Loved Him to Death: Haru of Sachoné House
Page 22
But I didn’t want to take the risk, not yet. And besides, this boy truly intrigued me.
“What are you to Vaal?” I said.
“Exactly what you think. His lover.” He straightened in the chair, turned, and withdrew a logbook from a cabinet built onto his desk. He opened a bottle of ink, dipped a nib in.
“He’ll eat you. Do you know that? One day, he’ll just eat you. He’s done it to men before you. More than you could count.”
He smiled at the logbook and scratched a first symbol. “Ah. So kind of you to warn me. No doubt, being such a morally higher being compared to Vaal, you’ve never done the same to any mortals you have loved.”
Damn him. “What are you writing in there?”
“That I’ve met you and that we are dealing.” Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
“Dealing?”
“Making terms, coming to an agreement.”
“I know that! About what?”
“About if you will help me.”
Oh, right. “Help you do what?”
“Find your son, Omos. Find your son.”
I came up off the bunk too quickly and cracked my head on the one above. I slumped down, dizzy with pain. “Aiee! Damn it!”
Fuck. I was practically mortal I could be hurt so easily.
He set his quill down and came over to place a palm on my crown. The pain at once became a memory. I looked up at him, certain he was a sorcerer, and a potent one.
“What do you want with my son?” I asked. His hand fell away, and I almost grabbed his wrist, but jerked my hand back at the last second. His touch pleased me. I wanted more of it, but I didn’t trust him.
“One hundred and eleven years ago, he spurned the island of Verdant and was not seen again,” he said. “There were…signs of him, but three years ago, the signs vanished. I’ve taken this journey to discover his whereabouts.”
“Why should you care?”
He retreated to the chair and sat again. “A man of Brellin helped to set him free. Let a man of Brellin be certain of his well-being.”
“I still don’t see why you should care.”
“It’s a mystery, and I would solve it. That is all.”
I didn’t think so. “Is Vaal sniffing after his ass again?”
I thought he’d frown, show irritation, throw a tantrum, but instead he laughed. “Vaal would also like to be certain of his well-being,” he said. “Don’t you feel the same?”
“I left that boy in chains. Why the fuck should I care? He should have stayed in chains. How did this last Oradhé manage to remain sighted?”
Vaal’s boy frowned at me. “My understanding of the conditions of Intana’s slavery did not lead me to believe you wanted your son enslaved forever.”
I laughed at him. “I ordained those conditions to make my son suffer all the worse for his betrayal. It was I who told the first Oradhé to put out his own eyes.”
“Oh.” His eyelids fanned down to his cheeks and stayed there, and I felt a deep burst of something swell into the cabin for a second, gone too quickly to fully comprehend.
“What are you?”
“A man, looking for your neglected child.”
“Do not remonstrate with me, mortal?” I said warningly.
His eyes opened, and the sharpness had come back tenfold, but his tone remained soft when he spoke. Everything about him had seemed so gentle upon first impression, but edges upon edges lurked throughout him. I hadn’t met anyone quite like this boy since…Vaal.
Damn. Damn. This Brellin stripling was most certainly Vaal’s precious little prince.
“Will you help me or not?” he said.
I didn’t see why I should. Intana, that little bastard—I should have eaten him like I’d eaten all the others. Worthless, him and his siblings, but in Intana I’d thought I had discovered a strong offspring. His weakness with regards to Vaal had shown me otherwise.
“Speak to me, Omos,” the mortal said. “There must be something Vaal can offer you in exchange for your cooperation.”
Something Vaal could offer me?
“You?”
He didn’t blink, didn’t flinch, didn’t show a sign of emotion. “A contract of usage, then. For a specified term.”
Fucking damn! “Forever, or until I tire of you.”
“Impossible. A specified, finite term, to be agreed upon now, and to include definitions of usage, and specified damages should you breach contract.”
He was a fucking whore, pimping himself out to find my worthless son. I couldn’t believe Vaal would waste a treasured lover on Intana. There had to be something wrong with this mortal, something imperfect, or Vaal wouldn’t be throwing him at me.
Even so, I’d agree to fuck him, then kill him and leave. “All right. Tell me what you think these terms should be. No great detail. Just the basics.”
“There will be details,” he replied. “And there will be a signed, binding contract. But basically, you shall not be permitted to damage me permanently in any fashion, nor kill me, nor keep me after the contract has ended.”
“I see. And the damages should I breach contract.”
“Vaal eats you.”
“Like fuck! As if I would agree to that.”
“If you are so weak-willed that you cannot keep a simple contract, then you should just jump off the ship and be eaten now.”
Like fuck again. I’d fly to safety first. And now I had to eat him for being so arrogant as to think he could tempt me into such a stupid contract. Disgusting prostitute.
My dragon self commenced to solidify, to loom above the deck, ready for a plunge downward to break into the cabin and snatch the insolent mortal into my mouth. He smiled at my human avatar, a shark’s smile, and then attacked.
I couldn’t conceive that a mortal would have the speed to best me at any time, but just then, he did. He grabbed me about the middle, banged my head into the top bunk while lurching upright with me, and charged back up on deck with my body slung over his shoulder—all this at a velocity that left me dizzier than the second knock on the head.
And then I was overboard, in the water, and land was farther off than I’d thought.
“Fuck!” Fear induced more shock than the plunge into cold water. Vaal would have me in his teeth if I remained in his pissing bowl.
Faces lined the rail and looked down at me. Only one laughed, and it belonged to the little turd who had tossed me over the rail.
“Fuck!” I shouted again.
Before the ship completely sailed out of my grasp, I swung my dragon head at the stern and latched on. The coils of my greater body whipped my human avatar upward and set it back on deck. I let my dragon shape fade to safety, and I was weaker than before, so much more weak.
Below in the water, a massive shadow passed under the ship from the stern end.
“Fuck,” I whispered, kneeling in my puddle of water and dread, panting. To meet Vaal after all this time, when I had been so unintelligent as to have wasted my strength on needless destruction. This couldn’t have been pure coincidence.
“Couldn’t it?”
I looked up. “What are you?” I cried.
“A Brellin merchant seeking to deal with you,” Vaal’s boy answered. He sat crossed legged on the deck. I stared at him, certain that he’d been in my head constantly since I’d boarded the ship. Why couldn’t I feel him doing it?
“I’m not intrusive. I only take the thoughts you spill through your own sloppy management of them.”
Damn him! Damn him! No mortal had frustrated me this much since…well, since Intana’s mother, but I’d managed to eat her eventually.
“You will not eat me. That will be a condition of our contract.”
“And if I don’t wish to deal?”
“Then get off my ship.”
“A contract signed under coercion is dishonest and not binding.”
“Very well. I’ll set you back on your small island.” He levered up and called the orders to bring the ship about
.
“Damn it! I don’t want back on the island!” Not that I couldn’t get to safety from there. I could, but… “I’ll deal. Stop shouting orders and take me back to your cabin.”
It all came down to the fact that I wanted him, and if that meant helping Vaal find Intana, so be it.
The mortal offered me a hand up, and I took it. Creation, how his grasp tingled.
“I can hurt you temporarily, can’t I? Without leaving permanent damage?” I said, clenching his fingers too hard. He didn’t wince, didn’t protest, just smiled, and led me to the cabin again.
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