Bookworm

by Christopher Nuttall

  “I wouldn’t have minded,” Daria said, gently. “It’s not as if you are particularly attracted to women...”

  Elaine stared at her friend and braced herself to say the words that might destroy their friendship forever. “I peeked inside your chest,” she admitted. “I was curious and it was just there...”

  “And you saw the amulet that keep my lycanthropy under control,” Daria said, emotionlessly. Elaine would have given her soul to have the same sense of smell as her friend, to know just what she was really feeling. “I never wanted to be a beast again.”

  The words came tumbling out, as if she’d wanted to talk about it for a long time. “Some of us are born werewolves, others are turned into werewolves by accident or when they marry one of the folk,” she said. “My parents were both werewolves, but they were both turned werewolves instead of born werewolves. I never actually turned wolf until I was thirteen...”

  Elaine frowned. “I thought that born werewolves could change almost as soon as they were born,” she objected.

  “Sometimes the magic throws up a few weird things,” Daria admitted. “I grew up believing that I was the only one of the folk who couldn’t change into a wolf. They even tried to bite me so that I would be infected by the curse, but nothing happened. The best they could conclude was that I was naturally immune to lycanthropy. No one realised that I did have some of the werewolf senses, even as a child.”

  She shook her head. “I think my parents were a little relieved,” she added. “They hadn’t enjoyed being werewolves, or having to join the Travelling Folk.”

  “The druids couldn’t help?” Elaine asked. “Surely they could have...”

  “The Travelling Folk wouldn’t go to a stinker druid, even if he was on fire and needed someone to piss on him,” Daria said. “You don’t really know what it’s like to be one of the Folk. The best that happens is that the stinkers think that you’re a thief. If you’re unlucky, they chase you out with magic and gunfire.”

  Elaine frowned. “The stinkers?”

  “We are clean,” Daria said, with some dignity. “You people don’t know how to wash properly. I can smell you from halfway across the city.”

  She shook her head. “There are few secrets among the Traveller Folk,” she continued, quietly. “I was astonished by how shocked so many of you...”

  Elaine smiled. “Stinkers?”

  “I was going to say civilised folk,” Daria said, with great dignity. “I remember seeing girls terrified when they first saw blood coming out of their crotches, convinced that there was something seriously wrong with them. My family had taught me better; hell, my first cycle was the event that would change me from a girl to a woman. I could get married, or move away from my parents, or even leave the Travelling Folk. Instead...

  “The first time, I found myself naked in the forest with no clear idea of what had happened to me. I was convinced that one of the boys had played a prank on me. A couple of them were magicians and they definitely could have mesmerised a young girl into running away naked. But I was too ashamed to tell my parents or anyone else. The next time...

  “I’d blocked it out of my mind because it hurt so much,” she continued. “The pain started, as did the animal impulses. My clothes suddenly itched so badly that I had to tear them off and run through the forest naked. I could feel my body twisting and breaking, aching as if it was trying to use a muscle I’d neglected over the last thirteen years. And then I saw my hand change into a paw and I lost all rationality. I ran through the woods howling as a wolf, so lost in the animal urges that I ate raw meat and indulged myself. Then...

  “And then I ran into one of the magicians. In my delirium, I believed that he was responsible for what had happened to me and I went for his throat. I almost killed him when he managed to knock me back with a blast of raw power, stunning me. He could have killed me then, before I reverted to human form. Instead I woke up with my parents and the wise woman looking down at me. For whatever reason, my cycles had brought the change with them. It took years for me to get used to the change.”

  She shook her head. “Born werewolves change so often that they become more...flexible than turned werewolves,” she said. “Every time I changed, I hurt so badly and then I had to be supervised at all times. It wasn’t my fault, everyone said, but I always had two bigger werewolves with me to make sure I didn’t lose control completely. I had to take years of this treatment before I learned enough control to be trusted out on my own. And then they discovered my talent and allowed me to go to the Peerless School. There, they gave me an amulet to control the change. I have only changed once in the last year...”

