This Fierce Splendor

23

Something cold and metallic was slipped over her head and then arranged carefully to encircle her naked breasts.

Elspeth opened her eyes to see Dominic smiling down at her. His light eyes were glittering with excitement and seemed to hold all the beauty in the world.

She smiled back at him drowsily. “Again?”

He laughed. “I’d be delighted, but not until you tell me how much you like your necklace. It’s the first time I’ve ever given a lady jewels worth a king’s ransom, and I expect at least a polite thank-you.”

Her hand went to her chest and her gaze followed it. “Dominic!” She wore a long chain of diamonds interspersed with large square-cut emeralds. Facets of the diamonds caught the firelight and turned it into a dazzling array of brilliant hues that cascaded down her body. “Where did you get it?”

He nodded toward the palace across the garden. “The royal treasury. That necklace is only a small sample. The room is overflowing with chests of jewels and gold.” His index finger tapped one of the emeralds. “Just one of those stones would buy another Killara. Do you know what I can do with such an enormous fortune?”

“Create the Delaney Kingdom.” A tiny smile touched Elspeth’s lips. “Long live the king.”

“You can laugh, but that’s what a treasure like this can buy.” He pulled the necklace taut, twisting the diamond chain beneath her breasts to lift them into prominence. “I thought the emeralds would match your eyes, but maybe rubies would be better.” His head bent to nibble teasingly at her rosy-pink nipple. When he lifted his mouth, the nipple was no longer pink but cherry red and distended with arousal. “Do you fancy rubies, Queen Elspeth?”

“I fancy King Dominic.” She took his hand and held it to her breast so that he could feel the erratic pounding of her heart. “See?”

His hand closed on her breast, his thumb gently flicking the nipple he had brought to fiery attention. “I don’t think you’d be so unappreciative if I brought you another of those damn clay tablets with that hen-scratching on it.”

“I didn’t say I was unappreciative,” she protested. “I merely appreciate you more.” She lowered her eyes demurely. “As a proper wife should.”

“There’s nothing proper about you, my love.” He gathered her up in his arms, blanket and all. “As I’m about to prove.”

“Dominic!” She clutched at his shoulders as he began to stride across the garden toward the palace. “Where are we going?”

“The royal treasury. There’s something I want you to see.”

“Couldn’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“Maybe. But I want you to see it tonight.” His eyes twinkled down at her. “Call it a whim.”

Heat tingled through her as she remembered Dominic’s last “whim.” “Indeed?” Her voice sounded breathless even to her own ears. “You could have waited and let me put some clothes on. It appears all your whims involve having me naked as Eve.”

“I thought it fitting.” Dominic was now crossing the moonlit throne room. “Eve should be right at home in the Garden of Eden. You know, I think I’d have liked the people of Kantalan. I went through several chambers before I found the treasury, and every room-no matter what appeared to be its primary purpose-had some object of artistry or learning in it.” His expression was thoughtful. “Even the treasury. You would have thought the idea of the acquisition of wealth would have been at odds with-” He stopped. “But you’ll see for yourself.”

“You could let me down. You’re always carrying me around as if I were a child.”

“The floors are dusty. I’ll put you down when we reach the treasury. I lit the torches on the walls and tried to clean up the floor a little. At least you won’t be ankle-deep in dust and cobwebs. Its just ahead.” He was mounting the two steep steps leading to the tall brass-studded double doors he had left thrown open when he had hurried back for Elspeth. Then he was within the chamber, setting Elspeth carefully on her feet. He noticed with satisfaction that both the torches on the wall and the wood fire he had lit in the huge copper brazier in the center of the room were still burning brightly, the flames casting leaping shadows on white marble walls and shimmering on several gold and silver chests in the room.

Elspeth clutched the gray wool blanket together at her breast, her gaze wandering over statues in alabaster, silver, and gold, and over plates and vases bejeweled with precious and semiprecious stones. In one gold chest with the lid thrown open she caught a glimpse of long strands of lustrous black pearls, emeralds, rubies, and diamonds.

