it was properly begun. Then again, putting Del on display was not a thing I wanted to do, since it was hardly a compliment to treat a woman as an ornament.

Besides, she'd probably kill me.

I turned back to Kima. "You said--"

"Go with her!" Kima cried. "Do you think I care? Do you think you're worth it?

I've had sword-dancers better than you. I've had sword-dancers bigger than you--"

"How do you know?" Del asked.

I swore. "Will you just--? Del, wait... Kima!" But she was gone, flouncing across the cantina. It gave me leave to turn back to Del. "Do you have any idea

what you just did?"

"If you want her that--"

"That's not it!" I scraped a hand through my hair, attempting to control my tone. "What I was trying to find out was what she meant about a man claiming to

be my son."

"Your son?" Del's brows rose as she hooked a stool with a boot and pulled it out

from under the table. "I didn't know you had a son."

"I don't--oh, hoolies, bascha, let's just forget about it. Let's just sit here

and drink."

Del eyed my mug. "You've been doing that already."

I righted my stool and sat down. "Did you get us a room?"

"Two rooms; yes."

I blinked. "Two rooms? Why?"

"To make it easier for you. So you can win your wager."

"To hoolies with the wager." I was a bit put out. I was feeling a bit kindlier

toward Del of late, since she'd finally admitted she was wrong, and wasn't of a

mind to make the wager stick. It really was a silly sort of thing, anyway, and I

didn't see the sense in continuing the farce. After all, we were both healthy people with normal appetites, and it had been quite some time since we'd shared

a bed.

Del smiled. "Giving up so easily?"

"I figure we've taken that wager about as far as we can go with it."

Del's tone was very solemn. "It was undertaken properly."

"I don't care. I don't care. Let's forget the wager."

Now her face matched her tone. "We can't. I think two rooms would be best.

And

not just for the wager... I need the time alone. I need the time to focus."

"Focus?" I frowned. "I don't quite understand."

"For the kill." Del's attitude was matter-of-fact.

"So? You'll just kill him. It's what you've come to do. It's what you've been meaning to do for six whole years."

Del frowned. "Before, it would have been easy. But now ..." Her voice trailed off. She looked at the table, picked at knife and sword scars, flicked bits of

wood away with a grimace of distaste. "I'm different now. The task is the same,

but I'm a different person." She didn't look at me. "I've been changed."

"Del--"

Pale-lashed lids lifted. Blue eyes stared at me. "There was a time when it would

have taken no effort at all, my task. When it was my whole world. When it was all I thought of. And the doing would have been sweet, because it was all I wanted."

I waited in silence, transfixed by her intensity.

"But you have changed me, Tiger. You have blundered into my life and changed the

way I think. Changed the way I feel." Her mouth tightened slightly. "It's not what I wanted. It was never what I wanted. But now you are here, and I find myself confused. I find myself distracted--and distraction can be dangerous."

Distraction could be lethal.

"And so I will ask the gods and my sword to aid me in this. To help me focus myself, so I can complete my task without additional confusion. Without the distraction."

I stared at her intently. "Didn't you try that before? The night we met up again?"

Color came and went in her face. "You saw?"

"I saw." I wasn't proud of it. "Del, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know

what you were doing, out there in the trees with that magicked sword. So I went

to see for myself."

She wasn't pleased. "And I will ask it again. Again and again, if need be. I must regain my focus."

"If you mean to strip all the humanity away just to make yourself capable of killing Ajani, maybe it's not worth it."

Blue eyes flickered minutely. The mouth went hard and flat. "I have sworn oaths."

I sighed. "All right. I give up. Do what you have to do." I eyed her askance, assessing her commitment. "But if distance is what you want, don't play games with me. I hate women who play games."

"I never play games."

She never had; that was true. It didn't mean she couldn't.

I shoved the jug across the table. "Drink."

Del appropriated my cup. "Do you really have a son?"

"I told you before, bascha: not as far as I know."

"Yes, I remember... it's not something you think about."

"And I don't plan to talk about it--at least, not with you." I recaptured the jug and drank straight out of it, gulping aqivi down.

Del sipped her share. "But you could," she observed.

I scowled. "I could, yes. I could have several sons. I could have many sons; why? Do you want to go find them all?"

"No. But they--or even just he--might want to find you." She glanced across at

Kima, now sitting on another man's knee. "He obviously knows who you are, if he's bragging about you in cantinas."

I thought about it. Maybe if I had a famous father I'd brag about him, too--but

I wasn't so sure I liked being the subject. It's one thing to be bragged about;

it's another thing having a total stranger claim himself close kin. The closest

of kin.

Del sipped delicately. "The innkeeper asked a fortune. When I threatened to take

our business elsewhere, he gave me leave to go, saying the inn was nearly full,

and it was the same all over Harquhal because of the Oracle. That everyone's coming here."

Still thinking of my "son," I shifted attention with effort. "What?"

"The Oracle," she repeated. "Do you recall what the holy man in Ysaa-den foretold?"

"Oh. That." I waved a dismissive hand. "There's no reason for us--or anyone else--to go to Iskandar. Oracle or no."

Del studied her cup. "People are going," she said.

"I thought you just said people are coming here."

"First," she agreed. "Do you know where Iskandar is?"

"Someplace off over there." I waved my hand again: northeasterly.

"A little more that way." Del mimicked my gesture, but indicated a slight shift

in direction to north-northeast. "The innkeeper said Harquhal is the last true

settlement before Iskandar, so people are stopping here to buy supplies."

