Braxi-Azea - In Conquest Born Part 33

Would he really do that?

Sechaveh? Of course he would. If not for my benefit, then for his own amus.e.m.e.nt.

There's no question in my mind; I must deal with this matter without giving in to him. I didn't come to Braxi to be controlled by another man. I came here for freedom . . . and I will have it.

There must be a way, somehow, to solve this problem without pleasing him.

BAND SIX.

I believe I have an answer.

I talked it over with Lina, and she agreed that it might work. She also added one thing: could it be that Supal's distaste for Braxana wine was indicative of an aversion to the drugs normally present in it? She postulated that these Friends of Azea (as she called them) might not only venerate the heights of ecstacy which that people supposedly achieved, but their legendary self-control as well.

Priceless woman! If she's correct, then there may indeed be a way out of this. And I think I have found it.

BAND SEVEN.

I invited Supal over today.

He came promptly. His demeanor clearly indicated that he thought my invitation signaled a change of heart. And indeed-as far as he was to know-it did.

I welcomed him warmly.

He entered the room like a wary animal, made uncertain by my sudden amiability. Lying to a Braxana' is a serious offense; just how sure of himself was he? "You wanted to see me?"

I sat down opposite him in one of the comfortable chairs of my inner study. I had brought him this far into the House to indicate the sincerity of my good will, which obviously rea.s.sured him. I offered him wine, but he wouldn't drink. He wasn't that sure of me yet.

"I must say you're persistent." I modeled myself after Zatar, who plays the lordly game better than anyone else I know. "You know, of course, that what you're seeking is no small thing."

It hit him then: YES HE IS GOING TO TELL ME! was written in large letters across his face. I tried very hard not to smile. "I'm aware of that," he said, with an attempt at humility. Since he didn't feel it, it didn't come off too well. But I looked moved.

"The point of fact is, Supal, that there have been an lot of your people around lately-"

"I'll send them away. I'll get rid of them. Don't worry, Lord Feran, a tenth after I leave here they'll all be gone forever!"

Good, I thought.

"Do you . . . do you want some kind of a.s.surance of secrecy?"

I laughed, striving for that knife-edged disdain that Zatar does so well. "Do not insult me, Braxin! What good are your vows, or anyone's, in such a matter as this? No, do what you will with them, but I will deal with you alone. Do you understand? Let me be more emphatic. If they ever bother me again, I will have you killed. Clear?"

His eyes wide with awe/antic.i.p.ation/fear, he nodded.

"Good. Then we can begin immediately. I a.s.sume you have no objections?"

No, no, he shook his head adamantly, not at all.

"Excellent." I picked up a calendar which I had prepared for this meeting, an ornate thing embellished with Ikna astrological motifs and various arcane runes that I half-remembered and half-didn't. Meaningless though they were, they looked impressive.

I indicated that day with one finger. "We are here. The next appropriate day for a Great Union is . . . here." I indicated a date some zhents hence. I looked at him dubiously. "Do you really think you're up to this?" I asked, implying by my tone that I didn't.

He nodded.

"Fiveday, twelvezhent. Can you remember?"

"Certainly, Lord." Then he looked confused. "What am I remembering?"

"Why, to be celibate, of course. Surely you don't think you can manage an Azean-style Union after a steady diet of women?"

His eyes said clearly that he had, but manfully he swallowed his fears and agreed to that condition.

"Entirely celibate," I added. "Women, men, small boys, you name it."

"And, ah. . . ."

I guessed his concern and waved it into the realm of inconsequential trivia.

"Yourself? It doesn't matter in the same way. Of course, if you really mean to go about this right. . . ."

He nodded, eyes wide. "Nothing. I understand."

I'll give him this, he really meant to try. I threw in other lines of semi-mystical nonsense, but the crux of the matter had already been presented. For good s.e.x, no s.e.x. And we'd see how long he lasted with that.

BAND EIGHT.

I had hoped he would never come back.

