Part 40 (2/2)
What distraction was this? Had not the Red Lady gone in search of s.h.i.+nn? He looked up into her red eyes.
”My new pet,” his mistress announced with a flirting air.
The satisfied curl on her lips dug into the thrill Avenall had felt at gaining his name, mayhap even more- New pet?
”No. My lovely pretty. I-I am your puppy.”
Striding past him, her plush skirts sweeping his face in a brus.h.i.+ng slap, she paced before the wall of essences. ”Worry not. You will always be my puppy. I will make this new one my...kitten.”
”No!”
She waved a naughty finger at him. ”Ah, ah, ah. Mustn't be jealous.”
”Do you not know who he is? He be that woman's man!” Yes, Gossamyr!
No. Avenall coiled into himself. Only for Puppy's ears. He would not give her a name. She did not deserve it now. Oh, cruel mistress!
”Yes.” Pausing, she considered with a sad moue. ”Her man... So little you know, Puppy.”
”I know you were led from your goal by this insignificant mortal!”
”I had thought to draw s.h.i.+nn into my arms, but instead this bit of skin and bone wandered up. Useless, I had initially thought, until-” Avenall's mistress drew an object out from her sleeve; a bit of black cloth wrapped about something narrow and long. She tapped it against her chin. Menace glittered in her eyes. ”I must keep him alive for the moment, for that will bring her to me. Or, if Fortune answers my beckon, it will bring s.h.i.+nn to me.”
He shrugged. There was that.
He'd be d.a.m.ned if he'd tell her the wench had been here not an hour earlier. Nor would he mention her strange tale of them having been lovers. If they had been lovers- I think we were. I don't know...
Kitten? ”You-you have kissed him?”
”Not... completely.”
She teased the tip of the wrapped thing near one of the undulating essences. The viscous blue essence actually cringed, then it brightened to a marvelous indigo, expanded, and suddenly, it burst, showering the Red Lady's face and shoulders with a mist of glimmer. The essence pure. She licked at the splatter, sighing and giggling at the wonder.
Stretching the cloth-wrapped item high in triumph, she announced, ”Lovely thing, this!”
”But.” Avenall sank to the bottom step and tucked his arms about his bent knees. A forceful breath blew a hideous strand of red hair from his face. He glanced to the sprawled mortal. ”You...plan to kiss him?”
”Did you not listen, pin man?”
He cringed deeper into this new misery.
”I must keep him alive until we've lured the female here. I know not what her intentions, but I suspect it has something to do with this.”
”She-” Avenall bit his tongue. No. His mistress was undeserving of his confidence. So much she knew about s.h.i.+nn. Could she confirm his connection to the warrior b.i.t.c.h?
Now she beckoned him closer with a crook of her finger. Balking-she had brought a new pet into her lair!-Avenall finally scrambled up and knelt before her, the wall of essences but a reach to his side. Sniffing, he detected no discernible odor from the cloth bound about her new toy, save the remnant of mortal aroma. The man's scent.
Avenall sneered and crossed his arms over his chest. ”What is it?”
”You must guess.”
”I don't want to. It reeks of that man. You are most cruel to your puppy.”
”You wear jealousy like a silken robe, sweet one. I want to devour the fire I see in your eyes.”
She bent to tap his forehead then teased her fingernail down the center of his nose. A lunge and she lapped up the slide of his nose with her pink tongue. He snuggled his face into her palm, seeking a.s.surance of her love.
The inadvertent touch of the wrapped thing to his chest ignited a violent spark. Avenall was flung backward, landing against the wall, the cold caress of a violet essence hugging his cheek. Scrambling away from the slimy coldness, he pointed to what his mistress held. ”It is powerful!”
”Very much so.” She teased it beneath the tumescent curve of a pink essence until it looked ready to burst, then withdrew. ”With this, I can draw all the Disenchanted I need to my lair. And I won't have to leave my bed. They will line up at my door. You, my puppy, have but to sit by and watch them wither at your feet. They will journey from far lands to taste my kiss.”
Avenall whirled to face away from his mistress. A s.h.i.+ver of blue ice traced his scalp. He shook his head. Flash of an embrace- -my father is away, he will not discover us.
-I love you, Gossamyr.
What is this? Avenall clawed at the wall. Struggling to grasp hold of the flickers of what could only be memory, they danced just beyond his reach. And then a face appeared in his mind's eye. The warrior b.i.t.c.h. Smiling at him.
Loving him?
How to take in this information? Had the touch of that strange object released a picture of his past? Or had he merely been tainted by the warrior's suggestion?
The man on the floor moaned and shrugged a hand over his face.
”This,” the Red Lady declared, the horn held high and her strides moving her before the wall of essences, ”is my triumph over Turiau de Winters.h.i.+nn of Glamoursiege.”
Glamoursiege? Another strange but compelling word.
Beside his face, Avenall felt the hissing burn of the object. The thing was unwrapped, but held by the cloth to protect his mistress's hand. It hummed. Its voice filled the room, overwhelming the death sobs of the essences. More seductive even than his mistress's call. He jerked his head to the right.
”No!” cried the man from the floor.
”Oh, yes,” whispered the Red Lady into Avenall's ear. ”Time to play.”
The welcome s.h.i.+mmer of Faery caressed him from head to toe, moving across his face and around his shoulders-then the reemergence stopped.
s.h.i.+nn, restrained between Faery and the Otherside, comprehended the inexplicable barrier that would not allow him to complete his twinclian to Glamoursiege.
Something had named him. A most powerful force.
TWENTY-SIX.
Tor led the way to Armand LaLoux's home. Gossamyr had once seen a unicorn-she must have yet been a youngling to tether. Her father had spoken in a silent conversation with it while Mince had held her back from a gurgling toddle to embrace the beast.
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