Out of the Darkness

Valnu didn’t get up right away. Had Krasta had a little less to drink, or drunk it a little more slowly, she would have realized he was thinking it over, and she would have got angry. As things were, she just stood there, swaying a little, waiting for him to do as she said. And he did, too. All he said when he rose was, “Well, why not?”

The butler blinked when Krasta and Valnu went past him on the stairway. He didn’t know Krasta very well. None of the new servants did. She thought that was funny, too.

Valnu proved to know some very pleasant alternatives. After Krasta bucked against his tongue, after her breathing and her pulse slowed toward normal, she ran her hands through his hair and said, “You didn’t learn that from any Algarvian officers.”

“My sweet, doing anything over and over without change, no matter how enjoyable, grows boring in the end,” Valnu said.

She wasn’t in the mood to argue. “Here, lie on your side,” she said, and slid down. Just before she started, she made as if to push him out of bed.

He looked surprised for a moment, then laughed, no doubt remembering the carriage ride on the dark streets of Priekule, as she did. “You’d better not do that now,” he said, mock-fierce.

“What should I do, then?” Krasta asked. Before Valnu could answer, she did it. He seemed at least as appreciative as she had when their positions were more or less reversed.

She gulped and choked a little at the end. She almost asked him how she compared to some of those Algarvian officers, but kept quiet instead. It wasn’t that she lacked the brass: much more that she worried he might tell her the unvarnished truth.

“Well,” Valnu said brightly, “maybe I ought to come over and say hello more often.”

“If you’re sure you wouldn’t be bored,” Krasta said.

“Oh, not for a while, anyhow,” he replied. She glared. Valnu laughed and said, “You deserved that.” Krasta shook her head. As far as she was concerned, she never deserved anything but the very best.

“Will we be ready for the demonstration?” Fernao asked Pekka. “After all, it’s only a week away.”

“Everything went fine the last time we tried it,” she answered. “The only difference is, this time a few more people will be watching. Why are you so worried about it?”

“I always want everything to go as well as it can,” the Lagoan mage said. “You know that’s true.” Pekka nodded. If she hadn’t, he would have been highly affronted. He went on, “Besides, the war is almost over. The faster we can make all the pieces end, the better for everybody.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Pekka said grimly. “If we could use Trapani for the demonstration, I wouldn’t mind a bit. And you know that’s true.”

Fernao nodded. He knew it very well. But he said, “The Unkerlanters seem to be doing a pretty fair job of taking care of Trapani all by themselves. They’re already in the city, fighting their way toward the palace.”

“I know. But I wish I had the revenge myself, not at second hand,” Pekka said.

“You sound more like a Lagoan than a Kuusaman,” Fernao remarked. His people, like other Algarvic folk, took vengeance seriously. Kuusamans usually didn’t. They claimed they were too civilized for such things. But I can see how getting your husband killed would make you change your mind. Fernao didn’t say that. The less he said about Leino, he was convinced, the better off things between Pekka and him would be.

“Do I?” Pekka said. “Well, by the powers above, I’ve earned the right.” Her thoughts must have been going down the same ley line as his.

“I know,” he said. When she brought her past out into the open, he couldn’t very well ignore it. And that past had helped shape what she was now. Had it been different, she would have been different, too, perhaps so different that he wouldn’t have loved her. That thought by itself was plenty to make him nervous.

She turned the subject, at least to some degree, saying, “Uto likes you.”

“I’m glad.” Fernao meant it, which surprised him more than a little. He went on, “I like him, too,” which was also true. “He’ll be quite something when he grows up.”

“So he will, unless somebody strangles him sometime between now and then,” Pekka said. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been tempted a couple of times myself. Uto will be … how should I put it? A long time learning discipline, that’s what he’ll be.”

Fernao could hardly disagree. But, since the talk had swung to Pekka’s family, he asked, “What about your sister? She didn’t say more than a few words to me while we were in Kajaani.”

“You know why Elimaki was wary of you, too. She wouldn’t have been, or not so much”-Fernao could have done without that little bit of honesty from Pekka, however characteristic of her it was-”if Olavin hadn’t started cavorting with his secretary or clerk or whoever she is. If we hadn’t done anything till after Leino got killed, Elimaki would have been easier in her mind. But I think it will turn out all right in the end.”