Blood Lies (Dark Brothers of the Light #9) (27 page)

Disharyl rocked him like a baby. "I love
you. I am sorry there is so little I can do."

Jingen wept.

She opened his shirt to have a look at the
marks the blood-slaves and Anksha had left on her son and saw the
first red welts and splotches of the withering. "Give me their
names. I cannot do anything about Anksha, but I can see that these
vile myn cannot touch you."

Jingen opened his mother's bodice and began
to suckle. She stroked him, and then pulled her skirts up exposing
herself. Jingen's fingers went down to her slit, fondling her sweet
parts. Disharyl gave a soft noise of pleasure. She would not have
him much longer; her son was dying. What time they had left she
would make as pleasant as possible.

* * * *

Cordwainer and Isranon sat in the sitting
room of Isranon's suite, sipping brandy from a pair of crystal
snifters that Cordwainer had brought along from his home in
Ildyrsetts. The older mage stared into his glass from time to time
as if trying to see something in its depths.

"By our customs," Cordwainer said, "it was
unseemly that they spent the night alone together in the forest. By
the customs of my people, Chinisi's honor has been compromised. She
is considered tainted by scandal."

"They had no choice," Isranon said.

"Yes, well, I understand that. However,
Chinisi is stained by the rumor of impropriety. Women of my people
are expected to arrive at their marriage bed virgin. Because
Chinisi spent the night with Stygean, it will always be insinuated
that he has been intimate with her."

"He wasn't."

Cordwainer pulled at his lower lip. "Be that
as it may, the perception is what counts most. Some young,
ambitious hot-bloods have been known to kidnap young girls from
upper class houses in order to force a marriage above their
stations. And they usually get away with it. At least until someone
decides to either poison them or stick them in the back."

Isranon shook his head, not knowing what to
say to that.

"My wife still believes that Chinisi's
beauty would be sufficient to win her a husband of high estate. I,
on the other hand, know with certainty that the only men willing to
have her would be of lesser estate. A man of the nobility might
consider having her as a mistress while her looks survive. I don't
want that for her."

"I understand. Why bring this up?"

"Because, should the boy survive, I must
insist upon a betrothal. Chinisi must marry Stygean for the sake of
her honor."

"Ahhhh." Isranon smiled, remembering that
glimpse he had caught of Chinisi taking advantage of his
apprentice's weakness. "That is not a problem at all. We can work
out the details there, I am certain. Do you have customs of dowry
or bride price or anything similar?"

"I know the boy has nothing…."

"I will provide for Stygean. Just tell me
your customs."

"Long ago, I set aside a dowry for Chinisi
out of my own funds. There is a house on the north side of
Ildyrsetts with a fine mage tower for her. I placed it in her name
with myself as her guardian until she became old enough to take
possession of it. I haven't told her yet, but I will on the day
they marry. The upkeep will be expensive."

Isranon nodded. "I have enough gold to make
Stygean independently wealthy. He should be able to provide for her
and the upkeep of her household while his talents begin to earn
them a living beyond that."

"Then I will draw up a marriage
contract."

"Do so and consider it an alliance between
our houses. Stygean is like a younger brother to me, which is why
it hurt me to believe he had crossed the line in running off with
Chinisi."

"I quite understand."

* * * *

Isranon worked on Stygean every day for the
first week. His recovery came slow, yet it was steady. Chinisi let
no day go by without coming to sit with Stygean for hours, often
holding his hands and, when she thought no one was looking, kissing
him.

"Stygean, your future has been taken out of
my hands," Isranon told him very seriously.

"What?" Stygean felt a qualm of misgivings.
"Is this about Chinisi?"

"Yes."

"Oh, gods be merciful. I will never try to
see her again. I promise. I – I should have told you from the first
what was happening with Jingen."

Isranon sat very still, his eyes grave.
"What do you mean?"

Stygean sighed. "The day I stole the blade,
I actually stole two of them. I gave the other to Jingen. When I….
had my change of heart ... well, Jingen began threatening to kill
me. When he decided he wanted Chinisi, I thought I could handle it
myself. I also thought you'd all think I was lying. You had no
reason to believe me."

