by Mark Albany
She smiled, like she could see that thought too, and I quickly turned away. From the way the light was fading from the open window, I could tell that night would be falling soon. I wondered if Vis would send someone up with some dinner, since he probably didn’t want me wandering around the property with Pollock still around.
The thought of him coming to my room or sending someone to find me and discovering that I wasn’t there was something of a distracting thought, and one that I was having trouble consolidating. There were no slaves in the Empire since that had been forbidden years before, and yet a good amount of the practices remained firmly in place with only the name by which they were known, changing. People weren’t slaves anymore, but servants. And while technically free, they owed service for their food and board, and the payment for that could be taken out in a variety of ways, only one of which was labor.
I smirked. These were dark thoughts, but at least they were a better choice than thinking about what Aliana looked like minus her skimpy clothes.
Damn. Now my mind was drawn back to that.
A few hours passed as the sun dropped lower, almost completely disappearing from sight. Aliana had to disappear into the ring for a moment as a servant came to my door with a tray of food for the evening meal, as I’d suspected. Vis made no such appearance. As the servant left, I quickly found a clean bag and stored the apple, bread, dried meat and hard cheese that had been sent up. Hardly a feast, but I assumed the cooks had been occupied by preparing meals for the unexpected company, leaving us to have cold leftovers.
It was something to be expected, I realized, but not really something I enjoyed.
Aliana eyed me curiously as I stored the food for later.
“What?” I asked, grinning a bit shamefully. “I’m no djinn. I’ll be hungry later, and do not intend to spend the rest of the night with a rumbling stomach.”
She raised her hands quickly. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Good,” I grunted with a nod, putting the food into the pack I was quickly preparing. New candles, my flint and striking steel, some rope, and a fresh set of clothes. There was no telling if there was going to be any tearing and ripping, and I wanted to be prepared for that this time.
I opened my door quietly, stepping out and listening for any movements. What few servants were still on duty would be restricted to the manor. The rest would be heading off to sleep, which meant there wouldn’t be much in the way of people for us to run into.
There was no sense in leaving anything to chance, though, so as we moved out I turned to Aliana, who was following close behind me.
“I don’t suppose you’d have any tricks up your sleeve that would keep us from sight, would you?” I asked in a hushed whisper.
She smiled. “I already put a field of sorts to keep us hidden from anyone except those who might actually be looking for us.”
“Oh. How does that work?” I asked as I waited for her to quietly close the door behind us.
“Well, it only works if you keep your voice down, and otherwise try to avoid drawing attention to yourself,” she said softly, moving closer to me. Close enough that I could feel the heat emanating from her body. “It alters the perception of others, helping them ignore us unless they step into the field. I suggest we avoid that at all costs.”
“Good idea,” I replied, nodding. I wasn’t sure what the hell she was talking about. I’d never heard of any spells that altered perception, since that would require reaching into the mind of every single person we encountered and pushing their attention away from us. As such, it was theoretically possible, but very, very impractical.
Then again, nobody was really sure what a djinn would be capable of, since less than a week before, I would not have been blamed for assuming that djinn were a fictional race.
I assumed that the world was full of similar surprises. In this case, it was pleasant.
As we moved through the courtyard, I could see a couple of servants moving quickly across the cobbles. Whether they were only in a rush, or if Aliana’s magic was working, I didn’t know. Either way, it seemed that we had a clear way to the city when I suddenly paused in my tracks. So suddenly that Aliana didn’t notice and crashed into me from behind. We didn’t make a sound, but as I staggered, twisting to face her and regain my balance, I realized that my hands had gone to her waist and pulled her closer to me.
The sudden distraction was not something that was needed at the moment and I gave her a moment to move away before relaxing again and facing front.
“Sorry about that.” I rubbed gently at my arm.
“Stay focused,” she said. “Why did you stop?”
I didn’t reply, not wanting to say another word as the large, wooden doors to the main house swung open. Pollock marched out quickly, Master Vis following close at his heels.
“You don’t understand,” Vis was saying, but was cut off as Pollock raised his hand.
“I understand perfectly, Vis.” He indicated for his retinue to start preparing the horses for departure. “Your actions have been suspect for far too long, with far too little consequence. I think it high time to address that injustice.”
“I have done nothing. I swear it!” Vis answered, his voice taking on a whiny, apologetic quality I’d heard him use when he was trying to appeal to someone’s better nature. It usually worked, but it wasn’t often plied on a man as angry as Pollock appeared to be.
“That will be for the Official to decide,” Pollock snarled, turning back to face Vis down. Vis, a good few inches shorter than Pollock, quickly shied away like a hound fearing the whip.
“The Official?” Vis asked. For the first time since I knew the man, I could see a crack in his outer shell of a smooth, silver-tongued negotiator and saw the coward underneath.