  “To find me when I fled,” Elaine said. “I don’t deserve you.”

  “You have changed over the past few days,” Daria said. She leaned closer and made a loud sniffing noise. “Your scent has changed too, a little; more confident, more interested in boys...”

  Elaine flushed. “Shame about the flush,” Daria teased, “but I’m sure you will beat that quickly enough.”

  She reached out and placed her hand on Elaine’s shoulder. “I understand what it means to go through a change, although I’m not quite sure that you were as helpless to stop yourself as I was,” she said. “Your change is unprecedented in my experience and I don’t think anyone could have helped you. But...”

  Elaine felt another stab of guilt as Daria’s voice hardened. “...I don’t think you should go peeking in my room again. One thing you should know from the orphanage – and I know from the Travelling Folk – is that what little privacy one can get is important. Do that again and I will do unto you what my father did when he discovered that I’d transformed once before without telling anyone.”

  “And what was that?” Elaine asked. The Travelling Folk were strange. Who knew what they considered acceptable punishment for a young girl? “Did he beat you?”

  “I’ll leave it to your imagination,” Daria said, darkly, and then laughed. “It’s bound to be more terrifying that way.”

  She patted Elaine’s shoulder and then let go of her. “Now,” she said, “how can I help with dealing with Prince Handsome? Want me to date him and then bite him?”

  “That isn’t funny,” Elaine protested. “It would lead to another werewolf pogrom and...”

  “I know,” Daria said. “It was a terrible joke.”

  She shook her head. “On a completely different matter, Bee came around again and offered to cook you dinner in his apartment,” she said, changing the subject. “Do you want to go see him tonight?”

  Elaine hesitated. Going to a boy’s apartment could mean getting more than she bargained for – but perhaps it was time to live a little.

  “Yes,” she said. “You can set it up for me?”

  “Of course,” Daria said. “What are friends for?”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “I’m glad to see you again,” Bee said, as he opened the door. “How was your trip?”

  Elaine hesitated, unsure what to say. “It was...educational,” she said, finally. “It’s strange how people live away from the Golden City.”

  Bee grinned, welcoming her into his apartment. “The more isolated a community, the easier it is to maintain its own society even though it is technically part of the Empire,” he said. He’d seen dozens of states, Elaine knew. Her own experience was still limited to the Golden City and Ida. Once the whole affair was settled she intended to travel again, if Dread and the Inquisitors let her. “There are places that make the Golden City look chaotic and places that make it look orderly.”

  He chatted away as he waved her to a sofa and started to take a steaming pot off the stove. “I don’t get to cook very often,” he admitted. “I hope you enjoy my food.”

  “I’ve never had a boy cook for me before,” Elaine said. Daria had once commented that boys who knew how to cook, and made sure that the girls knew it, had greater success with romance than boys who expected women to do all the cooking. “Is it something from the S
outh?”

  “One of our regional specialities,” Bee said, cheerfully. “I grew up with my mother making this – and she insisted that we all learn to cook.”

  He put the pot down on the table and grinned as he waved her over to the seat. “Traditionally,” he said as he took the lid off the pot, “we would put raw meat inside and let the soup cook the meat.” Elaine followed his pointing hand and saw boiling liquid, smelling faintly of chicken, inside the pot. “You can put in spices or vegetables to match your taste, as each person has a different idea of what they enjoy eating. Some of us put in so many chillies that we burn ourselves when we try to eat them. I’ve cooked the meat inside the soup for your first time.”

  Elaine had to smile as he started to ladle out the soup. Each spoonful held pieces of cooked chicken, beef or fish. She wasn’t particularly fond of fish – the Golden City was a long way from the nearest coast, making fish expensive – but the soup smelt lovely and the freshly-baked bread neatly complimented the taste. Each piece of meat, she realised, would have added a little extra something to the flavour.

  “Eat up,” Bee urged. “I can’t maintain the cooking spell on the pot.”

