Longing's Levant (10 page)

Kaibyn narrowed his eyes. “Aye, now that I will gladly make my un-life’s work!”

“I believe you have no worry about enticing women, milord,” Tamara said. “I find you most alluring, if a bit unripe.” She put a hand to her nose but her eyes were twinkling.

A pained look spread over Kaibyn’s face. “But what can I do about that, wench?” he asked, trying once more to sniff at any offending odor under his armpits. He could detect no difference.

Evann-Sin put his arm around his woman. “You find him handsome, Tamara,” he stated. “Not alluring.”

Tamara rested her head on her lover’s shoulder. “That was what I meant,” she mumbled.

Still annoyed that he possessed a smell a beautiful woman found offensive, Kaibyn shook his head. “What can I do?” he repeated.

“Myrrh?” Rabin suggested.

“Cinnamon,” Tamara said with a knowing look. “Cinnamon will cover the muskiness.”

The demon winced at her description of his smell. “Have you this spice?” he asked.

“Nay, but it is easily procured,” she replied.

“I hope it works better for him than it ever did for Rabin,” Evann-Sin muttered.

Tamara shushed her lover for she feared another confrontation between the two warriors. She took a seat at the fire and held her hands to the heat. She smiled as Rabin came to sit down beside her.

“Were they Hell Hags who murdered you?” Evann-Sin asked, as he seated himself on the other side of Tamara.

“Nay,” Kaibyn replied. “They were Kebullian, but I have heard of such bitches.”

Lifting her chin, Tamara speared him with a haughty look. “Not all the Daughters of the Night are bitches, milord.”

“True,” Evann-Sin agreed. “One is a veritable goddess.” He took his lady’s hand and kissed it.

“That she is,” Kaibyn said seductively, pretending not to see Evann-Sin’s glower.

“The ones who killed you were not part of the alliance, then?” Rabin asked quickly.

“The King of Nebul ordered my execution but it was Dakhla who tried to deny me my return to the world of the living. I do not believe the other women knew what she had planned for me,” Kaibyn said through clenched teeth. “Jealous bitch that she is, I can see now my taking pity on her friends made her wish revenge.”

“By taking pity, I presume you mean seducing them,” Evann-Sin scoffed.

Kaibyn nodded slowly. “Aye and I have no quarrel with them. My Lady Auklet took the High Priest’s life, and for that I will reward her. It is Dakhla, King Oded and Meketre, the Captain of the Guard, who will soon know my vengeance. As for why she betrayed me? Dakhla has dreams of being Queen of Kebul. It was she who informed the king, not the Queen Lilabet. That one would never have betrayed me.”

“Did the Magi tell you why this alliance was formed?” Evann-Sin asked.

“All I was told was that the alliance could destroy the world as we know it,” Kaibyn answered.

“King Oded wants to live forever,” Rabin pronounced, and the others turned to him.

“Oded is as crazy as a loon!” Kaibyn snorted.

“Aye, but our queen could make him One with the Blood,” Tamara reminded them softly.

“What exactly does that mean?” Evann-Sin asked her.

“A vampire,” Kaibyn replied. “Aren’t all Hell Hags?”

Tamara wrapped her arms around and leaned closer to the warmth of the fire. “I am only partly of the Blood, for I chose not to become an eleventh degree adept.”

“That bitch, Sylviana, said she was ninth degree. What are you?” Evann-Sin asked.

“Tenth now that I have taken Sylviana’s evil life for what she did to you,” Tamara told her lover. “I can go no higher unless I agree to become One with the Blood.”

“A drinker of blood,” Kaibyn put in.

Tamara agreed. “Such was not my desire. I have had my blood taken by our queen—as we all must—but I have never drank of hers.” She shuddered. “The thought of living forever never appealed to me.”

Evann-Sin put his arms around her and pulled her close to him. “The thought of that wicked thing sticking her fangs into you makes me ill.”

“So Oded wants to live forever,” Kaibyn stated, annoyed with the sight of the lovely Tamara in the warrior’s embrace. “What is it Lilit wants?”

