“I do agree with the Singleborn.” His mouth was practically watering at my inference. “I believe that I can select one of the tamer squads for our trip. We won’t need any guards then.”
“Sounds wonderful. Perhaps you can give me a tour this afternoon. I don’t wish to be close to the animals, but I can look upon them from afar. If I like the performance of one of these squads, perhaps just you and I can take them out for a week.” I caught a slight scent of sour anxiousness beside me and I ventured a glance at Relyara, who scowled at me in obvious disapproval.
“Excellent idea, Iolarathe. I would enjoy that immensely.” His musky scent of arousal had filled the room and his eyes were slightly glazed. His little brain was already imagining fucking me every night during this excursion. The fragrance was so potent that I realized that the suitors arriving in the next few minutes would probably smell it.
“We cannot tell the others about this. We must continue to keep your project a secret from the other tribes; I wouldn’t want them to become jealous.” Vertarus nodded and licked his lips.
“I seem to have expressed my desires a little too plainly. I apologize for my scent.” He frowned and took another drink of the cherry juice.
“No apology is necessary. If I didn’t enjoy your scent, you would not have continued to be my suitor.” I motioned to Relyara and she moved behind me and opened the windows of the dining room. The balcony doors in my bedroom were also open and the draft blew through my suite. The scent began to dissipate.
“Thank you for understanding. It is difficult for your suitors to be in your presence for extended periods of time.” He smiled and his scent shifted to a taste of broccoli.
A knock sounded at my door and Relyara moved to answer it. I heard the voices out in the hallway and wasn’t surprised when the entirety of my entourage entered with a flutter of laughter and mixed scents.
Vertarus and I rose from our seats to greet my guests. We each exchanged words and brief contact with our fingers before Relyara instructed them to sit down at my dining table. My other servants flitted around the seats and within moments each guest was nibbling on various fruits and cheeses, and drinking wine.
“Thank you for inviting us to lunch with you, dear sister.” Grednil raised his wine glass and the other men and women toasted with a voice of agreement.
“Thank you, Grednil, and thank you all for coming to lunch with me. I’ve been absent from most of our activities for the last few months, so please think of this as my attempt at an apology.” I forced a smile to my lips as I met each of their eyes. Fortunately, they nodded at my insincere words and smiled back.
“You must have been quite bored without our company. What have you been working on?” Daranyet raised a green eyebrow over a sapphire eye. Her stomach was swollen with Grednil’s offspring. The woman was clever and I had done my best to keep my distance since Grednil had mated with her. Her question revealed what Relyara had told me: she believed her pregnancy entitled her to an elevated status in my father’s house. She was mistaken.
“Nothing useful, I am afraid.”
“Oh I doubt it. Surely the Singleborn is always occupied by something fascinating and important. Of course, if you don’t wish to tell us, I understand.” She leaned forward a little and tilted her head with a wide smile. I caught a few scents of bitter citrus fear mix with the taste of their bathed bodies. Vertarus must have feared she was aware of the human army, but Grednil knew nothing of the experiment with the humans. My half-brother was probably worried that I would gut his mate for pushing a topic he knew I did not wish to speak of. I picked up my glass of bubbling wine and made eye contact with the pregnant woman while I drank from the glass. An awkward silence descended on the party and Daranyet looked down at her stomach.
“I’ve been painting,” I said simply. They gasped and opened their mouths to ask me a flutter of idiotic questions about my hobby. Finally, Contania’s voice pushed through the rabble.
“Do you have any pieces you could show us?” The woman’s yellow-gold hair swirled around her shoulders like the branches of a willow tree. During the last few months, Elder Oimon’s daughter and Ilttaia of Proticule had sent me many requests to spend time with them. While I did enjoy the presence of the two women the most out of my four maidens, I had refused their invitations.
“No. I am not happy with any of them yet.” I set down my glass of wine and tried not to glide my fingers across the smooth surface of the table. My entourage had little else to do at our estate but train, relax, and gossip. I should have known this topic would come into our conversation.
