The last words felt like a stab to Figaru’s insides.
“Now he just causes derision. He tortures Leatha because she’s obsessed with him. When she wept over him I got angry at Rowan. I got her angry. It was the first time I was able to get her to stop crying over him. We became united in how furious he made us. She went from screaming about him to kissing me. Then she bent me over her desk and forced herself on me. I was paralyzed. She was taking out her anger on me. She was violent. She injured me. We both wept.”
Figaru concentrated. His schoolmarm was falling apart. He would have to check on the students when things were less chaotic. It was yet more grief he could attribute to Rowan.
“I brought her to Yeoman to hear about what Rowan did. She was in anguish. This time she wouldn’t get angry at Rowan. She got angry at you. She said, ‘Make Figaru get him out of there.’ Then she kicked me out of her loft at the school. I was ready to give myself to her. I wanted that connection. She won’t have anything to do with me until I make this right.”
“Rowan is controlling you through her.”
“I’m aware.”
Figaru drained his glass and set it aside. “Why did you try to seduce me under the guise of a mortal?”
Vandrel shrugged. “I figured I’d be in a better position to negotiate for Rowan if you were indebted to me. You always need sex these days. I know you turn everyone who offers down. I looked into your dream and was inspired.”
“I turn every mortal who offers down, for the reasons I’ve stated. Discrete demons are welcome until I find a mate.”
Vandrel smiled. “I met that boy in your dream last night. He was training to be a teacher with Leatha. You fancy him?”
“I’m trying not to become fixated.”
“And failing.”
Vandrel stood and picked up his tunic and cape from the floor. Figaru allowed himself a final gaze over his naked body.
“You better not let Rowan find out you’re fond of Jinady,” Vandrel said. He donned his tunic.
“Nor Leatha, it seems,” Figaru said.
Vandrel paused at these words. Figaru frowned.
“Speaking of Leatha…what do I tell her, Figaru?”
“Sparing Rowan from Leatha is no punishment. I’ll confine him to quarters with a bloodchain.”
“That was going to be my suggestion. Thank you.”
Figaru rose and started to dress. “I’ll go with you to the stockade. Then I need you at the borders. This evening you must draft a mortal-born innocent and take him back to the army.”
“The draft should happen first thing, don’t you think?” Vandrel clasped his cape. “We’re desperate for shards.”
“No. Give him another day.”
They started off. It was still dark outside. Vandrel ran his fingers through his hair as he went. They walked from Figaru’s home together without hesitation. No one would suspect the general had gone there for sex.
“Have you a name for me? Or should I draw lots?”
“None of the farm boys can be taken away from the harvest.” Figaru kept his stride, but his voice quavered. “It has to be Jinady.”
Chapter 10
“Jinady.”
Jinady opened his eyes. Leatha was standing over his mat in a different dress. It’s morning already? He saw the sky through the open front of the barn that was the shelter. It was just starting to light. The stars were still visible.
Leatha did not have on her bonnet or make-up. She was whispering. “I know it’s early. We have to ready the schoolhouse.”
Jinady sat up. He was groggy.
“Take all your things. You’ll live in the teacher’s quarters now.”
“Oh.”
“Shh. Let’s not wake the others.”
Jinady followed her outside. Then halted.
“Oh. Your satchel.”
“Leave it.”
Jinady’s brow furrowed. Leatha didn’t hesitate. He kept up with her.
“I’ve been a teacher here for seventy-four years.”
Jinady scrubbed the sleep from his eyes. The demon walked without looking at him.
“I founded the school. I helped build it on the site of an old castle. I’ve taught everyone who graduated in the settlement.”
Jinady noticed that Leatha’s hair was mussed, and she wasn’t wearing any shoes. He supposed she was frazzled due to her trouble last night.
“Rowan doesn’t look like the other boys.”
“What?” Jinady spoke too softly to be heard.
“If he were a vibrant, outgoing boy he could have overcome this. He could have won over the others. But when you have the adults saying there’s something wrong with you from the time you’re a baby, well, I’m sure you’ve known of children like him before. He was an outcast. He never had any friends. The other boys taunted him right in front of the early year teachers. They did worse when they weren’t looking.”
