“What’s taking them so long time to get here?” Tina worried. “You could have slain me, flayed me, and sacrificed me a dozen times by now, Baron!” She giggled and took another pull from the hookah. “As it is, all you did was ravage me six or seven times.”
“Battle preparations,” the Baron muttered to himself. And then to Tina, “Who ravaged whom? And don’t hog that pipe!” He gently took the mouthpiece from Tina and inhaled deeply.
“I need to recover from some of this stuff we’ve been taking, too, you know,” he told her. “Ummm! This is what always happens when I’m cleaning out the stocks of rare herbs and spices—I forget just how potent some of what I collect is, and that some of it grows more potent with age. I hadn’t tried those Black Orchid petals for years. I recalled they were an aphrodisiac, but I didn’t recall them being hallucinogenic as well … unless that was just the thorn apple extract.
“Fortunately, this melange is the last of it. … At least the last we’re doing for now.”
He handed the mouthpiece back. Tina took in another dainty breathful.
“It’s almost an anti-drug,” the Baron lectured. “It’ll purge most of the others out of our systems and just leave a mild euphoria. … Excellent for the end of a night of herbal adventure.”
“What time is it, anyway?” Tina asked dreamily.
They were lying together naked, Tina on top of the Baron, on a big, fuzzy bearskin rug. It floated a meter off the floor outside the Arabian tent, next to a row of windows looking west, down the road to the village. Falcon’s Rest was now not visible through the thick fog that lay pooled below. As the moon set behind the dark hills, its light made the valley look like a giant field of snow or cotton.
“Not yet dawn,” the Baron answered. “Ah! And here they are now.”
From the edge of the fog, the lights of torches were emerging, following the steep road to Falcon’s Aerie.
“It looks like it’ll be dawn before they arrive. Either they were scared out of their wits and it took them this long to drink up enough courage, or a leader with military knowledge didn’t want to thrash about up here in the dark. If they did plan their arrival deliberately, keep an eye out for the lad leading them. He’s careful, with a good head on his shoulders. He’ll serve you well.”
“Then you really are leaving?” said Tina soberly.
“Yes.”
“And you’re planning on leaving me with … the Gift?” She tried to conceal the greed she felt in asking.
“Why else have I been secretly working with you this past year? You do know you’re ready for it?”
“Oh, yes. Yes!”
“All right, then. Why don’t you take my amulet and conjure up a werewolf to harass that party? Let them know there’s a real wizard up here to deal with.”
Instantly Tina rolled off the Baron and onto her feet. She walked to where their clothing had been discarded for the night’s revelries and found the amulet. As she put the chain over her neck and the golden amulet came to rest between her bare breasts, the look of greed in her eyes flamed. When the Baron had allowed her to practice spell-casting with the amulet, it was only while he wore it.
She looked out the window again, where the villagers were still an hour away, then at the Baron, naked and calm and fat on the floating bearskin rug. How helpless he now looked! She gestured and an iron cage appeared around him.
Tina put her hands on her hips and laughed. “See if you can get out of that!”