“You keep saying ‘lord.’ Perhaps I am misunderstanding your language. Does that word imply feminine?”
“How could a lord be anything but a lady?”
That did explain a great many things, while casting even more in a dubious light. Tethiel was a Feaster but also an illusionist and a deceiver. He must’ve lied to the matriarchs of this city, in the worst way. They thought they were dealing with a woman. In truth, they were breaking their vows.
He always did this. His treacheries might end when he stopped his Feasting, yet Hiresha could hardly trust him to keep that promise. She might have to break off this engagement. He had done enough harm already to this city.
The Purest still clasped Hiresha’s arms. “If you prefer, I will call her Lady Tethiel. You are the Lady of Gems, are you not?”
“Indeed,” Hiresha said. “Would the Purests object to my marrying Tethiel? You would be invited to the ritual, of course.”
“All of the city would celebrate. Too often, women from foreign lands have no understanding of Purity. They bind themselves to the other.”
“You mean, they wed the children of Strife?”
“Yes, marriage must only be between a woman and another woman.”
This was too much. Hiresha might explode in laughter or in screams. She would be marrying not only Tethiel but his lies.
“The City of Gold would welcome such a harmonious wedding as yours and Lady Tethiel’s.”
“Wonderful,” Hiresha said. “I cannot anticipate anything going wrong.”
Hiresha had to question if she should’ve agreed to come to this particular street.
“You’ll not regret tonight.” Miss Barrows was bouncing with excitement. She had adopted the local dress and gone bare-chested. “Or even if you do, you shouldn’t. Soon you’ll be a married woman with no chance at all for any wiggle-wiggle.”
The bees had all gone into their hives for the night. The air was clear and sparkling. The ocean breeze rolled salty warmth over Hiresha’s back. The jewels in her dress were cool as they slid against her skin. Perfumes wafted both spicy and sweet.
Bird of paradise flowers lined the boulevard with their fiery crests of orange and red. The women had stronger aromas and brighter colors. One wore a necklace of daylight-blue feather plume. Another flaunted a dress fashioned after an orchid, with fans of pink silk and a triangular collar.
“The custom is to wear dresses at night,” Hiresha said to her half-nude friend. “Your ignorance is on full display.”
“Feels great.”
How eerie to see people outside at night. Women laughed and danced in a shaking back step. They should’ve been scared silent and ducking into the nearest doorways. These citizens didn’t hide from the darkness and its Feasters. Tethiel must’ve wished Hiresha to see this, what the Lands of Loam might become.
Miss Barrows waved Hiresha down a row of shops. “Heard of the best place for the lengthwise jig, if you catch my meaning, for some midnight refreshment.”
“The disadvantage of being lucid is that I catch all your meanings.” This street catered to indulgences, much like the Lotus District in Oasis City, though Hiresha had preferred dozing in the capital’s library. Even if she discovered nothing engaging, time with Miss Barrows could never be calculated as a complete waste.
Most every woman turned to look at Hiresha as well as at her procession of amethysts. The women touched her as she passed, stroked her arm, and hugged her. It was their way. Hiresha gave the curative crystals to those in need.
Those enchantments were only the beginning. The blights would return unless Hiresha redesigned the city’s sewers. The men shouldn’t be forced to walk through them, spreading grime. Elevating the men would improve the lives of the women as well. Hiresha would need to convince the Purests without mentioning men directly. Maybe it was not her place to try. Certainly she would not risk it before the wedding.
“Here we are.” Miss Barrows stopped in front a building painted with a design of a serpentine creature with wings of blue and green. It flew above honeycomb. Or perhaps the hexagons were a representation of the city.
Hiresha refused to be prodded through the door. “That is the Winged Flame, the dragon god.”
“Makes sense.” Miss Barrows slapped her hands together and rubbed them. “A good place for lancing the dragon. Ho-ho!”
“Perhaps the phallic interpretation is the correct one, yet it is curious to select a conquering god for a house of pleasure.”
