"A pleasant change?" Selene asked.
"Not necessarily. I loved them both very much."
Again Selene was aware of a great sadness in him. She impulsively reached out and touched his arm in comfort. "I'm sorry for your loss. I know how you must feel."
"You have a good heart." His gaze searched her face. "But you cannot know. You've not known great loss yourself. That is to come."
"I have had a loss. My mother died when I was a child."
He shook his head and gently removed her hand from his arm. "It is to come."
A multitude of emotions surged through Selene as she watched them walk away. She liked him. She had not expected this response to such a complex man. Tarik could be humorous one moment, gentle and wise the next, but he was also an enigma. It was dangerous to be drawn to him.
"Checkmate." Selene looked up from the board in triumph. "That last move was not at all clever, Tarik."
Tarik groaned and leaned back in his chair. "Not only a thrashing but verbal abuse." He glanced at Kadar, who was seated on the hearth a few yards away. "Save me, Kadar."
"You say that every time, but still you play her." Kadar smiled and his gaze shifted back to the fire. "She's right, the last move was stupid."
"I was distracted," Tarik defended. "After all, I'm a man of many concerns."
Selene made a derogatory noise.
"That sounded suspiciously like a snort." Tarik frowned. "And not at all respectful of a man of my years."
"Excuses. How old are you? Forty?"
He flinched. "Do I look forty?"
She relented. "Well, perhaps a little less than forty."
"You're too kind," he said ironically. "I'm a man in my full prime. It's dealing with young rascals like you and Kadar that has aged me."
"Another game?"
"Not now." He stood up and limped toward the table across the room. "I need a goblet of wine."
Selene grinned. "Coward."
"Abuse again . . ." he murmured.
"It's a constant threat with Selene," Kadar said.
There was no threat in this chamber tonight, Selene thought lazily. There was only peace and laughter and ease. It was strange how comfortable they had become in Tarik's presence during the past eight days. Even at Montdhu she had never felt more content, and she could see Kadar felt the same way. He spent most of his days with Tarik, and in the evening it had become the custom for them all to gather in the hall for chess.
But Kadar had been very quiet tonight, she realized suddenly. She had played him first, and when Tarik had taken his place, he seated himself on the hearth and watched them with none of his usual banter. "Are you well?" she asked. "You've scarcely spoken."
"I was just thinking."
"Ah, a dangerous practice in a man like you," Tarik said as he poured wine from the pitcher into his goblet. "I believe you need another goblet of wine too."
"No." Kadar met Tarik's gaze. "I believe I need to see the object that made Nasim send me here."
Tarik stopped pouring in midmotion. "I was wondering when you'd retrieve that particular promise." He set the pitcher down. "But I was enjoying your company so much that I'd almost forgotten I'd given it."
"I don't think you did. But you made it easy for us to forget."
"You believe I've been lulling you into a false sense of security? You're wrong; you are secure here. Every day that passes convinces me that endangering you is the last thing in the world I'd want."
