‘The world?’
‘The spirit of the world.’
‘And you and he went at it like bunnies in the sunshine.’
‘I’d say the relationship was fully consummated, yeah.’ She drained the goblet. ‘Now, lie back and spread your legs.’
Lily’s eyes widened. ‘But, Mistress…’
‘Oh no, you do as I say, remember, and if I say you’ll lie back and make lots of little mewling noises for my pleasure, then that’s what you do.’
The half-succubus gave her a grin and settled back onto the bed. ‘Yes, Mistress.’
Quatilan
Like the Castle of Bones, the portal in Quatilan was in a chamber beside the throne room in the city’s palace. Faran, Lily’s father, was waiting in it when they stepped through wearing a deep red robe and a smile. He gave Ceri a sweeping bow.
‘Welcome to Quatilan, Overlord,’ the incubus intoned. ‘I’ve done my best to arrange things as you asked. I have a prospective new Lord for you. Might I say that you are looking stunning today?’
‘You can, thank you,’ Ceri replied, ‘but you’re still not getting under this dress.’
‘Not that it would take a lot of effort, Lady.’
‘Practically none. Lilith can attest to that.’
Lily gave her father a smile. ‘It does provide excellent accessibility, yes.’
‘All right, where’s this Lord you’ve discovered?’ Ceri started toward the door at the end of the room. Quatilan Palace seemed to be fairly functional, built of grey stone and not heavily ornamented. It made a certain amount of sense; Molech, the previous owner, had been more about power than the appearance of it.
‘She’s waiting in the throne room. I think you’ll be pleased with my choice. She’s not entirely sure she wants the position, but she’s strong-willed and a good administrator.’
Ceri could feel the minds waiting in the room beyond and she smiled. ‘I’ve already met her, haven’t I?’
‘The Lady is most wise, and very difficult to give pleasant surprises to.’
There were quite a few people in the throne room, and Ceri ignored them entirely as she walked from the door to the gilded stone throne. She handed her staff over to Lily and then settled onto the seat, crossing her legs and adjusting her skirts before settling back and looking around.
She found herself looking at the tops of a lot of heads. They came in various colours; demon hair and skin came in far more variation than humans’ did. Her eyes scanned across until she found a waterfall of black. ‘Jubilia, come forward.’
The woman straightened up and walked forward, keeping as much composure as she could. She was a Lorril, a succubus currently, and could assume whatever shape, or even sex, that she wished, just as Faran could. The form she had selected, however, was the one Ceri had last seen her in, a beautiful, fair skinned woman with long, flowing, black hair. She was dressed in a black gown which hung around her neck and dropped into a deep cowl neck leaving her back and sides exposed. The skirt hugged her hips and legs like a glove.
‘Lady Ayasha,’ she said, executing a perfect curtsey.
‘Faran says you would make a Lord suitable to my requirements. What is your opinion?’
‘I have no doubt that I would make an effective administrator for the region, Overlord. My concern is a simple one. Lorril do not become Lords, generally. It is difficult for us to gain the respect of other demons.’
Ceri nodded; she had basically the same understanding. Lorril were actually very powerful demons, but they fed on other demons through sex. Frequently they were considered little more than prostitutes; the only prostitutes in a world which did not have them in other forms. ‘Well, putting it simply, I need a good administrator to run this region because my own castle sits on the edge of it. I’m appointing you Lord here and if anyone objects to that they can come to the Castle of Bones and discuss it with me. I haven’t actually opened it up yet, but I remember there being an extensive torture chamber.’
She rose to her feet and stepped to one side, taking her staff back from Lily. ‘Take your throne, Lady Jubilia.’
The Lorril hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then pulled herself up straight and stepped forward, taking her seat. She crossed her legs and sat with her back straight and her hands on the arms of the chair. ‘Thank you, Lady Ayasha.’
Ceri leaned toward her, her mouth close to the Lorril’s ear. ‘You might want to consider getting a cushion for that thing.’
Jubilia smiled regally at her bowing subjects. ‘I have come to the same conclusion very quickly,’ she said under her breath. ‘How did Molech sit on this thing?’
