by Aaron Crash
She looked at him like he was dog crap, stupid dog crap. “I want a husband. And not some vassal, but someone who is worthy of me, who I can respect. Believe me, I will be more powerful than any of your wives. You will rule me, I will rule them, and I will inflict happiness on them. Now that we no longer have to fear the Zothoric, we can create an empire that spans multiple worlds, whole galaxies, and I will be there by your side, the two of us.”
It was a lot to take in. And if Hwedo joined his Escort, swaggering around and bragging she was the alpha wife, well, that would be the end of any kind of domestic tranquility.
Worse yet, he could imagine Heridan and Hwedo talking, and the two of them together just might want to create a galactic empire, cue Star Wars music.
Steven had to laugh. Who knew peacetime would be so complicated?
Hwedo narrowed her eyes. Laughter obviously wasn’t what she’d been looking for. She left the easy chair and sat in front of him on the bed. He smelled her dragon scent, a fresh odor, reminiscent of spring flowers, but less florid, more of a clean scent—a spring forest redolent of dew and dawn. She took his hand in hers. Her fingers felt rough and strong. “I was Hwedo Sata, and I would’ve ruled the world.” She had softened toward him. “Would you like to hear the rest of my story?”
The heat of her, the smell of her, new and different, had Steven’s heart beating fast. He felt a knot of lust in his belly. “I would, Hwedo, but we do need to talk about the doors.”
“I know nothing of the doors,” she said. “I was flying when I saw your strange pointy-eared wife chained to the chair. The slatherack would’ve eaten her easily. In the fire desert, even the desert djinn, no matter how violent they are, will help someone fight the slatherack. They are terrible creatures. I was following the laws of the land, something I learned during my exile there.”
“What about Shamhat?” Steven asked.
She patted his hand. “I don’t know. We were knocked through the Yellow Ronin’s portal spell during that battle in the firestorm, and I woke up in the sand, alone. Shamhat wasn’t there. I tried Magica Divinatio, since I am a very powerful sorceress, skilled in all the magic available to us except for Magica Porta and the Alpherian abilities. Despite my power, I was never shown the fate of my sister wife.”
“And you lived in the fire desert all that time?” he asked.
Hwedo nodded. “Alone. I was alone much of the time, until I found my little blossom, and we were happy for long months. Until we weren’t.” Hwedo’s eyes dropped. “Love is cruel.”
“So you lost her?” he asked.
“I have lost everything.” Hwedo wasn’t about to cry, she was too strong for that, but her smile was sad. “Love is complicated even when it’s not cruel.” She shook away her sadness. Her eyes blazed with confidence. “I am the very best of lovers, and all want me. You want me, don’t you, Steven Drokharis?”
“You’re beautiful, Hwedo,” he said. “Of course I want you.”
“Then we should seal our union with passion.” She stood up and started the process of stripping herself out of the multiple layers of her desert robes. There were buckles and sashes and buttons and zippers everywhere.
He stood and grabbed her hand. “Wait, not yet. I have to know more... about your life, but mainly about that world where you were. Were there elves?”
“What’s an ‘elves’?” Hwedo asked. She shoved him. “And if you grab me, you have to grab me hard, hold me down. I’ll tell you how I like sex. I am very specific about what I like. With my little blossom, I had to pretend some, but I won’t have to with you. You have the power to take me.”
Steven backed up a bit. “Wait. Okay, so the woman you saved on the chair, she had pointed ears, was tall, slender, and very beautiful. She’s an elf. Or you might’ve seen dark blue people with white hair.”
The Malian dragon shook her head. “No, none of that. The djinn have dark blue skin, but they also have very frightening faces, at least the men do, and they have four arms. They are the descendants of a demon, one of the seven, if stories are to be believed. Why do you want to know if I saw elves?”
He explained about the Night Lance and the elven weapons they’d seen in Moab. And he told her how Quinnestri had been kidnapped when they’d left Xanadu. The elf queen had not seen who had grabbed her or anything. She’d walked through the portal, and an instant later, she was chained to the chair on the sand, powerless.
