by G. Howell
They didn’t laugh.
“You broke into a property. You didn’t have any contact with the owner.”
“No,” I lied.
“So you didn’t involve anyone else,” the be-spectacled Mediator said and looked at the chairwoman, scratching delicately at a cheek tuft with a single claw.
“Who could I ask?” I shrugged. “Who could I trust?”
“Huhn, who indeed,” he growled. “You spoke to ah Ties, didn’t you. Why?”
“I was trying to find out what was happening. All this was quite strange to me. He was... reluctant to talk. I had to encourage him at gunpoint.”
“Huhn,” the one with spectacles grunted again, amber eyes narrowing as he studied me. They knew I was lying. They had to know, but they couldn’t prove it. Not unless...
... unless her ladyship had already told them. And what with everything else that was going on around here that would be bad. That would be really bad, but it really wouldn’t be that surprising. I just hoped that I could keep Ea’rest and her involvement out of it. There was no way that poor farmer needed to be dragged into this.
“So there was no-one else involved. Nobody assisted you,” the chairwoman interjected. The other Mediator’s twitched her way.
“No, Ma’am,” I replied, meeting her stare. “I’ve said several times, there was no-one else involved.”
For a few more heartbeats she was quiet and just stared at me as if she were trying to read something. I met her gaze, trying to keep my face as impassive as her own was. I’d had a couple of years to become somewhat acclimatized to Rris features, but to her my body language would be quite alien. She wouldn’t be picking up any nervous tics or flinches. I hoped.
“Very well,” she said abruptly and broke the stare by looking around at her consorts, the other four Mediators. “If that’s your side of the story, it’s noted. Let it stand as stated.”
If any of them had misgivings, they kept it to themselves.
“Now, the next issue,” she said to me. “It’s in regard to your sexual activities.”
“My... sexual activities?” I echoed, just holding the forgotten crust of the bread. To say I was taken a little off guard would be an understatement: that line of questioning wasn’t remotely like anything I’d been expecting.
She cocked her head. “You are understanding this properly? You keep repeating what I’ve just said.”
“I... yes, I understand the words. I’m just not sure I’m hearing them properly. Why is my sex life Guild business?”
“Because it could be becoming a matter of Guild jurisdiction.”
“What?” I ran those words through my head, wondering if I was translating them correctly. “I don’t understand. How?”
“Since the Guild became aware of you, you’ve met a few women who - for some reason - seem to have developed quite an attachment to you. So much so, in fact, that two of them – to our knowledge - have entered into sexual relations with you. Reports have intimated that sexual congress with you is quite unusual. Different from normal sex: a difference that goes beyond the time of year and...” she gestured at me, “the obvious.”
I swallowed, feeling a prickling heat crawling up my neck. “That’s not... that’s not against your Guild rules, is it?”
“Not in itself. It’s certainly peculiar, but - providing your partners are willing - not actually in breach of any laws.”
I stiffened. “You are not suggesting that I’m forcing them?” On top of everything else, were they trying to accuse me of rape?
“That does not appear to be the case,” she conceded. “However, speculation has arisen that you are manipulating your partners in not such an obvious fashion. You may be influencing their desires in some way, perhaps affecting their judgment or their thoughts or actions.”
Now I blinked. I opened my mouth, closed it again as I tried to work out if I’d translated that correctly. “I don’t understand,” I finally said. “What does that mean?”
“That you may be using sexual favors to control them through [something]unknown means.”
I stared again.
“What is your response?” she asked.
I know my mouth opened and closed several times before I was finally able to say something. “I’m sorry,” I finally forced out. “But, that is so… so ridiculous that I just don’t know what to say!”
There were huffs of breath from a couple of the Mediators. Her eyes narrowed to glittering slits in the bright light.
“What information we have received is limited and quite distorted in some regards. In other areas it’s quite contradictory,” she said and her ears turned slightly, not laying back but not upright either. “There are reports that it’s not normal copulation; others that the women have been heard crying out in pain; others that you hold them down and force them; and others are some strange stories indeed. Yet some of these women have done a great deal to protect you. And this oddity is a concern when it’s known that you have spent a day and a night with the queen of this kingdom and then she decides to provide such support to your cause.”
I felt my heart lurch and froze rigid for a split second, until I realized she was referring to that day when I’d...
“What? I was invited out to her estate for the purposes of a commission! She wanted me to draw her...a portrait. That’s all it was.”
“And for that you had to stay the night?”
“The sketches took all day. We talked. We had dinner. I stayed in guest rooms. That’s all...you can ask her.”
“And can we be sure that she will tell us the entire story, a? Other women you’ve slept with have seemed remarkably protective of you; would she be the same?”
“Damn it!” I blurted, then shook my head and tried to reign the frustration and disbelief in and started again: “I’m not controlling them in any way. I have slept with a couple, but it’s just sex. That’s all.”
“Then why the gossip and talk about it? Why these rumors? Why the secrets? The cries, the closed doors, the scars you carry from a female who clawed you. Why was she fighting?”
