Myth-Told Tales

"It's his dream. He had told us ever since we were children that he hoped we would marry. My father, too, wished that Renimbi and I would marry. He found every opportunity to throw us together, even leaving us alone in romantic settings." Cordu's cheeks deepened in color to bronze. "For our parents' sake we tried. But we never really hit it off as lovers, and our relationship has only gotten worse over the last few years. It was with genuine regret that we decided it could never be. My father came to terms with our incompatibility. That is when I married Larica. Rennie and I agreed we would stay best friends. I still love her dearly, but not romantically."

"But after the, er, meeting with her father, you did press your suit to Renimbi?"

"Well, yes, I did. What with the document and all, I believed I had no choice. Larica is not happy about it, but she understands the customs of our culture. At first I thought that it could work."

"But Renimbi soon disabused you of that notion," Chumley said.

Cordu looked sheepish.

"Well, yes. She sent back all of my presents in pieces, except the horse. My page told me that she threatened him with a sword, too."

"Sounds serious," Tananda said, grinning.

"But the upshot is that her father and I signed a compact. I am as good as married to Renimbi already. We don't even need the priests to solemnize the union. That is why she wants me dead. She has more or less become my second wife."

Tananda shook her head. "Worse than I thought Renimbi doesn't know it's already happened. She thinks she can forestall it by having you killed."

He sighed. "I was a fool."

"You certainly were. But why can't you simply have the document vacated? Doesn't the Tue-Khan want his daughter to be happy?"

"I am afraid he has gotten what he always wanted, and he has convinced himself that we will eventually settle down and go along with it," Cordu said sadly. "I have tried to ask him to void the marriage contract, but he won't. As long as it exists, Rennie and I are husband and wife. Hence," he said, sighing, "your arrival."

Tananda looked at Chumley. "How did you get involved?"

"Oh, Cordu sent a message out to all of his old mates from school. What? We used to be on the skeet-shooting club together. Birkley, from Cent, is up on the roof. He's got a spear he uses as a focus for his wizardry."

Tananda fluttered her eyelashes. "I've always had a thing for Centaurs," she purred. "Especially ones with magikal spears. Anyone else?"

"Krans, from Imper, is hanging around outside, watching for intruders. He's deadly with a crossbow. I don't think any of us anticipated the method of your arrival, except for Chumley, who insisted on being in my chamber with me. And he was right to do so. If it had not been you, a friend, I might be dead already had Chumley not been here."

"Do you think that she will send another deadly envoy?" Chumley asked.

"No, and no other Guild assassin would take the contract as long as I am in the picture," Tananda said. "That's not to say she won't send an amateur."

"No, she won't do that," Cordu said. "Rennie always goes for the best. She thinks it's only her due, as a daughter of the Tue-Khan of Eyarll."

"Good," Tananda said. "That gives us a chance to brainstorm. If I'm the only femme fatale you're waiting for, then why don't we get your friends in? I always think better in the presence of a lot of good-looking men." She flirted her eyelashes at Cordu.

"Spare me, my lady," he said, laughing. "I'm already in trouble with two women. I don't need a third."

The Centaur and the Imp had plenty of suggestions.

"Flood her with other suitors," Birkley said. "Shell forget about you."

"One thing you have to know about Rennie," Cordu said, "she is always faithful to promises. The other thing you must know is that she never forgets a grudge. No."

"Bribe her father," the Imp said. "You've got a lot of money."

"Money can't buy him off," Cordu said. "Nothing will buy him from this notion."

Chumley looked thoughtful. "What if your lady wife made an appeal to him? She wasn't planning to be supplanted."

"She is not supplanted. No matter what the rank of each successive spouse we might take, the first gains precedence. My mother had two husbands. The second one was a prince of Jongling, but my father was a butcher from Karpuling. Rennie loses rank. I know that will make her angrier when she knows."

The men turned to Tananda.

She shook her head. "Sorry, Cordu," she said. "I've thought it over, and you're going to have to die."

The Nob rose to his feet in alarm.

"What? Call for my guards! Call for my wizard!"

"Forget them," Tananda said, toying with her whiskey glass. "If I meant it, you'd be dead already. Big Brother knows that."

Chumley gawked. "Little Sister!" She smiled at him. "I mean it, Big Brother. Let's get going. I can explain it all on the way."

"Way?" Cordu echoed. "Where are we going?" "Eyarll. We've got a marriage to annul."

The heralds honked out a note on their yard-long trumpets.

"Lord Cordu, heir of Vol Gr—!"