Iris Johansen: Everlasting

“I'm glad old age has tempered you,” he said solemnly. “You're how old now? Twenty-two or twenty-three?”

“Twenty-three,” she said, frowning. “Your newspapers seem to be very informative.”

“Not really. There was actually very little regarding your background. You're Princess Kira Rubinoff, your parents are dead, and you're under the guardianship of your brother, King Stefan of Tamrovia. You have another brother, Lance, who lives in Sedikhan and is an extremely gifted artist. I have a few of his paintings, by the way.”

“Isn't he wonderful? He painted a few portraits of me when I was a child, but hasn't used me as a subject since then. He says he's waiting until I've ‘set.’” She wrinkled her nose. “Makes me sound about as appealing as watery Jell-O.”

“You seem to be quite fond of him.” His eyes narrowed. “Why didn't you ask him for help? I understand he's very well off.”

“He's closely linked to Alex Ben Raschid, the ruler of Sedikhan. I can't involve Sedikhan in my problems again. The last time I nearly caused a diplomatic incident. I'm trying to keep the knowledge of this mess from everyone in Sedikhan.” She nibbled at her lower lip. “It's not entirely a financial problem. That wasn't what I meant.”

“This sounds intriguing.” he said slowly. “Or it would if I had any idea what you were talking about. Suppose you clarify matters by telling me just why you've decided to pay me a visit at this unusual hour.”

“Well, I couldn't be sure of being able to contact you at any other time or place, I figured since you were in Tucson, you'd stay a day or two to conduct business.” She gestured vaguely. “You have gold mining interests or something here, don't you?”

He wondered what the board members of the gigantic Shaman Copper Company would say to such an offhand reference. “Or something. It seems you've done a little research on my humble enterprises.”

She gave a distinctly unladylike snort at that blatant understatement. “I looked you up in the library. I had to find some way of tracking you down. You're an elusive man, Mr. Damon. And Marna was no help at all.”

He went still. “Marna?”

She gave a sigh of relief. “You remember Marna? I was afraid you'd forgotten her, and that would have blown everything. It's been so many years.”

“No. I remember Marna Debuk very well.”

“She said you would, but then she clammed up on me.” She ran her fingers distractedly through her curls. “I've seen her be maddeningly inscrutable with other people, but never with me.”

There was hurt as well as bewilderment in her expression and Zack had a sudden impulse to cross the space between them and take her in his arms to comfort her. His hands on the arms of the chair tightened until his knuckles showed white. Not yet. “She loves you very much. I'm sure if she thought it best to-”

She impatiently held up her hand. “I know. I know. It's just that I'm so worried about her. I need all the help I can get, and she picks a time like this to become mysterious.”

“I think you'd better start at the beginning.”

“Am I being incoherent?” She grimaced. “It's one of my worst faults. Verbal chaos.” She bit her lower lip. “The beginning. I don't have any idea how much you already know. Blast Marna, anyway.”

“The beginning,” he repeated softly.

“Well, you do know Marna is a Gypsy and a member of one of the largest tribes in Tamrovia. It's a long-established custom for a member of her tribe to serve in the royal household in each generation. Marna became my nursemaid when I was born and has been with me ever since.” Her expression softened. “My parents and Stefan never had much time for me and Lance was in Sedikhan, so there was really only Marna. She was everything I needed or wanted.”

“That's quite an accolade.”

“She's quite a woman.” Uneasy, Kira hesitated. “Quite an unusual woman. She has certain…”

“Powers,” he suggested softly.

Her breath came out in a little rush. “You know about that?”

“I know that she told me she could work spells and sometimes see what others could not.”

“And you believed her?”

“My grandfather was a shaman and I spent a good deal of my childhood alone with him in the hills. I know that power exists.”

“That simplifies things a bit. I could see myself quite futilely trying to explain about Marna's powers. Well, anyway, my brother Stefan is a bit of a chitka.”

“Chitka?”

“Sorry. It's a Tamrovian word. It means fool or idiot. Stefan decided when I was sixteen that I should make a marriage of state, and he tossed me to the lions, or rather to the title hunters. He forced me into contact with every head of state and powerful tycoon in the world.”

“Not every tycoon,” Zack corrected quietly.

“If you hadn't been hiding in the mountains playing Howard Hughes, I can assure you that you would have topped Stefan's list. Stefan was very determined.” Her lips tightened. “But so was I.”

“Hence, the Corfu dock incident?”

She nodded. “Marna and I managed very well at first. Sometimes it was almost amusing. Then, last year, Stefan got impatient with the game and decided to end it. He imprisoned Marna to pressure me to give in.”

“Rather a drastic solution. Don't you have a habeas corpus law in Tamrovia?”

She shook her head. “It's an absolute monarchy. Stefan claimed she was aiding me by casting harmful spells on prospective suitors.”

He lifted a brow. “And was she?”

She shrugged. “Nothing very important. Maybe a minor rash now and then.” She bristled. “And they deserved it.”

“I'm sure they did.”

“Well, naturally I couldn't just leave her in prison. Clancy Donahue, Chief of Security of Sedikhan, and I broke her out and smuggled her across the border to Sedikhan.”

“I've heard of Donahue. I once tried to hire him as head of my security force.”

She shook her head. “Clancy would never leave Alex Ben Raschid or Sedikhan.”

“I found that out. Pity. He's a remarkable man. Go on. I gather your troubles weren't over when you reached Sedikhan.”

“They should have been, but Marna was miserably unhappy in Sedikhan. She has very close ties to her tribe and she missed her people. So I went back and tried to pacify Stefan.”

“Pacify?” All humor vanished from his face. “How?”

“I thought if I was pleasant to some of the men Stefan wanted me-”

“Pleasant.” The word was razor sharp. “Is that a euphemism for sleeping with them?”

Her eyes widened with surprise. “Of course not. I told you, those kinds of men really were interested only in my title. I'm not exactly a sex symbol, you know.”

She honestly believed what she said, Zack realized. She didn't know that her extraordinary vitality alone was a sexual draw. “I'm afraid I forgot,” he drawled while wondering how a woman in her position could have remained so damned naive.

“Well, it isn't important. It didn't work out anyway. I'm not very docile and things happened…”

He was sure he would be fascinated to know about those “things,” but at the moment he needed to get her to the crux of the story. “And?”

“I returned to Sedikhan to wait for Stefan's temper to cool. I was going to try again, but Marna was impatient. She wanted to see her people, if only for a visit. So I smuggled her back across the border into Tamrovia.”

“Quite a busy border.”

“It's not amusing. Stefan had men waiting at the Gypsy camp when we got there.” She frowned. “I don't know how he knew that we'd be there. No one in Sedikhan would have betrayed us.”

“So Marna is in prison again?”