'And you'd be the Devi again,' he broke in. 'No, girl; I prefer you as you are now—a woman of flesh and blood, riding on my saddle-bow.'
'But you can't keep me!' she cried. 'You can't—'
'Watch and see!' he advised grimly.
'But I will pay you a vast ransom—'
'Devil take your ransom!' he answered roughly, his arms hardening about her supple figure. 'The kingdom of Vendhya could give me nothing I desire half so much as I desire you. I took you at the risk of my neck; if your courtiers want you back, let them come up the Zhaibar and fight for you.'
'But you have no followers now!' she protested. 'You are hunted! How can you preserve your own life, much less mine?'
'I still have friends in the hills,' he answered. 'There is a chief of the Khurakzai who will keep you safely while I bicker with the Afghulis. If they will have none of me, by Crom! I will ride northward with you to the steppes of the kozaki. I was a hetman among the Free Companions before I rode southward. I'll make you a queen on the Zaporoska River!'
'But I can not!' she objected. 'You must not hold me—'
'If the idea's so repulsive,' he demanded, 'why did you yield your lips to me so willingly?'
'Even a queen is human,' she answered, coloring. 'But because I am a queen, I must consider my kingdom. Do not carry me away into some foreign country. Come back to Vendhya with me!'