Codespell, p.19
Codespell, page 19
part #3 of Ravirn Series
“That’s a pretty special case,” said Melchior. “If Nemesis has all of your powers and knows to ask the right question and the system actually works that way, she might land on top of us any second. But that’s a whole series of big ‘ifs’ that all have to come up right, and you really need to rest and heal for a bit. I can’t think of a better, safer place.”
“You make a pretty good point,” I said, lying back down with some relief—I hurt. “Too bad we can’t set up a probability bubble like the one Ahllan used as her fallback refuge. ”
Melchior smiled. “That would be nice, since they’re completely unreachable if you don’t know the exact coordinates, but I don’t have the computing cycles or raw power to build that kind of looped gate. For that you need a full webtroll. The best I can do is make this place as snug and secure as possible. Haemun and I are planning to see what we can do about the roof in the morning.”
“Where is he now?” I was more than a little bit worried about him, between the abuse he’d suffered from Nemesis and taking him away from the place that defined him.
“He’s in the other surviving guest room, sleeping like the dead and snoring worse than you are. He went down almost as hard as you. Now, why don’t we quit playing twenty questions and get back to recovering.”
“Is that the editorial ‘we’?” I asked.
“No, the medical, as in ‘Have we had our meds today?’ If you don’t want me to dose you again, you’ll surrender peacefully and go back to sleep.”
“All right, Mel. You win. I’m in no state to keep arguing anyway.” I settled myself as comfortably as I could manage with all my aches and pains and was asleep in minutes, very glad indeed for the respite from the insomnia that had plagued me in the weeks since I’d returned from my dissolution into chaos.
The next time I woke, a line of bright yellow at the base of the door told me the sun was high enough to shine down into the open hallway. Melchior was nowhere to be seen, but he’d left a bell beside the bed. Since he’d also left a cane and I really needed the bathroom, I decided to see how far I could get on my own.
Sitting up didn’t kill me. Neither did getting to my feet, though the latter left me feeling as though it should have. My leg was not at all happy with me, though the ache in my back from the first shot had faded completely, along with the bruise it must have left.
I tested my bad leg carefully and found that even without the cane I could walk. It hurt, rather a lot, and I sure as hell wouldn’t be jogging anytime soon. Still, it was better than I’d expected. Melchior must have done wonders with the healing magic. Combine that with the legacy of quick recovery I’d inherited from my Titan forebears, and I couldn’t complain. Not when I was walking so soon after taking a bullet and aggravating the old damage in my knee. Even if the latter didn’t want to bend properly.
Swearing periodically, I hobbled off to the bathroom. I didn’t bother with clothes. I’d found my bloodstained shepherd’s tunic in a heap next to my leathers and decided that neither looked very appealing.
Unlike the bedroom where I’d slept, the bathroom had recently been cleaned and dusted. Another domed room, its walls and ceiling were surfaced with a broken-glass mosaic, the edges of which had all been smoothed until they felt something like tile. Here and there, a fragment of labeling identified a bit of soda bottle or a mason jar. The colors ranged from green-blue through blue-green to emerald. The effect was a bit like scuba diving in the Mediterranean. The porcelain was spiderwebbed with fractures but clearly sound.
After I’d relieved myself, I checked my leg in the mirror and was delighted to find the wound thoroughly scabbed over. It was high on the outside of my thigh, and only luck had prevented the slug from hitting the bone with all sorts of ugly complications. There was no exit wound, so Mel must have drawn the bullet. I was very glad I hadn’t been awake for that. My knee was swollen and red and popped very quietly and very painfully when I bent it much past thirty degrees, but it had been much worse in the past. I was beginning to wonder whether I hadn’t substantially fixed it when I built myself a new body after I melted the old one in Hades.
The bathroom had a huge sunken soaking tub, and between the blood and the sweat and the aftereffects of Zeus’s little impromptu pub party, I really needed cleaning up. I looked at the scabbed-up hole in my leg again and regretfully opted for sponging myself off instead. I’d have to get Mel to come up with some sort of waterproof bandage so I could soak later. When I finally went back out into the hall, it was much darker, and I looked up to see if a storm was rolling in.
“What are you doing out of bed?” demanded Melchior, peering down through a gap between two of the rusty metal patches that now bridged the gap of the ruined roof.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” I pointed over my shoulder toward the bathroom.
“Idiot,” he muttered. “Why didn’t you ring the bell?”