She shook her head dazedly. “So much. I can’t believe it.”

“Neither could I, but that wasn’t what I wanted to show you.” Dominic placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her so she was facing the south wall. He gestured to the intricate design carved on the white marble surface. “Look.”

“The solar system,” she whispered. “Good Lord. It’s our solar system!” A huge round sun encircled by planets occupied the entire south wall and was executed with superb artistry on the white marble. The relative size and features of each planet were faithfully detailed even to the rings of Saturn. “What is it doing here? I would have thought this would have been in the temple.”

“Perhaps the royal family was interested in astronomy.” Dominic nodded to the long alabaster bench before the copper, brazier. “Maybe the king liked to sit there among the treasures of the earth and look at the planets. It must have been very chastening for him to know that regardless of how rich he became, he could never fly from this planet to all the others.”

“Da Vinci thought we could fly. I wonder…”

“No,” Dominic said firmly. “I’m willing to accept the thought of you wandering off to find El Dorado or Atlantis as long as I can trail along beside you, but I at least insist you remain on earth.” He arched a brow. “Do you notice anything strange about that rendering of the solar system?”

“Strange?” She frowned, her gaze returned to the wall. “No, everything seems to be in order. What-” She broke off and her gaze flew back to Dominic’s face. “There are ten planets circling the sun.”

He nodded.

“But there have only been eight planets discovered.”

“Maybe they knew something we don’t,” he said softly. “Was there a telescope in the temple?”

“Yes, quite a large one in the same room that contains the lodestone.” Her eyes were blazing with excitement. “Oh, Dominic, isn’t it exciting? There’s so much to see, so much to learn. Let’s go there now.” She stopped. Dominic was laughing softly and shaking his head. “No?”

“Tomorrow. There are a few other things I want to show you here tonight.” His smile lingered. “Perhaps not as interesting to you, but I found them fascinating. They caused me to view the people of Kantalan in an entirely new light.”

“What things?”

“Step this way, milady.” He took her elbow and propelled her across the room, around the blazing fire in the copper brazier, to the open golden chest against the far wall. “Let’s see if we can find something a little more elegant than that blanket for you to wear. If I remember, I saw something in here that will do nicely.” He rummaged in the chest, tossing strands of pearls and rubies carelessly aside. “Here it is.” He pulled out a garment that glittered gold in the firelight. “I think it’s a cloak of some sort. It’s not as heavy as it looks, and it’s lined with silk.” He shook out the folds. “It’s a wonder the silk didn’t rot. Perhaps being closed up in the chest protected it.” He looked up when she didn’t say anything. “Don’t you like it?”

She touched the cloak with gentle, tentative fingers. The garment was a shimmering mesh of woven gold bordered in emeralds and pearls. “It’s magnificent,” she whispered. “It looks like something that should be worn by an empress.”

“Then it may be good enough for you.” He reached out and unclasped her fingers from the blanket. “Try it on.” The wool blanket fell to the floor and something hot and intent flared in his eyes as they ran over her glowing nudity garbed only in the necklace. “And do hurry before I realize what an idiot I am to have you put on clothes.”

She smiled shakily. “You once told me a man’s chief pleasure was in removing barriers.” She could feel her nipples tautening, her breasts swelling as his gaze touched them. “Have you changed your mind?”

“No.” He stepped closer and threw the golden cloak around her shoulders. The silk lining was a cool, sensuous shock against her warm flesh. He fastened the round emerald and pearl brooch at her throat with trembling hands. “It just becomes more difficult to wait when you know what’s beyond the barrier.”

“You don’t have to wait.” The words were spoken in a tone a level above a whisper. “It’s more difficult for me to wait now too.”

His fingers tightened spasmodically on the brooch before he forced himself to release the jewel and take a step back. “Sometimes it’s better to wait.” The pulse beating wildly in his temple and the flush darkening his long jaws belied the words. “It makes the pleasure sharper. I’d wager that the people of Kantalan knew the value of anticipation.”