“My Mistress just finished a piece out on the veranda, if you all would care to see it,” Relyara said from behind me and I whirled around to glare at the beautiful woman. She caught my eyes and smiled mischievously. “She was contemplating destroying it, but I believe it should be presented as a gift to one of her loyal companions,” the blue-eyed woman finished with a small bow and a gesture to the opened balcony doors.
Vertarus, Fusik, Alwor, Bur’tilon, Alatald, and Ripthe shot to their feet and made their way eagerly to the veranda door. Ilttaia, Contania, and Yerryne followed the males. Grednil and Daranyet left the table for the veranda at the end of the group. The green-haired woman was having a bit of difficulty walking with her usual grace and I realized that her pregnancy might be ending sooner than I expected. Normal gestation was twenty months, and I only found out about my half-brother and Daranyet the night before I sent Kaiyer to the training fields. The math didn’t add up correctly, unless she was still eight months off from the birth. They must have been fucking long before I knew. It angered and disappointed me that both Relyara and I had missed this.
“This painting is wonderful, Iolarathe!” Alatald’s voice carried back into my room from the veranda. I sighed and rose from my chair. Relyara smiled at me pleasantly and she only nodded when I returned a glare. I absolutely loathed showing my work before it was completed, even then I was not often satisfied enough to display my works. Relyara knew this, and though she found all I produced to be of the highest caliber, I saw flaws in every painting that embarrassed me. She thought my entourage’s compliments would assure me of my painting’s quality, but instead they enraged me. Their opinions mattered little to me, and were not as important as my own, even if I could trust any of the simpering sycophants to give me a fair and honest critique.
“Where did you see a scene like this?” Fusik asked. The men gathered in a half-circle ten paces away from the easel.
I looked at the painting and stifled a gasp. I suddenly understood what the piece was missing.
“Are these landscapes common in the Eastern Deserts?” Vertarus’s voice was filled with awe.
“No, my friend.” Grednil laughed from his belly and then shook his head. “There are no floating islands in our homeland.”
“It is a wondrous image. Notice the waterfalls that come from the islands. There is such detail in the water. It practically looks like it is moving.” Ilttaia was shy and almost never spoke in front of the group, but the others nodded and voiced their agreement.
“Why would you wish to destroy such a fine work of art?” Daranyet challenged me again with a question.
“It is not perfect,” I answered her quickly and focused my attention on the painting. I only needed a few more minutes alone with my oils and it would be perfect. My heart suddenly ached and my head started to spin as if I had forgotten to breathe for the last few minutes.
I would paint Kaiyer in it, standing on top one of the islands and staring off into the endless sky. He would be small and hard to recognize, but I would know it was him. He would complete the beautiful world.
“I will gladly take this imperfect masterpiece from you, Singleborn.” Ripthe laughed and made a playful motion to snatch the canvas. The others mirrored his laugh but then seemed to notice that I didn’t find any humor in his gesture and my suitors suddenly became quiet.
“I have not decided to give it to anyone. I was considering sending it to my half-sister, but perhaps I could reward one of you with it.” My lips curled into a forced smile. It wouldn’t matter much who had the painting. In a few short weeks I would leave and never return.
“Perhaps a game?” Yerryne asked. I smiled back at the beautiful gray-haired woman and stared into her onyx eyes. Like Ilttaia, the daughter of Elder Gnella rarely spoke. But while Ilttaia seemed harmless and often tried to establish a relationship with me, Yerryne never did more than study me with her cold, calculating eyes. Daranyet made small moves to attempt to challenge me often, but Yerryne was like the stalking panther. I knew I would one day feel her teeth.
“Perhaps you have a recommendation?” I asked the woman. Every part of her body was perfectly crafted, even her musky scent was delicious to inhale. I had hoped that my question would have caught her unprepared, but she confirmed my belief that she had awaited an opportunity like this and had a plan in mind.
