Rapture's Etesian (22 page)

There was roasted pheasant and crisp, golden-brown duckling. Tureens of salmon poached in heavy cream and lobster tail dredged through drawn butter. Sliced veal and ham, and liver smothered in gravy. Pickled beets and corn on the cob, bright green peas and little red potatoes swimming in butter, crisp asparagus and freshly picked tomatoes right off the vine filled bowl after bowl on the banquet table. Wines flowed and ale sparkled in crystal goblets. Milk and ice-cold lemonade vied with rich Rysalian coffees and Chrystallusian teas to please the palates of the feast-goers. Crisp breads and pudding breads, soft rolls and fried cakes were used to sop up the various gravies and sauces. The dessert trays were laden with pies of every fruit and rich cakes piled high with layer upon layer spread with luscious frostings.

There was also laughter and jokes flying like butterflies through the long room that had not been used for such a joyous occasion since long before Abalam Robeus had taken the throne of Pleiades. Smiles abounded and teasing was the order of the day as three sects of women sat together for the first time without the rivalry that had always been present at such gatherings.

Outnumbered ten to one, Leksi, Kratos, and Konan Krull were amazed at the bawdy comments bandying about and aimed at the attractive male servants who carried in the platters and trenchers of food.

“Look at that ass, would you?” a woman said loudly. “I’d love to get my hands on that!”

“I’d rather wrap my fingers around his cock!” another guffawed. “Come here, baby, and let me see if you’d fit in my cunt!”

Konan’s face turned dull red beneath the onslaught of off-color comments and he had to cover his shock behind the crisp linen of his napkin.

Kratos grinned as he chewed a large mouthful of succulent ham.

Leksi lowered his head and hid his eyes beneath the canopy of his hand.

“Ladies,” Clea said, laughing. “Let’s keep it clean while our three male guests are in attendance. We are upsetting their sense of propriety.”

Queen Deianeira raised her glass of Chalean brandy. “Here’s to the embarrassment of men. May it always be there to amuse us!”

“Here! Here!” rang out around the table.

Clea leaned over to speak to the Lord High Commander who—because of his high rank—was seated to her right.

“Pay no attention to them, Commander. Drink does strange things to us all,” she apologized.

Konan looked up from his plate and found Queen Mona staring at him, her eyes hot with lust and he looked quickly away. He could not be in the same room with the woman and not want to strangle her for what she had done long ago, yet he found he had pity for her left within him.

“No need to concern yourself, Your Highness,” Konan replied. “We men should retire and leave you ladies to your merriment.”

Kynthia was holding Leksi’s hand, and when she heard those words, slipped her fingers from his grip. She looked at him and smiled. “Be gone with you, warrior, else you might find yourself on your back, being wedged by every hot sheath in here.”

Leksi took up his goblet and drained the last of his Chrystallusian plum wine. He pushed his chair back, stood then bent over to place a light kiss on Kynthia’s cheek. But before his mouth could touch her face, she turned so that their mouths locked and she kissed him long and hard, to the hoots of the women around them. When she released her hold on his lips, she winked at him.

“Now they know who they’ll have to fight if they want a taste of those luscious lips, warrior,” she said.

Leksi blushed to the tips of his toes and backed away from the table, bumping into Kratos who reached out to steady his captain.

“Ever stray from that pretty wife of yours, Lord Krull?” a Hell Hag called out.

Konan shook his head. “No, Lady. I…”

“He did once,” Queen Mona said. “And it nearly destroyed him.”

Their eyes met and Konan could feel the chill of those words, but he could also sense the sorrow in them.

“Go to your lonely bed, Koni,” Mona said. “Have faith that not a single one of us will slip between your sheets or your strong, hairy thighs.” She looked away from him.

“But you’d best lock your door just in case, pretty one!” Queen Deianeira said with a hoot.

“Get your sheets warm for me, warrior,” Kynthia called out, making sure every woman there knew she had claimed Leksi Helios. “I’ll be along shortly.”