“I don’t know anything about the pointy-eared woman or her kidnapping,” Hwedo said. “However, it seems that someone is toying with you. Have you not tried using Magica Divinatio to see who it could be?”
“I have,” Steven said. “So far, I haven’t been shown much, except for a poker game with my foster father when I was a kid. Not much help there.” Skill versus luck... and the gambler had said it was a little bit of both. Where was Joe Whipp? And what did he think of his foster son ruling the world?
Hwedo had half of her robes off, showing the supple dark skin of her cleavage. The woman let a hand drift down to brush the edge of her breast. He wondered what her nipples looked like, but he made no move toward her.
Hwedo got angry with him. “Why are you simply standing there? Why aren’t you charging over here and stripping me and forcing your lust on me? It has been a very long time since I’ve been with a man. Rahaab only liked to mate as dragons, and it wasn’t as nice, believe me. While I was aroused by his fire and scales, there is something to be said for a soft, human touch.”
Caressing her skin, her eyes went far away. “Shamhat, Bolour, and I would play games with each other. It was fine. They knew what I liked.” Her eyes found his. “I will tell you what I like.”
For her, it was a done deal. She wanted him, they would get naked, and she’d school him on how she liked sex.
Steven had more important concerns. “I have a lot to consider, Hwedo, and there is a petition process to becoming one of my wives. It wouldn’t be fair if I—”
She cut him off. “Of course I will be your wife. I will not petition for the role. No, I demand that you strip me and fuck me, right now.”
Steven shook his head. “No. I have to find out who kidnapped one of my wives, and if it’s the same person who armed the cabal of Dragonlords who ambushed me. You can wait.”
Hwedo’s face twisted in disbelief. She drew her robes closed. “I can wait? I will not be dishonored like this. I was going to tell you the rest of my story, and I was going to let you have me, but now? Now, I think you are right. I will put on this ring. You have lost your chance with me forever!”
And avoided a whole new world of crazy. “You’re free to stay, Hwedo, but you have to behave yourself. You know what kind of power I wield and how strong my Escort is. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
“I already regret everything. I shouldn’t have rescued your elf bitch. And I shouldn’t have followed you through the door.” She slipped the freedom ring onto her finger. She stared at him and shook her head. “Now, I see who you truly are. You’re just a little boy.”
Steven laughed. “Sure, the little boy who got rid of the Zothoric. Which was something your old man was afraid to do.”
He left her there in the room.
In the hallway, Aria frowned at him. “Did you kill her?”
He quirked an eyebrow at her. “What do you think?”
Aria sighed. “No, and so we have to consider what she will do.”
Heridan saw the expression on his face. Her eyes turned black and she opened her mouth full of fangs. Morta dribbled down the side of her face out of her inky black hair. “If this chick loses it, we can eat her soul, right?” That question came with its own smirk.
Nefri sneered as well.
Only Uchiko showed any kind of compassion. “It will take some time for Hwedo to adjust. I will talk to her. While we weren’t close when Rahaab was alive, we did know each other.”
Before he could stop her, Uchiko had vanished into the room, part SerpentGrace, part mad ninj
a skills.
Steven stood in the hallway, waiting for the fight to start.
He heard only murmuring.
“I have to go check in with Sabina.” Steven walked down the hallway with Heridan, humming Reggie’s song.
Aria joined him. He was kind of surprised when the Indian woman took his hand. She squeezed it, and they kept on walking. Coming from Aria, it was as good as a pep talk.
They would find whoever had kidnapped Quinnestri and get to the bottom of the strange door game he’d played on the African plain.
Chapter Fourteen
STEVEN AND ARIA COLLECTED Quinnestri, who was in the main room of the ranch house. They walked through the gardens, and that’s when Mouse joined them. The four of them found Sabina on her back porch, nursing Reggie.
It was late afternoon, and the sky was full of big bruised clouds, which dropped the temperature twenty degrees. Instead of ninety, it was seventy. The wind swept in from the west, but the windbreak kept them out of its path. The whistle and whoosh of the breezes was soothing, perfuming the air with the scent of the hot sagebrush.
