“Couldn’t stay away,” Vaal ended for me. “Which of us brought you closer, Haru? He thinks I did. That’s why he’s giving you the thunderstorm stare. Isn’t that so, Intana?” He nipped Intana’s shoulder.
“Fuck off,” Intana said. He jerked his torso forward. Vaal dragged him back in, tight enough to force the breath wheezing out of Intana’s lungs.
“There you have it,” Vaal answered. His gaze shot to me again. “He thinks you came closer for me, but we know better. Don’t we, Haru?”
Did we?
Vaal slipped a hand beneath Intana’s thigh and dragged the leg up until He had the back of the knee caught within the crook of His arm. The view He gave me—my shaft jerked in the air, and where my moisture beaded up, the breeze left a chill kiss.
“He has a pretty hole, doesn’t he?” Vaal said.
“Yes,” I answered and watched Vaal draw out of it and lunge in again. My abdomen clenched. My shaft rode up and down in the air again.
“Do you want to suck on him, Haru?”
“Yes,” I said again.
“Fucking whore,” Intana grunted. Vaal squeezed him again. Intana squeaked and stopped struggling. He shut his eyes, and the torrent of murderous intention dimmed for a moment.
“Come forward, Haru,” Vaal said.
I moved forward, lay front down on the scuffed lawn, and put my mouth on Intana again. Intana cursed me for helping my god ravish him, but once I had begun, I couldn’t stop. I watched every lunge of Vaal’s tan shaft into Intana’s cobalt hole, cradled the godling’s silver and blue scrotum to see everything better, licked him and suckled him and grew so excited I humped the earth.
Had no choice but to hump the earth, without the comfort of male touch this time. Vaal knocked Intana’s hands from me when he attempted to reach for my torso, and I understood Vaal protected me, because Intana would have hurt me just then, for enjoying his helpless pleasure. Even so, despite the danger, I played the game my god had started and drove Intana to writhe between us.
And as I did, I suspected Intana’s taste in my mouth could become addictive very easily, and this would make it all the harder for me to keep the clarity from my eyes.
Chapter Twelve
“Creation. The noises he makes.”
Vaguely, I knew Vaal had said this, but the ocean had come into my head, and his voice was a fuzzy mutter beneath the waves. I had just commenced to spill on the earth of the temple grounds. Intana’s seed filled my mouth. Nothing could have broken the tide of pleasure.
So it seemed, until…
“Save me some!”
Intana’s body rolled away suddenly. The movement wrenched his penis from my mouth. He grunted and gasped. I blinked in befuddlement. Vaal grabbed the braid at the nape of my neck and jerked my head back. Leaning over Intana’s torso, He kissed me, lapped seed that remained in my mouth, sucked on the lower lip and caught the small amount I had spilled because of His rough treatment.
He lifted away, grinning, and said, “You taste good in Haru’s mouth, Intana.”
“Are you trying to rip my parts off?” Intana snapped. “Damned carp!”
Vaal’s elbow thumped into Intana’s abdomen. Intana barked a wordless protest. I looked up from the mouth that should have belonged to Jumi, from lips that smiled in the same mischievous manner as Jumi’s had done, and pinioned Vaal with stark grief. He froze, staring back at me, and something changed.
The noise of Intana wheezing became a distant event. My grief, Vaal’s eyes. The eyes lightened, lost the gloss of an aquatic predator, grew sclera, a brown iris born of humanity, a black pupil in the centre. The grief reflected back to me from that stare, in the smile that twisted down at one side and suggested regret.
The grip on my braid relaxed. Vaal blinked and withdrew to Intana’s other side. His eyes were once again a predator’s black pits when the lids flicked back up.
“What was that?” Intana said.
“What was what?” Vaal replied, His voice low. He lifted to his feet before Intana could clarify and walked toward the temple entrance.
Intana grasped my arm. I averted my gaze from Vaal, fixed on the silver and pink fingers squeezing tight over my left wrist. Intana clipped the opalescent nails each morning because they grew sharp points in a mere day. The nails had already grown since the last manicure. Four spikes threatened my skin.
“Haru, what was that?”
