by Joe Jackson
Kari laughed; she couldn’t help it. Morduri cracked that quiet smile again, but there was no laughter from Emanitar, and no amusement showed in his eyes. It was a brief glimpse into how he really thought and felt, and Kari wondered at it, but only for a few moments. She then recalled that Sekassus had tried to murder Emanitar years – centuries? Millennia? – ago, and many thought he had succeeded. That had to mean Sekassus physically wounded Emanitar to such a degree that he thought he’d killed the mallasti king, only to learn the truth later. In that light, Kari could understand Emanitar’s feelings, whether he was a demon king or the son of a goddess.
“Well, Your Majesty, I’ll plan to head to the southwestern villages of your realm in the morning. I was hoping to see your city’s football team play a match, but there’s more important things to take care of.”
Emanitar cocked his head. “You want to watch the Reds play a match? I can have a friendly organized against one of the other teams for tomorrow. It would be no trouble at all, if you want a little distraction before you move on.”
“I’d really appreciate that,” she said, then turned to Morduri. “And you’ll be staying here until you receive news from the south?”
“Yes. We can’t approach the contested area too soon without drawing too much attention or making our intentions obvious. You’ll be on your own at first, but as we discussed, I think the Ashen Fangs may take you into their confidence, and the mallasti people should shelter you and help you along. If not, come back here immediately, and we will simply scuttle the plan. Above all else, Kari, your goal is to stay alive.”
“You don’t have to tell me that twice,” she agreed.
Emanitar rose to his feet. “Excellent. Well, I shall go arrange for a match tomorrow, and have the cooks begin preparing a meal. Morduri, if you like, escort Kari to the baths and get the dust of the road off. I will see you two in the dining hall in an hour or so.”
Kari rose and bowed politely to their host. Emanitar dipped his head in response and made his egress. Kari followed Morduri as he led her from the chamber. He walked the halls as if it was his own castle, intimately familiar with its layout and most of its staff, and apparently given full leave to do as he pleased by the ruling king. For someone who spent the greater part of his days wandering his own realm and sleeping under the stars, Morduri was still strangely adaptable to this more urban lifestyle.
The bath chamber wasn’t as expansive or impressive as the one in Koursturaux’ palace, but it consisted of a marble tub sunk into the floor, large enough for several people to use all at once. It seemed to be both a spa and for washing, and a quick glimpse revealed the knobs and pipes that indicated it had indoor plumbing. Morduri turned the knobs and tested the water a few times, and soon the tub was filling with steamy water. It was strange to Kari that there were no servants in the chamber to assist the guests, but she did appreciate the fact that these two kings didn’t have servants waiting on them hand and foot for every little detail of life.
That thought was dashed a few moments later when a pair of mallasti women came in and gestured for the two guests to get undressed. Kari thought perhaps they were there to assist with the bath itself, but instead, they began piling her and Morduri’s clothing, armor, and weapons to take with them. The two females stared at Kari and had a whispered conversation in beshathan. Kari was hopeful they were simply discussing finding a robe or similar garment that would fit around her wings. Soon, she and Morduri were nude, and Kari was surprised when the mallasti servants left without even letting their stares linger on the visiting elestram king.
Once they were gone, Morduri turned and stepped down into the tub. Kari, unlike the two apparently well-disciplined mallasti women, admired his athletic physique. He was taller than Kris and appeared slightly lankier on account of it, but Morduri was a fine specimen of man, and his being elestram did nothing to diminish that. The lonely part of Kari wanted to reach out and grope his rump, but the better part of her understood he was simply there and naked; what she really wanted lay elsewhere. Or, more precisely, who.
Kris…
Kari followed the elestram king into the tub and sat down on a sculpted seat within. The water was steamy, and the heat soaked into her skin in moments, relaxing sore muscles and her tensions. She flexed her wrist a couple of times in the warm water, but any pain from Morduri having dislocated it days before was gone. Morduri sat across from her and spread his arms out sideways along the edge, and he leaned his head back, took in a deep breath, and sighed through his nose. Kari had no trouble imagining what it must be like to soak in a steamy tub after weeks, or possibly even months of walking the plains and hills of his realm.
“So what are your plans now that your mate has passed?”
Kari snapped to attention. “What?”
He tilted his head back down so he could look her in the eyes. “As I said a few days ago, you wear your emotions for all to see much of the time. After what you said to Cestriana in Moskarre, I better understand why you keep staring at me the way you do when you think I’m not paying attention. Are you required to remain a widow for some specified period?”
Am I staring at him that much? she wondered. She hadn’t even realized it if it was so. Her mind was a jumbled mess at times, still sorting through her emotions, her future, whether or not she wanted to enter another relationship. She was ready to be intimate with someone, that was no mystery, but was she so obvious about it that even an elestram was getting uncomfortable under her constant scrutiny? She just wasn’t sure what she really wanted at all. Her children were the most important thing on her mind, and all other considerations fell subordinate to that. Kris would make a good lover, probably even a good mate. But a good father? That had to be her first concern.