“Why do you say that?”

He was searching in the chest again. “I’ll tell you-or rather show you-later.” He found the four objects he was looking for and drew them out. “Wear these.”

“Bracelets?”

He nodded as he clasped a broad band of emeralds and pearls around her left wrist. “To match your necklace.” He clasped an identical bracelet on her right wrist. He knelt before her, pushing the cloak aside. “And these are to match the bracelets.” He fastened a jeweled band around first her left ankle and then her right. He sat back on his heels and looked at her pale bare feet flowing into delicate slender ankles and sweetly curved calves. The hard shimmering jewels shown in barbaric splendor against her soft flesh and a sudden wrench of sheer lust tore through him.

“I think you should wear those all the time.” His palm cupped her left calf and squeezed gently. He heard the soft hiss of the intake of her breath, but he didn’t lift his gaze from the delicate shapeliness of her limbs. His fingers moved up to rub the soft skin behind her knee. “Will you do that when we’re alone like this?” He leaned forward and nibbled gently at the soft fullness of her thigh. “Will you let me put them on you then?” He parted her thighs gently. “You look so pretty. They match your eyes.”

“You’re not looking at my eyes.”

“No.” He blew gently on the secret heart of her womanhood. “But maybe I will later. Will you?”

She shivered and swayed toward him. “Yes… anything you want. Dominic, I-” She gasped as his warm tongue flicked out with expert precision.

He sat back on his heels again, his fingers gently massaging the flesh behind her knees. His gaze lifted slowly to her face. His skin was pulled taut over his cheekbones and his light eyes were burning as he searched her expression. “Now you’re ready to learn something new about Kantalan.” He rose lithely to his feet and took her hand. “Come with me.” He led her toward the far corner of the room. “Astronomy wasn’t the only interest the royal household had. Evidently Kantalan was a society composed of very sensual people.” He stopped before a collection of statues on a long, low marble table against the wall. “Look at them,” he said softly. “Have you ever seen anything like this in your temples in India?”

Elspeth’s eyes widened as her cheeks grew warm. The statues were incredibly beautiful in both material and execution and more erotic than anything she had ever seen anywhere. Each foot-high statue portrayed a man and a woman in a different position in the act of love, some she had never dreamed possible. In every statue the woman was depicted in fragile mother-of-pearl and the man in a rich ebony wood; the materials were so smooth and polished they begged to be touched. The tactile artistry added to the subject matter brought a surge of arousal rippling through Elspeth. “Never. They’re shocking.”

He was standing behind her, his breath warm against her ear. “And are you shocked, love?”

“No.” Her tongue moistened her lower lip, her gaze fixed in fascination on the statue directly in front of her. Did men and women actually do that? “I suppose I should be, but I think I’m more curious than shocked.”

“My God, I’m lucky. Every man should be so fortunate as to have a curious woman in his bed.” His teeth bit gently on the lobe of her ear. “Let’s see what we can do to satisfy that curiosity, Elspeth.”

“Have you made love in all these ways?”

“Most of them. The Kantalanians must have been pretty agile to have managed some of those positions.” His tongue plunged into her ear. She shivered and melted back against him. “That one you’re looking at now can be rather amusing.”

“Amusing? I never felt amused when you…” Her words trailed off as the magnitude of his arousal became evident even through the garments that separated them.

“And I have never felt amused when loving you,” he said hoarsely. “Never with you, Elspeth. Loving you is like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”

“Then all cats aren’t the same in the dark?”

“No.” His hands closed on her shoulders. “God, no, love.”

“Then it was very wicked of you to tell me such a falsehood. It… it worried me.”

“I’ll try to make amends.” His hands splayed out and slid over her shoulders to cup her breasts through the gleaming gold of the cloak. “Will it help to know that I haven’t wanted to touch any other woman since you invaded Rina’s with those damn firecrackers.” He stroked gently up and down, the silk lining of the cloak rubbing teasingly against her nipples.

