Mary flushed. “H-He called me a bitch!”
The lizardman scowled at her.
Then he looked at Liam, then at Mary. A light went on in his greedy, bright red eyes. Liam felt his heart sink. He looked at Mary, trying to tell her to run with his eyes.
It didn't work.
As they both stood behind the auction block, Mary's hands tied behind her back, Liam whispered. “I'm so sorry.”
“Just shut up and be glad your lover thinks ahead.”
“Shut up, slaves,” the lizardman who was attaching collars to the people brought up to the auction block most recently said. He stepped over to the two of them, casually snapping the slave collars around their necks. He touched a small touchkey made of crystal and wood to their necks and Liam felt a magic surge rush through his body. He closed his eyes and prayed to God that Tethis had gotten the pulse from both him and Mary. Then he opened his eyes and saw the slave master eying them.
“Hmm,” the slave master said. His hand reached down and he casually tugged Liam's robes up, exposing his cock and balls. Scaled hands fondled him and Liam felt shame burn through him as the lizardman hissed quietly, “Big everywhere. You fuck good?”
Liam didn't even want to know. “I, uh-”
“Answer!” the slave master snapped.
Liam coughed. “Uh, m-my girlfriend thinks so.”
“She make much sssscreaming?” The slave master grinned at him, letting his hand drop from Liam's balls. “You fill her up, yesss?”
Liam's cheeks were so red that he swore he had to look like Mary.
“Yes,” he said, nodding.
“Good. Palace duty,” the slave master said. “And you?” He looked at Mary and licked his lip. “God say lilin have palace duty automatically.” He grinned broadly, the expression made even more nasty by how many very sharp teeth he had. He gestured and pointed towards the palace. “Go in, find head slave, she tell you what do.”
Liam and Mary walked off, Mary's spine as straight as if it had been drawn with a ruler. Her tail was perfectly still. They stepped between the rows of guards who had made any infiltration save by this route impossible and came into the main lobby of the palace.
Once sure he wouldn't be overheard, Liam leaned over and whispered in Mary's ear. “I'll do my best to protect you.”
Mary glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Liam could see her measuring him. Then, subtly, she nodded as they entered into the main lobby. Liam knew that his first job was surveillance and intelligence gathering, but it took him a few moments to just touch his collar and try to feel what it was like. Liv had said that collars didn't actually do anything until an order was given, and Liam was sure that was right. It didn't change the fact that every nerve in his body screamed to get it off him. He drew his finger back, not wanting to risk tugging on the thing. Instead, he forced himself to look around.
The palace was built around the central lobby-room. Two wings spread to either side, while two staircases wound along the inner rim of the room, heading to the second floor. A vast, glittering chandelier of crystals was hung suspended over the room, catching and refracting the light from outside so that the interior as bright and well lit as the noonday sun. Slaves of every race – most of them female – hurried here and there, directed by a tall, stern lilin woman.
Liam and Mary walked to her just as she finished telling a pair of burly, handsome elven men to head to the banquet hall. The two elves bustled off and she turned to eye Liam and Mary.
“Two new slaves?” she asked. At their nods, she sighed and rubbed her temple. “Damn it all.”
Liam coughed. “Uh, what's wrong, mistress?”
“Don't call me mistress,” she snapped. “My name is Muttunbaal – you can call me Mutt.” She grinned. “And I'm just as much a slave as you are. And I am just as baffled as you are. This mansion is big, but it doesn't need fifty eight goddamn slaves. It needs forty, at most.” She shook her head, rubbing her hands together. “Ah, I don't know. Go clean the second story. Just look busy and come back to me later.”
Liam blinked. “Do you know why they're getting so many slaves, Mutt?”
Mutt shook her head. “Not a clue. But God doesn't like telling slaves – even me – what goes on in his head.” She sighed. “As you are new, I will tell you this: do not go into God's chambers unless he calls for you.”
“How can we-” Mary started.
“They're the rooms that glow bright blue,” Mutt said.
Liam glanced at Mary.
