Woman of Silk and Stone (5 page)

Now that I seemed to be on the cusp of
civilization, my body's needs were becoming impossible to suppress
and I began to yearn for a toilet with an unholy passion.

The guard gave me an incredulous look and
then turned back to Temuk, brows raised in surprise. "She speaks
Solish?"

He nodded and gave me squeeze. "And the
common tongue as well. Perfectly."

Apparently that translation thing was still
working for me, for which I was overwhelmingly grateful. The idea
of being stuck here and unable to communicate was chilling. The
guard looked me over again and then smiled for the first time.

"Forgive me, Honey Sullivan. I am
Nergal
Sandu, a city guard. This
is...well, unprecedented. I should send you on to the Royal
House..." he began, gesturing off in the distance, past the neat
row of buildings I was too tired and stressed to really take
in.

"Oh, please, I really need to..." I broke
off, wondering how I could put delicately that my bladder was about
to burst.

"But I can see you would like to be cleansed
first. Please, follow me," he said, gesturing at Temuk to follow.
The beast beneath us snorted and moved again, following the guard
down a side street, its hooves clacking on the cobblestones. The
road was made of the same stone as the walls, but was smooth and
worn with use, the luminosity dulled somewhat from years of travel.
Numbly I took in the passing buildings, the brightly painted doors
and soft pastel brick of the homes. People moved out of our way,
watching us pass with expressions of curiosity, excitement, and a
few times, open hostility. I was comforted to see that everyone
seemed to be pretty normal looking, if a little on the thin side
and dressed like they were ready for a toga party, but unease
filtered my relief as I realized my initial friendly reception in
this world might not be indicative of mass opinion. I bit my lower
lip and closed my eyes, abruptly unable to deal with any more new
information.

At last we came to a halt and Temuk gently
shook me. "Honey, Sandu will take you to the
Ekkalum,
the royal house. We must go on ahead and make
our report. I will see you again soon," he promised. I took in his
blue-painted, weathered-stone face and marveled that he had somehow
become dear to me already. Tears threatened, and I blinked
furiously, hesitant to show any weakness in this unknown situation.
Temuk smiled at me and then lifted me down into Sandu's waiting
arms.

"You will have to explain why you call me
Easter Island
eventually, Honey," he said
in farewell before making a clicking sound with his tongue and
turning the horse-thing around. I watched him go with a sinking
heart, knowing that my only friends here were deserting me.

"Not alone, not
anymore,"
a voice whispered in my mind, and I shivered
delicately and looked around, feeling eyes on me.

"It will be alright, Honey," Khenti said,
his voice gruff but comforting. He gently bowed his great blue head
and gave me a parting smile.

"I must leave you here, Honey. Whisper my
name on the wind if you need me, and I will come," he intoned in
his deep, man-of-the-mountain voice.

"Really?" I asked, relieved at the thought
of so easily contacting a familiar, non-threatening ally.

Khenti laughed. "No, Honey. You're not a
goddess, remember?"

I rolled my eyes and grinned. "I'm never
going to live that down, am I?"

Khenti just shrugged and curled his lips.
"If you need Temuk or myself, just tell one of the city guards and
they will get a message to us. Be well, Honey." With one last
encouraging glance, he turned his s
isu
and
headed back down the hill, leaving me alone with only Sandu for a
familiar face.

Stepping away from Sandu, I glanced down at
my right arm, relieved to see there was still no trace of the wood
appendage that had made such an unpleasant appearance before, and I
fervently hoped it stayed that way. I had enough to deal with.

"Can you walk, Honey Sullivan?" Sandu asked,
his face creased in concern.

"Yes, thanks, I think so. Where are we?"

Sandu smiled and gestured at the pale pink
building in front of us. The walls gleamed like mother of pearl,
iridescent and supremely feminine. "This is an
Eresh,
a House of Rest, for bathing and
relaxation."

A spa. Bless this crazy world and the wackos
in it; they brought me to a spa.

I smiled genuinely, looking fondly at my new
best friend. "Wonderful," I purred. "Lead on."

