by Kay L. Ling
She smiled up at him, and the tenderness in his eyes made her heart beat faster. He bent to kiss her. Everything fled from her mind except the feel of his body against hers and the smell of the outdoors in his hair and clothing.
Muffled laughter and whispering snapped them back to reality. They burst apart and turned to see three wide-eyed females. One stood near the counter, the other two in the doorway. Lana wanted to sink through the floor. Their odor should have alerted her to their presence even before she heard them.
“We come back later,” said one, dropping her eyes and fighting back a smile. The other two cast their eyes downward but snuck furtive glances.
“No, No!” Lana said hastily. “Don’t leave! We were just . . .” Her voice trailed off. The young female in the doorway giggled. “Wait right here,” Lana told them. “I need to get more clothes from the back.” She escaped, leaving Jules to face the amused females.
Since she and Jules hadn’t set up piles of underwear or nightgowns, it wasn’t exactly a lie. She scooped some up and marched back to the counter, trying to look dignified, and plopped them on the counter beside the tunics and trousers. “You get one garment of each kind,” she told them.
All three crowded around the counter and started pawing through the clothes. “Wait!” she cried, cringing at the mess they were making. “I’ll help you find the right size.”
They froze and then stepped back, looking frightened.
“You first.” She gestured toward the oldest, who had graying black hair. Her nose was bigger than the younger breghlin, and her jowls more pronounced.
“We need these,” she said in a guttural voice. Females had higher voices than males, but there was nothing feminine about the tone. “Ours has patches on patches.” She looked down at her clothing. “Gem Master Elias says to burn them.”
They might not be keen on baths, but at least they welcomed new clothes, Lana thought with relief.
Picking up a tunic, the breghlin eyed it approvingly and then turned to the second female, who was about the same size, and held it up to her. “Seems plenty big, right?”
“It be perfick,” the other announced.
Lana found suitable trousers, and then waited on the second breghlin. She had a prominent chin and bushy black eyebrows that looked like two giant caterpillars. As soon as she received her clothing, she crumpled them into a ball. “They’s stiff as maraku bone, but a week of wearin’ em should fix that.”
The last and youngest of the group was a little harder to fit. She was short and nearly as wide as she was tall. The shortest pants in the pile looked about right, and Lana had no trouble finding a tunic that fit. Mission accomplished, she thought, feeling pleased with herself. All three clutched their new gray outfits and beamed with pleasure. You’d think she’d given them prom dresses.
Jules said, “We forgot to say, if you’re tired of gray, you can have any of these colors.”
“Color don’t matter,” the eldest said, but the youngest reached hesitantly for blue.
Lana said kindly, “Hand me back the gray and I’ll find your size in blue.”
She gave Lana a broad smile, revealing crooked yellowed teeth, and handed back the gray outfit.
“Oh,” Lana said, “You all need underpants and a nightgown.”
They promptly looked at the floor, maybe feeling awkward because Jules was there. The one with the caterpillar eyebrows said, “Don’t need. Don’t wear,” and then glanced at her companions who nodded in agreement.
“But you really must have these,” Lana insisted. She pulled a pair of shorts from the pile and held them out to the nearest breghlin. “Will these fit?”
She proceeded to pull them on over her pants, which made her look like a short, bowlegged superhero. Lana bit her lip to keep from laughing, and she didn’t dare look at Jules. He made a strangled noise, mumbled, “Excuse me,” and escaped to the back of the office.
The other two tried on their shorts the same way, and then tugged the shifts over their heads and examined one another critically. The first said, “Wear this to sleep? Dunno. Maybe. Whatcha think?” She ran her hands over her figure, shaping the garment to her squat, rather shapeless form, and looked down at herself, grinning. The other two winked and made low growling noises while licking their thick, fleshy lips.
Lana turned around, trying to regain her composure, but then she saw Jules shaking with silent laughter, and that pushed her over the edge. She coughed and thumped her chest to disguise her laughter. If the breghlin didn’t leave soon she was going to totally lose it and burst out laughing.
