HERAKLION: ASSASSIN

'Maybe I was,' she said quietly. He was staring at her openly, unashamed, and she seemed not to have noticed that she was naked from the waist up. Reluctantly he pulled her tunic from his belt and passed it to her. She let it flop to the sand beside her, and still made no attempt to put it on, but instead seemed happy to lie there, basking in the warm sunlight, her eyes closed.

'Put it on,' he said.

'Not yet,' she said.

'Put it on,' he said again.

'I am not ashamed of my body,' she said.

'You should not be ashamed of your body,' he said. 'But you should cover it.'

'Why?'

'There are many reasons.'

'Name one.'

'I will name two. The sunlight will burn you.'

'It is not hot.'

'It is strong. Stronger than you think. You will be burned.'

'I am only resting after our exertions.'

'Even so.'

'Name the other reason.'

'It is not fair to me.'

'Fair to you! What are you talking about?'

'You are a very pretty girl.'

'What of it? Have you not seen a 'very pretty girl' naked before now?'

'Of course!' he said.

'I do not believe you!' she said, teasingly.

'What right do you have not to believe me?'

'You are embarrassed!'

'I.....there are just the two of us here.....'

'I understood that the enslaved women paraded themselves around your city totally naked,' Miki said, raising herself onto her elbows. Her eyes twinkled with mischief.

'I would not know. I have never had an enslaved woman.'

Miki nodded, smiling.

'You are unused!' she said. 'How old are you?'

'Older than you!'

'By not much, I'd say! So I am the first girl you have seen half naked? You should have stayed in Warikeewa Camp. The women walk about naked all the time!' she said, laughing, though what she said was not true, and he knew that she was teasing him. Still he could not take his eyes off her perfectly formed body, and so he turned away. She lay back down, caressing the red sand with her fingers and toes.

'We cannot stay here,' Radulf said.

'I am not fully recovered yet,' she said.

'Then I am going on without you,' he said, and stood up. She disbelieving that he would leave her there alone, closed her eyes again, just for a few moments. When she next opened them, there was no sign of him, then she realised that he was standing over her, his feet either side of her shoulders.

'Get up and put on your tunic,' he said, abruptly, and there was something in his demeanour that prompted her to obey. She scrambled to her feet, grabbing the tunic, pulling it on quickly.

'Do not give me orders!' she said. He turned her suddenly to face him, holding her firmly by the shoulders.

'Miki, we cannot stay here! This is a dangerous place. I have been watching the tide! It is coming in very quickly, and the sand is wet all the way up to the rock face. If we do not find a way off this place we will be stranded with nowhere to go! The rock face is vertical, and smooth. We have to move. Now!'

He took her by the hand and started to run to the south. Beyond them, to the east, the ocean stretched away to nothingness, its blue horizon merging with the blue of the sky. To the north the tide had already cut them off from the mainland. And to the west, behind them, there was only rock, smooth, impenetrable, unscalable.

Struggling to keep up with him but forced to because of his firm grip on her, she felt a pain at her side, knowing it to be cramp because of the long time they had spent under the water. But the further they ran, the further up the beach the water lapped. Suddenly, she collapsed, and he had to stop.

'We have to keep moving!' he urged her, but she shook her head, and from the movement of her eyes, he realised that she was about to faint. He cradled her head and put his other arm under her legs, lifting her again. Before him, the rocks ended abruptly. He could only hope that if he could get past the rock, he would find a stretch of beach more hospitable than this. Ankle deep in water, and brushing the firm, smooth granite of the rock face with his shoulder, he rounded the corner, and smiled. As far as the eye could see the cliffs rose sheer to the skyline, towering hundreds of feet above them, with no apparent relief. But immediately before them, the red sand was dry. The tide had come in as far as it was going to, and beyond the corner was safety. Radulf deposited Miki gently on the sand, taking care not to touch her breast. She stirred into consciousness, gazed up at him, sighed and smiled, and put her arm around his neck, pulling him to her, brushing his lips with hers.

'I am sorry,' she breathed.

'It is nothing. It was the water in your lungs. You should be clear of it now.'

She nodded, but kept his face close to hers, looking deep into his eyes.

'Tell me how you feel,' she said.

'I do not understand the question.'

'About me.'

'How should I feel?'

'Do you not find me pretty to look at, and soft to touch?'

He pulled immediately away from her, colouring highly.

'I have already told you how pretty you are,' he said, turning away.

'I want you to touch me,' she said softly, her hand brushing her nipple beneath the thin cotton tunic.

'No, it is wrong,' he said hoarsely.

'In what way can it be wrong for a man to touch a woman?'

'We are not betrothed.'

'Betrothed?'

'We are not to be joined together. You are not my companion.'

'Men and women touch each other all the time, everywhere on Heraklion, in Hor-Lak, in Pekeesh, in Barbessel.....what is different?'

'I have been taught that a man should not go with a woman unless she is to be his companion.....' Radulf said miserably.

'But you come from a great city, where there are naked slave women walking the streets day and night, and you need only exchange a small coin for her services. Is that not so?'

'You are correct in what you say, Miki, but not everyone believes that is the right way to treat women. Some of us believe that slavery is wrong. My family has never treated with female slaves. I have never been.....'

'With a woman?'

'Yes!'

She touched his hand, and pulled him down to the sand beside her.

'You know that I love you?' she said, holding his face so that he could not avoid her eyes.

'We are from different peoples.....'

'It does not matter. I want you for my man.'

'What of Kotsoteka?'

'He is my father's nephew. We are cousins. We can never be joined.'

'He told me to look after you for him.'

'He is my blood kin. Tell me how you feel.....'

'I love you.'

'Then there is nothing to stop us!' She took his hand and put it to her breast, and he marvelled at the softness and the simultaneous firmness of it, but after a brief moment, he pulled his hand away, covered in confusion.

'It makes no difference!' he cried. 'We have not been joined!'

'Nevertheless, we have declared our feelings for each other. No-one can separate us now!' she said, and kissed him full upon the mouth. This time he did not pull away, and embraced her hungrily, caressing her naked shoulders and arms, running his hands inside her tunic to touch her breasts. Eventually, they parted, lying side by side, their hands entwined.

'We still have to wait,' he said.

'I do not see why, but if that is what you wish.....'

'I wish more than ever that I could make love to you here and now, but.....'

'We should be making our move further down the shore, to look for somewhere to shelter, and to search for clues to the whereabouts of Angry Wolf.'