“Yes.” Her gaze was fixed in fascination on the lifelike eroticism of the statues. The male was on his knees, his shoulders hunched and strained. What beautiful shoulders he possessed, Elspeth thought. They were corded with supple muscle, and the taut bulging line of his brawny thighs reminded her of Dominic’s in the last instant before he plunged forward and… Her chest was so tight she was having difficulty forcing air into her lungs. She swallowed and tried to remember what she had been saying. “But I think I’d be very fierce if you ever visited one of those hetaeras again.”

His hands slipped beneath the cloak, plucking at the crests of her nipples. She made a low sound deep in her throat. “I find I’m only interested in one hetaera these days.” He pinched her with just enough pressure to send a tingle of heat through her. “Elspeth MacGregor Delaney.” His left hand slid down her body to the soft swell of her belly, and his palm began to rub, pet, and then, with sudden impatience, pressed her hard against him. “Touch them.”

“What?” She couldn’t think; her bones seemed to have no substance because of the heat of him against her.

“The statues. The texture is very pleasing to the touch. Rub your hand over one of them.”

She reached out a hesitant finger and brushed it against the rippling musculature of the shoulder of the male figure on the statue before her. The wood was warm, it felt almost as alive as it looked.

Dominic’s hand suddenly closed over her own on the statue. “More,” he whispered. “He likes it. Close your eyes and feel the tension of him and think about what he’s doing to her.”

She closed her eyes and arched her head back against his shoulder. Her lips parted and her breathing was shallow as she allowed Dominic to move her palm slowly over the figure. Here palm was tingling and the aching emptiness between her thighs was increasing with each passing second. Why could she still see the statue even though her eyes were closed? But now the ebony wood figure was no longer small but life-sized and alive. Moving. Sleek and hot. Dark rippling muscle and driving thighs.

“Do you feel it?”

She moistened her lips and nodded dreamily.

Dominic’s hand on her breast cupped and squeezed gently. “Do you want it?”

She nodded again.

Dominic gently pried her hand from the smooth warmth of the statue. “Now?”

“Yes.”

His hands cupped her shoulders and steadied her as he took a step back. “Not yet.”

Her eyes flew open. “No?”

She heard him moving behind her and and she started to turn to face him. “Why?”

“Don’t turn around. Keep your eyes on your friend in the statue there.”

“Why?” she asked again.

“Anticipation. The oldest game in the world and probably more fun than any of those variations you’re looking at now.”

He was right. She could feel the tension increasing with every breath as she waited. Why wouldn’t he let her turn around and face him? She wanted to reach out and touch him as she had touched the man in the statue.

His hands were on her shoulders again, shifting the cloak to bare her body and form a shining cowl around her throat and then trail down her back in a golden train. He lifted her fair hair, threading it through his fingers before letting it float down in a wild tawny cloud around her. Then his hands were gone and she heard him moving away from her.

“Dominic, where are you going?”

“Not very far. Come and join me.”

She whirled to face him in a brilliant swirl of gold and emerald and pearl.

He was sitting across the room on the wool blanket he had spread over the marble bench before the copper brazier. The leaping firelight played on the bronzed slide of the muscles of his brawny shoulders. He was beautifully nude and male and as aroused as the man in the statue.

He held out his hand to her, his light eyes soft and liquidly intent in the fireglow. “Come, love.”

She walked slowly toward him. There was something wildly barbaric and exciting in coming to him like this. She could see the jewels glitter on her ankles with every step; she could feel the sensuous tug of the golden cloak as it brushed the floor behind her. She was beautiful to him; she could see it in his face. He wanted her. His gaze clung and moved down her body in an almost tactile caress. Anticipation.

She stopped before him, feeling bold and breathlessly shy at the same time. “Now?”

“If we wait any longer, I may die of frustration. You look-” He stopped, groping for words. Elspeth was pagan queen and sensual slave. Sorceress. Mistress. He slowly shook his head. There were really no words but one to describe her: Beloved.

