“What did the priests do?”
Malach laughed sourly. “They withheld the precious metals they conjured from beneath the earth—metals used to forge our weapons. And without the means to forge swords and thus present each new warrior with his fief-gift, the very fabric of our society shredded like the finest linen left to a storm’s mercy.”
“Some trump card.”
“Indeed. The priests insisted there were no more precious metals to be had, that our land was depleted and not even their powerful spells could replenish the lack. But we all knew the truth. And without weapons, our warriors would not be able to defend themselves or their fiefs from the outlander raiders whose coming the priests so conveniently foretold.”
“Manipulative bastards. Pity you didn’t have my Aunt Lìli on your side. She would have cursed them with a crotch itch that would have driven them to distraction.”
Malach laughed, genuinely this time. “My Lord Keeper Wulfenite would be appreciative of your ready wit, Jade.” He resumed his tale. “There was one man with the guts to stand up to the priests. Lord Keeper Ceruss found the one thing the priests desired above all else and in turn, denied it to them.”
Jade’s eyes shone and she motioned eagerly for him to continue.
“The priests do not take women to their beds. They believe intercourse drains their essence and weakens them.”
“They’re eunuchs?”
“Eunuchs? I do not know this word.”
“Uh, they’ve been gelded. Like you do to stallions you don’t want to breed to mares.”
Malach winced and bore her laughter like a man. “No. Priests are not gelded, merely sworn to celibacy. Thus, to replenish their ranks, they require boys willing to forgo a warrior’s life and dedicate themselves to a religious calling. Traditionally, boys who are not truly warrior material are encouraged to take this option. But in some cases, boys will freely choose the Priests’ Way, as ’tis called. Although the permission of the boy’s Lord Keeper is required by law, the boy’s choice has always been respected and only rarely is he denied his choice.”
Jade clapped her hands. “Oh, I see where this is going.”
Malach was sure she did. She was an intelligent woman. He’d always preferred intelligent women, unlike Kyan, who preferred them stupid and giggly. “Ceruss convinced each and every Lord Keeper to deny permission for any boys to choose the Priests’ Way. He argued that if hordes of raiders were coming to pillage and destroy as the priests had foretold, then every single boy was needed to train as a warrior and swell the numbers—even those ill-suited to a warrior’s life.”
“Clever man. I bet that went down like a ton of bricks.”
“For an entire teh—”
“That’s ten years, right?”
“Yes. For ten years Ceruss prevailed and no new boy was dedicated to the Priests’ Way. Until finally the priests offered something not even Ceruss could turn down.”
Jade leaned forward in her chair. “What?”
“Invulnerability.”
~~~
Chapter Eight
Jade chewed her lip, pondering that possibility—or impossibility, depending on how far she was prepared to suspend belief. “And Lord Cerry-whatsit really believed the priests could cast a spell to make all the warriors invulnerable?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And our priests erred. Their magic somehow skewed, bestowing instead an immunity to all illness and disease.”
Riiight. Hence him not worrying about using a condom.
“Even unintentionally, it was considered a gift beyond compare and we rejoiced. Unfortunately, this same gift had an unforeseen side-effect. From then on, our women only bore sons.” He paused, allowing her to assimilate what he had revealed.
“A mere spell achieved something that amazing? Really?”
“Indeed. Do you not believe in spells and curses, Jade?”
She opened her mouth, then shut it with a snap. Even if she chose to stick her head in the sand and refused to believe all the evidence that’d been piling up since yesterday, she could hardly refute Aunt Lìli’s abilities.
Lìli’s curses worked. You only had to ask Murray, who, after what he’d pulled and the lied he’d spread, had been idiotic enough to spot Jade and Mei and their mother at the shopping center and call Jade a “Chink slut”, and yell other nasty racial slurs at the top of his voice. Lìli had coaxed the story from Jade’s upset mother, and Jade later learned that Lìli had taken it upon herself to confront Murray face-to-face. Whether he confessed all, or whether Lìli had read it in his mind ultimately didn’t matter. She’d cursed him—both literally and figuratively.
Over the weekend, Murray contracted a case of the mumps. Rumor had it his balls had swelled to the size of oranges, and the disease ultimately made him sterile. Nothing too unusual in that, perhaps. Mumps could be pretty nasty if contracted by an adult male, and infertility often resulted. But Murray had already had a dose of mumps as a child and was supposedly immune.
“So your women only bore sons.”
“Yes.”
“Ever?”
“From that day forward there were no female infants born. And so it has been for centuries according to the temple records I acquired.”
“Whoa.” The far-reaching effects of a culture with a serious imbalance of males compared with females were common knowledge in this day and age. Everyone knew of countries or cultures where female babies were killed at birth because sons were needed to inherit. Young girls were taken as wives, and then cast aside or sold if they failed to bear sons for their husbands. Wives and daughters, considered little more than possessions, were maltreated and even murdered at the whim of their men-folk. Female circumcision, women kept as virtual prisoners, women denied education or even basic medical care, selective abortion if the fetus was female… the list went on. It was barbaric and unconscionable, and it still happened.
