Lucifer looked at him as though deciding whether or not to share a confidence with him. He, Eligor, who'd worked for the man 225 years and barely knew him. Lucifer looked down. Trust. Lucifer didn't trust anybody but Zepar. Eligor's mouth twitched with disappointment. Not so much that Lucifer didn't trust him. Shit! He'd just been reading the guys mail. But that he trusted Zepar, who should have never let Lucifer get this bad.
He was surprised when Lucifer spoke without looking up.
"I suppose it was going to happen anyways … when I get this trade deal through Parliament," Lucifer mumbled. "He's still not speaking to me because of the last override I got, and that was more than six months ago. I just didn't expect him to jump the gun before I even let the cubs out of the bag."
"I don't know what he's like," Eligor said. "I've never met him." He didn't add how annoyed he was at the fact that, in all the years he'd babysat the man's trips to the palace, he'd never once been invited inside to meet the Eternal Emperor.
Lucifer stared over his shoulder at the letter Eligor had put on the dresser. Eligor prayed Lucifer was so fuzzy from the alcohol he'd think he'd left it there himself.
"It was all a lie," Lucifer said. "Always. I knew that, but I guess I just needed him to tell me straight to my face to accept the truth."
Eligor did not dare ask him what truth. You mean there was a worse truth than having his own father elevate the woman who had ripped out his heart to be his equal?
Lucifer pressed his hands upon his thighs to push himself out of the chair and stumbled. Eligor had to help him stand, letting the man lean on him so he wouldn't land flat on his face.
"Sir, your nose is bleeding again," Eligor said. "Did you bump yourself?"
"Get me a couple of handkerchiefs out of that top drawer over there," Lucifer said. "I usually need two."
"It's not normal to get nosebleeds, Sir," Eligor said. "You should go to a doctor and get it checked out."
"And give my father an excuse to evict me from Parliament and lock me up in a looney bin someplace?" Lucifer pushed his hand away. "No thank you." He dabbed at the trickle of blood with a practiced hand.
Eligor clamped his mouth shut before he asked something really stupid like, 'why would he send you to a mental hospital when you're physically ill?' Perhaps Lucifer meant detox? It certainly looked like he needed detox.
"C'mon, Sir," Eligor said. "The Chief of Staff will have my hide if you're late."
"Why'd he send you?" Lucifer's eyes cleared from the lingering alcoholic fog.
"We've reached the Beylan, Sir," Eligor said. "The dark skinned human male put up too much of a fight for your regular guards to handle alone. Zepar was sedating him when I left."
"Oh?" Lucifer looked surpised. "I had no idea Zepar had set up a dropoff. Though he usually doesn't tell me these things. I just show up and play act, telling people whatever he wants me to say."
Eligor raised one eyebrow in surprise. He'd known Zepar called the shots, but when that whole other side of Lucifer appeared that the crewmen called 'the evil twin brother' Zepar practically lapped at Lucifer's heels like a little dog. The power dynamics between the two had never made sense and he'd given up trying to figure it out long ago. He'd learned the hard way not to think too hard or there'd be consequences.
They made their way through the ship, Lucifer leaning on his arm. Several times he nearly stumbled. And here he'd thought Lucifer had it all, and now he was realizing he had even less than he did. At least he had Lerajie, an idealistic pain-in-the-neck sidekick.
Zepar was chomping at the bit when they got to the shuttle.
"What took you so long?"
"Had to help him get cleaned up," Eligor said.
"It was my fault," Lucifer said as docile as a little boy. "Not his. I wasn't ready."
Eligor helped Lucifer into his seat, buckling him up as though he were a child, and fired up the impulse engines. In the back the two cold-eyed goons wrestled the dark-skinned man into the cargo area, as far away from Lucifer as they could. Eligor manauevered the shuttle out of a launch bay that looked like it had never been designed for Alliance technology even though it was this empire's flagship. The Leonid battlecruiser stretched beneath him, the same approximate size as the Prince of Tyre, only official military craft kept their weaponry out in the open. Lucifer's flagship was armed to the teeth with state-of-the-art weaponry which was only now beginning to make its way onto mainstream military ships, but to the untrained eye, it appeared to be a civilian vessel.