She put her hand in his but stopped as he would have drawn her into his arms. Her smile was suddenly mischievous as she unfastened the brooch at her throat and let the cloak fall to the floor. “Not yet.” She pushed him down on his back. “Anticipation, remember?”

“Elspeth…” Dominic’s voice was hoarse. “I can’t-” He gasped as she suddenly straddled him, sheathing him with teasing slowness, allowing only the shallowest entry. He grasped her hips, trying to draw her down upon him, but she would not permit it. “Dammit, Elspeth, you’re killing me.”

“I want you to love me in all those different ways.” She clenched around him, her gaze narrowed on his face. His lips were parted, his nostrils flaring, and he was beautiful in his need. “Will you do that for me, Dominic?”

“Yes, anything,” he said through clenched teeth. “Just let me come up in you and-”

“Like this?” She moved the slightest bit and he flexed yearningly within her. “Enough?”

“No.” He groaned, his lips drawn away from his lips as if in pain. “More.”

She clenched around him once again and he gasped, his fingers digging into the blanket beneath him.

“But what about anticipation?”

“Damn anticipation.”

“That’s my view on the subject.” She smiled lovingly down at him. “We don’t need anticipation, Dominic. We don’t need anything but this.” Then she released him, took him, let him enter as he willed. This time it was she who gasped. “Dominic!”

He wasn’t listening, he drove upward in mindless, frantic hunger and then began a heated rhythm more urgent than they had ever known. The rhythm increased, the tension grew. Elspeth’s head was whirling. Her fingers moved over Dominic’s shoulders in feverish pleasure. Textures. Warmer than the wood of the statue, bronze not ebony. Yet the two had some-how blended and become one in her mind.

He plunged deeper and she moaned as the tension mounted. Fire flickering on white marble walls. Ten planets spinning around a burning sun. Jewels, pearls, overflowing a golden coffer. Dalkar. Merging. The flames burning in the temple. A silver filigree curtain holding back the indigo night. A promise… fulfilled. Dalkar-Dominic!

Joy!

Afterward they lay holding each other, their breathing gradually slowing, lost in a haze of warm pleasure.

Elspeth’s lids lifted slowly. “Dominic?”

“Yes, love?”

“The flames didn’t lie,” she said dreamily. “It is forever. You and I.” Her eyes fluttered shut. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

He could tell she was on the drifting edge of slumber, scarcely aware of what she was saying. He kissed her gently. “Wonderful. You’re wonderful, love.” He sat up and began wrapping her in the wool blanket. “But now it’s time to go back to camp.” He rose from the bench, crossed the room to where he had discarded his clothes beside the chest, and began to dress.

“Why? I like it here, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do like it here.” He liked it too much. He felt the same mysterious sense of belonging that Elspeth was experiencing. Since the moment they had ridden into the city there had been some unusual hold on both of them. Home. The word suddenly popped into his mind from out of nowhere. But Kantalan wasn’t home and Elspeth’s blissful contentment might possibly pose a danger. “But we’ll go back to camp anyway, That bench would be damn hard to sleep on.”

“If you say so.”

He crossed the room and gathered her up in his arms, brushing her closed lids with the lightest of kisses. “You’re being amazingly docile.”

“I’m sleepy.”

He laughed as he turned and walked from the chamber and down the hall. “I knew there had to be some explanation.”

She pressed her lips to his shoulder in a loving caress. “I do like my necklace and bracelets and I thank you exceedingly.”

He chuckled. “You’re exceedingly welcome.”

There was something she had meant to ask him when he had first come back from the palace, but so much had happened since then that it had completely slipped her mind. What was it? Suddenly it came back to her. “Why did you go searching through the palace in the middle of the night? Couldn’t it have waited until morning?”

“Probably.” She was lying against him as sweetly relaxed as a small child, and he was reluctant to disturb her by discussing the uneasiness he was feeling. After all, there had been nothing to provoke that uneasiness. The Sun Child was as majestic and unmoving as the golden throne in the palace, and the city of Kantalan was also still and completely lifeless.