He did.

"The others have left you alone, Lord?"

I nodded. He looked lean and haggard, as if I had ordered him off food and water as well as women. "You have done well, Supal. Would you like something to eat?"

To my surprise he accepted, but when the food came he merely picked at it.

"Have you been obedient to the rules I set forth?" I was certain he had but decided to rub it in.

He nodded. He still had a zhent to go but had asked to see me, to work out some of the details of his upcoming Union. I must admit I thought the celibacy itself would be enough to drive him away. Given Braxin society, that's a pretty heavy burden. But no, here he was.

A shapely woman came in carrying a tray of sweets. When I say shapely, perhaps I understate her; certainly her effect upon Supal was like a ton of bricks falling on him. His mouth gaped wide, and it took her (scented) fingers to stuff a candied fruit into it.

Poor man! He was in pretty bad shape already. I would feel sorry for him when the aphrodisiacs in the food hit home.

"So how are you doing?" I asked.

He was forced to swallow the fruit in order to speak. "Not well," he admitted.

"The tension is just terrible . . . the frustration. . . ."

I guessed that he had been denying himself any satisfaction at all, even that which he could manage alone. The slave popped another bit of fruit in his mouth.

I was really enjoying myself.

"Do you think you can make it?" I asked gravely.

"Oh, yes, Lord!" His gaunt face animated with something akin to religious zeal.

"And you will . . . that is to say. . . ." He was too embarra.s.sed to finish.

"When the time comes," I soothed him, "I will direct things."

"With whom?" That was clearly his concern in coming. I smiled. I had foreseen that.

"My Mistress, of course." I paused for dramatic effect. "Who else do you think I would trust with this?"

His eyes wide, he nodded agreement. My slave popped another delicacy in his mouth, and lightly touched his neck as he ate it. I warned her off in a seeming fit of concern for my apprentice's welfare and she rose, pouting prettily, and stalked sinuously out.

Poor Supal. I looked in his eyes as they followed her exit and saw his hunger clearly revealed. And if not there, certainly elsewhere. It was a good try. But I doubted he'd make it through the night.

And if he did, I was ready.

BAND NINE.

Sixday, Twelvezhent.

Last night he came.

He was a mere shadow of his former self, a lean and desperate man who sought to master his all-consuming eagerness as he bowed to me and we exchanged the ritual greetings of Braxana life.

"We're all ready," I told him. "Come this way."

Lina had helped me prepare the ritual room. Indeed, it had almost been worth this whole affair just to do the decorating. Picture: A moon entangled in the rays of the Braxin sun splayed in mosaic across the ceiling. Arrases worked in impressively meaningless arcane symbols covering all the walls save where the one door was located. Dualistic symbolism painted in vivid lower-cla.s.s colors on the polished black floor. A table, with swept-crystal candleware and a matching goblet, and a smaller goblet with a sweetly smelling dark-red substance that looked suspiciously like blood. (It was actually semi-evaporated palla juice-not because it couldn't have been blood, but I felt that once we had begun to plan such a deception we might as well go all the way.) All in all, dark, impressive, dramatic. Supal sighed. Was it what he had expected? More, his face said. Not for nothing had I spent the last zhent reading all those ridiculous books!

Lina was waiting for us and she gave Supal the smaller goblet to drink from.

Shivering, he looked to me for support; I nodded gravely. He drank the sweet stuff slowly (it's hard to get down in that concentration). Lina had mixed in an anaph-rodisiac just in case our little game failed, so that he would have only himself to blame. I hoped it was a strong one.

Then, solemnly, she undressed and I bade him do the same. He was trembling now, and it obviously took great self-control for him to lie down on the floor beside her, some distance away as the arcane symbols indicated.

He waited, eyes shut in antic.i.p.ation, on the cold black floor (I had refrigerated it) and I began the Ritual of Preparation.

"Know you who come here this day that there are two things which raise man above the level of animals, and they are these: his pleasure, and his discipline.

