The Scarlet Cavern

by Michael Dalton

  She pulled hers out. I compared them and saw what she meant. The crystal was much clearer. I hadn’t noticed before, but side-by-side, I saw that her blade had tiny bubbles and impurities that were absent in iXa’aliq’s blades. The edges on his were more even, and the cores seemed straighter and cleaner. Even the light passed through more clearly, as if the crystal structure was purer than Ayarala’s knife.

  “Take them, then.”

  She took one of the short blades, but not the sword or throwing knives.

  “These would be of little use to me. I am not a fighter.”

  I drew the sword out and swung it around. It was remarkably light, which was likely what had saved my arm from amputation. But it might serve as fine backup weapon.

  There was little of interest in iXa’aliq’s desk. There were papers written in a language I couldn’t read. It was a mix of simple and complex pictograms. Some of it resembled kanji, though I saw no kanji characters I recognized – not that I expected to. Ayarala looked them over, telling me it was all mundane notes about various grievances iXa’aliq had with one person or another.

  “He was very upset about Narilora leaving him. There are many unpleasant things written about her here.”

  But there were no books or anything like it. Besides the papers, there was only an engraved sheet of crystal with markings on the edges. I looked it over, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. After a moment, I realized that it looked a lot like the crystal plate I’d found in the cave wall.

  I handed it to Ayarala.

  She studied it for a moment.

  “I think this . . .”

  Kisarat appeared from the central staircase with an armload of random trash from iXa’aliq’s bedroom. She looked over at us.

  “That is iXa’aliq’s lakar-aklar. Let me show you.”

  The connotations made no sense. A book, with power?

  Kisarat walked over and took the crystal sheet. She pressed two of the markings on the side, and the sheet lit up like an LCD screen. The previously transparent sheet was now covered in glowing graphics and characters like the ones on the papers. Then I got it: powered book.

  “Oh,” Ayarala said, “I have heard of these, but have never seen one.” She put her finger on it, and the text moved with it. A touch-screen tablet.

  “What does it do? I think we have things like this in my world.”

  “If someone has one of these too, even if they are very far away, you can talk to them, and send them letters.”

  “That’s all?”

  Ayarala looked at me in surprise. “Is that not amazing?”

  So they had no Internet here, exactly.

  “Yes, it is. I was just curious.”

  Next to the desk was a square crystal box about two feet on a side. The front appeared to be a door, but I couldn’t see a way to open it.

  “I think this is his safe,” Ayarala said.

  Kisarat returned from outside, where she had apparently thrown iXa’aliq’s junk in their trash heap.

  “How do we open this?”

  “iXa’aliq opened it. I am not sure.”

  “How?”

  “He touched it somehow.”

  That gave me an idea, gruesome as it might be. I grabbed the crystal sword and went outside. iXa’aliq’s corpse was where Kisarat had left it. Silently apologizing to him and trying not to think too hard, I sliced off one of his hands and brought it back inside. As Ayarala and Kisarat watched, I pressed the severed hand against the front. Nothing happened the first few times, but as I moved it around, the door suddenly lit up and seemed to release from the box.

  Inside were several orderly stacks of engraved crystal plates about the size and shape of credit cards, though they were several millimeters thick. All them glowed with a softly shifting luminescence. There were several types of patterns.

  Ayarala gasped.

  “How?”

  “What are these?”

  “His money,” Kisarat said.

  “So much of it,” Ayarala said. “Where did it come from?”

  “I am not sure. I have been here for less than two talons. He certainly never lacked for it during that time.”

  I took out one of the plates. There was a sort of hologram inside it that slowly changed in color.

  “What is this worth?”

  Ayarala looked into the safe, then took the plate I was holding.

  “Each of these is 10,000 pikala. There are . . . ” She counted for a moment. “Nineteen of them. These others are worth 1,000. There are thirty or forty of those.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know how to explain it in a way you would understand.” She looked up at Kisarat, who looked around us, then at me.

