Alamut Part 43

She tore off her headdress, flung it jangling into the dark.

"It's easy for you. You have lovers."

"Not so many. Not so often."

Her lip curled. "Only once in a season."

"Twice in a score of years, and by G.o.d's mockery, twice at once."

She started, stilled. "I've seen the fi-ank. Who is the other?"

"You."

Her head shook hard enough to rock her on her feet. "Don't lie. I can't stand it. I promise I won't kill her. I'm done with killing."

He laid his palm against her cheek. It was wet.

She did not pull away. "I wanted to make you want me," she said. "When you did ... 0 Allah, I am a coward!"

"Not that, I think. After all. Only new to it."

"And nothing proper or maidenly in me at all."

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She scowled. "Fascinating? I?"

"Utterly."

That," she said. "That is coquetry."

"Gallantry, I beg you. But truth, too. You madden me. I'vehated you beyond reason. But I've never found you dull."

She was like Aldan when he came to Masyaf. She stood within reach of what she had wanted for so long, and she could not imagine what to do with it.

Her eyes were wide, a little wild. He bent; he kissed her. She s.h.i.+vered.

No less than he. He retreated a step, two. He bowed with careful correctness. "For the dance, my thanks."

He was half afraid that she would follow him to his bed; half eager for it. But she did not.

33.

Aidan woke to the scent of spices steeped in wine. He drew a deep breath, and sneezed violently.

Morgiana thrust the cup back under his nose. "I have a bar- gain for you," she said.

He drank, because if he did not, the hot wine would pour itself down his front. Memory came back, hard-edged yet dreamlike.

There was nothing in her now of the dancer or the maiden.

She was all a.s.sa.s.sin again, her hair tightly and repressively braided under the turban.

"Not a.s.sa.s.sin," she said, sharp with impatience. "a.s.sa.s.sins do not wear green."

He s.n.a.t.c.hed the cup out of her hand and drained it. "You drag me out of a sound sleep, and you expect me to make sense?"

"The sun rose an hour ago. I grew tired of waiting." She folded her arms. "I wish to bargain with you."

"May I-"

"No."

He rose in spite of her. He pulled on a garment or two, ran his fingers through his hair. He considered going in search of breakfast, but Morgiana's mood was dangerous. He sat on a cus.h.i.+on, tucked up his feet, and raised a brow. "Well?"

"A bargain," she said. "I will free you from this place, inter- cede for you with Sinan, set you thereafter on any path you may choose."

The breath rushed out of him. "What-why-"

"Sayyida reminded me of a tenet of falconry."

She had gone mad. Or- "This is a trick.""I do not play tricks."

"Neither do you give up. Just like that. And offer to win me the whole of my revenge."

"Why not?"

He clasped his arms tight about his middle. The wine churned there. He could not catch fever, his kind did not, but his head was light; his face burned. "There is a price. Isn't there?"

318 JwUth Twr "Yes."

His arms loosened a fraction. At last; a glimmer of sense.

"What is it?"

-You."

He stared at her.

"*You," she said again. "In my bed. Undl you satisfy me."

He laughed. She did not. The silence lengthened. He leaned forward. "Until I satisfy you? That's all?"

"It is enough."

"What ... if ... I won't?"

"Do you mean that you cannot?"

He stiffened, outraged.

"Is it so high a price?" she asked him. "I give you what you most desire. In return, you give me what I have wanted since I saw you in Jerusalem."

"And if I don't want it? If I'm not to be bought and sold?"

"Then you are a fool."

He struck the floor with his fists. "d.a.m.n it, woman! Do you want me to court you or kill you?"

"I know nothing of courting," she said. "I can only be what I am. Will you bargain?"

"What will a refusal cost me?"

"Imprisonment until you yield. And Sinan goes on with his persecution of your kin."

He rubbed his jaw. She watched him. He lowered his hand.

"Wauld you give me time to think?"

"Until the sunset prayer."She did not grant it gladly, but she granted it, and gener- ously. He could not bring himself to thank her. He finished dressing while she sat there, and left her sitting, eyes fixed on nothing at all.

He went only as far as the clifltop. She was wise enough not to follow, in body or in mind. He set his chin on his knees. He was aware ofSayyida going about her tasks below, Hasan teach- ing himself to run- Morgiana was gone. Her absence was an ache behind his eyes.

What in G.o.d's name had driven her to oner this bargain?

One night of him, in return for so much: his freedom, his vengeance.

Last night she had set out to seduce him. She had gone about it admirably well, until she succeeded. And now, in the morning, this. 319.

She would have been a scandal in Carca.s.sonne.

He was smiling. He bit his lip. He ought to be raging. WB he a Damascus wh.o.r.e, to sell his body for any price?

Even this.

The Church would call it mortal sin.

The Church called him a witch and a child of the devil.

In Islam, even the devil's brood could come to Paradise.

He clutched his head in his hands. Thinking was an art which he had never mastered. He was too much better at do- ing.

His head tossed. No. He must think. Joanna-Joanna whom he loved, who bore his child- Joanna who was another man's wife.

Was there nothing in this world that was either clean or ample?

He summoned up her face, the feel of her flesh under his hands, the scent of her as she took him to her bed; the bright- ness other blood that sprang beneath Morgiana's blade. Hu- man, all of it. Beloved, and human.

As he was not. Not even half of him. Here in this desert place, in his enchanted captivity, he knew that beyond hope or help. A human man would take what was offered, and turn it to his own ends, and never trouble that he had betrayed his lover. Had she not already betrayed her husband?

She would understand. Not forgive, maybe; she was not as much a saint as that. But she would see the logic in this bargain that Morgiana proposed. Women were appallingly logical crea-tures; even women who were human.

And he-what he wanted- He wanted them both.

Tfes. Even Morgiana- Beautiful, deadly, implacable Morgi- ana, whom he had forgotten how to hate.

But to take her as she commanded; to let her take him . . .

He flung himself into the sky.

As the sun sank, he came walking back to the cave. There were a few more tatters in his robe; the wind had made elflocks of his hair. He limped a little. He paused to drink at the spring, matching glares with a desert hawk that rested in the fig tree.

There was food waiting for him as always, but Sayyida laired in the kitchen with Hasan and would not come out. What she thought of matters, he did not want to know. He bathed as always, tugged and cursed the tangles out of his hair, dcliber- 320 ately put the torn and dusty robes back on again. He had no desire to eat, but he drank a cup of wine. He filled it again, and once again.

Just when the sunset prayer should have been finished, he looked up, and she was there.

He had resolved to make her wait; to let her suffer for the suffering she had cost him. Then, sharp and final, the blow.

No, he would say. No, I will not. I am not your what.

"Yes," he said.

Her expression did not change.

"For my freedom," he said. He was dizzy, but not with wine. "For Sinan's ceasing his a.s.saults against the House of Ibrahim. And one thing more."

She waited.

"You will not again or in any way harm the Lady Joanna or the child she carries."

Her eyes glittered. For an instant he knew. She would do it for him. She would refuse.

She bowed her head. "As you will," she said.

There was a silence. He raised the cup to his lips, hesitated, set it down. Her head was bowed still. He could, if he peered closely, see that she trembled.

She was weeping, and not with joy. Her desolation blew cold in him. She had wanted it so much, and now she wouldhave it, but it was an empty thing, a merchant's bargain, bleak and loveless.

She raised her head. "But I will have it! If this is the only way, then so be it. Allah has written it."

He swallowed painfully. Her face was stark. He leaned for- ward, took it in his hands. She s.h.i.+vered at his touch. "Lady,"