by Karen MacRae
The key had been lost when they’d had to abandon their bags in Shae, but Elona’s knife made short work of the lock on the safehouse’s back door. The small, one-up, one-down property was shabby and dirty, but the walls were thick and the locals selectively deaf. It would do fine.
The Reader immediately started stripping off the Captain’s clothes to get into the red dress. Pyteor wheeled round so he wouldn’t see anything, but he’d had yet another angle of Elona’s nakedness burned onto his mind. Damn the woman for being so beautiful. It made it hard to remember she was a viper.
Their faces wiped clean of makeup and changed into less marine-like clothing under gowns of yellow and violet, the pair easily merged into the other brightly clothed pedestrians who’d dared enter the shady end of town. Ebdry’s was only twenty minutes away.
Marple was not pleased to see them. “Professor Ebdry is teaching.”
“Send someone to get him. We don’t have all day,” Elona told the servant.
“That would be a change in routine. The house is watched. They will notice.”
Elona scowled. The man had a point. “When is he due home?”
“He’ll be back for private seminars at twelve. Four applicants and their doting parents will be in and out until sixteen o’clock. They can’t be cancelled.”
“Fine. We’ll have a few words before they begin.”
“How’s Sifry?” asked Pyteor.
“The same. We keep him doped up.”
“Ease off the crimwort,” ordered Elona. “We might need him vaguely awake in the next couple of days.”
“As you wish, Mistress Elona. Now, if there is nothing else, I have work to do. You can wait in the master’s lounge. The curtains are drawn so no one can see inside.”
“Two hours? Seriously? Two hours we have to hang around waiting for the pompous ass?” Pyteor hissed in the safety of the dim lounge.
“There’s little enough to do at the moment anyway,” replied a calm Elona. “The sailors will still be securing work and getting started and we can’t proceed until we know more about Braxton’s men.”
“There were three of them at the back of the house.”
“No, there were three of Kuri’s men and Syrano Ffion looking disgustingly healthy through the window of the house on the corner. Damn his gift.”
“The Seaskian is out there?” Pyteor asked, ashamed not to have spotted the giant.
Elona took off her yellow gown and leaned back on the day bed. Pyteor felt the urge to jump on her and quickly averted his eyes. Elona smirked. “I saw his aura only, but it’s unmistakable. Now, if you can’t stay quiet, go and look in on Sifry or find yourself a willing housemaid to make the time go quicker. Just leave me in peace.”
Her peace was disturbed an hour later when Marple appeared at the door with a pale lilac envelope. “Mistress Elona? A message has arrived for Professor Sifry. I assumed you would like to see it.”
A lazy hand waved at him over the raised side of the day bed. His eyes near popped out of his head as he walked over and saw the red dress just barely containing her considerable curves, but he swallowed his baser instincts and simply handed her the message. He was gone before she’d taken her dagger out of its sheath.
The seal sliced open with one quick jerk of the blade. The embossed wax split in two, the top half of the Q for Quorum falling on the floor. Elona pulled out the enclosed card. Apparently, Professor Kirklund was delighted to invite Professor Sifry to attend the Quorum of Gifted library at his convenience to access ‘Divining Purity’ and ‘The Unforeseen Consequences of Balance’.
The books were back.
CHAPTER 37
T he Professor returned at fifteen minutes to twelve. Marple managed to warn him two guests had arrived and that, unfortunately, his old friend was not with them. Ebdry felt his stomach go into knots at the thought of Elona. He was both attracted to her and terrified of her. He stuck a smile on his face and swept into his lounge as if he had not a care in the world.
“How delightful to see you again, Reader,” he gushed. “I trust your trip was successful?”
“Marginally,” Elona replied with a polite smile. “Come, sit with me. We must talk.”
Ebdry sat gingerly on the edge of the day bed, his eyes firmly on hers and his hands clasped on his lap in what he hoped would look a confident pose.
