Calliope's Wings

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Calliope's Wings Page 12

by Guin Archer


  A veritable curtain of silver, woven chains the thickness of fishing line, shades-of-blue gems, and serah fell gently over my face as Ruune lay them there and switched places with Tan. I reached up to grab the things, but he took my wrist firmly.

  “No, uum Taytani,” he denied softly. He picked up the sponge Tan left floating in the water by my breast. “Your serah stay on, always.”

  Sigh.

  My attendants were efficient in their care of me.

  Tan’s hands, though much larger than mine, were careful with my hair. Though female Tauren had none – essentially – and the males had the rubbery masses formed into their long mohawks, she was knowledgeable in her treatment of mine. Outside the tub, she cleaned it separately from the rest of my body. She wetted it, washed it, and fingered something sweet-smelling through the strands. It made the curtain feel heavier, but once she began twisting it into an intricate webwork of braids I’d never be able to replicate, it was a lot more comfortable.

  While she worked, so did the others. They bathed my body in the fragrant tub full of steaming water, going so far as to clean under my cuticles. It was Ruune that parted my thighs with a gentle, urging tap and then he went about mopping up my raw crotch. I hissed when the sponge touched my sore lips. They all immediately stopped in their actions and expressed their deepest apologies for hurting me.

  “Ruune,” I croaked while rolling my head around on the bathing pillow to look at him. He had a shaky smile on his not-quite-attractive face. “May I ask you questions? Questions about los’kah.”

  “Yes, Innintani. I am Yours.”

  I did my best not to jerk away when he returned to scrubbing my mons. I still tensed, though. “Do los’kah have a…smell? I do not have the word for it. It is a strong smell, like musk and los’kah and fucking. It is powerful. It makes a biis’a not herself.”

  His fathomless eyes seemed to sparkle with understanding. He nodded once, stiffly.

  “It is ooroo. Los’kah can release their ooroo to a biis’a of their choosing to turn bloodlust to lust. It is never used for any other than the los’kah’s Pasha. It is for her alone.”

  Huh. I felt a little better at least knowing that; a…Kor did see me as his Pasha and; b…no one else had used that trick on me. It would’ve made things so much worse if they had, I think. To be made to enjoy being fucked by the nameless rabble of orc men when I hated them with every fiber of my being for their abuse of me? Yeah, that would’ve added a whole new level of shit onto my already crumbling cracker.

  “Los’kah can change their kii?” Kii was a newish word for me. It was, in the Tongue, synonymous with ‘sword’. It figured this warrior race would call their weapons and their dicks by the same name. Arrogant bastards.

  This question made Ruune stutter for words, so it was Shree that answered instead. She was slowly sliding a rounded blade under the nails of my toes, tickling and cleaning at the same time.

  “It is not often necessary with biis’a, uum Innintani, but yes. Their kii are able to retract entirely into their sheaths for protection during battle. A los’kah is worth nothing if he cannot bury his seed into a biis’a to sire offspring.” She hummed in a noncommittal way before putting one of my feet down to pick up the other one. “As Your Drake, the Tohtahk would have protected Your womb from his greater size. It has happened before with Zikta finding their Pashas when the biis’a is new to their bleeding. They are bigger than You, precious Taytani, but not by far.”

  So why wouldn’t the males who raped me ‘alter’ their size so they didn’t maim me?

  The answer was obvious.

  It’s because they didn’t care. I was replaceable property and, probably, the tightest fuck they’d ever have by principle of me being so much smaller than Tauren females. Those males were the bottom-feeders of the lowlifes. There wasn’t anywhere to sink lower than them.

  I had some shit to work through in my head.

  “Rise, Innintani,” Ruune spoke once he and the ladies were done with my body. Tan was still working with my hair, but I knew she could continue braiding from anywhere. Knowing that, I allowed Ruune to lift me to my feet, my hands clenched tight around his. Orla and Shree bolstered my sides, giving me bodies to lean against if I slipped.

  Once out of the tub, Shree and Orla dried me while Ruune supported my front and Tok gathered up a shimmering sapphire dress of the same see-through gauze as my other ones. This one, though, had a deeply plunging neckline and back. The diving points dipped so low I knew they’d go clear to the small of my back and my bellybutton.

