The duelist 11, p.18
The Duelist 11, page 18
“They’re right,” Amaya admitted. Her rain-colored eyes were already closed, and she sounded sleepy. “We’ll be expected to befriend his wives. Social ties are made with entire families. If you get along really well, your children will grow up friends.”
“Oh,” I said softly.
I hadn’t thought about that. About actually making a life here on Alem. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, certainly not yet, with the Council and the Order corrupting everything. But maybe, after all of that was done, we could. We could actually settle and have kids, and Aventoll would be a safe, happy place to raise them.
“Dream of nice things, husband.” Shay’s voice was soft in my ear, and her lips were softer still on my temple as Amaya and I drifted back off to sleep.
I awoke a few hours later, probably around midday, and I immediately felt far more awake than I had earlier. Zoie and Shay had been right, Amaya and I needed the extra sleep.
The oryx-woman herself was still sleeping, and at some point we’d ended up spooning. Her back was pressed to my chest, and she’d pulled one of my arms over her waist and was holding it to her chest with both of her own.
“Amaya,” I whispered, and I jostled her gently. “Are you awake?”
“Mmmm, no,” she mumbled vaguely, and she shifted against me.
I had to swallow hard when she did that, though, because it felt nice. Really nice.
“You sure?” I asked, and I pushed myself up slightly so I could reach her neck. I pulled back her short blonde curls with one finger and pressed light kisses to the side of her throat.
She giggled softly and shifted against me again.
“Less sure than I was a moment ago,” she replied, and she cracked her eyes open to look at me playfully. “You seem like you have a mission.”
“Maybe, but I’ll need a partner,” I said, and she laughed at my terrible joke and shifted back against me.
This time it was deliberate, and I could see the mischief in her eyes. I ground my hips into hers, and she began to move my hand, the one she’d been holding to her chest, down between her legs.
She was already wet when I touched her there, and she made soft, mewling noises of encouragement. The oryx-woman had gone from drowsy to desperate in a matter of minutes, but I certainly wasn’t complaining, not so long as she kept moving her hips against mine.
I found the nub of her clit and began to stroke it in the way I remembered she liked, slow and teasing. It always drove her mad, and I always liked seeing the proper, wise augur reduced to a shaking, pleading mess. She preached the benefits of patience, but only when she wasn’t the one being patient.
“Alex--!” she finally choked out, and she fisted both hands in the bed sheets as she came hard with a shudder, but she’d barely paused for breath before she pushed me onto my back and climbed on top of me.
“Yeah?” I asked as she reached down between us and lined me up with her entrance.
The oryx-woman only managed a nod because she was panting so hard, and she sank down onto me with a satisfied moan. Her fingers dug into my chest as she began to ride me fast and hard and completely without abandon. I’d somehow awoken something ravenous inside her, and it was a sight to behold.
“Come on, baby,” I coaxed, and I grabbed her hips to guide her against me.
Her face was pinched with concentration, and her gaze burned when she looked at me through half-lidded eyes. We were both hurtling toward release, and I only realized it was happening so fast when it was too late to do anything to stop it.
“Please, Alex,” she gasped on top of me, and she leaned down to kiss me messily. “I want to feel you inside me. Please.”
How could I deny such a request?
I moved my hips against hers as my grip on her tightened, and before long we both let out dry gasps as we crashed over the edge. I emptied myself inside her with wave after wave of pleasure, and for a few seconds I wasn’t entirely sure where I was. Then the world came back into focus, as did the panting oryx-woman lying on top of me.
“Shit,” I muttered. “That was… that was something.”
“A good something?” Amaya asked, and she raised her head to smile at me lazily.
I just about managed to gasp out a laugh.
“A very good something,” I promised and then leaned up to kiss her one last time.
She eased off me after a few minutes, and we both washed and dressed before we headed down to join the others in the family room. I wasn’t surprised to see that while Amaya and I had been sleeping, Zoie had been constructing another mother’s nest, and she was curled up in a huge pile of fluffy blankets and fluffier pillows.
