The Ninth Orb (23 page)

“We are here to serve. We will honor your wishes and learn your customs so that you will be comfortable living among us.”

Eden studied his expression doubtfully, but finally nodded when she saw nothing but earnestness in his gaze. Struggling to keep the depth of her relief from showing, she forced a smile. “I know our ways seem as strange to you as yours seem to us, but if you are willing to learn and accept, then I am willing to stay.”

The slow smile that curled his lips was so like Baen’s it fisted uncomfortably around her heart. His hand tightened slightly on hers for a moment before he released it and turned to send a significant glance at several men who had settled to her right. The men rose at once and left. Eden watched their departure uneasily.

“It is so very different?”

Eden looked at him questioningly.

“Where you are from?”

Eden stared at him, wishing abruptly that there was no need for the subterfuge they had felt necessary for protection. Having to constantly be on guard and examine every word before she spoke was taxing. She rubbed her temple idly. “Much different.”

He watched the gesture, frowning slightly. “You have pain there?”

“What?”

He lifted a hand and lightly touched her head. “Pain here?”

She was about to deny it when it dawned on her that she had not only cautioned everyone to accept the ways of the Xtanians so long as they didn’t directly conflict with their own personal beliefs, but she had agreed to accept them herself. She wasn’t particularly comfortable with the concept of allowing others to do things for her that she was perfectly capable of doing herself, but they were used to it. Finally, she merely nodded.

Rising promptly, he settled on the lounge beside and slightly behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, massaging them. “Too hard?” he asked, pausing when she sucked in a sharp breath.

She thought it over. “A little,” she said finally, trying to force herself to relax. It wasn’t easy for his nearness touched off a sensual awareness that created as much tension as the kneading motion of his hands. He bore a strong physical resemblance to his brood brother, Baen, which she had noticed at once, but it went beyond an outer resemblance. His voice was much the same, as well, and, she suspected, the pheromones he gave off were close enough that her body could tell little difference.

He wasn’t Baen, though. Baen, she knew, was standing near the front wall of the great room. She thought she could feel his gaze, and that only made the tension climb higher inside of her.

In spite of every expectation to the contrary, however, Cal’s persistent ministrations did ease the tension and with it the mild, painful throbbing in her temples. She’d reached the point where she was struggling to keep from relaxing into a limp puddle when a stir of activity brought her mind back to focus on her surroundings.

The men who’d left a little earlier, she saw, had returned bearing platters of food and vessels filled with a beverage of some kind. Eden hadn’t realized she was hungry until the aromas of the various dishes began to waft around her in a seductive dance.

The first platter was settled on the table closest to her lounge, but within moments similar platters had been settled all around. Trying not to be too obvious about it, Eden shifted away from Cal, placing her arm close enough that the computer in her wrist band could pick up the scents and analyze the ingredients.

She didn’t suspect foul play, but she wasn’t going to bet her life on it, and in any case, she had no way of knowing whether their food might be compatible with her own physiology. She thought it probably was, since they were basically the same species, but there was no getting around the fact that there were also radical differences between them.

To her relief, nothing was detected that could be considered harmful to her and she’d just begun to wonder what the Xtanian protocol was for dining when Cal leaned over to the tray, picked up something like a wafer, scooped some sort of meat hash onto it and held it to her lips.

Instinctively, she withdrew to examine the food he’d offered, trying to decide if it would be very rude to refuse to eat from his hand, or it was perfectly acceptable to refuse the offer.

Ignore the little things and save the battles for those things that are really important, she reminded herself. The food smelled appealing. She bit down on the wafer, uncertain of what to expect.

Relieved and pleased to discover that whatever it was tasted to her liking, she sent Cal a smiling glance as she chewed it.

Apparently that was proper protocol because as soon as she’d begun to eat, the others began to move to the trays and select portions of food for themselves.

Everyone except the warriors, who remained at their post.