When she turned back around, the breghlin were pulling off their nightgowns and shorts and exclaiming over their “fine new clotheses.” She took a steadying breath, fighting back giggles, and said, “I think it’s time for your baths now.”
As they walked away, clutching their new clothes, she remembered she hadn’t given them combs and brushes, but she wasn’t about to call them back.
Jules came up behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “You’re doing great. I think you’ll be fine on your own now.”
He left before the second group arrived, and she was so busy the rest of the day that time passed faster than she expected. When Jules and Elias came to get her, she was surprised to see them.
Elias said brightly, “Good job, Lana! Everyone is clean and wearing their new clothes, and it’s time for dinner.”
“Dinner? It’s that late?” She felt weary in a pleasant sort of way. She had waited on a dozen females and twenty males and still had enough clothes to outfit several more.
Jules leaned on the counter. “I meant to check on you after lunch, but Franklin and I got sidetracked with unexpected jobs, and the bath monitor kept sending for me whenever someone refused to get into the barrel.”
“That’s okay. Everything went fine, but I must admit it was easier to work with the females. The males view dirt and odor as a badge of honor.”
Jules laughed. “Breghlin would sooner fight a pythanium than take a bath.”
He locked the office with a skeleton key and they started down the passageway.
Lana said, “They’re probably so used to the way they smell, they don’t mind it.”
“Some of them purposely splashed me with dirty water today,” Jules grumbled. “Franklin helped me dump the barrels, and then I went in and changed my clothes. Tell me I don’t smell like a breghlin.”
“No, and trust me, I’d tell you if you did. What about me? I was with them all day and didn’t have a chance to change clothes.”
“Well, there is a faint musk about you,” he said. “But the wild and primitive scent rather suits you.” He laughed at the stricken look on her face. “I’m teasing. You’re fine.”
“I’m not a fan of perfume,” she said, “especially Eau d’Manure. I hope you saved a bucket of water so I can wash before I go to bed. By the way, don’t expect me to stay up late. I’ve had one adventure after another today, starting with the crocodillos.”
“Dinner and a cup of fialazza should rejuvenate you,” Jules said.
“And that reminds me, we need to find you a place to sleep,” Elias said. “You’ve never spent the night at Shadowglade.”
“I’ve already worked that out.”
“You have?” they said.
“Yeah, I’m off to a good start with the female breghlin, and I figure if I spend the night in their dorm, I’ll get to know them even better.”
“You aren’t serious!” Jules said in a horrified tone.
“Maybe it’s not a bad idea,” Elias countered. “An evening of girl talk could provide valuable insights into the breghlin mind.”
“But it isn’t safe, Elias. They’re little more than savages!”
Lana laughed. “Well, according to the spell book, we’re savages, so I’ll fit right in.”
“Hey! There you are!” Franklin called as he walked toward them. “Dinner’s ready. It’s like a holiday—the servers don’t stink anymore
and they’re all wearing new clothes.”
“Franklin,” Jules said, “Come talk some sense into Lana.”
They all stopped in the passageway and Franklin said, “Nice to see you, Lana. I hear you got the Ministry running today.”
“I’m beat, but it went really well.”
“So, what am I supposed to talk you out of?”
Jules jumped in before she could answer. “She’s planning to spend the night with the female breghlin. She thinks it will be like a college dorm party, and she’ll get to know them better.”
Franklin laughed. “Females aren’t as bad as the males, but I don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into.”
“At least they smell better now. How bad can it be?”
“Let me put it to you this way,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips. “Picture yourself spending the night with a roomful of Klingon females.”
“Oh!” Lana said, and started to laugh. Klingons and breghlin didn’t look anything alike but they were both savage, distrusting, and ill-mannered. Jules and Elias’s blank looks made her laugh even more. It would take too long to explain about Klingons, so she didn’t bother. “I have my gems for protection and I’ll be careful,” she promised Franklin.
