Page 38 of Tashama
“She’s angry with you, sire.”
“And I with her.” Aleron folded his arms. “Why do you treat my kindness with an attempt to escape from the palace grounds?”
She twisted a piece of golden straw in her fingers, then snapped it in two. “She says, Your Highness, she won’t be a caged animal. She says you drugged her and tried to take advantage of her in her delicate state.”
“I did not!”
“You deny you drugged me?” She turned to him as her green eyes heated.
“I did not take advantage of you, nor did I make any such attempt, young lady.”
Tashama stared at the gray eyes of the sorcerer. “All right then. Your sorcerer confirms you speak the truth.”
The prince looked at Carissian. “She can read your thoughts?”
“I’m not certain, sire. She blocks my trying to read hers, but…well, I’m not sure.”
“You cannot swim,” Aleron said to Tashama.
“If you say so.”
“She’s swimming in waves of the ocean, sire. I see her diving under the frothing, foaming breakers.”
“She’s tricking you into seeing this. How can she perform such a feat?” He circled Tashama as he studied her. “What does she wear while she swims in the ocean? That strange tunic she wore with the unusual leggings? What?”
“Something similar to what she had on underneath the leggings and tunic, only instead of white and lacy, they were shimmering blue, trimmed in sparkling gold.”
Aleron studied Tashama’s gowns as he tried to visualize her wearing such a garment, then he frowned at her. “Why would you wear such a meager garment as that? Were you trying to catch the attention of the mermen of the sea?”
Tashama smiled. “A prince on the beach would have been more like it.”
Aleron exchanged glances with Carissian. The prince said, “You thought you could ensnare me?”
“Ugh.” Tashama closed her eyes, then opened them. “Heavens forbid. I had no intention of enticing one as mean as you.”
“You were being punished for your disobedience!”
Tashama wrinkled her nose as the breeze carried the scent of the prince’s clothes to her. As two palace guards arrived at the tower, the one said, “You wished the prisoner relocated, Your Highness?”
“To her guest chambers and have the healer look at her injuries again. And post a guard.” Then he stormed out of the room.
Tashama was transportedto her chambers, as Carissian followed close behind. “What is it that you see, Carissian?” she asked.
“How can you swim?”
“I taught myself.”
“Mortals cannot swim.”
She smiled. “So you say.”
“Did you free the men?”
“Of course.”
“You answer my questions freely now.”
“Now you don’t try to steal the answers from me. Ask me what you will.”
