Shields Lady (8 page)

            Even as Sariana administered the brisk little lecture to herself the bright morning sky suddenly clouded over. Lightning flared and thunder rolled. The warm summer shower caught her three blocks from the Avylyns' front door.

            Sariana shook her head philosophically as the rain drenched her hair and clothing. The shower was typical of life in Serendipity. Unpredictable.

            Gryph Chassyn closed the door of his new sleeping chamber and started down the long hall that led toward the central hub of the Avylyns' villa. His new quarters were definitely a cut above his old ones which were located in a far less affluent part of town. He decided the fringe benefits of this new job were going to be pleasant.

            He wondered what Lady Sariana Dayne would say when she found out he had just been assigned a suite near her own apartments. Gryph had a hunch she would not be pleased. Lucky for him Lord and Lady Avylyn were far more intimidated by a Shield than they were of their business manager. That morning Gryph had asked for the rooms and he had gotten them, no questions asked.

            He emerged from the long wing into the central hall of the villa just as a young blond-haired boy came racing into the hall from the workshop wing. Gryph didn't need to see the boy's dark eyes to know he was about to meet the Avylyns' youngest son.

            Luri Avylyn was clutching a small cage of elaborately designed gold wire as he dashed across the wide, circular hall. His attention was focused on the small creature inside the cage and he almost collided with Gryph. Less than a meter away he came to an abrupt halt and automatically began a proper, if hasty, apology without looking up. He was too obviously fascinated by the contents of the cage.

            "Your pardon, sir, I was on my way into the guest wing. I didn't see you." "No harm done," Gryph said easily. "What have you got in the cage?"

            Luri raised his head excitedly. "It's a present for Lady Sariana. Do you know her?" Then his dark Avylyn eyes grew very wide as he realized who was standing in front of him. "You're the Shield, aren't you? Bryer said one had been hired to protect the jewelry that will be on display the night of the ball. I'm Luri."

            Gryph nodded and crouched down in front of the boy to examine the cage. "The luck of the day to you, Luri. You say this is to be a present for Sariana? It's a scarlet-toe, isn't it?"

            "That's right. Do you think she'll like it? It took me days and days to catch one. I finally found this one in the gardens down by the river."

            Luri held out the gold filigree cage. The small, brilliant red lizard inside bunked its scarlet eyes at Gryph.

            "That's a very handsome scarlet-toe," Gryph said as he admired the lizard. "Uh, do you happen to know whether or not Sariana likes lizards?"

            Luri shook his head impatiently. "She's never had one. In fact, I don't think she's ever had any pets. The people of the eastern provinces are quite strange, you know."

"So I've heard." Gryph grinned at the boy.

            Luri automatically responded with a wide smile and then curiosity got the better of him. "Are you really a Shield?"

"I'm a Shield in the same way that you are a Jeweler."

            Luri's chin lifted slightly with pride. "My specialty is going to be gemology. When I'm grown up I will be in charge of buying the uncut stones our craftsmen use in their work."

            "Sounds like a good profession," Gryph said seriously. "Bryer's an expert in fine metals."

Gryph nodded as he studied the scarlet lizard.

            Luri shifted from one foot to the other, still clutching the cage carefully. His eyes darted-down to the weapon kit attached to Gryph's belt. Then he drew a deep breath and blurted out his next question.

            "Is it true that no one can open a Shield's weapon kit except the Shield himself?" Gryph glanced up and saw the breathless fascination in the boy's eyes. "That's not quite true," he

explained quietly. "There is one other person who can open a Shield's kit."

            Luri's dark eyes grew wider. "Who?"

            "A Shield's lady can open the kit. She is the only other person on the face of the planet who can unseal the prisma lock."

"Do you have a lady?" Luri demanded.

            Gryph shook his head. "Not yet." "Are you going to get one?"

"If my luck holds."

            Luri chewed on his lower lip. "Are you sure you couldn't teach me how to open the kit?" Gryph laughed and rose to his feet. He ruffled the boy's bright blond hair with a friendly hand. "I'm

afraid not."