“You look very cozy,” I remarked, and I waded through the sea of discarded cushions to kiss Zoie on the cheek. “Are these the unworthy sacrifices?”
“They weren’t soft enough,” the cat-woman said with a nod. “Only the softest for our kits.”
“Of course,” I said with a laugh. I kissed her cheek again, and then I looked over at the others.
Sera and Nova were sitting on a couch together and had clearly been there for some time, because they were deep in conversation. Sha-Kane, Horus, and Shay were also conversing, but it looked a little less focused.
I was glad to see they were all talking, at least.
“So, I assume Shay told you about Sinopa Crevan?” I asked the two Natavian men, and they nodded.
“It’s unusual to be invited to a welcoming luncheon so quickly, but I suspect Crevan has his reasons,” the osprey-man said.
“He knows something’s up with the Council, I’m sure of it,” I agreed. “It’s just a question of what.”
“Well, hopefully he’ll tell you for himself,” Horus said. “I don’t like how cryptic everyone is here.”
“Neither do I, son, but there are eyes and ears everywhere, so Crevan’s caution is not without reason,” Sha-Kane replied. The osprey-man said it casually, but I could see how delighted he was that he could call Horus ‘son,’ and the falcon-man now understood just how deep that went. Sha-Kane then turned back to me. “Do you think he knows about the basement?”
“Maybe,” I said. “He didn’t give any indication he did. But either way, we’ll need all the allies we can get if we’re going to stop the Council’s corruption.”
This was one problem that couldn’t just be solved with a Duel. Even if there was some object to destroy or some switch to flip, the only way to truly make a difference was to enact real, lasting change, and maybe even overhaul the entire government.
“He said early afternoon,” Amaya then said. She’d gone over to sit with Anwaar, but now she rose from her seat and smoothed out the creases from her pale gold dress. “We should get going.”
“We should,” Shay agreed, and she pulled Zoie out from her nest and helped the cat-woman fix her hair until all three of them were the picture of Asher wives.
My heart swelled at the sight of them and Nova, who was still sitting with Sera. I loved them all so much, it was like my heart would explode if I thought about it for too long.
“Come, love,” Zoie said, and she took my right arm.
Shay, Amaya and Nova fell into step behind us, and we marched out in a procession, through the Council district, toward Sinopa’s manor.
All of the grounds and houses were as magnificent as the Tas estate, if not grander. It was obvious these homes were the result of generations of insane wealth. Even if someone acted out the American dream and had a full-on rags-to-riches story, they wouldn’t have had enough money to build estates these enormous.
Sinopa’s estate had a veneer of newness that none of the others did. It was still an old building, but it had clearly been recently renovated. The tastes of its predecessors, the Leenian Asher whom Sinopa Dueled, did not match the tastes of Sinopa himself. As we walked through the gates and toward the front door of the manor, I noticed a lot of the flowers were a strange blue-purple color and shaped like lilies.
“Nightblossoms,” Amaya said when she caught me looking. “In Vulpian culture, they’re thought to bring good luck and ward away bad intentions.”
“Maybe we should get some put in,” I said. “I have a feeling there’ll be a lot of bad intentions headed our way.”
“Hopefully not here, though,” Zoie said as we came to the manor.
I knocked once, and then the great doors creaked open, and a short Alemic man greeted us with a deep bow.
“Councilman Brightwood,” he said in a voice that sounded a little terse. “Come to dine with our master, Councilman Crevan?”
“That’s correct,” I said.
“Right this way, then, sir,” the man said, and he led us all into a room that couldn’t seem to decide whether it was a lounge or a dining room. There was a long, wide table laden with food, but it was very low, and surrounded by brightly colored cushions.
“Alex!” Sinopa said jovially when we entered. He was joined only by his arctic fox-wife, Alopa, and she gave us a graceful smile. “Please, sit down.”
“Nice to see you again, Sinopa,” I said as the five of us lowered ourselves onto the cushions. They were unbelievably soft. “And you, Lady Alopa.”
