Page 145 of Swordheart
“You’ve obviously done it before,” she said, and was horrified to hear that she sounded aggrieved.
“That is true,” he admitted.
She folded her arms across her chest, trying not to feel a tiny bit hurt.
“Mind you, it has been a few centuries.”
She lifted one of her hands and swatted at his face.
“The youngest of those other women is… oh, about three hundred years old now, I’d say. I don’t think you need to worry.”
“You are awretch.”
“Yes,” he said, seizing her hand and kissing the palm. “An unrepentant one. I’m sorry if we went too fast last night. I should have thought it through. That’s my shame, not yours.”
“No, no! That’s not it—I mean, you were lovely—”
He fell on his back with a groan. “Lovely,” he said. “There’sa death knell. Clearly I should swear to celibacy and join one ofyour decadent southern religions. Is there one that involves stabbing things?”
“The Dreaming God, but only demons.”
“I can stab demons. Demons are very stabbable.”
“They aren’t sworn to celibacy, though. The paladins are rather notoriously… err… not.” She thought back to a number of armored men in white cloaks who had passed through Archenhold a few years back… and the number of inexplicable births that had followed nine months later.
“The Dervish was like that,” said Sarkis. “You couldn’t take him to taverns. He’d have handsome young men who had met him five minutes ago dueling for his honor.”
“Good heavens.”
“It was exhausting when you only wanted a quiet drink.” He captured her hand again and rubbed his thumb over her fingertips. “Well, I shall simply have to find another of your religions to take me, I suppose.”
“Leaving your great god already?”
“The great god, I fear, has no use for a man who cannot please a woman. Or a man, as he prefers.”
She had to prop herself up on her elbows for that. “That’s… actually a tenet of your faith? Really?”
“Of course,” he said, as if it was obvious.
“Really.”
“Failure to make the marriage bed glad is valid grounds for divorce in the Weeping Lands.”
“I don’t understand why there’s so much weeping, then.”
He gazed skyward. “Well, we also murder each other a great deal.”
“Why?”
“A question that you would not ask if you had ever seen the Weeping Lands.”
“I’m glad I haven’t then!”
He shrugged. “It has its moments.”
She shook her head, chuckling. “I no longer have any idea if you’re making this up or not.”
“Never. Do you feel better now?”
