"No. She never loved me. Not as I love you ... not as you love me--"
"It was a different kind of love," said the princess.
"I will find her!" vowed Dirk brokenly.
Lenore moved to his side quietly; the warmth of her beside him like the
courage of a voice in the wilderness.
"You and I," she breathed, "together, Dirk."
And suddenly, though there stretched before him a new and greater quest
than that recently acquitted, Dirk was consumed with a vast impatience
to know again the lips of the girl whose nearness was a heady wine,
challenging him to dare any danger. He turned to Lenore.
"Together," he agreed. "But first I must return to Nadron to lay the
plans. You ... you will come soon, my Princess?"
"Soon," she promised. "Soon. But, first--"
She moved toward his voice. If she closed her eyes, she could not tell
it was invisible arms that held her close, nor invisible lips that
quickened upon her own....