“No!” Lovar suddenly howled when Elissia was only a few steps on her way. “No! You’ve killed her somehow! For that I’ll kill you!”

  A glance showed Elissia that Lovar was straightening from his wife’s body and beginning to draw his sword, so she started to run. Her heart was pounding madly, but the pounding grew instantly worse when Lovar suddenly appeared between her and the door to the hall. She’d never seen a man move that fast, and the look in his eyes was horrible.

  “I loved her,” Lovar said with tears running down his cheeks - and the sword held tightly and steadily in his fist. “She was everything I needed and wanted in this world, and things were fine between us until Derand made himself High King. Then she blamed me for not having what Derand had, so I had to get what Derand had. But the people I sent after that bastard kept failing, and I paid for their failure. That was Derand’s fault, but you just did something a million times worse. I don’t know how you did it but you took my life away, and now I’m going to take yours.”

  There was a large chair between Elissia and the man who had just sworn to kill her, and that was the only thing that kept his sword from her heart. When he lunged at her she jumped back, and the chair kept him from completing the lunge. He moved to his right and tried again, and Elissia was able to do the same thing a second time. But time was clearly running out on her, and very soon Lovar would be able to -

  “Lovar!” a furious voice shouted, and Elissia joined the madman in looking toward the door to the hall.

  Derand stood in the doorway with his own sword in his fist, the most beautiful sight Elissia had ever seen.

  “You can’t stop me from killing her,” Lovar stated to Derand as he turned to face the other man. “First I’ll put you out of the way, and then I’ll kill her. Nothing can stop me.”

  Derand didn’t respond in words, only in the way he came forward to meet Lovar, and for a horrible moment Elissia was afraid that Lovar had spoken the truth. The madman attacked Derand with such ferocity and strength that Elissia wouldn’t have been surprised to see Derand go down under the terrible assault. But Derand didn’t go down and even managed to force Lovar back a step, the steel of their swords ringing and clashing.

  Guardsmen came running with their own weapons drawn, but instead of intervening they simply stood and watched the fight. Elissia wanted to scream at them to help Derand, but even with terror choking her she knew the guardsmen would not obey. Helping Derand best a single opponent would weaken Derand’s position as High King, especially when the single opponent was another king. Only through his own actions could Derand win the fight, and that’s just what he did.

  Lovar fought with nothing but attack in mind, and that was the mistake Derand took advantage of.

  Derand parried an attack and then replied with one of his own, the second movement so fast that it was a miracle Elissia was able to follow it. Reflex might have made Lovar start to defend himself, but the movement was never completed. Derand’s sword thrust right through Lovar’s chest, an inch or two of steel actually coming into sight from Lovar’s back. The madman gasped once as he froze in mid-movement, and when Derand withdrew his blade Lovar’s already dead body fell to the floor.

  Elissia felt like falling down herself, only the chair back she leaned on keeping it from happening. So much had happened in so short a time that she felt dizzy, and only the thought that the insanity was over now was able to bring her back to herself.

  “Seea, are you all right?” Derand demanded from where he stood above Lovar’s body. “Did he hurt you in any way?”

  “No, I’m fine,” Elissia answered with a small shake of her head. “Sissile decided she wanted Lovar to be High King and she was crazy enough to think that her half-baked plans would work. Which reminds me: she said that they’d arranged for the rest of their fighters to attack and kill the men brought by the other kings. They could be in the midst of attacking right now.”

  “They’re in the midst of being surrounded by a large segment of my army,” Derand responded, having turned to wipe his sword on the tunic Lovar would never need again. “The word about that was brought to me just before I got here, letting me know that the trap I set had worked. I had a feeling that my enemy would try to use his army to back up whatever plans he had for himself here in the palace, plans I’d almost missed seeing the start of.”

  Derand straightened up after he finished cleaning his sword, then turned to look at Elissia after resheathing the weapon.

  “I was actually on my way to a place no one would have been able to find me so I could spend some time thinking in peace,” Derand continued with a mirthless smile. “It was pure luck that I suddenly realized someone had had the nerve to invite themselves to my apartment and then send for me. My only excuse is that Kaylea’s breakdown must have affected me more strongly than I thought.”

  “Right now I’m extremely grateful to Kaylea,” Elissia muttered, partially turning away from Derand. “If not for Kaylea’s plans, Sissile would still be around to make things worse with her madness. I’m going to send for a pot of tea and then sit down with it in my bedchamber. I have some thinking to do.”

  “Thinking about what?” Derand asked as she turned away toward the bedchamber. “Seea, what are you going to be thinking about?”

  Instead of answering, Elissia walked into the bedchamber and closed the door behind her before ringing for a servant. Everything really was settled and over now, but that made things worse for her rather than better.

  Elissia brooded until a servant knocked and then entered with a tea service. Derand silently followed the servant into the room, then dismissed the man once the service was on a table. Elissia watched Derand pour two cups of tea, then he brought them to where she sat and handed her one of the cups.

