Temporal Locum

by Wendie Nordgren

  “No, I can’t sleep. It’s like my blood itches. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s maddening, and I don’t know how to make it stop. Does it have something to do with my powers? Have you read about this affliction in any ancient texts?”

  He remained silent, staring out at the waves before taking a step away.

  “Drem, don’t leave me.” She reached for his arm but closed her hand over his wrist before he could move out of her reach. A cool balm washed through her. “It’s gone. The aggravating itching is gone. What did you do? Was it a spell?”

  The space between them vanished as he stepped closer and crushed their hands between them, but she didn’t release her hold. A slow pulse of magic flowed from her and entered Drem. Just as slowly, he sent the pulse back. She closed her eyes and gasped with the pleasure of the experience.

  “It wasn’t I who did this. You bound me.” As if only then realizing how close he’d gotten, he tried to take a step away, but her grasp was surprisingly strong.

  “Bound you?” He didn’t want to answer her question. She could tell, so she demanded the truth. “Tell me what I did to you.”

  Sadly, he said, “It was the pivotal moment of my existence. You took me and made me yours. You gave me the power to fight for and defend you. You laid your claim on me, and I’ve delighted and suffered in it ever since. Only some nights are more difficult than others.” He tried to free his wrist and failed when Bym moved with him. “Please, Goddess. I only have the power you have given me and none in body or spirit which I might use against you.”

  His admission sent her back to the moment when she’d shattered the quartz dome of her atrium. “I bound you as I did Guto and Eurig.”

  Drem went to his knees in the sand even with his wrist still in her grasp. “I am yours until at your side I fade. Forgive me, and let me go.”

  Stunned, she released him.

  He averted his eyes, got to his feet, took several steps back, and burst into a cloud of black mist which fled from her on the wind.

  She stared after him, willing him to come back, but he never did. Defeated, she returned to Donkey. She was swatting at the waves with her hooves. After eventually finding her shoes, the two of them returned to the stables. Bym no longer felt the maddening agitation in her chest. Now, it felt like lead filled her heart. What had she done?

  After breakfast the next morning, she caught Yeva alone. “You are troubled.”

  “Yes, very.” Bym looked around to see if anyone was listening.

  “Is it privacy you want?”

  Bym nodded.

  Yeva whispered unintelligibly under her breath. Then, the sounds of the household vanished, replaced by silence. “No one can hear us now.”

  Bym hesitated.

  Yeva assured her. “I live to serve you.”

  “It isn’t like that. This is personal.” Bym’s cheeks turned red.

  “Oh, have you gotten your moon cycle? I can easily….”

  “No, not that. It’s about Drem.” She wanted to pace in agitation but wasn’t sure how far Yeva’s spell went.

  “Ask me anything.” She folded her hands on her lap and waited.

  “I can’t ask you for private details about your brother.”

  “Of course, you can. I know everything about him. Do you want embarrassing stories? I have lots.” Yeva smiled diabolically.

  Some of the tension left Bym. “Does he have a lover or a significant other?”

  Yeva’s expression suddenly changed, and she sat back. “No, just his books, studies, and training. Why?”

  The information took her a few moments to process. If she wasn’t tearing him from someone he loved, what had she done? “I’ve upset him. I don’t know how to fix it.”

  Yeva’s eyebrow shot up. “Nothing you could ever do would upset him. He lives to serve you as do I.”

  Bym shook her head. “Oh, I have. I bound him to me without his consent, and it’s beginning to make both of us miserable. How can I possibly make amends to him for such a thing?”

  Yeva stared into her eyes and quietly stated, “You bound his life to yours, extending it by centuries, and imbued him with power unrivalled by any sorcerer in recorded time. He gave his consent when he reached puberty and pledged his life to your worship. We all did.”

  She shook her head, “It’s different with him. It feels… intimate.”

  “All the better.”

  Incredulously, she said, “He didn’t know me when he was a boy.”

  “He vowed to the Goddess.”

  “Aurora.”

  “You.” She lifted up on Bym’s chin so she’d stop staring at the tiled floors and look into her eyes. “There might be a way to end your agitation. Let us consult the histories.” The smile she gave was genuine and reached her eyes. Releasing her spell, she stood, and together, they went to the library.

