I realized my mouth had fallen open when she giggled, and her hungry, pleading expression suddenly changed back to a naughty grin.
“I can’t cover myself with clothes, either,” she went on, like she hadn’t just been putting on a performance worthy of a crack whore working for her fix. “For some reason Master thinks that will keep me in my room, where I won’t meet any other men. I can’t say no, you see, so any man I meet can have his way with me however he likes.”
“Seriously?” I choked.
“Yes. It’s so terrible,” she said breathlessly. “Just imagine, at any moment some huge, deadly warrior might just grab me by the throat and bend me over the nearest table. Or, there could be two of them, and they might not be satisfied to take turns.”
That image was hard to resist. But she was just trying to get to me, and if I got myself caught up in her schemes there was no telling what would happen to me. Women are at their most dangerous when they’re pretending to be helpless.
My coven binding made it a lot easier to keep my brain engaged, instead of getting sucked in by her aura of slutty sensuality. I couldn’t do anything with her no matter what I wanted, and the magic enforcing that rule made her charms a lot less effective than they otherwise might have been. So instead of taking the bait, I managed to gather my wits and make a halfway intelligent reply.
“As long as you’re fantasizing, why not three of them? What do they call that? Airtight?”
Alright, it wasn’t all that intelligent. But teasing her back seemed like a decent move, and her reaction confirmed the guess.
She giggled. “These grunting barbarians don’t have a word for that, dear. Why, they don’t even have proper names. My owner of the week always seems to be called Hnng or Urrg or Grmph, like their mothers were still in labor when they had to come up with a name. I can’t be bothered to keep track, so I just call them all Grunt.”
“I bet the elves get a laugh out of that.”
“I do try to be amusing,” she said. “A girl who gets given away to a new master every week learns to play to the crowd.”
“I suppose so. How does that work, anyway?”
“Oh, they strip me naked and put me in the stocks in the middle of Judgement Square,” she explained, with a frightened look on her face. “Can you imagine? Me, securely bound and bent over, exposed to anyone who wants to use me, in the middle of a public square? There’s always a crowd gathered to watch. Then my current master hangs my command ring on a hook above my head, and accepts challenges from anyone who wants to claim me from him.”
She lost the scared look, and shivered in excitement. “All those deadly gods of war used to fight over me every week. It was so exciting! Sometimes the bastards would even kill each other over me, and all I had to do was smile and wag my butt a little to egg them on. But the real gods of Asgard have long since given in to the nagging of their wives, and stopped coming. These days it’s just their servants and grandsons who fight over me, and no one ever manages to hold on to me for more than a week.”
She hesitated for a moment, and went on. “Of course, none of them are wizards.”
Oh, so that’s what she wanted.
“Pass,” I said.
She gave me an astonished look. “What? What do you mean, pass?”
“I’m not interested,” I told her. “I already have four wives, a grove of dryads, a couple of demigoddesses and enough hopeful maids, dark elves, wolf girls and wizardesses hanging around to fill an Emperor’s harem. My dance card is full.”
“But they aren’t me!” She spluttered. “Look at me! Have you ever seen breasts so round and full, or hair so long and rich? What woman could hope to compare?”
I chuckled. “You’re a Greek goddess, that’s for sure. Vain as fuck, and full of trouble.”
Her eyes flashed dangerously. “Do not provoke me, mortal!”
I leaned back in my seat, and casually took a drink from my tankard of beer. “Hey, you started it. Of course my girls can’t compare to you on looks, Aphrodite. But they also don’t have a thousand years of simmering hatred to work out. I’m not surprised to see you making fools of the Aesir after the way they’ve treated you, but can you really say you wouldn’t do the same to anyone else who holds your leash?”
“So the great Daniel Black is too cowardly to face a woman’s wiles?” She said scornfully.
I shrugged. “You’re not worth the trouble.”
Her face turned red, and for a moment I thought she was actually going to explode. But then the fire went out of her. She sagged, and looked down at the table.
