The Fly House (The UtopYA Collection) (8 page)

"Whoever is telling you that, let them know that it doesn't matter to me what Phuck is considering," Karma said.  "I am not considering him."

Diem caught Wind's arm.  "Where did you hear that?" 

"From Phuck." She smiled.  "He mentioned it."

"It's a lie!" Eon said.  Karma rose from her seat and went into the House without a word, except the slam of the door behind her.  Diem bristled, releasing Wind's arm.

"I'll be having a talk with the overseer to be sure he understands his boundaries."

Eon turned back to Wind.  "I'd be interested in knowing where you were when he happened to mention that to you."

"He had come to speak to my father at Breed House," she said, turning up a lip at him.  "What difference?"

"I didn't mean the geographical location.  I meant, were you above or below him during this confession?"

"How dare you!"  Then, in a quiet hiss, "He is Plutian!"

"No.  How dare you,"  Eon sneered.  "You need to stop farming drait, Wind.  No one likes the stink."

She threw back her shoulders.  "I am the daughter of a Rha.  Don't you curse at me or try to lessen my name, Eon."

His lip puffed with a smothered laugh.  "You curse all the time!  Besides, I couldn't make your name any less than you already have." He flicked his chin toward the door Karma had shut.  "But that girl is the sister of an honorable Rha, and a quality woman as well, so stop farming the drait on her name."

"Are you saying my father is not honorable?"

"Enough," Diem said.  "Both of you."

"Phuck should have her, you know," Wind shot back.  It was the absolute wrong thing to say, she should have noticed the way Diem's jaw hardened, the way he ground his teeth, but she only threw back her shoulders before continuing.  "Phuck has enough parts that work like a man.  His children would belong to Fly House.  I'm sure that would increase your portions. 
Ahhh..." Wind stopped, bringing up one finger to tap her bottom lip thoughtfully.  "That is how you are planning to gain the portions, isn't it?  Linking your sister to the overseer.  Clever!" 

A group of Fly House children tumbled from around the side of the House, coming toward them.  Diem gripped his hands in front of him.  He squeezed his fingers together so he wouldn't be tempted to grab Wind by the throat and launch her across the yard in front of the Smallers.  This woman had no sense at all, to be speaking to a man, let alone a Rha, in this way.  Even as Span's daughter, there was a line she should not cross and still expect to be exempt from his fury.  He would take whatever Span dished out if he had to, but he wouldn't have Wind speaking drait of his sister. 

The children, some very small and some nearing the age of mating, drifted onto the porch, crowded at Diem's legs, giggled and laughed and started games.  Some, however, listened as Wind carried on and Eon growled and stepped toward her.

"It'd be nice if I wasn't the only one in the Rha's family to bring generation to the Fly House."

Eon halted abruptly, his startled gaze switching to Diem.

"What is she talking about?"  Eon said. 

"Creating generation," Wind purred.  She moved toward Diem, but she was smart enough not to touch him.  "What do you think it means?  Diem is going to go and speak intentions with my father."

Diem spun on Wind.  To say these things aloud, to farm drait intentionally in front of the Smallers, was too much.  He couldn't fathom how this woman could even think that he would consider speaking intentions after everything that had happened that afternoon. 

For all of her chasing after him, for all her conniving plans, he realized he had tolerated too much from her and he was finished.  He clasped her jaw in his massive palm, gripping it tight so she couldn't say another thing.  He brought his face in close to hers, so she would hear the vicious growl beneath every word that he was about to say to her.

"I will never speak intentions for you, do you understand me?" His eyes burned into her, as though he'd tear out her throat if she looked away.  She planted her hands on his chest instead, a futile attempt to bar herself from the rage she'd brought on.  "You are a low woman and you've proven it here, on the ground of my House.  You've disrespected my sister and me.  I don't want you.  I will never want you.  You are not welcome here anymore, Wind.  Leave and don't come back."