Soft snores coming from the passenger compartment clued him that Lucifer had passed out again. Good. Let the man sleep. With Zepar here, perhaps Lucifer wouldn't even need to make a personal appearance? He would tell the Leonid commander that Lucifer was sick.
He shut down the engines the minute it landed on the Beylan and made his way down the gangplank to chock his landing gear and make sure the shuttle was secure. The two goons wrestled out the human male who was in chains, so drugged the creature could barely walk. Eligor was relieved when Zepar came out, sans Lucifer, to address the Leonid commander. He prayed the Chief of Staff would let the poor bastard sleep it off.
The attractive, middle-aged lioness who commanded the Beylan, Colonel Orias, gave the black-skinned male a sniff, her whiskers twitching with skepticism.
"You claim this unimpressive creature can help my poor daughter and other daughters of the pride begat offspring?" Colonel Orias asked.
Eligor noted the two goons cold stare. Pruflas and Furcas held the dark-skinned human like bookends.
"As I explained through our intermediaries," Zepar said. "I can make no promises as to a human male. We've had great success with the females, but this male is combative and resistant to all training. We hope that by delivering him to you, a more, how shall I put this, imposing species, that you will be able to succeed where we have failed."
Eligor noted a pretty, slightly younger lioness who lurked at the edge of the launch bay which had otherwise been cleared of crewmen. Her whiskers twitched as she sniffed the unusual scent of the root race of the humanoid half of her species. She bore a strong resemblance to the ship's commander. Her daughter? It would explain why Zepar had chosen her to try this experiment in avoiding extinction.
"Why would it work for this creature when our strapping Leonid males have failed?" Colonel Orias asked.
Eligor glanced at the dark-skinned man. Even through his drugged stupor, the look of recognition was unmistakeable. Systematically desensitized or not, the man was terrified of the lion-people who towered over him.
The pretty Leonid moved closer, her whiskers twitching with curiosity. It was on this young woman's behalf that her mother rebelled against her Emperor's seed world policies, actions which would get her court-martialled.
What would Lucifer do?
"Why don't you introduce yourself to him," Eligor called her over. "He doesn't have a name or anything, but the males seem to be a little bit smarter than the females."
"I'm Habbibah," the lioness introduced herself.
"Eligor. And he is … well … truth is, they're not very smart. But maybe he might be able to help?"
From the way the young woman's nostrils flared, he knew she was the first female the man was hoped to 'help.' Unlike a human female, who could be drugged enough to perform the sex act and conceive whether or not they were willing, a male must want to perform a cross-species mating.
If Lucifer was sober enough to speak on his own behalf, what would he say? C'mon! He'd been watching the man sweet talk people around to his way of thinking for the past 225 years. Some of that silver tongue must have rubbed off on his leaden one?
"We got off to a bad start with this one," Eligor finally said. "But maybe if you make him feel comfortable right away you might have better luck with him? We've toilet trained him, but he's still not very sociable."
Habibah stepped up and bent in front of the man so her jaws were at eye-level.
"Hello," she said. "I'm Habibe. What'
s your name?"
The man shrieked and backed up in terror, into Pruflas and Furcas. The two goons shoved him right back again. Dammit! Twin idiots is what they were! The whites of the man's eyes were a sharp contrast to his dark, nearly ebony skin. He looked at Eligor with a look that communicated, 'help.'
"Here," Eligor said to Habibah. "If you don't mind? My buddy, Lerajie? He used to work with pre-sentient animals on one of the seed worlds. He said if you show them what to do, you know, model it for them, even though they aren't smart enough to talk to you about it, they can learn."
It was more words than he'd probably uttered the entire past month. As awkward as a Centauri colt taking its first steps, Eligor stepped closer to the lioness and put his arms around her waist. Haibibah was smart enough to understand what he was doing and put her arms around him in return. She gave him a huge grin that exposed her fangs.
"Might not want to smile too much the first few weeks," Eligor suggested. "Until he gets used to you?"