“Glad to hear you’re warming to—hold on. Wait for Ol’ Janny.”
Hiresha strode inside. Human odors washed over her along with over-sweetened perfumes. A disrobed couple fondled each other on a couch. A boy with an oiled body offered her a tray of orange caterpillars, of all things. They were still alive. Their fuzz undulated.
The establishment’s owner would be the one with the most professional false smile. Hiresha approached her.
“Lady of Gems, welcome to the Dragon’s Fire.” The owner’s grin became real. Her lips shone bright red around the greenness of jade teeth. “What a pleasure to see you’re not trying to be another Pureborn. You’re a woman who enjoys her flights.”
“In the strict sense.”
“Now how would you like your joy?” The owner lifted Hiresha’s hand and licked the gemstones on her palm. They flickered, and the owner’s eyes widened.
“You can sate my curiosity,” Hiresha said. “The mural outside depicts the Winged Flame?”
“… Yes.”
“Did the dragon come to this city with the Dominion’s army?”
“The Winged Flame isn’t only a god of Strife but also love.” The owner guided Hiresha into a courtyard with a pool. Fish the colors of topazes swam around a man and woman in the act of intercourse. “The night the dragon swooped low over the city, every woman woke wet and aching.”
“That is unexpected.”
“Every girl had her first kiss, didn’t matter with who.”
Whom. Hiresha didn’t correct her.
“Every woman had her flower dusted by one man after another.” The owner gazed from Hiresha to the man and woman slapping against each other. She led Hiresha to another room, this one with a young woman dancing on a bed of lily petals. “You can bet the Purests were writhing over each other.”
“The dragon came to this city only once?”
“And nine months after, everyone was having a baby.”
This didn’t sound like a dragon of bloodlust as much as general passion. Hiresha would have to learn the whole truth. She shouldn’t rely on only the word of this madam.
The owner nodded to the dancer. “Isn’t she lovely? A Purest would sell the last of her honey just to kiss her.”
Designs of butterflies covered her belly and thighs. “Her tattoos are well proportioned.”
“Would you like any green honey?” The owner rubbed Hiresha’s hand while taking her back to the entrance room. She waved to the plate of caterpillars. “Taste a crawler, and all your worries will flow away.”
The insects likely secreted an intoxicant. A tufted head peeked from the lips of a lounging woman. Her thumb stuffed it back inside.
“I’ll not partake,” Hiresha said, “yet Miss Barrows will pay you for your time.”
“Wait.” Miss Barrows bounded out of the courtyard. “You’re not leaving yet. You promised—”
“Only to visit,” Hiresha said. “I have.”
“Trust me, you need to get your spelunking in now. All the fun of marriage ends at the wedding.”
“That seems incorrect.”
“You’ll change your mind when you see the size of this.” Miss Barrows pushed a young man forward. He was nude with an erect phallus. “Well, what do you say to that?”
“Have a crystal.” Hiresha plucked an amethyst from the air and gave it to him.
Back on the street, Miss Barrows asked, “You really didn’t get so much as a tickling from anything in there, did you?”
“Yo
u can stay if you wish,” Hiresha said.
Miss Barrows waved her hand as if shooing away a fly. “The men were too girly for my tastes. Guess you spend all your time thinking about undressing Tethiel. Of kissing him—”
Hiresha began to force Miss Barrows’ mouth shut by Attracting her teeth together. No, that would be ungracious. Hiresha only lifted a finger. “Hush. I’m not yet certain how to handle the situation of Tethiel’s gender.”
“What?” Miss Barrows lowered her voice and hunched over with a smile that shouted collusion. “You think he’s really a she?”
“No.” Hiresha had seen him unconscious. He had been dying. She had pulled off his coat, and his chest had been covered with torture scars. There could be no mistaking his proportions, his jaw, the contour of his throat, the deepness of his voice. He was a man.
And a master illusionist. Hiresha could be certain of nothing.
“I think it unlikely,” Hiresha said.