“Carrion beast hunting. At night, of course. Whoever brings back the corpse of a beast first gets the painting.” Her lips spread slightly into a smile.
The gathered men and women stared at Yerryne with obvious shock while the bitter stench of fear filled the room.
Carrion beasts were deadly creatures. They stood half as high as a horse, had razor-sharp claws on each of their four powerful legs, and had a nest of poison-tipped quills at the end of their tails that the creatures could launch with targeted precision at prey up to eighty feet away. The real danger was their intelligence.
Fortunately, the animals seemed to hate each other, and never hunted in packs. They were also extremely lazy and preferred to steal the dead prey of other animals rather than hunting for live food. They were shy and would often scream at large animals that entered their territory, but almost never make any attack. When threatened, however, they were deadly. Their velvety camouflaged fur, teeth, and claws were highly prized amongst the tribes. Hunting groups of half a dozen Elvens would often pursue the creatures to gain fame and favor. Most of the larger parties would return successful, some came back with a few members missing by the beast’s teeth, but occasionally, an entire group of hunters would disappear.
“That sounds,” Ripthe glanced around the veranda and licked his lips to tell if anyone else mirrored his fear, “dangerous.”
“Nonsense. Rumor is that the Singleborn hunted the creatures alone quite often in her native lands. Is that correct?” Yerryne raised a gray eyebrow and her black eyes cast a red reflection back at me.
“I have hunted a few.” I gritted my teeth. At one time, the thought of my suitors being torn to bits by a carrion beast would have been intriguing. Now I had too much at stake to risk the displeasure of my father or the other tribes.
“Grednil has told me of your exploits. He said you hunted dozens of the creatures. Unless those stories are exaggerated?” She smiled beautifully and I thought about kicking her in her pretty throat. The woman was of this tribe. What could she gain by having my suitors kill themselves tonight?
“My sister has killed many of the beasts while hunting solo,” Grednil said quickly, his scent burned a rotting spinach stench. “But she is the Singleborn and suited to such things.”
“Are her suitors not of an equal caliber? She has turned away so many in an effort to find the best males. Surely any one of you could easily handle a carrion beast. I am not nearly as skilled as most of you, but the challenge excites me. I already have a hunting ground in mind.”
“Perhaps it would be better to go in teams of two or three and then use another challenge between the victors to find the final winner?” Fusik turned to me and I could see the other men and women nod gratefully at his suggestion.
“Perhaps something additional should be added to the prize? It seems that some might need extra incentive.” Yerryne’s smile grew and she twisted a finger around a long lock of hair while she licked her lips to taste the atmosphere of the room. It tasted of fear.
“What did you have in mind?” Daranyet asked, and I wondered if the two women had planned this exchange.
“We can all agree that the Singleborn is beautiful, appealing to both of our sexes, yet she has refused to take a lover. She should indulge the winner of this contest with the painting and a night with her.”
“Absolutely not!” I spat out before I had a chance to think.
“Why not? Are you ovulating now?” she inquired bluntly.
I thought about lying but her scent and steadfast gaze led me to believe that she must have known the answer before she asked it. Relyara moved to my side and I guessed that my servant believed that there was a spy in my staff.
“No I am not. I begin in two months.”
“Then there is no risk of pregnancy, in case a male wins this contest. It is doubtful though. I love the painting and have desired you for some time now. I have already picked a hunting spot and I know I will win.” Her words were hungry and the scent of peach arousal emanated from the bodies of the gathered males and females.
“That is an ample enough reward for me. Let us begin tonight.” Bur’tilon was standing next to me and the big man’s scent almost overpowered me.
“I have no fear of the creatures. Tonight I will slay one for the Singleborn.” Vertarus laughed easily and the other members of my entourage agreed. Except for my half-brother, he stepped into the middle of the semi-circle around my painting and held up his arms to stop the excited conversation.