“So you’re just going to leave me here?”
“Ah, so we’re switching to the damsel in distress act? Let me see if I’ve got this one right. You’re really just a helpless, innocent woman being abused by these horrible men, and getting back at them as best you can. But if some kind, selfless knight in shining armor were to ride in and gallantly rescue you from your chains you’d be oh, so very grateful. Why, you’d feed him secret information, and help him with his schemes, and no doubt you’d be so overcome by his saintly purity that you’d fall hopelessly in love and swear to be true to him forever.
“All of which will last until the poor fool manages to get those chains off of you, or until you decide he isn’t useful anymore. Then you destroy everything he cares about, and he dies in some poetically horrible fashion just after you break his heart one last time by letting him know that you’re responsible for it all. Probably at the hands of your next tool, who is convinced that he’s rescuing you from a terrible fate and you’ll be eternally grateful for his help.”
She huffed. “Well, at least you’re not stupid. It’s surprising what fools most wizards are.”
“Not really. Humans only have room for so much brainpower, so if a man is really good at one thing that usually comes at the expense of something else. Wizards are good at figuring out complicated abstract logic problems, but we usually give up a lot of social skills for that talent.”
“Apparently not always,” she said sourly.
“I’m cheating,” I told her. “Oh, and by the way, there are several different ways that I could free you if I thought it was a good idea. Assuming you actually want to be free, as opposed to just having a way to escape Asgard before everyone here dies.”
“Do you think Loki would kill me?” She scoffed. “The only thing I’m in danger of is a good ravishing.”
“Unless Gaea finds you first,” I pointed out. “Do you think she isn’t ready to get rid of a potential rival? She’s bringing some of the Great Beasts with her, too, and I bet they’re hungry after being locked in Tartarus for a few thousand years. But hey, if you want to take your chances that’s up to you. I’m sure you must have an exit plan all lined up by now.”
“As if I hadn’t thought of that long ago,” she scoffed. “But suppose I play along. What terrible price do you mean to demand for my freedom, wizard?”
I shook my head. “I’m not a Byzantine schemer like you, Aphrodite. I didn’t arrange to be shanghaied to Asgard, and I certainly had no idea you were going to be here tonight. I don’t have anything in particular in mind, and I’m not crazy about getting tangled up in your schemes either. But I’m not completely unsympathetic, so I’m letting you know the option is there if you decide you want to work something out. Just keep in mind that I’m not interested in getting knifed in the back, so I’m not going to make any deals with you unless I think you’re being at least halfway honest with me.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, then. I sipped at my beer, and alternated between studying her and watching the dancers. There was a new act on stage, another pair of blonde beauties fondling each other as they danced. They looked alike enough to be sisters, although one seemed a bit older than the other. Their dance moves were amazing, and the whole act was as hot as anything I’d seen on the internet. But it was also crude and tasteless, not something I would have expected from elves.
I looked back to fin
d that Aphrodite had followed my gaze, and was watching the performance with a smug little smile of cruel satisfaction on her lips.
“You want me to extend my trust to you,” she said slowly. “To bargain with you in good faith, and keep to my word as you keep to yours. Do you know what happened the last time I did that, Daniel?”
“No, that isn’t a story I’ve heard,” I said.
“It was just after Olympus fell. The gods of Asgard burned the homes of the Dodecatheon, and sated their lusts on our nymphs and vestal virgins. But victory, rape and pillage wasn’t enough for them. They held a farce of a trial where they held Loki responsible for the war, and sentenced him to be bound beneath the earth for all eternity. Then their lustful eyes fell on me, and they decided to take what I would not give freely in the guise of punishment.
“Freyr and Freyja objected, for they knew my only crime was letting a crafty god seduce me away from a husband I hated. But it would have cost them too much influence to stop the trial outright, so instead Freyja convinced me to play at contrition and throw myself on the mercy of the Aesir. She promised me that all I had to do was serve a short sentence, long enough for tempers to cool, and then she would see me released and give me a new home among the Vanir.”