“His protection?” Rabin questioned.

“She doesn’t need it,” Tamara said. “She is more powerful than any human king will ever be or hope to be as One with the Blood, for she was supernaturally born.”

“There has to be a reason she is willing to share her authority with a retarded prick like Oded,” Kaibyn spat.

“But will she be sharing her authority?” Evann-Sin asked.

“What do you mean, Riel?” Rabin asked.

“Who will be Oded’s queen?” Evann-Sin countered.

“That bitch Dahkla if she has her way, but you can take her out of the equation,” Kaibyn sneered. “That I will never allow! And I will protect my Lilabet. Oded will not put her aside to wed Lilabet’s daughter Meritaten either, though he’s been conniving toward that end!”

“My king will need to know this is in the making,” Evann-Sin said. “Our Tribunal believes Oded has too much power as it is.”

Kaibyn lifted his head. “You and the darkling have been watching him, eh?”

“The darkling has,” Rabin snapped. He threw the demon an angry look. “Riel is the warrior to whom I report what I find.”

“What is a Rysalian doing as Lord High Commander of the Akkadian Forces anyway?” Kaibyn asked. “Don’t Akkadians hate Rysalians even worse than they hate Kebullians?”

Evann-Sin’s arms tensed around Tamara. “I am half-Rysalian and half-Akkadian. My mother is from Nonika and that is my home.”

Kaibyn blinked. “Your father is Akkadian?” When Evann-Sin did not answer, the demon slowly smiled. “The King of Akkadia is your sire?”

Feeling her lover’s body go rigid, Tamara turned so she could look into his face. “You are a prince?” she whispered. He looked down at her but remained silent.

“King Numair, the Panther, is your sire!” Kaibyn exclaimed, and slapped his knee with the flat of his hand. “Aye, but that is rich!”

“Is it true?” Tamara asked but still her lover did not speak.

“His parentage is not something he likes to talk about,” Rabin injected. “Leave him be, lady.”

“Aye, but
why
doesn’t he want to talk about it?” Kaibyn chuckled.

Evann-Sin let go of Tamara and bounded to his feet. He cast the demon a warning look then stalked out of the tent. Tamara would have followed him, but Rabin pleaded with her not to do so.

“He’s a powerful man,” Tamara said, looking from Rabin to the demon. “He is a man much respected in all lands. Why would Riel not be proud of his sire?”

Kaibyn settled back on the cot and folded his arms. “Aye, darkling. Why would he not be proud to admit he is the son of the almighty Numair?”

A muscle ground in Rabin’s dark cheek. “Riel Evann-Sin is as mighty a warrior as King Numair is a powerful man. He has no reason to ride the coattails of the Panther.”

“That may be true, but something tells me the son denies the father,” Kaibyn cooed.

“That isn’t it!” Rabin snapped. “It is the father who denies the son!” Realizing he had been tricked into making that statement, the Dabiyan warrior doubled his fists and would have flung himself upon the demon if Kaibyn had not fled the tent in a rush of cold wind.

“Coward!” Rabin yelled.

Evann-Sin turned at the angry shout. He found himself almost toe to toe with Kaibyn Zafeyr.

“It is as I thought,” the demon said. “Your father does not claim you.”

“Did you even have one or were you the drizzle off some hyena’s prick?” Evann-Sin challenged.

Instead of provoking Kaibyn Zafeyr, the question seemed to amuse him. “I might well have been for I never knew who my sire was.”

“What a shame,” Evann-Sin snorted, and pushed past the other man.

“The Magi want us to work together, to be a coalition against the alliance, but if you are going to be prickly over something as insignificant as whose cock made you, this isn’t going to work, boy,” Kaibyn told him.

Evann-Sin narrowed his eyes. “It is not an insignificant thing that the Panther sired me, but I have no desire to discuss it now or ever again. Is that understood?”

Kaibyn shrugged. “Whatever you say, warrior.”

“Nor do I wish to have it discussed outside my hearing. Do you understand that as well?”