“Oh, now, I believe we can drop the formalities among friends,” the arctic fox-woman said with a dainty wave of her hand. “Alopa, please. But I’m afraid I won’t be dining with you. My dear husband wishes to speak with you in private.”
“Provided that’s agreeable to you,” Sinopa then said, and he looked meaningfully at Zoie, Shay, Amaya, and Nova.
“Of course,” I said firmly, and I raised Zoie’s hand to my lips to kiss her knuckles. “You don’t mind?”
“Not at all,” Zoie assured me, and she looked over at Alopa, who got to her feet.
“Ariav and I are in the other sitting room, it’s much the same as this one,” Alopa said.
I remembered Ariav as Sinopa’s Varthan wife, so hopefully that meant Zoie would get along well with her.
“And Niabi and Halcyon?” I asked politely, mainly because I wanted to show both Alopa and Sinopa that I’d made an effort to remember the other wives’ names.
“They are… entertaining themselves,” Sinopa told me with an amused smile, and we decided to leave it at that.
“Be safe, love,” Shay said as she, Amaya, Zoie, and Nova all rose to their feet to follow Alopa.
“Always,” I promised, and I kissed her fingers before she left.
Alopa closed the door behind them all, and then it was just Sinopa and me.
“I apologize for being so cryptic,” the fox-man said at once. He reached for a dish of what looked like sliced fruit, but it was unlike any fruit I’d ever seen, and he placed a few slices on his plate. “Please, help yourself.”
“Oh, thanks,” I said, and I decided to just try everything, since nothing was familiar. Alemic and Leenian food was clearly very different to the fare on Nata, Terr, or Om. “Is there a reason you were being cryptic? Or is it just more entertaining?”
“Oh, it’s definitely entertaining,” Sinopa said with a laugh as he loaded up his plate with small chunks of cooked meat and roasted vegetables. “But that wasn’t my primary reason. The Council has eyes and ears everywhere, you see, and everyone on Alem is more loyal to the legacies than to usurpers like you or I.”
“So even though you’re a Councilman, they’d sell you out to a ‘real’ Councilman,” I said, and I put air quotes around ‘real’ just to make sure I was being clear.
“Precisely.” Sinopa nodded. He poured a thick red sauce over his plate, and I decided to try it, since it smelled a bit spicy. “My own servants would report my actions to the Council, if I gave them any details.”
“Really?” My eyes went wide, but I kept my gaze focused on my plate so I didn’t drown my food in the spicy sauce. “But they’re your servants.”
“But I am the man who killed their former master,” the fox-man said with a shrug. “They have never much liked or trusted me, but I never intended to trust them. I trust only my wives.”
“Probably a wise move,” I said. “I like to be able to trust the women who share my bed.”
“Precisely,” Sinopa said again, and he raised his goblet of wine toward me in approval. “But enough talk of women and beds, as enjoyable as that would be. I’m afraid I have something rather more serious to discuss with you. Something I couldn’t trust with a servant, which was why I invited you here personally.”
“I’d figured as much,” I said. Technically, Shay had been the one to figure it out, but she’d clearly been right. “What is it?”
“I would ask that you don’t sugarcoat your responses,” the Vulpian man said to me. “I will not be offended by bluntness-- in fact, I welcome it.”
“Alright,” I said. “Hit me.”
“Very well.” Sinopa leveled his foxlike gaze on me. “What do you know of the Council’s ability to influence demons?”
I stared at the fox-man. He stared back at me.
“You’re not shocked by this question?” Sinopa asked, and before I could respond, he let out a laugh. “Aha! I thought as much! You truly are as you were promised!”
“Promised? I-- wait, what?” I spluttered, but the fox-man just let out another triumphant bark of laughter.
“Oh, forgive me, Alex, forgive me,” he said excitedly. “I just couldn’t be sure until now. I don’t mean to sound like I’m making threats, I just… I hardly dared believe it.”
“Believe what?” I asked.
