Shield's Lady

slipping past and listened to the creak and snap of the skillfully designed sails. The ships of the western provinces were faster and more maneuverable than those of the east. Sailing was another area in which the experimentally inclined westerners excelled. The westerners were even working on a vapor fueled engine that might someday power their sleek ships.
    Sariana was feeling resentful of clever westerners and just about everything else this morning. Life had not seemed very fair lately.
    Soon she would have to go below to the cabin Gryph had booked. She had avoided it until now because she did not want to face the single bed she would find there. There was very little possibility that Gryph had booked himself into a separate cabin and she knew it. As far as he was concerned, he was a married man. Furthermore, he had decided she was in need of protection.
    After what had happened in the dark hours before dawn, Sariana was forced to wonder if Gryph was right about that last detail. Two men were dead and she had almost been kidnapped. The search for the prisma cutter had turned into a far more serious affair than she had anticipated.
    It was frightening the way things had a habit of getting out of control in the west. Sariana sighed. Just when she had thought she was making progress toward her ultimate goal of salvaging her future, everything had gone wrong.
    The scarlet-toe hissed in sympathy and cuddled closer into the curve of Sariana’s shoulder.
    “What am I going to do now?” Sariana asked the scarlet-toe.
    “Unpack,” Gryph suggested as he came up behind her. He leaned one arm on the rail and looked down at her.
    Sariana jumped and fixed him with a brief glare. Then she pretended to study the shoreline once more. “Gryph, we have got to talk about this situation. We’ve got to come to some sort of understanding.”
    “It all seems clear to me. What is it you don’t understand?”
    Sariana’s hands tightened on the rail. “You simply are not going to be reasonable about this, are you?”
    “You have no idea of how reasonable, patient and understanding I am being,” he told her.
    She bit off her useless protest and stood beside him in depressed silence.
    Gryph was quiet for a while, too, but in the end he was the one who broke the charged silence with a weary groan. He leaned both of his arms on the rail and looked out to sea.
    “You probably won’t believe this, but I didn’t intend things between us to become so complicated, Sariana. I swear I had every intention of going slowly. I told myself I would give you time and court you carefully. I knew you were unaccustomed to our ways and I wanted to introduce you to them gently. But the other night when I stupidly let myself get sliced by that blade, everything changed. I went to bed groggy from the painkiller the medic had given me and I woke up with a fever. When I saw you sitting in the chair beside my bed all I could think about was how much I wanted you. You wanted me, too. I knew that beyond a doubt. I decided I would explain all the details in the morning. But the next morning you were all business again, intent on keeping me at arm’s length while you decided what to do next. You wouldn’t even listen to me. It was as if nothing important had happened between us during the night.”
    “As far as I was concerned, the only thing that had occurred was a rather unpleasant attempt to start an affair with you. I should have known better. I can’t understand what prompted me to even think about getting involved with you in that way. I must have been out of my mind.”
    Gryph winced. “I know it wasn’t the most auspicious beginning for a relationship.”
    “It certainly was not,” she shot back. “I’m still sore in places.” Then she flushed and gritted her teeth as she realized what she had said.
    “I’ve told you, I’m sorry about that. Please believe me, I had no idea the link would be that strong. Nobody warned me, either. But with practice we can both learn to control the crossover effects.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sariana stormed, “but I do know that on top of everything else that happened that night you lied to me.”
    He stiffened and the humble apology went out of his voice. “I’m not accustomed to being labeled a liar. The fact that you’re my Shieldmate does not give you any special privileges when it comes to making such accusations.”
    “Don’t go all haughty and arrogant on me,