Blackfoot, the winged black wolf, lay asleep at Sabina’s feet. Zoey, in her wolf form, was nearby, snoozing as well.
They weren’t the only ones. The baby had drifted off to sleep in her mother’s lap. Sabina gave them all her best mother bear glare with her eyes glowing green. “We can talk, but we have to do it quietly. If Reggie wakes up, I’ll have to murder all of you.” She tucked her breast pads into the cups of her bra and shouldered her brassiere back on.
She then gave Mouse an angry look. “And what do you want? You’ve been coming around to my house more and more. You’ve never been all that friendly with me, so I don’t know what you want.” Sabina then answered her own question. “Oh, so you’re thinking about motherhood, Mouse? We have some extra tanaquil if you want to start taking it.” The Latina woman smiled, and it wasn’t nice. “I would like to see how well you do, chica. I’ve seen how selfish you can be.”
Mouse winced. “Wow. There’s just like no filter there. Like zero filter.”
Sabina wasn’t through. “Aria, you’ll need to perfect your Exhalants. We will have need of your acid breath soon, I think. And as for Quinnestri?” Sabina fixed her gaze on the elf. “¡No manches! She has woes of her own, but she can keep her mind off them by burying her face between Abby Free’s legs. Isn’t that right, Quinnie?”
“That’s enough, Sabina,” Steven said forcefully. “Mouse is right, you can’t just say whatever you want.”
Mouse nodded. “And for the record, I’m not going to get pregnant, Sabina. It won’t ever happen. Like... ever. Because you’re right, I’m way too selfish. Besides, I know where we keep the tanaquil. I can help myself. That won’t happen though.”
Sabina narrowed her eyes and frowned. “A prince. The father of peace. Love and sorrow are there, but hasn’t that always been the case, Melissa?”
“I’m Mouse,” the blonde said. “And you better start being nicer to us, Tessa and Zoey in particular, because we’re helping you with Reggie. How much worse would it be if you were alone?”
Aria shook her head at them. “Enough of this. We’re not here to talk about the family, or Sabina’s behavior. We have to figure out the nature of our enemy. Sabina, have you seen anything?”
“If I haven’t, she hasn’t,” Quinn insisted. “This is ridiculous. We are blind. Am I wrong, Sabina?”
The green fire in Sabina’s eyes flared. Reggie’s skin glowed in response—the baby was taking the Animus she needed.
The light in Sabina’s eyes faded, and Reggie’s body returned to its natural color. The Latina Magician blinked, sightless again. “You’re wrong about so many things, Quinnie, most of all about the role you played in all the deaths. Those worlds, lost to the Great Devouring, weren’t your fault. Like all of us, you did the best you could.” Sabina sighed. “I have been so on edge lately, and I don’t know why. Mis amigos, I am so sorry. It’s not just Reggie—there’s something else. A presence. I can almost see him when I am in the Divination magic, almost, as if he’s right there on the edge of my vision. And I do believe it’s a him.”
She paused, thinking, holding her baby.
Steven sat down, but the three women with him kept on standing.
Mouse drifted over to pet Zoey as she slept.
Blackfoot worked his legs, dreaming of something, maybe chasing a squirrel? Or maybe he was chasing crows through the air. The extra skin between his legs, his gliding skin, wobbled with the exertion.
“I could see about healing your eyes so you would not need the magic to see,” Quinnestri offered. “While FleshForge is powerful, Lyran magic is superior to the Alpherian sorcery.”
The Latina Magician shook her head. “No, I don’t think that’s true. Your fear makes you arrogant. I need to stay in the magic, as much as I can, to remember that life is truly precious, that my memories are not so poisonous, and the future not so treacherous. I live here, now, and the Divination reminds me of that. But thank you.” She nodded at Quinn, who wasn’t too thrilled with her response.
Sabina continued. “And I know about your vision of the poker table with your father, Steven. Luck or skill? That is the question. For us, it has been both, si? For most people it is. Maybe your foster father is the key to this puzzle. Maybe if we can find him, we can find an answer.”
Steven hadn’t expected this. “I don’t understand how Joe Whipp could have anything to do with the elves. The Lyra aren’t exactly excited about outsiders, not at this point.”
