deadly divinations

Chapter Six

The people stared at the pair of them as they moved through the various stalls in the Market Square. A trio of Unmarked Sons, Sons without a particular class, trailed in their wake carrying the parcles and packages that

Everitte tossed their way. Sorrow cast a glance back at the trio every now and again, half expecting to see looks of anger one their faces. Much to her surprise they didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that they were being led by a

Slayer's slave-girl. In fact, unless she was mistaken, they looked almost glad to be seen with her and Everitte.

"Sorrow?" Everitte's voice cut through her musing.

"Huh?" she said, stunned that she'd been ignoring him. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

She waited for him to shout at her for not paying attention to him but he only laughed. His laugh was worse than any beating Cowan had ever given her. Much worse. It did something to her that no beating had ever managed

to accomplish. It made her want to submit. She shook her head, hoping to rid herself of such a horrible thought. When her mind was clear once more, Sorrow turned her eyes to Everitte to show that he now had her undivided attention.

He smiled down at her. "I was asking if you wanted anything else while we were out."

Sorrow gazed back at the young men holding her new wardobe in their arms and then back to Everitte. Her eyes flicked to his shoulder where his tattoo lay hidden beneath his clothes. "As a matter of fact there is something."

she said with a slight smile.

"Oh?" he asked, his interest piqued.

She nodded. "I want a tattoo." she said flatly.

Everitte's face cracked into a smile so broad that she thought his face might split with it. "Not many of the Sons have tattoos and none of the Daughters have them." he said.

Sorrow's eyes danced with a devilish light. "Then I'll do what they are afraid to do and I'll be the first." she said.

Turning back to the trio that had trailed them all day, Everitte said, "Return to the House of Slayers and leave the Lady's things in my chamber. Tell one Master Hengis that my quarters need cleaning and that my Lady's

clothes need to be put away before we return this evening."

They nodded in unison and began to walk away. Everitte turned back to Sorrow but in a flash he whirled on the boys and they stopped dead, their eyes full on him. "And have one of the Untouched Daughters make a batch of

that ointment that Mother had them make when I got my tattoos." he said with a smile.

Once again they nodded but this time they didn't move. It seemed they weren't really sure what he wanted them to do. Everitte made a quick dismissive gesture and turned his attention back to Sorrow. "Shall we?" he asked,

offering her his arm.

She smiled slightly and took his arm. He was actually going to let her have a tattoo. Something none of the other Daughters had. Everitte led her through the crowd with ease. He didn't drag her along behind him as he'd done

the night before. This time he allowed to walk at his side. Like an equal. A smile touched her lips once more but she quickly wiped it away. She would never be his equal. Not in the society that they lived in.

Many other the other Slayers from the night before had their girls out among the Common folk of Crastilan. Town was the center of all of Crastilan. Sorrow didn't know if it had any other name for all anyone ever called it was

Town. It was that way with villages and hamlets. "I have a daughter in a Village two miles East and six miles North of Town." They didn't have names, just distances from Town. The Palace of the Night was placed atop a bluff one mile

South of Town. The Common folk didn't like to go near the Palace because they knew what was housed there within. Creatures of a deviant mans creation. They owed him much, the Father of Night, but that didn't change the fact that

they feared him. He was the leader of Crastilan's true army. Oh the King did have his own army housed within his Glittering Palace atop a man-made hill in the very center of Town but it was Father Night's men that made up the most

deadly portion of their forces when battle raged.

"Ready?" Everitte asked and Sorrow nodded. He frowned slightly. "Thinking deeply again? What about?"

Sorrow nodded. "About these people." she said simply.

The answer seemed to be sufficient for him because he didn't ask her to say more on the subject. Instead he turned her towards a shop with a curtain of glittering beads hanging in the doorway instead of an actual door. These

he lead her through and into a dimly lit, heavily perfumed shop. Sorrow nearly choked on the lavender scent that filled the shop but she stiffled it with her hand. Everitte patted the hand that rested on her arm as he led her towards a

counter that stretched the length of the shop. There were three more doorway behind the counter, all with different colored beads dangling from the top of them.

