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Updated: September 28, 2025
There was Blazer, with his tawny muzzle, and behind him Fangs, the great, black bitch, half mastiff and half bloodhound, the saliva dripping from her jaws as she ran. Constans drew a deep breath as he watched them. Already they were nearing the pavilion; in a few seconds at the farthest they would be giving tongue upon the striking of his scent. He must decide quickly then, and he turned to Esmay.
The girl Esmay ah, you could think that, too, of me. Yet it was natural enough." Constans would have spoken, but the words tripped on his tongue. Quinton Edge interrupted him imperiously. "She is there," he said, and pointed to a door leading to the interior apartments of the suite. "I could not leave Issa entirely alone on this last night. So I brought the girl here for once, she trusted me.
Nanna, huddled up in a corner of the room whither she had been flung, answered not a word, but watched him steadily, unwinkingly, her eyes narrowed to two gleaming slits. Esmay went over and assisted her to her feet. "You will give us time to get a few things together," said the girl, turning to Quinton Edge. "A woman cannot be moved about like a piece of furniture." "Ten minutes."
"If Master Quinton Edge catches you he will nick your ear, and then you will have to row in the galleys." Constans winced. Could she possibly have discovered his secret? But no; the hair fell in a thick wave upon his ears it had been but a chance shot. "I am not afraid," he said, coldly. The tawny eyes, with their heart of fire, rested upon him approvingly. "I am Esmay," she answered.
"I am Esmay," she announced, and paused a little doubtfully. "I know," assented Constans. "Then you do remember? Even the bracelet with the carbuncles, and how you would not make up because I was a girl and knew no better?" "It was a very foolish affair from beginning to end," said Constans, loftily, intent upon disguising his embarrassment.
It is unbearable, Esmay, and he shall pack this very night." "But Nanna!" "I won't listen to a word." "You will. He has gone already." She pushed the elder woman into a chair. "Now don't dare to move until I am back with wood and a light. Not a word, sister mine if you love me." Taken by surprise, Nanna let her go, and sat waiting.
The girl recoiled as though from a blow, and Constans felt the shame of having actually struck one. "But not you," he stammered, and raged inwardly at himself. She forgave him in a look. "But, Esmay," he said, humbly. She smiled to him to go on. "You are thinking of the world beyond, but indeed you do not know it its cruelty to the weak, above all to a woman. Here, at least "
But such an act would have stained his honor without fully satisfying his vengeance; he did not want to strike until he should know where it would hurt the most. It had been Ulick always who had stood in the road; Ulick with his eternal lamentations over the maid Esmay. Together they had searched for her in every possible quarter. But where was one to look first in this wilderness of stone?
But here the sun shone brightly, the grass was green underfoot, the birds sang in the branches above their heads, and the smell of the spring-tide was in the air. Truly, life and light are sweet to him who has once walked in the shadow. It was in October of the same year that Constans and Esmay stood one day in the court-yard of the Greenwood Keep, now restored and rebuilt.
"You'll have to make out with the firelight for a little while," said Esmay, picking up the rude lamp. "But you won't mind, dear?" She stooped, kissed her sister, and was gone again. The elder woman felt her eyes brimming saltily. The girl, so far as years were concerned, might almost have been her daughter, since Nanna had been both wife and widow at seventeen.
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