Mary arched her eyebrow.
Together, they set off and got to work. The second story of the house was filled with offices and bedrooms. The offices had been converted hastily into bedrooms, desks covered with cushions, papers stacked in piles in the corner. Lounging in most of the rooms were pairs of quartets of lizardmen and lizardwomen. Liam was actually a tad shocked to see the first lizardwoman as she walked out of one of the bedrooms wearing a loincloth and nothing else, her immense scaled breasts bouncing slightly as she stretched her arms over her head. His mouth had opened in shock as the lizardwoman looked at him, grinned, and raised the crest of feather-scales along her head.
“You like what you see, mammal?” she asked.
“I, uh-” Liam stammered.
“Tough,” she said, slapping at his hand and walking away, swaying her hips from side to side.
Liam shook his head.
“Why were you so surprised?” Mary asked him later as they cleaned an office. In truth, Liam was rifling through papers. So far he hadn't found anything but the old Free Lord's paperwork. Tax collection forms, census notes, correspondence with other rulers of Purgatory; all of it rendered woefully irrelevant by this false god and his army.
“Huh?” Liam looked back at Mary, who really was cleaning along the window with a feather duster.
“When that lizardwoman walked by, you seemed shocked. Yes, women only make up a quarter of the army, but-”
“Oh, no, it was her titties,” Liam said, shaking his head.
“...titties?”
Liam coughed. “Breasts.”
“No, I know what titties are,” Mary said, putting one hand on her hip as she pursed her lips at him. “I just didn't expect someone who respects women like you to use that word.”
Liam blinked. “What?”
“It's...” She paused. “Disrespectful. Isn't it?”
Liam shrugged. “I mean, I guess it can be?” He shook his head. “But Meg loves it when I talk about how great her tits are. She thinks it’s cute.”
“Is that lizardwoman Meg?”
“Noooo-” Liam laughed. “You're right. Sorry. What's okay for someone might not be okay for others.” He bowed to her. “Consider myself scolded.”
Mary smiled slightly.
“Now, as for why I was shocked by her bazooms,” Liam said, standing up.
Mary threw the duster at his head, laughing despite herself. Liam laughed as well, grabbing the duster from the air. “As I was saying, I was shocked by her gazongas-” More laughter from Mary. “-because she's a reptile. Reptiles don't nurse their young with milk. They don't have mammary glands.”
“And are these lizardfolk exactly like Earth reptiles in all other ways?” Mary asked.
Liam blinked a few times.
“You know, Mary, have I ever told you I find intelligence highly attractive?”
“You're also in a relationship with another woman,” she said, shaking her head and holding her hand out. He placed the feather duster in her palm.
“Do you know what Meg said when Tethis started to, uh, show an interest in me?” Liam asked.
Mary turned away, shaking her head.
Liam cocked his head and looked down at Mary's firm, tight, heart-shaped ass. She was wearing the leather straps and only the leather straps now. The collar fit in with the rest of her get-up alarmingly well, now that he thought about it. But what he was eying now wasn't the slave collar. It was the thin strip that almost vanished between her firm ass-cheeks
. His tongue slid along his lips as he remembered the way she had tasted.
“Let me watch,” he said, quietly.
Mary snapped her head back to look at him.
Liam grinned, putting his hand on his heart. “Honest. Christ strike me down if I lie.”
Mary snorted. “Mary said there's a special place in hell for adulterers, you know.”
“Wasn't she married when she had her virgin birth?” Liam asked.
Mary's cheeks flushed. “T-That's different!”
“Totally,” Liam said, sounding amused. “I'm just being annoying.”
This time, the feather duster hit him in the face.
* * *
Night came – as it always did – with a crash. Mary and Liam both noticed it only in that the lights within the mansion flickered slightly before stabilizing, and the window they were wiping down suddenly showed a dark sky.
“Well,” Mary said, “We've got a map of the place. We know where God's room is. Now, we just need to get out, right?”
“Mmhmm,” Liam said. “Why do you think we've been cleaning this window for the past hour?”
