The duelist 12, p.14
The Duelist 12, page 14
I hadn’t seen Arvid for what felt like weeks, not properly anyway. He’d gone with Jenner’s group to Eng, since it was the sister-Island to Om, and had been continuing to spend most of his time on the Manta ship in the harbor, since it was less loud and less stuffy than the manor of an Alemic Councilman. I was pleased to see the sloth-man was starting to feel a little more at ease here on Alem, though I suspected it had something to do with missing Nova. As a Lakuna child, she was from Om, too.
“Ah, Asher Brightwood,” Yarlow said when I entered, and he gave a short bow. His short, stubby goat horns peeked out from his graying hair, and I noticed when he bowed to me that one bore a small chip in it. I wondered for a moment how it had gotten there. “Lady Nova and Mr. Arvid were just asking me about how I made the meal they enjoyed so much at yesterday’s lunch.”
“I’ve never eaten cooked fish before!” Nova said excitedly, and she put such a fascinated emphasis on the word ‘cooked’ that I had to laugh a little.
“Did you like it?” I asked her, and she nodded eagerly.
“I was asking Yarlow if he could make some more for me, if he has time,” she said. “I like it a lot more than raw fish.”
“Y’know, where I come from, raw fish is a delicacy, if it’s prepared in a certain way,” I told the three Aventollians, and I gave a brief description of sushi. I’d had it on a handful of occasions, and some of it had been really nice, and some of it had been really not.
“Curious,” Yarlow said, and he stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I might try such a thing, if Lady Nova ever gets bored of cooked fish.”
“Never!” Nova swore, and she hugged the man cheerfully before then hugging me and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Are Zoie and Shay still sleeping?”
“For now,” I said. “And I think we should leave them for the moment. Let them wake naturally, then we can discuss what to do.”
Everyone ate a lazy breakfast, and I helped Sha-Kane sketch out some more ideas for how to reform the Council. Amaya and Sera continued to advise Vel-Rala, and in the late morning, Zoie and Shay came downstairs well-rested and eager to get planning.
“I think the best solution would be to find Kavo,” Jenner said. He and Rylan had been scouring the manor library late into the night, and Horus and Anwaar had returned from the Manta library even later. I hadn’t yet had a chance to ask them all if they’d found anything useful, but I was confident they were all up to the task. “And stop him before he ever gets to the Heart of the Spell. He will be a lot easier to find than a single drop of Moonsblood, which could be anywhere on the Island.”
“Theoretically, but he’s been very good at covering his tracks,” Horus pointed out. “He gets his underlings to do his dirty work.”
“But he’s running out of underlings,” the koala-man reasoned. “Particularly those he can trust. He betrayed his own brother to protect his interests. He’s getting to the point in his schemes where he trusts no one but himself to get the job done right.”
“You make a good point,” I said with a nod. “There’s just the question of how to find him. And when we do find him, how do we know it’s him? He’ll almost certainly be in disguise.”
“Yes, but consider his pride,” Vel-Rala said. “He’ll want everyone to know it was him who did these things. He’ll want status and luxury at every turn. So he’ll be going around as an Asher, and probably a very high-ranked one, since this is Alem.”
“Okay, that narrows it down a lot,” I agreed. “But Alem is still a big Island. Is Kavo here in Medea? Is he in another city? A tiny village?”
“Probably a city, so as to not attract too much attention,” Shay said thoughtfully. “He hasn’t found the Heart of the Spell yet, we would know. So he’s staying where he will be as inconspicuous as possible, at least for now.”
“He won’t be in Medea, though,” Amaya said. “We’d know if the Heart of the Spell was here. Vela would have sensed it, or we would have sensed Kavo.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to go on another little adventure,” I said with a wry smile. “Best to make it a smaller one, though. A huge troupe including three Councilmen would attract a lot of attention and give us away.”
“A small target group, then,” Nemis said. “I humbly offer up my services, and those of my cousin Bodin. We’re both skilled fighters, and you’ll need such skill against the Nightmare.”
