He walked to the tray of refreshments Adiva always kept ready in Sabrina’s room, then poured himself a glass of water. “The information in the diary is mostly accurate, but the maps would not have brought you anywhere near the city.”
She flipped through the pages of the diary. “You looked through my things?” she asked, then glanced at him. “What happened to me being a free woman and all that?”
He moved toward her and stared into her dark eyes. “You had your chance at freedom, Sabrina, and you chose to stay in the City of Thieves. You are mine once again. To do with what I will.”
She shivered slightly at his words, but didn’t turn away. “You’re forgetting about the troll prince. He might want me enough to fight for me.”
Kardal was grateful she didn’t know the truth of her words. “I know he would fall on a sword for you…if he knew you. But he will only know what he has read in the paper and what your father has told him. I think I am safe from him.”
“You can’t know that,” she said, but they both knew she was bluffing.
“Is it so awful, to be my slave?” he asked.
She sighed and turned away. “No. I’m not ready to return to Bahania and face my fate, but it’s going to happen eventually. You have to know that, Kardal. You can’t keep me here forever.”
“I know.”
He spoke the words even as he wondered what she would say if she knew the truth. That he could keep her forever, if that was what he desired. What exactly did Sabrina think of him? And why did he care? She was only a woman. His betrothed, if he chose to have her.
He tried to tell himself that it was only his desire for her that made him interested in her opinion, but a voice in his head warned him it might be more serious than that. He might be close to admitting that Sabrina’s opinions, needs and happiness just might matter.
It was a most disconcerting state of affairs. One he wasn’t sure he liked at all.
Chapter 11
The afternoon temperature was surprisingly warm. Sabrina found herself wishing her cloak weren’t so thick and long, but she didn’t have a choice. She also wished she weren’t sneaking around the halls of the palace like some common criminal, but that wasn’t to be helped.
As she had every day since Kardal had said she could begin cataloging the treasures of the city, she kept careful hold of the items bundled together under her cloak. When she met someone in the hall, she did her best to act as natural and normal as possible, praying no one would guess the truth. Kardal would kill her if he knew what she was doing.
Sabrina saw the door to her room at the end of the hall and sighed with relief. Another secret mission completed without incident. She slipped into her room and hurried over to the small trunks arranged against the far wall, next to the window. She’d requested them from Adiva, supposedly to store her personal belongings. Fortunately Adiva had never realized Sabrina had very little of her own to store.
Sabrina shrugged out of her cloak and let it fall to the ground. Lengths of white cloth were wrapped around her middle, holding her precious cargo safe. She released the tie in back, then pulled out three velvet bags and a small jade statue. In the bags were various gems and pieces of jewelry. The jade statue had once belonged to the emperor of Japan. At least the residents of the city had been equitable thieves, she thought humorously. They had stolen from nearly every country in the world.
After examining the contents of the first bag—the tiara from the reign of Elizabeth I, she opened one of the small trunks and deposited everything inside. Pausing to admire her bounty, she calculated that given just another month she could make quite a sizable dent in the—
“I know for a fact you can’t be stealing,” a woman’s voice said from behind her. “So what are you doing?”
Stunned, Sabrina spun on her toes and watched as Cala stepped out of the shadows. Kardal’s mother had been sitting in a chair in the corner, obviously waiting. She’d seen everything. Questions filled her dark eyes, but it was impossible to read her expression or know what she was thinking.
Sabrina felt the heat that instantly flared on her face. She knew she was turning the color of a pomegranate seed. Words failed her as she met the questioning gaze of someone she had come to think of as a friend.
“I…” She cleared her throat. “It’s not what you think.”
“I don’t know what to think.”
Sabrina glanced at the small chests lined up against the wall and knew their contents could damn her. “It’s just—” She began speaking very fast. “Kardal won’t listen to me and I don’t understand his position. If the city no longer steals, why can’t some of the treasures be returned? But he won’t speak of it. He says that if those countries want their treasures, they should come and take them back themselves. Except how can they when they don’t know that they’re here?”