But a society only ever giving birth to male babies?
“Your people began to die out, didn’t they? Once all the women of your world finally became too old to bear any more children, there were no more children born at all. Your population began to diminish. So what did you do?”
“How do you know we did anything at all?” Malach said, capturing her gaze. She tried to read his face but it was a perfect, irritating blank.
“Oh, come on. Credit me with some brains, at least. You say this happened centuries ago. Your people must have taken women from somewhere else or they would have completely died out in a few generations. What did you do? Steal women from other tribes?”
“Not exactly. The effects of the spell were global. All the tribes suffered the same problem and there were no available women to take. So our priests opened portals to your world, as they had originally planned.”
“And sent through bands of marauders. Only instead of looting precious metals, they took women, right?”
“Precisely. Over the centuries, we raided your earth and stole your women.”
“Hang on…. Why did you need to keep stealing women? Surely once you had a large enough breeding pool you’d stop? The women you stole would have babies and everything’s hunky dory again. Right?”
Malach’s blank expression segued to grimness. “For some reason that not even the priests could fathom, once your women settled in our world they, too, bore only male babies. And so, the raiding continued.”
“Which is how you eventually ended up on Earth.”
He nodded.
Jade put two and two together and came up with one pissed off Crystal Guardian. “And that’s where you came across Pieter. He had magical powers of his own and he stood against you and cursed you to the crystals when you tried to take the women.”
Malach nodded.
“And…. Holy crap! You were part of a troupe of ten men—”
“I was the tehun-Leader, the second in command to Lord Keeper Wulfenite, our fief’s leader. Our Lord Keeper was accompanied b
y two tehuns, along with an assigned priest. The priest and one tehun remained in camp to guard the women already taken and keep watch. Thus it was Lord Keeper Wulf and one tehun—eleven men in total—who confronted Pieter in his village that day.”
“And all eleven of you were imprisoned in Pieter’s crystals. I presume the priest and the other ten men escaped back to your world with their captives?”
He shrugged. “Likely so, but only Pieter would know for sure.”
“And you say centuries have passed.” Jade found herself fascinated by the idea that there might be other men like Malach roaming Earth.
While Malach justified his timeline by relating his impressions of the living conditions and the primitive technology used by the people at the time of his last raid, something he’d said continued to niggle at her. Centuries have passed since the first time the Guardian’s curse befell me.
Since the first time.
Everything—all the little clues she’d missed until now—snapped into sharp focus.
Malach’s familiarity with Pieter.
Jade being a… a…. How had Malach termed it? “A mistake. Again.”
This mysterious Francesca, who’d been chosen for Malach and had such a devastating effect on him.
Jade almost choked on the breath she’d gulped. Freaking heck. She was not the first mistake Pieter had made with Malach. Francesca had been the first woman chosen for him. And given his easy acceptance of modern technologies that should have freaked him out, like flush toilets, running water, and electricity, more than likely Malach’s first bonding attempt hadn’t been that long ago, either.
Malach must have noted her frozen-faced shock for he paused his recitation.
“This isn’t the first time you’ve been here, in this time—my time—is it, Malach?”
He inclined his head in a parody of a bow. “Very good, Jade. There is a worthy brain inside that delectably feminine package.”
“Don’t patronize me,” she said. “You’ve been matched and bonded before. That’s how you know what’s going on. Otherwise, you’d be as much in the dark about all this stuff as I am. Tell me about Francesca.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
His lips thinned. “Because it is no business of yours.” He launched himself from the bed and stomped over to her chair. He placed a hand either side of her and loomed, glaring down at her. “Do you hear me quizzing you about your past lovers?”
The anger blazing in his eyes stole her breath. She somehow managed to summon a snort—a pretty pathetic excuse for one, but a snort nevertheless. “O-only because you know full well I never had a lover until you came along.” And she suspected he’d ruined her for any future lovers she might have—not that she’d ever admit that to him in a million years.
A flush heated her face and crept down her neck to her cleavage, drawing Malach’s eyes.
His eyes narrowed. “What is this?” He pointed to her pendant. “Why have you discarded your namesake crystal?”
“This?” She held it up and brandished it at him. “I haven’t discarded it at all. I imagine it’s the result of more of Pieter’s magic.”
“Explain. Please,” he added, noting her frown at his arrogant demand.”
“This morning I felt an urgent compulsion to get home, but I didn’t know why. And then I glanced down at it and the green jade had changed to this. Red jade, I presume?”
He reached out to finger the pendant and he was so close his breath skimmed her skin, sending tingles down her spine. “Yes. ’Tis red jade.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to remind him that he’d said green jade wasn’t an appropriate gem for her, and ask him if now he knew her a little better, red jade might be more her style. Then she remembered what he’d said about red jade, that it was passionate and stimulating, and decided it was far too provocative a statement.
“A-And as soon as I saw it, I remembered everything. I remembered Mei and… and—” Her flush heated her skin still more, if that was at all possible. “And why I’d decided to meet with Pieter.”
“To let him use you in exchange for a fee.”
She glared at him. “No need to pussyfoot ’round. I was going to play the whore, all right? Sell myself for money.”