  It wasn’t long before a curious Tivona had joined them. Once Bym had confided her secret, the draw to Drem which had become impossible to ignore, Tivona confidently pulled bound scripts from the shelves and placed them upon the reading table. Having spent decades of her life familiarizing herself with every word, she quickly opened them to the pages and passages which her goddess and her high priestess required.

  “What good will it do for me to see them? I can’t read them.” Bym sighed and was about to find an out of the way place to sit.

  Tivona stopped her by proclaiming, “Oh, but there are pictures depicting everything you could possibly need to know about goddess bonds and sorcerers.”

  “Oh?” Bym asked while taking note of Yeva. She was looking at the pages which Tivona had left open and was failing miserably at keeping a straight face. Covering her mouth, she turned her head and burst with gales of laughter. Bym hurried over to see what the pages contained. “What the fuck?”

  Bym’s eyes almost fell to the table. Each page contained something more lurid than the next. The drawing on the page directly in front of her showed a nude, ecstatic woman with her legs spread wide while a male, drawn in vivid detail, entered her. Above them, the sun shined down, and its power radiated from their joined bodies.

  Failing to understand Bym’s exclamation, Tivona said, “Yes, exactly. If you can’t find a favored means of copulation within these texts, I can search in other libraries. Experimentation is the key. Once you find the right position, you’ll find your pleasure. It’s a certainty.”

  Another page showed a depiction of a woman being pleasured from front and back. She rode one male while another rode her backside. Bym cringed. “Wouldn’t that hurt?”

  “It’s something you work towards gradually,” Tivona explained.

  Yeva was snorting with laughter while flipping through the pages.

  Bym asked, “Who wrote these books?” She was trying not to be a scandalized prude. She really was.

  “Here. This might help.” Tivona showed her a page. The female was suspended in a sitting position with her legs spread and knees bent a few feet from the floor. A male on his knees penetrated her, while another male penetrated him. A third male did the same to her. “Aurora wrote this one. It can be tricky pleasing three husbands, but with the proper salves and preparation you can do it. You’ll enjoy it, too. Trust me. I’ve tried that one. I’ll put together a basket for under your bed.”

  “So, wait. The only way for this feeling to go away is to…”

  “Is to do what you said a moment ago. Fuck him. Fuck all of them. You have centuries to do so and plenty of time to write your own books on the topic.” Tivona left the library while humming to herself.

  “Stop it,” Bym ordered Yeva.

  She held her hand up for mercy while clutching her stomach with the other hand, all while gasping for breath during her laughter. Tears ran down her cheeks. Yeva gasped out, “She looks like such a sweet little old lady, but she’s….”

  “Shhhhh!” Bym hoped Tivona couldn’t hear them. “Well, she’s a couple of hundred years old, right?”

  Yeva’
s eyes widened, and she nodded. “How many times do you think she’s done it?”

  “Is everything alright in here?” Guto asked.

  Bym and Yeva stared at each other in panic and tried to hide the table. Unfortunately, Hopcyn was with him. Even Bym’s efforts to block them from entering the room were met with failure.

  “Wow!” Hopcyn’s eyes bulged. He grabbed a book, held it out of reach, and left the room. “I’ll be in my room.” He ran.

  A deep red started creeping up Guto’s neck until it had engulfed his entire head. Drawing Bym aside, he whispered, “Is this because of me? Am I not pleasing you?”

  Yeva collapsed to a couch and laughed harder.

  Taking his hand and pulling him from the room, she said, “No, you are perfect. Everything between us is.”

  He gestured helplessly toward the library.

  Bym checked around them to make sure no one was listening. “Where do I begin?” She felt her own cheeks heating. “Something is wrong between Drem and me. I spoke to Yeva about it. We decided to consult the books, and Tivona came to help. We weren’t expecting this.”

  Knowingly, he said, “This is why you left our bed. We followed you but decided to give you your privacy by not showing ourselves to you.” Lifting her hand to his lips, he kissed her knuckles. “If you didn’t want him, you wouldn’t have bound him, so take him and end your shared misery.” Releasing her hand, he reentered the library and picked up a book. Holding it out to her, he asked, “After you find him, what about this?”