"And we had every reason to believe
Jingen."

"Yes. Forgive me."

"Only if you promise to bring these matters
to me in the future. I could have prevented all of it if you had
just told me from the start."

"I promise. Will you tell Chinisi goodbye
for me?"

"No. The customs of Ildyrsetts are different
from our own. Since I now stand in your father's place as your
guardian, I was forced to some concessions."

"What do you mean?" Stygean's voice was
hushed. "I will do anything to make it right."

"By their laws, spending the night alone in
the woods with her, whether it was willing or not, is an outrage to
her virtue. She is considered tainted. The Ildyrsetti place a
premium upon female virginity. Rumors are already circulating that
you and she…." Isranon considered the use of some of Cordwainer's
unfamiliar euphemisms, which he was adopting more and more, and
then dispensed with them. Too many euphemisms could lead to
misunderstandings. "They are already saying that you fucked
her."

Stygean's eyes went distant, and he stared
off. "I didn't. I swear I didn't. I wish you had let me die. I
can't seem to do anything right. Chinisi is the last person I would
ever wish to hurt."

"Then perhaps you will not object to being
married to her."

Stygean's eyes saucered. "Married? To
Chinisi? But I'm only thirteen!"

Isranon smiled finally. "Well, in Waejontor
it would be perfectly acceptable for you to be married the moment
you could consummate. However, Ildyrsetts holds that you must be
fourteen."

"Chinisi." He spoke her name with a sudden
unfolding of wonderment. "I've never even kissed her."

Isranon cleared his throat and then
laughed.

Stygean flushed. "It wasn't as if I could
fend her off."

"True. This isn't going to be easy. We will
have reached Angrim by then, and you will be seeing fighting along
with the rest of us, including Chinisi. But we'll see the two of
you are wed on your birthday if at all possible." Then he quoted
the old Sharani proverb, "Old enough to fight and die, old enough
to love."

"Married to Chinisi…." Stygean rolled the
words around his tongue and through his mind. "I love Chinisi."

Isranon laughed again softly. "I thought you
did. I have never regretted being in love."

"Like with Anksha?"

"Yes. We may seem a strange match at times,
but I love her."

* * * *

Lobelia lay nude in Cordwainer's arms
beneath a thick layer of blankets. He spooned around her with his
arm draped across her just beneath her breasts. She felt
uncomfortable. After twenty-six years of marriage, Cordwainer still
had to get inside her at least once each night before he could
manage to sleep. She kept a wiping cloth beside her bed to mop her
loins and a small towel to cover the wet spot.

Men are such disgusting, amoral creatures!
If it weren't for the fact that they ruled, why would a woman want
one?

Sex put him to sleep, but it always woke her
up. It seemed like it took her forever to get to sleep after he
finished, and there he would be snoring contently while she lay
awake for what seemed like hours. When she finally managed to sleep
that night, she dreamed. It was an unusually intense and visual
dream, full of bright colors and noises.

Lobelia carried two bottles of wine into a party.
Everyone of importance in the camp was there, and they were in a
house, a very large house. The wine in her left hand was a blood
red vintage in a smoked glass bottle; the wine in her right was
clear as water in a crystal decanter. Cordwainer and Dawnreturning
sat together near the head of a large table. Stygean and Chinisi
sat to the right of Dawnreturning, with their hands linked. She
poured red for the males and white for Chinisi.

Then she realized that Nans and Anksha were sitting
at the other end with Stygean's three friends. She poured red for
them and drifted through the room, finding more people to pour wine
for. The bottle of red wine never grew empty; it seemed to
magically refill itself, so that she always had enough.

Lobelia smiled when they complimented her on the
vintage and made her way back to the main table in time to refill
the males' glasses. Cordwainer hugged her and drank the second
glass. Lobelia looked up and saw an hour glass in the middle of the
table. A death's head was woven over the ends. She watched the
sands run out and then scanned the table.

Stygean and Isranon were convulsing on the
floor. Cordwainer's eyes bulged, and he clutched at his chest,
gasping for breath, his face flushed. He pushed back from the table
and overturned his chair, falling to the ground. "You poisoned
us."