He released her face and Wind pushed herself away from him, stumbling, as he stood rooted.  He saw the fear in her eyes and knew she'd seen the fury in his. 

"Rha Span will make you eat your insults to me," Wind spat at him, as if a threat would endear him or her father's horrible reputation could cow him.

"Tell him to come," Diem said.  He motioned to Eon and the man jumped to his side like a soldier.  "Would you remove her from our House?  I'd do it myself, but I'm sure I'd break something."

"Definitely," Eon said, and in one swift movement, he leapt forward, scooping Wind up and dumping her over his shoulder.  The Smallers cheered as if it were a game.

"Let me down!" Wind shrieked, raining useless blows on Eon's back and chest. 

"Not a chance."  With a goofy grin at the Smallers, he slapped her rear sharply.  They giggled and laughed at the spectacle.  Eon walked off with the woman over his shoulder, into the Spindling trees and the Smallers knew better than to step even one foot into the woods to follow.  The last thing any of them heard was Eon assuring Wind that if she continued to struggle, it wouldn't be his fault if he dropped her on her head. 

***

Diem returned to the training ground hours later, exhausted and foul tempered.  He not only had work to do, but at some moment, and most likely at the least opportune one, he expected Span to come calling to discuss whatever lies Wind had told him about that evening.  Diem exhaled a ragged breath. 

The door of the ground's cabin was bright.   The sight of it pulled a rough sigh from Diem's chest.  It could be Eon, returned from his errand.  It could be Span, but Diem doubted the other Rha would have gotten word this quickly and his dragon was nowhere in sight.  Or it could be the overseer, who Diem wanted to see least, following the conversation he'd just had concerning his sister.

"Blessings!" Phuck chirped as Diem stepped through the doorway.  While it appeared that the overseer was wearing a smile, it was hard to tell for sure, since the middle of his mouth was absorbed in the dark, central smudge of his face.  However, in this case, it didn't matter to Diem what the alien looked like.

"What do you want?" Diem asked.  Plutians didn't recognize sarcasm and, luckily, they weren't easily offended with blunt either.  Phuck's odd expression became odder as it dropped to a possible frown.  It was impossible to tell what the face was trying to do.  Diem just looked away.

"I came to speak business," Phuck said.

"Then speak it."

"I heard there was an unexpected catch of hens," Phuck said.  Someone at The Fly House must've seen the mess on his work clothes and mentioned it to Phuck.  Diem was sure it was the Smallers who the overseer used to glean the information and Diem couldn't fault them for being unaware of the hardships they created with their innocence.  He expected these leaks, so Diem only rolled his hand like a barrel in front of him, to move along the Plutian's conversation. 

"I expected you would report them to me," Phuck said, "instead of me having to find out about them on my own."

"I was a little busy." Diem leaned on the door frame, dwarfing the opening.  "Wind came here to speak with me today."

"Oh." The Plutian fidgeted his fingers around him. "Why was she here?  She shouldn't be here.  House training grounds are supposed to be private."

"She came to talk with me, about you."

"Me?"

Diem studied the Plutian, but the blasted black hole in the middle of the alien's face made trying to read the thing's emotions even more confusing.  All Diem knew is that he wanted to do his best to look Phuck right in the eyes, to show him in the only way he knew how, that their differences and their positions of power and their relationship meant nothing to Diem, in comparison to protecting his sister.  Diem squared his shoulders.

"Wind told me that you showed an interest in Karma."

"Interest?" Phuck looked away.  "I was hoping for a mating, possibly at the House Party, but..."

"A mating?" Diem's boots pounded heavily over the floor toward the Plutian.  Phuck jumped backward, a hiss simmering from his lips.  Diem stopped short.  A Plutian hiss was a warning that the alien was about to spray its venom.  Diem stepped further back, hands at his chest in surrender.  "Understand my...concern...Phuck.  You are talking about my sister."

"I could give you a sister, if you would need to trade."

