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Chapter Thirty-Two
First sunset blazed red and orange on the western horizon, and Alexi sat across from Kian and Paul in the carriage as it trundled its way down the Street of Perversions. Alexi had changed into a bright red petticoat following their "fun" afternoon; Paul wore the same thing he'd worn all day, but he'd done his best to clean all Kian's cum out of his hair and dress. Because it was chilly out, he also wore a black cloak just like Alexi. Alexi thought Paul actually looked quite nice, and he believed the feeling was mutual. However, both of them obsessed (perhaps "lusted" was a better word) for Kian, who became the object of many stolen looks and "accidental" caresses.
Milbar's beard he's handsome, Alexi thought. I feel like I've lost myself in him, and I barely know who he is.
Paul bestowed many long glances in Kian's direction, but Kian didn't seem to mind. He even acted flattered. Alexi didn't know how to feel about that. He just knew it would take time to figure everything out. Right now he felt fiercely territorial about Kian and wondered if taking the blond Atlantean to Horigum Khaine was the right thing to do.
He wanted to see the symbol on the glass window, Alexi thought. He wants to get in contact with the thieves. He asked for this, but by the gods, I can't let anyone see his face or even a patch of skin. Everyone that looks upon him is going to desire him—that's the truth. That's what I'm dealing with. How can I control this situation? The only other alternative is trust, but how can I trust someone to stay faithful to me that looks like Kian?
And that's when Alexi "got it." He understood what Kian's curse was—the one mentioned in The Races of Wynwrayth. Alexi didn't think it was possible, but beauty at a certain level was more of a curse than a blessing because it led men and women to covet. And "coveting" something was the root of all the evils he could think of.
He's wrong about we Zandan's being evil. I can't let my jealousy ruin this. I just can't, Alexi thought.
Kian seemed oblivious to how handsome he looked. On the right side of the carriage, he leaned forward to observe buildings whose facades now faded into the gloom as night approached. A gas lighter walked the streets with a long pole that held an open flame on one end; he started up the many streetlamps that lined the cobblestone boulevard. The knightly armor was fearsome and black. It looked perfect—it was perfect—because it had never seen a battle.
Alexi closed his eyes and recalled watching Kian put it on.
First Kian had donned a skin-tight black shirt over his chest and attached the cuirass, which was molded to his physique. It showed every cut and rise of muscle, every lift of bone, and even the most prominent veins. The gauntlets, greaves, and pauldrons were all engraved with moons, stars, and leering demonic faces. It was rare to see separate fingers on gauntlets, but Kian's armor came with a pair in which every digit had its own sheath. Even better, the ones Kian wore had solid gold knuckles raised on the back of each metal glove.
And the form-fitted butt tasset and codpiece looked almost identical to the one on Kian's killsuit, which he'd left on the workbench for Alexi to repair. If there was a difference, Alexi noted that the Timeron knight armor had unnecessary embellishments: the codpiece resembled a flaccid cock and balls to such an extent that veins, a ridge of skin, and even pubic hair was detailed in metal. And even though Kian wore corobidian metal sabatons (without individual toes), he still wore atop these a second pair of long black boots made from supple leather. The purpose was obviously to keep the feet warm in this winter weather, and to provide traction. The tops of these magnificent shoes rose to just under the poleyn (knee). Each was tightened about Kian's calf with six leather straps sporting solid gold buckles. A few errant white-blond pubic hairs poked through the crease where the butt tasset and breastplate came together above the large embossed codpiece, but Kian wore an absolutely gorgeous tabard that hung to mid-thigh and effectively hid these flaws from view. It was secured with a thick leather belt from which hung his sword and scabbard. As a result, Kian presented as flawless.