“I honestly don’t know,” she answered after thinking about it. “I think I’m just afraid of hurting my family or making them think I’ve forgotten about my husband too quickly. If you don’t mind my asking, what are such matters like among your people?”
“My people mate for life, which is a long time, as you should understand. It is permitted for a widow or widower to seek another mate after a year, but grief is different from person to person. Most typically, a widow or widower will seek another who has lost their mate. Our lifetimes are far too long to spend alone.” He sat up straighter and tilted his head slightly to the side. “I suspect you’ve already got someone on your mind, so I want you to listen to me. Take it from someone who can’t be with the one they love: when you return home – and I implore you to make every effort to do so – you go and you find that man, and you take him as a mate. Go and spend your life with him, and be happy, and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.”
“I think I will,” Kari answered with a nod. She had to blink back tears at first, thinking of her departed husband and how much he had meant to her. But then she thought of his letter, of his own request that she find a new mate and happiness, and she realized she was beating herself up for all the wrong reasons. She wanted her family to be happy, but she now understood that to make them happy, she had to start with herself. The first thing she would do when she got back would be to share Grakin’s letter with Kyrie, and then talk to her mother-in-law about Kris.
Morduri grabbed up a bar of soap and began washing his face and those long, pointed ears. Kari watched him for a minute, and when he was able to meet her gaze again through the lather, he chuckled through his nose and shook his head.
“You know, I can’t help but think Emma would be a sweet girl if she wasn’t enslaved to the Overking,” Kari mused.
Morduri’s brow knitted. “Girl?”
“Oh, I know she’s probably a lot older than I think, but she still seems like a girl to me.”
“She’s older than I am by a good deal. Nearly as old as King Celigus, actually.”
“How did you end up involved with her?” Kari prodded while she had him talking openly about his mallasti lover.
Morduri stood up to co
ntinue washing, and Kari found something else to look at while he did so. “I drew a portrait of her standing beside the Overking’s throne during one of the Council sessions,” he answered. “I gave it to her, and soon after, we both ended up being summoned to the Overking’s throne room. I thought I had violated some rule, and that one or both of us was going to be punished, but the Overking offered her to me as a bedmate.”
“And she just obeyed, I assume?”
“Of course she did. But I never forced myself on her. The first few times I brought her up to my chambers, we shared a bath, sat out on the balcony and enjoyed a drink, or I drew more portraits of her to hang on my wall. You have to understand something about her, Kari: when she says this one or refers to herself as though speaking of someone else, that’s not an act. It’s not something she does to seem humble and meek. She has no social standing except that she is a servant of the Overking. When she was in my presence, it took a while to get her personality to show. But when it did…”
“You fell in love with her.”
Morduri nodded. “She has mated with others, I know this. But these are things she does as part of her duties, not her desires. She wants to be with me, and when I dream of taking her as my wife, I am not alone in that feeling. But when I made my intentions known to the Overking, he simply laughed at me. And after that day, she was no longer allowed to stand beside his throne during the Council sessions. She wasn’t even allowed to appear on the meeting hall floor unless specifically summoned. I was still allowed to take her to my chambers, but the Overking made his judgment of our feelings well known.”
Kari frowned and looked back at him, and she blushed. Whatever the elestram feelings on nudity, he displayed none of it as he bathed in front of her. But at the same time, she found some odd sense of respect there. He was naked before her, and yet he wasn’t interested in her or trying to seduce her. He had given her the advice to find and declare her feelings for Kris, when he could’ve tried to take advantage of this situation. She broke free of the thoughts to add, “I remember she looked a little bit embarrassed when I saw her going up to your chambers with you, though.”
“She thought you found her weakness…that you might try to use our relationship against one or both of us. I think both of us understand now that such is not in your nature.”
Good thing he doesn’t know about my implied threat to Koursturaux, Kari thought. In truth, she wasn’t really willing to harm someone to get at their friends or family, but when she dealt with the kings, she thought it was better if they didn’t know that. She felt differently about Morduri; he was still not her friend, but she felt comfortable around him, and she wasn’t sure it was a bad thing from what she’d seen and heard.
She met his gaze again. “Can I ask you one other personal question?”
Morduri’s mouth tightened a little. “You may, but reconsider if it’s something you know is going to irritate me.”
Kari shook her head. “Just getting back to what we were talking about a minute ago, I was wondering if your mother is allowed and would look for another mate?”
The elestram was clearly surprised by the question, his jaw dropping open slightly. “She may legally, and certainly she’d have my blessing to do so. Now that you mention it, though, I have never said as much to her. I imagine she takes her duties to me too seriously to consider abandoning them to seek another mate. Hmph…perhaps I should go see her and make my feelings known.”
Kari smiled. “So we both have someone to go speak with when this is all done.”
He nodded and sighed. “I wasn’t wrong: you’re going to turn my fur grey one way or another. So, do you need help washing those wings?”
Kari rose to her feet and stretched them out, and Morduri was clearly impressed with the more imposing figure she cut that way. “That would actually be very helpful,” she answered.
He gestured for her to turn around. “Well, let’s get to it, then. We don’t want to be late for dinner.”