“Aye,” the demon sighed. “You take the fun out of it, don’t you?”

“It isn’t a humorous matter!” Evann-Sin snapped.

“So,” Kaibyn said, turning away. He drew the word out in a long sigh. “What do we do first?” He looked back at the warrior. “After I punish Dakhla.”

“Can you lay that vengeance aside until we have done what we need to do?”

The demon thought about it for a moment, and then grinned nastily. “Aye, I suppose I can. Perhaps time will give me more vicious ideas with which to discipline that treacherous bitch.”

“I have a few disciplines I would like to set in motion, myself, so I will not try to discourage you from exercising yours, but I believe the greater good is more important than the revenge we seek against a few deserving women.”

Kaibyn grinned. “Say the word, and I will take delight in helping you teach your women a lesson they will never forget.”

“If they live that long,” Evann-Sin mumbled.

“You would slay them?”

“Nay, but my woman might.”

At the mention of Tamara, Kaibyn felt another pang of jealousy ripple through him but pushed it aside. Such emotions were new to him and he found he did not like being envious of any human male.

“So, Oded wants to live forever,” the demon stated. He hunkered down on the sand and used his finger to draw a haphazard design as he thought.

“And an alliance with Lilit will accomplish that, but what is it they plan?”

“According to the Magi whatever they are scheming will change the world as we know it.”

Evann-Sin folded his arms over his chest and stared out across the undulating sand. “How is it we know the world?” he asked.

“Depending on where we live and how, that is different for each of us,” Rabin said as he joined them.

“Perhaps it is not the world then, but the quality of life we should be considering,” Evann-Sin mused.

“Well, my life was spent seeing to the needs of lovely women,” Kaibyn replied. “My un-death will be spent much the same way, I’m thinking.”

“Our hearts beat, our blood flows, we breathe and eat and procreate,” Evann-Sin said.

“Well, we did,” Rabin corrected. “Now, I find I’m not hungry at all. How about you?”

Evann-Sin shook his head. “There are jobs for which certain people are suited. There are gifted ones and those with talents.”

Kaibyn lifted his head then slowly turned his eyes to Evann-Sin.

“What?” the warrior inquired, instinctively knowing the demon had hit upon the answer.

“Slave or freeman,” Kaibyn said quietly. “King or peasant, woman, man or child. They each have something in common.”

“That being?”

“They think,” Kaibyn stated, coming to his feet. He dusted his hands together. “Even a man in chains is free to have thoughts of one day being liberated. A freeman may envision one day owning more of his world and sets out to make that happen.”

“But if they have no thoughts, no dreams or opinions or feelings…” Rabin whispered.

“And instead have but one purpose in life, and that is to see to the needs of that bastard Oded and the Hell Hags?” Evann-Sin queried.

“No one with whom to wage war,” Kaibyn continued. “No voices of dissention or denial. Nothing but a world of mindless, soulless workers making Oded’s life a virtual paradise.”

“But how would they accomplish it?” Rabin asked.

“By setting the Daughters of the Night upon Oded’s warriors and turning those men into thralls,” Tamara said softly, and the men turned to her as she came toward them.

“Thralls who would in turn make other thralls until there are no free thoughts and no free men left,” Rabin said.

“And once that has happened, our queen will turn on her former ally and relieve him of his freedom, as well,” Tamara told them. “She will make him One with the Blood to serve her.”

“Or drain him dry as a husk and be done with it,” Kaibyn snorted.

“I can see that happening, too. She enjoys tormenting men more than being pleasured by them,” Tamara agreed.

Evann-Sin nodded. “So it is the Hell Hag and not the Kebullian madman who is behind this?”

“I believe so,” his lady replied. “For now, she needs Oded’s help in bringing the tribes of this world under her command. There are too many for the Daughters of the Night to take on. But once he has served his purpose, his usefulness at an end, she will discard him.”

“And the entire world will be nothing more than fodder for those Hell Hag leeches!” Rabin grumbled.

“How do you propose we stop this from happening, wench?” Evann-Sin inquired.