“Strong winds are rare in Palantar, particularly in winter, how lucky they wait until I’m on a damn boat to kick up. It seems this winter can’t decide on what it wants, snow, rain, now wind… maybe warm sunshine next, at least here’s hoping for that.”
The ferry captain had predicted the winds would die down after nightfall, with snow overnight. The good news in that is the Shadow Elves must be hating life, being from the hot tropical jungles of the south continent, their exposure to winter must be truly biting. At least Myst hoped it was…
On the docks waiting were a group of a half dozen elves dressed in the long greyish leather coats and snug silk striped breaches of midnight blue and dark red, with the three cornered dark leather hats each with two dark red plumes. The uniform of the Marquis of Savine, the Lord High Constables private body guard.
“I wonder who they could be waiting for…,” Myst thought wryly.
As soon as the gangway was in place Myst stroad unto the dock.
One of the uniformed elves approached him, “Ser Mystros Sunstar, by order of the Lord High Constable you are detained for questioning!”
“Oh great,” he thought, then responded, “Very well Major, let's go.”
~
Kayla hurried to the changing room outside the saunas at Twilight Keep, Professor Kelaborn had sent out a last minute notice of his weekly lecture for the advanced students, you never knew when or where he would decide to talk, but as winter’s grasp tightened, the frequency of some place warm seem to increase.
Her roommate Sasha Romminas was already sitting before a locker taking off her black laced up high heel boots. She tossed them in a locker and turned around, “Kayla, would you unhook me please,” she asked.
Sasha was in a snugg satin bustier with vertical panels of dark red and black each panel was embroidered with leaf motifs in the corresponding color, she also had on a cute matching satin short skirt that sat low on her hips. Kayal worked quickly on the back eye hooks on both pieces to free her friend. Who stepped free and casually tossed the expensive outfit it into the locker, she stood there in just a pair of black fishnet stockings with black and red garters and looked back at Kayla, “You better hurry or you’ll be late… crazy old coot with his last minute notices, the wet sauna will cause havoc with my hair…”
Fortunately for her, Kayla was only wearing a white silk gown with gold accents, that was slit up to the waist on each side and had twin side cut out panels. The top of the gown crossed and looped around her neck, so all she had to do was pull the loop over her head and the whole thing fell to the floor. She had her gold sandals off and all in the locker, and a white fluffy towel around her shoulders all before Sasha had finished unrolling her fishnets.
“Hurry up slow poke,” she joked.
Sasha stopped and leaned close to her, “someone’s been awful bad… I’m so jealous!”
Kayla smiled and took the towel from her shoulders and wrapped it about her waist, “Myst stopped by the room for a couple of hours…”
Sasha, just shook her head and sighed, wrapped a towel around her own waist and together they hurried into the wet sauna.
It was like walking into the dark jungle of the Southern Continent, and not only with the moist temperature..., it appeared to them they were standing in a ruined jade temple, tropical birds and butterflies filtered between branched of massive figs, Banyans, Bedims and Kapoks trees, a soft cloud of steam was rising from the floor. The deep emerald greens mixed with bright colors of an explosion of flowers was impossibly lush, the sauna was a wonderful blend of illusion and reality to create such a vivid location. The half circle of five tiered and intricately carved stone benches was real, and Kayla guest about thirty elves had beat them there and were relaxing waiting for the lecture. Professor Kelaborn, she was glad to see was not there yet, so they may be the last of the students, but they were not late…
There was a shower disguised at a waterfall, by the entrance and both girls quickly rinsed off before finding seats.
Sasha led her up to a wide middle row of jade stone seats that had two of the big dark red cushions for them to recline on while waiting, they spread out their towels on top of them. Sasha nodded her head in the direction of a platinum blonde male Water Mage on the row below them, whose name Kayla did could not remember, “Markos maybe”, who was sitting with some upperclassmen friends.
Sasha leaned close, “Yummy, I could take a bite out of that… or just dive in the middle of them.”
A few days ago she would have agreed, but now she just shrugged and smiled back at Sasha...
Sasha completely understanding the shrug gave her a mildly dirty look, “I hate you… you know that right? You could have sent me a message to join you, or at least let me watch...”
“Thahee he hee,” Kayla laughed softly, as she sat cross legged on her towel, “I bet you do, that Xe must be building terribly for you, but for me not a drop of it…!” Not that Kayla believed that Sasha wasn't really messing around, probably with at least a half dozen other male students and teachers, she just played along instead of calling her out on it.
Sasha who had stood up and re-spread her towel out on the cushion and was now artfully appearing to not be provocatively posing, while doing just that, opened her mouth to retort.
Just then Professor Kelaborn came slowly thru the door, he moved with a stateliness that more than a millennia of life had developed, headed to a podium in the center of the room. He had on old leather sandals and a black sarong around his thin waist. His once black shoulder length hair held only a hint of its original color, now the steel gray that had replaced it was in itself turning white at the fringes. Faint lines around his eyes and mouth told all that he was an ancient and venerable elf indeed.
He cleared his throat and the room became quiet. He looked around until he spotted Kayla, he almost imperceptibly nodded and placed a finger to the side of his nose. What he was going to say was meant for her to here.