‘He was all arsehole, there wasn’t much of his butt in contact with the seat.’
The new Lord of Quatilan bit her lip to keep from laughing.
The Castle of Bones
‘This,’ Lily said, ‘is a torture chamber.’
‘Uh-huh,’ Ceri replied, her mouth hanging open as she looked around the room. It was, as her memory had indicated, on one of the lower floors, buried deep within the mountain. It was dimly lit and lined on both sides with cells where the prisoners could be kept between interrogations. She had not been able to remember what it looked like; her memory of it was coming from a distant ancestor and those memories tended to be fragmentary. Seeing it was something else.
‘I was expecting braziers and various pointy things,’ Lily said. ‘Some stuff for securing prisoners. A rack. A rack might have been fun.’
‘There’s a rack,’ Ceri said, pointing to one of the machines in the room. It was far from the only device designed to inflict pain. She had the feeling that the only way she was going to figure out what some of them did was to put someone in them and try them out.
‘This is a quite amazing collection of torture machines,’ Faran agreed. He seemed rather more comfortable with them than the women were. Then again, he was more used to this world than they were. ‘Some of them are relatively recent designs. None of them later than Molech’s rule here, but some of them undoubtedly date back to Gorefguhadget.’ He stroked his fingers over wood left polished by age. ‘If you were thinking of ripping all this out, I should think twice. Aside from the scare factor, this place should be maintained as a museum.’
Ceri walked over to a machine which consisted of some form of frame built around a chair. ‘I don’t even know what most of them do.’
‘That one…’ Faran walked over and pointed upward, indicating a dual-pronged hook suspended above the chair. ‘The hooks go into the nostrils, or are pushed through the tongue. The victim is strapped into the chair and the rope is tightened…’ Ceri and Lily winced at the same time. ‘For female victims,’ he went on, apparently feeling the need to educate them, ‘there is another obvious place to fix the hooks.’
‘I’m going to be outraged right after I throw up,’ Ceri told him.
‘Some demons live considerably longer than humans, and one or two have spent their entire adult lives perfecting methods of inflicting pain. Lack of empathy for their experimental subjects obviously helps in making them diligent in their work.’
‘Obviously,’ Ceri agreed. She found another device which appeared to be designed to hold someone bent over while it forced a stake through them, lengthwise. The gearing on it suggested it would do it very slowly. ‘I think I’ve seen enough of this for one day.’
‘Mistress should make sure Hiffy stocks our private room with more conventional devices,’ Lily suggested.
‘I’ll do that,’ Ceri replied, heading for the door.
They made their way up to the library. There were comfortable chairs there set in a reading room with two wings on either side packed with racks of books and scrolls. The whole rear wall of the room was a mural telling the story of Gorefguhadget, Ceri’s distant draconic ancestor, once Overlord of All Demons himself. Ceri settled herself into a chair and watched, amused, as Faran wandered into the stacks. Ceri had looked through them briefly the last time she had been here.
‘What service will I be fulfilling for the Overlord?’ Faran called out, his voice a little muffled by the volume of paper between them.
‘Officially you’re my major-domo and advisor,’ Ceri replied. ‘You’ll be standing at my right when I’m on the throne and whispering in my ear when I need information. However, what you’re really going to be doing is teaching me to be a demon.’
The incubus’ head appeared from between a pair of racks. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘If I’m going to do this, I need to understand my subjects better. I definitely need to speak and read Devotik better than I do and I’d like to learn Ctholnaraeic properly. I mean, I understand a few bits, but basically it’s gibberish.’
‘I can’t teach you Ctholnaraeic. My understanding of it probably isn’t much better than yours.’
‘No, but I know a man who can and I think knowing Devotik better would help. I need to learn proper behaviour, social mores, natural resources, geography…’
‘That smith we met at the Wintergreen estate?’ Lily said. ‘He was really keen to get his hands on that silver chain of mine. Demon silver must have something fae silver and normal silver doesn’t.’
Ceri nodded. ‘Some impurity not naturally found in the other worlds I’d imagine.’
‘So, opportunity for exports. Something for Ophelia to negotiate.’