Well, not really a coward, I mused. You didn’t have to be a coward to fear the wrath of the man who commanded the Emperor’s Lancers. The stories went that the Official had some magical ability of his own, but nobody had ever been able to prove it. All those who would have been privy to such a demonstration rarely escaped it with their lives.
I reached behind myself instinctively, taking Aliana’s hand and squeezing it. It was more for my assurance than hers, since I doubted she knew who the Official was.
“Your wards are far too powerful for someone of your lowly station,” Pollock said, looking around himself, like he could see the runes that had been woven into the air around him. “And far too powerful for someone of your insubstantial power. You will kneel here in the courtyard and await the Official’s arrival. I would warn you against running, but I would be amused if you attempted it.”
Pollock’s horse, a massive, muscular black stallion, was brought around and the man quickly mounted, cruelly digging his heels into the beast’s flanks and driving him forward.
“Fucking cunt,” I heard Vis say, but even as Pollock rode away with the rest of his retinue, Vis looked around, his face red with anger and shame as he dropped, first to one knee and then the second. The servants that still remained in the area quickly backed away and out of sight. If Vis survived his encounter with the Official, there was little doubt he would want as few witnesses to his humiliation as possible.
“Let’s go,” I whispered, tugging Aliana toward the gate that had been left open. We slipped outside without attracting any attention, heading toward the forest. I suddenly realized that while I was staunch in my determination not to be ported back to the ruins, I actually had no idea where they were. When encountering them for the first time, I had been running for my life and had little time to inspect my surroundings or maintain a sense of direction of where I was going. And we had left using another path, somehow. I still wasn’t sure how Aliana had brought us away from them. Portals, again, were hypothetically possible, but unreliable and very difficult to maintain. There were written accounts of mages who had made the attempt with only a modicum of success. Their failed attempts ended poorly. Some were lost forever while others arrived in dif
ferent locations than intended, while still others arrived where intended, only to find that their legs, arms and sometimes even heads had ended up elsewhere.
Djinn were very interesting, and I vowed to take the time to ask and learn from Aliana when all this was finished.
As I thought about it, I had the idea of heading back to Pollock’s mansion, circling around to the forest behind it and trying to find my way in that fashion. I didn’t want to explain my process to Aliana, of course, since she would discard it and portal us to the ruins directly. As I recalled from the last time, it wasn’t like she really needed my permission to do so.
I wondered why she hadn’t just gone ahead and done it despite my protests and put that thought down with all the rest of the questions that I was storing for later. I needed some material to help our conversations flow a bit more. As we’d run out of things to say about ourselves, I found that more and more annoying silences popped up.
Only I could make a conversation with a newly-discovered race boring. I shook my head gently, keeping my eyes focused on the growing crowd I could see as we got closer to Pollock’s mansion. I wasn’t sure what it was for, but the fact remained that if the idea wasn’t to be seen, a crowd could be a boon or a curse. That many people would mask us from eyes that might recognize us, but it would also increase the number of said eyes. And what was worse, Aliana had said that people could not intrude on the field she’d created, which meant that we would have to stay far away from all the people in the crowd while trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible.
And at that moment I realized I’d completely forgotten to grab a cloak to help cover Aliana’s horns.
We really needed to let her field of whatever it was do its work, or we would be caught the moment someone saw her.
As we moved closer to the crowd, what they were congregated for quickly became clearer. The Official was almost as rare a sight to see in the city as the Emperor himself, and when he appeared, there were always people who either wanted to see a novelty or plead some sort of case before him. There had been no record of the man ever taking notice of such appeals, but that didn’t stop them from trying.
There was already a group of Lancers waiting on horseback outside. I’d always liked horses and found myself distracted by the sight of the magnificent beasts. Powerful warhorses weren’t pets and could be almost as violent as war dogs, but were cared for with a great deal of affection by their riders. And it showed.
They quickly parted as the sight of a man in black plate and no helmet, identifiable by the heavy beard and long, flowing hair he sported, drew their attention. I could see Pollock, still on horseback, waiting impatiently behind the man. As we drew closer, I could hear what was being said.
“You overstep, Pollock,” the Official said in an impressively deep voice.
“The man is a base thief and a coward,” Pollock said, still in a foul mood. I wondered if this was something new due to the theft, or if he was just always in a bad mood. “Why the Emperor would accept him into the gentry eludes me, but I would never question the Emperor’s decisions,” Pollock added that last part when the Official turned and hit him with a glare that proved once and for all that looks couldn’t kill.
“You would do well to remember that,” the armored man growled.
“I did no wrong,” Pollock said defensively. “My loyalty to the emperor is as it always has been. Why would I be responsible?”
“It isn’t important,” The Official said, flipping his hair back behind his shoulder again. “I will find the truth of the matter myself. Be assured, any parties responsible will suffer.”
I gulped. Sure, the veiled threat hadn’t been directed at me, but then again, it really had. There wasn’t any escaping the fact that I was one of the responsible parties.
Aliana tugged gently at my arm, dragging me clear of the courtyard and into some bushes.
