Beside Inella, Viera let out a long-suffering sigh. “Karal—”
“By god, I could eat this one for lunch and leave the table hungry,” the huge Kurgan growled, his voice like two rocks sliding against one another. Inella felt all the blood drain from her face at the sight of him leaning back against the counter. Even slouching, his head nearly touched the ceiling beams. Muscled arms folded across his broad tunic-clad chest, he stood and smirked, his gaze raking Inella in disdain.
“Karal—” Viera said again.
“She’s a twig,” the Kurgan went on. “A strong wind would knock her flat.”
“You get a lot of wind in here?” Viera asked with a half-smile. “Perhaps you ought to close your mouth once in a while.”
Karal’s glare narrowed on Viera. From the corner of her eye, Inella saw the other woman smile sweetly. Clearly Viera had gone mad. When faced with an angry bear, one ought not pick up a stick and commence poking it.
Inella shuddered and hugged herself. All morning, her imagination had conjured visions of what the Kurgan might be like, images of a face bordering on demonic, with a cruel, hard mouth, teeth meant to rend flesh and eyes that glowed like coals. Several times she had bit her tongue in the middle of asking Viera to call the whole business off. She’d had to tell herself to calm down, that Viera would never put her in the path of a monster, that the Kurgae’in were no longer the enemy of the Andun at all. But now that she was here and confronted by the reality, this entire proposition seemed insane. How could Viera have imagined Inella would be able to work with this brute? Even with his gaze on the other woman, Inella felt herself shrivel under the weight of his presence, as if the room were too small to contain him.
Karal’s withering glare seemed to be having the opposite effect on Viera. She drew herself up until it almost seemed she was looking down her nose at the much taller man. “You said someone who can read. Inella can read. She’s uneducated, but clever enough. And she’s willing to work with you. You ought to be down on your knees kissing my feet in gratitude.”
Karal’s face split into a wide grin and he looked Viera up and down, his expression completely different now. He chuckled softly. The sound raised gooseflesh all along Inella’s spine. “You know me, Viera. If I get down on my knees for you, it won’t be your feet I kiss.”
A choking noise escaped Inella and she slapped a hand to her mouth. Viera had done…that…with a Kurgan?
Viera stepped gracefully around a stack of crates that teetered in the middle of the floor until she was standing only inches from the Kurgan. She walked two fingers up his chest, making a moue and batting her lashes. “Look at this place, Karal. It’s a mess. You need the help and you know it. Give her a chance, Karal? For me?”
With a growl he snatched her hand and pulled it to his face. His nostrils next to the translucent skin of her wrist, he inhaled deeply. As Inella watched, his eyes darkened. Softened. Good god, she thought. Are they going to do it right here? At the notion a shiver ran through her, not altogether unpleasant.
“Mmm,” the Kurgan murmured. “You don’t come around at night of late, Viera.”
Viera cleared her throat delicately, a flush creeping up her cheeks as Karal straightened, pulling her even closer. “Aru keeps me busy…”
Karal’s carnal grin slipped a notch. “Busy at what?”
Viera smiled pertly. “Are you jealous now?”
“Should a man be jealous because the sun shines on others and not just on him?” Karal said quietly.
“So poetic,” Viera teased, bringing his hand to her mouth and licking his knuckles. Inella’s stomach tightened watching, and she felt a tingling between her legs that signaled a release of wetness, a sensation that was becoming more and more familiar. But Karal wasn’t in the mood for flirting anymore.
“Have you bedded him, Viera?” he asked, all trace of his smile gone.
She frowned, retrieving her hand from his grasp and taking a step back. “Not precisely. Why?”
“I would advise you to tread with care around the Omahru-azhi.”
Viera was scowling now, and Inella stepped forward to stand at her shoulder, silent support. “What are you talking about?”
Karal shrugged. “The walking dead are an odd people. They have odd ways. It would grieve me if you were hurt.”
Viera’s throat worked as she swallowed. “Aru would never hurt me.”