“Call him Kavo, Nemis,” Bodin implored his cousin. “Don’t make the man more of a myth than he is already. But I am happy to offer up my service, Alex. Anything to keep Vela safe.”
“Well…” Nemis cringed. “I was actually thinking… maybe Vel-Rala could come with us, too.”
“What?” Bodin cried out.
“She’s the Prophetess,” the captain explained. “The only one who will Know where the Heart of the Spell is, or whether Kavo is nearby. I don’t think we should use her as bait or anything, but--”
“Using me as bait would probably be quite useful, though,” the cockatoo-woman interrupted with a shrug.
“Absolutely not,” Bodin said flatly. “I will happily go along and lay down my life for Aventoll, but Vela, you have no fighting experience. Kavo will see you’re the most vulnerable, and he’ll figure out you’re the Prophetess--”
“I agree, Vel-Rala,” I cut in as I looked at the cockatoo-woman. “It’s too dangerous for you. We need Kavo and the Order to believe Amaya is the Prophetess.”
“Does that mean you want me to come?” Amaya asked, but I shook my head.
“We could tip off that you’re not actually the Prophetess,” I said. “We need to keep up that ruse for as long as possible. Me, Bodin, and Nemis will go hunt down Kavo alone.”
“Alex--” Zoie began, but I reached over to her and clasped her hands in my own.
“This is my fight, Zoie,” I told her. “Kavo wants me. Just me. He wants to make me hurt, he wants to humiliate me. If I bring you… I’m putting you in danger, right in the firing line of his most vindictive impulses. He’s angry and desperate, and he’ll use you to hurt me, or me to hurt you. I can’t risk that. I’d never forgive myself.”
“And you think I would forgive myself if you got hurt or killed, when I could have done something to save you?” the cat-woman asked me as she frowned.
“Never blame yourself for my actions, love,” I told her, and I rubbed my thumb over her cheekbone. “But this is my fight. I have to face it-- him-- with as few weaknesses as possible. While we’re gone, the rest of you help Vel-Rala to locate the Heart of Darkness, you restructure the Council, and you see if you can get anything further out of Leda. Alright?”
Zoie sighed deeply, and her cat ears flattened back against her head, but she squeezed my hand tightly between both of her own.
“Go fight, husband,” she told me. “Defeat the Nightmare and come back to us alive.”
Chapter 9
I headed up to the master bedroom to pack a bag. I was going to need more suitable clothing for this particular journey, something I could fight in.
Most of Teivel’s old clothes fit me, since he and I had been similarly sized, but a lot of it was too grand and too flimsy to be useful. He had mountains of flowing silk shirts and stiff jackets with polished brass buttons. They were handsome, for sure, but not what I needed. These were the clothes of a Councilman, someone rich. I needed something more innocuous, and something that would be able to withstand a blade, at least a little.
“See if he has any old training uniforms,” Shay advised from behind me, and I turned sharply to see her and Amaya were both standing in the doorway with slightly sad expressions on their faces.
“Training uniforms?” I asked the phoenix-woman.
“They would be leather, and probably not too embellished, as they’re designed to be damaged in training exercises,” she explained.
“Teivel didn’t really strike me as the type to spend his time training to fight,” I remarked, but I did begin rummaging through the pile of clothes again.
“Exactly,” Shay answered. “They should be like new.”
After digging around a little more, I came up with a fitted, black leather jacket that looked barely, if ever, worn and pants to match. But when I turned to show Shay and Amaya what I’d found, they were still looking at me with those sad expressions.
“Hey,” I told them gently, and I set down the clothes and held open my arms.
Both of them moved into my embrace, and we three held each other for a long moment before anyone spoke.
“Please be careful,” Shay said at last. “Kavo… he’s unlike anything we’ve ever faced. Unlike anything you’ve ever faced.”
“He’s just another bad guy, Shay,” I told the phoenix-woman, and I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Don’t believe the myth he’s built around himself.”
“I’m not talking about the Nightmare,” she said, and she tipped her head up to look at me fiercely. “He’s a Traveler, like you. He came from your world. He’ll know any tricks you plan to play on him.”