For although animals mate they do not know a pleasure equal to man's, and they do not have the will or the strength to deny themselves consummation for the sheer pleasure of discipline. So, today, are these two Principles combined, when by an act of pleasure discipline is yielded up to consummation and the ecstacy of man will be complete."

Lina helped me write that. I thought it was a bit overdone, but no more than similar ceremonies in those ludicrous books. Supal seemed to take it all in all right. Anything, I suppose, to justify all that celibacy.

I brought over the largest goblet of wine and gave some to Lina, my body between hers and Supal's so that he couldn't see she wasn't really drinking. Then I had him finish off the rest.

"What was it?" he asked a moment later, as its effects began to be evident.

"Drugs. Shh. They are necessary."

He looked more nervous now, and rightly so. It was a mild hallucinogen, little stronger than that present in so many Braxana wines. But Supal didn't drink such wine. And he didn't expose himself to hallucinogens. And he wasn't going to like it.

By now the suggestibility imposed by the drugs in the first goblet would have taken hold. I crouched by his side, a specter in gray and black, and tried to prepare him.

"You will feel as if you're floating for a while, and that's fine. Don't worry about your body. It won't hurt itself, whatever it does." His eyes opened wide at that one. Yes, Lina had guessed right; this was a man who would willingly taste any experience except lack of control.

If that was so, we had him.

I went on to describe the contortions that might overtake him, and how he would watch his body go through them as if from a distance, floating in the s.e.xual aether and experiencing growing excitement. He was more and more nervous, a condition magnified by his altered blood chemistry. Nervous side glances told me that he was beginning to see things. Now is the time, I thought.

"Then," I told him, my voice quiet, low-pitched in the mystical room, "when the two of you have pa.s.sed each other in the aether and have each taken on the other's form-"

"What!?"

He sat upright suddenly and grabbed me by the tunic front. "What do you mean?"

I feigned surprise. "I thought you knew. You said you knew."

"Knew what? Tell me, bless you!"

I knew then that the drugs had hold of him, for he would never have spoken that way to me otherwise.

"Why, that you will experience this Union as a woman." Before he could respond to that outrageous concept, I added another. "There shouldn't be too many physical ramifications in your case, so I wouldn't worry about that. . . ."

"What? What ramifications? Worry about what?"

"Well," I said with seeming reluctance, "It is true that among the Azeans the s.e.xes gradually come to resemble each other. But that's after many years of practicing the ritual," I added hurriedly, "and it rarely affects the primary s.e.xual-"

He had heard enough. He was trying to stand.

"-characteristics." I acted concerned. "This isn't proper behavior."

"A G.o.d to your 'proper behavior'!" The drugs we had fed him were adding image to my words, making him feel as if the change were actually taking place, as if he were exchanging height, organ, shape, and all details of s.e.x with my Mistress.

"But to experience a woman's pleasure!" I cried, seemingly dumbfounded. "Isn't that what you want? I thought you understood!"

With an effort of will he reintegrated himself; that is to say, he ceased to have the illusion that he was "blending" into my Mistress. "I thought I did, too, Lord Feran . . . I. . . ."

He shook his head and stumbled out of the room, grabbing his clothes as an afterthought, desperate to get away from my House before he was impressed with the persona of a woman. I could imagine the nightmarish images his drugged mind was supplying as he found his way to the door and out, naked, into the street.

I waited for the computer to acknowledge his exit before I collapsed, laughing, on the floor. Lina joined me there, and we vented our energy in a fine display of Braxin s.e.xuality. Not that experiencing pleasure from a woman's point of view is such a terrible thing; in my telepathic days, I did it often. But Braxins will be Braxins, I suppose. I doubt he'll be back.

Only one thing bothers me. I go over these recordings, and everything makes sense-all except one detail. How did Supal get that mindgem in the first place?

The Braxana Black Market is the only source for such a thing, and those people would never risk their lives for a lower-cla.s.s patron.