The guard's face flushed before he bounded
up the short staircase and knocked three times on the blush-tinged
door. After a pause the door opened and a short, plump woman with
immaculately curled hair the color of a blue-jay's feathers and
flawless olive-toned skin emerged, taking in my disreputable
appearance in with a sniff.

"
Nergal
Sandu, what
have you brought me?" she asked the guard, her high-pitched voice
stiff with disapproval. Now I really didn't want to know what I
looked like.

"Mistress Damki," he answered. "This is
Honey Sullivan, a newly recovered
Halqu
.
She wishes to freshen up before being presented at court."

Immediately the woman's demeanor did an
about-face, her gleaming, ceramic-smooth cheeks perking as she
smiled warmly at me, a frown of concern striving to mar the smooth
perfection of her brow. I'd never seen anyone frown without creases
before, and I realized she must use this world's version of Botox
to get such an unruffled look. I smiled in return, biting my tongue
to keep the inappropriate laughter from bubbling up again.

Mistress Damki the Botox Queen. Shoot me
now.

"Welcome, Honey Sullivan. Please come in; I
will see to your comfort personally," she promised, her expression
telling me I was in for a treat.

Sandu settled on one of the puffy couches in
the foyer, clearly not permitted to enter the inner sanctum.
Nervously, I shuffled behind the perfectly round figure of Mistress
Damki, barely listening to her cheerful diatribe about my poor
bedraggled hair and skin. The sense of being watched again was so
overwhelming I kept looking back over my shoulder, certain that
there was someone walking directly behind me. Subduing a growing
sense of unease, I shifted my attention back to my guide.

As soon as Damki opened the doors to the
main area of the spa, it felt as though someone shoved my nose into
a bouquet of pollen-heavy roses. Every sense was assaulted by
pungent potpourri, worse than the garden of the most persnickety
old lady in the neighborhood. I could practically hear the flowers
blooming and coughing up their not-so-delicate aromas.

Swallowing thickly and trying to discretely
breathe through my mouth, I followed the oblivious Damki down a
corridor of white doors with different shades of pastel trim. She
explained that each color denoted the treatment specialized inside,
indicating that each door led to yet another system of rooms
dedicated to the treatments. Baffled at the scope of this
enterprise, I just smiled and nodded, ready to weep if someone
didn't show me a toilet, stat.

"Uh, Mistress Damki? Is there somewhere I
can, uh, relieve myself?" I asked, embarrassed at having to speak
plainly. She looked at me in confusion and then took in my
'gotta-pee' dance before comprehension cleared her features.

"You mean no one has let you...oh for the
Ensi's
sake," she swore, rolling her eyes
and making a detour down a nearby hall. "Men. Doesn't matter their
race or station, they're all idiots."

I laughed out loud, deciding that the
overgrown Pink Lady wasn't so bad. She rushed me into a room with a
door the shade of periwinkle and gestured at the facilities. I
nearly groaned out loud as I spotted something that resembled an
old-fashioned toilet. It reminded me of one of the water-closets I
had used in an old inn while touring England my senior year of high
school. The basin was clearly recognizable, but there was a long
chain hanging from the ceiling that Damki demonstrated as being the
flushing mechanism.

Restraining myself from kissing her painted
cheeks, I nodded my thanks and hurried across the room, exhaling in
relief when the door closed behind her and I was left alone.

After taking care of business, I shambled
back to the door only to catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror.
Damki burst through the door at the sound of my blood-curdling
shriek.

"What is it? Are you injured?" she demanded,
her heavy bosom heaving with exertion.

"Guh!" I said, pointing at my reflection,
lacking the words to describe how appalling I found its contents. I
began to understand that the Easter Island brothers had been
calling me 'beautiful goddess' as some kind of ironic perversion of
the truth. There was nothing beautiful or goddess-like about the
creature staring back at me.