  “I decided I could use a cup of tea myself,” Derand said as he took a chair near the one she sat in. “I had a look at Sissile’s body, and there wasn’t a mark on it. The only thing that told me what happened to the woman was the greenish foam covering her lips. She was poisoned, but I don’t understand how it was done.”

  “She died because of really bad timing,” Elissia said with a sound of amusement that wasn’t amusement at all. “I’d saved the poison Kaylea’s assassin had tried to make me drink in your father’s palace, and was trying to get up the nerve to drink the stuff now when she and Lovar walked in. She ranted and raved for a little while because she didn’t like the way I picked her plan to pieces, then she must have decided she needed a gesture to show how much in control she was. The filled glass standing on the table near me was obviously mine, so she made it hers instead and drained it before I could stop her.”

  Elissia noticed the way Derand actually turned pale, and the words she expected from him weren’t long in coming once she’d finished her explanation.

  “You were going to kill yourself?” he demanded in a choked voice that seemed to get louder and wilder with every word spoken. “Are you completely out of your mind? How could you even consider doing something that insane? How - ! Oh, I’m going to beat you like you’ve never been beaten before! I’m going to - “

  “Stop that!” Elissia snapped as he started to get out of his chair. “You gave your word not to get angry or to touch me again, remember? Besides, what I do is no longer a concern of yours. You seem to forget that you put our marriage aside.”

  “Do you think I have to be married to you to find the idea of your death completely unacceptable?” he demanded again, his hands curled around the chair arms in a grip so hard the wood should have splintered. “If you’d died then I would have done the same, and you have no right to take my life!

  Besides, we are still married. That statement of ? freedom I gave you is useless unless and until I publish the same statement all over the kingdom. Do you think I’m fool enough to do that?”

  “So you’re worse than a fool, you’re a liar,” Elissia growled, hating the trapped feeling that rushed up to surround her again. “I should have known better than to believe anything you had to say. You asked for one last chance and I gave it to you, and now that time is over. I want a horse and an open road, and I want them now.”

  “I have a better idea,” Derand said, this time straightening all the way to his feet before he strode to the door and yanked it open. “Guards!” When two men in black leather ran up, Derand turned and pointed toward Elissia. “That woman is under arrest. Take her to a cell in the dungeons and toss her in.”

  Elissia couldn’t believe the fool was serious, but the guardsmen had no doubts. They came and pulled Elissia out of her chair, dragged her to the dungeons, and threw her in a cell.

  A cell in a dungeon is supposed to be dank and chill, but Elissia’s cell was actually stuffy. The straw on the floor looked clean and fresh in the light supplied by the open cell door, so once the door closed and there was nothing but darkness Elissia groped her way over to the straw and sat down on it. The straw was the only furnishing the cell contained, but Elissia was too angry to care. She leaned her back against the stone of the wall and just let the anger smolder.

  Hours went by before the sound of a key in the cell door came. Elissia made no effort to look toward the door when it opened, but it was no surprise when she heard Derand’s voice.

  “Get up and come with me,” he said, sounding more than a little annoyed. “You and I are going to have a talk.”

  “You have nothing to say that I care to hear,” Elissia stated, still without looking at him. “If I can’t have a horse then I’d rather stay here.”

  “I don’t care what you’d rather,” he said as he came forward and wrapped a big hand around her arm.

  “This is my palace and you’re my wife, so we’ll do what I want. And right now.”

  With that he pulled her to her feet and dragged her out of the cell behind him. After just a few steps it became clear that he was heading for a heavy wooden door opposite the row of cells. Only torchlight lit the area, but that was enough to show

  not a single guardsman anywhere around. He opened the door and pulled Elissia into a room that had a single lantern as its source of light. The room contained a wooden table with straps and chains all over it, with buckets of water standing against the wall to the left. He closed the door firmly behind them, then finally released her arm.

  “I spent the last few hours thinking, and I hope you did the same,” he said from behind her. Elissia now stood with her back to him, but he didn’t seem to care. “Why do you keep insisting that you have to leave me?”

  “If you’re going to send for your torturers, do it now,” Elissia said, ignoring his question as she stared at the ugly wooden table. She’d known the purpose of this room as soon as she’d walked in, but for some reason she wasn’t afraid. Even the worst torture had to end some time, unlike many of the tortures of life

  ?

  “If I want you tortured I’ll do it myself,” he answered, sounding surprisingly calm. “Tell me why you think you have to leave me.”

  “My reasons are none of your business,” she countered, finding it impossible not to wrap her arms around herself. “If I want to be free of you the desire alone should be enough. If it isn’t, then all the reasons in the world won’t make any difference.”

  “Oh, but your reasons do make a difference,” he said, and his voice showed that he’d moved closer to her. “I think you want to leave me because lately we haven’t had any trouble getting along.”

  “If that’s your idea of a reason for leaving you then you need some serious help,” Elissia said, fighting not to let the bleakness she felt enter her tone. “Are you going to let me go or not?”

  “Not,” he answered at once, and then he swung her around by one arm to face him. “You enjoyed being with me these last couple of days, enjoyed it almost as much as I did, and that’s why you’re so desperate to leave. You enjoyed being with me more than once before and each time I did something stupid to ruin things, so you decided not to wait for me to ruin things this time. Every time you trusted me I betrayed that trust, so there’s no reason for you to think I won’t do it again.”