Elona saw the white knuckles and the apprehension rolling through the man’s aura and smiled inwardly. She sat up and swung herself around so she was sitting close to him then leaned forward so he had a good look down her cleavage.
He couldn’t help himself; her body and the faint smell of spice cake that seemed to follow her everywhere were intoxicating. He yanked his eyes back to her face, his nose twitching and his trousers becoming uncomfortably tight.
She stretched out a hand and laid it on his thigh then lowered her eyes. She whispered huskily, “I am very pleased to see you again, professor. I have spent too much time recently with savages and imbeciles. I need an influx of elegance and intelligence. And comfort.”
She lifted tear-filled eyes to his. “We’ve lost… Oh, light, I can’t bear it… Ebdry, your friend, my partner, Mystrim…” She sobbed and allowed tears to fall unchecked down her cheeks. “Mystrim is… Mystrim has passed into the light.”
She flung herself onto the shocked professor and wept in his arms for a good three minutes. Marple appeared at the door to remind the professor of his seminar and was angrily waved away.
Edbry was experiencing the strangest set of emotions. He was very sorry Mystrim had died, but he was absolutely loving this unexpectedly feminine side to the Reader. Even better, he could feel her breasts pressing into his body, her hand was caressing his head in the most delightful way and her strawberry lips were breathing right into his ear.
“I feel so helpless, professor. I’ve always had Mystrim to guide me. Before he… Before they murdered him, we planned what we needed to do here in Ionantis, but it is so strange not to have him by my side, giving me the benefit of his manly wisdom.”
Tears shone in the pair of spectacular blue eyes looking at him and Ebdry fell for it hook, line and sinker. This was how a woman was supposed to be. The aggression she’d displayed before was clearly a mask this fragile flower had adopted to protect her finer sensibilities or perhaps to throw Mystrim off the scent. He is, was, a devil with women.
Elona could see the change in the man’s aura. For someone whose job relied on his intellect, she couldn’t quite believe how stupid he was. It reinforced her belief these academic types were no better than anyone else. If anything, they were worse: they were so puffed up with their own superiority, they couldn’t bring themselves to accept their own failings.
“Will you help me, please, professor?” she whispered.
“Of course, my dear, of course. You can rely on me! How else would Mystrim’s oldest friend honour him?”
“I’m afraid to tell you,” Elona wept.
“Nonsense, my dear. You can tell me anything.”
Elona sobbed a bit more then sat forward and put her hands right in the man’s lap, her eyes looking at him adoringly. As if she hadn’t noticed where they’d landed, she pressed the flesh underneath her hands and breathed her thanks.
Ebdry suppressed a groan and cursed the fact he’d booked the seminars.
“Mystrim… We must protect his good name,” Elona said, her voice adamant, her hands grabbing his.
“Of course!” the professor replied, his mind wholly occupied with willing her hands to return to their previous location.
“He… I dread saying it, professor. He…” Elona leaned forward again and put her lips to the man’s ear. “He lost our gold.”
“Oh, my dear, gold is nothing. Don’t worry at all. I can give you all you need and more.”
“I dare not let Nystrieth know. I would not have him put such a failure against Mystrim’s memory.”
“It shall be as if it never happened. How much do you need?”
Elona’s hands returned to his lap and the professor suppressed another groan. “One thousand pieces.”
The size of the request was big enough to break through his preoccupied mind, but the sweet, warm breath tickling his ear and the hands touching his groin persuaded him that it was of no worth. Perhaps though… “It is a lot of money, Elona.”
“I would be so grateful, professor,” she replied, her hands quite deliberately stroking his crotch. Before he twigged it was too good to be true, she withdrew them hastily and gave a guilty, but incredibly sexy laugh. “What you must think of me! It would be a lie to say it was an accident, but I know I am unworthy of your lovemaking. I am so sorry, professor. My emotions are all over the place.”
