The Pearl Savage (40 page)

Clarence strode up the steps, taking
them two at a time. “You forget your duty to her, to our kingdom,
when you press your advantage.” Clarence’s chest heaved, not with
breath, but with righteous indignation.

“
I
want her to understand that the
savages
are not the only one she can feel passion with!” Charles said,
disgusted.

“Your prejudice against them
cannot affect her decisions as Queen, you know this!” They stood
chest to chest, ready to come to blows.

Males.

“
Stop
this. I go to their clan. I will be
tested.
If there is one amongst them that is a contender,” Clara stumbled
over the word, “I will consider a courtship. That is the end of
it.”

“What of us?” Charles asked.

Clara looked at him.

He stepped forward, and it would
have been more comfortable had they been touching but he kept himself
uncomfortably close, without contact. “You do not know.”

She
nodded,
she
did not. But she must be fair. Charles was her friend but he had
proven something this day, that they
could
be
more, if he captured her heart. But the heart felt as it would,
without sense or direction. And the Band were not males that
intellectualized, they were instinctual.

She looked back at the window, as
did Clarence and Charles, their tempers cooled, following her gaze.

Looking
at the face that stared down at her, a mirror of her own, Clara knew
that she had much to seek
,
many questions that needed answers. But not this day.

This day was filled with
conversation with the Band and their president, for in the morrow she
traveled.

CHAPTER 36

Clara stood with half her royal
guard before the new portal that had been fashioned over the gaping
wound of the sphere tunnel.

Curiously, the edges of the sphere,
where it lay ragged, had begun to “grow” around the brass
perimeter framework. She looked upon it and gauged it to be eight
feet high by twelve feet in length. The doors were made of solid
brass and fitted with pearls in the emblem of the sphere.

They were so heavy that they slid
upon runners of brass, oiled by the oysters after the meat was
evacuated and cleansed. When closed, there were great, built-in locks
that rode the bottom corners, used to secure them.

Clara
did not know if the
fragment
was aware of the saltwater weakness of the sphere as the clan had
been. Their scouts thought not. But one could not be too careful.

“My Queen,” Clarence asked as
both statement and question.

Clara nodded, she was ready. The
portal doors took three guards to slide open. As the Outside was
revealed, Clara took a deep breath and left the safety inside the
womb of the sphere.

****

Clara stood nervously before the
entire clan, a contingent of her royal guard at her back, the
circumstances entirely different than when she had but dallied here
briefly with Anna and Lillian. She searched the faces of the crowd
until she came to Jack and Lillian, who smiled at her and she
returned it. Then her eyes came upon Joseph and Anna and there seemed
to be a tension there. Before she could think on it President Bowen
came out and introduced Clara. Would she ever get used to the title
of Queen? She thought not.

The Band stood to the right of
Bowen, their backs ramrod straight, their expressions neutral, a
backdrop of contained menace.

Bowen continued, “As you are all
aware, the Evil Ones left a portentous book of sorts that cataloged
some of the events of this time and we have, by necessity, had to act
upon some of the suppositions therein.”

Clara could see that they were
aggrieved to do so.

Bowen outlined the “rules” of
the testing. This so incensed Clarence that he had wrapped his hand
around her upper arm and was furiously whispering in her ear, she
shook her head. She would allow it. They were a different culture,
there were some concessions to be made.

Clarence went against her wishes,
speaking directly to Bowen, “She cannot be expected to kiss each
one? She is a Queen, not a common trollop!” Clarence sputtered,
throwing up his hands and huffing about.

“Clarence,” Clara said with
ringing authority, hating what she was about to do but realizing that
she must, “you must stand down.”

He stared at her.

“That is a royal directive,” she
finished quietly.

He came to stand before her and she
met his eyes. Clara knew that she must set a precedence here, now, so
that her authority would be respected. She was uncomfortable to do
so, but she had her duty.

Clarence relented, adding a
muttered, “I will remain here.”

That was as good as she would get
from him, she thought.

The Band came forward: Bracus,
Matthew, Jacob, James, Stephen, Philip (looking quite well healed she
noticed) and Joseph. Clara swallowed the lump in her throat and
sought out Anna, who looked back at her calmly. Clara was suddenly
much more awkward than before. Only Jack remained, already mated to
Lillian, whom he held against him.

She felt no accusation from Anna,
but in her heart, she felt sadness.

Clara stepped forward and stood in
the place that they had indicated. A groundwork of curiously
beautiful stones were made in a pattern inside a circle, which looked
vaguely star-like in its design. She turned briefly and looked at
Bowen with a silent question.

“It has been assembled as
written.”

Ah,
Clara thought, the book
from the Guardians. She stepped inside the circle and it seemed to
hum with independent energy, a symbol whose weight she felt in her
limbs, running through her in a low thrumming buzz, and knew that
inside this circle, which was at least six feet in diameter, she was
calm as a consequence of being inside it. She should have felt fear,
but instead that curious energy stilled her.

James swaggered into the circle, his
feet passing its perimeter and he almost stumbled, as surprised as
she had been by the effect.

He quickly regained his composure
and approached her.

They stared at one another. He tried
to remain polite but already she could see desire pooling in his eyes
and Clara knew before he moved that he would touch her. She felt the
wind from his body, every small hair standing on end, as he wrapped
her close to him, smelling of pine and earth and male. His arms were
bands of steel as he pressed her against him and when his lips
touched hers there was a jolt, shot through with the kind of spark
one feels right after the sphere’s cleansing and it is dry and you
touch a knob of brass. It almost hurt and she gasped and they pulled
away, only a brushing of lips, no true passion.