“The snake does not bite out of a desire to cause pain,” Karal said cryptically. “It bites because it has no choice if it wants to survive.”
Inella slid her hand into Viera’s and squeezed it tight. But Viera’s discomfiture was swiftly transforming into irritation. “You think I need to be afraid of him? Is that what you’re saying?”
“You need fear him no more than you would any other man,” Karal said stolidly, folding his arms across his chest once more. “But it is always wise to learn the nature of the beast before you assume him tamed and bring him into your house.”
Viera’s pout turned more playful. “What if I’m not looking for something tame?”
He laughed and the dark mood suddenly shattered. “Then you’re liable to get bitten.”
“What if I like being bitten?”
He took her hand again and brought it to his mouth. As Inella looked on, feeling strangely light in her midsection, he closed his teeth around one of Viera’s knuckles, then sucked on it. “You need not go to Aru if that is your wish,” he told her, his voice low. “But if I am not mistaken, it is more than two months since I last had the opportunity to nibble on you, Viera.”
Her grin warmed. “There’s plenty of willing flesh hereabout.”
His huge hand lifted to Viera’s face, the knuckles stroking down her cheek. “There is willing flesh, and then there’s you, Viera.”
“Behave, Karal,” she said tartly, though her face was flushed and her breathing not quite even. “Can’t you see you’re scaring Inella?”
Oh, but he wasn’t scaring her anymore, though Inella thought perhaps her hot cheeks and rapid breaths might be interpreted that way. The weight of the Kurgan’s eyes fell on her once again, but this time she didn’t feel crushed beneath it. She held his gaze for as long as she could before the growing heat in her face made her look away.
“Mmmph,” Karal said. “I suppose I could give this waifling a chance. Not that I’m making any promises, mind you. She looks like she couldn’t tell her own head from a hole in the wall.”
“I can tell a man from a hulking ape,” Inella snapped back, scowling at him. “Most of the time.”
The Kurgan laughed. “She has a tongue, after all. How delightful. Come, girl. I’ll show you around.”
“Excellent,” Viera said, squeezing Inella’s hand. “Do you need me to stay, my dear?”
Inella almost said yes, but how would it look to Karal if she didn’t have the courage to be alone with him for an afternoon? And as frightening as the Kurgan had seemed at first, he hadn’t actually done anything so horrible. He had even shown concern for Viera’s wellbeing. In fact, the worst thing Inella could say about him was that he was blunt to the point of rudeness—and a little rudeness wasn’t going to kill her.
She shook her head and hugged Viera. “You go on. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
Inella forced a reassuring smile to ease some of the worry she could see in her friend’s face. “Really. A house fell on me the other day. I think I can survive an afternoon with Karal.”
Viera smiled back, her eyes shining with approval. “I’ll come get you later.”
“No need. I was going to stop in and see my mother and the children. Maybe have supper there. I’ll still be back in time for…what we’ve planned.” She couldn’t even say it without her stomach coiling and the breath seeming to abandon her lungs.
“You can find your way on your own?”
“Viera, I’m not a child!”
The other woman’s eyes swept her up and down, and a flush crept back
into Inella’s cheeks. “No. No, you’re not,” Viera said softly. “I’ll see you tonight. Good luck.” She kissed Inella’s cheek, then went to the door. One hand on the knob, she shot Karal a warning glance. “You be nice.”
When she was gone, Inella slowly turned to look at the Kurgan. He was studying her with an air of speculation that made her stomach leap to her throat. His eyes were dark as if with arousal. Had he noticed the undercurrent of sensuality that flowed between her and Viera? The possibility made her cheeks grow even hotter.
She swallowed hard. Forced her shoulders back, her spine straight. “What do you want me to do first?”
His lips quirked up at one corner and for a moment she was terrified he was going to demand something that had nothing to do with the duties of an apothecary’s assistant.
“Inventory,” he said, and all the breath left her in a rush. “Come on. Let’s get you an apron.”