“What?” I whispered urgently. “We can’t stay here too long.”
“Agreed,” she said, taking a firm grip on my hand. “However, we tried it your way and almost ended up caught by this Official of yours. I apologize for the pain to your head but…”
“No, no, no,” I tried to say, my voice rising for an instant before I felt like I’d just been sucked through a hole. The sensation knocked the breath out of my chest, sending my vision swirling with unintentional tears as I dropped to my knees, gasping for air. For a second, it seemed like there wasn’t any result, until finally it took, and I dropped onto my back on the ground, coughing softly.
The ground, as it turned out, was a hard stone floor instead of soft grass. The sight that greeted me as I looked up was simple blackness instead of the bright moon and stars.
And my head was pounding like it was an anvil being beaten by a blacksmith’s hammer. It seemed as though the portal had worked after all.
“Fuck,” I finally managed to say, turning over to the only light source in the room, Aliana’s horns.
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking back at me and smiling apologetically. “But if I had allowed you to have a say, you would have raised your voice and we would have been caught.”
“Fuck,” I repeated, turning over onto my stomach and pushing myself to my knees. The pain had spread down my back and all over my body. I wondered if this was what being struck by lightning felt like.
After a few long, terrifying seconds, I managed to push myself to my feet, closing my eyes and trying to still my suddenly queasy stomach.
“How do you get used to this?” I wondered aloud.
Aliana took it like I’d been talking with her and turned to face me. “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Then again, I’ve never stepped through a portal with a human before. I’ll need to investigate it further. Unfortunately, further investigation would require you to go through the portals with me a few more times.”
“I can’t wait,” I muttered, steadying myself on the pedestal that held the coffin we were looking at.
Aliana was rummaging around with the dead body inside. Interestingly enough, even after two more days, the body still looked slightly dead. Like she’d only died a few hours ago. I made a face, trying to understand just what could do this to a body, and why someone would even want it done to a vessel they weren’t inhabiting anymore.
I was young, and the concept of death had only just started to make itself painfully aware in my consciousness.
“So,” I said. “Are you the one responsible for this?” I gestured to the body.
“She was the last one to hold my ring,” Aliana said softly.
“And you killed her for it?” I asked.
“No,” she said with a shrug. “I didn’t stop it from happening. I can’t actually kill someone who holds my ring. If you own the ring, you own me. As your slave, in a way.”
“Well, that’s not at all the same thing,” I grumbled, rubbing at my temple. “Thanks for making me realize I might be next in line to have my death go unprevented.” There were issues other than my pending mortality, of course. I knew what it was like to be a slave in a way, as she said, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone much less own a slave myself.
She turned to face me. With the soft light from her horns, I could see her smiling in that cocky way she had. As she came closer, I was suddenly very aware of how hot her skin was. Mostly because it was suddenly pressed against mine. I was a few inches taller than she was, so I could feel her breasts pushing into my chest. Though what she was wearing looked metallic, it turned out to be perfectly malleable and very thin—as I discovered when I felt her nipples pressing to my chest.
“I… well,” I tried to say, but stopped when she placed her finger over my lips.
“Well, I am your slave now,” she whispered, angling her head up and leaning in close enough that I could feel her lips moving over the bare skin of my neck. “But it could be so much better.” She emphasized the last three words by pressing her body tighter against mine, one of her legs coming up to run up and dow
n the side of my leg. “Our relationship could be very transformative for you.”
My mouth was dry, and I was very aware of how little her clothes were actually covering. I opened my mouth a few times but failed to produce any words as I realized that there were more reactions to her actions. Somehow, I completely forgot we were in the middle of abandoned ruins, inside a mausoleum and actually standing right next to an open casket. All that flew right out of my mind as she started to grind into me, pressing harder against me as I grew large enough to push against her hip.
“How?” I asked before I could stop myself.
She pulled away, and I could see her grinning at me, running her hand up my shoulder, ending at my chin and tilting my head to look her in the eyes, as mine had drifted down to where one of her breasts had escaped her clothes.
My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could see her grinning unabashedly when my gaze drifted back up.
“I could break free, but the ring dampens my latent power. If we find my sisters, my power will be rather magnified,” she said with a chuckle. “Also, sex—for my kind, anyway—is one of the ultimate displays of trust, and trust means sharing of power. And I did promise you power, didn’t I?”
A rushing sound filled my ears. As she talked about sex, it was all I could do not to lean closer, wanting to hear more. I gulped, and her grin grew larger.
I wasn’t sure if she was propositioning me or not. I wasn’t wholly experienced in the area, so she could be, or she could just be making conversation about what her people were like while trying to convince me to rid her of the ring, maybe? Even so, I couldn’t deny that I was tempted. Sure, with the horns and the wings she wasn’t what one might call a classical beauty, but there was beauty, and a lot of it, on display. For someone like me, who hadn’t had much of a physical relationship except with myself, that was definitely on my mind.