“As you all know,” he started, “we are not native to this world, it is only roughly one hundred thousand years ago, that on this world the Fey creatures appeared... When the dimension of Faerie collapsed to the dark conquest of Morgoroth the Destroyer.” He paused, the room was absolutely silent, he had evoked the memory of the terror that all elves learned was their inheritance. “The Creator,” he continued with a heavy pause, “in his mercy opened powerful dimensional gates to other words so many of his children might escape the horror and corruption…” He paused and took a sip of water from a delicate glass flute, a large emerald and sapphire colored dragon fly circled his head and the flew up to buzz about Kayla, then darted up into the faux jungle.
“As you should know, Next to the Godly magical power of creation, this dimensional teleportation is the most powerful magic we know of, and something that we mortals could, theoretically achieve. Particularly, ” he paused and looked directly at Kayla, “With a powerful artifact capable of channeling mass teleportation.”
Kayla looked up, an illusional leopard was crossing an overhead branch, “What is he telling me, and why does he want me to pass this story to Myst?” She pondered, concentrating on hearing the nuances in the information that Professor Kelaborn was imparting with his lecture.
As soon as he was finished she bounced up rushed out, not noticing most of the class watched her leave in such a rush, some curious as to her haste, most of the others simply enjoy her bouncing exit… She dashed back to her tower dorm room to compose a message to Myst, forgetting until she was floating up the magic lift to stop and change back into her clothes.
She stood at her window looking out toward Palantar he would be there by now she thought, she put her hand on her marriage torc and stroked the fine delicate gold and platinum, working its magic she concentrated on her husband's face and whispered, “The device is a powerful mass teleportation artifact capable of dimensional travel of great distances, be careful my love…”
She sat down on her bed looking out of the win
dow, “Creator, keep him safe,” she prayed.
She smiled remembering him a few days ago in Palantar his, or rather now their, apartment flat, he had come into the small galley kitchen and watched her making hor d'oeuvres of little crackers with pâté de foie gras, she could feel him standing there watching her every move, his eyes a soft caress on her naked skin… She stood up on her tiptoes to open a high cabinet and put away the tin of crackers, not because she felt the need to clean up right then, but because she knew what that delightful view of her it was affording her husband.
“”You know,” he told her admiring the view, “the reason you're cold all the time....”
“La, I have to wear clothing in public, last thing I’m going to do at home…”
He laughed, “I’m not complaining, not at all, just an observation… I much prefer you in the outfit you're not wearing now…”
She pointed to a silk ribbon she had used to tie her blonde mane into a ponytail, “She, I’m not completely naked…”
“Ah, I don’t think that will help with you being cold all the time…”
“Grab a bottle of champagne my love and a couple of flutes and we can share some pâté in your bathtub and get nice an warm!”
She carried the tray of pâté out of the kitchen and small dining room and striding thru the salon to the apartments very small bathroom, just a overhead tank commode, sink, and a old porcelain clawfoot tub that was deep and long but skinny. She had filled it earlier and turned on the magical heating coil attached below the tub that would keep the water pleasantly hot. She folded down a wire shelf designed to hold goodies for those bathing in the tub and put her tray on it, then climbed in the tub, sitting down slowly as the water was very hot.
She hung her right hand over the tub and let a flow of magic escape her finger to tease the heating element to turn it down just a tad, she didn't want to cook her husband.
He flowed her in with the champagne and two glass flutes, put them on the shelf and poured the pale gold bubbly wine, then he climbed into the other end of the tub, he raised an eyebrow at her as he sat.
She smiled “I just turned down the heat a tad…”
He handed her a flute, took his own and they chimed them together in a silent toast. Then relaxed to enjoy the wine and pâté, “It's almost like being back at the castle in Mentonferrat,” she told him.
“I was thinking the same thing, just the bath is a bit smaller…”
She laughed, “Thehehe,” in her deep throated sensual thrill of a laugh that he loved so much. It made him smile as he chewed a goose liver covered cracker.
Suddenly he reached down in the water and caught her right foot, she had been using it to tickle him… He picked it up out of the water and looked at it, she wiggled her toes at him.
“You have the prettiest feet, even for an elf…” he told her as he leaned forward to kiss and then suck on her toes.
She moaned slightly “you know that turns me on.”
He stopped, laughing so hard he almost choked. “So does the ticking you were doing with your toes under the water…”
She gave him a smile and an enigmatic shrug of coy feminine magic.
“Whatever can we do to fix that… I don't want my husband distressed, but this tub is rather narrow for water sports...”
His gaze smoldered with the heat she had turned on, “Stand up.”
She did, the water was almost up to her knees.
“Turn around.”
Happily she complied, but slowly to keep up his fire.
“Now scoot back and sit on my lap.”
She bent forward at the waist, then squatted down and using her hands on the rim of the tub, eased backwards over him, “Hummmm, like this..?
He held her hips as she got into place, “Your doing great.”
And then eased down on him,“Ah, that’s so nice…” She leaned back against his chest, as he cupped and then kneaded her breast in his strong hands and she began to gently rock back and forth...
