From my light, however, I projected indifference, almost like I was bored, or at the very least, utterly at ease in my clothes and location.
Yeah, that was more Lao Hu crap, too.
They were pretty thorough with their lessons on that stuff.
By then, I had pretty much every male seer in the vicinity staring at me.
I guess it’s a bonus that I’d gotten really good at switching off my emotions when it came to playing this particular part, too. Hell, that end of things was almost rote.
My mind clicked over the logistics of the room, even as I smiled and murmured a thanks when one of the bulky guys in a dark suit made a respectful, almost nervous gesture in my direction, letting me know with a more subtle set of hand-gestures to ask him for anything I wanted. I felt a few female seers staring at me by then, too, despite their relative distance from our sequestered booth. The nearest of these, who lounged at the bar, wearing pretty revealing clothes, even turned to look at me with their physical eyes.
I suspected they were acquisitions, too, not members of the Legion of Fire themselves.
I also saw a few of them, females mostly, staring at Revik.
I’d already been warned that this particular “family” was heavily male, and not only in numbers. Likely due to the nature of their business, they adopted more of a female-as-subordinate stance than was normal for seers, even among groups like the Rooks.
I felt even more eyes on me in the Barrier, too, looking at those structures in my light, as well as the hints and touches I gave them of my aleimi more generally, particularly the more intimate layers in my belly and chest.
Again, as I’d been trained in what they called “The Courtship” under the Lao Hu, I shimmered slight sparks of those pieces of my aleimi into the wider construct, not really giving them more than a scent or a taste, but pulling all of them closer with my light. Even as they followed my sensual pull, I shut them out gently once more, right before they might have gotten a real look at what I felt like under those shields.
It was a maneuver meant to tantalize...and yeah, to frustrate.
Next to me, Revik tensed again.
He still didn’t look over at me, though.
They’d taken us to the booth situated furthest from the bar, in the most discreet corner tucked against the wall of the lounge. The fact that they wanted us in a more secluded area of the room didn’t surprise me.
Still, something about our location felt vaguely menacing, too.
To my left and behind our seer host, a fire flickered over white stones inside an open grate, its light reflecting against the surface of water in that decorative, white-stone basin. Even with the fire, however, I could barely make out the contours of Dulgar’s face.
Really, all I could see were faint sparks of reflection in those strangely-colored gold eyes.
My own eyes briefly tracked the course of the basin around nearby booths and tables, skirting those raised fireplaces at about waist-height and giving an Escher-like quality to the room’s design. I couldn’t make out any faces at all beyond those sitting at our table. I watched, my consort cloak still firmly in place, as two more big guys in suits shepherded everyone else out of our part of the room with subtle but authoritative gestures.
They emptied the surrounding four tables, then all five of the remaining guards stood there, in an immovable-looking line, like linebackers or security at a rock concert.
Clearly, this meeting was meant to be private.
Either that, or the gesture was meant to be polite, meaning, as a gesture towards Revik’s expressed wishes that our true identities remain unknown...along with our presence here.
Before I could get very far in that train of thought, our host spoke up, his voice and light exuding a sticky, cloying kind of heat that I had to fight not to avoid with my aleimi.
“Illustrious brother...Esteemed sister,” he said, smiling. “I hope you know, you are both not required to sit here through the entirety of this discussion.” Those gold eyes settled back on me. “As much as it pains me to say it, we can provide much better amenities for our beloved sister in other areas of the hotel...”
I pretended not to hear him at first, but continued to look around the dimly lit room, a slightly interested and slightly bored expression on my face. When I finally turned back to face our host, I saw those gold eyes watching me again. As I watched, an openly predatory stare rose behind his opaque irises.
I found myself wondering if maybe he was more like Ditrini than we’d guessed.
His eyes shift deliberately below my face as I thought it, lingering at my neckline and cleavage through the low-cut dress. He took his time gazing down the rest of me, focusing on where my fingers drummed lightly on my thigh, just at the top of my leather boot. I didn’t watch the entire course of his stare, but felt his light probing mine as well, lingering hungrily around the structures of the Lao Hu. He seemed particularly fascinated by those that Ditrini spent the most time helping me develop in my light.
Feeling another flicker of pain off him, a stronger one that time, I had to fight not to flinch, the courtesan smile still hovering at my red-lipsticked mouth.
I didn’t look over, but I felt something dart off Revik’s light, too.
I noticed only then that Revik hadn’t answered Dulgar’s implied question.
Before I could think about that much, someone was placing drinks down on the table that sat between all of us. The drinks nearly glowed in the firelight, light blue and frothy, with glass swizzle sticks that had gold eyes painted at their ends.
The drinks themselves reminded me of going to Mexico with Cass, what felt like a few hundred years ago now. Even just the bare edges of that memory brought a different kind of pain to my chest. Remembering my last conversation with Cass, in that Barrier-sealed tank on the aircraft carrier, I frowned, covering it by taking a sip of the frothy drink.
Revik’s eyes darted to mine, even as he sent me a warning pulse.
Finishing my sip smoothly, I didn’t change expression as I lowered the glass, setting it back on the polished black table and resting my weight deeper in the leather.