A chorus of boos rang out, but it was a good-natured caterwauling. No woman there wanted to fight a Daughter of the Multitude—especially one who was no longer completely human—for the man she had branded her own.

With the men gone from the table, the women settled down and it was Lady Galatea who brought their attention to her.

“We all know,” she began, “there will always be war. The Venturians will fight the Rysalians and the Rysalians will fight the Ordonese. The Qabalans will sit with their thumbs up their collective asses and watch while the world destroys itself around them.”

“Which leads us to this,” Queen Deianeira spoke up. “We have decided to annex Qabala and make it a part of Pleiades.”

Clea winced. “I’m not sure I wish to rule such a people as the Qabalans. They are so…so…” She shrugged. “…useless.”

“True,” Galatea said, “but we would rather they be ours to command in war rather than standing there watching us be conquered by the Rysalians or Ordonese.”

“What of the Venturians?” someone asked.

“We have nothing to worry about from the Venturians,” Kynthia said. “They are staunch allies.”

“True,” her aunt agreed. “It is those Hasdu thieves in Ventura and Ordon that concern me.”

“As long as I am Queen in Bandar,” Mona said, “we have nothing to worry about with the Ordonese. Sekhem—for whatever his vile reason—has a care for his daughter.”

“That
thing
is Lilit’s father!” a woman asked with a gasp.

“Unfortunately so,” Mona replied. “Believe me when I say I wish it were otherwise.” She lifted her wine goblet. “I would have preferred she had been sired by Konan Krull.”

Every woman there knew of what had transpired in Mona’s room in Ventura. Though few approved of what she had done, not a one would condemn her for trying to garner a male child from the loins of such a powerful warrior.

“But what happens when you leave us, Mona?” Galatea asked. “Will Lilit pose a threat to the Daughterhoods?”

Mona squeezed her eyes shut and massaged them with the fingers of her right hand. “I don’t know, Galatea. I wish I could tell you she won’t, but I truly don’t know.” She lowered her hand, her shoulders slumping, and opened her eyes. “I hate to say it, but I do not trust my own child.”

Kynthia settled back in her chair. She and Leksi had already discussed that loathsome child and had come to the conclusion that she would not be missed if she could be spirited away to a place from whence she could do no harm. Where that would be was anyone’s guess.

“Perhaps you should send Lilit to Serenia,” Galatea suggested.

Mona frowned. “To Serenia? Why there?”

“She is suggesting Lilit be sent to Galrath,” Queen Deianeira answered quietly.

Every woman there knew of the infamous convent. It was a brutal nunnery, run by a group of sadistic nuns under the control of the Brotherhood of the Domination, a sect of priests considered to be the most evil of their kind.

Mona shook her head. “No, I can not do that. Not even Lilit deserves such a fate.”

“Will you be able to control her once she reaches puberty?” Galatea inquired.

A look of fear passed over Mona’s lovely features. “I don’t know. I hope so but I…” She buried her face in her hands. “The gods help me but I don’t know!”

“She is but a year or two away from being a woman,” Queen Deianeira reminded Mona. “If she acquires her sire’s powers, she will be a force with whom to reckon. Will you be able to meet that challenge, Mona?”

Despite the copious wine, and ale and brandy that had been consumed, the women gathered around the banquet table were now stone cold sober. Their eyes were locked upon Queen Mona, who was sobbing quietly, her shoulders heaving in her distress.

“No woman should be asked to remand her daughter into Galrath,” Kynthia spoke up. “Perhaps we should relieve Queen Mona of such a terrible burden.”

There were nods around the table and a soft muttering of “ayes”.

“I say we cast a vote,” Galatea suggested. “Those in favor of sending Lilit to Galrath, how say you?”

“Aye!” Out of the twenty women gathered, only one voice abstained from the vote but neither did that voice say “nay” when the vote was cast.

“So be it,” Galatea declared. She looked to her niece. “Will you see to it, Kynni?”

Kynthia nodded. “Leksi and I will.”