Yes, what was that? Did Vaal mock me? I could see no other reason for giving back my sorrow with Jumi’s eyes.
“Whose face is he wearing?” Intana snapped. He released my wrist and knocked me in the chest with his knuckles. I sprawled backward onto the earth.
“Oof!”
“Whose is it?” Intana shouted.
He straddled me, lifted me by the shoulders, and thumped me back down. My breath blasted out a second time. Tears of pain blurred my vision. Agony spiked through my broken arm. I couldn’t have answered had I tried.
“Whose is it?” Intana howled and lifted me again.
“It’s Jumi’s face,” Vaal’s deep voice answered before I crashed down again. “The face of the lover I stole from Haru.”
A fist landed on the side of Intana’s head. Intana spun off. An audible thud sounded when his cranium connected with the ground. Vaal glanced at me.
“Did that sound hollow to you? I don’t think that boy has any brains.”
He reached down. I vaguely registered something blue flapping in the breeze. Vaal set His hands on my shoulders and hauled me to my feet. His grip was far gentler than Intana’s. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” I lied. Physically, my shoulders and back hurt, my right arm as well. None of that distressed me as much as looking at Vaal, and yet I couldn’t stop looking at Him, or wanting Him to touch me.
A small tug forward brought me into His embrace. The air warmed my skin more than His body, but I leant in, laid my forehead on His shoulder, shut my eyes and wept. Such weakness fairly begged Vaal to treat me like one of the unworthy, swallow me down into the gullet of His greater shape and remove the insult of my existence from the world, but soft words came with a breath and provoked a shiver down my spine.
“Shh. You’ll be fine, Haru. I promise.”
He promised. Vaal promised.
I knew, somehow, I could believe Him.
A shuddering breath escaped my body. A steadier one entered. Something soft breezed along my buttocks and a thigh. I canted my face down and found a rag from my ruined trousers trailing from His fingers.
“For the march down the mount,” He said.
I swiped the tears from my face and watched my god kneel at my feet like a menial servant to clothe me in a rag. An air of penitence from Vaal of the Depths—if my eyes had not seen it, I would not have credited such a thing.
He fashioned a loincloth and tied it around my waist with a thinner strip of silk, such that I sported flaps of material similar to Intana’s meagre coverings, but with a secure wrapping between my legs. Vaal lifted up to loom over me again and slashed the guise of penitence with a jaunty display of sharp teeth. I remembered my place in the world and knew awe of Him again.
“You’re adorable with nothing on but Brellin boots, but I won’t share the sight of your delightful bottom with just anyone.” He glanced to the side at Intana, who radiated rancour intense enough to bring bumps up on my skin. “What do you think you’re doing, hurting Haru? Show some respect or die.”
I was surprised Intana could hurt me. Hadn’t he said he could not murder his Oradhé? Yet now, and earlier, Vaal had been forced to protect me. Perhaps, with the obliteration of Celestial Dome, the magic that bound Intana to me had been damaged.
“No, Haru,” Vaal said. “He can hurt you. He can hurt you any time he wishes. But if he kills you, he’ll die with you. That is the curse of the seal.” Vaal did a quarter turn and headed for the gate of the temple grounds. “Come.”
I fell into step behind him, cold to my bones. We passed to the side
of one of the broken minarets. Prism glass, stone and mother of pearl spread in a long line of dust and wreckage. Intana had collapsed that one. He’d tossed Vaal into it. The speed of his motions, his strength, his anger, had been terrifying. Vaal, no less swift, had radiated cold will and determination throughout the battle, but I had been less afraid of Him. Intana had been purely furious.
I angled my head to the side. “Are you mad?” I whispered back at Intana. He crunched the pebble path in my wake. “The stupidity of you! To all but snap my spine on the earth! Fool! You could have died!”
“Don’t pretend you feel concern for me!”
I halted, and he stumbled into me. “What am I to you, Intana?”
Vaal paused and looked back at us, an expectant air to His expression. “Yes, Intana. What is he to you?”
“My Oradhé,” Intana said, and it sounded as if he passed the words through his teeth.
“And what does that mean?” Vaal prodded.