“Is the drink not to your liking, sister?” Dulgar said.
I turned, and the gold-eyed seer smiled at me, his expression holding even more of that predatory glint.
“We can certainly make you something more to your...tastes,” he added, lingering on the last word. “You need only ask, most venerated of friends.”
Letting that smile tease higher on my lips, I tossed my hair back languorously again. “Your hospitality is very much appreciated, my brother...but I’m afraid I’m simply not thirsty.” I lifted an eyebrow. “Perhaps it’s all of the water it took to get here?”
Dulgar’s eyes slid down me yet again.
“She truly is exquisite, brother,” the seer murmured, directing his words to Revik that time, although he never took his eyes off me. “You must grow tired of being such an envied man...but brother, she is unique. More so than I dared to hope. Her light alone would attract moths from the furthest reaches of our kingdom, I believe...”
He gave Revik a distinctly oily smile.
Revik didn’t look at me.
Dulgar’s smile grew more collegial, right before he turned his gaze on Revik directly. I noticed he pulled his light off me with an effort, along with his eyes.
I had zero doubt that Revik noticed, too.
“All teasing aside,” Dulgar said then. “Perhaps she really will prove too much of a distraction for me, my brother? We should release her from our care, to refresh herself...while the two of us talk through the more boring details of business. I am loathe to part with her company, as you are, no doubt, yourself...but I feel quite certain that we will bore her, my brother, if we do not allow for her more feminine needs.” Dulgar looked at me again. “That, or we will simply accomplish nothing, in our mutual and competing attempts to impress her...versus learning more of those things which might be to our mutual benefit?”
Dulgar gave me another of those oily smiles.
Revik kept his gaze on the gold-eyed seer.
Even so, I felt a harder pulse of I told you so in his light.
I managed to keep my reaction to the heat of his aleimi off my face, but only just. Although I was more or less immune to the sliminess of seers like Dulgar, Revik, on the other hand, managed to affect me no matter what we were doing.
Anyway, it’s not like we’d dressed me up like this on accident.
Which again, was a lot of the reason why Revik hated this plan.
As if feeling some element of the conflict there, flickering between Revik’s and my lights, the gold-eyed Dulgar smiled, looking shrewdly between us.
“...Is that part of our arrangement still agreeable to you, my brother?” the male seer asked. He quirked an eyebrow at me as he spoke, his voice polite, still unctuously smooth. “You must realize that there is a very real security precaution there...for my people, as well as myself. We cannot risk doing business with any seer who is not willing to bond with us, at least at a rudimentary level.” That oily smile returned. “...I would offer to share light with you, instead, my good brother, but I’m afraid my tastes run exclusively to those of the feminine persuasion...”
Revik made a dismissive motion with one hand, his lips firming.
“We’re not there yet, brother,” he said.
I don’t know if Dulgar heard the bite in his voice, but I definitely did.
“...I find myself a little put off by your eagerness, however,” Revik added, a little harder. “Do you really find the actual agreement such a foregone conclusion? Or the details so trivial that you would make such an assumption before those details have even been discussed?” Letting the questions hang briefly, he added. “What if there is no agreement on this day at all, brother Dulgar? Am I to be all right with leaving my wife in your hands, regardless?”
Leaning back abruptly, Revik arranged his back on the white leather, draping an arm around the back of the bench, directly over where I sat.
He didn’t touch me at all when he did it, but the implication was difficult to miss.
Of course, I found the fact that the posture opened his jacket and the neck of his shirt a lot more distracting...but I couldn’t exactly start looking at him, either.
Shifting my eyes off his chest, I sank deeper into the bench next to him.
We still didn’t touch one another, though.
Revik cleared his throat, motioning at Dulgar with his fingers.
“Do not get too anxious for the payoff,” he warned, his voice formally polite, but still holding that bite. “We are only here to discuss terms at this point, nothing more. I think your personal interests in this might be clouding your judgment, my friend.”
“Can you blame me for that?” The seer asked, smiling faintly at me.
“Yes,” Revik growled. “I can.”
Pausing again, he once more deliberately hammered his words.
“We are here to discuss business, brother Dulgar of the Legion of Fire. The ways in which we signal agreement on those terms is a detail...and besides the point. Further, she is not a bargaining chip. She is our highest intermediary, and chosen leader of a significant chunk of those belonging to our race. That element of our negotiation should be a sign of good faith, nothing more. Certainly not a commodity existing for your personal pleasure...or as anything that gives you license to treat my wife like a whore while directly in my presence.”
There was a silence after he spoke.
Dulgar smiled at Revik then, clicking softly.
Shaking his head, he plucked another one of the long-stemmed glasses off the table, raising it to his lips.
“They warned me not to anger you,” he smiled, after he’d taken a long drink of the blue liquid. “...Nor to underestimate your ability to change demeanor on a dime. Still, to hear classical Prexci from your lips...it is a treat, brother. Truly. Who is it that you trained under, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Revik frowned, glancing at me.
He moved his body closer to mine incrementally.
“Is that strictly relevant?” Revik said.