Coming back to the present in her dorm room, she sighed, they had not splashed all the water out of the tub… but it sure was fun trying, oh how she missed him already…
~
Myst was sitting in an interrogation cell at the General Inspectorate of the Royal Constabulary at number twelve Avenue Bearn, when Kayla’s message came to him, strangely it left him feeling somewhat aroused… “That wasn't a side effect of the magic was it?” He wondered? Then he chuckled, “I bet I know what she's thinking about.” He looked around and audibly sighed...
The room was more or less dry and warm if rather boringly empty of anything but a table and some hard wooden chairs. The snowfall had turned to a wet drizzle just before they brought him into the building, it would be nasty tonight on the streets, particularly if it dropped below freezing again and everything iced up…
“Well at least I’m not in the dungeon of the Celestine Barracks or worse in the prison below the Grand Palace where they kept the insane. With the cells under the Palace of Justice blown up they must be running short of places to put suspects. The General Inspectorate building of the Royal Constabulary was certainly much more pleasant a place if you have to be arrested, no make that detained… whatever.”
The complex took up a city block, made up of a series of three and five story building built around a central courtyard. For most of the buildings the first floor was done in the heavy pale granite block so common with Imperial buildings, it was the bed brick of the upper floors that was somewhat unusual, cream or grey stone was usually used as it looked more elegant and grander...
Captain Damien Favier, Lord High Constable Caiwen Nightsong’s Adjutant came into the room. “The Emperor has had you detained on a complaint form one of his family about harassment..., we had no choice but to pick you up at the docks.”
He walked closer to Myst, “but my boss thinks you can’t very well do your job from in here.”
Myst looked at Captain Favier, noticing the Dark Gold Harp on dark red sigil of House Nightsong on his collar, Favier did not simply work for the Lord High Constable, he was personally sworn to House Nightsong and his loyalty assuredly would be to Lord Caiwen the Marquis of Savine and not the Constabulary or even the Empire.
“I’m sure your Lord is correct, he usually is I have found,” Myst answered carefully.
Favier nodded slightly, and then walked over to the table his voice lowered to a near whisper, “One of our informants reports a Shadow Elf was sighted coming out of a cycle shop on Avenue Sirius. My master needs to tread carefully, for the good of the Empire you understand…. So try not to get caught again until you can prove your case.” Saying not another word, he put a silver metal key on the table and left the room.
Myst did not trust the Lord High Constable as far as he could throw him, Caiwen Nightsong was out for only one person and only one. He was well beyond the point of being simply ruthless in his calculated ambition, a dangerously cunning master manipulator, and indeed an expert at the tactical plottings of court intrigue, they said no one better at the game, not in at least a couple generations. The only question Myst thought, “would his solving the crisis help further Nightsong‘s own plots somehow, or was this a set up to bring him or House Sunstar down?”
~
Chapter 11
Caiwen Nightsong the Marquis of Savine and Lord High Constable of the Empire of Solara, sat at the richly carved heavy oak table in his private dinning room, drinking from a silver goblet a fine Pinot Noir Grand Cru from Musigny, it tasted like liquid power and elegance…
Normally he would enjoy it more, but for the present he had work to do..., “My dear, you look lovely,” he started but she scowled, “do not fret the plan is almost complete, by this time tomorrow you shall have your rightful place…”
“And you shall be at my side Lord Caiwen as consort, I know all is well, I just hate using these… foul creatures.”
“A temporary alliance of necessity at best for what is at stake, repugnan
t and yes even immoral, but for the good of the Empire..., and they have nearly completed their usefulness, sometimes morality is relative and we must be pragmatic. I find I frequently must deal with persons I dislike, that is the nature of power.”
He raised his glass swirled the wine, watching it before taking a sip, “I have already set in motion plans to eliminate their presence. I will roast them all before this is done.” He stood and walked to the window, he clasp his hands behind his back, his fine dark leather long coat with the muted smoke etched grape leaves seem to glow from the fire light, the high formal collar blazoned with a muted version of his House's sigil.
“It is fortunate Sunstar did not see your face when you met to get the black spell pearl.”
“The damn Sunstar’s are always a nuisance.”
He turned to her, “He is a tool that I shall use, your complaint has him out of play, that has been inconvenient.” She looked marginally contrite, “But I shall rectify that shortly, while I can appreciate your initiative in that matter, in the future it would be best to check with me. Neither one of us wants that feckless bum boy Galen on the Swan Throne, do we?”
She shook her head angrily, “Detestable sodomite! He would bring the Empire to its knees, then fuck it in the ass.”
He frowned slightly at her vulgarity, “Quite so,” he murmured, then to himself, “Sad what the royal house has come to these days.”
He continued, “This will be my legacy, a secure and powerful throne for my country. This will last long after I am gone.”
She stood and walked to him, when I’m on the throne, I shall bear you a son to be your legacy!”
He nodded and smiled, “Just so, just so, but first things first. There is much still to set in motion. Let's speak no more of this for now. You should go.”
Darkness has Fallen (Elf World Saga Book 2) Page 14