Domes of Fire

‘Yes!’ It was Kalten this time, and his eyes were also tear-filled.

The Atan girl gave him a brief, sad smile. ‘The Arjuni saw that I was dangerous, so they knocked me senseless. When I woke up, I was in chains.’

‘This all happened when you were only eight?’ Ehlana asked the giantess in a half-whisper.

‘Seven, Ehlana,’ Mirtai corrected gently. ‘I wasn’t yet eight.’

‘You actually killed a man at that age?’ Emban asked her incredulously.

‘Two, Emban. The one who screamed for two days also died.’ The Atana looked at Engessa, her glistening eyes a bit doubtful. ‘May I claim that one as well, Father-Atan?’ she asked. ‘He might have died anyway of something else.’

‘You may claim him, my daughter,’ he judged. ‘It was your knife-thrust that killed him.’

She sighed. ‘I’ve always wondered about that one,’ she confessed. ‘It clouded my count, and I didn’t like that.’

‘It was a legitimate kill, Atana. Your count is unclouded.’

‘Thank you, Father-Atan,’ she said. ‘It’s a bad thing to be uncertain about so important a matter.’ She paused, collecting her memories. ‘I didn’t kill again for almost half a year. The Arjuni took me south to Tiana. I did not cry at all during the journey. It is not proper to let your enemies see you grieve. At Tiana, my captors took me to the slave-market and sold me to a Dacite merchant named Pelaser. He was fat and greasy, he smelled bad, and he was fond of children.’

‘He was a kindly master then?’ Baroness Melidere asked her.

‘I didn’t say that, Melidere. Pelaser liked little boys and girls in a rather peculiar way. The Arjuni had warned him about me, so he wouldn’t let me near any knives. I had to eat, however, so he gave me a spoon. He took me to his home at Verel in Daconia, and I spent the entire journey sharpening the handle of my spoon on my chains. It was a good metal spoon, and it took a very fine edge. When we got to Verel he chained me to the wall in a little room at the back of his house. The room had a stone floor, and I spent all my time working on my spoon. I grew very fond of it.’ She bent slightly and slid her hand down into her boot. ‘Isn’t it pretty?’ The implement she held up was a very ordinary-looking spoon with a wooden handle. She took it in both hands, twisted the handle slightly and then pulled it off the shank of the spoon. The shank was thin and narrow, and it came to a needle-like point. It had been polished until it gleamed like silver. She looked at it critically. ‘It’s not quite long enough to reach a man’s heart,’ she apologised for her spoon. ‘You can’t kill cleanly with it, but it’s good for emergencies. It looks so much like an ordinary spoon that nobody ever thinks to take it away from me.’

‘Brilliant,’ Stragen murmured, his eyes glowing with admiration. ‘Steal us a couple of spoons, Talen, and we’ll get to work on them immediately.’

‘Pelaser came to my room one night and put his hands on me,’ Mirtai continued. ‘I sat very still, and so he thought I wouldn’t resist. He started to smile. I noticed that he drooled when he smiled like that. He was still smiling – and drooling – when I stabbed both of his eyes out. Did you know that a man’s eyes pop when you poke them with something sharp?’

Melidere made a slight gagging sound and stared at the calm-faced Atana in open horror.

‘He tried to scream,’ Mirtai went on in a chillingly clinical way, ‘but I looped my chain around his neck to keep him quiet. I really wanted to cut him into little pieces, but I had to hold the chain in both hands to keep him from screaming. He began to struggle, but I just pulled the chain tighter about his neck.’

‘Yes!’ Rather astonishingly, it was Ehlana’s doe-eyed maid Alean who cried her hoarse approval, and the quick embrace she gave the startled Atana was uncharacteristically fierce.

Mirtai touched the gentle girl’s face fondly and then continued. ‘Pelaser struggled quite a bit at first, but after a while, he stopped. He had knocked over the candle, and the room was dark, so I couldn’t be sure he was dead. I kept the chain pulled tight around his neck until morning. His face was very black when the sun came up.’

‘A fair kill, my daughter,’ Engessa said to her proudly.

She smiled and bowed her head to him. ‘I thought they would kill me when they discovered what I had done, but the Dacites of the southern towns are peculiar people. Pelaser wasn’t well-liked in Verel, and I think many of them were secretly amused by the fact that one of the children he usually molested had finally killed him. His heir was a nephew named Gelan. He was very grateful that I’d made him rich by killing his uncle, and he spoke to the authorities on my behalf.’ She paused and looked at the princess, who was still nestled in her lap holding the gleaming little dagger. ‘Could you get me some water, Danae?’ she asked. ‘I’m not used to talking so much.’

Danae obediently slipped down and went over toward one of the cooking-fires.

‘She might be a little young to hear about certain things,’ Mirtai murmured. ‘Gelan was a rather nice young man, but he had peculiar tastes. He gave his love to other young men instead of women.’

Sir Bevier gasped.

‘Oh, dear,’ Mirtai said. ‘Are you truly that unworldly, Bevier? It’s not uncommon, you know. Anyway, I got on quite well with Gelan. At least he didn’t try to take advantage of me. He loved to talk, so he taught me to speak Elenic and even to read a bit. People in his circumstances lead rather tentative lives, and he needed a permanent friend. I had been taught that it was polite to listen when my elders spoke, and after a time he would pour out his heart to me. When I grew a little older, he bought me pretty gowns to wear, and sometimes he’d even wear them himself, although I think he was only joking. Some of his friends wore women’s clothes, but nobody was really very serious about it. It’s something they laughed about. It was about then that I started to go through that difficult time in a girl’s life when she starts to become a woman. He was very gentle and understanding, and he explained what was happening so that I wasn’t afraid. He used to have me wear my prettiest gowns, and he’d take me with him when he was doing business with people who didn’t know his preferences. Daconia is an Elene Kingdom, and Elenes have some peculiar ideas about that sort of thing. They try to mix religion into it for some reason. Anyway, the fact that Gelan always had a young slave-girl with him quieted suspicions.’