  Maybe he was lucky, having no magic. Elaine considered it as she took her first sip of the soup and then started to eat rapidly. It was a faintly sharp taste, with hints of lime and several spices she didn’t recognise; it flavoured the chunks of meat nicely. Bee passed her a small set of spice pots and she experimented by adding them to each different spoonful. The flavours changed each time, some edible and some too hot to touch.

  “We normally experiment with the first bowl and then make a second one once we know what we like,” Bee explained. “Every meal is a little different because the meat may be of lesser quality or the spices may be from different places. It makes life interesting when we go visiting each other at home.”

  “You should open a restaurant,” Elaine said, honestly. “You’d make a fortune selling food in the Golden City.”

  “There already are some places that serve Southern food,” Bee said. His face twitched, as if it were caught between a grimace and a smile. “None of the ones I’ve tasted have been very good. I’ve had to cook myself if I wanted food from home. When I don’t cook, I prefer exploring foods from other parts of the world.”

  “You have lived a fuller life than me,” Elaine admitted. It was a rueful thought, but she’d never realised just how...bland her life had been before she’d been hit by Duke Gama’s spell. The part of her that wanted something more exciting had been drowned out by the part of her that knew that she didn’t want excitement, and considered adventure to be someone else in trouble far away from civilisation. Now...she was a target for everyone who sought forbidden knowledge, even though she wasn’t seeking it herself. What would they do to her if they kidnapped her again? “You know, I never asked. Why did you come to the Golden City?”

  “I told you,” Bee said, innocently. “My superiors want more influence in the Golden City and they dispatched me to make sure that they got it. The Golden City makes decisions that touch upon the entire world. Any influence we can win here would be very valuable for us.”

  “I see,” Elaine said. He had mentioned it before, but she’d been too shy to follow up on it. “If you don’t mind me asking, who are you working for?”

  “The Empress of the South,” Bee said. Elaine gaped at him, too surprised to speak. “She wants influence in the Golden City...”

  “I thought that she didn’t like men,” Elaine said, recovering from her surprise. “Why are you serving as her agent?”

  “Men aren’t supposed to rule back home,” Bee reminded her. “There’s no reason why a man can’t serve as the Empress’s agent – and some of the societies in the Golden City find it easier to deal with a man. It never seemed particularly understandable to me, but...I rather like my job, even if I do have to deal with filthy politicians all the time.”

  He hesitated, just long enough for Elaine to realise that he was worried. “I thought you knew, to be honest,” he added. “Does that bother you?”

  “No,” Elaine said, although she wasn’t sure if she was being truthful. Coincidence or not, there was a link between the Empress of the South and Lady Light Spinner...and Lady Light Spinner had good reason to want to keep an eye on Elaine. But Elaine had met Bee before Millicent had been turned into a tiny statue and it seemed unlikely that Lady Light Spinner had had any advance warning. Unless one of the gods had granted her a vision... “It just struck me that I didn’t know.”

  The evening wore on as they finished their soup and shared fruit juice, chatting about nothing in particular. Elaine found herself relaxing completely in his company, studying the way the firelight reflected off his face and clothes, wondering if she really did have the nerve to try to kiss him. But he’d already kissed her in the Park. They should have had no trouble kissing again. And yet...

  “I’ve never been anyone’s agent,” she said, returning to the original question. “How do you serve your Empress?”

  “By speaking with her voice,” Bee said. He seemed happy to talk. “Before I left, she and her advisors gave me a detailed briefing on what I had to offer people – and what lines I couldn’t cross, even if we were offered everything we wanted in exchange. I came here with a duplicate of her Great Seal, charmed to convince the others that I spoke with her name, and then started bargaining. Some of the factions in the city were happy to bargain. Others were reluctant to talk to us unless they were offered hefty cash bribes.”

  Elaine giggled. “Is it a little like seducing a woman?”

