deadly divinations

Chapter Five

They followed the rest of the Slayers into the manor that housed their meager two hundred count. The Slayers were constantly needing to be replaced due to the simple fact that they were constantly put up for the ceaseless border wars between Crastilan, the western portion of the Continent, and Fecskun, the Northern portion of the Continent. The very best of them, however, here hired assassins that their Father prized himself on. Within the Palace of the Night, their Father raised men to be man things. His Eyes were men skilled in spying and gaining information, his Fingers were the men skilled in the arts of thievery, his Feet were the men that were swift at getting news to where it needed to go, his Knowing were the men who were gifted with intelligence and helped him decide on which actions would best suit his Family, and lastly he had his Slayers were the men who showed great skill in killing. Of all the skill classes that a Son could be given to, the Father loved his Slayers the most. Since he loved bloodshed so dearly, it didn't surpise Sorrow that he loved his killing Sons best of all.

"When do we leave out again?" Sorrow heard a squat, bald man ask a lanky fellow with brown dread-locks and dark skin.

The dark man shrugged and drapped an arm around his new pet. "Why worry about that when we finally have women to bed, Shelo?" he asked.

Shelo chuckled, squeezing the round buttocks of the chubby girl walking beside him. She let out a shriek of shock and he laughed loudly. "You are right, Greshim." he said. "Worry can wait til tomorrow."

Sorrow cast Everitte a sideways glance but said nothing. He seemed somewhat angered by the fact that his fellow Slayers were being so loose-liped around the Daughters. His grip tightened on her hand, causing her to wince at the sudden stab of pain that ran through her hand. She didn't utter the cry that pressed against her lips as she followed his quick steps. It wouldn't do her any good to let him think her weak.

They were soon at the head of the group tromping towards the House of Slayers. When they reached the door it opened of its own accord and an elderly man with short gray hair, a very crucked nose and pale green eyes stepped out into the night to greet the Slayers and their new prizes. Everitte gave the man a small smile as he drug Sorrow over the threshold. He didn't stop to wait for the others in the large sitting room that made up the front of the manor. He moved to the green-carpeted stairs to the right of the room and hurried down them.

As they reached the landing, Sorrow turned. There was very little noise on the staircase they had taken. She realized that the two men who had been talking during their walk were taking the burgandy-carpeted staircase to the left of the sitting room. Unlike its sister, this one led up. Why were there two different sets of stairs, she wondered. Instead of asking Everitte anything, she followed on in silence.

They reached the landing and he led her to the very end of a long corridor. There were at least fifteen doors on either side of the corridor and there was a singular door sitting in the center of the back wall. This door he opened and pulled her over the threshold. Once inside, Everitte released his hold on her and locked the door behind him. He stood there for a long moment, looking at the silver key in the lock of the silver and diamond encrusted door knob.

"I suppose the knob is much more fascinating than anything else in this room then?" Sorrow asked flatly.

Everitte turned, that one-sided smirk curving the corner of his mouth upwards. "Sorry." he said and it didn't sound like he meant it.

Sorrow frowned at him, crossing her arms under her amble breasts. "Yeah you really sound like you are."

She recongized his accent then. It's Aliganin, the Southern portion of the Continent, she thought with a tiny frown. When she turned her angry gaze upon him at last his ringing laughter filled her ears and a shiver running down her spine. She hated him for the affect her had on her but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. Turning her back on him, Sorrow instead occupied herself with looking around the room that would house her from now on. The room in which they stood was huge, nearly the size of The Chamber.

Thick crimson carpet covered the room that they stood in, a black rose depicted at the foot of a dias. In the center of the room was a raised dias were a large, four-poster bed made of ash wood stood. Thick black and red curtains shielded the interior of the bed from view. To the right of the dias sat a black couch with a black lauqued bookcase to the left of it. On the right side of the dias stood a wardrobe of the same color as the bookcase.

Her eyes trailed from the wardobe to the crimson curtain hanging to the right of it. She stepped towards it and drew it away from the wall. The sight beyond made her breath catch in her throat. A huge pool had been sunken into the stone floor of the bathing chamber. Along the edges of the pool, shelves of full of fluffy crimson and black towels and washcloths and one other shelves housed various oils and lotions and soaps and scrubbing sands in containers of all shapes, sorts, and sizes. Sorrow tore her eyes away from the shelves and examined the pool more fully. A flat stone big enough for four grown men to sit upon sat in the very center of the ever-churning pool and a waterfall moved smoothly, gently over smooth pebbles-like formations that had been carved out of the stone walls of the underground haven of this Slayer Son.

"Pretty isn't it?" Everitte asked behind her and she started. He placed his hand at the small of her back, giving her a small push inside. "Go on." he urged. "It's yours now, too."

Sorrow turned and opened her mouth as if to protest this but when she saw the look in his eyes the words died on her lips. He had the look in his eyes that she'd seen some Sons in the Great Hall give their slaves. Her eyes travelled unthinkingly to his pants. Everitte chuckled, his hand coming into her view and motioning her to bring her eyes back up. When she did bring her face but up to his, she met his gaze with unabashed expression on her lovely face.