The sleeveless tabard featured an eclipsed sun and a black star surrounded in a halo of blood. Beneath this were shadows—demons really—and they cavorted in a twisted reverie around a pile of bones embroidered in gold and white thread. The whole of it was black cloth, and the black sun (so that it would show up) was highlighted in solid gold thread. The entirety of Kian's head was hidden first in a black chainmail hood that completely concealed any blond hair. On top of this he wore a full helmet that seemed poured onto Kian's head because it fit so tightly. Only a thin slit as thick as two coins stacked on top of each other served as a way to see. If you stared through the crease and the light was just right, you might see that Kian had blue eyes. Lastly, the pauldrons gave Kian's broad shoulders exaggerated dimensions as they overshadowed his chest and tabard that flowed from underneath them. The helm and pauldrons both had dragons raised in bas-relief, their scales brushed individually in a blue tint to make them more prominent. Overall, the effect was impressive.
"Your armor is beautiful," Paul said to Kian, brushing Kian's gauntlet with his laced gloves.
"Thanks," Kian said, giving Paul's fingers a gentle squeeze. He turned from the window. "It's hot and sweaty and not nearly as comfortable as my killsuit. I just wish I had the spurs. I never realized how important they were."
"And a cloak," Alexi added. "But it doesn't matter. Not every knight has a razor cap. I've got a story for your missing spurs if anyone questions you about it."
"Oh yeah?" Kian asked. "I'd like to hear that one."
Alexi noticed through the window that a crowd of people gathered in the street ahead of them, and it derailed what he was going to say. As they drew closer, he noted these were well-dressed aristocrats from the city's most expensive borough: Coral Cove. They looked to be entering both "Agony" and the shop next door called "A Bespoke Fit." There were gentlemen and ladies alike, drinking expensive sparkling wine, and sampling delicate pastries set out for their pleasure. There were many fine dresses, doublets, vests, capes, cloaks, and shoes of every kind on display. A "no frills" sandwich board out front read in chalk, "Exclusive Show Tonight: Come see our wares designed for your pleasure."
"Fuck," Alexi swore.
"What?" Kian asked almost immediately.
"I just didn't want so many people around." Alexi called out to the driver, "Let us off here. We'll walk in."
"Very well, miss," the driver said.
The carriage rolled to a stop and the driver hopped down to open the door for them. As Kian stepped out, the Atlantean tucked his sword in to keep the scabbard from clacking against the frame. Alexi stared at the hilt of that sword, and saw how beautiful it was with veins curled around the long handle covered in tiny black scales. A ruby twice the size of Alexi's thumb was set on the pommel, and it pulsed with a red light.
"That red light is very conspicuous," Alexi said, pointing it out.
"What?" Kian asked, and then he checked his sword. A moment later, it went dark. "Better?"
"How did you do that?" Alexi asked.
"This is Bloodbane. It's a magical sword, and I just told it to turn the light off."
"All right then," Paul said arching both eyebrows, clearly impressed. "He has a magical sword too. Shall we go? The shopkeeper awaits us."
As they walked toward the crowd about half a block away, Alexi asked Kian, "How will you know if there are thieves here?"
"They're here as we speak. I spotted one just now lightening that man's coin pouch—the one wearing that gold embroidered robe with the silk flowers on it. They'll be working the crowd here. I just need to make contact with them, and we've got a secret language for that called `the cant.'"
Damn he has good vision, Alexi thought.
"Sounds intriguing," Alexi said.
They joined the crowd and rich fat merchants with brown skin bowed in Kian's direction saying, "Ser knight," and "May the many gods bless the military," and "Thank you for your service." Some of the bolder ones shook his hand or slapped him across the back. Some women looked his way and talked amongst themselves. From what Alexi could tell, they liked Kian's shape and size very much, but wanted to see more (as is always the case when beauty is obvious yet hidden away).
It made Alexi realize just how privileged he was.
Suddenly, Alexi's inner monologue was disrupted as the crowd let out a collective gasp.
