The other lands

Delivegu had been about to drink. He paused, squinting one eye. "What do you mean?"

"You don't know?" When Delivegu did not answer immediately, Yanzen smiled. "You don't, do you? That amuses me. I know something that you don't. Came by it easily as well. Perhaps it's worth something? Some reduction of my debt?"

"Anything is possible, if the information proves sound," Delivegu said. Then he added, in clipped tones, "Tell me."

He had already waited an hour on the staircase balcony when Delivegu finally heard someone descending toward him. As the person rounded the rock wall, he saw that it was Rhre

"Tell me, Rhre

Rhre

"Oh, I thought you were just here to make small talk with me," Delivegu said. "I wrote to you saying to get the queen, and saying to make haste." He let his eyes drift down from her face and linger on her bosom and slim waist. "Unless my eyes deceive me, you are not the queen, and I've been kept waiting about as long as I will wait. Get the queen, or you'll be sorry you didn't."

"You don't order me, much less the queen. What is your business? If I deem it merits the queen's attention, I'll speak to her about it."

"Oh, come now. You know the queen meets with me! I'm in her trust."

"I am in her trust," Rhre

Delivegu stepped nearer, close enough that he could smell the fragrant oils scenting her neck. "It's no whim, dear girl, that brings me here." Face turned to the side so that he had to study her askance, he whispered, "Likely, when you think of me at night it's as a rogue, a bandit who sneaks into your room, perhaps, and-" Rhre

"Tell it to me, then," Cori

Delivegu stepped away from Rhre

"I am not a maid," Rhre

"But the moment you heard it you'd call for me. Nor would you want it committed to paper, and I'd wager you'd not want to wait until we'd arranged another of those clandestine meetings." He straightened, enjoying the word clandestine and drawing it out slightly. "I've only been anticipating your desires." The royal visage remained dangerously a

The queen's face went blank. She looked for a moment as if she were completely devoid of thought: her lovely head empty and his to fill. Delivegu kept his smile from showing.

"I see," he said, "that you're wondering how I come to know so much about the ways of a courtly lady. I can detail that for you."

And he did. He left out any mention of Yanzen, and instead told a tale largely fabricated. His information originated with sources far too low and disreputable for Cori

"The girl is thrilled. Wants the pup. Couldn't get enough of rubbing her hands over her belly, even though she doesn't show yet." This last detail he had made up on the spot, but he imagined it wasn't far from true.

Rhre

"Why not? What makes it impossible?"

The queen turned and placed her hands atop the stone railing. The sun was low on the horizon and orange highlights touched her features. Her face was not blank anymore, but it was as unreadable as it was beautiful. When she spoke, she might have been addressing her assistant more than Delivegu. "Wren is not supposed to be able to get pregnant. A tincture mixed into her tea years ago took the capacity from her. Or so I was told."

"That may yet be true," the secretary said. "Wren has said nothing about this. How can we be sure this whore told the truth?"

Delivegu crossed one arm over his chest and stroked his beard with the fingers of his other hand. "Could be," he said, pitching his voice as thoughtful, as if he were just now thinking it through with her encouragement, "that Wren doesn't want you to know. I don't know why that would be, but women have their reasons. As for the whore, well… I interrogated her."

"How?" Rhre

"You wouldn't like to hear all of it." He almost insisted that be his final answer, but he found himself speaking anyway. Something about shocking them-especially Rhre

Cori

"The threat didn't carry much weight unless I cut her to prove I meant it. I took one, just a wee one, though."

"And did she change her story when you raised the knife again?"

"Well, yeah, she did," he admitted, "but I'd just cut off her finger. She must've figured I didn't want to hear what she was saying, so she changed her story. You can't fault her for that, though. Like I said, she's clever. Anyway, I believed her. I let her keep the other nine digits and we were both happy."

"Barbaric," Cori

Delivegu could not have disagreed with her more. He did not like the word barbaric, either, or that he was doubted. "I saw the girl myself," he said. It just came out. The lie leaped off his tongue before he had weighed its usage completely.