“Simply being friendly, brother.”
“I studied under Menlim of Purestred,” Revik said, his voice holding a more overt bite that time. “He was very...exacting. Particularly when it came to my lessons.”
The seer nodded, no expression on his face.
Even so, I caught the glimmer of a glance at Revik’s body that time, specifically at the pale white scar that showed around his neck through the open collar.
Watching Dulgar that time, I found myself wondering if maybe he was baiting Revik more than I’d realized. Clearly, he wasn’t above asking questions he already knew the answers to. I found myself wondering exactly what else he knew about the history of the Sword and how he’d been brought into existence.
Looking at those gold eyes, I found myself suspecting he knew a lot.
When Revik didn’t offer any additional information, Dulgar waved away his own question.
“I do not mean to pry into old memories for you, brother,” he said, his voice once more all sweetness and light. “...Nor did I mean offense by the implications of my words. We deal often in flesh trade here. I confess that it’s perhaps altered my ability to speak on such matters as tactfully as I should...particularly where bonded mates are concerned.”
His eyes flickered back to me, holding another pulse of heat.
“...And yes, I confess there is a personal interest. One that you very correctly chastise me for, my brother, although your rebuke does not alter the sentiment, I’m afraid.” Pausing, he gave Revik another direct look, his gold eyes expressionless. “I do not think I mentioned this detail in our initial discussion, brother, but I had been slotted once, to meet your wife. While she was still a resident of our fair City in Beijing...”
Feeling Revik stiffen, I laid a cautioning hand on his thigh, exuding warmth with my light.
He didn’t relax, but I felt him acquiesce.
Dulgar’s eyes dropped to my hand on Revik’s thigh, even as he smiled.
“...I felt somewhat cheated, as you can imagine,” he said, lifting his eyes back to Revik’s. “When you went to retrieve your wife in person, you did so before she and I were scheduled to meet. It was quite a disappointment for me. By then, word of her talents had reached far beyond our humble city of Macau...”
Dulgar smiled, even as his gold eyes shifted back to my face. I felt another whisper of his light around mine, but not nearly as strongly as I felt Revik’s anger.
“I am assured she would have been well worth the price I paid,” Dulgar continued. “Which, it must be said, was no small sum. In fact, I was told she was significantly undervalued by the Lao Hu during her time there...”
I felt Revik about to speak and tightened my fingers on his leg.
He’s baiting you, I reminded him softly.
Revik tensed more, and I found myself making a strategic decision, if only to pull us off this line of talk. Clearing my throat, I leaned forward, shifting my voice into a lower tenor.
“My husband is correct,” I said, smiling, using the same version of Prexci that Revik just used. I kept my voice slightly husky, and smiled again as I spoke, addressing Dulgar alone. “We are not at that point in our discussions yet, brother Dulgar...and further, this type of vulgar, psychological sparring is a waste of both of our time. My husband is far too intelligent to fall prey to such a thing...”
I massaged his thigh deliberately, using my light. I felt Revik’s own light react involuntarily, even as he fought to pull it back. With my other hand, I made a more diplomatic gesture towards Dulgar himself, one that held enough light that I felt even more male stares in my direction.
“...You must understand that we are anxious to determine if this is an alliance from which both of us might benefit,” I said, my voice still low and measured. “If it is not, then frankly, we would rather spend
our time in more fruitful negotiations...with friends who are likely to be our friends for longer than a night. While it may not seem so, from inside your very lovely city, there is a war waging outside of these walls, brother. One we could not side-step, even if we wished it.” I hardened my voice when his eyes shifted back to my neckline. “...I would think that the actual terms of our agreement would matter more to you than such a shallow status marker, brother, at any rate...?”
Still massaging Revik’s thigh, I let the thinly-veiled insult hang there.
You just got me really fucking hard, Revik sent softly.
It’s for a good cause... I reminded him.
You’re supposed to be distracting them, not me... he sent, even softer.
I exhaled, still looking at Dulgar as I leaned back with a low series of clicks.
Dulgar’s eyes once more focused intently on my hand massaging Revik’s thigh.
“We seek alliance towards the betterment of our race, brother,” I said, taking my hand off Revik’s leg and resting it on the leather sofa. “Is this something that interests you? Or would you rather just offer my husband a flat monetary price, to have more access to my light for an evening...? I doubt he’ll say yes, but it might save us all some time, if that’s the only business arrangement that interests you.”
There was a more loaded silence that time.
Then Dulgar chuckled, smiling indulgently. He glanced briefly at Revik before he gestured an assent, looking directly at me.
“Of course, my lovely sister,” Dulgar said, bowing his head. “...And my apologies. I did not wish to imply that our other areas of discussion did not hold import for the Legion of Fire.”
His voice grew condescending enough that I had to fight to hold my expression.
“...You said your interest right now is seers, is it not?” he queried politely. “Infiltrators, or potential infiltrators, in particular...is that not correct? I seem to recall that your husband mentioned a desire to look at the most recent shipment we obtained. Those we had liberated following the purges in nearby lands once controlled by our human oppressors?”
Allie's War Season Four Page 65