Jinady was uneasy. This didn’t seem to be an appropriate conversation. He hoped there was some point to this he had not yet surmised.
“Rowan had grown into a beautiful young man by the time he got to my class. Despite his differences, no one could claim he was ugly. I’d heard of him from the two other teachers. I reached out. I took him under my wing. We had a great friendship. I think we still do.”
A two-story stone building with an open belfry at the top came into view.
“We weren’t as close as I’d thought. I believed he’d overcome his childhood problems. He wasn’t bullied anymore in my class. He even seemed to have friends. But they weren’t his friends. They were three violent boys who’d claimed him as their own. They kept everyone else away from him—but the price he paid. He didn’t deserve such a wretched childhood, Jinady.”
Jinady cleared his throat. “Sounds terrible,” he said.
Leatha opened the door to the school. “Oh, yes. And things didn’t get any better for him as an adult.”
There was a large foyer with a stairwell to one side. Jinady was impressed. Leatha led him around the stairs. She pushed on a wall until it turned inward. There was a secret corridor behind the stairs.
Jinady swallowed. Why weren’t they going through the double doors he’d seen in the foyer? He followed her, but let the distance grow between them.
Leatha unlocked a splintering old door at the end of the passage. She started down what must have been steps past the door.
Jinady stopped. This wasn’t right. Before even thinking it through he started to back away. The sharp look Leatha gave him confirmed his suspicions. Jinady ran.
He heard a howl of wind. Leatha was upon him before he’d gotten his stride. Her three-clawed fist closed on his hair. She wrenched Jinady back.
“Aaii!”
Leatha threw him toward the stairs. He staggered against the wall. The passage was too narrow to get past her. Leatha walked toward him forcing him to back onto earthen steps. Her face was blank.
Jinady forced himself to move. He was stricken. His legs became weak. What could this demon want with him? She couldn’t rape him. What else could an incubus be after?
His mistake dawned on him. Jinady turned away and descended. She had the equipment needed to rape him.
Leatha closed the door at the top of the steps. The little light they had was extinguished. Jinady felt his way down the wall beside the stairs.
“This is our secret place,” Leatha said. “Figaru doesn’t know about it.”
Leatha was just a step behind him. His voice cracked. “What are you doing?”
“It’s not Rowan’s fault, Jinady.” Her words had grown softer. “You can’t keep beating a dog and expect him not to bite you. I’d do anything for my husband.”
He reached the bottom, and felt a few blind steps in front of him. Leatha took his arm. She guided him forward.
“You’re going to disappear until Figaru lets Rowan go.”
Jinady’s head was spinning. “Why—why would you do this to me? Don’t you need another teac
her?”
She stopped them. He heard a door creak open.
“I’ve already lost you as a teacher. The army’s claiming you.”
“What are you talking about?”
A flare of light blinded Jinady. Fire shot from two of Leatha’s fingers. She brought the flame to a lantern hanging from the bars of the cell, illuminating the dungeon.
Leatha pulled Jinady into the cell she’d just opened then closed the iron bars shut. She fiddled with the lock. Jinady stood staring at her.
“I’m sorry,” Leatha said.
Jinady’s lips quivered. “Don’t be sorry. Don’t do this. I won’t tell anyone this ever happened.”
Leatha looked behind her. “It’s cold down here. I’ll get you a blanket. And…some books. You’ll need more light to read. Yes…you’ll need several things. There’s no reason for you to suffer.”
She started to walk away.
“Leatha!”
“I’ll be back shortly.”
Her footfalls faded away.
Jinady’s gut wrenched in pain. At first he regressed to paranoia. Leatha was vile. This whole settlement was vile. What kind of village had a dungeon under the school? He wept angry and grief-stricken tears.
After he cried he remembered that Leatha said the school had been built on the site of an old castle. The shackles on the damp and lime-coated wall had rusted and crumbled. If the dungeon were still used this would have been fixed. He’d heard of dungeons with torture devices outside the cells, but there was only a large wooden table and two chairs.