I stared dumbly, my jaw hanging slack. Where the hell had they heard that?! “She wasn’t... Look, Chihirae has talked to Chaeitch. She’s told him...a lot. You’ve talked to him?”
“We have. Huhn, ah Ties said that the teacher did describe some of her experiences with you. She told him they were quite unique and that she experiences something... different with you, something that she hasn’t felt with a Rris male. He said that you had asked her not to talk about it. Why is that?”
I swallowed.
“We can ask her,” she said calmly. “We can bring her before the Guild and ask her. There are many ways to do that.”
Shit. I stared. Would they? They would. I sighed, shook my head. “A. I did ask her not to talk. I asked her not to because for my kind it’s a personal thing. It’s not something we talk about as freely as you do. I also asked Mai not to talk about it simply because I didn’t want there to be something else different about me.”
“Different,” she said pointedly. “How?”
I took a breath and tried to explain. I tried to tell them how there were physical differences; how the females responded differently; how there were aspects to their own sexuality they didn’t know about. Their own matings were frenetic, passionate, and over in no time and then they did it again, and again. From my point of view, they went for quantity over quality. I’d found that for their women climaxes were possible, but were all but unknown, simply because of the brevity of their joinings. It was a discovery I could’ve lived without, just because of issues like this.
They listened without batting an eye. And when I was done the chairwoman glanced at one of the other Mediators, a female with salt ‘n pepper throughout her facial fur, and said, “Doctor?”
The other flicked an ear and tipped a clawed hand over. “I’ve never heard the like,” she said. “A female orgasm? Like a female erection, it is a contradiction in terms, I think.”
“I think it doesn’t sound right in your language,” I shrugged.
“And I think that is stating the obvious. But you claim women can experience this?”
“A.”
“Then why have I never heard of this?”
Again I shrugged. “That other doctor I knew. She said the same thing – she had never known it. I don’t know why... Perhaps...no, I don’t know. But she did find out.”
“You don’t know,” the chairwoman repeated and tipped her hand in a casual shrug. “Then perhaps you can show us.”
I just blinked stupidly. “Pardon?”
“As she found out - show us,” she repeated calmly, as if she were asking me to get her a glass of water. “Just demonstrate this act to us.”
And I didn’t know what to say. I stared at her, at the other Mediators watching me with what could only be called vaguely interested expressions. Damn it. They’d planned this, I realized. The robe... the clothes weren’t out for a wash; they’d expected those answers. They’d planned this from the beginning, and that realization made me angry.
“You...want me to have sex for you?” I choked.
“A,” she said, spreading a hand and gesturing to the floor. “Show us. Here is fine. I’m sure a volunteer can be found.”
“That...” I strangled on the Rris language and had to try the word again. “That... are you serious?”
“Of course,” she blinked, actually looking a little puzzled. “Why would I not be?”
I looked around again at level, expectant faces and realized they were completely serious. “Hey, what…No. I mean… Rot it! I can’t!”
“Strange. I was lead to understand you could perform at any time. Do you need assistance of some kind? Aromatics? They can be provided.”
She was referring to the scent distilled from the urine of a female on heat that their males responded to. I winced. “No. No, not that. I just... I cannot.”
“Why not?”
“I just... ,” I gestured uselessly, looked around at the expectant faces. “I can’t… perform in front of… others.”
“Your desires aren’t pertinent here,” she said.
“It’s not want, it’s can’t!”
“We may have to insist.”
I gaped, almost forgetting to breathe and forcing myself to catch a breath. Think. Just take a second to think. Okay, I breathed again. There… was a way. It might work. They wanted to play their stupid games? I could play stupid games. When it came to stupid, I was a master; so many Rris had told me so. Calmer, I nodded and appealed to her again. “Please, if you are going to force me to do this, then I will do it. But may I make some requests? Two of them?”
“You want to set demands?”
“Requests, Ma’am,” I said. “What you’re asking me to do... for me it’s extremely difficult. It’s not that I won’t, it is that I can’t. This would help.”
There were a few ears twitches, but aside from that no other reaction. “We’ll listen,” she said.
“May I select my... partner?”
There was a momentary pause and then she said, “Agreed. And the other request?”
“Could it be private? I can’t perform for an audience. I would not be able to… do anything.”
“Really?” If she’d had eyebrows, she would’ve arched them. “No. If coercion of some sort is involved, we do not want you being alone.”
She was a fine one to talk about coercion. “Not a group. I cannot perform for a crowd.”
“Then one? The doctor?” she nodded her muzzle toward the physician.
“Ma’am, I…”
“A private room with only the doctor witnessing. It is all you will get.”
I hesitated, bit my lip, then slowly waved acceptance.
“Very well. Acceptable. And we will expect a full report of course.”
I sighed. “Yes, ma’am.”
“That is agreeable?”
“A. It is.”
“It is a deal then?”
“A deal.”
“Very good. We’ll call the constable in.”
“Constable?” I asked. “Escheri? Whatever for?”
