No Demons But Us

by A. S. Etaski

  Qivni frowned at me but didn’t speak. Perhaps only her focus on something I couldn’t see or hear kept her from striking me again.

  Fuck, now I was really curious.

  “Answer,” she commanded, finally removing her hand.

  I didn’t pretend I’d forgotten the question. “Yes, Lead, it did feel sort of like that. But it’s hard to describe, and it’s been gone for the last span.”

  “What about the cycle before you found him?” she asked. “How did you fare alone in the wild tunnels?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t remember much except fucking myself, Lead, and it didn’t help. The magic drove me insane enough to attack the first Davrin I met.”

  She found that believable and might have continued interrogating me except that I could see she had had a long cycle already. I was her final “duty” before she could rest. Jaunda had even implied that I had to stay here for Reverie as well.

  Qivni exhaled, poured us both some water from the same pitcher inside a locked cabinet. She handed me the small, metal cup and drank hers while I cautiously sniffed mine and hesitated, watching her.

  “There’s nothing in it,” she said with impatience. “Drink it, or I will.”

  I downed the water. I hadn’t always gotten enough to drink while being passed around the Cloister, and my slit was dry now that the magic had worn off. There was a blanket folded neatly at the foot of the pallet, but Qivni didn’t pull it up but lay on her back and opened her legs, resting her toes on it as she combed her fingers through her white fur. She showed me purple netherlips which were only modestly flushed.

  “Serve me,” she demanded.

  No Feldeu? I wasn’t disappointed about this given my own lack of moisture, but it might have been the easier way to make her climax. I doubted I could with my mouth. I hadn’t been as out of sync with another cait as I was now since Jilrina, although I knew it was because I’d been avoiding them until the Sisterhood gave me no option but to accept their attention.

  At least Jaunda was fun. She laughs and jests, and she wanted me.

  I licked and sucked Qivni’s snatch for a while, lightly holding her hips or her thigh, pushing past the strong scent of hard exercise at her crotch. I knew my part was mindless movement; I wasn’t listening to her signals. There was no magical drive to do so, and I hadn’t found my own yet. Like a back massage, my service on her wasn’t objectionable, but it wasn’t going to get her off. We didn’t even rise off the starting point. I waited to see if Qivni was one who tied her feminine power into whether or not she climaxed. It was easy to threaten the one serving, to blame it on her if she failed.

  In the end, she just pushed me away, bored and frustrated.

  “Enough, I want to sleep,” she growled, intending to enter Reverie with that tight bun still in place. “You do the same. Don’t touch me, take no stupid action to mess it up, novice, and touch nothing in my quarters. Obey, and you will be a Sister come the next cycle. I’ll make the recommendation to Elder Rausery.”

  I nodded. That was a good deal. “Yes, Lead.”

  “Go to Reverie, then.”

  Gold.

  Searing, golden light.

  I knew that it should hurt, I should be screaming in pain. Not knowing its source, I felt it beat down from above, and the ground beneath my feet wasn’t stone. It was soft; it constantly shifted, and my feet sank. I watched the light burn everything, slowly and over time. Red cloaks surrounding me disintegrated, turning to grey tatters. Our black skin scorched under the onslaught, becoming painful, sensitive to the touch until thin layers peeled away in dark, ashen flakes.

  Our eyes would not stop leaking water, losing that precious moisture, and we would be blind forever if we stared straight at it. Darkness within impossible heat, like the center of the world and yet everything I knew felt turned inside-out.

  I should be on my knees right now.

  Screaming.

  “Goddess’ Webs, Sirana, shut up!”

  Someone shook me, slapped me, and I woke up trembling. I stared up at Qivni, my eyes wide as when I’d come aware with my older sisters standing over me. The Lead was furious.

  “What did you dream?” she hissed. “I’d think you were being dissected alive upon the Altar!”

  “L-Lead,” I stuttered, gasping. “Apologize…for waking you.”

  My heart pounded; my muscles were frozen.

  Qivni narrowed her eyes at me. “Your dream?”

  “Burned alive,” I answered. “Too much light. Gold. Gold light.”

