The King was still awake, but being prepared for bed by his servants and wasn't pleased at being interrupted by the two Gem Lords. He waved his servants away, though, and indicated for them to follow him into an inner chamber.

     "This had better be important," he grumbled. "If you just want to go over some detail of the deal again..."

     "We beg your forgiveness, your Majesty," said Barl, who'd made it clear to Tak that he was to do all the talking. "It concerns the Sholl spy you just had arrested. We've just discovered that she is a person of some importance to our city. The exact details don't matter, but we'd be extremely grateful if you could turn her over to us. Immediately."

     The King stared as if either he or they had gone mad and he was trying to decide which. He laughed, thinking it must be some kind of joke, then sobered when he saw that it wasn't. "You're serious?" he demanded.

     "Deadly serious," agreed Barl. "It is of the utmost importance that no harm comes to her and that we take her into our custody straight away."

     Tak squirmed impatiently, hating the delay. Nightmare images filled his head of hot irons touching her pale, soft flesh. Her screams echoing around the smoke filled dungeon. "Right now!" he stated firmly, earning him a warning glance from the other wizard. Shut up, you fool! that glance said. I'll handle this.

     "She is a spy and will be put to death the moment we have the names of her collaborators," stated the King firmly. "If she is important to you I'm sorry, but there can be no exceptions. There can be only one penalty for spying."

     "You're the King," pointed out Barl. "You can make an exception, and the agreement between us that we've spent much of the night working on will go much more smoothly if you grant us this favour."

     The King's eyes widened with anger, recognising the threat beneath the diplomatic words. They dared threaten him here! In his own castle! "Enough!" he roared. "You are dismissed from my presence. Remove yourselves at once."

     Barl moved to comply, but Tak stood his ground. "I am not a diplomat," he said, "so allow me to speak plainly. We want Essca. Alive and unharmed. If you don't turn her over to us we will take her anyway and return to our own city, where we will wash our hands of you for good. You will remain a pawn of the Yinnfarsians for the rest of your life. We are your only hope for a return to freedom and dignity, and all we ask in return is the girl."

     He spread his hands wide, ignoring Barl's horrified, disbelieving stare. "Come now, it's not such a great thing we're asking, is it? One young woman, in return for all we have to offer you?"

     He was trying to be polite and diplomatic, but he was feeling a steely determination that was quite alien to him. He would get what he wanted, and woe betide anyone who got in his way. It must have showed on his face, because the King was staring at him, and suddenly it wasn't anger that Tak saw in his eyes. It could almost have been fear. Fear of a powerful wizard who was standing in his private chambers, mere feet away from him, making threats.

     The King's glanced at the door, beyond which a couple of guards were standing. For a moment it looked as though he might summon them, but he must have known how little chance they'd have had against the two Gem Lords because he gave a sigh of resignation instead.

     "You leave me no choice," he said. "You may have your woman. I said to you yesterday that she made a fine catch, but I can see now that I had it backwards. It's she who's caught you, isn't it? I know for a fact that she doesn't work for your city, that you and she had never met before today, so don't try to pretend that it's anything other than blind lust between you. You are a fool, Gem Lord. You can have any woman you want, and you choose a spy who is devoted solely to her own city, who will betray you the moment her masters tell her to. Still, that is not my concern. You have delivered your ultimatum and I have no choice but to comply."

     He pulled a bell rope to summon a servant and gave him a message to take to the dungeons while Tak breathed a sigh of relief. His heart was pounding madly in his chest as if he'd just ran up five flights of stairs. Was it him who'd said those words to the King? He couldn't believe it, and looking at Barl he could see that he couldn't believe it either. The words had just burst out of him before he'd known what he was saying, as if he'd temporarily lost all control over himself.

     The King's words had stung him, though, and he felt a burning need to explain, to try to make him understand how he felt about Essca. He also wanted to apologise, to say something to reassure him that he was a nice guy really. That he wasn't the petulant bully he'd sounded like. Before he could open his mouth, though, Barl had grabbed his arm and was pulling him forcefully towards the door.

     "You have our gratitude, your Majesty," he said, bowing slightly. "You will find that we will be good friends to you and your city." They didn't wait to see how the King took those words but hurried out of the Keep and back to the guest wing.