The beverage Cal held out to her wasn’t water. She wasn’t certain what it was, but it had a hint of a kick. It went down cold, but warmth blossomed in the pit of her belly when it settled.

Curious, she thought.

The next time she thought to glance at the warriors, she discovered that perhaps a third of them had disappeared. Perhaps ten minutes passed and they reappeared and another third crossed the great room and disappeared through the doors where the men had appeared with the trays.

Frowning, Eden swallowed the food Cal had given her. “The warriors aren’t allowed to eat with everyone else?”

Looking mildly surprised, Cal glanced around. Finally, he shrugged. “I have never heard that it was forbidden. They simply don’t.”

“Why?”

He considered the question in frowning thought as he selected something else for her. “Perhaps because they are the peace keepers, they feel it best to remain aloof from the breeders.”

Eden choked on the bite of food she’d just taken. Waving Cal away when he looked at her in alarm, she coughed until she finally managed to dislodge the particle of food that had gone down the wrong way and reached for the glass he held out, taking a large gulp to soothe her throat. Again the warmth blossomed in her belly, producing a floating effect not entirely unlike an alcoholic beverage … and not entirely like an alcoholic beverage either.

Breeders certainly didn’t require an explanation but she wondered for the first time if everyone who wasn’t a warrior was considered a breeder. She’d been certain they couldn’t be, that there must be levels--like warrior, laborer, breeder. If that wasn’t the case she had a hell of a lot more to contend with that she’d expected.

But then Cal had labored with all the others and she had the distinct feeling that he’d somehow become designated as first in line.

By the time Eden decided she’d had her fill, she realized she’d also had far too much of whatever beverage it was that they were serving. She didn’t feel inebriated, precisely, but she felt far more relaxed than she thought she should and not nearly as cautious as she liked.

That concern for the possibility of making a misstep was the reason she merely watched as the warriors began to circulate about the room, handing out something she couldn’t see. Finally, her curiosity got the best of her, however.

She leaned close to Cal. “What are they doing?” she asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

“The choosing.”

Eden debated whether to try to pretend enlightenment or demand an explanation she could understand. Her curiosity won out. “What are they choosing?”

He sent a look that was both heated and filled with amusement. “I am the eldest of all here, so my place is assured. To keep peace, the others must draw lots.”

The heated look was enough to penetrate Eden’s fog.

Chapter Eighteen

Eden was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that the time had apparently arrived for the consummation ceremony when Cal rose, scooped her off of the lounge and straightened. Even as he turned and picked his way through the crowd toward her bedroom, Eden saw others rise and begin to follow them.

She encountered Baen’s gaze just as Cal stepped though the doorway but in the next instant he disappeared from her view.

She didn’t know whether to be relieved or alarmed when she discovered that only four others followed them to the bath. Half was certainly better than all, but only by a little, not enough to keep from scaring the hell out of her.

Trar was among them, and looked almost as unnerved at the prospect as she felt, which didn’t help her feelings at all.

The mellowing effect of the drink she’d had with her meal had pretty well worn off by the time Cal set her on her feet and began to examine her clothing. Realizing he was trying to figure out how to remove it, Eden had a moment’s internal battle to deal with--help? Or ignore his dilemma?

She’d known she would have to do this, she reminded herself.

And it still took an effort to willingly remove her clothes with so many men looking on.

She was sorry now that she hadn’t gotten so high on that stuff that she didn’t know or care what was going on.

Once she’d shown Cal the self-sealing opening of her suit, he slipped his hands along her suit down along her belly and thigh. A shiver went through her as she felt the brush of the back of his hand along her skin, but contrary to all reason, it was a pleasurable reaction, not one of nerves.

One of the men removed her translator carefully from her head. As she glanced around in dismay another took her wrist. When she turned back, she saw it was Trar. After examining it frowningly for several moments, he located the catch and removed the wrist monitor, as well.

And then Cal was tugging her suit from her shoulders.