“Just as well I’m not planning any tricks, then,” I said. “We know what he wants now. We know how to stop him from winning. We just need to find him.”
The phoenix-woman didn’t look especially convinced, but I knew there was no real way of assuaging her concern when I was going off to hunt down one of the deadliest men in Aventoll. From her perspective, I imagine she might even have felt a little abandoned since she and Zoie were both pregnant. What would happen to them if I died?
I immediately resolved to speak to Horus and Sha-Kane about that before I left. Not that I was planning to get killed by Kavo-- far from it-- but maybe it would make everyone feel a little less afraid.
“I still think we should come with you,” Amaya said. “I understand why you wouldn’t want to bring Vel-Rala, especially when she’s pregnant, but I’m an augur.”
“And pregnant or not, I’m still the Incarnate,” Shay told me as she lifted her chin. “I am Mercedes’ Will placed upon this world. We could help you, Alex.”
“I know you could,” I said to them both. “But that’s not the point. Kavo… he’s desperate. We’ve cut off several of his previously-reliable threads of power. He’s resorted to trying to psych me out, like leaving that note on the bed. He wants it to come down to just us, but if I escalate the situation, so will he. And someone will get hurt.”
“Someone could still get hurt,” Amaya pointed out. “And it could be you.”
“I know, and that’s a price I’m willing to pay if it guarantees your freedom,” I said. “I’ll die for Aventoll to be free, if that’s what it takes. Obviously, I don’t want that to happen, but if that’s the price for beating Kavo, I’ll do it.”
I could tell Amaya and Shay wanted to protest, but they knew I was right. It was a wretched thing, to stand by when someone you loved could get hurt, but it was the best way forward.
That was what made it all so difficult.
“I love you both, so damn much,” I murmured, and I tightened my arms around them. “And I will do anything and everything to make it back to you. I swear. Just take care of one another while I’m gone.”
“Zoie will fret,” Amaya sighed. “She’s already swaddled up in her mothering nest again, with Vela.”
“I expect they’ll both be spending a lot of time there, while you and Bodin are on your quest,” Shay added. “Me, too, in all likelihood.”
“As long as you have one another to rely on,” I said, and I kissed each of their foreheads.
“That’s what families are for, isn’t it?” Amaya said with a gentle smile, and when she reached up to touch my cheek, her skin was warm and sure against mine.
“I’ll come back to you,” I promised again. “If I can crawl, I’ll come back to you.”
Amaya tipped her chin up, and I leaned down to kiss her deeply, surely. After we parted, I felt Shay’s hand on my other cheek, and when she turned my face to look at her, her green eyes were sparkling with unshed tears.
“If there is any shred of a chance that this is the last time we see each other, give us something to remember you by, love,” she said.
It was almost a plea, which nearly broke my heart, and when I kissed the phoenix-woman, she tasted like fire and retribution and sorrow.
The two women guided me over to the large bed and sat on either side of me, and as Shay kissed me desperately, Amaya left a trail of kisses down my neck and along my shoulder before she began unbuttoning my shirt.
The two of them moved in tandem to shrug my shirt off my shoulders, and I finally found the will to pull away from Shay’s mouth to catch Amaya’s chin and kiss her, too.
“I want to see you both, too,” I murmured when I pulled away from the oryx-woman’s lips, and she grinned at me as her gaze slid over to Shay almost hungrily.
I imagined my expression looked similar to Amaya’s, because when Shay saw both of us staring at her, she blushed bright red, and the flush continued all the way down her collar.
Amaya crawled over to her on the bed and helped the phoenix-woman slide the straps of her yellow dress off her shoulders, and the silky cloth slipped down off the phoenix-woman’s body to puddle on the floor, as if it had been made of water.
The barest swell was visible over Shay’s stomach, and I slid off the bed to crouch before her on the floor. Once I was eye level with her belly, I carefully, reverently placed my hands on her skin.
“What was that you said, Maya?” I asked quietly as I stared at the smooth skin and the slight roundness of it. “About women being made in Mercedes’ image? Being divine life-givers?”
Above me, Shay flushed even deeper.