  How that fuck was that supposed to stay closed?

  Not that it really mattered since my powder-pink nipples were left on display under the fabrics, anyway.

  I contemplated the dress Tok was fiddling with, stitching something here and there with her ever-present needle and thread, while the sun-blocker lotion was rubbed all over my skin. The stuff worked better than aloe because no part of me felt anything but warmth from the sun yesterday. Even my poor nose, which should’ve burned to a crisp in the overwhelming sunshine.

  When the dress was put on, the sleeves hung as far as the too-long skirts. My hands were completely swallowed by them. My other dresses covered my hands, too, but not nearly as much. I lifted my forearms, still hearing the bells merrily singing under the airy fabric, and surveyed the silver-embellished material. How was I supposed to hold onto anything or eat with sleeves so long? I normally shoved the hem back, but there wasn’t any possibility of that this time around.

  Brooches and baubles were connected to the bust and back of the gown. Those kept the tight fabric from gaping wide. Two more slender pins hooked the shoulders of the dress to my bakal. Dark leather thongs were slipped onto my feet. The finishing touch came with a jingle of the bells in the chained headpiece that was, apparently, also a part of my bakal. Tan pulled it back over my scalp and deftly pinned it back into place with whatever masterpiece she’d made of my hair.

  Tan caught me by surprise, though, when she clipped a jewel-studded veil over the lower part of my face. It connected to my bakal near my temples and the same-shaded gauze of the dress covered me from just beneath my eyes to over the column of my throat. It draped loosely, not smothering, but I didn’t like having anything over my face.

  I went to take it off.

  “No, Innintani.”

  No. No no no! That’s all anyone ever said to me anymore.

  “You are a claimed Pasha now. You are the Udon’s and Luintak’s Taytani as well as Innintani.” Tan was beaming widely, her older eyes shimmering with happy tears. The other females looked equally as overjoyed while Ruune stared at me with a mask firmly drawn over himself.

  He wasn’t hiding anything from me. I could feel his desire for me. Maybe that was because I was still overwrought from Kor’s fucking of me last night or my mind working in overdrive, but the Xerbai wasn’t immune to me before, either.

  “It is formal dress, uum Taytani. Outside of the Udonak and in matters of the South, You are to be dressed for Your Tauren.” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell Tan that I’d be a better queen with solid, nontransparent apparel, but I didn’t say it. God, how I wanted to! I wasn’t a killjoy, but a girl had to have standards.

  Mine got lost somewhere between my ladies’ earnest expressions and a sinking sensation of not giving a shit anymore.

  They’d make me do whatever they wanted, anyway.

  Sekhmet was waiting for me outside the hut. She had her saddle on and was faced sideways to me, her stomach to the ground, so I could climb up. Ha! I couldn’t jump up on her back with a springboard to help me do it, let alone wearing skirts that my attendants were holding up and out of my feet’s way.

  Gaddi was beside Sekhmet at her flank, her friendly smile plastered on her face. She was dressed similarly to me, except her dress wasn’t see-through. Lucky bitch.

  “Uum Taytani,” she enthused with a cordial little bow-bob-curtsy thing.

  Glad at least one of us is excited
for today.

  Blinking up at the sky, I saw it was approaching midday. The sun was almost as its zenith and the air was hot. The constant dry heat, if nothing else, was the only reason I didn’t outright hate my skimpy dresses.

  “The Tohtahk waits for You at the Jiktau. He oversees while You walk the bazaar.”

  “Bazaar?”

  “Yes! It is the first stop! Come come!” Gaddi bounced on her sandaled feet humorously. Over seven feet tall and she bounced. Unreal.

  Begging forgiveness – again – Ruune picked me up from beneath my armpits to set me onto my Mahzri’s back. I was sat on her side-saddle, the skirts of this dress layered, voluminous, and considerably heavier than the others. I fisted my hands into the padded leather of the cushion to keep from doing something inappropriate…like hiking the skirts all the way up to my coochie so I could move my legs any fucking way I wanted to.

  Gaddi bowed deeply to Sekhmet.

