Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (132 page)

He slipped into an alley and slid the large sack off of his back. Eww! Eww! Eww!!! The sentries had been right. The bag had leaked and now his trenchcoat reeked of blood! He tasted the air and pulled his tongue back in disgust, revolted that he even had to touch a dead animal. He pulled his knife out of his belt, even though in
his
position he rarely encountered actual combat, and sawed through the haunch of deer, nearly cutting off one of his claws in the process. How could humans
eat
this stuff?

He patted the two sacks of grain. Now
that
was a meal fit for a king. Even Shay'tan liked porridge, though rumor had it that once upon a time the old dragon had devoured entire worlds. He prayed his emperor would forgive him for pilfering some of the tribute the angry young chieftain had brought in from the outlying villages.

He stopped first at the house where he spent most nights and gave his housemother the grain and deer. His sleeping arrangements assured for another week, he then made his way to his
real
destination, Nipmeqa's house, the merchant who had been safekeeping Taram.

Nipmeqa's wife answered the door. Kasib averted his eyes so as not to dishonor her.

"Kasib," Donatiya said. "Please. Do come in." She immediately snatched a scarf kept next to the door and wrapped it around her head, the only concession she would make to his 'curious' Sata'anic inhibitions.

"I have brought to you the promised payment," Kasib said.

"Good," Donatiya said. She gave him a pleased smile. "With eight mouths to feed, we can always use more. Please. Come sit by the oven. We are out of porridge, but I have a bit of bread and cheese left over if you would like a snack?"

The house smelled of bread and pomegranate, both foods he could eat. His stomach growled. While food rations had been low, he'd taken to skipping meals so he could sneak more to Taram's host family. He was already a slender lizard by Sata'anic standards, not one of the burly, higher-ranking men who were usually deemed worthy to gift a wife. It did not behoove him to appear weaker than he already was within the hyper-masculine Sata'anic culture.

"I would like some bread, please," Kasib said. He could digest milk if he had to, but it gave him flatulence, so he avoided it if he could. It was not the most auspicious way to endear himself to his friends.

He set his satchel upon the table and slid out the second sack of grain; and then lay the bigger bag upon the table.

"You will want to stick this in a cook pot right away," Kasib said. "It was caught this morning, but I cannot vouch for its storage conditions, so you will want to cook it thoroughly."

Donatiya peeked into the bag and smiled.

"Why thank you, Kasib," she said. "I will just hang this outside. It should be good for a couple of days."

Kasib winced as the door shut behind her. Human food storage methods were barbaric at best, but he'd quickly learned he won no gratitude by harping on the matter. He just prayed Taram didn't suffer from food poisoning, or worse, parasites, from anything he brought her. It was regretful that Taram had not qualified for the Sata'an Female Finishing School. She would have learned about pathogens and parasites, first aid and how to make some lucky man a very beautiful wife.

Nipmepa came down from reading his children a bedtime story and sat next to him near the oven.

"Good evening, Nipmepa," Kasib said. "I just gave your wife the settlement for the week."

"Taram will be down in a minute," Nipmepa said. "She likes to brush out the girl's hair and braid it each night before bed."

Kasib glanced over at the lush, white carpet Taram had woven with her own hand. It was finished now, the only dowry she had.

"Can she stay then?" Kasib asked.

Nipmepa cleared his throat.

"She is a delightful young woman," Nipmepa said. "And she is always welcome to visit us. But she is already past the age that most young women marry. You are not doing her any favors by delaying."

His voice trembled as he asked the next words.

"Have you found for her a suitable husband?"

Nipmepa ran his fingers through his trimmed, light-brown beard.

"She is blind, Kasib," Nipmepa said. "And Ugarit is not a village with an abundance of young men who would welcome a bride who cannot see. The best I have been able to find is an older man whose wife has a cross tongue. He has three consorts scattered throughout the village and twice that many children begotten upon them. Taram has caught his eye. He is willing to provide for her so long as she continues to please him."

"But that is disrespectful!" Kasib blurted out. He shot to his feet, inadvertently whipping over the basket of clean laundry with his tail.

"Ahh, Kasib," Nipmepa said. "Don't be upset. I have discussed this thing with Taram, and she understands she is a woman without many options. In her home village she lived with her sister, but her sister is gone now, taken as a wife for these creatures you call Angelics. It is not cruelty. Taram is pleasing, without the sharp tongue which dooms so many consort relationships. This could be a good thing for her."

"She has agreed to this?" Kasib asked. His voice trembled as he spoke.

"We have reached an
understanding,
" Nipmepa said. He lowered his voice. "Unless you wish to consider the other option."

"It is forbidden," Kasib said.

Nipmepa shrugged. "It is your choice." He stood and gathered up the grain. "I leave you to discuss the matter with her. But I suggest you reconsider."

The tradesman made his way out to chatter with his wife, the two of them making themselves conspicuously absent during his visits. A few moments later, he heard the children upstairs wish Taram goodnight. She climbed down the stairs, into the multi-purpose room, her hand out in front of her to feel her way through the gauntlet of the room, but she had long ago memorized where things belonged.

