Bookworm (31 page)

Elaine had to smile as he started to ladle out the soup. Each spoonful held pieces of cooked chicken, beef or fish. She wasn’t particularly fond of fish – the Golden City was a long way from the nearest coast, making fish expensive – but the soup smelt lovely and the freshly-baked bread neatly complimented the taste. Each piece of meat, she realised, would have added a little extra something to the flavour.

“Eat up,” Bee urged. “I can’t maintain the cooking spell on the pot.”

Maybe he was lucky, having no magic. Elaine considered it as she took her first sip of the soup and then started to eat rapidly. It was a faintly sharp taste, with hints of lime and several spices she didn’t recognise; it flavoured the chunks of meat nicely. Bee passed her a small set of spice pots and she experimented by adding them to each different spoonful. The flavours changed each time, some edible and some too hot to touch.

“We normally experiment with the first bowl and then make a second one once we know what we like,” Bee explained. “Every meal is a little different because the meat may be of lesser quality or the spices may be from different places. It makes life interesting when we go visiting each other at home.”

“You should open a restaurant,” Elaine said, honestly. “You’d make a fortune selling food in the Golden City.”

“There already are some places that serve Southern food,” Bee said. His face twitched, as if it were caught between a grimace and a smile. “None of the ones I’ve tasted have been very good. I’ve had to cook myself if I wanted food from home. When I don’t cook, I prefer exploring foods from other parts of the world.”

“You have lived a fuller life than me,” Elaine admitted. It was a rueful thought, but she’d never realised just how...bland her life had been before she’d been hit by Duke Gama’s spell. The part of her that wanted something more exciting had been drowned out by the part of her that knew that she didn’t want excitement, and considered adventure to be someone else in trouble far away from civilisation. Now...she was a target for everyone who sought forbidden knowledge, even though she wasn’t seeking it herself. What would they do to her if they kidnapped her again? “You know, I never asked. Why did you come to the Golden City?”

“I told you,” Bee said, innocently. “My superiors want more influence in the Golden City and they dispatched me to make sure that they got it. The Golden City makes decisions that touch upon the entire world. Any influence we can win here would be very valuable for us.”

“I see,” Elaine said. He
had
mentioned it before, but she’d been too shy to follow up on it. “If you don’t mind me asking, who are you working for?”

“The Empress of the South,” Bee said. Elaine gaped at him, too surprised to speak. “She wants influence in the Golden City...”

“I thought that she didn’t like men,” Elaine said, recovering from her surprise. “Why are you serving as her agent?”

“Men aren’t supposed to rule back home,” Bee reminded her. “There’s no reason why a man can’t serve as the Empress’s agent – and some of the societies in the Golden City find it easier to deal with a man. It never seemed particularly understandable to me, but...I rather like my job, even if I do have to deal with filthy politicians all the time.”

He hesitated, just long enough for Elaine to realise that he was worried. “I thought you knew, to be honest,” he added. “Does that bother you?”

“No,” Elaine said, although she wasn’t sure if she was being truthful. Coincidence or not, there was a link between the Empress of the South and Lady Light Spinner...and Lady Light Spinner had good reason to want to keep an eye on Elaine. But Elaine had met Bee
before
Millicent had been turned into a tiny statue and it seemed unlikely that Lady Light Spinner had had any advance warning. Unless one of the gods had granted her a vision... “It just struck me that I didn’t know.”

The evening wore on as they finished their soup and shared fruit juice, chatting about nothing in particular. Elaine found herself relaxing completely in his company, studying the way the firelight reflected off his face and clothes, wondering if she really
did
have the nerve to try to kiss him. But he’d already kissed her in the Park. They should have had no trouble kissing again. And yet...

“I’ve never been anyone’s agent,” she said, returning to the original question. “How do you serve your Empress?”

“By speaking with her voice,” Bee said. He seemed happy to talk. “Before I left, she and her advisors gave me a detailed briefing on what I had to offer people – and what lines I couldn’t cross, even if we were offered everything we wanted in exchange. I came here with a duplicate of her Great Seal, charmed to convince the others that I spoke with her name, and then started bargaining. Some of the factions in the city were happy to bargain. Others were reluctant to talk to us unless they were offered hefty cash bribes.”