Colonel Orias gave them a broad grin, her fangs showing. A deep rumble emanated from her chest. A purr. She found their little show-and-tell demonstration to be amusing.
"His markings are attractive," Habibah admired his nearly ebony skin, coloring no hybrid had possessed in tens of thousands of years, although some Centauri came close. "But why does he sway like that? Is he sick?"
"He's sedated," Eligor said. "Zepar keeps him doped up when he's not locked up in his cage, but maybe you can reduce the dose after a few days? Can't hurt. Don't think he'll mess with you guys the way he's been fighting off those two."
"Poor thing!" Habibah cried out. She stepped toward the human to touch him and he drew back in fear.
"Your claims are intriguing, Chief of Staff Zepar," Colonel Orias interrupted them. "But I'm not going to risk the fate of my daughter and my crew on one of Lucifer's intrigues without assurances. I want to speak to the Prime Minister. Not his lackey!"
Eligor suppressed a smirk. Only a Leonid would dare talk to the Prime Minister's second in command that way.
"The Prime Minister is not feeling well today, Ma'am," Eligor interjected. "He's in the shuttle, but whatever bug he's carrying might be contagious. A flu, or something?"
"I insist." Orias gave him a grin which exposed her fangs. A low growl rumbled in her chest. There was a reason Leonids were the most feared of all the hybrid armies.
"Just one minute," Zepar bowed to her, adopting that obsequious manner Eligor knew was fake. He hurried back up the gangplank to the shuttle, his dirty white wings fluttering as he scurried inside.
Eligor stood watching as Habibah crooned at the dark-skinned male, trying to win his trust. The man eyed her with fear, but there was also a bit of curiosity there. What films had Zepar shown the creature to try to train him not to fear them?
"I have every confidence you'll have him trained in no time," a voice called out from the shuttle. "A pretty lioness such as yourself. Why, they say there are no better lovers in the galaxy!"
A chill ran down Eligor's spine even though he knew that voice well, as though someone had just turned up the sub-bass on an amplifier. Lucifer glided down the ramp with a rock star's strut, his white wings flared like a raptor's. His posture was erect and confident, with no sign of his earlier impairment.
"Mister Prime Minister," both Colonel Orias and her Lieutenant daughter saluted their Alliance's highest civilian authority, the voice of the people who even Hashem himself couldn't evict.
With a cry of terror, the human male forgot about his fear of the lion people and moved closer to him … and to the nine-foot-tall lioness he stood next to.
"Why, I do belive there will be cubs in the oven in no time," Lucifer gave Colonel Orias a practiced smile. "I do hope you won't be selfish and share your good fortune with others once you've got him trained?"
"S-s-s-sir," Habibah stammered, the pink skin on her nose and inner ears turning scarlet to be spoken to so frankly. Leonids were a passionate race who frequently ignored the Emperor's anti-fraternization laws, something Eligor knew from first-hand experience, and he had the fang-marks on his shoulder to prove it.
"She will share," Colonel Orias said. "And we will be discreet. I've already compiled a list on this battle cruiser and several other ships in this sector, all part of my extended pride. We've sworn a blood-oath of silence. No pride member will betray your trust, Sir."
"What will the pride member's mate say?" Eligor asked. "I've heard many of you are getting married."
"We are not like you frigid Angelics," Colonel Orias said. "We've already resorted to some … creative … relationships to get the few cubs we've been able to conceive. We call it 'let She-who-is decide.' Whichever seed takes, the lawful husband raises the cubs as though they are his own. We are all one heart and pride."
"Yes, yes!" The light reflected off Lucifer's white-blonde hair, giving it the appearance of a halo as he clapped. "I proposed that for our own species, but the females would hear nothing of it. I'm glad your species is more sensible."
Lucifer bore no sign of his earlier incapacity. It was his eyes, however, which made Eligor gulp. Those eyes were almost feral in their zeal. It gave Eligor chills. And he didn't scare easily.
The Evil Twin… he thought to himself.
The human male had inserted himself between Eligor and Habbibah, his hands held in front of his face as though he were terrified. Drugged as he was, guttural sounds came out of his throut. The same sound, over and over again.
It sounded as though he spoke a word. Eligor looked at Habibah. She heard it, too.
