Shield's Lady

hurled the stationery tray at Gryph’s head.
    He saw it coming but he didn’t bother to duck. It was as if he took one look at its trajectory and knew it would miss him by a few centimeters. When it smashed against the wall behind him and fell harmlessly to the floor he took another swallow of wine.
    “Get out of here,” Sariana shouted, snatching up a writing instrument and flinging it at him. He reached out and casually snatched it out of midair.
    “There are a few things I have to tell you first,” Gryph said quietly.
    “I don’t want to hear them.” Her fingers touched another object and she lifted it unthinkingly. “Leave me alone.”
    Gryph eyed the sharp point on the message packet opener. “You and I are leaving at dawn tomorrow. Pack only the basics. We can’t carry a lot of luggage:”
    If you think I’m going anywhere with you you’re out of your mind.” She threw the packet opener, only realizing the potential danger of the blade after it had left her hand. Her eyes widened in horror as the knifelike utensil whipped across the room in the blink of an eye.
    With a lazy movement that seemed to take place almost in slow motion, Gryph brought the jacket he’d slung over his shoulder down to a point just below his belt buckle. The packet opener slammed into the tough material of the jacket and lodged there. Gryph glanced down at where the blade would have struck had it not met the jacket first.
    “I can see where a codpiece might be a useful fashion item on certain occasions,” he observed.
    Sariana was shocked by her own act of violence. It jolted her back to reality. “What have you done to me?” she asked in a dazed voice. “It’s because of you I’m acting this way. I’ve lost my self-control.”
    “Relax, Sariana. Everyone does occasionally. It’s nothing to get alarmed about.”
    She stumbled away from the desk and sank into the nearest chair. “Please leave,” she said stiffly.
    “Don’t you want to know more about our trip?”
    “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
    He ignored that and continued to lounge against the hospitality table while he swirled the wine in his glass. “As far as everyone else is concerned, it will be a traditional wedding journey. I’ll be taking you home to introduce you to my clan. It’s expected. No one will question it.”
    Something in his voice broke through Sariana’s emotional daze. “You speak as if this stupid journey you’re planning has another purpose besides ensuring my humiliation.”
    “It does. You and I are going to find the Avylyns’ precious prisma cutter.”
    She looked up, startled.
    Gryph smiled evenly. “I thought that might get your attention.”
    “Why do you continue to concern yourself with the cutter?”
    Gryph finished the last of the wine and set the glass down. “As I told the Avylyns this morning, the cutter has become Shield business. It must be found.”
    “I don’t understand you, Gryph.”
    “I know.” He started toward the door. “And there is much about you that I don’t understand. But we’ll both have plenty of time to get to know each other on our wedding journey. Be ready at dawn, Sariana.” He opened the door and closed it behind him.
    Sariana plucked the scarlet-toe off her shoulder and cradled it gently in her palms. The lizard gazed up at her with its unwinking, jeweled eyes.
    “If he thinks I’ll tamely jump to his beck and call, he is in for a surprise,” she informed the lizard. “You and I are indeed going on a journey tonight, but not with Gryph Chassyn. We are going to escape this madhouse.”

Chapter
    9

    SARIANA crouched behind a row of stacked wine casks in a dockside warehouse and decided she was learning far too much about fear lately. It seemed to her that she had been forced to deal with one overpowering wave of emotion after another during the past few hours. Life had become terrifyingly irrational and dangerous for a young woman who had always assumed she knew what she wanted and how she was going to get it. Nothing was certain any longer.
    A tiny hissing sound in Sariana’s ear warned her that the scarlet-toe was picking up on her anxiety. Automatically Sariana touched the lizard in a light, soothing gesture. The scarlet-toe hissed again, the sound so soft it didn’t carry beyond the range of Sariana’s hearing.
    “It’s your fault we’re in here,” Sariana muttered softly. It was true. It had been the lizard’s insistent hissing that had first alerted