Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

76. Fight Fire with Fire

The rainy season dragged on, turning the roads impassable for the elephants' feet. Praised be Divine Mansoora for Their torrents from the sky!

While the Tigress waited, I was on the road. The endless travel occupied me with a thousand concerns. Where to stop, what to eat, how to chase down this or that petty Captain-Commander. What to offer them for their assistance—glory, Idezza's gems, vengeance against the Empire. It would have been so much easier with Ondrey by my side. Or Taffiz. Yes, yes, Taffiz would have been... useful. But Ondrey was on the other end of the world and Taffiz schemed in the Palmyrian headquarters of the Deadhead Company.

By night, Xenophonta read me to sleep with the reports on the Southern Empress and her spawn. If I awoke, I stared at the water-stained canvas overhead and thought about the Tigress. I worried that the rainy season wouldn't last forever. Idezza thrived on the borrowed time, a peacock opening its tail in front of a crouching predator.

Once in a while, I made my peace with being paid to go out in a blaze of glory on the gutsy side of this conflict. During such times, I returned to Idezza. I sent messages ahead to Kozima, telling him when I'd arrive. There was no need to do the same for Nirav. The Duke always sensed my approach. I found him in my tent, handling one weapon or another, each and every time I laid over in the camp.

For once, Kozima didn't complain, as if my younger lover didn't exist. Perhaps, it should have warned me of the brewing storm, but Nirav's body made me crisp in this soggy world. His hair was soft, warm and dry whenever I plunged my face into it. It smelled musky, not musty like everything else.

And... and his head would make a fine prize for the Tigress if she won. So, I sprang out of his arms, remembering someone else I hadn't talked to yet or something else I could offer. I hit the road again, seeking to save the blessed city for Nirav.

If I thought of Kozima's indifference at all, it was with relief that he understood my soldier's needs in Ondrey's absence.

By the middle of the Eighth's month, the clouds started to break for hours at a stretch, allowing the sunshine in. The rainy season was coming to an end. I made for Idezza post-haste.

Nirav was waiting for me as usual in the tent. I pushed him to the bed and relaxed on his chest with a happy sigh. He wriggled underneath, until his head was level with mine. My finger traced his lips: the wickedly recurved bow on the top, the taught longbow on the bottom and the tempting gap in between. His mouth smelled like cedar shavings they chewed here instead of the mint leaves. It yielded under the light pressure of my fingertip, then trapped me in a sweet betrayal.

Before I could counter this dastardly feint, Nirav's thigh plunged between mine. I closed my eyes to better savor every pressure point he exerted on my body. His hand took a hold of mine, guiding it away from his mouth and down the curve of his chest and stomach, but I still had his thigh trapped. He rubbed it into me, searching my body with his palms to convince me to trade off the hostages.

"Even your flesh is armor," he whispered ecstatically, "not soft like others, except, except..."

I let my legs fall open for him to reach the parts he was referring to. But when the dizzying spell was over, as I was soaking in his seed, a needle of suspicion pierced my mind. Just how recently did he have a chance to make a comparison?

"What is the Council's word on your marriage, sweetheart?"

He smiled in his half-dose. "Beating back the Tigress comes first. Vanozza wants it that way too."

"Vanozza..."

"She's brilliant, right?"

His words burned like the red-hot iron that cauterizes torn flesh. I didn't have a surgeon's stick between my teeth, so I bit into the pillow to stifle a scream.