*****
As he’d offered, the next day, Kari and Morduri accompanied King Emanitar to the city’s coliseum, where a crowd was gathering to watch the coming match. Kari felt a little guilty going to watch a football match when her friends and family were all back home worrying about her. She cut herself some slack, though: this would be the last time she got to relax in the coming days, and she honestly had no idea how stressful an undertaking this scheme was going to be.
After the match, she would head southwest toward the border of Sorelizar. Once they were comfortable in the coliseum, with Kari and Morduri on either side of Emanitar’s throne-like seat, Emanitar leaned over and spoke quietly to Kari. “When you reach the village of Ewuaswi, among the Te’Dastra lands, you need only show them the pendant of the Great Mother that you wear. That should earn you their trust immediately. Be aware, however, that showing it to anyone else – particularly in Sorelizar – will see you killed without question.”
Kari recalled taking off the Great Mother’s pendant when she and Morduri bathed, and realized she had committed a very serious error. She’d gotten so used to wearing Be’shatha’s symbol on Citaria that it never occurred to her that she still had it on here. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I shouldn’t have worn it in your home and caused you any trouble.”
Emanitar nodded and graciously waved off the apology. “Hand-carved as it is, it will convince the Te’Dastras that you are welcome among the mallasti of Pataria. Once you have their trust, at least to some extent, you may begin gathering information to figure out how to slip across the border into Te’Montasi territory. As I believe Morduri explained to you, though they don’t share the same surname, the two clans are mallasti first and foremost, and remain close, even across the border.”
Kari had some direction, at least. After two lifetimes of hunting “demons” of one type or another, Kari was pretty used to walking into situations somewhat unprepared. Doing so here on Mehr’Durillia, though, was something completely different. Here, the laws were stacked against her rather than her enemies, and one misstep – even something as simple as showing the pendant she wore – could cost her everything. At the very least, she had the blessing of Emanitar and Morduri to walk their realms virtually free, and that meant that if things looked hopeless or just too risky, she could stay in the safer realms and seek alternatives.
She turned back to the pitch as the Rulaj Reds took the field to raucous cheers. Emanitar took no small amount of pride in them, confiding in Kari over dinner the prior night that he put considerable effort into forming a team that could best all of his peers’ teams. Named for their reddish-brown coats, which every single one of his players had, the Rulaj Reds were the single most successful football team on Mehr’Durillia. And per his own words, since Emanitar had little else to do when his duties as monarch were fulfilled, he had a lot of time and energy to put toward assembling the most talented players he could.
Kari had asked about the war on Irrathmor, and though it was an obviously sore subject, Emanitar told her that the better teams were usually exempted from serving. That gave them even greater incentive to hone their craft and win, because losing teams were apparently stripped of any such exemptions. That, Kari knew, caused a lot of stress when Emanitar’s players went to another realm and bested his peers’ teams. Kari was pretty sure the mallasti and elestram kings weren’t pleased with the prospect of players being sent off to war, but rather with the anger it no doubt stoked in their rival kings. She wondered briefly about the Crimson Starlets of Maurinoth, and how good King Koursturaux’ home team was overall.
The other team took the field to a similar cheer from the crowd. As Kari understood it, this was a youth-league team, one who had little chance of actually beating the Reds, but whose players would be called up to replace injured or older members of the Reds as needed. Just how young members of a mallasti “youth” team would be was an amusing mystery for people who could live well over four millennia. And that gave rise to the question of how ol
d they could be before considering retirement from the team.
The match got underway, and it took little time for the excitement to begin. The skill of the Reds was well-known to Kari even after just the one match in Mas’tolinor. The youth team, called what translated to the Junior Reds, quickly showed Kari that they were nearly as skilled and trained. While the Reds put pressure on them immediately, the Juniors pushed back, and it turned into a tightly-contested, low-scoring affair through the first half. The Reds managed a single goal on their youth counterparts, who threatened several times but failed to score.
“So, what did you think of my former kast’wa?” Emanitar asked at the halftime break.
“She was pleasant enough, Your Majesty,” Kari said tactfully. “I’m honestly still at a loss as to what to make of her. Her interest in me seems to go beyond…that thing that makes all your peers keep an eye on me. There’s things I’ve found out about her that just don’t seem to fit into what I know and what I’ve seen. She’s quite the enigma.”
Emanitar laughed openly. “I cannot disagree with that. Despite all the time we spent together, there are still so many things about her I do not know or understand. Just as I am certain you do not understand how we even came to be together, or what drove us apart. Suffice to say it is a long and complicated tale, one you would not believe or understand at this point. The truth will come to you in due time if you continue the work you have begun here, though. So be patient for the time being.”
“Are you two still intimate at all? Or at least friendly?”
“Oh, we are still very friendly. Our affair lasted a long time, and was not simply based around siring children. As to still being intimate, though? Not with each other, no. Koursturaux has moved on and is kast’wa to Celigus Chinchala, as you know, and as for me, well, I take my comfort in my mistresses and leave affairs of the heart out of politics now.”
