Читать «Centaur Aisle» онлайн - страница 177

They lay on the slope, in the concealment of one of the huge ancestral oaks, and the world was deceptively peaceful. “Do you really think it will work?” Irene asked worriedly. “The closer I get, the more I fear something dreadful win happen.”

Dor decided he couldn’t afford to agree with her. “We have fought our way here,” he said. “It can’t go for nothing.”

“We have had no omens of success-?” She paused. “Or have we? Omen-King Omen-can he have anything to do with it?”

“Anything is possible with magic. And we have brought magic to this Kingdom.”

She shook her head. “I swing back and forth, full of hope and doubt. You just keep going on, never suffering the pangs of uncertainty, and you do generally get there. We’ll make a good match.”

No uncertainty? He was made of uncertainty! But again, he didn’t want to undermine what little confidence Irene was grasping for.

“We have to succeed. Otherwise I would be King. You wouldn’t want that.”

She rolled over, fetching up next to him, shedding leaves and grass. She grabbed him by the ears and kissed him. “I’d settle for that, Dor.”

He looked at her, startled. She was disheveled and lovely. She had always been the aggressor in their relationship, first in quarreling, more recently in romance. Did he really want it that way?

He grabbed her and pulled her back down to him, kissing her savagely. At first she was rigid with surprise; then she melted. She returned his kiss and his embrace, becoming something very special and exciting.

It would have been easy to go on from there. But a note of caution sounded in Dor’s mind. In the course of assorted adventures he had come to appreciate the value of timing, and this was not the proper time for what offered. “First we rescue your father,” he murmured in her ear.

That brought her up short. “Yes, of course. So nice of you to remind me.”

Dor suspected he had misplayed it, but as usual, all he could do was bull on. “Now we can sleep, so as to be ready for tonight.”

“Whatever you say,” she agreed. But she did not release him. “Dear.

Dor considered, and realized he was comfortable as he was. A strand of Irene’s green-tinted hair fell across his face, smelling pleasantly of girl. Her breathing was soft against him. He felt that he could not ask for a better mode of relaxation.

But she was waiting for something. Finally he decided what it was.

“Dear,” he said.

She nodded, and closed her eyes. Yes, he was learning! He lay still, and soon he slept.

“Now aren’t we cozy!” Grundy remarked.

Dor and Irene woke with a joint start. “We were just sleeping together,” she said.

“And you admit it!” the golem exclaimed.

“Well, we are engaged, you know. We can do what we like together.”

Dor realized that she was teasing the golem, so he stayed out of it.