She imagined herself with Tethiel between jeweled bedposts, with silk sheets that felt like mist. He would kiss her. Tingles ran down her neck. He would touch her. Every finger would be a pinprick against her skin. He would undress her. She would be as close as any woman dared to the Lord of the Feast.
Then they could, in theory, couple as had the men and women in the house of pleasure. Yes, she expected it would be an interesting exploration of sensation. His magic would make it an original experience, whereas with another man it would seem like so much sweaty repetition.
“It might be wrong of me to ask you about a certain particular,” Hiresha said.
“Those are the only questions worth asking.” Miss Barrows paid a vender for a basket of honeyed almonds.
“Did you desire other men, while engaged to your husband?”
The vendor had piercings on her cheeks covered by lustrous beetles. She had started at the question, and the insect legs jiggled.
Hiresha guided Miss Barrows away.
Her friend sniffed a honey almond. “Commitment makes you want everyone else more.”
“And you still married?”
“Sometimes you have to marry in a hurry, you know.”
Hiresha stopped, and for an instant, everyone on the street moved with eager intent except for her. “I think desiring sex may be beyond me.”
“Buttersnakes! You were just too tired to be eager. Now you should try it.”
“I have tried the proverbial it.”
“Did not.” Almonds scattered out of the basket as Miss Barrows spun around. “You did? When?”
“In another world.”
“Crocodile shit! What was it like?”
“Interesting and intense, as an original experience, yet I can't fathom repeating it,” Hiresha said. “The world abounds with the fascinating, thrives with wonder, and yearns for innovation. I’ve already spent too long abed.”
Miss Barrows heaved a sigh.
“I’m sorry if I disappointed you at the Dragon’s Fire. I know you meant well.”
“Surprised to have gotten you through the door.” Miss Barrows licked her fingers while peering at Hiresha. “You’ve changed. Used to be as prickly as a hung-over porcupine.”
“Scarcely anything could upset me now.” Amethysts spun around Hiresha’s hand in ellipses. “Every moment is a marvel.”
Not even the discovery of a new personal anomaly could phase her. She had no need to measure her desires against other women’s sexual proclivities. More concerning was Tethiel’s probable masculinity. Because of it, the perfect place in this world for their wedding may be an impossibility.
Beyond Hiresha’s glow, firefly lanterns lit the street with a green fluorescence. The bugs flickered and whirled within glass balls. Women’s dresses turned dark in the glow only to bloom red or pink again in the shops’ candlelight.
“This is a smashing city for a wedding.” Miss Barrows popped one of the honeyed nuts into her mouth. “Marriage was the worst ten years of my life, but glad you’re going through with it.”
“How could that possibly follow?” Hiresha levitated an almond out of her friend’s fingers and ate it first.
“Only opposed to marriage for me. Other women should get locked. Not fair otherwise.”
“Is that so? Then I shan’t regret bringing you to this establishment.” Hiresha lifted Miss Barrows off the ground and towed her to a building with the sign of a black triangle.
The mural moved. The three-sided figure was a maze of thorny lines and rosettes. The pattern crept over the wall, expanding then ebbing. The design changed. Its labyrinth reshaped itself. One could become lost staring, yet Hiresha pulled Miss Barrows in before she could make sense of it. They passed two women on their way out. They were shivering and cackling at each other.
The floor was covered with drippings of red-wax candles. Incense made Hiresha short of breath, and her heart beat faster. The smoke parted around a girl holding a mirror portal. Its greasy silver reflected Hiresha, yet a different person accompanied her. The reflection twisted her expectations. Behind Hiresha’s shoulder lurked Tethiel, who wore a red dress.
Chills slashed down Hiresha’s side, closest to where Tethiel would be standing if he were more than a shadow in a mirror. She could turn to look, yet he wouldn’t be there. The polished silver showed illusions cast by the Feaster girl.
“Mother!” Minna jerked her eyes away.
Miss Barrows covered her breasts. “Minny, what are you doing on this continent?”
“It’s Minara.” She stuck out her chin. Her veil was off, and tonight her face was bone white.