  Her mouth had formed a straight line. I knew nothing of her thoughts before she shook her head. “I cannot sleep with you here. I need you out.”

  “I-I apologize, Lead! Please,” I said again, abruptly terrified that I had come so close but would be rejected by the Sisterhood. That I was facing my death or my will’s destruction. The lingering dream didn’t help. “I don’t have Reverie like that ordinarily. I’ve never screamed like that.”

  Qivni got naked to her feet. She trembled, too. She went over to her hanging uniform, to the belt, and retrieved something from a pouch. It was a small pellet that she broke between her fingers while murmuring a word.

  “Lead Jaunda will come to get you,” she said.

  I felt nauseous. “H-have I failed?”

  My Collector scowled at me. “No. I’ll make the recommendation you stay. Elder D’Shea wants you, Goddess knows why. She can deal with your quirks, I don’t have to. I suggest not using such fearful dreams as a method to grab undue attention, Sirana. It’ll get tiresome quickly, even for Elder D’Shea.”

  That isn’t what happened.

  Still, that was more lenience and advice than I’d received from some, and she wasn’t having me thrown into a holding cell. I kept my mouth shut until Jaunda arrived and took me from the other Lead’s quarters.

  “She’s in,” Qivni said, motioning her hand with a disinterest that belied her discomfort, as she looked elsewhere. “Take her away, I want to rest alone.”

  Jaunda nodded. After the door closed behind us, the warrior signed for me to be silent until we got to her room instead.

  “What the fuck happened?” Jaunda asked, squinting at me. “Qiv doesn’t get jumpy around novices any more than I do.”

  I heard my Lead’s familiarity with and acceptance of her peer; I knew to tread carefully. “I intended no harm. She checked over my body but wasn’t in the mood for sex. She asked me about the Consort ‘getting under my skin,’ and I said yes. B-but I don’t know what she concluded. She kept it to herself, and we fell asleep. I woke up from a bad reverie about burning light, I-I woke her, I was loud, and she…uh…”

  “Got up and called me?”

  I nodded.

  Jaunda thought about this. “I will need to pass you on to Gaelan soon, but keep this quiet. Tell only Elder D’Shea what you just told me, next time you see her. Clear?”

  “Yes, Lead.”

  “Good. Looks like you’re in, then.”

  The first Red Sister who had ever spoken to me offered that infectious grin and patted my backside, pinching one cheek, and I jumped for her amusement.

  She chuckled, “I’m going to like having this ass around.”

  I was on my back on Gaelan’s pallet, arms around the mage’s thighs, my head buried between them, eating her as I’d promised. I did so with much more enthusiasm than I’d shown Qivni, and none of it was driven either by ritual magic or the Feldeu.

  “G-Goddess, Sirana, you’re…” she gasped, trembling as she braced above me, her knees wide and her palm resting on the top of my head. “Ah! Oh! Oh, there…”

  I felt no rush, and she had all my focus. If we were interrupted, so be it, but I wanted to get her off this way, and I knew I could do it. It didn’t feel wrong; at last, this wasn’t disgusting or degrading. Gaelan’s hips jerked, and she ground against my mouth and chin, fragrant and clean. There was no sickly aroma as I’d always detected in my sist
ers, or had convinced myself was there.

  Gaelan and Jaunda tasted good, smelled arousing, as did other Red Sisters who hadn’t infuriated me the way Corpora Thena and her crew had. I was still a novice, but now the youngest Sister. I relaxed for the first time in spans, and I took my time with Gaelan.

  “Yes!” she cried, her peak rushing up to envelop her, and I moaned against her, encouraging, aiding her coast downward.

  When she flopped down next to me to catch her breath, I laid there without seeking a cloth to wipe my face. There was no need to talk, and I almost drifted off still breathing in her scent.

  “I’m glad you made it this far,” Gaelan said, hushed as if she didn’t want anyone else to hear. As if they could.

  One corner of my mouth rose. “When do I get clothes?”

  “Soon, I expect. The Elders will need to see you again.”

  I hadn’t seen them at all since D’Shea left me amid that first brawl. “How long has it been?”