Covered in blood, grime, and dirt, streaks
of blue paint adding a macabre sort of decoration, I looked like
the creature from the black lagoon. My normally shiny red-gold
locks were tangled and frizzed like a Jersey Shore reject after a
night of binging; my eyes were red and puffy, hollowed with dark
circles. Every inch of my skin that wasn't covered in filth was
mottled with bruises, making me wonder how I was even managing to
stand at all.

"Yes dear, I have heard the transition from
the beyond is very difficult on the body. Let us get you cleansed
and you will soon feel better," Damki said soothingly, drawing me
away from the horrible apparition in the mirror. Numbly I followed,
becoming more and more befuddled with every step.

How was I even alive?

I have always been a fan of hot baths.

There is something so energizing about
descending into pool of hot water, sloughing off the dead skin and
aches from the day and letting the body just float, suspended in a
kind of spiritual haze meant to refresh and rejuvenate. I had all
sorts of bath products in my apartment at home, every inch of the
miniscule counter space taken up by bath-bombs, salts, and powders
to indulge my little habit. I loved nothing better than a chilled
glass of Pinot and a bubble bath, and never got out until I pruned
beyond recognition. I would even go so far as to call myself a
connoisseur of baths.

I never knew what a bath was until Damki
showed me.

Damki first stripped me of the remaining
shreds of my clothes, the pants stiff enough with sweat and dirt to
walk away on their own. Naked and shivering, I took stock of my
blue and purple body, wondering if Damki thought that was my actual
skin color and the brief flashes of creamy skin were the
bruises.

Clucking over me, she pushed me into a glass
walled room and muttered as she pushed vigorously on the lever of a
hand pump, smiling with satisfaction when hot water began to
descend on me from the low ceiling. It reminded me of a
less-sophisticated waterfall shower, and it was the best thing I'd
ever felt up until that point.

When I was reasonably free of dirt and the
worrisome sight of blood, for which I still hadn't discovered an
explanation, Damki wrapped me in the softest, fluffiest towel
imaginable and ushered me into the next chamber, highlighted by a
pale green door.

Damki pointed to the center of the room,
where a sunken pool the size and shape of a deluxe hot-tub awaited,
steam rising in heavy, fragrant clouds to tickle the inside of my
nose. A brazier of glowing coals surrounded the pool on one side,
the only light in the room.

Although the scent was a bit too flowery for
my taste, the bath smelled a damn sight better than I did, even
after the shower, and I sank into the scalding depths gratefully,
allowing the slightly over-heated water to burn away the last
vestiges of my grubbiness and draw me deep into a trance of
relaxation.

I'm not sure how long I spent in there,
certainly long enough to turn into a prune, but I could have
remained forever. Damki bustled quietly around me, drizzling
various unguents and oils into the water, and even kneeling down to
knead my neck and shoulders until they melted. I was practically
asleep by the time she stepped out, and I closed my eyes and gave a
deep sigh, letting all my anxiety fade for moment.

I think I dozed for a bit, but the cooling
water shifted me from my stupor. Just as I was about to step out
and call for Damki, the smoke from the brazier grew dense and
heavy, darker somehow. Fingers of smoke trailed down the side of
the soaking pool and appeared to enter the water, stretching out
toward me slowly, almost cautiously. Within seconds, the water
heated again, just the right temperature to tempt me into remaining
longer. Something about the smoke seemed strange to me, the way it
now hovered just above the water, but the new warmth soaked into my
bones and I relaxed, telling myself I was just hallucinating out of
exhaustion.

Closing my eyes, I leaned my head back and
slipped under the surface, wetting my hair and face before resting
my head against the smooth wall of the pool. As I lay there,
floating, the warm embrace of the water gradually evolved from
being comforting to arousing. Each lap of the water against my skin
felt like the gentle glide of a tongue, the steam rising from the
pool stroking my face and neck like a warm breath, a drop of water
trickling down my collarbone and winding its way into the valley of
my breasts becoming a fiery caress. And again, that sense of
another presence drifted over me, as though all I had to do was
reach out and grasp the hand of a lover.

I opened my eyes lazily, even as my mind
screamed at me that something was weird here; after everything I'd
been through, getting turned on by a nice bath was not really a
normal response.