the thousand tiny
criss-crossed wrinkles around his eyes. "No, Reicho. If I go back, you
must come with me."

Her heart turned to ice, just as if he had told her he was going to kill
her. She had suspected this and had prayed it would not be so.
Everything he said and did, from the day he took her from Tilia's house,
showed that he meant never to let her go. She was to be his prisoner for
life.

"Usun," she said, trying to keep her voice calm, "I do not want to go
with you."

He stared at her, his brown face wooden.

"You are afraid," he said. "But you must not be. When you come with me,
you will be a very great lady. I am a baghadur. I am as great a lord as
King Charr is here. I know that people of your religion are treated
badly by the Christians. Among my people all religions are equal. The
Ulang-Yassa, the law of Genghis Khan, commands it." When he spoke the
name "Genghis Khan" there was a reverence in his voice, like a Christian
speaking of Jesus.

She was reminded of Tilia, telling her why it was better to be a harlot
than a wife. She wanted to weep with frustration, as if she had been
pounding her fists against a stone wall. How could a man who seemed
content to have left his own homeland behind forever understand how
_she_ felt?

"Usun, it does not matter to me that I am lowly here and might be great
there. This land is where I was born and grew up, and no matter how much
I suffer here, it is my home. I do not want to live among Tartars and
Persians. I would be so terribly alone. I beg you, do not try to uproot
me from this land."

"You would not be alone," he said in a low, sad voice. "You would have
me."

"I could never be happy with you." It was a terrible thing to say, but
only the truth might make him change his mind.

He did not look at her. He drained his cup and thrust it at her as if
striking a blow.

"The flagon is empty," she said.

"I will go." He stood up and pulled his tunic on over his head. He was
no taller than she was, but as she sat on the bed and stared up at him,
he seemed to loom over her like a giant. His black gaze was empty of
feeling as stone.

"It does not matter whether you are happy. You are mine and you will
come with me."

She shrank away from him, terrified. The face he showed her was the face
of the man who had dragged her naked through that Orvieto street.

She threw herself full length on the bed, sobbing. Her heart felt ready
to burst with anguish.

_Oh,