  “Glorious Xxyx, may I ride with your Vashti?”

  Big Mama bobbed her head once in agreement before turning back forward. She chittered to and with the half a dozen Mahzri clustered around her. There were Zikta, too, about a dozen of them. They were armed with various weapons and decked out in dark-leather and metal armor. I had the sense that these – ‘these’ being the Mahzri and the battle-ready Zikta – were my guard.

  Peachy. Just fucking peachy.

  One of the Zikta, a brute with slightly leaner muscle than the others, but many dozens more utakta, stepped up to Gaddi. He hooked a hard arm around her middle back and drew her chest into his. He gazed down at her and, from my height, I could see the way she grinned in a dazed sort of way up at him. Her hands kneaded the leathers at his shoulders tenderly.

  “Uum opari,” he rumbled darkly to her before he moved like lightning. He squeezed her once, then slapped his hands to her hips and all but tossed her onto Sekhmet’s back behind me. It was in her upward ascent that he stroked his nose down her bridge languidly. A Tauren kiss.

  Only once she was seated securely did he look to me, blink and tuck his chin, then stride with a body honed mercilessly for battle back into the ranks of the others.

  “He is your Zikta,” I asked her with a sideways smirk. She wasn’t even paying attention to me, her eyes only for her man.

  It was cute.

  I used to look at Mac the same way. All lovestruck with hearts dancing merrily over my head. Seeing her aura, too, I could tell how her adoration of her man paralleled mine to my sweet man.

  God, it’s been so fucking long since I felt that way. So long since I had his arms wrapped around me.

  I miss you, Mac, I thought earnestly into the cosmos.

  My girl unfolded her long legs and bore us up, her backplates not under the saddle shuttering as she stretched languidly. I offered her a scratch to go along with it, knowing how good it felt for someone to do that on occasion. Personally. Mac used to give fantastic back-rubs and they usually included scritches from his blocky, work-hardened hands. His calluses felt like heaven against the softer velvet of my back.

  Stop, Io. You know how you get when you think about him too much.

  Once she was standing, Sekhmet began the not-too-long journey into Granzee. Our contingent followed several feet behind.

  “Oh!” Gaddi’s startled cry made me turn to look at her instead of the direction my girl was walking. She had her hand raised and hovering at the level of my hair. She wanted to touch it. “Your hair is beyond words, uum Taytani! As pale as lunelight.”

  My hair was as pale as the moon’s rays. My skin even paler…a pure, snowy white.

  “You can touch it,” I allowed her with an agreeable smile. Still flinched when she teased the bells, though.

  I despised them.

  “It is so soft! Do You have feeling in them?”

  “No. They are…dead. I have no feeling in them, but I do feel from my scalp. So please try not to poke or pull anything.”

  “I would never.”

  “What are we to do in the bazaar?” I trailed a finger over my lap, scowling at my torn nails. They’d only just grown back since Blackburhn and now some of them were wrecked again. That sucked. Of all the changes my body had undergone and I hated, I really wouldn’t have minded some dainty claws of my own that were less likely to break compared to my human nails. “And is that the only stop we are to make before moving to the Jiktau?”

  “You will walk the primary market, the center point of the bazaar, and see the items offered. Should You see something You like, You will show Your favor and select Your goods. If Your selections are large, kut will come and take the items to Your pillau while You watch over the Jiktau. If they are small, we will take them with us.” She hummed. “There is no duty between the bazaar and the Jiktau You must attend. The Tohtahk told my los’kah You are to take as much time as You require. There is no rush for our new Taytani.”

  Feeling more than a little pensive, I wondered how hard it’d be to shake my guard and scurry away. The answer was ‘pretty fucking hard’. My belled bakal were like beacons on a lighthouse. It didn’t matter how deft my hand was, how light my feet were, or how nimble I could be. Every move I made sounded off merry warning bells to anyone and everyone in earshot.

  Shit.

  Like last night, the older female Mahzri met us at the edge of the settlement.

  Gaddi gasping over and behind my shoulder had me shifting her way again. She was blinking in a starstruck way – kinda like when I saw Dolly Parton once in Nashville – and one of her hands struck out to grip my wrist so tight it felt like it’d fall off.