  “Tsulygoi, that sword of iXa’aliq’s was made by the finest crystal sword-smiths in Phan-garad. With the exception of yours, they make the most expensive blades in existence. If I remember correctly from what iXa’aliq said when he ordered it, it cost about 5,000 pikala.”

  “So . . . this is a lot.”

  “How could he have accumulated so much money?” Ayarala asked again. “Do you think . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  Kisarat’s face tightened up.

  “It is possible. I would not be surprised. At all.”

  “What?” I asked.

  Ayarala sat back against the couch behind her.

  “What I told you, about how tsulygoi find wives, how females have a chance to mate, it is true in almost all cases. But there are females who are not willing to leave their opportunity to have children to luck, to the possibility of catching the tsulygoi’s eye. If they are wealthy enough, some tsulygoi will take money to mate instead, regardless of who the female is or what she looks like.”

  Prostitution. I laughed. Old iXa’aliq had been whoring himself out. For a moment or two, I chided myself for never thinking that this skewed world would produce situations like that. But of course it would.

  “How long would it take him to earn this much money?” I asked.

  Kisarat shrugged.

  “It is difficult to say. He lived in Phan-garad many talons ago, and there are wealthy females in the city who would not be above such things. Likely for talons, though. He must have been doing it when he was younger, when he could mate more frequently. Perhaps he paid for this house that way.”

  “If we go to Phan-garad, to find this other tsulygoi you mentioned –”

  “aJia’jara.”

  “– all this money would be helpful?”

  “Very much so.”

  Things were looking up.

  Chapter 8

  The sun was starting to go down, and Kisarat asked us about dinner. I was hungry, but I wanted to clean up first after two days of hiking around. She showed us how the bathtub worked and then went to cook.

  After filling the tub with steaming hot water, Ayarala and I disrobed. She peeled the bandage off and inspected the wound.

  “I think we can re-use this. I do not have many left.”

  I sank into the water, groaning as the heat loosened my stiff muscles. Ayarala settled into my lap as I ran my hands over her slick body.

  “Let me bathe you, tsulygoi. You should not stretch the wound.”

  I lay back and let her work. My bruises from the fall into the cave were feeling a lot better, and the scratch on my thigh was somehow almost healed. When she was done soaping me all over in a few minutes, my back was loosened up but another part of me was very stiff. Ayarala laughed and wrapped her hands around it.

  She slid up and down slowly as I played with her soapy breasts.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  She smiled.

  “I am still quite sore, tsulygoi. But I am sure I will get used to this in time. It was worth the soreness.”

  “Good.”

  “Will you mate with Kisarat tonight?”

  “Unless you want me to take it easy.”

  “Perhaps you should. But I think it is more importan
t that you mate with her. If the stitches come loose, I can re-do them.”

  “She is unmated. Meaning, nothing, ever?”

  “Yes.”

  I washed her shimmering golden hair. It felt much like human hair, though a bit thicker and stronger. Then she lay back against my chest. Waves of affection flowed out of her.

  “Tonight is about Kisarat,” I said.

  “Yes. It should be.”

  “Then now will be about you.”

  She turned toward me, but I stopped her.

  “Tsulygoi –”

  “Just lie still.”

  She relaxed. I ran my hands slowly over her body, up and down. Her tight butt was pressed against my erection, but I did my best to ignore it. I played with her nipples for a minute or two, feeling her arousal growing, before sliding a hand down. I did my best to avoid the sore spots and focused on the bud at the top. A few more minutes of gentle stroking had her shivering quietly. Then her hands gripped my wrist, and her legs thrashed in the water. I kept going as the energy of her release flowed into me, feeling exactly what she felt, pushing her toward another. It came in about twenty seconds, and again she shook against me. This time, I let her coast down and catch her breath.

