Just like a woman, Hiero thought bitterly; give Klootz all the credit. “AM right,” he said, “your people are great and strong. But what are you doing here, which I gather must be a long way off from wherever you started?”
“First,” she said firmly, “it would be more correct if you told me who you axe, where you are from, and what rank you held in your own country,”
“I am Per Hiero Desteen, Priest, Scholar, and Senior Killmanof the Church Universal. And I fail to see why a bare-rumped chit of a slave girl cares what the rank of the man who has rescued her from an exceedingly nasty death is!” He glared angrily at her, but he might as well have spared himself the effort.
“Your church can’t be all that universal,” she said calmly, “if I haven’t heard of it. Which is not surprising, since it just so happens. Sir Priest, that we happen to have the only true church in my country, and if someone went around looking like you, with silly paint on his face, saying he was a priest, they’d put him in the house for mad people. And furthermore,” she went on in the same flat, lecturing voice, “I was not always a slave girl, as any man with breeding, sense or manners could tell who looked at me!”
Despite his Abbey training in handling people, Hiero found her very annoying. “I beg your pardon, your ladyship,” he rejoined acidly. “You were, I suppose, a princess in your own mighty kingdom, perhaps betrothed to an unwelcome suitor and forced to flee as a result, rather than marry him?”
Luchare stared, open-mouthed at him. “How did you know that? Are you some spy of my father’s or of Efrem’s, sent to bring me back?”
Hiero in turn stared back hard at her, before laughing in a nasty way. “My God, you’ve grabbed up the fantasy of every girl-child who has first heard the legends of the ancient past. Now stop trying to waste my time on this silliness, will you? I want to know about wherever you come from, and I solemnly warn you, I have my own methods of finding out, even if the manners you boast of, plus a little common gratitude, don’t get me the answers I want freely given! Now start talking! Where in the known universe do you come from, and if you really don’t know even that, at least tell me the name of the place, what it’s like, and how you got here!”
The girl looked at him darkly, her eyes narrowed as if in thought. Then, as if she had come to a decision, her face cleared, and she spoke reasonably and in softer tones.