“You’d better be,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “If anything goes wrong, there’s no one to beam you up.”
Chapter 18
After a companionable dinner with Jules, Elias, and Franklin, Lana suggested they retire to the terrace, which had always been S’s favorite spot to relax. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but the respite would probably be brief, so they should enjoy the outdoors while they could.
The terrace was more cheerful now that the gnomes had claimed it. Elias had dumped S’s carnivorous plants, and Lana had filled the pots with flowers from the Fair Lands.
The men helped her dry the wrought iron table and chairs, and then they all sat down to nurse goblets of fialazza and enjoy the fresh air, doing their best to keep conversation light after a depressing analysis of their problems over dinner.
And it had been truly depressing. Lana had listened politely, but she hadn’t said much while they discussed the inaccessible armory, migrating crocodillos, and breghlin walking away from mining and agricultural jobs. To listen to them, you’d think S was winning despite being in a cage, but Lana refused to believe that. It took time to work out problems of this magnitude. She wished Elias would stop blaming himself for everything that went wrong. The ommort mirkstone fiasco still weighed heavily on him. In his present frame of mind, he focused on problems rather than positive developments. He should be happy they had found the staffs and shields, and rejoice over the growing number of gnomes with gem powers.
Lana finished her second goblet of fialazza just as the men’s conversation turned from breghlin baths to gnome militias. That was her cue to leave. She rose, excused herself, and declined Jules’s offer to walk her to the dorm. He was still uncomfortable about her staying there, but at least he had given up trying to talk her out of it.
After retrieving her backpack from the rear entry hall, she spent several minutes chatting with the door guards, and then went to bathe as best she could using a bucket of clean water. Her last stop was the linen room to get a pillow and blanket.
Onward, she told herself with a nervous smile.
As she headed for the dorm, she found herself walking slower and slower, plagued with second thoughts. She wanted to befriend the breghlin, but she had to admit, spending the night with them wasn’t the safest way. If she said the wrong thing and made them angry, she’d have only her gem powers to protect her, and as the men pointed out, breghlin were feral beings. Staring at the passageway floor, its stone blocks worn smooth by centuries of passing feet, she forced her feet to carry her forward and tried not to imagine what could go wrong. When she looked up, the dorm was just ahead. If she was going to change her mind, now was the time.
“Gimme that!”
“No!”
“Leave her alone!”
Lana stopped dead in her tracks, her hands going clammy as angry voices erupted from the dorm.
“Shut up an’ stay outta it!”
A resounding slap and a howl of rage made Lana’s mouth go dry. Any sensible person would run, she told herself, but morbid curiosity held her there. Grunts and scuffling feet echoed through the passageway.
“I’ll rip yer hair out!”
“Try it, I’ll bust yer jaw!”
Oh, that didn’t sound good. Lana inched forward, heart pounding. Comparing breghlin to Klingons wasn’t too far off the mark. What should she do? March in and try to break up the scuffle? What if they resented the interference and turned on her. Get a grip. She had told the men she was spending the night here, and if she backed out now, she’d never hear the end of it. She took a deep breath, stuck her pillow and blanket under her arm, and activated one of her lightgems.
Adopting the stern expression that always reduced her nieces and nephews to quivering jelly, she burst into the room, shouting, “Is there a problem in here?”
The breghlin’s collective intake of breath sounded like the hiss of an air hose. Everyone froze. She dumped her blanket and pillow on the floor and assessed the situation.
Two wall-hung mineral oil lamps shed a dim glow over the scene, and her lightgem shone like a spotlight on two females in the center of the room. One held a partially gnawed joint of meat out of reach of the other, who had a fistful of her hair and was about to rip it out.
Not only did Lana’s lightgem spotlight the combatants, it cast an eerie blue glow on her face, which could only help her cause. “What’s going on!” she bellowed.