“She’s here at Tethiel’s bidding.” Hiresha pressed the mirror face down. “Minara, people are coming to you hoping to be frightened?”
“Weird, huh?” Minara’s grin was full of sharp teeth. “Only hard part is not frightening them too much.”
“To death, you mean?” Hiresha asked.
Minara’s expression collapsed to a trembling flatness. “The lord isn’t forgiving.”
“He shouldn’t be.” Hiresha nudged Miss Barrows.
Miss Barrows called over her shoulder to her daughter. “I’ll see you later, young woman, when you’re off work, in the daytime, in full sunlight.”
“Mother!”
They left the building under Tethiel’s mark. His plan of turning predators into shopkeepers could work. They could open every night. Only Tethiel’s mastery allowed him to cast minor illusions at day. If gender qualified as such, he could’ve been concealing it all along.
Hiresha recreated the scene with Tethiel in the bed silks, only this time with him a woman. It seemed equivalent. Tethiel’s magic would be the same.
Miss Barrows slammed a wax coin onto a vendor’s table. “Give me your strongest drink.”
Hiresha Attracted stray broken glass from the street. She tossed the green shards out of the way into an empty jug behind where Miss Barrows waited.
The rotund woman turned on her. “Surprise me with my own children, will you?” She blew out her lips. “Maybe I’m not the most doting mother, but after you’ve had four, you can’t keep track of their every fart.”
The vendor handed her a cup. Miss Barrows took a swig then spit sprayed. She wiped her mouth. “What’s this?”
“Pomegranate extract,” Hiresha said. She twirled a finger, and the droplets spun midair then floated back into the cup.
“Where’s the liquor?”
The vendor spread her hands. She had painted moths on her palms. “No alcohol in the City of Gold. I have crawlers.”
“This is a terrible place to get married.” Miss Barrows stamped, and her whole body rippled.
Hiresha took her away and leaned close to her ear. “If we’re smuggling in a groom, we could do the same for drinks.”
“Aww! You’re a true friend for all of being an old statue. Want to share a snake? I mean to eat. That is, a cooked one.”
They bought a meal of smoked viper basted in peanut sauce. It was thoroughly edible.
“Easy on the tongue.” Miss Barrows sucked the juices off her fingers. “That reminds me. You should leave the wedding banquet to Tethiel. Those Feasters know how to lay a spread.”
“Excepting that, as I understand it, they’ve lost all natural sense of taste.”
“And you’ve never had it to begin with. Trust me, ‘least the meal won’t be boring as raising children. Lucky we won’t find any of the selfish snots in here.”
Miss Barrows leaned into an establishment. Steam wafted out. Women lay on slabs of slick stone while being massaged. Miss Barrows turned back to Hiresha.
“We’re due a good rubbing. Oh, but you don’t like being touched at all?”
“I never said that.” The heat of the place was already soaking into Hiresha’s skin. “I could abide this, as long as you’re paying.”
“What? It’s your turn.”
“You may be amused to hear, Miss Barrows, that you are now wealthier than I.”
“You gristle-hip liar! What about your diamonds then?”
“Those are priceless.” Hiresha left her dress suspended in the air and lay down for the massage. “All my other assets I had to leave behind in the Empire.”
“How’re you paying for the wedding then?”
“Through Tethiel, I should hope.” Hiresha’s muscles tensed.
The woman spreading coconut oil over her blinked down at Hiresha’s piercings. “Shouldn’t I touch these?”
“Press them the hardest.”
Hiresha had settled into the rhythm of the massage in time for her calm to be shattered by a scream.
The wail was choked off, yet it had been from Minara. Hiresha knew it with boundless certainty. She flew into her dress and then leaped across the street.
Minara had been seized. She had been skewered against the wall with six-inch nails. One Bright Palm set a third spike against Minara’s heart. Another glowing woman lifted a mallet.
Hiresha brushed them away. She pulled the nails from Minara’s neck and leg. Enchantments held the wounds closed. She would live.
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