"Dreaded Irtemara, how wonderful you could join us!" Horigum Khaine exclaimed from behind the counter in his sex shop. The tall reptilian Nykoran was busy with a discrete exchange, bagging some sexual items for a customer in plain brown paper as Kahket appeared at the door.
Twin guards from the Blades Acuuarum gently parted the crowd. Some of them sneered in Kian's direction and gripped their pikes. Alexi was at a loss to explain their hostility unless it was jealousy. After all, compared to Kian these two overweight soldiers were slobs.
"I wouldn't miss one of these parties," the pregnant lamia said. Her grossly distended belly and navel protruded from a dress cut provocatively. The neckline on this thing hung so low it almost begged a wardrobe malfunction and the hem had a slit almost to the waist to allow her to show a naked long leg whenever she stopped. The woman couldn't just stand; she needed to pose. She wore six-inch diamond heels and had blood red roses sewn into her fine hair. "Besides, I have business with you Horigum Khaine," she said, snapping her fingers.
Behind her, a servant brought in a wooden box.
"It of course can wait until after this," Kahket said.
"Ah, but of course," Horigum replied. "Please, Dreaded Irtemara, let me show you to your chair. It's the best seat in the house."
Alexi gulped and said, "This was a bad idea. We should leave."
Kian turned to him and asked, "You brought me to a fucking Nykoran?" At least his voice was low.
"What's wrong with Nykorans?" Alexi asked.
Paul leaned into Alexi's ear. "Uh, they killed a lot of Atlanteans and made capes from their skins. A lot of them consider it there most prized possession even to this day."
"I'm sorry," Alexi said, horrified. "I-I didn't know. Please, Kian, don't be mad at me."
Kian stared at him through the tiny slit in his helmet. "I'm not mad, I'm just...Okay, fuck it. I'm bloody mad, but it's not at you. I want to kill that fucker, and I don't even care that bitch is here. I want to choke him until the life ebbs out of his eyes. That's how much I hate him."
Alexi panicked. Fuck fuck fuck, he said over and over in his mind. How am I to present him as my boyfriend, much less get him to wear a rubber priapus until it's ripe enough for the Nykoran to give me the location to the Machlen Nocturnis? Maybe if I give Kian a command, he'll follow it. After all, he loves me, right? If he wants me, then he's going to have to fall in line and do as I say. Just this once. It'll work out. This is the only way.
"The show begins in thirty minutes, folks," a man said from the front of "A Bespoke Fit." He was dressed in a cotton tunic and pants, cut loose and made of contrasting triangles that came together on the back to form a world orbited by four moons. The man carried a glass of champagne in one hand and had snow white hair, green eyes, and a long waxed mustache and beard. Alexi thought him to be in his mid-sixties, but the wrinkles on his hands hinted at a greater age. "We're just getting the models ready. Everything you see here is a one of a kind creation. Bidding will be in a separate room for those interested in purchasing items off the models. Rules are the same as always: no touching or manhandling unless it's merchandise. If you want to stroke some skin, then you need to go to the slave market from eleven to three in the afternoon."
The crowd laughed at this remark.
"Once they walk the runway, the models will go through a door and pose for patrons behind a glass wall in "Agony," and if you want to touch, you'll have to pay for that privilege. No jacking off during the show. All fetishes are welcome." Then he went inside, followed by guests who were taking seats in the chairs that had been put out for them. Alexi counted at least ten rows of ten: a hundred people. But they had more stacked against the glass window out front and from the looks of it, they might need them.
"Come on," Alexi said to Kian.
The necromancer straightened his spine and resolved himself to giving out a few commands. I need to present an air of authority, here, Alexi thought. I can't have Kian questioning my dictates when there's this much at stake. Besides, if we're to have a relationship, then the sooner I establish whose boss, the better.
Alexi turned to Paul and said, "When we're in the shop, get with one of Horigum's assistants and purchase me three different-sized butt plugs in the case there."
"Are you sure that's enough?" Kian asked. "You saw how big I was."