The water, she realized, trying to calm herself. This was no particle bath. The water would damage the electronics and they knew that.

There was no reason to feel threatened by the loss of her headset and monitor, but she felt far more naked without them than with the loss of her clothes.

Two of the men, already naked as she was, led her down the steps into the pool as the others undressed.

She didn’t even know their names, she thought a little wildly, but she realized after a moment that she did. Jerd was the one who’d greeted her at the entrance to New Savannah. The other, who’d designed and built the artificial lighting in the meznooku, which caught and utilized the rays of the sun spilling through the holes high in the walls, had told her he was known as Podicium.

The water, contrary to what she’d expected, barely brushed her knees. It was warm, though, as if it had been heated. Leading her across, they settled her on a bench that she discovered lay just below the water’s surface and then each took up a cloth, dipped a hand into a bowl filled with a jellied substance and began to work it into the cloths. To her surprise, she saw foam forming on the cloths they held. Before she could speculate on the purpose, Jerd knelt in the water, grasped one of her ankles and lifted her leg until the sole of her foot was resting against his belly. Once he had settled her foot, he began to rub the foam along her foot and calf, lightly scrubbing.

The foam didn’t hurt. In point of fact, she found the stroking of his hand oddly soothing and arousing at the same time.

Podicium knelt beside Jerd and grasped her other ankle, forcing her to lean back and brace herself on her hands for balance as he did as Jerd had and propped her foot on his belly.

It wasn’t until Cal, Trar, and a third man, whose name she was certain she didn’t know, waded across the pool to watch the proceedings while they bathed themselves that she realized she had a bigger audience than the three staring down at the curling thatch of red hair between her thighs. Five warriors had ranged themselves along the walls.

Baen was among them.

Her belly clenched the moment she saw him, saw that his gaze crawled over her body with open hunger.

Her mouth went dry. With an effort, she dragged her gaze from him after only a brief glance, fearing her focus on him would draw the attention of the others, fearing what might come of it.

I want what I have no right to want, he’d told her once. She’d known then that he was telling her he desired her. She just hadn’t understood that he was telling her he could never have her.

Why had he come then, she wondered?

The peacekeepers, she remembered Cal calling them, realizing abruptly what he’d meant, that a large part of their duty was to make certain the breeders were kept in line.

Even if it was required that warriors always watch over her even when she was with the breeders, though, why hadn’t he simply sent someone else?

The stroke of a hand along her cleft jerked her attention back to the men bathing her. Before she could decide whether the touch had been accidental or not, Jerd pushed her leg wider, bathing the tender flesh of her cleft with infinite care.

Touching, she realized, feeling her body heat up with desire, was allowed here even if it wasn’t allowed at any other time. His face hard with his efforts at self-control, he moved aside after only a moment and Podicium ‘bathed’ her.

Jerd’s hand closed over his wrist after only a few moments. Podicium sent him a swift glance and moved away. Eden had already started to sit up when Trar and the unknown man knelt as Jerd and Podicium had. They, at least, made a pretense of washing her upper body before they, too, examined her sex.

More than a little disconcerted, she nevertheless found it highly arousing, being watched, being touched so intimately, feeling the heat of their desire. She was almost disappointed when Cal, who’d done no more than watch, turned away and climbed the steps out of the pool.

As if that was a signal to the others, they finished bathing her, quickly scrubbed themselves and led her from the bath. Cal, she discovered as they rubbed dry cloths over her to absorb the excess water, had disappeared.

So, too, had three of the guards.

As she was led back into the bedroom, she saw that Cal was lying on his back on a lounge similar to the one she’d occupied in the living area, except that it was perhaps twice as wide. Total confusion filled her when she realized that the guards were securing restraints on his wrists and ankles.

His breathing was labored, but she found it hard to decide whether it was because he was sexually aroused or if that was only part of it. It was certainly part of it, because his member was turgid and fully erect.