Elaine giggled. “Is it a little like seducing a woman?”

Bee blushed bright red, causing Elaine to flush too. “I wouldn’t have put it
precisely
that way,” he said, with stiff dignity. And then he broke down into giggles himself. “But it
is
the same basic idea, just using different tools.”

“The thought of one country trying to seduce another...” Elaine said, between giggles. “And what happens when they start to separate?”

“You have marriage vows and marriage rows,” Bee punned, badly. “Diplomacy is the art of getting what you want without offending anyone too badly. When it goes wrong...”

He shrugged. “Some countries have no reason to talk to us and don’t even consider an alliance,” he added. “Some countries fear us and will try to form alliances against us. And some think that we’d betray them if it suited our interests. Even the Grand Sorcerer had problems keeping various nations from lashing out at their neighbours.”

“The Grand Sorcerer brought peace,” Elaine said. They’d had that hammered into their heads at the Peerless School. The system was intended to prevent another major war, even one that didn’t include necromancers. “I always believed that to be true.”

“Oh, it is true,” Bee said. His face darkened. “But he couldn’t bury all the differences between countries completely. Countless issues haven’t been settled because the Grand Sorcerer prohibited actual fighting between states, so they continue to fester. Some states bear grudges for things that took place hundreds of years before the First Necromantic War.”

He stood up in one fluid motion. “I looked up Ida after you left,” he said. Elaine looked up, sharply. “There’s very little to interest the Empress there. Ida only trades with its neighbours – not very much at that – and has no apparent interest in converting its impregnable defensive position into an offensive stand against the states down on the plains.”

Elaine frowned, worried. “Did you speak to their representatives here?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Bee said. “One rule of diplomacy is that you should never show interest unless it is in your interests to show interest. If Ida wants something from the South, they have to open the dialogue themselves. And so far they have largely ignored us.”

Elaine relaxed, slightly. The thought of Prince Hilarion using Bee as a way to get at her was terrifying. He could have offered money and power – and influence, for the Empress of the South – in exchange for Bee helping him to catch Elaine. But no one should have been able to draw a line between Bee and Elaine, or so she hoped. No wonder the Inquisitors were so worried about her safety. Rumours spread through the Golden City faster than an iron dragon.

She held up a hand and pulled Bee towards the sofa, suddenly feeling her heartbeat pounding away inside her ears. Part of her wanted to run...and the rest of her wanted to live a little, to enjoy life while she could. Prince Hilarion might kill her, or kidnap her if he got his hands on her, and she knew better than to think that she could resist him indefinitely. The Inquisitors were sworn to obey the Grand Sorcerer. If Prince Hilarion became the victor, they would have no choice but to follow his orders. She would have to run, to flee the city, if
that
happened, yet there was nowhere to go. Except, perhaps, the South...

Bee’s arms enfolded her and his lips met hers, a kiss that seemed to set her entire body burning with an unfamiliar flame. She’d never been with a boy before, nor had she experimented with another girl, and only rarely with herself. Suddenly, she wanted to pull off her clothes before it was too late. Bee’s kisses were becoming more passionate, his hands stroking her back as he pulled her closer and then pushed her down on the sofa. For a moment, she felt trapped and helpless as his weight pushed down on her, before he took himself on his elbows and kept kissing her. She kissed him back, realising that Bee wasn’t going to hurt her, at least not intentionally. Daria’s advice had been very specific, both about what potions she should drink beforehand – and about what she should let him do to her the first time. And about how boys could be remarkably insensitive at times.

She gasped as she felt his hands working at the straps of her dress, before they came loose and it started to be pushed back towards her chest. Her breasts were exposed as Bee slipped back, his bright eyes meeting hers as he lowered his mouth to her nipple and started to lick it slowly, but steadily. Elaine felt a wave of pleasure running through her, even though part of her mind was disgusted at what he was doing. And yet she’d had dreams where she’d taken him in her mouth and licked and sucked him until...well, she wasn’t quite clear on that point. Her dreams had never been too focused on specifics...