He jerked his chin.
From one of the roofs of a building about half a mile away from the palace came a flash. It blinked and winked at the two of them for a few moments as Liam's brow furrowed. The translation spell that Meg had cast on him and kept renewing with their continual contact was good. But it wasn't so good that it could translate a specialized language of flashes and darkness, used by New Athens to communicate with the City of the Dead Gods using their great lighthouse. He h'd had to memorize that in the frantic few days they had while scouting out the city.
“Okay,” he murmured. “Meg's in position, and-” He stopped. “El Em gone?”
“Those are letters?” Mary asked.
“Lizardmen gone,” Liam whispered. He picked up a silver desk mirror that he had quietly stolen from one of the bedrooms and flashed a message back to Meg.
Plenty here.
Mary stepped to the door, looking out at the hallway beyond the room, her tail stilled with the tension. Liam nodded to himself – a lookout. Good idea.
Meg flashed back.
Only two at gate, two at other gate. No patrols. Also, weapon caravan left – heading west on river. Fifteen ships.
Liam frowned.
“Holy shit,” he whispered.
“What?” Mary glanced back at him.
“Every lizardman in the city is in the palace and all the weapons they've been making here? They're shipping west.” He shook his head. “They're leaving.”
He flashed.
God's chamber middle room on second level, rear area. Main lobby is flush with back wall. Unsure where to place bomb, please wait.
Meg flashed back.
Rumor army approach. Ra.
Liam frowned. “Son of a bitch.” Before Mary could ask him, he turned to her. “Ra's sending an army here. Either he's learned that the city's been taken – not impossible – or he's getting greedy.” He sighed. “So that's why the lizardmen are leaving. They don't want to hold the city – they've gotten what they came here for.”
“The weapons,” Mary murmured.
“Yeah.” Liam frowned, then started to flash back.
“Someone's coming!” Mary hissed.
BRB, Liam flashed, then tucked the mirror into a drawer near the window. The door opened and a curvaceous human girl – utterly gorgeous, with pale red hair and bright purple eyes – looked in on them. She wore only a thin white breast band and a skirt that stopped right below the cleft of her ass. She smiled slightly.
“Mutt said to tell everyone up here – God wants us in the lobby.”
Liam nodded. “Thanks.”
Once she turned to go, he pulled the mirror out, flashing.
God in lobby. Get ready. Will send signal when time.
Liam and Mary started towards the lobby. Before they even reached the stairs, Liam could hear the sounds of a great deal of voices. A lot of people, even if they were trying to be quiet, made a low, eager roar. When he came to the stairs themselves, he breathed slowly in. The lobby and most of the wings were packed. Filled to the brim with lizardmen and the slaves of every race. It looked like every member of the occupying army save the skeleton force that had been left on the edges had come here.
No, that couldn't be right…
There were only, at most, a hundred or so lizardmen here.
A cold chill filled Liam.
This wasn't an army, he thought. This was a detachment.
“I thought there were more of them,” Mary whispered.
“That's what they wanted you to think,” Liam whispered back. He could already see how it had been managed: spells, proper deployment of troops, just taking advantage of the fact that most lizardfolk looked similar to one another. It'd take a genius and an elite...
The city had been taken by a genius general, Mary had said. The lizardmen had fought like elite soldiers, Mary had said.
Liam rubbed his hand over his face. He suddenly felt very, very out of his depth.
Then, reaching the bottom of the stairs and coming into the edge of the massed crowd, he saw God.
Liam froze.
Then giggled.
Then laughed.
He leaned back against the bannister, his knees shaking as he laughed and laughed, his shoulders shaking as he let himself go limp. Mary looked at him, worried. But Liam shook his head, beaming at her. His eyes glinted with tears.
Tears of relief.
“That?” he whispered, voice joyful. “If that's Jehovah, then I'm a monkey's uncle.”