The disappointment on James’ face
was obvious. He looked at Bowen and shook his head. Looking at Clara
he inclined his head in the barest of bows and retraced his steps out
of the circle.

Clara rubbed her hands up and down
her arms, that had been disquieting.

There was more to the testing than
she realized.

****

Clara
was tired. Her lips numb from being kissed, quite thoroughly, by both
Jacob and Stephen with similar, jolting and somewhat painful results.
And it helped not that the one male she might
enjoy
kissing was last and off on the barest edge of where the stone
perimeter was, anger riding his body.

He
did not like other men handling her
.

Joseph was next, coming to her as
though he would rather be anywhere but here in this ring and she had
great sympathy for him and Anna.

They came together awkwardly, he
reached for her and keeping his body away from hers, he leaned
forward, pressing a chaste kiss on her lips. The barest pressure and
a spark ignited that licked as a flame and spread.

Joseph’s eyes widened in surprise
and almost as if he could not help himself, he pulled her against him
and with a low groan he began to feed on her mouth all the while
fighting it. Clara responded, her hands finding their way around his
neck, but because of his size, she simply could not meet them. He
pressed her lips once more, and forcibly pushed her away. She almost
stumbled but caught herself. He looked at her with a mixture of
disquiet and soft horror.

He
was Band
,
he was not commanded by causal lust. This Queen, had stirred
something deep within him that he wished not to recognize. Joseph
backed away, while his body fought him to get back to her. He all but
ran out of the circle and away from Clara.

That left Philip, his brother Bracus
and Matthew. She looked behind her at Clarence who scowled back.

Marvelous.

Bracus clapped Philip on the back
and he approached her. “Queen Clara.” he inclined his head.

“Philip,” she said, noticing his
side was without scar. “You are healed,” she said incredulously.

He nodded. “It is always such with
the Band.”

Then he pulled her to him and the
moment their lips touched the heat came upon them and his eyes
snapped open. He pulled her closer. As the largest of the Band, he
had to awkwardly maneuver her around until his hand found her hair
and then he wrapped his fist in it, with his arm he lifted her off
the ground.

“Philip!” President Bowen
interceded.

He pulled his head away, his
breathing harsh and stared down at Clara, eyes gone wide with shock
and surprise.

Two of Clara’s guard entered the
circle and he turned in a crouch, jerking her against himself and
growled at the guards.

Growled.

“Get back,” Clara said with a
tremor in her voice. It was one thing to see the Band fight from a
distance and quite another to be intimately pressed against one of
them.

Bracus did not cross the border of
stone but said in a low, clear voice, “Let her down, brother,” he
said, putting a palm out in supplication.

They stared at each other for a long
moment, his forearm jammed underneath Clara’s ribs, her body against
him, heat coming off his body in waves.

Gradually, he lowered her to the
ground and said, “I will not look upon you now, Clara I fear it may
be my undoing.”

He backed away from her, then
turning, he made his way outside the stone perimeter. It was only
when he exited that he looked at her, a sheen of sweat coating his
face and arms.

Clara stood alone in the circle,
wondering when it would be over. Matthew and Bracus paced outside the
border, never taking their eyes off each other.

When Bracus crossed the border of
stone, her body reacted with a dizzying rush of power, rising up out
of the ground and flowing up her as if she were plunged in water…
and he had not yet touched her.

Everyone that was close to the
border gasped at the reaction and Bracus’ face changed. He did not
approach tentatively, but as a man drowning. He came for her almost
at a dead run and she fought to remain where she was, telling herself
that he had never offered her harm.

She had not considered what it
looked like to her guard which swarmed the circle when their Queen
was threatened.

However,
they came too late as Bracus was upon her and snatched her up, taking
her by the thighs and lifting her right to his mouth. She wrapped her
arms around his neck. His mouth was all over hers with bruising
force. She opened it for him and still he pressed his lips down
harder, making her gasp. He took that as encouragement and with one
hand under her legs he
forced
her head to meet his and she leaned into it so her neck was not
broken. With him kissing her that way. Clara couldn’t think, she
could hear
the
guards trying to pull him off her but that just made him clutch her
more tightly. It was about then that Clara realized she could no
longer breathe and began to feel dizzy with her mouth pressed to
Bracus’ straining to reach him at the same time her breath was not
coming.

Strong arms grasped Clara and she
saw Bracus’ eyes open and lifting his head, he roared in a primal
surge, throwing three of the guard off his back and dropping Clara as
he did. But Clara did not fall, instead, she was turned in one fluid
motion and it was Matthew.

Moving away only a little, the fray
behind them like white noise, he kissed her and the whole world
melted away. It was only Matthew in a searing fire, washing away
every other sound, noise and tactile sensation except his lips and
hands that roamed her body. Matthew was raggedly panting, his hands
moving everywhere they could, her shoulders, her waist, skimming the
sides of her breasts, moving to each side of her jaw, his hands
overlapping into the hair by her temples, his lips eating at her like
a man starved.

She was torn away from him and she
only needed to see Matthew’s expression to know who held her.

The two men roared at each other and
Bracus shoved Clara behind his back and charged Matthew, who used his
momentum against Bracus. Taking the sprint full tilt, grabbing
Bracus’ forearm and swinging him in the direction he was running,
stepping out a laced boot and throwing him as he tripped, Bracus flew
several feet into a landing roll.

He popped up off the ground and
swung around to charge when President Bowen yelled, “Clara! Leave
the circle.”

Clara needed no urging, she lifted
her skirts and skimming the ground she ran the five feet to the edge,
both men chasing her down. She did not turn but kept running.