Sitting unseen in the corner of the banqueting room, Morrigunia shook her head. The women had made their decision, but it was not one the Goddess would accept. Disgusted, she quit the room and flew to Bandar, appearing before a stunned girl-child on the verge of her first monthly flow.

“Who are you?” the child demanded. Her pretty face was tight with an ugliness that spoke of her heritage.

“Never mind that. You had best be up, Little Sister,” Morrigunia ordered. “They are coming to take you to Galrath.”

Lilit jumped to her feet. “No!” she cried.

“Then call your lieutenants and have them fly you to Ordon,” the Goddess directed.

“But…”

Morrigunia advanced on the child and grasped the slight chin in a stony grip. “Do you wish to be at the mercy of those hellish nuns?”

“No,” Lilit whimpered.

“Then call your vampyre guardians, now!” Morrigunia released the child’s chin and grimaced. The feel of that flesh disgusted her.

Lilit backed away from the tall red-haired woman and puckered her lips. A shrill whistle that hurt the Goddess’ ears issued from the small mouth and almost instantly the whomp-whomp, whomp-whomp of wings could be heard in the distance.

In a brilliant flash of light, Morrigunia left the child. She flew unseen past the arriving bat-women and went straight to the Isle of Uaigneas.

Cainer Cree cursed when the Goddess appeared beside him.

“Do you like girl children, Beloved?” she asked.

He ignored her.

“I don’t. I never have and I never will. They are willful little creatures that cause far more trouble than they are worth. Now boys are a dif—”

“Why don’t you leave me alone, bitch?” the Reaper shouted. He covered his ears with his hands. “I can’t take this!”

“Different,” she finished. “Some, though, are just like their stubborn fathers. One such is Cairghrian. I have had more than my share of trouble from that lad although he will one day be a great warrior.”

“I don’t want to hear this!” the Reaper yelled.

“His father is—”

“Shut up!” he bellowed. “Just shut the fuck up, woman!”

Morrigunia watched the only human—well, half-human now that she considered it—she had ever loved run away from her. Once more, he was rushing pell-mell toward the heaving waves and she would have to intervene to keep him from trying to throw himself into the sea again.

Sighing, she thought little boys weren’t the only ones who gave her more than her share of trouble. Sometimes it was their fathers.

Chapter Fifteen

Kynthia put her hands on her hips, dropped her head to her chest, and sighed deeply. “We’re too late,” she said.

Leksi went to the window and looked out. It was a sheer drop to the rocky slopes far below. “Surely she didn’t climb out the window.”

“No,” Kynthia agreed. “Someone helped her escape.”

“To Ordon?”

“To Ordon,” Kynthia agreed. “Where else?”

Leksi pounded his fist on the ledge. “Well, that’s a fine kettle of fish.”

“Aye, it doesn’t bode well for any of us,” Kynthia declared.

“Do you think the Daughters of the Night will follow her when she returns?”

“More than likely. She will return a strong, determined woman, made even more determined by knowing her mother agreed to send her to Galrath.”

“You think she knows?”

“I am sure of it, else she’d still be here, warrior,” Kynthia told him.

“I’d like to find out who warned the little brat,” the warrior seethed.

Kynthia closed her eyes and let her mind scan the keep but there were no flashes of insight that came to her. The minds into which she delved were free of the treachery. She slowly opened her eyes and looked over at her lover.

“Whoever informed the child of our intent is not at this keep. He or she must have fled with Lilit.”

“I doubt it was a male,” Leksi said.

“I do, too.”

“Well, what now?”

“We go to Ordon,” Kynthia replied.

Leksi arched his left eyebrow. “You think so, do you?”

“What choice do we have?”

The warrior shook his head. “Woman, you’re going to get my head separated from my neck yet!”

* * * * *

Their horses had just cleared the little spit of land that bordered Ordon and Bandar when the sound of a mighty wind howling toward them caused Leksi and Kynthia to look back. Above them, the trees were suddenly being lashed with such a violent force the leaves were coming off the limbs in armfuls. Kynthia’s hair blew free of its barrette and whipped about her head, stinging her face.