‘Ophelia the Unseelie representative in London?’ Faran asked, poking his head out again.
‘Not any longer,’ Ceri replied. ‘Now she’s the Demon Realm ambassador to the Seelie Court.’
Faran gave a chuckle. ‘I can see I have some catching up to do as well.’ He moved into a new walkway and gasped. ‘Well… I never thought I’d see… and a Bolishab…’
‘You’re making far less sense than usual, Faran,’ Ceri called out.
The incubus emerged from the stacks holding a large, fairly thick, leather-bound book with gold lettering on the cover. Ceri could make out numerals from where she was. ‘This,’ Faran said, ‘is going to be your language tutorial. This is “One Thousand Nights” by Obeshina, and a Bolishab edition no less.’
‘Sorry, is that like “The Thousand and One Nights” or something?’
‘A combination of that and the Kama Sutra. Obeshina was a courtesan to Gorefguhadget, a Lorril and a very talented one. She wrote “One Thousand Nights” to entertain Lenadenora, her master’s wife. Supposedly they got on very well. It’s set out a little like “Thousand and One Nights” with a Lorril coming to the room of a great Lord every night knowing she might be killed, except that here it’s the Lord’s wife she fears. Every night the Lorril teaches the lady another way of pleasing the Lord, and every night the lady spares the Lorril so that she can learn more.’
Ceri raised an eyebrow. ‘You want me to study Devotik with you through the medium of a fantasy sex manual?’
Faran looked a little hurt. ‘The language is beautiful. A little archaic now, but I think that should suit your persona as Gorefguhadget’s successor and you can always learn more modern idiom by listening to people here.’
‘Okay, what’s so special about the edition?’
‘Oh, Bolishab was one of the finest binders and publishers of his age. There are, maybe, four copies of this book in existence, and not too many of his other works about. Despite the sophistication and enchantment, they just don’t last. It’s said that Obeshina dictated directly to Bolishab’s scribe, so the reproduction is the best, and the illustrations…’
‘Wait… you’re saying that that book was printed and bound during Gorefguhadget’s reign?’ Faran nodded, his eyes on the pages of the book. ‘That makes it thousands of years old!’
He stepped forward, turning the open book and handing it to her. ‘Yes, and still just as beautiful as it ever was.’
Ceri looked down, expecting to see something a little like a woodcut or a rough painting, but she had to admit that the image Faran had selected to show her was both erotic and exceptionally well painted. The style was amazingly modern, reminding Ceri of something from a fantasy book cover with a couple engaged in sex under a stream of bright sunlight from a window. The couple were both female, probably, but it was a little difficult to tell for sure since one seemed to be covered in black scales and the other was an iridescent shimmer of colour in the shape of a woman. Their bodies were twined together, lips meeting in a passionate kiss.
‘It’s said that Lenadenora herself posed for the pictures with Obeshina,’ Faran said.
Flickers of remembered pleasure passed through Ceri’s mind. She could almost feel the Lorril’s lips on hers. ‘She did. I think she enjoyed Obeshina’s company a lot.’ She reached out to the side of the chair where Lily was perched. ‘Not unlike a succubus I know and me.’ She glanced back at him. ‘What about that other matter?’
‘Oh, yes… I located it. It’s in a locked cell in the basement of Quatilan Palace. I must say I was a little surprised that you wanted it. You know you can’t use the contents, or even touch it?’
‘Uh, what’s he talking about, Mistress?’ Lily’s slight alarm came over their link; she was quite capable of guessing what was being discussed. Ceri looked back at her pet and tilted her head slightly. ‘Okay, so he’s talking about the sword and bracers I used on you. Why?’
Ceri took a breath, considering her answer, and let it out. ‘When you had the dungeon put into High Towers, I thought it was a frivolous waste of several big favours people owed you. And then you explained that the room could be used as a prison for you if your demon side got too dominant.’
Lily nodded. ‘I may need it more now than ever.’
‘Well, I need this. I need to know that there’s someone who can stop me if I need stopping.’