It was that complete absence of life that was bothering him. There should have been rats, reptiles, or birds inhabiting the city, but there was nothing. Once when he was a child a tornado had touched down at Killara, and he remembered that minutes before the funnel was sighted there had been a great flurry of activity as birds, horses, and cattle tried to run from a threat invisible to man. The prophecy? Hell, there was something strange happening here.

He tightened his arms around her as he quickened his steps across the garden. “I couldn’t sleep and thought I might as well take a look. I’ll load the treasure in the saddlebags tomorrow morning and then help you search the temple. We should be ready to go by tomorrow night.”

“So soon? I thought we’d stay a few days.”

He hesitated. “We’ll see. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” He laid her down on the blankets before their campfire and knelt down beside her. He tilted her chin up on the curve of his finger. Her eyes were cloudy with sleep as they looked into his own. “Tonight I’d rather discuss something else. Tell me that you love me, woman.”

“I told you.” Her eyes were almost closed. “I’m sure I told you.”

“Then tell me again. It bears repeating.”

Her voice was so low he could scarcely hear it, drifting like a phantom wisp of smoke from her lips. “I love you. I will love you until there is no sun, no moon, and no homeplace left on this earth.”

The first sight to meet Elspeth’s eyes when she woke the next morning was Patrick squatting beside her, a mischievous grin on his face. “Good morning. I thought I had better wake you first. Dom has a nasty habit of reaching for a gun when you surprise him.” He lifted a brow as he sat back on his heels and appraised Dominic’s relaxed form huddled beneath the blanket. “He usually sleeps lighter than this.” His gaze moved back to Elspeth’s bare shoulders and the lump beneath the blanket was clearly Dominic’s hand on Elspeth’s breast. “He must be… tired.”

Elspeth could feel the color rush to her face as she hurriedly sat bolt upright, jerking the blanket up to her chin. “Yesterday was quite exhausting. Azuquita… the palace… the temple…”

“I see.” Patrick nodded solemnly. “That seems clear.”

“Leave her alone, Patrick.” Dominic raised up on one elbow. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I decided I wanted a little of that treasure for myself,” Patrick said lightly. “And from the looks of the necklace around Elspeth’s neck, I gather I’m not going to be disappointed.”

“Patrick came with me.” Rising Star was coming across the garden toward them. “He tells me he wants to buy an Oriental dancing girl.”

“Rising Star!” Elspeth’s eyes widened. “But why? The baby…”

Rising Star smiled. “I’m fine. My son must be more Indian than white. He likes being on a horse.”

Elspeth frowned uneasily. “But there’s still the journey back.”

“I have almost a month more before giving birth, There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Does Josh know about this?” Dominic asked.

“He knows I have left Killara.” Rising Star reached down and picked up the coffeepot from the stones encircling the fire. “I will get water for coffee. Patrick, you start breakfast.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Patrick sighed as he turned back to Dominic and Elspeth. “You can see why I want one of those Arab harem girls to bow and scrape for me. A man doesn’t get any waiting on around here.” He rose to his feet and bowed. “Anything else, ma’am?”

“No, I think not.” Rising Star’s gaze met Patrick’s with intimate understanding. “Perhaps later.” She turned and walked across the garden toward a small pool fed by a canal running through the tangled wilderness of shrubbery.

The humor immediately disappeared from Patrick’s face as soon as she was out of hearing. “She’s left Josh,” he said curtly. “And I don’t want either of you to be bothering her about it. Do you understand?”

Dominic’s gaze followed Rising Star. “Why did she do it?”

“Josh told her he didn’t want the baby.”

“My God,” Dominic murmured. “Josh wouldn’t-”

“He did,” Patrick interrupted harshly. “She wouldn’t lie.”

“No, Rising Star wouldn’t lie,” Dominic said quietly. “So where does this leave you?”

Patrick’s lips twisted. “Exactly where I was. She’s Josh’s wife.” His gaze went to Rising Star. “She wants the treasure for the child; she thinks it will help keep him safe.”