     "By the Gods, you fool!" he cried as soon as they were in an empty stretch of corridor, with no-one to overhear. "What if he'd summoned the guards to arrest us? He might have, you know! You don't speak to Kings like that! Not even the Yinnfarsians speak to him like that!"

     "He wasn't going to give her to us," was all Tak could think to say. "I had to have her back! I had to!"

     "You blind fool! It's true what he said, you know. She's a spy for an enemy city. She'll betray us the first chance she gets! What are you going to do, keep her locked up in a tower somewhere? You can't let her wander around freely, you know that! She'll report everything she sees to her real masters. The Grey Mages!"

     "We'll sort something out," said Tak, the truth of Barl's words burning him with shame and humiliation. "I love her! I couldn't leave her to be tortured and executed! I'd rather die myself!"

     Barl stared at him, and Tak knew he was looking at the tears brimming in his eyes. The eyes of one of the world's most powerful wizards. "Gods, what a mess," he muttered. "What a damned mess."

☆☆☆

     Tak couldn't stay in the castle after that, of course, and as soon as Essca was delivered to their room he dressed in his travelling robes and left, taking her with him back to their camp on two of the horses he and his entourage had ridden in on. Barl remained behind to explain to the King what a lovesick fool Tak was, how there'd been nothing he could do to control his colleague and that hopefully they could put this regrettable incident behind them and get on with the negotiations. Tak knew that the bargaining would be a good deal harder from now on, though, and that Barl would have to make concessions to smooth things over. Hopefully the damage wasn't beyond repair, though, and they could still come to an arrangement that would be to the benefit of both cities.

     Riding through the moors on their horses, the castle receding behind them silhouetted against a sky that was growing pink with the approach of dawn, Tak and Essca were silent for a long time. The Gem Lord was turning the events of the night over and over in his head, trying to make some kind of sense out of them, while the girl glanced sideways at him as if trying to read his thoughts in his eyes and the set of his mouth. Finally she said, "Why did you do it? Why take such a great risk just for me?"

     Tak turned his head to look at her. Her golden hair was streaming out behind her like the tail of a comet, shimmering in the moonlight. He couldn't believe how impossibly beautiful she was, like something out of a dream. "I, I care about you," he said. "I couldn't leave you there, knowing what they were going to do to you."

     She shuddered at the memory. "But, I mean, you care for me? For me? But you're a wizard! You can have anyone! Why would you be interested in me?"

     "I don't know," replied Tak uncomfortably. "I just am, that's all. I can't bear the thought of something happening to you. I had to get you out."

     She was silent for a long time, digesting this. Then she said, "So what happens to me now? You take me back to your city, whichever that is, to be your bedmate until you tire of me..."

     "No!" cried Tak in anguish. "No, not at all! You're free. Free to go wherever you want. Anywhere in the world. You can go back to Sholl if you want..."

     "They won't have me," she said, her eyes downcast. "I failed them. If I go back, they'll cast me out again, or just kill me. And I can't go anywhere else..."

     "Why not? You're a wizard, and a good one. You've got real potential, I can sense it. With your power..."

     "All my spellbooks are back there," she said, with a toss of her head to indicate the castle behind them. "You think Halk'll just give them to me if I ask for them? A wizard without spellbooks is nothing. If I'm lucky a man might take me in, to wash his clothes and bear his children. That's the only life open to me now."

     "No it isn't. You can come home, with me. You can be one of the wizards of my city. You can copy the spells you've got in your head into new spellbooks and I'll take you as my apprentice. Under my tutelage you'll become a much greater wizard than you ever would have done otherwise. You might even take your place as a Gem Lord one day."

     "She stared at him. "You're a Gem Lord? I should have guessed! You'd do that for me? really?"

     "Really," confirmed Tak. "You don't have to decide right away. You can come back to Domandropolis with me as my guest until you decide."

     She chuckled, half mixed with a sob of confusion. "After all the unkind things I said about your city?"

     "Most of them are true. We're trying to change it, but it's slow work. We need all the help we can get. What do you say? Come home with me?"

     She stared at him a moment longer, then nodded. "Thank you," she said. "Yes, I'll come with you. Thank you."