  “Easy,” I hissed at her, plucking her fingers off as nonchalantly as I could. I didn’t need to make a scene and have the trailing guard freaking out because my friend grabbed me a little too hard. These motherfuckers were crazy like that.

  “It is the Xxyx’s Xxyx.” Slow blink to Gaddi. I had no idea what the fuck she just said and my face showed it. Her jaw dropped at me like she couldn’t believe how dense I was, but she was too nice, or too scared, to call me stupid to my face. I was leaning towards too scared. “Your Sekhmet is the first and only biis’a of the old Mahzri before us. She was Xxyx before your Sekhmet.”

  Ah. The dowager queen.

  That explained the kissy-face between them and the way the older one grabbed me last night. She was holding her ‘grandbaby’.

  I couldn’t contain my snigger at that thought. I wondered how the beastie would like me calling her Meemaw. Either she’d find it cute or I could end up with a double-clawed, three-toed foot booted up my ass.

  I played nice and kept Meemaw as a private, only-for-me moniker.

  Sekhmet’s mother trod up beside us, her bulk pressing against my dangling legs. She made a sound like a purr to me, stroked a claw against my hip, and then went about conversing with her daughter. The two led our way into the now wide-awake settlement.

  And everyone was watching us.

  Yeah…I wasn’t sneaking away any time soon.

  Chapter Ten

  It was a lot different being in a marketplace with the intention of shopping rather than thieving.

  Just like Gaddi told me I would be doing, I was aided off my Mahzri by Meemaw – teehee – and was set off to walk through the main bazaar. My skirts, thank God, had parts in the panels directly in front of me so they could open and trail behind me in a long train. If they hadn’t, I’d have needed to employ people to lift them out of my way.

  Jesus. I’d look like a pompous ass for sure.

  It was bad enough that, even though the six male Mahzri who accompanied us initially branched off with half of the Zikta guards, Big Mama and her mama along with six Zikta kept tight to us. It was abundantly clear that I was someone important. My dress was another layer of royal icing on the already regal-cake I was mixed up into.

  The serah was the ganache drizzled on top.

  As soon as the Lubrei heard the bells amidst the raucous noise of vendors peddling their wares and freemen calling
out to each other or trying to strike bargains, they turned. Not just one-by-one, either. It was done in a wave. They looked to me and at me like I’d come bearing the moon and the stars…or a death sentence.

  Everything went preternaturally quiet.

  I was ready to run.

  Gaddi, bless her heart, broke the ice and every ounce of tension in my body by tripping over a panel of my skirts. She wobbled and reached out in a desperate attempt to catch herself, instead yanking me down on top of her.

  She gawped up at me with a mixture of horror and humiliation while I stared down at her with surprise and hilarity.

  Her face did it to me. I couldn’t not laugh! I laughed so hard, I thought I might pee myself. I rolled off her, right into the black, sandy loam, and hugged my stomach in a piss-poor attempt to contain myself. Sekhmet’s shape was blurry over me when she hovered, her long tail lashing noisily behind her.

  “Taytani…I did not…I beg forgiveness!”

  “You are the best, Gaddi!” I got to my feet shakily, my beastie’s claws helping me, and bent almost in half to tug at my friend’s wrists. She looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her whole. “Come, my friend, and stand. We have a bazaar to see.”

  I knew she was mortified, but her little blunder had calmed me down immensely. I hooked our arms together to walk down the streets and leaned my head against her shoulder, not quite able to contain my mirth from that one moment of total clumsiness.

  I needed that release from my stress.

  Badly.

  I think the Lubrei benefited from our proverbial fall from grace, too. The chatter came back full blast. Vendors tried to entice us in every direction. Rambunctious children chased each other through the Mamas’ legs. Heads of Gishtak bent together as they gossiped with abandon. Our literal trip made us real instead of fantastical and above reproach.

  Neither of us claimed any items from the stalls, much to the vendors’ displeasures, but Gaddi told me that the Udon would be camped for at least three days for the Jiktau. It was encouraged for the Taytani to walk the settlement and mingle with her people, as well as her Horde, so there’d be more time for shopping.

 

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