  Bee blushed bright red, causing Elaine to flush too. “I wouldn’t have put it precisely that way,” he said, with stiff dignity. And then he broke down into giggles himself. “But it is the same basic idea, just using different tools.”

  “The thought of one country trying to seduce another...” Elaine said, between giggles. “And what happens when they start to separate?”

  “You have marriage vows and marriage rows,” Bee punned, badly. “Diplomacy is the art of getting what you want without offending anyone too badly. When it goes wrong...”

  He shrugged. “Some countries have no reason to talk to us and don’t even consider an alliance,” he added. “Some countries fear us and will try to form alliances against us. And some think that we’d betray them if it suited our interests. Even the Grand Sorcerer had problems keeping various nations from lashing out at their neighbours.”

  “The Grand Sorcerer brought peace,” Elaine said. They’d had that hammered into their heads at the Peerless School. The system was intended to prevent another major war, even one that didn’t include necromancers. “I always believed that to be true.”

  “Oh, it is true,” Bee said. His face darkened. “But he couldn’t bury all the differences between countries completely. Countless issues haven’t been settled because the Grand Sorcerer prohibited actual fighting between states, so they continue to fester. Some states bear grudges for things that took place hundreds of years before the First Necromantic War.”

  He stood up in one fluid motion. “I looked up Ida after you left,” he said. Elaine looked up, sharply. “There’s very little to interest the Empress there. Ida only trades with its neighbours – not very much at that – and has no apparent interest in converting its impregnable defensive position into an offensive stand against the states down on the plains.”

  Elaine frowned, worried. “Did you speak to their representatives here?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” Bee said. “One rule of diplomacy is that you should never show interest unless it is in your interests to show interest. If Ida wants something from the South, they have to open the dialogue themselves. And so far they have largely ignored us.”

  Elaine relaxed, slightly. The thought of Prince Hilarion using Bee as a way to get at her was terrifying. He could have offered money and power – and influence, for the Empress of the South – in exchange for Bee helping
him to catch Elaine. But no one should have been able to draw a line between Bee and Elaine, or so she hoped. No wonder the Inquisitors were so worried about her safety. Rumours spread through the Golden City faster than an iron dragon.

  She held up a hand and pulled Bee towards the sofa, suddenly feeling her heartbeat pounding away inside her ears. Part of her wanted to run...and the rest of her wanted to live a little, to enjoy life while she could. Prince Hilarion might kill her, or kidnap her if he got his hands on her, and she knew better than to think that she could resist him indefinitely. The Inquisitors were sworn to obey the Grand Sorcerer. If Prince Hilarion became the victor, they would have no choice but to follow his orders. She would have to run, to flee the city, if that happened, yet there was nowhere to go. Except, perhaps, the South...

  Bee’s arms enfolded her and his lips met hers, a kiss that seemed to set her entire body burning with an unfamiliar flame. She’d never been with a boy before, nor had she experimented with another girl, and only rarely with herself. Suddenly, she wanted to pull off her clothes before it was too late. Bee’s kisses were becoming more passionate, his hands stroking her back as he pulled her closer and then pushed her down on the sofa. For a moment, she felt trapped and helpless as his weight pushed down on her, before he took himself on his elbows and kept kissing her. She kissed him back, realising that Bee wasn’t going to hurt her, at least not intentionally. Daria’s advice had been very specific, both about what potions she should drink beforehand – and about what she should let him do to her the first time. And about how boys could be remarkably insensitive at times.

  She gasped as she felt his hands working at the straps of her dress, before they came loose and it started to be pushed back towards her chest. Her breasts were exposed as Bee slipped back, his bright eyes meeting hers as he lowered his mouth to her nipple and started to lick it slowly, but steadily. Elaine felt a wave of pleasure running through her, even though part of her mind was disgusted at what he was doing. And yet she’d had dreams where she’d taken him in her mouth and licked and sucked him until...well, she wasn’t quite clear on that point. Her dreams had never been too focused on specifics...