Bradley, Marion Zimmer - SSC 03 (27 page)

 
         
"The
bones are longer," she said, touching the three outer fingers of her left
hand with the forefinger of her right.
"And stronger.
The webs between fold out.'

 
          
"And
these people fly?"

           
"Of course.
Why else have wings?"

 
          
Lythande
shook his head and fell silent. He blew smoke toward the ceiling. The ring
spun, and sparked, and finally dissipated into the haze.

 
          
"Frejqjani,"
Lythande said. "Jubal
—
and the other slavemongers
—
parade their merchandise through the town before every
auction. If your friend were in the coffle, everyone in Sanctuary would know.
Everyone in the Empire would know."

 
          
Beneath the edges of her cape.
Aerie clenched her hands into
fists.

 
          
This
was, Wess feared, the end of their journey.

 
          
"But
it might be . . .-"

 
          
Aerie
looked up sharply, narrowing her deepset eyes.

 
          
"Such
an unusual being would not be sold at public auction. He would be offered in
private sale, or exhibited, or perhaps even offered to the emperor for his
menagerie."

 
          
Aerie
flinched, and Quartz traced the texture of her short-sword's bone haft.

 
          
"
It's
better, children, don't you see? He'll be treated
decently. He's valuable. Ordinary slaves are whipped and cut and broken to
obedience."

 
          
Chan's
transparent complexion paled to white. Wess shuddered. Even contemplating
slavery they had none of them understood what it meant.

 
          
"But
how will we find him? Where will we look?"

 
          
"Jubal
will know," Lythande said, "if anyone does. I like you, children.
Sleep tonight. Perhaps tomorrow Jubal will speak with you." He got up,
passed smoothly through the crowd, and vanished into the darkness outside.

 
          
In
silence with her friends, Wess sat thinking about what Lythande had told them.

 
          
A
well-set-up young fellow crossed the room and leaned over their table toward
Chan. Wess recognized him as the man who had earlier been made sport of by
his
friends.

 
          
"Good
evening, traveler," he said to Chan.
"I have
been told these
ladies are not your wives."

 
          
"It
seems everyone in this room has asked if my companions are my wives, and I
still do not understand what you are asking," Chan said pleasantly.

 
          
"What's
so hard to understand?"

 
          
"What
does 'wives' mean?"

 
          
The
man arched one eyebrow, but replied. "Women bonded to you by law.
To give their favors to no one but you.
To bear and raise
your sons."

 
          
" 'Favors'
?"

 
          
"Sex, you clapperdudgeon!
Fucking! Do you understand
me?"

 
          
"Not
entirely. It sounds like
a
very odd system to me."

 
          
Wess
thought it odd, too. It seemed absurd to choose to raise children of only one
gender; and bonded by law sounded suspiciously like slavery.
But
—
three
women and one man?
She glanced across at Aerie and Quartz and saw they
were thinking the same thing. They burst out laughing.

 
          
"Chan,
Chad-love, think how exhausted you'd be!" Wess said.

 
          
Chan
grinned. They often slept and made love
all
together, but he was not
expected to satisfy all his friends. Wess enjoyed making love with
Chad
, but she was equally
excited by Aerie's delicate ferocity, and by Quartz's inexhaustible gentleness
and power.

 
          
"They're
not your wives, then," the man said.
"So how much
for that one?"
He pointed at Quartz.

 
          
They
all waited curiously for him to explain.

 
          
"Come
on, man! Don't be coy! You're obvious to everyone
—
why
else bring women to the Unicorn? With that one, you'll get away with it till
the madams find out. So make your fortune while you can. What's her price? I
can pay, I assure you."

 
          
Chan
started to speak, but Quartz gestured sharply and he fell silent.

 
          
"Tell
me if I interpret you correctly," she said. "You think coupling with
me would be enjoyable. You would like to share my bed tonight."

 
          
"That's
right, lovey." He reached for her breast but abruptly thought better of
it.

 
          
"Yet
you speak, not to me, but to my friend. This seems very awkward, and very
rude."

 
          
"You'd
better get used to it, woman. It's the way we do things here."

 
          
"You
offer Chan money, to persuade me to couple with you."

 
          
The
man looked at Chan. "You'd best train your whores to manners yourself,
boy, or your customers will help you and damage your merchandise."

 
          
Chan
blushed scarlet, embarrassed, flustered, and confused. Wess began to think she
knew what was going on, but she did not want to believe it.

 
          
"You
are speaking to me,
man,"
Quartz said, using the word with as much
contempt as he had put into "woman." "I have but one more
question for you. You are not ill-favored, yet you cannot get someone to bed
you for the joy of it. Does this mean you are diseased?"

 
          
With
an incoherent sound of rage, he reached for his knife. Before he touched it,
Quartz's short-sword rasped out of its scabbard. She held its tip just above
his belt-buckle. The death she offered him was slow and painful.