“That Haru’s concern is not pretence.”
“Why?” Vaal asked. He flashed teeth at Intana, and I grew bumps up and down my skin, watching Jumi’s face display the desire to kill. “Why, Intana?”
“Because he loves me,” Intana said. This time the words arrived softly, as if with penitence.
“You don’t deserve his love. Do you know that?” Vaal said and continued on toward the gates. Men waited there. One had a memorable scrawny physique.
“And you do?” Intana shouted.
“I don’t love you,” I said. “I don’t love you the least bit.”
Intana inhaled sharply and began a protest. “Haru…!”
“Is that the emperor’s chamberlain up ahead?” I interrupted.
“What? Oh. Yes. Haru—”
“Let’s see what he wants,” I said and hurried after Vaal.
Intana grabbed my left arm and slowed my progress. “Haru, why do you lie about loving me? You do love me.”
“No, I’m only a hostage of your father’s spell. It’s not real, what I feel for you.” I jerked free and jogged to catch up with Vaal. Intana loped along beside me.
“Haru. You love me! It’s not my father’s power making you feel anything!”
“Not resentment? Not bitterness? Not frustration? Not hopelessness? Not anger? Not—”
“All right! You hate me! But it’s only because Vaal came here with this dead Jumi’s face, you fickle little puke!”
Fickle? I spun about and landed my left fist on his head.
“Hey!” The expression he gave me: nothing but irritation and contempt. Not a sign of injury.
I struck at him again, but he lifted an arm and deflected the blow. A tooth on my bracelet cut a deep notch in his forearm. He gasped and backed off. The contempt curdled into surprise. I went after him, intent upon slashing him a second time with Little Brother’s gifts, but I staggered to an abrupt halt.
Electrum haze everywhere. An immense leg, belonging to an animal, athwart the earth between myself and Intana. Silver, blue and cream pink scales on a snakish body. Faint still, but becoming more solid.
Something cool darkened my sight.
Fingers. Vaal’s palm.
“Haru,” He murmured. “Be careful of your passion.” He pulled me to face Him. His lips touched mine and withdrew. His palm abandoned my eyes. I blinked, drew in a breath, held it.
He lifted my left arm. Silvery blood dripped from my bracelet. Vaal put finger and thumb on the shark tooth that had bitten Intana and brought it to my mouth.
“Open your lips, Haru.”
Staring up into His black eyes, I let Him insert the bloody tooth into my mouth. My eyelids fluttered shut. The breath I’d been holding escaped, a long note from my throat. The tooth retreated, and His lips sealed mine. We shared Intana’s vibrant life fluid, tongue on tongue.
Haru… Do you want him dead?
I jerked back from Vaal. “No.”
“Then don’t put his blood scent in the air. Remember what I am.”
Vaal wheeled about and marched away. I gulped a steadying breath, refused to glance in Intana’s direction, and trailed Vaal to the gates. Intana’s footsteps resounded behind me, but his mood had receded into a murky quiet too muted to impinge with any clarity.
Up ahead, the emperor’s chamberlain shuffled nervously, stilled, then bowed stiffly. The soldiers and dignitaries to his rear mimicked his courtesy.
“Lord?” the old man called. The greeting came out of him a tremulous squeak. He cleared his throat and attempted a second one. “Lord?”
“What do you want of me, mortal?” Vaal said and continued onward without looking at the imperial representative. He stepped past the tall gateposts and into the higher reaches of the emperor’s outer gardens.
The chamberlain glanced at me. I commenced to pass him as well. He lurched into motion and tottered along at my side. His escort fell in behind, presumably to the rear of Intana, and created a clatter of armour in our wake.
“I would ask—please forgive me—on behalf of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Calaru, the reason for your presence here, esteemed sea god,” the chamberlain said.
“His name is Vaal,” I said. “Use it, and don’t grovel, even with words. Sharks despise weakness.”
The old man’s gaze flashed in my direction. His expression grew that much more nervous. He set eyes on Vaal again. “Uh…Lord Vaal, I would ask a moment of your time, that you should tell me why you have come to Verdant.”
“I want Verdant. Instruct your male population to prepare for judgement, yourself and your emperor included.”