Leatha had brought him a proper mattress full of hay and down. There were three lamps in the cell, one unlit, and a fourth outside. She’d left a basket he hadn’t inspected yet but presumed contained food. A clay jug of water rested beside him on the mattress. He gave a shuddering sigh. Things could have been worse.
She’d also left two books that Jinady hadn’t the will to read yet. The first had a wooden cover with the title Lord Figaru’s New Land carved into it. It was written in ornate script on flax paper of various yellow hues. The second was a strange leather-bound book with tiny uniform print. The sheets inside were pure white. It was entitled, Zanzarland.
Jinady flipped through this book first since it was so strange to him. It weighed little and seemed to be bound by sewing bundles of pages into cloth inside the spine. The pages were almost too smooth for his fingers to turn. He had to wet his forefinger more than once.
He flipped to the middle of the pages and was struck by the pictures. The book had dense blocks of text framing a kind of picture Jinady had never seen before. They almost looked real save that they were black, white, and shades of gray. He couldn’t fathom the skill of the artist. One picture was of a succubus who had some of Figaru’s features. She stood surrounded by older mortals who were also dark-skinned and had the lambs’ wool hair. The succubus was signing papers at a wooden podium. The mortals around her, both male and female, looked pleased. The text below the picture read, ‘Fianna of Tanjer, First Succubus Elected as Council Leader.’
Jinady closed this book. He didn’t need something that would addle his mind right now.
He picked up Lord Figaru’s New Land. The first page introduced the book as a history of the settlement. He started to read in earnest. It began on a date roughly eighty years ago. Succubi attacked a seaside cave village in the cliffs. A youth (who would later be known as Deputy) and his people launched boats to escape, but the flying succubi carried most of them away. Deputy waded under an upturned boat until he no longer heard their screeches. When he managed to right his small vessel he was far from shore. He decided to paddle the boat into the vast ocean.
Jinady skipped his torturous journey of thirst and abusive waters. Lord Figaru and his mortal wife Lady Zuala found Deputy on the shores of Zanzarland. They adopted him. He lived there one season before Figaru gave up his life and status to aid the mortals in Deputy’s land. They returned to his home shores on a massive ship.
Several chapters were dedicated to the early mortals they liberated and the demon tribes they fought.
A mortal incapable of killing their enemies was drawn to a mountain where an entity bestowed on him five swan shards. The mortal found that no demon could bear to be in the light of these shards. Weak demons disintegrated the moment the light hit them. Stronger demons succumbed later if they didn’t escape it.
The shards gave Figaru’s group the means to start a permanent human settlement. They expanded by sending the mortal back to The Glowing Mount of Justice to retrieve more shards one at a time. Other mortals who were not fathered by incubi, and who had not taken demon or mortal life were also given shards.
Figaru was the ruler of the settlement and Deputy was his second. Later, Deputy controlled civilian matters and Figaru led the army.
There was a great deal of boring detail. The settlement moved once before it came to its permanent site. Military edicts were given. Incubus allies joined. Villages were absorbed. Laws were enacted. An entire chapter was devoted to the founding of the school. Jinady realized then that Leatha had authored the book.
It had to be late that night by the time Jinady finished. His basket of food was empty, and water was nearly gone. He dimmed the lamps and slept.
He woke in the morning, but saw no reason to rise. Sleep was such a luxury. After a day, his mind and body felt rejuvenated and he was confident that he could face the trauma of the day. He stood and stretched. His arms started to move through his old exercises. He froze. He’d instinctively gone back to his routine with the Caldra.
Jinady bit his lip. He was a prisoner again. This was pathetic.
But, it wasn’t the same. He wasn’t on a mountainside where the only escape was a plunge to his death.
Jinady kicked the iron door as hard as he could. Flecks of rust flew and the door gave a bit. He kicked again. There was a cracking sound. The door shuddered open.
Jinady stood wide-eyed. The thought of taking control of his own fate was so unfamiliar he had to scream his thoughts: Run, Jinady! Get out of there!
