Lord of the Dark by Dawn Thompson

her was enough to grow balls on a eunuch. “What would be the point?” he blurted. “It would only be taken from me again.”
    “You want me to go,” she said, answering her own question.
    He nodded. “You must.”
    “Yes,” she said demurely, her eyes cast down as she returned a bit of cheese to the tray.
    Gideon steeled himself. The look of her then would melt the polar ice cap. “I will take you wherever you wish to go,” he said, avoiding the eyes that shot up pleading.
    “That is just it,” she said. “I do not know where to go. My father was drowned in the shipwreck. I am…alone.”
    “Where were you going?” he probed her.
    “West,” she said, “to the hills of Thurgia, to meet my betrothed. It was to be an arranged union, not of my choosing.”
    “Umm,” Gideon grunted. “You do not wish to go there, I take it?”
    “No! I do not!” she cried. “My ‘betrothed’ is an odious creature old enough to be my father! We have never even met.”
    “Where, then…back to where you’ve come from?”
    She shook her head. “I cannot go back,” she said. “There is nothing for me there. My father lost all his properties and fortune. Were I to return they would imprison me for debt. I can never go back.”
    “Where, then?”
    Her eyes misted. “When the sea spat me out on your strand, I foolishly thought the gods had favored me,” she said. “You see, I prayed to Zaar when the ship broke apart to see me safely to dry land. I prayed to Mer not to drown me in the water. Then I washed up here, on your isle, and I thought both prayers had been answered. I also prayed to Mica, god of all, to show me his plan for my future. If this is it, here, now, I like it not. I have been cast out everywhere. Father and I were run off our land in the north country steppes, then the shipwreck, and now you would cast me out as well….”
    “I must! You call what is said of me ‘legend.’ It is fact. Because I lusted I am cursed to ever lust and be denied that which I lust after. I do not know a more delicate way to put it, but what happened in that pool before is a good example. Stay and it will happen again, and worse. I am allowed no companion here.”
    “Is this island not large enough to house us both?” she pleaded.
    “Have you heard nothing I’ve said?” he snapped.
    “We need not be companions if I remain on this isle,” she said. “Surely it is large enough to accommodate the both of us…at least until I am sure it is safe for me to leave.”
    “Why wouldn’t it be safe for you to leave? Hah! It is not safe if you stay!”
    “The mainland in these parts seems a likely place,” she said. “But first, since I am on my own, I would be certain none there mean to harm me.”
    What was she trying to tell him? How could he abandon her to danger, if such existed? It was times like these that he wished the gods had taken his conscience, when they stripped him of his privilege.
    “Who means you harm?”
    “I do not know that anyone does…for certain,” she replied. “But the first mate on the Pegasus was stalking me, and would have had his way with me if the ship had not split in two when it did and cast us all into the sea. I was no match for his strength. He had been after me since the voyage began, and I strongly suspect that he helped my father drown so he could pursue me unopposed. I would wait until I knew what has become of him before I show my face hereabouts. But if you insist that I must go, so be it!”
    Gideon cursed under his breath. “What is this person’s name?” he said.
    “Rolf,” she told him.
    “Very well,” Gideon said. “I will seek word of this ‘Rolf’ on the isles and on the mainland. You may remain until I am satisfied that he is no longer a threat to you. Then I will see you to safety and leave you in the hands of those who will care for you.”
    Her face brightened, and she rose to her feet and rushed at him. “How can I ever thank you?” she cried.
    Gideon