Dominic’s gaze flitted briefly to Elspeth. “I can understand that. Well, one saddlebag filled with the jewels I saw in the palace should guarantee he’ll be surrounded by a wall of gold for the rest of his life.”

“Good.” Patrick’s gaze turned to Elspeth. “I wish you’d try to talk to her and find out what she’s planning on doing. If she’s not going back to Josh, I can’t let her run off alone. She’ll need someone.”

Elspeth nodded. “I’ll try.” How terrible that this could happen to someone as beautiful and kind as Rising Star. And how unfair that Elspeth’s own love was opening like a flower while the other woman’s was blackening and shriveling. “If you’ll let me put on my clothes. Turn your back, Patrick.”

“If you insist.” Patrick turned away. “But with profound regret.”

A few minutes later Elspeth was dressed and walking across the garden toward Rising Star.

Patrick turned back to watch Dominic pull on his boots. “We didn’t get Torres. It looks like he may still be after you.”

Dominic nodded.

“Gran-da and the rest are probably still on his trail.”

Dominic smiled mirthlessly. “Then after some three hundred years Kantalan may suddenly become very well populated.”

Patrick shook his head. “I don’t think anyone would ever find the entrance behind the waterfall without a map.”

Dominic wasn’t as confident. As time passed, Torres was beginning to take on supernatural qualities in his mind. “Maybe.” He stood up. “After breakfast I’ll show you where the treasury is. Rising Star can help Elspeth in the temple and we’ll load up the horses and pack animals. You and Rising Star take the burros and mule through the pass and wait for us on the banks of the lake.”

“What’s the hurry?”

“I don’t know.” Dominic moved his shoulders impatiently. “Something’s… something’s very wrong here. I’ve got to stay and give Elspeth as much time as possible to look through the temple, but there’s no reason you and Rising Star can’t leave. I’ll try to be out of Kantalan before dark.”

“You believe the prophecy?”

Dominic’s gaze shifted quickly to Patrick’s face. “Rising Star told you?”

Patrick nodded. “She didn’t think it was fair for me to go with her without knowing. There are four of us here now, just as the prophecy foretold.” His gaze searched Dominic’s face. “Well?”

“I don’t know if I believe it or not.” Dominic turned away. “But something’s not right. You make breakfast and I’ll go bring the pack animals to the front entrance of the palace.”

“You too?” Patrick sighed. “Everybody in the whole blamed world is giving me orders. I sure need one of those dancing girls.”

“You’ll be able to buy an entire harem with your share of the treasure.” Dominic said with a grin over his shoulder. “Not bad wages for cooking one breakfast.”

By noon both the horses’ and burros’ saddlebags had been loaded with treasure and the last large pack put on Azuquita’s protesting back. Dominic stepped back, avoided the mule’s vengeful nip, and turned to Patrick. “Don’t let him get too near the burros or he’ll gnaw through their girths. We don’t want to lose this load.”

“I’ll watch him.” Patrick glanced at Dominic curiously. “Where did you get him? You always swore you’d never have a mule.”

“It’s a long, sad story.” Dominic made a face. “I’ll tell you about it someday when I need to arouse your sympathy. By the time we get back to Killara you’ll understand how noble I’ve been.”

“Hmmm.” Patrick mounted his horse. “He doesn’t look so bad. Maybe you didn’t know how to handle him.”

Azuquita’s lips curled back in a toothy grin.

“You know, it could be you’re right,” Dominic murmured. “I never was any good with anything but horses. Why don’t you take him over for me on the way home?”

Patrick frowned uncertainly. “Well, I don’t know…”

“It’s settled then.” Dominic beamed. “You’re probably right about old Sweetness, and you won’t have any trouble at all.” He mounted Blanco and tossed Azuquita’s lead rope to Patrick. “May you be very happy together.”

“We’re not getting married,” Patrick said dryly.

“Oh, but I assure you that you’ll feel very close to Azuquita before this is over. He’ll be like a brother to you.” Dominic’s horse trotted out of the garden onto the street. “Like Cain was to Abel.”