“To help Mei.”
“Yes. I was desperate. Is that so wrong?”
He sighed. “No, Jade. ’Tis not so wrong. ’Tis a true admission of your love for your sister that you were prepared to go to such lengths. And I owe you an apology.”
“Huh?” She picked her jaw up off the metaphorical floor. “For what?”
He cupped her face in his big hands and his eyes glinted with some strong emotion as he gazed at her. “For branding you a whore. For presuming you to be one based on circumstantial evidence. For taking your virginity without the tenderness and care that were your due. For using your sweet body to help me feel human—to help me feel again.”
Tears stung her eyes. He was so terribly wounded, this man she’d given her body to. And his soul was scarred along with his body. He’d been tortured and deprived of all hope not once, but twice. And she was his only hope of escape.
“You’re talking about the time you spent trapped in the crystal, aren’t you? Was it really that awful?”
“Beyond any nightmare you could imagine.”
“And Francesca?” Jade whispered her name and felt a shiver ghost down her spine. “It must be dreadful knowing she’s dead.”
He release her and drew back, frowning. “What makes you say she is dead?”
“Well, way you speak of her I thought—”
“Perhaps she is indeed dead and buried but I would surely know if she no longer lived. We were linked, Francesca and I, and I am certain I would have felt a severing of our connection if she had died. What year is this?”
“Twenty-twelve.” Jade nibbled her lower lip. What if Francesca was still alive? Where did that leave her and Malach?
He backed away to sit on the edge of the bed. “I believe she would be nearing her fifth teh—fifty years old, by your reckoning.”
Jade let her gaze drift from his face, all the way down his body to his toes and back up again. She wasn’t perving, merely estimating his age. Ah, who was she trying to kid? She just liked looking at him. “And you’d be what, a little over forty? Forty-five, max?”
“Forty-one.”
Twenty-odd years older than her. That should have bothered her. But it didn’t—not any more. It just wasn’t important.
“So she’s less than a decade older than you. That’s nothing. Unless you happen to have issues about older women.”
“No. I am many things, but I am not a man who is attracted by a woman’s looks alone. People love whom they will, and age should not be a factor. I gave my heart to her regardless. And I would do so again in a heartbeat.”
A tendril of jealousy tried to strangle Jade’s good intentions, and she briefly considered not voicing what she was thinking. But she couldn’t bring herself to be so selfish and petty. Malach deserved some hope—a chance at happiness, at least. “So, if this Francesca is indeed the love of your life as you claim—”
“She is.”
“Fine. Then if she is still alive—and there’s a very good chance she is—what’s to stop you from finding her again and living happily ever after?”
Malach gaped at her, his pale blue eyes wide with what she presumed was utter astonishment. And as she watched, they lit from within with a large dollop of burgeoning hope.
Jade wished she could feel good about giving him that hope but all she felt was aching sadness, as though she’d lost something precious. Ridiculous. She should be smugly congratulated herself for thinking of such a clever idea. If she could get Malach back with Francesca, it’d be perfect….
Wouldn’t it?
A little voice inside her protested that it wouldn’t be perfect. It’d hurt. It’d be gut-wrenching. And she’d hate knowing Malach was with another woman. This illogi
cal reaction wasn’t helped any by Malach seeming paralyzed by her words, capable of little more than staring at her.
She mentally shook herself. Enough. “Come on, Malach. Snap out of it. You, living happy ever after with Francesca, the love of your life. What’s not to like about that?” She wasn’t proud of the sarcasm lacing her tone but hey, she’d never claimed to be perfect.
Malach blinked slowly, and dropped his gaze, unwilling for her to be privy to his emotions. “It would be—”
“Pretty easy to track her down, I imagine. Most people these days have an internet presence—whether they intend to or not. Do you know what country she lived in?”
“I remember her calling herself a rarity, an American with a—” He frowned. “A pass for traveling the world.”
“Passport. Hmmm. Anything else? State? Name of the town or city?”
He shook his head. “When I first emerged from the crystal, I was bewildered and confused—in a state akin to being astounded to find oneself still living after being taken by the battle-rage. My entire focus was the woman who had called me from the crystal. I recall I was in her house and that she was not alone. It transpired she had a daughter who was asleep in another room. I vividly recall the child’s name because at the time I thought it unusual that the woman who called me from my crystal had rejected her own crystal-name, only to name her daughter after a crystal.”
“What was Francesca’s crystal-name?”
“Her given name was Beryl, but she insisted on being called by her second name.”
Jade screwed up her nose. “I can’t say I blame her. Regardless of how pretty a gem beryl might be, as a girl’s name it’s rather old-fashioned.”
“Beryl is a stone of uncommon beauty. It suited her—better than Francesca, I think.”
Of course Francesca would have to be beautiful. She couldn’t have been plain and dumpy and unremarkable. Jade disliked the woman already. She changed the subject. “And her daughter’s name?”
“Chalcedony.”
“Now that’s pretty.”
“Yes. I had the impression the girl was very young. I remember—” He paused, his expression still and cold and hard.
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