"Oy!" Everitte called and his accent took on a heavier drawl. "Oy Phoenix!"

"Oy yerself!" a ragged voice called back from the middle doorway.

Sorrow noticed that onyx beads hung in this doorway. His color, she thought.

From this doorway an elderly man with a heavily scarred face and his left eye missing hobbled out into their view. As he made his way towards the counter, Sorrow realized why he was hobbling. His left leg was horribly

mangled. She couldn't help but stare. She'd never seen someone as scarred as herself. However, all of her scars were crisscrossing her back and that one singular scar that only she and Cowan knew about.

"Scars aren't marks of ugliness, girl." the old man growled.

Sorrow's eyes widened and she tried to stutter an apology but he held up a hand to silence her. "Save your apology, girl." he said. "I know that you aren't disgusted by me."

"Can you-" she began but he cut her off again.

"-read your mind?" he finished for her and nodded. "One of the Gifts the gods felt kind enough to give me."

Her mouth became a little O of understanding but she said nothing more.

"So," the old man said. "I take it that you wish for me to paint your body with the perminate art of tattooing, girl?"

She nodded. Why wasn't Everitte saying anything? When she looked over at him, she saw that his arms were crossed over his broad chest and he was thouroughly enjoying the fact that she was uncomfortable. Sorrow

turned her eyes away from him then and focused instead upon the old man.

"My name is Sorrow." she said, raising herself a little straighter.

The old man chuckled. "I like this one, Everitte." he said to the Slayer. He turned his one brown eye upon Sorrow. "Well, Sorrow I am called Phoenix."

Sorrow gave him a tiny bow. "It is an honor to meet you, Master Phoenix." she said.

Phoenix laughed, a harsh barking sound that made her wince. "Well let's get to it then." he said. "I suppose the boy has told you what I do."

She shook her head and he snorted angrily. Not at her but at Everitte for not educating her beforehand. "Come back here and I'll explain." he said and hobbled back into the room he'd come from.

The pair made to follow him. At the counter, Everitte picked up part of the counter and it was then that Sorrow noticed the seam in the dark wood and the golden hinges hidden beneath. Everitte motioned for her to proceed

him and she did, glaring at him as she passed him. Once inside the room Sorrow felt her heart beat wildly. She didn't know what she'd expected but what she saw before her wasn't it. All along his walls, Phoenix had hung up portraits of

all sorts. Artwork more beautiful than anything she'd ever seen in any book she'd ever seen. This she remarked in a whisper, know that the old man had heard her thoughts. He smiled warmly and took a seat in a small chair to the right of

them.

"Well Sorrow I'm sure you know what tattoo entails of course." Phoenix said and she nodded. She'd read it in a book once. "Good. Sadly, since I lack an eye I don't do it the way that my colleagues do."

Sorrow looked at him in confusion. "I don't understand." she said.

He smiled once more. The warm smile, the real smile. "I don't use needles to do my art." he said. "I use Magick."

"Magick?" Sorrow repeated.

Phoenix nodded, "Yes." he said. "That doesn't mean that it's not painful, however."

Sorrow smiled wickedly. "You'll see that I'm no stranger to pain, sir."

The old man looked beyond her to Everitte. "It's true, Phoenix." he said. "This girl's been beaten so many times that we lost count. The First Son's to the point where he actually has to resort to Bleeding the Roses."

Phoenix inhaled so sharply that he hissed. "How many times?" he asked. This was directed towards Everitte so Sorrow didn't answer.

"As far as we know he's only done it once." Everitte said. "After that our Mother allowed him to go back to the Black Serpent."

He nodded his understanding and turned his attention back to Sorrow. "Well disrobe then, girl." he said gruffly.

She hesitated for only a moment, her eyes flicking towards Everitte.

"Do you want me to go?" he asked.