Lobelia smiled sweetly. "Yes. Now be a good
boy, Geoffry, and die quickly."

Chinisi rose from the table and joined
Lobelia. They knelt beside her dying uncle and held each other.
"You have made it all better, Aunt Lobelia. Thank you."

"I told you I would." Lobelia rose and walked along
the table, kicking Dawnreturning's corpse on the way to Stygean's.
He looked as if he had died in extreme pain, his face a rictus of
suffering. Lobelia spat on him. "I told you not to touch her."

Chrysae 9, 1078

Spring came six weeks after the betrothal of
Chinisi and Stygean, bringing a thawing of the snow and ice that
had covered the ground and made travel so difficult and the passes
locked. The company was getting closer and closer to finished in
their preparations to leave Ildyrsetts. Stygean passed some of
Anksha's blood-slaves packing the wagons to roll out. Chinisi
clutched his arm when they noticed the smallest of them.

Jingen turned, snarling at them, froth
forming around his lips as he dropped his bundle. His eyes had a
glaze of madness. "You stick it in, you pull it out. You turn her
round and round about. You fuck her ass, her mouth, her cunt." He
panted hard, creeping toward them in a bestial crouch.

Chinisi shrank against Stygean, intimidated
more by the sight of insanity than any physical threat Jingen could
offer. "Keep him away from me."

Stygean moved between them, only to have
Jingen lunge suddenly around him and grab Chinisi's breasts.
Stygean seized him by the collar and jerked him loose. Jingen's
shirt tore as Stygean threw him to the ground. His entire back was
covered in red welts and splotches. Stygean remembered seeing this
on his father. It was the withering. But it was happening faster
than with any of the blood-slaves he had seen it on before.

Jingen gave a series of blood-curdling
shrieks as he rolled onto his hands and knees, struggling briefly
to rise and then collapsing on his belly. His cries brought
Disharyl running. She went to her knees, gathering Jingen in her
arms as seizures took him. He twitched and jerked horribly, and
then went still. Disharyl began to weep. "Please tell Anksha my son
is dead. The withering has taken him."

Chinisi clung to Stygean as they went after
Anksha. They found her walking in nervous circles near one of the
wagons with her arms pressed across her belly and making small
animals noises.

"Jingen's dead," Stygean said. "Disharyl
wants you to come."

Chinisi waved her hand at Stygean for
silence. "Are you alright, Anksha?"

Anksha looked at her with a mixture of pain
and dismay. "Belly hurts. Cramping…. I wet myself…."

Chinisi's eyes went wide as she realized
what was about to occur. "Stygean, get Deryna and Isranon fast. The
baby is coming."

"Neoooww!" Anksha shrieked.

Chinisi grasped Anksha's arm. "Into your
wagon and lie down." She helped Anksha up the steps into the back.
By the time that Chinisi got her laying down, Anksha had begun to
whimper and flex her claws.

"Don't touch me!" Anksha shrieked and let
out a long yowl of suffering. "I hurt."

"You have to let me touch you. I need to get
your pants off."

"Don't touch me."

Chinisi backed away and crouched on her
haunches. Anksha's state was beginning to frighten her. She
wondered if it would be this bad when the time came for her to give
Stygean a child.

* * * *

"Nans, you need to come." Stygean found Nans
in the Great Hall talking to Edvarde.

"Trouble?"

"Anksha. She's in the back of a wagon
moaning and whimpering. Deryna is with her. She says it's her
time."

"Isranon?"

"He's consulting with the mages. I've sent
the lycans to find him."

"Good."

As Nans approached the cottage wagon she
could hear Anksha, her noises catlike in distress. Deryna had
called it right. The baby was coming. She unfolded a chair and sat
down next to the bed, extending her wilderkin senses, soothing
Anksha as she would a large, dangerous cat. Anksha whimpered.

"Hurts. Oh, it hurts."

"I know," Nans soothed. "I need to Read you.
I need to make certain Timadi is coming out right."

"Isranon! I want Isranon!" Anksha screamed
with a sudden sharp contraction, her whole body tensing as her eyes
glazed with terror.