"Kasib," Taram said. She touched his arm, and then slid her fingers up his shoulder to his face, 'seeing' with her fingers what her eyes were incapable of seeing.

Kasib trembled as her fingertips slid down his skin to touch his snout. In Sata'anic culture, such contact was only reserved between a husband and a wife, and it did things to him, jumbled up his thoughts and made it hard to think straight.

Satisfied with her 'seeing,' Taram sat down on the bench next to him, far closer than was permissible had they been on Hades-6.

"Our problem with our supply line has been alleviated," Kasib said. "I was able to bring Donatiya plenty of grain to feed the children."

"I am grateful for your efforts," Taram said. Her lips turned downwards in a sad quiver. "Nipmepa said he was going to talk to you?"

"He did," Kasib said.

There was an awkward silence.

"Is that what you wish for me to do?" Her lip trembled as she spoke, and tears welled into her eyes.

A feeling akin to having his chest crushed in the hydraulic door of a shuttlecraft stole away his words.

"I wish for you to be happy," Kasib finally managed to squeak out.

Taram ran her fingers up to his sensitive ear-holes.

"Don't you like me, Kasib?" Taram asked.

"I-I-I like you very much," Kasib stuttered. "I have grown very attached to you."

"Then why must you send me away? To a man I do not love?"

Her hand upon his cheek
did
things to him, forbidden, awkward things that made it feel as though he might molt right out of his skin when it wasn't even the molting season yet.

"Who will care for you after Shay'tan orders me to leave this planet?" Kasib asked.

"Can't you stay?" Taram asked. "I thought you said our world would be part of your empire?"

"
Someone
will stay," Kasib said. "But my fate is attached to that of General Hudhafah. He is a very important man. Shay'tan won't leave him stranded on this planet for long."

"Couldn't you just ask to be assigned to someone else?"

Ask to be assigned to somebody else? Who would he be assigned to? A lesser man? Yes. A lesser man. There were no
greater
men than General Hudhafah for a modest lizard such as himself to be assigned to, so it would
have
to be a lesser man.

No. His superiors would suspect something.
Nobody
asked to be assigned to a lesser man. Only to a greater one. What would Shay'tan do to him if he … if he…

"Don't you understand?" Kasib said, his voice anguished. "What you propose is forbidden!"

"Why?"

"Because I am not worthy to take a wife," Kasib said. "My family is nothing and I am not brave or powerful."

"And I am not worthy to take a husband," Taram said. She nestled closer to him and lay her head upon his shoulder. "That makes us two of a kind, doesn't it?"

"But all cross-species marriages are forbidden," Kasib said.

"Why?"

Kasib stared up the stairs, to where Nipmeqa's eight children slept, not a large brood by Sata'anic standards, but very large by human ones.

"Because all cross-species marriages are sterile," Kasib whispered. "And the purpose for marital relations is to bear offspring to perpetuate the glory of the Empire."

Taram sighed.

"I guess you are right," Taram said. "I would not want to deny you the chance to have children of your own."

"It is not
me
I worry about," Kasib said, "but
you
. What will you do, if you can never become a mother?"

"I would love somebody else's children," Taram sighed. "Just as I do right now."

Kasib hesitated, and then put his arm around her, allowing her to lay her cheek down upon his chest. She snuggled into his side as if he was her hero. Her scent was intoxicating, the pheromones he had learned to interpret as human contentment.

"What do
you
want to do?" Kasib asked at last.

Taram lifted her head and stared at his mouth, the source of his voice as she could not see him speak. Her fingers moved up to touch his lips. Not for the first time, he wondered why she wasn't revolted by his appearance the way the other human females were.

"I would rather take however many days I can get with you as my husband," Taram whispered. "Then spend an eternity in comfort with a man I do not love."

Kasib blinked, knowing that he had already made the choice a long time ago. It had just taken him this long to realize he was really quite brave.

"Our marriage would not be blessed by Shay'tan," Kasib said.

"We have tons of gods," Taram giggled. "Pick one!"

He kissed her then, the first time he had ever kissed a woman. And then he called Nipmepa, and asked him to summon a priest.

~ * ~ * ~

Galactic Standard Date:  152,324.02 AE

Monoceros Ring: Eternal Light

Former Supreme Commander-General Jophiel

Jophiel

There were few stars this far from the supermassive black hole which stabilized the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and what stars
did
exist were largely red giants, ancient stars which were on the verge of collapse. The
Eternal Light
was an easy target out here in the sparse stellar matter beyond the outermost spiral arms, so Jophiel ordered her crew to skirt the slender Monoceros Ring which wrapped around the entire galaxy. It provided little cover should somebody deliberately search for her ship, but this was the last place anybody would come looking for them. According to Hasdiel's testimony, this was the location of the ships which had disappeared carrying much of the Alliance's wealth.

"Sir?" Major Klik'rr said. "We are picking up a transmission."

"Subspace?" Jophiel asked.

"No," Klik'rr said. "It appears to be a shortwave radio transmission."