 
          
Everyone
in the tavern watched intently as the man slowly spread his hands.

 
          
"Go
away," Quartz said. "Do not speak to me again. You are not
unattractive, but if you are not diseased you
are
a fool, and I do not
sleep with fools."

 
          
She
moved her sword a handsbreadth. He backed up three fast steps and spun around,
glancing spasmodically from one face to another, to another. He found only
amusement. He bolted, through a roar of laughter, fighting his way to the door.

 
          
The
tavern-keeper sauntered over. "Foreigners," he said, "I don't
know whether you've made your place or dug your graves tonight, but that was
the best laugh I've had since the new moon. Bauchle Meyne will never live it
down."

 
          
"I
did not think it funny in the least," Quartz said. She sheathed her
short-sword. She had not even touched her broadsword. Wess had never seen her
draw it. "And I am tired. Where is our room?"

 
          
He
led them up the stairs. The room was small and low-ceilinged. After the
tavern-keeper left, Wess poked the straw mattress of one of the beds, and
wrinkled her nose. -

 
          
"I've
got this far from home without getting
lice,
I'm not
going to sleep in a nest of bedbugs." She threw her bedroll to the floor.
Chan shrugged and dropped his gear.

 
          
Quartz
flung her pack into the corner. "I'll have something to say to Satan when
we find him," she said angrily.
"Stupid fool, to
let himself be captured by these creatures."

 
          
Aerie
stood shivering in her cloak. "This is a wretched place," she said.
"You can flee, but he cannot."

 
          
"Aerie,
love, I know, I'm sorry." Quartz hugged her, stroking her hair. "I
didn't mean it, about Satan. I was angry."

 
          
Aerie
nodded.

 
          
Wess
rubbed Aerie's shoulders, unfastened the clasp of her long hooded cloak, and
drew it from Aerie's body. Candlelight rippled across the black fur that covered
her, as sleek and glossy as sealskin. She wore nothing but a short thin blue
silk tunic and her walking boots. She kicked off the boots, dug her clawed toes
into the splintery floor, and stretched.

 
          
Her
outer fingers lay close against the backs of her arms. She opened them, and her
wings unfolded.

 
          
Only
half-spread, her wings spanned the room. She let them droop, and pulled aside
the leather curtain over the window. The next building was very close.

 
          
"I'm
going out, I need to fly."

 
          
"Aerie,
we've come so far today
—
"

 
          
"Wess,
I
am
tired. I won't go far. But I can't fly in the daytime, not here,
and the moon is waxing. If I don't go now, I may not be able to fly for
days."

 
          
"It's
true," Wess said. "Be careful.”

 
          
"I
won't be gone long." She climbed out the window and up the rough side of
the building. Her claws scraped into the adobe. Three soft footsteps overhead,
the shushh of her wings: she was gone.

 
          
The
others pushed the beds against the wall and spread their blankets, overlapping,
on the floor. Quartz secured the leather flap to the windowframe and put the
candle on the sill.

 
          
Chan
hugged Wess. "I never saw anyone move as fast as Lythande. Wess, love, I
feared he'd killed you before I even noticed him."

 
          
"It
was stupid, to speak so familiarly to a stranger."

 
          
"But
he offered us the nearest thing to news of Satan we've heard in weeks."

 
          
"True.
Maybe the fright was worth it." Wess looked out the window, but saw
nothing of Aerie.

 
          
"What
made you think Lythande was a woman?"

 
          
Wess
glanced at Chan sharply. He gazed back at her, mildly curious.

 
          
He
doesn't know, Wess thought, astonished. He didn't realize
—

 
          
"I
... I don't know," she said.
"A silly mistake.
I made a lot of them today."

 
          
It
was the first time in her life she had deliberately lied to a friend. She felt
slightly ill, and when she heard the scrape of claws on the roof above, she was
glad for more reasons than simply that Aerie had returned. Just then the
tavern-keeper banged on their door announcing their bath. In the confusion of
getting Aerie inside and hidden under her cloak before they could open the
door, Chan forgot the subject of Lythande's gender.

 
          
Beneath
them, the noise of revelry in the Unicorn gradually faded to silence. Wess
forced herself to lie still. She was so tired that she felt as if she were
trapped in a river, with the current swirling her around and around so she
could never get her bearings. Yet she could not sleep. Even the bath, the first
warm bath any of them had had since leaving Kaimas, had not relaxed her. Quartz
lay solid and warm beside her, and Aerie lay between Quartz and Chan. Wess did
not begrudge Aerie or Quartz their places, but she did like to sleep in the middle.
She wished one of her friends were awake, to make love with, but she could tell
from their breathing that they were all deeply asleep. She cuddled up against
Quartz, who reached out, in a dream, and embraced her.