Diem tried to keep a lid on his rising anger.  "I don't want to trade.  I want you to leave my sister alone.  Plutians are not supposed to mate humans.  It's unnatural."

Phuck cocked his head to one side.  Without being able to get an accurate read on the dead space of Phuck's expression, Diem made the leap that Phuck was offended.  Plutians were proud and
Diem was sure he was supposed to feel honored that a Plutian would be interested in mating a lowly human, but it only disgusted him.

Diem knew he had to be careful.  Diplomatic.  He chained up the thoughts of shoving his thumbs right into the Plutian's sinkhole of a face and ripping the head wide open.

Phuck rubbed two fingers together in thought.  "You are correct, I believe, that it would be unnatural, if a Plutian retained his form.  However, you should have no worry in the case of your sister.  My form is of man, as you can see..."  Phuck jacked his thumbs into the waistband of his pants, slipping them to his knees in one motion.  Diem's hand shot up to shield his eyes.

"No, no, I don't need to see that," Diem said. 

"I assure you, I am accurate in all ways," Phuck said.

"I don't need to see," Diem assured him again.  Once Diem trusted that the alien's pants were back in place, he looked at the Plutian's face and caught what appeared to be molars, encased in the shadowed edges of the alien's partially visible lips.  It was a most grizzly smile, if that's what it was.  Diem coughed instead of gagging.

"I don't know how to say this," Diem said.  "But my sister is not interested in you.  It is not meant to be an insult, but human women are supposed to be with human men."

"But she is only a girl," Phuck said.  "
If she's known nothing else, then she would know no difference in me."

"She'd know," Diem said tightly.  "You need a girl that would mate you properly, Phuck. Someone experienced.  How about Wind?  She wants to be Linked."

"Wind mates everything," Phuck said.  "I once came upon her accidentally in the shorb brush.  I thought she was hunting hampigs, but she was not.  She was mating.  With something that doesn't even take breath."

Diem winced.  He didn't want to know, but Phuck caught the wince and seemed to interpret it as curiosity, because he went on. 

"It was a polished piece from a gorne stump," Phuck confided.  He rubbed the tip of his chin.  "She has an incredible talent for carving.  The stump was so smooth that it wouldn't rip out her guts.  Not an easy feat, considering that gorne stumps have all those thorny knobs and..."

"That's fine.  I don't need to hear," Diem said.  "I don't want to hear."

"Alright." If he'd been human, Phuck would've shrugged, but since he wasn't, he made a glugging sound in his throat and changed the subject.  "I would like to know more about the catch you opened today.  How many hens survived?"

Grateful to move on, Diem cleared his throat.  "Six, so far.  I've put them with my sheathen, Forge."

"I don't care for that." Phuck shook his head, the black spot in the middle blurring.  "You are the only one that can get near the hens with that dragon."

"Exactly," Diem said.  "It keeps us all honest."

"I am no other way," the Plutian said. 

"Sure, you're as honest as they come," Diem said with a sly smile.  He knew Plutians didn't understand sarcasm, just like they didn't understand archaic slang.  Phuck proved it once again by returning a humble nod in response to Diem's compliment.

"Thank you," Phuck said.  "So you will consider moving the hens to another dragon's hoarde?"

"Nope." Diem shook his head.  The only dragons available were each of the other Rha's dragons, that were used to guard their individual Houses as well as the harvests of dragons that the humans cycled back to the Plutians.  If Phuck was dealing with one of the other Rhas, which was likely, moving the hoarde would mean giving away leverage.  "Why do you want access to the dragons, other than to take them without paying me first?" 

Phuck fell silent, possibly sucking in his bottom lip.  It was impossible to tell from the face, but it was obvious to Diem that the alien was searching wildly for a suitable lie.

"If anything were to happen to you, the hens couldn't be recovered."

"Nothing will happen to me, unless you make it happen," Diem countered, although Span crossed his mind.  He kept his mouth shut.  He certainly didn't need to gift wrap a solid alibi for his death.