“That you’re everything my grandfather said you would be, of course!” Sinopa said with a grin. “My paternal grandfather, he was a Traveler, too, you know. The last one to come to Aventoll before the Alda brothers. I grew up listening to stories from him about his world, and he told me all about the prophecies of the Stranger and the Savior. About you.”
“Wait,” I said. “Your grandfather was a Traveler, too?”
“He was.” The Vulpian man nodded. “Simon Crevan. I’m named for him, albeit with a more suitably Vulpian name. But because of him, my father was raised on stories, and so was I, and so I understood there was something wrong with the way the Council functions. Since you are also a Traveler, I had hoped you would share those sentiments.”
“You think there’s something wrong with the Council, too?” I asked him. “You think we stand a chance at stopping its corruption?”
“I do,” Sinopa said earnestly. “But I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I needed an ally-- one such as yourself. I know the Savior is meant to defeat the Darkness, and I believe that Darkness is more than the Scourge. I think it is the very corruption of the Council itself.”
“You want the Council to be a real government, don’t you?” I said. “That’s why we came here. We want it to be more than a club for Ashers to give themselves more money.”
“They are the blessed, it is their duty to protect Aventoll,” Sinopa agreed. “But change does not happen all at once, and it does not happen alone. I was blessed enough to have a Traveler for a grandfather, so he passed down his Asher abilities to my father, and then to me. I Dueled Rees Jerich of Leen for my seat, but I am one man against sixty-three.”
“Sixty-one,” I corrected. “Sha-Kane and I are also fighting for the Council’s betterment. We believe they should be servants of Aventoll. So, you think the Council can control the demons?”
I didn’t want to tell him about the machine in Tas’ basement, not just yet. I wanted to see what else Sinopa knew before I gave him all of our secrets.
“I don’t know for sure, but it would explain how there went seventy-five seasons with no Red Skies, when before they were fairly common, at least once a month or so,” the Vulpian man answered. “Seventy-five seasons is just such a long gap, don’t you agree?”
“I do,” I said with a nod. “So, what do you think?”
“Well, I don’t know the details, but there is some kind of inner chamber in the Council Hall,” Sinopa said. “The lock will only open for the direct blood descendants of the Sacred Sixty-Four. My Stone will not unlock it, because I am not a Jerich.”
This sounded like a more advanced version of the lock on Teivel’s basement. It unlocked at the presentation of the Tas Duelist Stone, but it didn’t require someone to have the Tas bloodline.
“What’s inside it?” I asked, but I suspected I already knew.
“I cannot say for sure, because I’ve never been allowed to enter,” Sinopa said. “The official story is that it’s a memorial for the Sacred Sixty-Four, but I know that’s a lie, because the entire Council Hall is a memorial.”
“Yeah, that’s definitely a lie,” I said flatly. “So you’ve never seen inside the chamber?”
“I haven’t,” the fox-man admitted. “But I am confident if the Council somehow has a means to control the Scourge, they’re hiding it in that chamber.”
Chapter 12
This secret chamber had to be where the Council’s version of the machine was hiding. The one in Teivel’s basement was an old version, an obsolete version, but it still had the seat, it still required an Asher to sit in it to activate it, like the one on Eng. Where better to place a machine that ran on an Asher’s transformation magic than in the middle of the most powerful group of Ashers in Aventoll?
“You think so?” I asked Sinopa, and he nodded gravely. “So… what would you have us do?”
“Destroy it,” Sinopa said simply. “The Council has some power over the Scourge, I’m sure of it. I don’t know how exact, but the Council could have been manipulating demons to threaten opponents, people who spoke out against the current system.”
That was exactly what my Crew and I thought was happening, and if Sinopa had come to this conclusion on his own, then it was likely the truth.
“I’ve looked through the succession records, too,” the fox-man continued. “Similar to The Ousting of the Wolfmen, there have been cases where ‘accidents’ befell first sons of Duelists, and second sons inherited the title and power. I suspect they were shown the secret to the Council’s influence, how they manage to keep back the Scourge so effectively.”