  She covered her eyes and bowed her head.

  Yeva fell off the couch laughing.

  Bym said, “This isn’t what I meant. I wanted to understand what happened between Drem and me to cause the pull which I feel, and which I assume he too feels.”

  “The same thing happened between the two of us and between you and Eurig. When you first touched upon the stars, you claimed those whom your heart and mind had already chosen. The bond occurred with those who readily accepted you in return. Obviously, you chose me after ogling my nude body in the men’s bathing pool.” Guto leered at her, grabbed her around her waist, and humped her leg.

  Laughing, she shoved him away. She lifted her finger to scold him and suggest it had been because he had represented safety and order during a traumatic ordeal, but then she pictured him naked. “You’re probably right.” Dropping her hand, she selected an open book from the table.

  “Fortunately, you didn’t make yourself suffer for long with me, ravaging me at your first opportunity.”

  He was a fucking peacock. Yeva’s giggling distracted Bym from his boasting. She said, “I thought he had killed you.”

  “Yes, and you realized you couldn’t live without me. Yes, I know,” he said in a suffering tone. “It must have been prior to trying to kill me for you when Eurig felt the pull. It’s a draw which can’t be denied. How Drem has lasted this long, I have no idea.”

  “Maybe, he doesn’t want to form an intimate relationship with me.”

  “Oh, he wants you.” Guto kissed her forehead. “I’ll go find him and talk to him.” He took one of the books and hid it in his robes.

  “Guto,” Bym said in warning.

  Raising an eyebrow, he said, “I will tell him that if he comes to you within the next few hours to consummate your bond that he may pick from whichever of these poses he wishes to accomplish the mating.”

  Bym’s face heated, but Guto was gone before she’d found her voice to scream at him. After failing to catch him before he’d left the house, she returned to the library. Yeva was no longer laughing. She sat staring at a page and was in obvious distress. “What’s the matter?”

  Looking up at her, she said unconvincingly, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Once you fully merge the Temporal Locum, your life along with all of those who are bound to you, spouses, priestesses, and sometimes even trusted friends, will share your longevity.” She hesitated before continuing. “However, like you, until that day comes, they must still consider their mortality.” She pointed at a page in the book she held. “Nesta bound ten males to her before the merging, but two of them died in her defense.”

  Bym clutched at her throat. She began fearing the worst. “I can’t keep them safe. They’re like wild animals. Take Eurig for example. If it weren’t for Iago, he’d be black and blue from falling off the warhorse which Danior gave to him. Without Iago, I’d have already lost Guto. How do I speed up this merging?”

  Yeva put an arm around her, giving her a supportive hug. “Time. It takes time.”

  It was dark outside when Guto finally returned. He wasn’t with Drem. He was with Eurig. “We searched the city and couldn’t find him anywhere. We even checked the places where every collection of books and manuscripts are kept in the city.”

  Worried, Bym asked, “Where could Drem be hiding?”

  An hour later, the five of them sat at an empty table. Drem wasn’t the only one who was missing. Hopcyn, Gethim, Sausage, and Potatoes were nowhere to be found. It was unlike the four of them to miss a meal. Finally taking the ladies’ concerns seriously, Iago rose from his cushion and left the table. When he came back, he said, “Their packs are missing from their rooms.”

  Eurig said, “I’ll check the stables.”

  The four of them watched him leave.

  Frustrated, Yeva said, “I can find my brother.” She cleared a space on the table, spread out a leather map of the city before her, pricked her finger with a knife, and let a drop of her blood fall. Then, she pulled a crystal necklace from her bodice and dangled it from its chain above her blood. “Find he who shares my blood,” she commanded.

  The crystal moved on its chain, following the drop of blood where it had landed on a tiny renditioning of the palace. The drop of red rolled along the beach, across a field, and to an amphitheater of sorts. There the drop of blood stopped.

  “Did he go to see a play?” Bym asked.

  Imani and Arden had stood by quietly watching. “No,” Arden said. “We know the place well. It is the Goddess Gate of the Golden City. Near each gate, there is either a city or a fortification.”