Bee sat back and started to undress, pulling off his shirt to reveal a hairy chest and arms that were faintly muscled. Elaine reached up and stroked his chest, so different from her own hairless body. Daria
would
have hairs on her chest, even if they were difficult to see with the naked eye. Her boyfriends might have realised the truth and then fled in horror, terrified of the thought of being close to a werewolf who might assume wolf form at any moment. Daria had better control than that!

“I...” she started to say, and then stopped. “I...”

“Hush,” Bee said, as he pulled away the rest of her dress. She was naked, apart from a sheer pair of silken panties Daria had given her; naked and exposed to his gaze. Elaine found herself flushing again, suddenly realising why so many girls in the Peerless School had used magic potions and glamours to enhance their appearance. A single negative comment when she was exposed would have been far more crushing than any barbed comment from Millicent. “It’s going to be fine.”

He removed his own trousers, revealing his manhood. Elaine stared, finally understanding some of the private conversations between girls at school. Bee’s penis was massive to her eyes, something that helplessly drew her towards it. And yet the thought of that thing trying to go inside her was different to accept. One of the books she’d absorbed noted that the male sexual equipment was never as varied as it seemed when erect and ready for action, and yes – it
could
go inside her without problems. Some of the other books contained detailed instructions that made Elaine blush when she realised that the knowledge was there, ready for her to use. And a handful contained information that even
she
recognised was inaccurate.

Elaine reached out towards Bee, feeling a strange mixture of emotions as she took his manhood in her hand. It was huge, and yet it squirmed in her hand, seeming to leap forward of its own will towards her thighs. Touching it felt almost natural and yet it was almost
also
like touching a spider, or something else that triggered the deeper fears in the human mind. Some of the books seemed to speculate endlessly on the precise nature of sexual desire, but they never seemed to agree with each other. Women could not both be sexless creatures, knowing nothing of sexual desire, and also carnal beings whose lusts were so powerful that they had to be kept under control. The two statements were contradictory. Both had probably also been written by men.

Bee’s hand slipped between her legs and touched her gently, before he started to stroke around her. Elaine gasped, feeling an unearthly tingling running through her body, even though he felt clumsy compared to the times when she had played with herself. He didn’t know precisely where to touch her for greatest effect, she realised, as more knowledge poured through her mind. Boys believed a great deal of nonsense about girls; girls believed just as much nonsense about boys. The two sexes, it seemed, had never bothered to just
talk
to one another. They just made assumptions based on their own bodies, or beliefs that had never been properly challenged.

Elaine felt her legs open as Bee positioned himself for entry. She reached forward, as the books advised, and took control, guiding him into her virgin vagina. He seemed to surge forward and there was an odd moment of discomfort, discomfort that would have been worse if she hadn’t listened to Daria and taken the Modest Maiden potion before coming to Bee’s apartment. It felt so strange, at once both exciting and terrifying, to feel something slipping inside her. Bee’s breathing was growing faster as he seemed to pause, just for a long moment, and then started to thrust inside her. There was another sensation of discomfort, followed by a burst of pleasure that surprised her...and then led to a second burst of pleasure as Bee moved faster and faster. He’d lost control, if some of the books were accurate; he could no longer stop even if Elaine wanted him to pull out. She felt a tidal wave of pleasure, perhaps boosted by the potion, as he thrust faster and faster...and then she felt something hot and warm bursting inside her. There was a final wave of pleasure and she found herself pulling her to him, trying to keep him inside her. It no longer felt like a terrifying intrusion, not even slightly.

Daria had told her, time and time again, that having a boyfriend was the greatest thing in a woman’s life – and that boys felt the same way about women. Elaine hadn’t believed her, not until now, not until she’d realised that sex could be for more that procreation. Some of the books hinted at what happened when virgins discovered sex for the first time, others seemed to vie to outdo one another in emotional descriptions of their first times with a person of the other sex, or even the same sex. Elaine wanted him to have sex with her again and again and again...