The chamberlain pattered to a halt. I looked back at him, and he stared directly at me, a question, a plea in his gaze. I shook my head. “There’s nothing you or anyone can do to stop this.”
“But Oradhé…!”
Intana seized the old man by his green silk tunic and rattled him. “Don’t call him Oradhé! He’s a lamprey sent here to suck me dry! Excrement! Your people gave false peity to my father, and let this shark and his pet into the harbour! It’s all your fault!”
“Intana! Let him go!” I barked.
Intana dropped the old man, who landed on his knees. I gave the chamberlain a last pitying glance and hurried again to catch up with Vaal. Intana sped after me, muttering imprecations against me, Vaal, and the people of Verdant.
“Damn my father most!” he said and became silent.
Feeling sick to my soul, I marched downward, past the white marble walls of the west face of the palace. Soldiers looked down at us from the ramparts, but did nothing. At last we stepped off imperial ground and onto a cobblestone street crowded with angry and dazed people. The bright mangle of colours from their festive clothes dragged the nausea from my soul and settled it in my gut.
Soon. Soon. I felt it arriving. Mayhem.
The first finger pointed in our direction. The first curse, the first protest, and then a bloodbath. They didn’t see what killed them, but I did. To them, an invisible wave broke their houses, lifted people into the air, chomped them in half or crushed them into the street. But it was Vaal’s greater shape smashing through everything in His path, and we were in His belly, Intana and I. It only seemed we walked the common ground behind a shark-eyed god, but I trod upon Vaal’s innards and felt my bones freezing up to my heart.
Chunks of bodies tumbled around us, faded, grotesque images of living persons from seconds earlier. The screaming souls of the just dead passed through my body. A hit, a feeling of potency spreading outward, of individual meaning evaporating, of leaching another being’s vitality. I stumbled, stumbled again. Opened my mouth in horror, began to scream.
Intana lifted me up. “Don’t look,” he whispered. “Don’t look, Haru.”
I turned my face into his neck. Useless. My eyes did not suffer these attacks. My entire being did.
Another hit. Another. I gritted my teeth together and grew more horrified. My body in general might have become cold, but my shaft had awakened to mock my sensibilities.<
br />
Power and more power, racing through me, seeding a reservoir I hadn’t understood existed, a reservoir that wanted filling. Such pleasure to reap the strength from broken mortality, through ending it, through the corruption of spirit.
It was vile! I was vile, vile to love the monster perpetrating this crime, vile to benefit from it.
“Unhhh!”
“Vaal. Let us go on ahead,” Intana said.
“No.”
“But Haru is—”
“No!”
Intana’s lungs sucked in air for another protest. “Shh, Intana,” I said.
“Haru!”
“Shh.”
Vaal would not permit us to travel the distance without Him. I understood His reasons. He had a message to impress upon the people of Verdant. This was His pageant, His march of conquest, and we were His vassals, His witnesses, His prized possessions. Protest against Him, or us, and die.
Intana carried me to the waterfront without further objection, and only his warmth kept me sane. I existed through Vaal’s retribution, death blinded and death deafened, but feeling—like a tooth in my head—His pleasure every time someone came screaming into His incorporeal gullet.
***
At the docks, the screaming ended. Vaal’s greater shape, the sense of souls corrupting into the unrecognisable of pure energy, faded from my ken. Intana’s motion halted, and I heard words.
“Set him down.”
“Vaal, he’s ill.”
“Set him down. Now!”
Imbalance; my feet dropped beneath me. My eyes opened, fixing on the gentle waves beyond the docks.
“Look at me,” Vaal said.
I blinked, canted my face upward, locked my gaze with liquid black.
“Do you think I’m vile? Do you?” Vaal said.
“I’ve no right to think anything of you,” I whispered. He backhanded me. I spun about and thumped down onto the planks onto my right side. My broken arm suffered the impact. A hiss of agony passed through my teeth.
“What are you doing? Don’t hurt him!”
I looked up. Intana stood between us, palms pressed to Vaal’s chest to keep Him back.
Loved Him to Death: Haru of Sachoné House Page 13