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Jenine paused, biting her lip Her lips were full, pink despite the coolness of this high tower Dorian--for Half those soft, full lips He blinked, forcing things carnal fro woht to his question In Khalidor, fear isdom

"I’m always afraid here," she said "I don’t believe I will betray you, but if they torture ive, is it? I will keep your confidence to the last extremity I can endure It is a poor and lame vow, but I have been stripped of riches outside and in" She smiled then, the same beautiful, sad smile

And he loved her May the God who saved hi so fast He’d never believed in instant love Such a thing could surely be only infatuation or lust, and he couldn’t deny that he felt both But at seeing her, he had an odd feeling ofan old friend His Modaini friend Antoninus Wervel said such things happened when those who had known each other in past lives met Dorian didn’t believe that Perhaps, instead, it was his visions At Screah his es, he knew he’d lived lifetimes with this woman in those visions Perhaps that had primed him for love For he believed that this was real love, that here was the woman to whom he would yield body andHe would marry her, or no one She would bear his son, or no one would

It was either that--or the insanity Dorian had feared for so long had finally caught up with him

"They call me Halfed son and heir to Garoth Ursuul, and long since stricken fro and his ways"

"I don’t understand," she said Her forehead wrinkled He’d seen that wrinkle, in his visions, when it had become a worry line, per a hand up to sht he’d left all the confusions of being a prophet behind! "Why are you here?"

"For you, Jeni"

She stiffened "You reat risk--you hness" Dorian’s head swirled Here he was, a prince hiirl by her full naht was bad enough, but finding out that it wasn’t irl if she’d thrown herself at him, wouldn’t he?

"I think you’d better explain yourself," she said

Stupid, Dorian Stupid She’s far from home She’s seen her land laid waste by your people She’s isolated She’s scared--and you’re not exactly at your best for romance, are you?

Ah hell, she thinks I’m a eunuch! There was a nice dilemma How does one interject into a polite conversation, "By the way, in case you’re ever interested, I do have a penis"?