  Gaelan paused, reaching to brush strands of white hair from my forehead. “Eleven cycles. Almost span and a half.”

  Elder Rausery had said she would give me a two-span to prove I could handle it here; I was five cycles away. By then, it would have been almost three spans since I’d last been dressed in a gown and leaving yet another Noble dinner party to stand on a balcony.

  It already seemed that time was much longer ago.

  “Can we start those tips on escaping an unwanted Feldeu?” I asked.

  “Sure,” Gaelan said. “I know some. Lead knows more.”

  And all the ways to negate them, no doubt. I couldn’t imagine anyone taking Jaunda’s holes if she didn’t want them but could well imagine her overriding the defenses of one she’d tutored.

  I guessed, “She knows some wrestling moves?”

  Gaelan nodded. “If it gets to that point. Your best defense is not landing on the ground in the first place.”

  Cunning before strength. That was already my leaning, but it hadn’t always worked. I lacked the skill to go with both, and I knew it. I sat up on the pallet and looked down at the second-youngest Red Sister.

  “Ready when you are,” I said.

  Elder Rausery strolled around me, appraising my nudity for a second time. Her red cloak moved with her, quiet but very distracting.

  “You’ve toned up some,” she commented, and a wry smile lightened her face. “That was a lot of sex.”

  My face warmed. “Yes, Elder.”

  The Prime snorted audibly but made no comment. This time, we were in a smaller meeting room with a table and chairs, and the eldest sat at the head with her seat pushed back, her knees wide apart as she occasionally drank from a large, plain goblet. I smelled something different from wine but no doubt fermented. It seemed as though she’d only made time for this meeting when she might have been drinking like this anyway. She was the only one sitting.

  Elder D’Shea stood across the table from me, observing the other Elder and me while keeping a fragment of her attention always on the Prime. She seemed to be waiting, more than anything, and hadn’t been required to defend me much. It could only be good for me that I satisfied Elder Rausery and the Prime on my own merit rather than needing this Sorceress to persuade and convince them.

  Because she wants me, Qivni said. ‘Goddess knows why.’

  “Lead Qivni reported trainability and a curious mind,” Elder Rausery said to the Prime, “and Lunent Agalia confirmed resourcefulness under pressure. Lead Jaunda’s already established rank, and the rest said things which confirm Elder D’Shea’s claims of lasting resilience under magical influence. A natural outcome of her upbringing.”

  Jilrina wasn’t magical, I thought again, but then the Priestess’ words came back.

  *Your sister had magic, Sirana. If she failed to raise much power using you as her Altar, I do not wonder that Varessa D’Shea has selected you to be tested for the Sisterhood.*

  What does that mean? I’m not a mage.

  I glanced at Elder D’Shea but looked back when the Prime grunted again, and I watched her take a drink. A drop escaped out of the corner of her mouth, got trapped in the fine creases there before she licked it away.

  “Not a hunter or a leader,” the Prime said, seeming to add to my thoughts the qualities I lacked. “Always one of the hunted.”

  I clenched my teeth as Rausery nodded. “Correct, Prime. But high intelligence, a potential for spying and assassination. Self-motivated and self-directed, if need be, but could learn to work in a team.”

  The Prime sighed. “Another one.” She looked at Elder D’Shea with hard eyes. “Can’t pick anyone bolder from the start, Sorceress? Gotta be these sneaky caits who just prove they can take a beating and not whine about it?”

  D’Shea smiled. “That is Elder Rausery’s expertise, Prime. Mine is finding those who can serve the Sisterhood at any level of Sivaraus above ‘Fringe’.” Her eyes shifted to her peer, her voice teasing. “I note that more of my choices from the last century are still alive, and they tend not to do brash things which result in their deaths within their first five turns in the Cloister.”

  The other Elder grinned at her rather than take umbrage. “Yeah, but I found Jaunda for you, and you’re still paying me back for that. Test of the streets, D’Shea. I won’t pretend I get what you look for but grant you got the numbers so far.”

  No one had talked around me, or about me, in this way before. It was…generous, I thought. These three leaders could have already had this conversation before I was brought in, or perhaps they had and were even better pretenders than at Court, but I didn’t think so. Elder D’Shea could act, probably, but the other two?