“So what’s he like, dear?” Mai asked, ladling a generous portion of stewed mutton into Inella’s bowl. The table where they sat was rickety and timeworn, the room drab and sparsely furnished, but it was clean and comfortable and most importantly, it was theirs. It wouldn’t take long for it to become a home.
“Yeah!” Vin seconded around a mouthful of bread, spewing crumbs across the table. “Is he mean and nasty and ugly and horrible?”
Inella smiled with fondness as Krista rolled her eyes in sisterly disdain. “He isn’t any of those things, Vin. Just a little grumpy.”
“Damina says all Kurgans is ugly as devils,” Vin insisted.
“Well, he doesn’t have horns, if that’s what you want to know,” Inella chuckled. “Does Damina know a lot of Kurgae’in, then?”
“I don’t know.”
“Perhaps Damina isn’t an expert on everything,” Mai chided gently, turning to consider her daughter with a measuring glance. Inella felt herself flush. She wondered just what her mother would think if she knew what Inella had done with Viera last night in Aru’s room. Or what she had done that morning with Viera in the kitchen of all places. Or what she was about to do tonight… Was it visible in her face or her bearing, this new discovery she had made about herself? Her world had changed. It felt as if everyone should be able to see it.
That was her guilt, turning her mother’s curiosity into something less than approving.
She swallowed with difficulty and dropped her eyes to her food, her flush deepening. She would not be ashamed. She would not allow herself to be ashamed. Aru and Viera had given her a gift, one that had been her husband’s to give, true, but one he’d been unable or unwilling to bestow. It was something every woman should know—that her body was a source of joy and pleasure, that she was entitled to that joy, that it wasn’t wrong or sinful. Inella told herself this as she stared at her food and waited for the heat to leave her face.
“So what are your duties?” her mother asked.
“Today he had me begin sorting through his inventory.” She held up her charcoal-stained fingers as evidence. “The fellow who assisted him before left the place a disaster. It’s going to take a month of Temple days to get everything in order. After that, Karal will start to teach me how to mix and store the medicines and how to figure the prices.”
Mai frowned at her own food. “What happened to his last assistant?”
“He quit. From what I gather, they had some sort of falling out.”
Her mother’s lips thinned. “What kind of falling out?”
Inella set her spoon down, blinking at the sudden moisture in her eyes. She’d come here expecting congratulations and a celebration of their good fortune. Her mother’s reaction was tepid to say the least. “Mother, what is this about? I thought you’d be happy for me. Happy for us. Instead, it’s as if you disapprove.”
Mai sighed wearily. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up. I don’t want you to be hurt if this doesn’t work out, if this…Karal person turns out to be someone you can’t work for. You need to ask yourself why the man’s last assistant quit, why he’d be willing to hire a woman and pay her the same as a man.”
“He’s friends with Viera. She’s the reason he’s giving me this chance. I would think you’d be grateful for all she and Aru have done for us.”
“It isn’t that I’m not grateful. I’m just not used to people helping us without wanting something in return. What do you really know about this Karal? What if he’s some kind of…of predator?”
“Is this because he’s Kurgan? Is that what this is about?”
Mai threw up her hands. “Honestly, Inella! What kind of man pays a woman twelve falcons a month to take inventory?”
The accusation hung in the air between them and Inella felt herself bristle. She thinks I’m fucking him. On the heels of that thought came another.
So what?
Even if Inella had to earn those twelve falcons on her back, it was no worse than she had done in the past. The only difference was that now she would be paid enough to actually support her family.
And that I might find some pleasure in the task.
Inella glanced at her children to find them staring morosely into their bowls. “This isn’t the time to discuss this.”
Mai let out a long sigh. “You’re right, my dear. I’m just…worried. We’ve had so much good fortune the last few days. It just makes me afraid because I don’t see how it can last.”
Inella smiled and shook her head. “I almost died the other day, mother. Every moment from that point on is like a gift. What kind of person would I be if I survived the accident and just went back to being hopeless and miserable, to scratching out a bare living without ever trying to find something better for us? I’m not going to live my life as if I don’t deserve it. I’m going to hope. I’m going to expect good things. I’m going to accept the kindnesses of others for what they are. If that means I’ll end up hurt or disappointed someday, I’ll find a way to live with that too.”