She thought about it for a moment and finally nodded. If he didn't have to see her naked then she didn't want him to. No sooner than need be. Everitte nodded and left the room without a word to either of them. Once he'd

vanished beyond the onyx beads, Sorrow began taking off her clothes. They rested in a pile at her feet and she kept her eyes upon them. She looked up after a long moment because Phoenix hadn't spoken. When she brought her eyes

up to his she found that his eyes weren't on the scars that trailed from her back and up over her shoulders. They were on her breasts. He licked his lips the way a dog would when he was being offered a choice cut of meat. For a moment

she didn't know what to say or do. So she opted for standing there, under his critical eye.

"So, what will it be?" he asked, his voice husky with desire.

"I want two." she said softly.

Phoenix nodded. "One on your back and another on your hand." he said.

"Yes." Sorrow said. "Dragon wings and-"

"A black widow spider on your left hand." he finished for her.

She nodded.

Phoenix motioned for her to turn around and she did so. He said nothing about the silvery-white scars painting her back. There was a sound of rummaging and in the next instant there was pain like she'd never known. Like fire

cutting into her back. It was worse than Cowan's Bleeding the Roses form of torture. Sorrow bit her lip against the cry of pain but the whimpers still managed to escape. She felt every line as if it were a hot knife slicing into her pale flesh.

It only took a matter of seven minutes to carve the wings she wanted into her back but it felt like so much longer. When he ordered her to turn around again and hold out her left hand, Sorrow didn't hesitate despite the pain she'd just

indured. The spider he magiced onto her hand wasn't nearly as bad as the wings but it still hurt nonetheless. Within three minutes she was gazing down at a black widow spider with a blood-red heart in the center instead of an

hourglass-shape in the center of her abdomen.

"Now is there anything else you would have me do for you?" he asked.

For a moment Sorrow stared at him. "What else can you do?" she asked.

A smile twisted his scarred face and Sorrow felt a thrill of excitement shoot through her. She knew in that moment that she'd become Phoenix's next masterpiece.

Everitte was passing the length of the parlor when the onyx beads finally moved aside. He turned his attention to them, hoping to see Sorrow striding towards him. It wasn't her that was coming towards the counter, it was

Phoenix. "Where is she?" he asked.

"Dressing." the old man grunted.

"How much?" Everitte asked, his hand going to the pouch at his side.

Phoenix held up his hand and shook his head. "No charge." he said. "That sight was worth it." A wicked grin came over his face. "You haven't seen it yet, have you?" When Everitte shook his head, the old man began to

cackle madly. "Ah you don't know what you're missing, my boy."

The beads made another harsh noise as the most beautiful creature Everitte had ever seen came out of the Phoenix's workshop. She still had Sorrow's face and body but everything else was different. Her hair was blue-black,

her eyes were a green so bright they glowed, her skin was now the color of freshly spilled blood, and her lips a black so true it would have made the Darkness itself envious. Her right nostril now had a tiny diamond glittering in it and her

left ear had little silver hoops along the length of it. A black widow with a heart painted her left hand, the only tattoo he could see. He licked his lips and tried to swallow but his mouth had forgotten how to produce saliva.

"Any other surprises?" Everitte asked Sorrow.

"Some you'll see and some only I've seen." Phoenix said, cackling anew.

Sorrow smiled slightly and moved from behind the counter. When he'd asked her what else she wanted, Sorrow had thought of a few things but in the end it was the old man who'd thought to Magick her hair, eyes, and skin

so that they changed color at will. "Ready?" she asked when she stood before the Slayer once again.

He nodded and offered her his arm once more. She took it and they moved towards the door. At the doorway, Everitte stopped and turned back to Phoenix. "How come you never offered me all that nifty Magick?" he asked.

Phoenix smiled devilishly at the young man. "Because you're body isn't as pleasing to my eyes as our young Sorrow's is." he said.

With his one-sided smirk firmly in place, Everitte led Sorrow out into the fading sunlight where she was met with more stares than ever before.