Alexi paused to reconsider. Then he said to Paul. "Get four. I think there's one that will stretch us out to about his diameter by the time of the dance."
Paul sighed and pulled out his purse. "What are you two going to do?"
"I need to speak with Horigum Khaine in private. I'll see if he'll have an audience with me before the show. Kian, I want you to come with me, because the business I have with him concerns you." Alexi gulped and then said, "I have strong feelings for you, and I think those are reciprocated, right?"
Kian nodded his head.
"Good," Alexi said. "I may ask you to do something that I'm uncomfortable with because it cheapens you to a sexual object, but I made the deal before I knew you. I'm not proud of this. It'll help me out a lot if you just promise right now to do everything I say. I agree with you that the Nykoran is filth, but he has important information. I don't have the power to read minds yet, so my way's the only way to get what we need—what I need. But if I achieve my destiny, I'll be powerful. If there were a better alternative, trust me, I'd take it," Alexi said.
Kian seemed to be considering Alexi's words, but Alexi couldn't tell for sure. After a minute of silence, Alexi gulped uncomfortably.
"You can read minds?" Kian asked at last.
"Not yet," Alexi said. "But it could show up any day now. Paul can confirm that I'm no ordinary necromancer."
Paul nodded and said, "Normal definitely doesn't describe Alexi. He's got powers that come around only once a century, if that."
"And this information you're getting...it'll make you more powerful?" Kian asked.
"Not exactly," Alexi stated. "My powers are growing by the day. The information just lets me find a place that's home to the font of all necromancy."
"And what could you do with that?" Kian asked.
Alexi shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Anything. I could change the world for the better, especially with you at my side."
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for you," Kian whispered. "I'm going to trust you, Alexi. I'll follow your lead, but I want you to trust me too. Implicitly. And remember, there's more than one way to skin a cat."
"Not this cat," Alexi assured Kian.
"All right. Let's go see if we can make this Nykoran give up what he knows," Kian stated, voice flat.
"Just remember, let me do the talking," Alexi said.
Alexi pushed through the crowd to the counter. Horigum handed another bag to a pair of swarthy sailors holding hands, and they left to go next door for the show. The Nykoran looked at Alexi and said, "Are you here for the event, miss? If so, you'll need a ticket. Might I interest you—" and then his voice trailed off as he caught sight of Kian's tall and svelte form overshadowing Alexi and dressed in exquisite Timeron knight armor. "Is this gentleman with you?" Horigum asked, forked tongue flicking between sharp teeth. He fingered his nose piercing, and as he stared at Kian, Alexi saw an inner eyelid blink.
"This is my boyfriend," Alexi said. "We've come to make that deal we spoke of?"
"Is that so?" Horigum Khaine asked. "Let's go into the back and speak in private. Things just got very interesting."
Horigum put one of his assistants in charge of the counter and then took Alexi and Kian through the bead curtain to the rear of his sex shop. When they arrived, Alexi saw that the surgical chair where he'd worked on the woman the first time they met was cleaned off, and the various scalpels and pliers were laid out on a stainless steel tray. All the bottles and liniments were in order on the shelves. Everything looked scrubbed and cleaned; a doorway to the right led to a hall where voices echoed. Alexi saw that the hall connected with the tailor's shop through a door left slightly ajar.
"By the nine hells," Horigum said, turning to look at Kian. "Isn't this a fine specimen of a man? I think we can make a deal, but I want to see the goods under that armor. What color are his eyes and skin? How big's his dick?" The Nykoran shopkeeper wasted no time to reach with his right claw toward Kian's codpiece. The expression on his face, despite the reptilian features, was one of intense lust.