She fell silent, watching the dancers. The younger one was half naked now, gyrating to the beat. The older one playfully chased her around the stage with a pair of nipple clamps in her hands, pretending to try to put them on her partner. Apparently the Vanir knew their kinks.
I used the moment to dredge up what I could remember about the deities she’d mentioned. Freyr was the leader of the Vanir if I remembered right, a god of war and virility. Freyja was his sister, a goddess of beauty and fertility. But unlike Aphrodite she was supposed to be a powerful war goddess too, and no one in Asgard wanted to be on her bad side.
“What happened?” I finally asked.
“After I was safely bound and collared Odin had me locked in the public stocks for six months, for any passing man or woman to use as they pleased. By the time that was over the goddesses of Asgard had nothing but scorn for me, and made no protest when he started loaning me out like a party favor. One day Freyja walked in on me with her brother. I hardly had a choice in the matter, but she grew furious with me for ‘corrupting’ him, and declared that she would gladly leave me in bondage forever as punishment.”
“Harsh,” I judged.
“She was jealous,” Aphrodite spat. “The two-faced bitch has lusted after her own brother since before Rome was founded, but she can’t even admit it to herself. She’s convinced that no woman is good enough to be his lover, and she hates me for having what she can’t.”
“Typical. But not exactly something you’d have to worry about with me. It’s not like I have a brother to lust after.”
“Too bad. But the story doesn’t end there, Daniel. Freyja was always so proud of her people, the Vanir. Especially the women, and even I can admit that there was much to be proud of. They were strong and beautiful, bold in battle and skilled in many crafts. But their rarest virtue was that they were bold and passionate in bed, yet virtuous and discriminating in the bestowal of their charms.”
On stage, the older elf had caught the younger one and attached the clips to her nipples. There were little weights hanging from them, and a slender golden chain that connected them both to a leash. Now the younger one kept pulling away in her dance, only for the older one to reel her back in with the leash.
I looked at the stage, turned back to Aphrodite, and raised an eyebrow.
Her smile reminded me of a shark. “Oh, yes, this is all my work. The sacred dances they once showed only to their beloved husbands, turned into a tawdry public display for any who care to watch. The artful sensual skills they once honed out of love, now being sold for a handful of silver. The maidens who once spent their youth weaving a fate of eternal love for themselves now compete daily to see who can become the most shameless slut. They scar their hearts with a thousand meaningless affairs, until the love their ancestors treasured is entirely beyond them.
“And look at their men! Do you see them leaping up to defend the honor of their women, and guard them from the eyes and groping paws of the humans they once despised? They wouldn’t dare. They’re like beaten dogs, begging for scraps of attention from women who won’t give them the time of day. They learn to make pretty clothes or play an instrument to be close to their women, only to watch them chase after the hairy human brutes who live for the art of war.”
She leaned closer, and lowered her voice conspiratorially. “They’ll never be able to compete, and it’s their own fault. Long ago the Vanir devised an enchantment that women can cast on themselves to make sure they get full satisfaction from a man, and another that lets them avoid unwanted pregnancies. But Maiden’s Delight makes a big cock feel so much better than an average one, and humans are much bigger than elves. All I had to do was convince them that they shouldn’t feel guilty about indulging themselves.”
I realized I was staring at her. “You set all of that up somehow?”
“I had a great deal of time to work,” she said, still sounding smug. “But don’t think me some abuser of the innocent. There was hardly a man in Alfheim who didn’t rape me when he had the chance, and the women who weren’t jealous only thought it was funny to see a foreign goddess brought so low. Well, look who’s laughing now. They wallow in their corruption, and thank me for the privilege of destroying themselves. There hasn’t been a child born in Alfheim in thirty years, and she may well have been the last. Right up there on stage, putting on a depraved show with her own mother.”