"Iblisi…" the man repeated over and over again. "Iblisi."
Habbibah's whiskers trembled.
"Mama," she used her mother's informal name. "If you don’t mind, I'd like to show our new friend to his quarters? The sooner we can get him settled in, the sooner we can teach him what he needs to do?"
"At ease," Colonel Orias said.
"My guards will help her," Zepar stepped forward.
A deep growl came from Habbibah's throat. Zepar and his two goons stepped back. Nobody forced a Leonid to do anything. Not if they valued their flesh. Especially not a Leonid who was coming into heat, which Eligor could smell even though they were technically different species. Half different species. She would want to settle the human male in and earn his trust before her heat cycle was upon her so she wouldn't have to wait another year.
"She's a Leonid!" Lucifer waved his hand in the air as though to sign 'la-di-dah.' "Of course she doesn't need help!"
Habibah's growl transformed into a purr.
"Good luck, Miss," Eligor said.
"Thank you," Habibah gave him a shy smile. Speaking to the human male as though he were a cub, she herded him out of the launch bay, down the side corridor which had been cleared of crewmen, especially the Spiderid crewmen who made up the bulk of the crew on all Leonid ships these days.
"Come, Eligor!" Lucifer called. "Our fine Leonid Colonel has everything under control! You remember the terms of the contract, right, Colonel?"
"I've already sent out feelers down on the planet," Orias said. "This sector borders the Tokoloshe Kingdom. When the time comes to ram through your override, every single one of these homeworlds will vote your way … or face the Tokoloshe by themselves."
"Thank you," Lucifer gave her a grin. "Eligor? The shuttle?"
Eligor trailed behind him. Everything about the way Lucifer talked and moved spoke of virility, but now that he knew what he was looking for, he could see the way his feathers were losing their lustre. His complexion was ghastly where it wasn't hidden with the makeup Zepar must have just slapped on him to hide the bags under his eyes and his lips had a blue cast to them. The moment he turned away from the Leonids, he dabbed at his nose to wipe away the blood. Whatever drug Zepar had shot him up with to sober him up, it came at a terrible price.
Lucifer plopped down in his seat and immediately reached for the flagon of the potent green Mantoid liquor he liked to drink. He po
ured himself a glass and downed a shot as Eligor ran through his circle check before taking off. Zepar and the two goons still lingered outside, haggling with the ships commander for additional concessions.
He knew he should keep his mouth shut, but somebody had to speak up.
"Sir," Eligor called back as he finished his countdown procedures. "I know I should mind my own business. But Sir …. don't you think maybe you shouldn't let Zepar push you so hard? You look … tired." It was the most neutral way he could say, 'sir I think Zepar is using you and it's killing you.'
There was no answer but the hum of the ship's engines spooling up to return to the Prince of Tyre. Eligor glanced back. The Prime Minister was sprawled forward in his seat, out cold and looking very much like a death-warmed-over corpse.
Eligor moved back to buckle him in. As he pulled his hand away from the shoulder-strap, he noticed it had a trace of blood. Lucifer also had blood seeping out of his ears…
Chapter 32
October 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Gasur
Colonel Mikhail Mannuki'ili
Mikhail
Interacting with new people was always a wearying exercise for Mikhail. Are those real wings? Can I pat them? Can you fly? Is it true you come from the army of God? Those questions he'd gotten used to each time someone visited their village or, in the case of his recent trip to Gasur, flown into their village to escort Needa. The questions he hated the most, however, were not the questions the three groups of sixteen warriors each of the allied villages of Gasur, Nineveh, and Arrapha had sent to train with his men as a case study in whether or not those villages wished to be bound to Assur in a reciprocal relationship of mutual aid, but rather the ones whispered behind his back.
'Is it true he was cast down from the heavens in a fireball?'
'I hear that firestick on his hip shoots lightning like a thunderstorm … why doesn't he teach us to use that?'
'Why isn't Jamin in charge here?'
'Jamin says it's -his- people who are buying Ubaid women. He showed me the golden coin to prove it.'
Sword of the Gods: Prince of Tyre (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 33