            "But if you can't teach me or anyone else how to do it, how will you teach a wife?" "Every social class has its secrets, Luri. You know that. The way we teach our wives to open our

weapon kits is a Shield secret."

            Luri nodded seriously, well aware of the inviolable laws that protected such secrets. He sought for a way around the problem. "Can you show me what's inside?"

"Maybe," Gryph said thoughtfully. "Maybe I will do that one of these days when the time is right."

            "Why does the time have to be right?"

"It just does. That's all."

            "Oh." Luri considered his words and then decided to try another angle. "If you won't show me what's inside the weapon kit will you at least tell me some good tales of bandit fighting?"

            Gryph gave that some thought. "I suppose I've got time for a quick one. Do you know the story of Targyn and the cutthroats of the Cretlin Mountains?"

"I've never heard that one. Who was Targyn?"

            "He was a very strong and clever Shield," Gryph began with proper gravity. "He killed his first bandit when he was just a little older than you are."

"All by himself?"

            Gryph nodded. "So the story goes. At any rate, as the years went by he spent more and more time in the mountains hunting bandits who attacked the traders and miners who use the mountain passes. His name became a legend. The bandits got together one day and decided they had to find a way to get rid of him. Since Targyn almost always hunted alone, they figured they could lure him into a special dead end canyon and trap him there."

"Did it work? Was Targyn trapped?"

            "He let them think he was," Gryph said. "But Targyn was very clever. Much too clever for the bandits." He went on to explain exactly how Targyn had escaped the trap and lived to fight another day.

            "What finally happened to Targyn?" Luri asked breathlessly. "Is he still alive?"

            "No," Gryph said soberly. "Targyn finally got himself killed up in the mountains. He took many bandits with him when he died, but in the end he was pushed off a high cliff. He fell into a deep mountain lake and was drowned. His body was never recovered."

            Gryph decided not to mention the more mundane fact that many Shields had been privately relieved to learn that the valiant Targyn had met his end in a suitably noble fashion. Had he lived, it was felt, Targyn might have proved to be a problem. The man had not been completely sane. Gryph was more relieved than most when Targyn met his glorious end. He'd had a sneaking hunch that the Council of the Shields was seriously considering sending him out to get rid of Targyn. But there was no need to mess up the great legend Gryph was relating to Luri with that minor detail.

            "Tell me about his last battle," Luri urged. But the boy's plea was cut off as the grand doors of the main hall were opened by a household attendant in response to thundering chimes.

            A drenched Sariana stood on the doorstep, futilely trying to wring out the hem of her long narrow skin. Her clothes were plastered to her, revealing the soft, gentle curves of her slender frame. She looked up apologetically as the attendant exclaimed in dismay and urged her into the hall.

            "My fault, Letta. I misjudged the weather again."

            "My Lady, you're drenched." The stout, older woman fussed around Sariana, getting her inside and shutting the doors behind her. Then Lena turned to regard Sariana with an admonishing expression. "When win you learn that you must always take a rainscreen with you during the summer months in Serendipity? By the Lightstorm, just look at you. You're soaked to the skin. You must go and change immediately."

            "Yes, Letta, I think I'll do exactly that." Sariana started quickly across the wide hall, peeling off her tight jacket as she went. "You'd think I'd have teamed my lesson about trusting the weather around here months ago," she added just under her breath.

            Gryph heard the remark. "What's the matter, Sariana?" he asked as she strode, dripping, toward where he stood with Luri. "Still having trouble with a few of the local customs? Isn't our weather tame enough for you?"

            "No, it is not," Sariana snapped, clearly annoyed at finding him in her path. She glowered at him as she pushed wet hair back off her face. "Your weather is frequently as outrageous, unpredictable and contrary as - " She saw Luri and stopped talking immediately.

            "As the people who live here?" Gryph finished helpfully. "You'll have to forgive us. Sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly, what an easterner wants, let alone what she needs."