  Bym smirked. “There isn’t anything anywhere near my gate. Noctus Luna is in ruins.” Then, she asked, “Why would he go there?”

  Imani and Arden exchanged nervous looks.

  “Tell me.”

  Arden said, “We thought you knew.”

  Just then, Eurig returned. Commander Eskil was with him. As if they hadn’t been interrupted, Bym said, “No, I don’t know. Where did Drem go?”

  Eskil answered for them. “Drem took forty men through the gate at midday when the priestesses were at their strongest to find the Stones of Luna Ignis.”

  The color drained from Bym’s face. “He didn’t speak to me of this. I thought we were waiting until it was safe.” She and Yeva got to their feet at the same time. “Hurry! We have to stop them!”

  In a tone she’d heard once before from him in her temple, Eskil said, “You aren’t going anywhere.”

  “I can go wherever I want! In case you’ve forgotten, I have an army who will ensure I can go wherever I wish!”

  He said nothing in response. Instead, he stared Eurig down, turned, and as he left called out, “Guards!”

  Bym and Yeva chased after him, but they were too late. The Commander of the Golden City had planned for her reaction, and he’d had help. The women stared past him at Solis and Umbra who had united to guard the palace and keep her from following after Drem and his party. “Eskil, wait! We must stop them. It’s too dangerous. They could die.”

  Turning, he came halfway back up the steps and stopped short with his boots on different steps. “We are all aware of the dangers they face. This is a cooperative mission. Commander Danior, Captain Arwel, and their best soldiers have joined forces to aid in this ridiculous quest for these mythical stones. It was agreed amongst us that you would remain here, protected by Solis and Umbra. Here you will remain.” He b
owed and left.

  Bym and Yeva stared out at soldiers garbed in red and black, united in their determination to protect her. “Drem didn’t even say goodbye,” Bym whispered.

  “Come, it’s late. Sleep will make this easier for us to consider in the morning.” Yeva guided her back inside. “Goddess, the men have planned for every contingency. Clearly, we must concede to their experience and wisdom. Please, be at peace. You know what happens when your spirit is troubled.”

  Arden closed the outer doors, shutting away the sight and sound of the guards.

  “Sleep? How can you suggest such a thing?” The betrayal she felt was clear on her face. Yeva’s fingers bit into Bym’s arm, but her expression was serenity personified.

  Arden and Imani followed them to the relative privacy of the rooftop. Urging everyone to sit closely together on cushions, Yeva cast her spell of privacy. Then, in a burst of fury, she exclaimed, “It’s just like the little goblin turd to do such a reckless thing!”

  Taken aback, Bym said, “I thought you were okay with it.”

  “I’m no more okay with it than you are. However, if the guards think I’m on their side, it will make whatever we plan less likely to fail. Men! They always think they know what is best!”

  “Yeah!” Bym said. Then, with less enthusiasm, she asked, “What are we going to do?”

  As if looking inward and feeling inadequate, Yeva asked, “What do you think we should do?”

  “I want to go after Drem and stop him, but is it wise?”

  “No,” Imani said. “It’s a terrible idea. I’ve warned you of this. I’ve foreseen it. Should you go, one who you hold dear will die.”

  “How many will die if I don’t go and force them to return here?”

  Embarrassed, Imani said, “There’s more which you do not know. We didn’t trust having a man in your temple’s private library. Before he entered, we spelled the shelves with dust. Then, each evening when he left, we found the books which he’d examined simply by observing where the dust had been disturbed and familiarized ourselves with the contents.”

  When she took a breath, Arden said, “We learned what he did. Early records of the Stones of Luna Ignis say they materialize near the portal through which the goddess comes.” She took a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it, reading, “As the Temporal Locum binds its host, from amongst the race of man, so do the Luna Ignis bind their host from amongst the goblin clans. Like the sun and the moon, their courses are ever set, one granting darkness and one gifting light. While one wakes, the other sleeps, but in the night the goblins reap. Like the sun and the moon, for one to thrive, the other must die. Sightless snakes, taking turns, warming themselves in the light. The time will come when their eyes are returned, and they will war with each other no more. Turns they will take, and the moon will slake their coldness from within. Until she fades, and their struggles again begin.”