"Didn't Mother ever teach you any manners?" he asked in an even thicker version of the drawl the Aliganinese possessed.

A sadistic smirk tugged at her own lips. "She tried, but it was all in vain." she said venomous tone.

Everitte laughed again. "Well then I guess I won't be making her mistake then." he said.

Silence followed for a moment and they both gazed at the pool. "So," Everitte said at last. "You wanna join me for a swim?"

"Is that a legitimate request or is that an order disguised as a request?" Sorrow shot back.

The Slayer smiled, a genuine smile that reached his ice blue eyes. "Take it as you wish to." he said. "It makes no real difference to me."

Sorrow was taken aback by his indifference but said nothing. Her reaction amused Everitte but like her he opted to remain silent.

After a moment he turned from her and began unlacing his boots. He took them off, tossing them away from him. Next he pulled his black tunic off. He tossed it away from him just as easily as he'd done with his boots. Finally, his hands went to his britches. Sorrow shifted her weight from foot to foot, but said nothing. Everitte turned to look at her, the smirk once again in place. His fingers continued to work at the drawstring that held his britches closed and his eyes remained locked on Sorrow's.

He wasn't the first man she'd seen naked, he could read that in her defiant look. When the drawstring was loose, Everitte slid his pants away from his body and offered her an unobscured view of his back and buttocks. The back and tail of a blue reptile of some sort painted his back from the bottom of his left shoulderblade and up over his shoulder. The body and head of the creature would be resting on his left pectoral if she'd guessed the size right. The rest of his broad back and shoulders was unmarred. His right calf was home to a blue dragon that appeared to be bursting from the very muscle itself. Once she managed to tear her eyes away from his body art, Sorrow noticed that his entire body was dusted with freckles.

Since he wasn't bothered by the fact that he stood stark naked before her, Sorrow let a look of indifference creep into her own eyes. This Slayer didn't have anything different that what the other men she'd seen naked in her life.

"I didn't think you would cower at the sight of me naked." Everitte said as he tossed his britches away.

Sorrow smiled mirthlessly. "Do you really thing that the Daughters given to the Sons are truly Untouched?" she asked.

Everitte shrugged and walked towards the pool. "I don't know." he said. He turned to glance over his shoulder at her. "Are you?"

"Is that a question directed towards me or is that a general question about all Untouched Daughters?" Sorrow asked coldly.

He turned his attention back to the pool and dove in. Sorrow watched his slender, muscluar form cut through the water. When he surfaced he shook his head unnecissarily and opened his eyes to find Sorrow still standing where he'd left her. Now that she had a front view of him, she realized that she'd been right about the tattoo and that it was actually a dragon. Her fingers went to the pewter pendant dangling from her black chocker. So the Dragon was his symbol and that was why he'd chosen to give her such a pendant. She let her hand fall away from the pendant and rest at her side.

"If you aren't going to join me then you can go to bed." he said.

Sorrow was torn between her urge to dive into the pool and slap him and the desire to be away from him for as long as possible. She stood there for a long moment, her eyes locked with his. Finally, when the realization dawned on her that he would eventually get out of the pool and stand naked before her, Sorrow whirled around in a swirl of blond hair and black fabric. His ringing laughter followed her into the room.

She didn't climb into the bed as he'd suggested. Instead she took a seat on the couch beside the dias. Some minutes later Everitte came out of the bathing chamber, a towel wrapped around his waist. He moved to the wardrobe and pulled something out. He moved around the bed, coming to stand before Sorrow. In his hand he held two tunics. One black, one red. The red one he held out to Sorrow and, once she'd taken the red one, the black one he donned. Once he had his tunic on, Everitte discarded his towel as the tunic fell to mid-thigh on him.

Sorrow waited until he moved away from her and to the left side of the bed before removing her Ceremony clothes and pulling the tunic on. It fell to her knees, almost dress-like in its own right. She moved towards the bed, moved the curtains aside, and crawled into the darkened interior. For a moment she knelt on top of the blankets, admiring them. A red satin comforter rested atop sheets of black satin and pillows of the same shade and material rested against an ornatly carved headboard. Wild roses and ivy vines had been carved into the ash headboard and wound up around the post on either side of it.

"We'll go into Town tomorrow and get you clothes of your own." Everitte said, drawing her attention to him.

"That isn't necessary." she whispered.

He opened one of his eyes, staring at her. "We're going and that's that." he said. "I can't have my girl walking around in rags or horribly oversized clothes."

Sorrow didn't bother arguing or asking why it was so important to him that she have a proper wardobe. Instead she crawled to the head of the bed, pulled the covers back, and slipped between the sheets. She kept her back turned to him as she lay listening to his breathing. Soon his even breathing, though not the deep and shallow sound of sleeping, lulled her to sleep.