The creature who had claimed the City of the Dead Gods as its own wasn't a human. It wasn't a goblin or elf either. The closest thing that Liam had ever seen to it was an abstract, modern art sculpture. There were vague indications of arms and legs made of jagged blue crystals, and the torso was carved from the same stuff. Rather than having the crystal chunks connected by any kind of physical contact, the whole thing was shrouded with a crackling aura of lightning, which suspended the arms and legs and jagged, cubist head in place. The head had a pair of uneven eye-sockets drilled into it, and those eyes were filled with the only part of the thing that looked faintly alive: a glowing pair of red lights, contrasting with the blue hue of the rest of the thing.
The false god then stood, arms spread wide.
Except it didn't.
Rather, it went from reclining on a large collection of cushions to being in a standing position between blinks. It was like a glitchy computer animation.
Then the false god opened its crude, jagged mouth and Liam's relief turned into something else. Because while this wasn't his God, he still recognized that voice.
And that terrified him.
“Welcome - welcome - w-w-w-welcome,” the false god said, his voice skipping and stuttering. It was like four people were speaking at the same time, their words laid over one another, echoing and reverberating. “To my home HOME - I wish to to – inform keep aware, aware, aware, that there has been a victvictory-ry-ry-”
“Oh god,” Liam whispered.
Mary looked at him, her eyes wide with fear.
“It's an A.I,” Liam whispered.
That voice – he had heard it before. He had heard it in a video game. The warbling distortions. The repeating voices. The glitching out. It was the sound that game designers on Earth had used for years to represent an artificial intelligence gone absolutely, completely, irrevocably insane. He didn't know if this creature was an actual artificial intelligence or if it was some kind of intelligence born of magic and sorcery but it was clearly mad.
“Brax the Golden-” Liam furrowed his brow and started to try to parse the warbling words into just a single line of dialog. It was tricky, but he started to get better and better at it as the A.I continued his speech. “-has traveled to the Barrier Mountains, to retrieve an artifact of great power. It will reawaken your past – your power.” The god spread his hands w
ide. Liam wasn't sure when he started gendering it, but something about the creature's tone made him think male. “The Genetic Codec Unit 9821.”
“All right, that cinches it,” Liam whispered. “Crazy computer.”
“I'm lost,” Mary whispered.
“To activate the Codec, estrus must be artificially triggered, to prime genetic signaling receptors and activate reconfiguration of morphological pathways!” The false god spread his arms wide as if giving some great, rousing speech. The lizardmen listened, though quite a few of them were looking more confused than anything else. Liam's eyes widened.
“Oh shit,” he whispered. It took him a few seconds to remember what estrus meant.
“And so, I, your god, Sysminor, command you.” The false god's hand reached out. “Mate!”
But the command wasn't for the lizardmen.
It was for the slaves.
The collar around Liam's neck buzzed and he felt a heat swim through his body. His eyes went unfocused and the world seemed to take on a pink haze as he looked at one of the lizardwomen standing near him, his cock surging to life. He breathed in the smell of the crowd as the lizardwoman looked at him – confused. Liam stepped forward, his palms cupping her scaled breasts. He fondled them as behind him, Mary made a quiet moan as she pressed against a lizardman, kissing him hungrily.
Liam leaned forward, kissing the lizardwoman's neck, stripping what little clothes she wore off as she hissed in appreciation.
And he didn't mind.
Not one bit.
Four
Liv held up her hand, covering up the sun that shone down overhead and trying to not shudder with the cold that bit through the fur coat that she wore.
“We're closer to the fucking thing, why is it doing less work?”
“Air's thinner, there's less to keep the warmth in,” the Golden Git said. His voice was tight and when Liv looked down from the sky, she saw that he hadn't moved. His tail hadn't moved, his head hadn't moved – he was standing perfectly still, watching the entrance to the ancient temple. The temple had been what, apparently, their group had set out from the City of the Dead Gods to find. Liv had to say she wasn't very impressed. The temple had no carvings and no runes, no artistic decorations at all. It was just a solid metal rectangle set into the side of the mountain like a yawning, gaping mouth.
The Cross Guard (Purgatory Wars Book 3) Page 8