  No. Rausery smiles, laughs. Like Jaunda. And she ‘found’ her. The Prime never smiles. Neither does Qivni. They show what they really are.

  I wanted to believe this was real in a way the Matrons and their Daughters weren’t.

  Not even me.

  “So. Are we right about you, recruit?” Elder Rausery asked me, stepping closer again. “Still want to be a Red Sister?”

  She did not protest when I looked up at her eyes. I was still naked, and I felt a shiver pass through me. Unless I was under some magical influence, it seemed they had just laid it out for me, what my use was, what my place would be, and they had done it in a way I would be incompetent to fail to meet those basic expectations. The three did not talk through the thin veil of polite arrogance; they spoke plain. This did make me wonder how this differed from the Priesthood’s leadership.

  “Yes, Elder, you are,” I said. “And yes, I do.”

  A surge of excitement flooded my gut as I spoke and saw only approval and satisfaction. The Sisterhood made sense to me in a way I’d never expected to find. Right now, these leaders could show all the doubts in me they wanted, and I didn’t care.

  I was in. And I could prove myself.

  CHAPTER 8

  My Lead nudged my shoulder, and I turned my eyes away from the cliff to read her hand.

  *Who do you watch?*

  Jaunda showed her teeth in a smile; I could detect the dull gleam from the torchlight far below us. She was confident those below were too far to see it.

  *Well?* she prompted.

  *The army,* I replied, gesturing in kind. The torchlight affected our Dark Sight, blurring our expressions slightly, but we could see each other’s outlines just fine.

  She gestured smartly back. *Didn’t ask what. Asked who.*

  *No one specific.*

  She smirked, and the tilt to her head told me she waited for more.

  I looked back to the drills. This was the closest I’d ever been to a more substantial part of our fighting force. Not only kept away from the Palace and the city center in general but also away from the higher Houses, including mine. We were close to House Aurenthin, the twenty-fourth in rank and at the bottom, and the Matron couldn’t really refuse to allow the drills going on now, spilling into her field. They weren
’t a significant agricultural producer anyway, so the wan crop they managed just to feed their own residents wasn’t threatened too much.

  The unit of sixty below us was all-male. Jaunda watched me a little longer then tapped my shoulder to gain my attention again.

  *You are searching for someone.*

  I smiled without showing my teeth. *I am.*

  *You won’t find him here.*

  *Find who?*

  *The soldier from your trials.*

  I offered her a smirk as well, confirming her guess. *Why is that?*

  *Because he couldn’t keep his silence.*

  I considered that, the different, less educated way the fighter had spoken to the wizard about me. Maybe the bua had already known he was dead, and that made it easier to do whatever he wanted to a Noble. I didn’t want to be in his place.

  *And the wizard?* I signed. *He wouldn’t be executed.*

  Jaunda smiled wider and made no reply.

  I shook my head, leaned closer, and whispered aloud, “You’re all spider-bitten sluts.”

  The Lead Red Sister laughed loud in a sudden burst, projecting her voice and causing it to bounce off the ceiling of the cavern. I jumped, and so did all the males below me. The sudden tension and lack of focus in the unit below were apparent as a lot of them looked up and saw us. One of them pointed up just as a rod cracked down on his hand.

  “You most of any of us,” she purred, brushing my cheek with knuckles covered in leather. She nipped my ear then bit my neck, and I felt a genuine stab of pleasure when she did. “Follow.”

  I did as we crawled off the cliff to show ourselves to the unit. The commanding officer was female, and she kept all expression from her face as she scanned us head to foot coming out of deep shadow.

  My Lead was taller and powerfully built, wearing red to stand out, and she was the only one. I was the clear subordinate, and perhaps not even a Red Sister to them; the leathers I wore were black. I wore similar weapons and a useful belt of pouches and small tools, but I could have been a mere messenger. Still, the officer picked up on my novice status; she gestured a salute of high respect for Jaunda and offered a formal one to me that counted at least as the Commander’s peer. I dared not show surprise; this was something to which to become accustomed, and quickly.