  I was so filled with energy now that it took some willpower not to grab her and thrust my throbbing erection into her. But I knew it would hurt her, and I knew my turn was coming later. So I lay there in the water until Ayarala turned around and kissed me, though clumsily. I kissed her back, trying to teach her how it worked.

  “Thank you, Will.”

  “Let’s go eat.”

  ◆◆◆

  Kisarat had cooked some sort of stew while we were in the bath, chunks of meat floating in vegetables from her garden. She tried to explain what the various components were, but the names meant little or nothing to me. Still, despite the unfamiliar flavors, it was tasty and filling. She and Ayarala cleaned things up afterward while I relaxed in the sitting area. They were talking quietly, and I was pretty sure I knew about what.

  When they emerged, I stood and went upstairs to the bedroom. The bed was not like any human design I had seen before, though it was perhaps closest to a futon. There was no frame; only a rectangular block about two feet high enclosed in some kind of fabric. Rather than a conventional mattress, the interior seemed to be something akin to memory foam, soft but still supportive.

  When I turned around, Ayarala and Kisarat had come in behind me. Ayarala slipped out of the robe Kisarat had given her and lay on the far side of bed.

  “I just wish to be here with you.”

  “Of course, awasa-late,” Kisarat said. “I would not have it otherwise.”

  The connotation there was crystal-clear: sister-wife. However I was viewing this arrangement, it was clear where they were at.

  Kisarat untied her wrap and let it fall to the floor. I came up behind her, feeling her body and cupping her full, rounded breasts. There were patches of scales on the undersides. I felt lower, finding more soft scales around her sex.

  She leaned back against me, hissing softly. Her tail slid up between my legs, curling against my thigh.

  “You took me from another male today. You thrust your blade through his heart to have me.”

  I saw Richard’s face. There was a time when what he’d done to me felt exactly like that. But, fuck it. Richard was an asshole, and frankly iXa’aliq seemed like a real asshole, too.

  Kisarat let out a breathy moan.

  “My body is yours, tsulygoi. Do as you will.”

  “This will be a bit difficult at first.”

  “I am ready. Ayarala has told me what will happen.”

  I backed away from her and pulled off my clothes. Kisarat’s eyes fell to my erection.

  “Makalang.”

  She dropped to her knees in front of me.

  “I did study all the histories of your legend out of a desire to know. But it was more than that. From a young age, I dreamed of finding the makalang. Of mating with him. I believed because I wanted it to be real.”

  She took me in her hands, feeling me gently.

  “It was why I offered myself to aJia’jara. I hoped what was said of him was true, that he was a descendant of the last one. But he refused me, so I came here, to be in the mountains. All the histories say the makalang comes down from them. So when iXa’aliq allowed me to, I wandered the woods, searching.”

  She leaned forward, nuzzling me with her cheek.

  “I never dreamed you would arrive on my doorstep. When I saw you come out of the trees today, I could barely believe my eyes.”

  “And now you are here,” I said. “Go lie down.”

  She rose and went to the bed, lying on her back. Ayarala rolled on her side next to her.

  With the experience from the previous night and the knowledge that Kisarat was unmated, I wanted to take this as carefully as possible. I climbed onto the bed until I was directly above her. I bent to kiss her; she kissed me back. She seemed to know what to do. Ayarala must have told her.

  I felt the tips of her fangs with my tongue. They were sharp, though not quite like needles. I could feel the holes for her venom. Then they seemed to retract against the roof of her mouth.

  She pushed me back a bit. “I will not poison you, my tsulygoi, I promise.”

  I laughed softly. “Good.”

  I worked my way down her body, suckling her protuberant nipples, pressing her breasts to my face. Her skin was perfectly smooth, almost slick where the patches of scales dusted her torso. When I settled between her legs and took her in my mouth, she let another long hiss. Her tail came up, coiling around my arm, squeezing rhythmically.