Mai smiled back, swiping at her eyes. “You deserve every good thing, my dear. I only wish I could have given you more.”
“Don’t be silly, mum,” Inella chided. “We couldn’t have survived losing Ned if we didn’t have you.” She smiled at her children, who had perked up now that the difficulty was past. “And we still need you, all of us. Tonight, too, actually. The little ones will have to do without me for one more night.”
Mai’s brows lifted.
“Aru wants me to stay in the infirmary again tonight, just in case.” She was amazed how easily the lie came.
“Just in case what?”
Inella cursed her fair coloring—the smallest discomfiture was always immediately visible on her cheeks. “He says that complications can sometimes arise in the first few days, especially at night when the body is at its weakest.”
Her mother’s gaze narrowed. “Huh.”
“It should only be for one more night.”
Mai frowned at her, her eyes too sharp. “They told me that Master Aru demands no money for his services. Now I have to wonder if he doesn’t take payment in other ways.”
Inella flicked a glance toward her children, who had stopped eating once more to watch the interplay between their mother and grandmother. She felt her mouth tighten. It was unfair of her mother to bring this up in front of Vin and Krista, when Inella could not properly defend herself. And it galled that Mai seemed so disapproving now, considering how Inella had been forced to earn her money in the past. She’d spread her legs more than once for a sparse handful of coppers so that her mother and children could eat. Even if Aru would have her do the same, he’d saved her life. Without him, her children would have lost their mother as well as their home. Was that not worth more than a few pennies?
“Aru has not asked anything of me,” she told her mother very firmly. It wasn’t even a lie. She glanced at the window, where the light was turning deep amber with the approach of twilight. “I should go, if I don’t want to get caught in the dark.”
She rose and took her cloak d
own from the hook by the door, then bent and kissed Vin and Krista. She hugged her mother and forced a smile. “Don’t worry, mum. It will all be fine, you’ll see. I’ll stop by on my way to work tomorrow morning.”
“All right.”
The house was silent when Aru returned. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this unsteady—far from drunk but not exactly sober, either. After wandering half the day, he’d finally gone to the Whore’s Crown, one of only a few places, even in the wharf district, where his presence was tolerated. There he’d found Rat drinking cheap brandy and looking forlorn. The thief was still unaccustomed to Gil’s absence—the two had been fast friends until Gil abandoned Belthalas three months ago for the life of a married country gentleman.
Rat had been more than happy to kill an interminable evening playing drak with Aru. Together, they’d put away the better part of a cask of brandy, forgoing the dubious offerings of Aliannet’s cook-pot in favor of liquid sustenance.
He’d left Rat snoring in Gil’s old apartment, then walked the few blocks home in the cool spring air. The moon was high—it had just gone middle night. Viera had to be safely abed by now, surely. Cursing the twinge he felt in his nethers at even the smallest thought of her, Aru inserted the key in the lock and opened the door.
Candlelight greeted him and for a moment he could only gape. On every second stair leading to the upper floor, flickering in the sudden draft from the open door, a candle burned. He blinked, suddenly assailed by the scent of the rose petals strewn across the foyer and lower steps.
He closed his eyes. Prayed to a god who had long deserted him for strength he knew he didn’t have. Against the black backdrop of the half-world, he could see the two of them upstairs in his bedroom, their auras drawn in strands of colored light. Inella reclined in his armchair with her legs curled under her. Viera lounged on the floor at her feet, head resting on the other woman’s knees, one hand stroking absently along Inella’s calf.
At the sight of the caress his cock stiffened, filling with blood. He would not go to her. He would not.
With a start, he realized he was already halfway up the stairs. His eyes stung with tears of frustration and futility. Where was his will? Only a moment ago he had been set in his mind, immovable, and now? With a few rose petals and the promise of her beautiful body, she had ground his backbone into meal.
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