Ebdry coughed, his breath catching in his chest. “Unworthy? Oh, no, not at all! But I must go now, dearest. I will rush back, I swear, and I’ll ensure Marple satisfies your every request. Perhaps you might be waiting for me upstairs when I am done? At sixteen o’clock? I would like that.”
Elona looked through her lashes at the fool. “I would be happy to, sir. I will think of nothing else while I wait for you. Perhaps, though, to pass the time, I could have Marple help me with the finances and get me the names and addresses of your most faithful recruits? They must be true believers. I am determined to carry out Mystrim’s last wishes and some of what I need them to do might be considered… distasteful. I fear I won’t have the strength to do it without help.”
Two names came immediately to the professor’s mind. “Echiba and Sandon. They will do anything for a disciple of Nystrieth. I will count the minutes until these interminable sessions are over. Until then, have this to remember me!” the professor exclaimed, pulling Elona into a foul, slobbering, tongue-probing kiss.
She nearly threw up, but managed to disengage and sigh, “Oh, Ebdry!” before falling back prettily on the day bed, her mouth well out of reach. She’d make damn sure not to let those lips anywhere near hers when she had to honour her agreement after the man’s seminars.
Pyteor came into the room as Ebdry left. He waited for the door to close and footsteps to depart then gave Elona a huge grin. “I have to say, Reader, you were quite brilliant. Truly. But, light, the man is an ass!”
Elona laughed. “They usually are, Concealer. Now, we need to get those addresses. I want that librarian in my hands by nightfall. I’ll have to come back here briefly, probably very briefly if that kiss is anything to go by, but we should be done and away from Ionantis within a day or two. Braxton’s made everything even easier for us too. Here,” she said, passing the Quorum note to Pyteor.
“The books are back in the library?”
“Which means that’s where they’ll be focusing their manpower. And we aren’t going to be there. Isn’t it too delicious for words?”
Pyteor grinned. It truly was.
Marple was as organised as ever. He baulked a bit at the request for one thousand gold to be ready for Elona to collect when she returned at sixteen o’clock, but he happily provided the pair with Ebdry’s student addresses and full names and even told them they might find the pair at The Implausible Inference tavern if they were not at home as it was a popular meeting place for those with similar politics.
The two spies were out of Ebdry’s and on their way into the Order Sector within minutes.
The inn was crowded with students and alumni, but they’d missed their quarry by bare minutes. A silver piece earned them the intelligence the pair had mentioned getting some food then heading home to work on their speech for the graduation show.
‘Home’ turned out to be a tiny apartment deep in the Order Sector. The angry, pale face that jerked opened the door soon changed its expression when the vision in yellow and red before it smiled prettily and asked if he might have a moment for friends of Professor Ebdry?
“Who is it?” came a voice from inside.
Curious, the blonde asked the pair in. Elona and Pyteor found themselves in a small, stale and very smoky room. Elona threw back her yellow hood, her nostrils flaring with the scent of a familiar student habit. She breathed out heavily with fond memories then pinned the two in front of her with her eyes. They were mesmerised.
“Nystrieth is not a fan of mood-enhancers,” she said, her voice cool. “He believes it better to learn to control one’s emotions. I must say I rather enjoyed a little dreamer when I was a student, though.”
The young men held their breath as the beauty smiled at them then reached across to pluck the burning twine from the dark-haired student’s hand. She inhaled deeply.
“Ah… Such nostalgia, but we have more grown up things to discuss and without prying ears.” She dropped the twine to the floor and ground it out with her foot. “Professor Ebdry swears you’re the men to help us. Is this true?”
The young men looked at each other then launched into reassurances that they were the professor’s best, most loyal, students. The blonde boy won the battle of shouting loudest. He lowered his voice when Elona’s brow wrinkled at the volume he and his friend were generating.
“Milady, could you be… I can’t believe you could be any other than… You are just so beautiful… Milady,” he finally spat out, “are you the most revered of Reader warriors? Are you Elona of Ruustra?”