  I kept it simple, just stroking her gently with my tongue. I could feel her arousal as I had with Ayarala. She arrived at the bedroom ready for me, before I’d done anything, and it took little work to push her to the brink in a few minutes. Then she gasped sharply, arched her back, and I felt her release flowing through us. Her tail squeezed my arm so tightly it began to cut off the circulation. But after a few moments, it began to relax.

  I didn’t want to drain her too quickly. I climbed back on top of her and began probing forward. Unlike Ayarala, I found no wall of flesh blocking the way. There was an entrance, and it opened slowly; she seemed more elastic, somehow. I felt a thin membrane right against the head at the moment it separated before me – not having mated apparently meant much the same thing on Taitala as it did on Earth.

  Bit by bit, I stretched her open. She was as tight as Ayarala had been, though the feel of her was different. When I was fully inside, she slid her arms around me, and her tail came up between my legs, sliding along my thigh up to my butt.

  “Are you all right?”

  “It is exactly as I imagined, my tsulygoi. My makalang. Do what you will.”

  After Ayarala in the bathtub and Kisarat just now, I was too full of energy to make this last. So instead of drawing it out, I rocked steadily against her, bringing her along as I closed in on my own release. I felt her getting close and released the brakes, and when I felt her letting go around me again, I pushed forward and came as deeply into her as I could get.

  I fell forward, burying my face in her emerald hair. I felt Ayarala taking my hand as Kisarat’s tail slowly stroked my legs.

  I rose up and kissed her, then rolled over between them. Kisarat nuzzled against my shoulder.

  “I did not expect to feel this drained. It is like a whirlwind inside me.”

  I kissed her again. Then I felt Ayarala’s hand closing around my still-erect penis.

  “I know I said I was sore. But now I am wanting you again.”

  I laughed, nuzzling Kisarat back. “Okay?”

  She nodded against my shoulder.

  “I would like to watch now, as she did.”

  I pulled Ayarala on top of me. She positioned herself and backed down slowly. She was still very tight, but extremely wet and the going was easier than the night before. When she settled onto my hips, she began m
oving unevenly.

  “Show me what to do again, Will.”

  I guided her movements, feeling what she felt, and soon she fell into a rhythm as I played with her breasts. In a few minutes, she shivered and dug her hands into my shoulders as I felt her contracting around me. Then she let out a long sigh and fell forward.

  I rolled Ayarala over gently, not withdrawing, and as Kisarat watched raptly, I finished myself off inside her.

  “Two talons I was with iXa’aliq,” Kisarat said, “and he did not mate once with anyone. You have mated twice in one night.”

  I didn’t understand what was going on with this weird connection with them, these flows of energy, but for now I wasn’t complaining.

  ◆◆◆

  When I awoke the next morning, Kisarat was curled up against me in an oval ball that resembled nothing so much as a sleeping python. Her tail was coiled around her, the tip against her chest. Ayarala was under my arm on the other side, head on my shoulder, still asleep.

  I’d gone another round with both of them after a little while, though I couldn’t have explained how exactly I managed four times in a row, something I’d never done before. For their part, I’d completely exhausted them, and they passed out within minutes of calling it a night.

  I lay there listening to their quiet breathing. Two days I’d been here, yet it almost felt like a month. I still needed to get back to my kids, but now I had things I would be leaving behind. And I didn’t like that.

  It began to dawn on me just how lonely I’d been over the year-plus since my divorce. It wasn’t just the sex I’d missed, though I had definitely missed it. It was simply the feeling of having someone in your life who gave a damn about you, someone you wanted in your life too.

  I had two someones now, as bizarre as the situation was. I hadn’t envisioned hooking up with a girl who was part snake, nor one with pointed ears and hair like pure gold. But here I was.

  I rose as carefully as I could to avoid waking the girls. After pulling on some pants, I went down to the kitchen. I had a craving for coffee, and maybe Taitala had something like it. After rooting around for a few minutes, I heard Kisarat behind me.

  “Tsulygoi? What do you require?”