"And I thought you had come to kill me," mused the girl in self-reproach. "My own Kieron!"
"I'm not your Kieron or anyone else's, Lady," said Kieron rather stiffly, "and you'd better explain why you were watching me in the Hall of Emperors before I'll let you go."
"My father warned me that you would forget me. I did not think you would be so cruel," she taunted.
"I knew your father?"
"Well enough, I think."
"I've had a hundred wenches — and known some of their fathers, too. You can't expect me to.."
"Not this wench, Valkyr!" the girl exploded furiously. The tone carried such command that Kieron involuntarily stepped back, but still keeping the girl's, hands pinned to her sides.
"If you had spoken so on Kaidor, I'd have had the skin stripped from your back, outworld savage!" she cried.
Kaidor! Kieron felt the blood drain away from his face. This, then, was. . Alys.
"Ha! So you remember now! Kaidor you can recall, but you have forgotten me! Kieron, you always were a beast!"