"One of these days I'll take you to your new home. In the meantime, we have a journey to complete," "Why must I accompany you?" she demanded.

"Because I can't take the risk of leaving you behind while I go after the cutter." "You're afraid I'll run away from you?"

He shook his head. "That's the least of my concerns. I can always find you if you decide to run, Sariana. Remember that. Even if you go all the way back to Rendezvous I'd find you."

"But in Rendezvous you would no longer have any claim on me," she pointed out. "Under the laws of the eastern provinces I'm not married."

"My claim on you is not dependent on any law. I think, deep inside yourself, you know that. It's the real reason you tried to run from me this morning."

She ignored that because she was getting very tired of arguing the point. It was hard to argue with someone who arrogantly refused to see the logic or justice of his opponent's side. Sariana walked beside Gryph in silence for a few moments. With every step she felt increasingly trapped.

"You said you aren't afraid I'll run away if you leave me behind. So why are you afraid to take the risk of leaving me here?" she finally asked moodily.

"Whoever is responsible for stealing the prisma cutter has probably figured out what I'm doing on the scene. I think he's also learned that you are involved with me. That's why those two were after you. It wouldn't take much intelligence to decide to use you to stop me."

"Why would whoever it is make the assumption that I'm a vulnerable point for you?" "Because you are a vulnerable point," he said simply. "You're my Shieldmate. Everyone in the western

provinces understands how important a Shieldmate is to her lord and his clan."

"Everyone except me."

Gryph smiled crookedly. "But you're learning, aren't you?"

A typical summer dawn broke over the distant mountains a short time later. Sariana watched it from the deck of a windrigger in full sail. She gazed at the coastline slipping past and listened to the creak and snap of the skillfully designed sails. The ships of the western provinces were fester 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 dungs 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 giye 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, Gryph. You lied to me and that's a fact." "What, precisely, did I lie to, you about?" he demanded icily.

"You said you were as inexperienced as I was!" She lifted her chin and waited for him to admit the falsehood.

Gryph relaxed slightly and turned back to the rail. "Oh, that."