The Coming Of Wisdom Read Free Page B

proudly. “Yesterday we had a battle—a great feat of arms! Shonsu did six and I drained two!”
    She shivered, and his arm tightened around her, so she could not break loose. She pulled her cloak tight. This intimacy was appalling behavior for a priestess, but that steely grip gave her no choice. Kandoru had never held her in public this way. He had expected her to walk one pace behind him.
    “You . . . you killed two men?”
    “Three, yesterday. Two in the battle, but earlier I had to challenge for my promotion, and one of them chose swords instead of foils. He was trying to scare me, so I killed him. I didn’t like him much, anyway.”
    She began to laugh, and then stared up with growing horror and belief at his satisfied smirk. Two of the swordmarks on his forehead were swollen, obviously new. His hair was black and greasy, but there were patches of red showing through the filth. His eyes were pale, the lashes almost invisible, and the runnels of clean skin washed by the rain were very light-colored. Apparently this murderous, callous youth was normally a redhead. The black in his hair had been applied deliberately, and then it had smeared all over him.
    “Please, adept!” She struggled to break loose. They were almost at the jetty. The banks of the River were sheer cliffs of pebbly sand, and the only level land was the patch of shingle in the notch cut by the stream. When the River was high, there was barely room to turn a wagon, but today it was low, the flats were wide, and the landward end of the pier stood completely out of the water.
    A small single-masted boat was tied up at the far end. There was no great army of swordsmen waiting, then, but there might still be a couple of dozen of them. Suddenly very frightened, Quili squirmed harder.
    But the swordsman held tighter, still smirking down at her as he propelled her toward the jetty. The edge of the sun god’s disk rose over the wide waters of the River. “I like you!” he announced. “You’re pretty. The Goddess didn’t make much of you, but She did very good work on what there is.”
    Quili wondered if she could slip out of the cloak and run. But he would run much faster than she would.
    “I was only a Second in the temple guard,” Nnanji remarked, “until the Goddess sent Shonsu. But starting today, I’m a free sword.”
    “What do you mean?” She knew quite well what he meant.
    “Why do you suppose the Goddess sent you to meet me? See, I’ve always had to pay for women until now—except the slave girls in the barracks, of course. I bought a slave of my own yesterday, but she’s no fun. Your Honorable Garathondi will offer us hospitality for a few days . . . ”
    Quili panicked. “Let me go!”
    Nnanji released her at once, looking surprised. “What’s wrong?”
    “How dare you manhandle a priestess that way?”
    She had shouted, trying to bolster her courage. Nnanji looked hurt. “I thought you were enjoying it. Why didn’t you ask sooner? Do you mean . . . well, I’ll wait until I’ve got cleaned up. I am a mess, aren’t I?”
    Quili straightened feathers. “I’ll think about it,” she said tactfully. Apparently he had meant no violence. He was like a large puppy, fresh from a mudhole somewhere, wanting to romp. She had told Nia that it was her duty. That advice no longer sounded as easy to take as it had been to give, but it would be her duty, also, if he wanted her. Given time to adjust to the idea . . . 
    “I’d better wait until you’ve had a look at Shonsu,” he said sadly. “Women go glassy when they see him. Well, come on! He’s waiting.”
    What
? Did he think she had come down to meet the visitors , just so she could get first choice of the swordsmen? Arrogance! Unbelievable arrogance! Speechless, she followed more slowly as Nnanji went striding along the pier. He whistled a four-note signal, although now the sun was shining through the rain, and he was quite visible to whoever was in the