"Iskandar is a ruin."

"That's why they're buying supplies."

I upended the jug and drank more aqivi. Then thumped the jug back down. "And I

suppose this chatty innkeeper believes in this Oracle. Believes in this messiah."

Del shrugged. "I don't know what he believes. I know only what he told me, which

is that people are going to Iskandar."

I couldn't hide my disgust. "Because the jhihadi is coming again."

She turned her cup in circles, watching her fingers move. "People need things,

Tiger. For some it is religion, for others it is the dreams born of huva weed.

I

say nothing about what is good and bad, or right and wrong--only that people need in order to survive." Her voice was very quiet. "For me, after Ajani's attack, I needed revenge. That need helped me to live." Now her gaze left the cup and came up to meet my own. "You have needed, too. It's how you survived your enslavement. It's how you survived Aladar's mine."

I didn't answer for a long moment. And then when I did, I said nothing about myself or the months spent in the mine. "So, you're saying that people need this

Oracle to be right. Because they need a jhihadi."

Del lifted a shoulder. "A messiah is a very special kind of sorcerer, is he not?

Can he not do magical things? Can he not heal the sick and cure the lame and make rain to replenish a land sucked dry by years of drout?"

I grunted. "Is that what he's supposed to do?"

Del shifted on her stool. "When I walked to the inn, I heard talk on the street

of the Oracle. When I came back the same way, I heard talk of the jhihadi."

She

shrugged. "The Oracle has foretold the coming of a man who can change sand to grass."

"Sand to grass? Sand to grass?" I frowned. "What for, bascha?"

"So people can live in the desert."

"People do live in the desert. I live in the desert."

Del sighed a little. "Tiger, I am only telling you what I heard. Have I said I

believed any of it? Have I said I believed in Oracles or jhihadis?"

Not exactly. But she sounded halfway convinced.

I shrugged, started to say something, was interrupted by an arrival. A man stood

by our table. Southroner, by the look of him; dark-haired, dark-eyed, tanned skin. About forty or so, and showing all his teeth. Some of them were missing.

"Sandtiger?" he asked.

I nodded wearily; I wasn't in the mood.

The smile widened. "Ah, so I thought! He described you very well." He bowed briefly, flicked a glance at Del, looked immediately back to me. "May I have more aqivi sent over? It would be an honor to buy you a jug."

"Wait," I suggested. "Who described me so well?"

"Your son, of course. And he was quite complimentary--" He frowned minutely.

"Although he said nothing of a beard."

I wasn't concerned about the beard. Only about my "son." Evenly, I asked.

"What

was his name? Did my 'son' give you a name?"

The man frowned briefly, considered it, then shook his head. "No. No, he didn't.

He said merely he was the Sandtiger's cub, and told us stories about your adventures."

"Adventures," I echoed. "I'm beginning to wonder about them myself." I pushed back my stool and rose. "Thanks for the offer, but I have an appointment.

Perhaps tomorrow night."

The man was clearly disappointed, but made no protest. He bowed himself out of

my way and went back to his friends at another table.

Del, still seated, smiled. "Does the girl win her wager, then?"

"What girl--oh. No." I scowled. "I'm going to the inn. Do you want to come?"

"Tired already? But you've only had one jug of aqivi." Del rose smoothly. "It was like this in Ysaa-den, too... perhaps age has slowed you down." She shoved

her stool back under the table. "Or is it knowing you have a son?"

"No," I said testily, "it's carrying this sword."

Del went out of the cantina ahead of me and stepped into the dark street.

"Why

should carrying that sword make you feel tired?"

"Because Chosa Dei wants out."

Del gestured. "This way." Then, as we walked, "It's getting worse, then."

I shrugged. "Let's just say, Chosa has finally realized what sort of prison he's

in."

"You have to be stronger, Tiger. You have to be vigilant."

"What I have to be, bascha, is rid of Chosa Dei." I sidestepped a puddle of urine. "Where is this inn with the chatty innkeeper?"

"Right here," Del answered, turning away from the street. "I told him you would

pay."

"I'd pay! Why? Don't you have any coin?"

Del shook her head. "I paid swordgild to Staal-Ysta. I have nothing at all."

It silenced me. I'd forgotten about swordgild, the blood-money owed Staal-Ysta

if a life were ended unfairly. The voca had taken everything from Del: money, daughter, lifestyle. I'd nearly taken her life.

We went inside the inn and called for the innkeeper, who came out from behind a

curtained divider. He took my coin, nodded his thanks, then welcomed me warmly.

"It is an honor having the Sandtiger as a guest."

I muttered appropriate things, then added an extra coin. "I want a bath in the

morning. And I want the water hot."

"I will see to it myself." Then, as I turned toward the curtain, "I have given

you the same room I gave your son. I thought it might please you. And he liked

hot water, too."

I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Never mind," Del said.

"I don't have--"

"Never mind, Tiger." And pushed me through the curtain.

Four

With knees doubled up nearly to chin, I sat gingerly in hot water. It wasn't particularly comfortable--the innkeeper's cask was too small--but at least I could get wet. Part of me, anyway; the rest would have to be hand-washed instead

of soaking clean.

Del came in without knocking, carrying a bundle. "A pretty sight," she observed.

And then, half-hiding a smile--but only half-heartedly--she suggested a larger

cask. "You don't really fit in this one."

I scowled at her blackly. "I'd like a bigger cask. I'd love a bigger cask.