“Think it over,” Sabina said. She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “And Quinn, thank you for coming. We need your sexuality, and though you are confused, all will be made clear. That is the nature of the world. Wait long enough, in the same place, and you will find your place, even if that means leaving. Especially if that means leaving.”
“Pretty sure that’s from a fortune cookie,” Mouse said sarcastically. “Ha, Sabina, see? I can say whatever I think as well.”
Instead of lashing out, Sabina settled a hand on Reggie, who stretched and yawned, but stayed asleep. Steven thought it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
“You might as well start on the tanaquil sooner rather than later, Mouse,” Sabina said. “I’d like Reggie to have someone to play with that’s closer to her age.”
Mouse flinched as if Sabina had slapped her.
“Now, all of you leave. I want to sleep while I can,” Sabina said.
And just like that, they were dismissed. Aria and Quinnestri left together, chatting, while Mouse stayed, brow furrowed.
Steven wondered if the blonde was thinking of getting pregnant. Mouse as a mother was kind of an odd idea. Well, she’d never get the chance if Sabina killed her with Impetim magic for saying something sarcastic. Steven took Mouse’s hand and walked to the back door.
Sabina’s voice came to them. “Again, lo siento, mis amigos. I’ve not been myself. Even now, I was rude. I’ll try to be better.”
Mouse turned and gave Sabina a smile. “You’ve always been the wisewoman, Sabina, not the pain in the ass. That was my job for a long time. I guess it’s only fair you get your turn.”
The petite blonde then disappeared into the house, leaving Steven behind.
Steven walked back to his wife and baby. He kissed her cheek, kissed her breast, and then pressed his lips against Reggie’s head. His little girl smelled so good. He wished he could just stay and enjoy his time with them. Unfortunately, the fact that Sabina was troubled, and a little afraid of this ghostly man on the edge of her vision, made him want to solve that mystery more than ever.
Sabina saw it. “We will be okay, mi amor. The worst fight is behind us. Not that our fighting is done, nor is our fear. But the fear and the fighting are a part of our lives, and we must find peace inside the chaos.” The woman grinned at herself. “That fucking Mouse is right. I am sounding like a fortune cookie.”
The clouds let out a little rumbl
e of thunder. Sabina grimaced. “So now what do I do? If I move, Reggie might wake up. If I stay, either the thunder or the lightning might wake her up. Oh, this life. This baby.”
“Stay,” Steven said. “That Wyoming sky could go either way. It might just stay dark and cool, or it might rain like hell.”
“Luck?” she asked.
“We’ve been lucky for a long time,” he said.
“I have been.” The Magician smiled. “I met you. I met Prudence, and I met Uchiko, and I got to play with so many of your beautiful wives, Steven. We are blessed. Perhaps it’s not luck. Perhaps it’s all just blessings, and our job is to be grateful for them all.” She chuckled, softly, carefully, so she wouldn’t wake the baby. “And that is what I will do, my Prime. I will be grateful for you, for our healthy baby who sings her song to the universe, and for our life here.”
“What about Hwedo?” Steven asked, kneeling down. “Do you see if she has a place here with us?”
Sabina thought about that. “That woman, that wife, she is terrified. She uses a mask of arrogance to cover that fear. She is like Quinnestri in that way. Will she find a place among us? Once you hear the rest of her story, you will understand. Know this, though, her time in the fire desert, on that distant world, changed her. If a Dragonsoul spends too much time alone, they can lose themselves. We were meant to be together, in families such as this. Hwedo was lost for two years, and each of those days marked her.”
Steven lightly tapped Sabina’s leg. “Yeah, there’s no one else here, so I have to make the joke about how your prophecies can be really frustrating sometimes.”
“You know about Magica Divinatio,” the Magician said. “You know the swirl of time, space, and memory.”
“I do,” he agreed.
Sabina sighed. “You need to leave now, or I swear, Impetim spells, right up your culo.”
Steven laughed and left her, making his way through her bungalow to the northern gardens. He traced his way through the statues of their fallen and wound up at the gate to the pool in the northeastern part of the compound.