Page 26 of Tashama
“You are the first he has had in his chambers.”
“Prisoners, you mean.”
“Well, I cannot say about the prince’s personal interest in women, miss.”
The young lady tried to fix the veil to Tashama’s hair, but she brushed it aside. “I don’t wear such a thing on my hair. Take it away.”
“But, miss, the women always wear their hair veiled. To not do so, would entice the men entirely too much.”
“Fix it to your own hair then. I haven’t worn one since I arrived at Maldovia, and I’ve found the men have not come unglued over me here.”
“Unglued, miss?”
“Too interested in me—enticed—whatever it was you said, for heaven’s sakes.”
The lady shook her head as she put the scarf back on the peg. “That’s because you looked so strange before.”
“Strange?” Tashama moved to the window and stood in the breeze.
“Yes, well, your attire for one, and your eyes were blackened like the raccoon. Your arms were shredded. You really were asight. But now—well, now, it would do well for you to follow our customs.”
“I’m not one of you.”
“No, but your own people have the same custom.”
“They do?” Tashama turned to face the lady.
The lady’s lower lip dropped slightly. “Why would you not have known this?” She took a step backward. “Breakfast will be served shortly. Wait here.”
The lady hastened out of the room. Tashama walked through the glassless window onto the tiled path and hurried down one until she came to a wrought-iron gazebo shimmering like white lace in the sunshine. She took a deep breath, then backtracked and headed down a path intersecting with the first. Picking up her pace, she traveled a reasonable distance before voices stopped her dead in her footsteps.
“You let me kiss you yesterday, why not today?” the distinctive deep voice of the prince said.
“You entertained that Karthlander woman in your chambers last evening, I was shocked to learn.”
“Carissian believes she’s a threat to our realm. I’m forced to take extreme measures to learn how so.”
“By wooing her in your chambers? That’s the lamest…oh,” she said, then giggled. “Stop it.” She laughed. “You cannot kiss me in that manner. I forbid it.”
Boots running in the direction of the prince made Tashama take a step back. “The Karthlander prisoners have revolted at the Sheian Compound,” Oshon said.
“And?”
“They made their escape.”
“But the woman wasn’t there to aid them.”
“They found her plans left behind in the healer’s tent.”
Boots clicked on the tile pavement, then the prince said, “How do they know she wrote them?”
“Carissian has examined them, sire. He said it was the same as the writing he had seen her use before.”
The prince stormed down his path with the men, but another ran to intercept him. “The Karthlander woman has slipped out of her room, sire!”
“Find her!” The prince continued on his way.
Tashama ran back along her path and crossed the intersection. This time, she headed straight until the path dead-ended at a ten-foot-tall blue door. She stared at the brass handle for a moment, then touched it. She envisioned the sorcerer’s eyes meeting hers when she felt his presence on the door handle, and she pulled her hand away. Voices headed in her direction, and she turned back to the path.