The breghlin clutching her opponent’s hair let go and said weakly, “Didn’t have no dinner.” She stepped back, clearly frightened that Lana would punish her.
The breghlin with the coveted joint of meat growled and spat in her opponent’s face.
“No dinner. Whose fault is that?” called a sarcastic voice from the sidelines. “You was too busy sniffing after Oliver.”
Several breghlin snickered at that, but after looking at Lana’s unsmiling face, they put on comically stern expressions.
Lana took a quick head count and arrived at ten, which meant two of twelve servants were missing. Six were sitting on bedrolls; the other four were leaning against the wall. Except for the outspoken female, who didn’t seem afraid of her, they all eyed her warily.
Holding up the lightgem, Lana moved her hand slowly, illuminating each of the nervous breghlin. There might be more to this argument than a piece of meat, and it would be wise to get the whole story, but if these females were anything like her nieces and nephews, questioning them would result in a flurry of accusations and denials.
Lana set her backpack on the floor and went over to the female who had made the wisecrack. “You’re Tina Ann, aren’t you?”
The breghlin nodded, looking pleased that Lana remembered her.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
Tina Ann pointed to the female with the joint of meat. “Brenda Ann tooked the last piece of meat an’ brung it here. Maggie Ann, she didn’t get no dinner, but it be her own fault ‘cause she be late—an’ not for the first time, neither. Now she be tryin’ to take away Brenda Ann’s food.”
Lana briefly considered the matter. Maggie Ann shouldn’t have missed her meal, but the meat was likely Maggie Ann’s unclaimed dinner, and it wouldn’t hurt Brenda Ann to share it. Lana fixed Brenda Ann with a parental glare. “If you already had dinner, why can’t you share?”
Brenda Ann growled again, eyes narrowed. Then, she thrust the half-eaten joint at Maggie Ann. With a triumphant grin, Maggie Ann snatched it and took a bite.
“Now sit down an’ close yer mouths,” Tina Ann ordered, clearly the Alpha female of the group despite being no older than the rest.
Letting the matter drop, Lana claimed an empty spot near the door in case she needed to make a hasty retreat. As she spread out her bl
anket and pillow, she felt breghlin eyes boring into her.
“I’ll be spending the night here,” she announced. No one said a word. She sat down cross-legged, facing the group. “Relax. I don’t bite.” That produced a titter of nervous laughter. “The other two servers I met today, do they usually spend the night here?”
Encouraged by her friendlier tone, the breghlin stopped eyeing her as if they expected her to turn them into rats. The ones leaning on the wall came over to their bedrolls and sat down. Their ages ranged from around fifteen to forty.
Tina Ann said, “The other two, they be stayin’ with their mates.” She smirked and added, “Maybe we has one less here if Maggie Ann gets Oliver to speak for her.”
Snorts of laugher and lascivious growls rose from the group. They seemed far more at ease now that Lana was sitting on the floor with them.
Another female said slyly, “Oliver be sniffin’ after Lou Ann a couple months ago, but she wouldn’t have him.” A few females nodded and snickered.
“Looks ern’t enough. Oliver be dumb as a stone.”
Judging by the defensive tone, this must be Lou Ann.
“Looks be good ‘nough for me,” one of the others said, and several of the breghlin laughed.
Lana bit her lip and tried not to smile. Looks? All the males were hideous, but apparently female breghlin didn’t think so. Did breghlin date? She had never considered the matter. What kind of gift would a male bring a female? A leftover joint of meat? A piece of rotting fruit? A crocodillo head?
Maggie Ann said indignantly, “The dumb ones left. Oliver, he stay an’ has a job.”
No one argued with that. Lana deactivated the lightgem. The room felt more intimate without the extra light and made a better atmosphere for girl talk. “So, what do you look for when you chose a mate?” she asked the group in general.
“Gotta be strong and mean,” one said emphatically.
“Strong makes sense, but why mean?” Lana asked.
“Gotta be mean if he wants ter be important,” another answered, and several nodded in agreement.