‘That’s not going to…’
‘I lied about not remembering what happened when Anann was using my body. I don’t know whether she did it or it was the pendant, but I remember all of it. I remember killing hundreds of people. I remember wrapping my hands around the throat of some nameless Sidhe and squeezing the life out of him. I remember the power and the sense of right. It didn’t feel wrong at all. The power was intoxicating and I know I could have that kind of power again eventually, on my own without a goddess to grant it.’ She paused, adjusting her skirts over her legs even if they did not need it. ‘You need your mistress to keep your demon in check. I need my pet armed to make her immune to my magic to keep me in check.’
‘All right,’ Lily said softly.
‘Good. I’ll open the gate through to Quatilan later and you can go get it.’ She grinned. ‘Besides, with those bracers on I think you could boss me about. It’d be nice to play pet for you again.’
Lily giggled. ‘Mistress has a one track mind… thankfully.’
Kennington, London, February 24th
‘What day is it?’ Ceri asked as she stepped through the portal into the front hall of High Towers. ‘Seriously, that place throws my internal clock out the window.’
Gwyn smiled at her. ‘It’s Sunday, the afternoon of Sunday to be precise.’ She frowned slightly as Lily and Faran stepped through carrying a large, carved, wooden box between them. ‘And what have we here?’
‘Oh, you haven’t met Faran. Faran is Lily’s father. And Faran, this is Gwyn my great-great-great, and so on, grandmother.’
‘A pleasure to make your acquaintance, ma’am,’ Faran said, managing a bow while still holding the box.’
Gwyn nodded back to him. ‘A Lorril. We’ll have to have a… chat later…’
‘I don’t need to hear that,’ Ceri sing-songed.
‘…however I was referring to the box,’ Gwyn concluded.
‘Oh, it’s sorcery-proof armour for Lily to wear if I ever turn evil.’
‘Oh,’ Gwyn said, ‘Well, Lily always could accessorise.’
Battersea
Ceri really wanted to get into fur as they made their way to the island in the middle of the boating lake where Alexandra had her base of operations in Battersea Pa
rk. However, she had Lily with her and she would have just had to change back when she got there so it seemed kind of pointless.
Of course, Alexandra already had tea brewing when they arrived, and as soon as they sat down a pair of grey-furred arms looped around their waists, squeezing until the Alpha had to tell Michael to let them go before they burst.
‘That’s pretty jewellery, Lily,’ Alexandra said as she handed over a mug of tea. ‘Fae-silver?’
‘Uh-huh. Fairy-silver slave chain, though the fae don’t normally make them. I can remove this one, unlike the demon-silver one, but I like it.’
‘It does look good on you. Michael has briefed us on what happened in Otherworld, so there’s no need to explain all that. I take it you’ve been organising things in the Demon Realm?’
‘I needed to get Faran back here,’ Ceri said. ‘I promised I would. I also had a Lord to set up in the nearest city to the castle and some staff for the place to organise. I’m holding a meeting of the Lords at the Castle of Bones, uh… It’ll be the day after Lily’s birthday. Oh, and I’ve apparently married the planet.’
Michael gave a surprised bark and Alexandra laughed. ‘Some form of ritual congress.’
‘With a spirit of some sort,’ Ceri agreed.
‘Mind you,’ Lily said, ‘you should have seen her writhing around in her sleep. And the moaning…’
‘Yes, well it felt very real, but I knew it was a dream,’ Ceri said, her cheeks colouring.
‘The Greeks called it hieros gamos,’ Alexandra said, ‘a “holy marriage.” Generally it was enacted by two people representing gods. Zeus and Hera for the Greeks, Dumuzid and Inanna for the Sumerians. At least you didn’t have a physical lover to deal with.’
‘Small mercies. How are things going with the power station?’
There was a subtle shift in the position of the arms around their waists as Michael became human. ‘We’ve successfully adjusted the perimeter runs to accommodate keeping an eye on things. From what I’m hearing, everything is working over there. There was some noise about shutting it down after the dragon incident, but no one knew how to and it seems to be doing exactly what you said it would since so I think they’ve decided to just go with it. Cheryl could tell you more.’
Thaumatology 11 - For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll Page 20