I ignored his question in favor of one of my own. “What on Earth are you using to fix the roof?”
“Car hoods,” said Haemun, leaning over the edge beside Melchior. “There’s a sort of automotive graveyard over that way.” He waved vaguely. “Once we’ve got them in place, we’ll cover them with dirt.”
“That makes sense, I—”
Melchior held up a warning hand. “Hang on, Boss. I’ve got a funny feel—Ah! Incoming call from Tisiphone via the voodoo phone. Do you want to take it as you are? Or—”
Before I could respond, light-fog started pouring out of his mouth and eyes, and he bent forward as though he were about to throw up on me from above. A rough misty globe formed in the air between us, and a moment later an image of Tisiphone appeared at its core. She looked around in momentary confusion before glancing downward. As soon as she saw me, she developed a wicked smile.
“Hello there!” she said. “You really didn’t have to strip just on my account. I’m used to being the only naked one in any conversation where my sisters aren’t around.”
“Uh . . .” I groped for the right words and moved my cane to cover as much as one thin piece of wood could.
“Of course, there’s something to be said for doing things this way.” Her mouth widened into a grin. “Polite is always good, especially when it so improves the view.” She moved her head to the side, quite obviously peering around the cane.
I blushed as I felt myself harden in response to her obvious interest. “As much as I’m enjoying the current drift of the conversation, I doubt it was the reason you called. Before we get too far off topic, I have to ask whether you got my message earlier.”
“I did, and I was just calling back to arrange for our meeting. I had intended to suggest a place, but all things considered, why don’t I just come to you? That way you won’t feel the need to overdress for the part. Don’t move a muscle.”
“You know—” I began, but she was already gone. “Damn. Melchior, could you come give me a hand?”
I had no idea of how long it would take for her to get from there to here. In part because I had no idea of where there was. I quickly hobbled back to my bedroom and lowered myself onto the edge of the bed. I’d been on my feet too long and was sweating from the effort.
“What do you want, Boss?” Melchior stood in the doorway, his silly grin leaking foggy light at the edges.
I looked at my leathers and the tunic. “I don’t know, Mel. Some dignity maybe.”
He followed my gaze. “You’re not going to find it there. The tunic never had any, and you really don’t want to try slipping the leather pants on over that leg.”
“You’re probably right,” I said with a sigh. “It’s just that I feel so vulnerable like this.”
“So get under the covers, and I’ll try to find you a robe. I know Ahllan had a few around here at one time.”
“Thanks, Mel. I appreciate it.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when a slice opened in the air behind him with a brutal ripping noise. I quickly put my back against the headboard and flipped the blankets over my lap. The rip widened, and Tisiphone stepped through into the hallway. She paused there for a second, and I thought I saw her sniff the air before she turned my way.
“I told you not to move a muscle.” She frowned at me theatrically and shook her head as she crossed the threshold.
“Hello, Tisiphone,” said Melchior before ducking past her into the hallway. “Back in a tick.” Then he vanished, presumably off in search of a robe.
She waved vaguely after him without taking her eyes off of me. “Sure, see you then.”
“Hi,” I said, feeling strangely shy.
“Hi.” Tisiphone stepped deeper into the room and stopped abruptly, sniffing again.
Her frown deepened into something real as she knelt to look at my wadded-up tunic.
“This is your blood, isn’t it?” she asked, her voice hard.
“It is. Nemesis shot me.”
Tisiphone stood up, her wings and hair flaring wildly. The frown turned briefly into a snarl, and the claws that tipped her fingers and toes elongated, glittering like red diamonds in the light of her personal fires.
“We should have destroyed her utterly,” growled Tisiphone. “Mother was wrong about that, and Megaera was right. This time, we will rend her soul and bind the shreds to the four winds so that they may evermore haunt the wastes of the world.”
Her words were accompanied by a dissonant grating. It took me a moment to realize that it came from the way the repeated clenching of her toes dragged her claws across the stone floor. My attention must have drawn hers because she stopped a moment later.
“Sorry. She just makes me want to kill something.” Tisiphone took several deep breaths, and the fires of her rage slowly dimmed as she retracted all twenty of her claws.
“You know,” said Melchior from the doorway, “maybe this is a bad time.” He had a bundle of plaid terry cloth in his arms.
“It’s all right, little one,” said Tisiphone. “Though if that’s what I think it is, I’m not sure I’ll thank you for delivering it.”