He grabbed one of the lamps and ran to the stairs. Then froze.
There were footfalls in the narrow corridor above him.
Jinady’s heart sank as waves of nausea overcame him. He had one second of control, and now he was back to being the victim of whatever circumstance he found himself.
Jinady set down the lamp. He listened to the sound of the door unlocking at the top of the steps. Oh. His great escape was just an illusion anyway. He scanned the room for a weapon. Fighting demons was always fruitless, but at least he’d try. At least he’d—
Footfalls descended the earthen steps.
Jinady hid behind the steps. Leatha would see that he’d escaped from the cell, but wouldn’t see him. With luck she’d run out frantically to find him. He’d make good his escape.
“I know you’re hiding there, boy. I can sense your aura.”
The words didn’t register, just the fact that it was a human voice. Jinady ran out.
The sight of Vandrel sent him careening back. He fell on his bottom. He scrambled back until he hit the bars of the dungeon cell. He’d gone ashen white.
“Oh, come on. You weren’t scared of me when you saw me last night,” Vandrel said.
Jinady looked away. He had been, but he’d choked back his fear so as not to be impolite. Was Vandrel really more frightening than the Caldra? They had markings on their faces too.
Yes. He was. He was horrifying with his red skin, yellow slit eyes, and horns. The cape made him even more daunting. He was a demon warrior who would use those black claws to tear him to shreds.
Murder wasn’t what he should fear. This demon was going to rape him. How could he bear that? His heart was already pounding so hard it could burst.
Vandrel glanced around the cell and laughed derisively. “You were trying to escape? Well--good for you.”
Jinady eyed him.
His demeanor brightened for only a moment before he
scowled. “Damn, Leatha.”
Vandrel sat at one of the chairs at the wooden table. He gestured to the chair across from him.
“Please. Let’s talk a moment.”
Jinady clenched his fists. He was too frightened to move. He couldn’t even utter something defiant.
Vandrel looked down and pursed his lips together. “Fuck.”
Jinady was confused. The demon’s distress broke his barrier of fear.
Vandrel looked back at him with more purposeful eyes.
As Jinady gazed at him his vision started to get fuzzy. Warmth seeped into him. Jinady had a moment of panic. He shook his head.
“Don’t fight it,” Vandrel said.
Jinady darted his eyes back to Vandrel. A flood of warmth overcame his renewed panic. He saw faint smoky colors emanating from the blurring vision of Vandrel. The warmth pervaded him and his heartbeat slowed. His muscles slackened. He became calm, even a little sleepy. Moments of panic would overcome him where he’d clench his fist or jaw to resist but the more the warmth took over him the better he felt. It was difficult not to surrender. He felt light, somewhat drunk. His fear of Vandrel had evaporated.
Vandrel made a sweeping gesture with his hand. The smoke cleared.
Jinady blinked. His mind was sharp again, but he was relaxed.
“That was a calming spell. You don’t need to be frightened right now. Just sit and talk with me.”
Jinady rose. It was good not to have fear paralyzing him, but his stomach roiled at the thought of being manipulated. Nevertheless, he did as Vandrel asked and took a seat. He sat sideways so he wouldn’t have to look at him. He crossed his arms.
“Did Leatha hurt you at all?”
“No.” Jinady spoke without feeling.
“It looks like she tried to make you comfortable here.”
Jinady turned back to him.
“Maybe you can forget she ever did this?”
He chewed his lip. “Consider it forgotten.”
“Listen, there are three punishments for demons in this settlement: beating, banishment, or execution,” Vandrel said. “Figaru won’t give her the last two, but he’s sure to have her beaten for this. Leatha is a proud demon. She couldn’t stand that kind of humiliation. I’m not saying she doesn’t deserve it, I’m just saying I know her. She’ll stay in the settlement because she loves Rowan, but she’d probably refuse to teach anymore. This is her school. It’s the lynchpin of the settlement. Even if she did wrong it would make things worse for everyone if she has to answer for it.”
Incubus Master: Complete (Yaoi) Page 9