Elona smiled at their awe. “Shush, my good men,” she said. “We cannot alert our enemies.” The pair fell to their knees before her. She found it quite gratifying. “This is Pyteor. He’s a Concealer,” she told them, waving at her companion.
Heads swivelled and mouths opened like goldfish. “You work for Nystrieth too?” breathed the brunette. Pyteor scowled and Elona suppressed a smile; the opportunity to remind the Concealer of his insignificance had been a delightful bonus.
“Nystrieth has need of your help, but it may involve a certain ruthlessness. Can He rely on you?” she asked the two puppies who panted before her. Their wide-eyed assurances were so breathlessly eager she wondered if the pair would faint at the sight of blood. “It will involve a certain degree of persuasion and violence.” The lust that spread through the two auras was answer enough. The boys were more likely to fight over who would have the pleasure of cutting than be too timid to wield a blade. She smiled happily at them. They were perfect.
“Nystrieth is God!” the brunette uttered, his voice joyful and sure, his fist held tightly against his chest. The blonde joined in a second later.
“Nystrieth is God! Nystrieth is God!” they chanted, their eyes those of true fanatics. Elona smiled down on her master’s followers and waved for them to quieten.
“We are yours to command, Mistress,” they swore passionately, barely controlling their excitement.
They left the apartment at the same time, the new recruits bounding down the stairs ahead of the spies like enthusiastic eight-year-olds. It didn’t take them long to find an inn table occupied only by two girls and even less to get them playing a fun drinking game. The festival lifted everyone’s spirits and decreased their sense of self-preservation. Nothing could go wrong when you’re about to graduate and you’ve got your whole life in front of you.
A crimwort-doctored jug of fizzy whiskey sour soon had the girls semi-conscious. Elona waved for a passing hire carriage then acted the good citizen, telling off the boys for getting the girls so drunk and making them carry the two into the carriage. She gave the driver an address in the Rim and waved it off. The pair were out cold by the time the carriage arrived.
The driver cursed, then jumped down to knock on the door. He was relieved when a polite, young man in violet answered. The driver managed to persuade the Elements’ student to take charge of the drunks, dumped the pair at the door and got himself out of there as fast as possible in case the young man changed his mind.
Pyteor, still a little pink-cheeked from his run to the safehouse, allowed himself a smile and a small thrill of expectation as he dragged the unconscious girls inside.
There was only one chair and enough rope to bind one girl. Pyteor threw off his
bulky clothing and rolled up his sleeves; he had work to do before the others arrived. He stripped off the lilac-clad girl’s clothing then hauled her onto the chair, tying her hands and her feet together so she couldn’t escape. He sneered at her nakedness. She was a poor excuse for a woman. Scrawny and small-breasted, she may as well be a boy. Her friend, now, she was much more to his taste.
He opened the girl’s clothing to reveal beautiful, big breasts. Now this was a woman. He put his hands on her and sighed as he squeezed the soft flesh. It had been such a long time. He bent to bite a nipple, but the girl suddenly vomited and the stench of whiskey filled the air. Pyteor scuttled back from the foul liquid, but it was all over his face and hair. Furious, he drew his dagger and plunged it into her chest, his heart near bursting with excitement.
He stopped when he got tired. Her breasts and belly were shredded, her eyes gone. It served her right.
He washed up and was waiting patiently when the others arrived.
Elona looked at the bloody heap in the corner and raised an eyebrow. Pyteor held her eyes, refusing to admit he’d lost control. “You wanted her dead. I killed her.”
“Fair enough. Has this one not woken yet?”
“Nothing.”
“You,” she said, pointing at the dark-haired student. “Put your hand over her mouth.”
He rushed forward enthusiastically and pressed a hand over the girl’s face.
“Make sure her nose is clear. I don’t want her smothered by mistake.” Elona waited until the boy had adjusted his grip then brutally twisted the girl’s nipples. She woke with a muffled scream.
“Perfect,” oozed Elona. “Time to prove your worth, boys. I want to know everything.”