Aphrodite turned her gaze back to me, her eyes glittering with malice. “So don’t think that you can betray me and walk away, wizard. If I choose to bargain with you, and you wrong me, I shall do worse to you and yours.”
I took another sip of my drink in an effort to hide my nervousness. Note to self, Aphrodite is a fucking lunatic. Not that she didn’t have good reasons to be a little nuts, but once you go down the psycho road it tends to become a habit. If she got half a chance she might screw me over just because she’d gotten used to doing it, even if it hurt her own cause in the long run.
“Noted,” I said, as calmly as I could. “I expected as much, but you’ve made yourself clear. Now it’s my turn.”
I pulled out the Devouring Rod, and laid it on the table.
Aphrodite’s eyes went wide, and her skin turned white as a sheet. She cringed away from the enchanted weapon.
“Where did you get that?” She demanded.
“From Odin,” I told her. “I’m fixing it for him. And no, I’m not one of the men who made the Sunspire, whatever the Lightbringers may think. But I know their secrets.”
Her brow furrowed as she recovered from her shock, and the obvious questions began piling up. “Who are you?” She demanded.
“You can ask my patron that, when you meet her,” I said. “But that isn’t something to talk about here.”
I picked up the rod, and toyed with it as I spoke. Aphrodite’s nervousness returned in a hurry, and she stared at it like a mouse staring down a snake. It was still broken, of course, but she didn’t know that.
“I don’t have a long, interesting story like yours,” I said pleasantly. “Just a few boring little comments about my personal philosophy. You see, I’m basically a simple man. I just want to take care of my girls, build interesting enchantments, and be left alone. So it’s always a problem for me when I get caught up in the plots of some scheming mastermind who can engineer the downfall of a civilization with just a few words whispered in the right ears here and there.
“The obvious answer would be to just kill people like that right away, the moment I find out about them.”
Aphrodite flinched, and I could see beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead.
“But that would just make every schemer in the world my enemy, which isn’t a healthy situation to be in. So instead I’ve adopted a simple stra
tegy I call tit for tat. As long as you seem to be dealing in good faith, and I don’t think you’re secretly working against me, I’ll be completely honest and straightforward with you. We can trade favors whenever the need arises, and walk away with a mutual benefit every time.
I put the rod down, and leaned forward to look her in the eye. “But the moment I catch you trying to screw me over, that’s it. I won’t mess around with asking for explanations, and give you a chance to weave some artful lie to convince me it was all a big mistake. I’ll just assume that if there’s one betrayal I spotted there were a hundred others I didn’t, and I now have a deadly enemy who is far too clever to take chances with. The only intelligent response in that situation is to strike as hard as you can as quickly as you can arrange it, and put an end to them before they realize that you’re on to them.”
She licked her lips. “Would you really use… that… on me, Daniel?”
“I showed you the rod to make it clear that I’m not making idle threats,” I told her. “I don’t approve of the things they were used for, and I’d prefer not to go down that road myself. But it isn’t my only option, if I ever find myself in that situation.”
I put the rod away. Aphrodite relaxed a little with the Atlantean weapon out of sight, but only a little.
“I see,” she said. “Well, it has been an interesting discussion, but I’m afraid my time is almost up. I’m liable to be missed if I remain here much longer, and it wouldn’t do to make my current master suspicious. Perhaps I’ll contact you again in a few days, when we’ve had a chance to consider matters.”
Chapter 17
I kept it together until I made it to Moon Ghost Hall, after a short flight across the city. But the moment I stepped through the door to my suite Alanna abandoned her wooden shape, leaving pieces of metal armor to clatter across the floor as she pulled me down into a fierce kiss. She was naked, bare breasts and thighs rubbing against my skin beneath the entangling embrace of my tabard, and her lips were hot against mine. I turned and pressed her against the inside of the door, slamming it shut before hiking her up so I could feast on her breasts.
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