            He kept his voice pleasant so as not to upset Luri, but he knew Sariana was well aware of the expression in his eyes. He also knew it alarmed her slightly. He nodded, satisfied. At this point he would settle for making any impression at all on her, even if it wasn't the best. She had been going out of her way to avoid him for the past two days. It irked Gryph, because he had made up his mind to be on his best behavior around her. She seemed determined not to give him any chance at all to impress her. It was impossible to court a woman who went down another hallway in order to avoid greeting him.

            "Don't waste your valuable time trying to figure out what I want or what I need, Shield," Sariana advised as she made to step around him. "We're not paying you for that particular service. Speaking of your services," she added firmly, "I will expect a progress report from you tomorrow morning. Meet me in my office after breakfast."

            "You do have a way of putting a man in his place, Sariana," Gryph made himself say smoothly. "Some men need to have their proper place explained to them. Now if you will excuse me, I would

like to go to my rooms." She glanced down and her voice softened miraculously. She broke into a dazzling smile. "Why, hello, Luri. What have you got there?"

            Luri thrust the golden cage toward her. "It's a present for you, Sariana. A scarlet-toe lizard of your very own. It will keep you company at night."

            Sariana's expression was a mixture of puzzlement and delight. "What a beautiful little cage. I'll bet your cousin Moris did this, didn't he? It looks like his work." Automatically Sariana reached out to take the cage from Luri's hands. "Is the lizard Moris' work, too? I thought it was Taria who liked to design reptile brooches. What a beautiful piece of work. I don't recognize the gems. I've never seen such glowing red stones before." Then she got her first good look at the creature inside the gold filigree. "It's alive!"

            "Of course it's alive," Luri said. "Who wants a fake lizari?"

            "Or a dead one," Gryph added thoughtfully. He smiled at Sariana when her eyes flashed briefly to his face. Then she looked again at the creature in the cage.

            Gryph had to hand it to her. Sariana barely flinched. Her brilliant smile stayed in place and she never missed a beat as she said to Luri, "What a fabulous lizard. It's so beautiful it looks as though it had been made in an Avylyn workshop. Why, it's even got red eyes."

            Luri was pleased with her response. "It took me a long time to catch it. I had to get up before dawn every morning and go out into the gardens. You have to have just the right bait to catch a scarlet-toe, you see. They only eat certain kinds of leaves. You have to be very quick to get one."

            Sariana gave Luri an appraising look. "Maybe its wrong to keep it in a cage, Luri. A little creature like this should be free, don't you think?"

            "Oh, in a few days he'll bond to you and then you won't have to keep him in a cage," Luri explained. "They make great pets for ladies."

            Sariana turned a helpless, beseeching gaze on Gryph. He took the opportunity to step in with more helpful information.

            "They have an affinity for females just as krellcats have an affinity for males." "You've seen iny krellcat," Luri reminded her. "This scarlet-toe will want to hang around you the same

way my krellcat is always hanging around me."

"I see," Sariana's voice was very faint. "Uh, where is your krellcat this moming?"

"I left him in my room. I was afraid he might eat the scarlet-toe."

            "I see," Sariana said again weakly. "Is this business of keeping krellcats and scarlet-toes for pets an old western custom?"

            "It's not a very old custom," Gryph said easily. "It's only been in the past few years that anyone discovered what great pets they make."

            "Oh," she said a little too cheerfully, "what an odd coincidence. Recently in my homeland a few people have started keeping odd pets, too. They seem quite attached to them. I never had time for a pet, what with my studies and all."

            Gryph watched her standing there, wet and bedraggled from the storm with a caged lizard she didn't want in her hands and he didn't know whether to laugh or offer comfort. He had the feeling she would be infuriated by either approach.

            'There's an old Serendipity saying that fits occasions such as this," Gryph finally said blandly. "What's that?" she asked with deep suspicion.

"Take what you can get when you can get it. Life doesn't come with any guarantees."

            "Sayings like that cover a lot of territory, don't they?" she retorted.