He gasped and moaned, delirious, mounting, gone.

“I knew that would be fast,” she said, hands on his shoulders, her pink tongue peeping out between slightly parted lips. “You’ll last longer next time.” She stroked his torso. “Whew! You have a body a woman could just devour again and again. Do you want to try it a second time?”

“Eridit,” he said, but her name exhausted him; he could think of nothing to say to her except that all he could think of was wanting her to devour him over and over and over. No wonder they called their goddess merciless.

A fluttering bird’s whistle rose on the air.

“The hells!” muttered Eridit. “That’s the signal.”

She scrambled to slip on her trousers as Shai rolled into a tangle of his own clothing. She ducked out from under the crevice as he tried to get everything straightened out so he could dress. By the time he crawled out and stood, an eagle flew so low overhead that he yelped and dropped to the dirt.

“Hurry!” Eridit dashed back to grab his wrist. “A reeve is here. They weren’t supposed to contact us! Edard will be furious! They could break our cover.”

They cut down over uneven ground between ridges of naked rock and bumpy grass-grown slopes. The eagle had come to earth beyond the eroded remnants of a once great spine of rock, a bit downslope toward the depths of the hollow, a landing spot that might conceal the eagle from any folk walking on nearby West Track or more distant Horn. The reeve had already unhooked, and he left his harness dangling free behind him as he strode up the slope.

Edard trotted down to meet him. “Be quick about it so we’re not spotted, you rank fool!”

“Strange, I was here before,” said the reeve, unaffected by Edard’s snarling demeanor. “Be sure I wouldn’t have cut my flight short if I’d not been commanded to deliver a personal message to one of your party. I’m called Volias, by the way. The man I’m looking for goes by the name of Shayi. An outlander.” He bent his sour gaze on Shai, but was distracted by the sight of Eridit sauntering up. “Whew! What’s your name?”

“No luck today,” she said with a flirting smile.

“Didn’t I see you in Olossi, at the arena? Aren’t you the Incomparable Eridit?”

She did not take the bait. “Beautiful eagle. Is she friendly?”

“That might depend,” he said.

She shook her head with a mocking frown. “You need work, ver. This is Shai. What’s your message?”

“Yes,” added Edard, “and then get gone. Cursed idiot. Where are you headed?”

“None of your cursed business, is it?” With a sneer, he turned to Shai. “Captain Anji’s wife said to tell you—and I’m just repeating her words, they mean nothing to me, mind you—‘Beware of Cornflower.’ ”

“What is a cornflower?” asked Eridit.

“She’s haunting you, on your trail, out for revenge.”

“If Mai meant the slave girl,” said Shai, “then she’s dead. She vanished in a sandstorm. No one could survive that.”