"The Machlen Nocturnis...you've got to tell me—" Then Alexi stopped as Kian grabbed the Nykoran's wrist just short of his tabard and whipped the shopkeeper around so fast it dislocated the man's shoulder. The Nykoran howled in pain for a micro-second when Kian punched the man hard in the throat. That shut him up quickly. Impossibly fast, Kian drew Bloodbane. Right before Alexi's eyes, it shifted shape into a dagger, and Kian held it to Horigum Khaine's balls. The Nykoran tried to scream but Kian's gripped him around the throat and squeezed. Alexi knew that Kian had the strength to rip out this guy's windpipe if he wanted to.
"Now listen here, Nykoran scum," Kian said. "You're not seeing anything of me. You're not touching, smelling, or even seeing my cock. In fact, you're not laying a hand on my body...at all. Instead, let's play a game. Give me one good reason why I should spare your life." Kian pressed Bloodbane to Horigum's pants and the cibrian blade started moaning.
"P-please," Horigum said. "I-I meant no offense, ser knight. My apologies."
Kian looked to the side at Alexi, who was too horrified for words, and then (with only one hand) Kian lifted the three-hundred-pound Nykoran and slammed him down on the surgical chair and pressed the blade to the front of Horigum's pants so that a spot of blood appeared.
"S-stop!" Horigum begged.
Kian lightened his hold around Horigum's throat and then turned to Alexi and asked, "What is it that you wanted to know?"
"I wanted to know where the Machlen Nocturnis is," Alexi said.
"Tell us, or I kill you with my soul-stealing sword," Kian whispered into Horigum's ear. "You can hear it moaning, can't you."
That's when Bloodbane spoke so that everyone in the room could hear it. "It's been a long time, master, since I've tasted such sweet Nykoran blood. Feed him to me. There will be nothing left, and his soul shall taste delicious."
"See what I mean?" Kian asked.
Horigum swallowed hard and nodded. It was one thing to die, but to have one's soul denied an afterlife for all eternity was an unbearable fate. "The Machlen Nocturnis is located south of the Zandan Mountains, beyond the gates of our country, and to the west of the Daar grasslands. Follow the River of Ice Talons that flows from the heights of the Icewall Mountains. It'll take you to a forest known as the Firetrees. The Machlen Nocturnis is one day's journey east of the home of the Forest Oracle."
Kian patted Horigum on the cheek. "That wasn't so bad was it? Now listen here, Horigum. You let anyone know what happened here, and I'll come back, and I will kill you. And the next time you think you can get away with abusing pretty boys just like me, I'd think again. Just because we're nice to look at doesn't mean you got a right to any of what we have. Now I just got one question for you, Horigum. What's the name of the bloke that runs the operation next to this? Tell me quick, or I take an eyeball."
Horigum, quaking from head to foot, stammered out, "His name's Maladom Flint. Are you going to threaten him too?"
"What I do with him is my concern, not yours," Kian warned. Then he glanced at Alexi. "Anything else you want to know?"
Alexi shook his head, unable to come up with much to say. He'd been so busy agonizing over the fact that he had to sell something personal of Kian's to Horigum to get the information he wanted that he never thought to see if there was a different way. This side of Kian frightened and excited Alexi in ways he couldn't control, and Alexi knew his panties would be stained with precum tonight. But it was also a submission to this alpha male: Kian was the boss in this relationship.
I can live with that, Alexi thought.
Kian let Horigum go.
Just as the Nykoran started to sit up, Kian sucker punched him in the side of the head, and Horigum Khaine crashed to the floor unconscious with blood streaming from his forehead. Kian grabbed Alexi by the hand and said, "Leave now. I'm going to head next door and see what I can find out about the thieves' guild. I'll meet up with you back at the carriage."
Alexi nodded and took off down the hallway headed for the front of the shop.
The complete novel is now available to read at http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html under the label "The Orb of Winter" if you care to read ahead.
Are there any artists out there willing to draw some pics for my story? If so, please email me. There is an "Orb of Winter" map now in both the NEWS section of my website and in the FORUMS of my website.
If you go to my website directly from this posting, you will want to begin with "CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE" and skip to the first set of three asterix (***).