“You were going to chose her,” she said after an almost imperceptible pause. “Weren’t you?”
“Her?” I shook my head and gave her a carefully controlled smile. “Good heavens, no. We’re just good friends. No, I choose you.”
There was one of those moments. She went absolutely motionless and for once I saw that control slip as her jaw gaped and she almost hissed. Heads turned as the others stared at her and then at me. It was a few long seconds before she composed herself enough to force out, “Me?”
“A,” I desperately fought back a grin. “You’re totally hot. I’ve always thought so. Hell we could even do it right here if you do insist. We can...”
“No,” she interrupted and I could see her ears tremble.
“Private would be better,” I agreed innocently, hoping I wasn’t rubbing it in too far. “Well, that was our deal, wasn’t it.”
She flinched at the reminder of the verbal contract and then jerked her hand in a spasmodic gesture of assent. “Yes,” she growled, choking the words out and glaring at me. “Private. This way. Doctor.”
She stood, flowing to her feet in a smooth unfolding of furry limbs and stared at me again. I clambered to my feet, a lot more awkwardly. The Doctor followed behind as the huffy Mediator led the way to one of the adjoining doors.
“Ashiri,” the one with the spectacles called and the chairwoman paused, looking around. “Don’t forget that we will, of course, expect a full report.”
That Mediator didn’t say anything, just literally bristled as she turned and stalked through the door. As I followed I know I saw other ears flickering but they all maintained perfect poker faces. The Rris doctor close on my heels closed the door behind us and leaned back against the wall there.
It was a small room; spartan, bright with sunlight and warm and somewhat stuffy. Windows above a window-seat wrapped around the far right corner let morning sunlight spill into the room. Multitudes of small, crude, lead-framed panes similar to the ones in the other room fractured and splintered the light, prisming fractal caustics and rainbow smears across the room. Unadorned white plaster covered the walls and the floor was polished maple. At least, the bits around the skirting boards were; most of the floor was covered by a mat: a pale tan covering of woven straw, like one of those Japanese mats. I wasn’t too surprised. I was understanding that this whole ordeal had been a setup, right from the start. On the other side of the room, over where the fractured sunlight splashed across the mat, the Mediator – Ashiri – was standing, regarding me. She lifted her head and regarded me with an utterly granite face. That was a tell that she was repressing some kind of emotion.
“Shall we get started?” I said brightly.
A jaw muscle twitched but she didn’t respond. The vest fell to the floor, and then the breeches. Without them she was about as naked as a Rris can get, which isn’t very. There was always all that fur. And it’s nothing like looking at a human in a fancy skintight hairy costume: everything under that hide, all the proportions and joints are indisputably... inhuman. It’s elegant, yes; it’s even beautiful, in the way that a cheetah coursing after its prey is beautiful, but it’s not the beauty that the human hindbrain and libido is wired to respond to. She stood stocky and defiant, traceries of scars winding through the fur on her chest, twin columns of dark nipples dotting her torso. About as erotic as a bollard. Of course the lack of clothing wasn’t a psychological hindrance to her. My bravado flickered and I ha
d to fight to keep the act going and hope she swerved first.
She placed hands on hips and demanded, “Now what?”
I took a couple of steps forward. She hesitated and then matched my steps, never taking her black eyes off mine. Her pupils were dilated to glittering black discs surrounded by amber. I swallowed and then undid my robe; letting it open, shrugging out of it, letting it fall.
Now her eyes moved. They lowered and she saw what different really meant. Her head twitched as she looked, from one part of my body to another, from hands to feet and all parts in between, as if she couldn’t decide what to stare at first, and the expression was... shock? No? Then what? I couldn’t read it. Slowly, she took another step, bringing her close enough so she could reach out and touch. But she didn’t. She looked up to stare back at me.
Her eyes were pools of pure black with only the thinnest thread of white circumnavigating them.
I stepped forward again, so close I was looking down into her face. I could feel the heat of her breath as she exhaled, could smell it; could smell her. I could see her nostrils flaring and her chest jerking as she verged on outright panting; see a fine twitch in her facial muscles and her ears as she fought to keep them upright. Slowly, I raised a hand: just reaching out to touch the bristling fur on her arm.
“No.” She jerked away from me and the flash of sharp teeth matched the white around her eyes. “No!” she said again, louder this time, and backed up, looking from me to the Doctor and back again. “This is not...” she hissed and cut herself off with a snap of her jaws. Then, without taking her eyes off me she scooped up her clothes and then edged around me, yanked the door open and - with a final sweep of her lashing tail - stormed out.
The doctor looked out after her, then at me. She seemed a little taken aback.
“Was it something I said?” I asked.
“I think it was the way you said it,” she said dryly, then flicked an ear. “Pity, that would have been interesting,” she said and looked over her shoulder as snarls sounded from the other room. “But not as interesting as things are going to get thanks to that little show,” she snorted huffily, and then hurried after the other. Raised voices came back through the door: “This session is over! Rot it! And no, it’s not relevant. And there will be no report!” And then another door slammed.