  Elissia stared at his chest, aware of the tears running down her cheeks but helpless to stop them. She hadn’t actually thought the matter through as clearly as he’d just stated it, but he was absolutely right. That was why she hadn’t been able to make up her mind where he was concerned. She loved this man desperately, but couldn’t trust him not to make her life a waking nightmare.

  “After I stopped being angry, it finally came to me how desperate you had to be to consider killing yourself,” he said, his voice now an uneven whisper. “If you didn’t love me you would have simply walked out and gone back to your father or anywhere else you decided on, but you’ve reached the same point I have: you can’t bear the thought of living without me. But you also can’t live with me, so you decided there was only one option left open to you.”

  Elissia wanted to close her eyes, but the gesture would have been pointless. Everything he’d said was true, and you can’t escape the truth.

  “Seea, listen to me,” he said when she began to turn away again, his hand gentle on her arm. “The worst trouble we’ve had was when I tried to make you do things my way instead of your own. I did that because I got angry, but these last couple of days have shown me the right way to handle the anger.

  Walking away and letting myself cool off lets me look at a situation more rationally, and then I can cope with that situation intelligently instead of emotionally. I am learning, and you’re the one who’s taught me that very important lesson.”

  His arms went around her then, holding her as though she were something very precious. Elissia didn’t want to lean against him, but the trickle of tears had turned into sobs. He held her until the crying stopped, used a soft cloth to wipe away the last of her tears, then urged her out of the room with him. By the time they got back to their apartment, Elissia was feeling almost human again. He waited until they were in their bedchamber before he spoke again.

  “I said a little while ago that I wasn’t going to let you go and I meant that,” he said after sitting her in a chair. “I kept my part of our latest bargain, so now I’m going to insist that you keep yours. You said you’d stay with me until I broke my word, and that time hasn’t come yet.”

  “The hell it hasn’t,” Elissia disagreed, still vastly unhappy. “You weren’t exactly cool and composed when you had me thrown into that cell.”

  “Having you taken to that cell was just a different version of walking away until I cooled down,” he countered, folding his arms as he looked down at her. “I would have done the walking in the usual way if I hadn’t been afraid of what you would do while I had my back turned. Are you going to claim that I didn’t have reason to worry?”

  “You didn’t, because I’ve discovered that I don’t have the nerve to kill myself,” Elissia muttered, looking away from him. “That means I have to stick with my original plan and just leave. In case you’ve forgotten, our bargain was only for the time until we found out who your enemy was. Now that we know, we don’t have a bargain to argue about.”

  “You know, that hadn’t occurred to me,” he said, and the delight in his voice made Elissia look at him narrowly. “If our bargain is concluded, then my word doesn’t hold me any longer.”

  He looked much too happy about that state of affairs, which wasn’t at all surprising. He must have been really chafing under the terms of their agreement, and now that he was free?

  “So now I get to state the terms of the next bargain we’re going to agree to,” he went on as he crouched in front of Elissia’s chair, the delight suddenly gone from his expression. “I love you more than life itself, Seea, so I freely and happily give my sworn word never to lose my temper with you again. If something you do happens to get me angry, I’ll just stomp away and not come back until the anger is all gone.”

  “And if you happen to break your word, will you then give me another worthless piece of paper?” Elissia countered. “Obviously I was supposed to have forgotten about that, but you’re out of luck. I didn’t forget and I’m not interested in any new bargains.”

  “You’d rather be chained up like a slave?” the monster asked with raised brows, his arms resting on his thighs. “I wasn’t joking about loving you more than life itself, a terrible truth you’re going to have to learn how to live with. If you didn’t return my love it would be another story, but since you do? If we can’t agree to one last bargain to see if we can make our marriage work, I will chain you to a wall. That way I won’t have to worry that you’ll disappear as soon as I turn my back.”

  “I don’t love you, I hate you,” Elissia growled, telling about half the truth. “You’re trying to force me to make the choice you want made, and that’s lousy.”

  “No, that’s desperation,” he corrected, his dark gaze as calm and unwavering as his tone. “The only way I can make you know you can trust me is by showing that I’m telling the truth. If you aren’t here, how can I show you anything at all?”

  Elissia tried to think of a reasonable answer to that question, but ideas refused to come. She hated the idea of being forced to do things against her will, but then she remembered what she’d thought when he’d first made those promises. He’d never be able to keep his word, not for more than a few days, and then she’d be within her rights to turn around and walk away.

  “All right,” she finally grudged, meeting that calm stare. “I’ll take your word again on the same matters I did the last time, but this will be the last time. If you lose control of yourself even once you will have to use chains to keep me here, and even that might not work.”

  “Your warning is duly noted and acknowledged,” he said with a quick single incline of his head. “The only point you missed is that I’m not offering the same things I did last time. But before we go into that, let me ask you a question. The times I completely ignored your opinions and desires and just stuck to mine?