“It’s a robe,” I said. “I asked him to find something for me to wear.”
“Look,” said Melchior, setting the robe down, “why don’t I just leave it here and let you two talk in private?” He backed out of the room and vanished again.
Tisiphone makes him nervous; not that I can blame him. Tisiphone makes me nervous . . . when she’s not terrifying me. She’s a Fury, the very embodiment of vengeance and destruction. She could tear me limb from limb without breaking a sweat. But then, another part of my brain noted, maybe that’s what makes her so damn sexy.
Just then she bent and picked up the robe, highlighting the long, lean lines of her legs and the hard muscle of her ass. My mouth went a little dry as she carried it over to me and sat on the edge of the bed with it in her lap. Or maybe the sexy thing was just that she’s absolutely smoking hot.
She put a hand on my thigh. “How badly were you injured? And where?”
“Uhm, that leg actually,” I said.
“Oh.” She snatched her hand away. “Did I hurt you?”
“Not at all. She got me in the back of the thigh. It’s not too bad really. Mel did a bang-up job on the patching front.”
“Would you like me to take a look at it?” she asked.
“Maybe later,” I said, a touch too quickly.
I wasn’t quite ready for her to be poking around under the blankets that provided me with my only covering. From the smile she flashed, I think she knew exactly what my objection was.
“I know a thing or two about wounds.” She put her hand back on my thigh, a little higher up. “And about taking care of them. You pick stuff like that up in my profession.”
“I’m sure you do,” I said. It was a sobering thought, but one I couldn’t give proper attention with my libido whispering to me about the hand on my thigh. “I . . . look, could we stop flirting for a minute or two? I’m getting serious psychological whiplash here between the part of me that wants to pull you under the covers and play with fire and the part that thinks I should be running for the hills.”
She made a brief try at pouting but couldn’t seem to sustain it against the grin that followed.
“Now, what fun is that?” she asked. “If I’ve got you that far off-balance, shouldn’t I move in for the kill?” Her hand slid a little higher on my thigh, and she winked.
“Tisiphone, please.”
“Please what? Take my hand away?” She lifted it. “Or please crawl under the covers and ravish me?” She caught the edge of the blankets and lifted them a fraction of an inch.
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “That’s why I asked.”
“Oh, all right.” She dropped the covers and put her hands firmly in her own lap. “But it’s much less fun this way.”
As was so often the case when dealing with Tisiphone, I was once again reminded of a cat. This time it was a cat pretending at patience by folding its tail around its legs and looking disinterested. I suspected that we both knew this was just a fresh game, but at that point I was willing to take whatever I could get. Including the ravishment, whispered my libido, and I didn’t try to argue. Just as it would be foolish of me to pretend Tisiphone didn’t scare me, it would be silly to pretend I didn’t want her. Both feelings would have to wait.
“Thank you,” I said after a long moment. “We have things we need to talk about, and it’ll be much easier this way.”
“But ever so much less fun.”
“Probably,” I said. “How about if I promise to flirt with you when we’re done?”
“Deal, though I won’t swear to stop at flirting.”
“Deal.” I stuck out my hand, and she solemnly shook it.
I shivered a bit then because I couldn’t help but think of the threat Megaera had made me when last I’d seen her.
“What’s wrong?” asked Tisiphone.
“Megaera . . .”
“Threatened to kill you if you didn’t stay away from her sister?”
“Yeah,” I said. “How’d you guess? Does she do that sort of thing a lot?”
“Only when Alecto or I show any signs of interest in a new man,” said Tisiphone, “but that’s not how I knew this time. She told me about it.”
“She did?”
“Yes, but don’t worry, the threat is no longer operative.”
“That’s fine for you to say,” I said, “but does she know?”
Tisiphone nodded. “She may not be very happy about it, but she knows that she’s not to touch you. I made it very clear that if she kills you, I’ll be quite cross with her.”
“Great.” Somehow I wasn’t all that reassured.
“Ravirn?”
“Yes.”
“Since we’re already talking about difficult entanglements, I have to ask: Are you still with Cerice? Or has she gone back to House Clotho?”
“We’re not still together,” I said.
“That’s what I thought. I think I’ve come up with a better plan for how to have this conversation without all the tension and distractions.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Ravish first, talk later.”
With that astonishing Fury speed, she caught the edge of the blankets and flipped them away. Then, very deliberately, and very slowly, she climbed farther onto the bed, kneeling with her face a few inches from mine.