“I’m not divine,” she said. “I just--”
“You’re the Incarnate,” I interrupted. “And the mother of my child. You made a baby, Shay. We made a baby, our baby. How is that… how are you not the most spectacular thing?”
“He’s right,” Amaya purred in the phoenix-woman’s ear as I leaned forward and kissed Shay’s stomach. She gave a small squeak, and I smiled against her skin before I kissed again, and again, until she was almost giggling.
“Stop that!” my phoenix wife said through a laugh. “It tickles!”
“Oh, well…” I smiled up at her dangerously. “That won’t do.”
I ducked my head and pressed a kiss to her left knee, then her right, and then I slowly began to pry her legs open. I felt the muscles in her thighs twitch as she realized my intentions, and her giggles shifted into the slow, heavy pants of anticipation.
“Alex…” she murmured, and I looked up at her, at her lidded eyes and her hands fisted in the bedclothes, at Amaya smiling coyly over the phoenix-woman’s shoulder.
With her wings spread, and with how her golden feathers caught the light of the late morning, Shay looked more like a goddess than ever.
“Divine,” I told her firmly, and I pressed a kiss to her inner thigh.
Shay gave a small moan, and she clapped her hand over her mouth at once. Before I could reach up to pry it away, Amaya had done it for me, and I looked up to see the oryx-woman sitting beside Shay and kissing her neck.
“I wonder,” Amaya mused idly. “How sensitive are your wings?”
“I… I don’t know,” the phoenix-woman answered, and then her eyes went wide, and she gave a full-body shiver as Amaya reached out to run a finger along the joint of Shay’s wing, where feathers met skin.
“Does that answer your question?” I asked the oryx-woman, and she grinned at me mischievously.
“That’s not fair,” Shay complained with a pout. “You’re teasing me, the both of you.”
“Of course we are,” I answered frankly, and I leaned down and pressed my tongue against her clit.
Shay made a choked-off gasping noise, and I knew she felt the urge to cover her mouth again, but wisely, she resisted and kept her hands fisted tight in the bedsheets. Beside her, Amaya ran her fingers along the joint of Shay’s wings again, and the phoenix-woman shuddered each time as her back arched beautifully. She truly was a sight to behold, and she panted and moaned as I coaxed her into a climax. She seemed to shine with light. Her wings were glittering in the sun, and her skin was almost glowing.
“Alex--” she panted, and whatever she’d been intending to say, I never knew, because she cut herself off with another moan, and one of her hands tangled in my hair.
I licked at her harder as I began to feel the tell-tale tremors in her muscles, and I looked up to see her head tipped back and her bottom lip caught between her teeth. I ached with how much I wanted her, but there was no way I was going to stop what I was doing right now, not when Shay looked like that.
Beside her, Amaya stroked Shay’s cheek, and in a moment of desperate passion, the phoenix-woman untangled her other hand from the sheets and pulled Amaya’s lips to her own. She kissed the augur-woman messily as I felt her wind tighter, and tighter, and tighter--
Shay came with a shuddering moan, and I felt her legs clench hard around my head as she rode out the waves of her climax. I kept licking at her gently, and I coaxed her through her orgasm until she finally went limp and fell back onto the bed with her chest heaving for breath.
“Beautiful,” Amaya whispered, and she pressed a final kiss to Shay’s cheek before she turned to look at me while still kneeling on the floor. “You looked like you enjoyed that almost as much as she did.”
“So do you,” I said with a grin, and I crawled back onto the bed so my body was bracketed above Amaya’s. One of my hands slid up her leg, under the layers of her augur uniform, and sure enough, I found her almost dripping wet.
Amaya had been so bone-tired yesterday that she hadn’t bothered to even undress before she’d fallen asleep, so that was the real reason why she was wearing the white robes, but even so a part of me wondered if she’d kept it on because she-- like me-- had imagined me unwrapping her like a gift.
I certainly wasn’t going to complain now that I had the opportunity.
As Shay caught her breath, I unfastened the pin on Amaya’s shoulder and slowly began to peel away the diaphanous layers of her white robes.
