I slept the sleep of the dead.

The next time I awakened, I felt… different. Weak and lightheaded. That was the first thing. And the second… complete disorientation.

I lay on my side, staring at the wall and the desk. All the confidence and strength I had felt the night before had fled, and now the world drifted around me. The bed seemed to be rocking like the deck of a ship at sea. The walls slowly oozed colors, and the faint light from the lamp on the desk, its wick turned low, dribbled up to pool on the ceiling.

I blinked and tried to sit up, but I couldn't do it. With a sigh, I fell back on the pillow. A gentle touch steadied my arm, then moved to caress my cheek.

“Horace?” I asked, voice rough from sleep. What would he be doing in my bed?

“Do I look like a boy?” asked a woman's soft voice from beside me.

Chapter 11

I sat up suddenly, then gulped as the room pitched unexpectedly to one side. My head swam. Moving only my eyes, I followed a pale hand to a slender arm, white as alabaster, which led to a shapely elbow, then to the soft curve of a shoulder, then to a delicate neck, and finally to a face so beautiful it still took my breath away.

I knew her. The woman who, only yesterday, had shown me the way to Dworkin's floor…

It took a moment for the fuzziness of my thoughts to clear. I never forgot a beautiful woman's name, and hers finally came to me.

“Rhalla?” I said.

“Yes, Lord Oberon.” She smiled and stroked the line of my jaw with her fingertips. Her scent, strange and spicy, made my heart begin to race.

She lay next to me under the covers. Her gold eyes met and held mine for a heartbeat, then coyly turned downward. I noticed her slightly parted lips, behind which lay perfect pearls of teeth, her delicate nose, slightly upturned, and high pale cheekbones, which accentuated the lines of her face. I had seen few women who equaled her beauty.

“What are you doing here?” I asked softly, dumbfounded. A beautiful woman was the last thing I would have expected to find next to me when I awoke.

“I would have thought that obvious,” she said, snuggling closer and laying her head on my chest. “After all, you did want me here… didn't you?”

“Yes,” I whispered. It was true. I had wanted her since the moment I saw her in the hallway.

I peeked under the sheet. She was naked, as I expected—and, if it was possible, even more beautiful from the neck down. I lowered the sheet and grinned back at her. I had awakened to many worse things over the years.

“So…” she giggled. “Here I am.”

“Then you must be a goddess…” I began with a smile.

“I am no goddess, Lord.”

“Then you're here in disguise?”

That line usually made a woman blush, and with Rhalla it did the same, a rose color blossoming across her cheeks and neck. I saw the twist of a smile at the corners of her perfect red lips.

“You are sweet, my lord.”

“Call me Oberon.”

“As you wish, Oberon.”

I swallowed hard, trying to think back to what had happened last night. Had we done anything? I remembered lying down alone; Rhalla certainly hadn't been here. The last thing I'd seen was Horace as he sat on his stool at the foot of the bed, watching me.

Surreptitiously, I glanced around the room, but I didn't see the boy anywhere. Where had he gone? Probably back to his room as soon as Rhalla got here. He had enough sense to know when he wasn't wanted or needed.

But… more pressing… why didn't I remember anything of last night?

I frowned, thinking back. Maybe I did remember. Somehow, I had a vague impression of her having been here with me… of her body pressing tightly against mine… her lips hot on my mouth and chest…

And then the ghost of last night fled. I knew nothing more about it… could not even be sure she had actually been here with at all. Everything had a distant, confused quality, like a half-remembered dream.

Could I have been asleep when we made love? Or maybe I had been drunk. Vaguely, I remembered sipping brandy from a cup in her hand…

And then the memory passed and it was just the two of us in bed again. She continued to stroke my face and nuzzle against my chest. Putting my arm around her shoulders, I drew her close. I felt warm and comfortable, and I hoped this moment would never end.

“You are not like the rest of your family, Oberon,” she told me. “There is a kindness in you… a warmth… mmm. I do like it, very much.”

“About last night, Rhalla…” I said, brow furrowing.

“You do not remember it,” she said with a light laugh. “I know. Do not worry.”

“Was I that drunk?”

“A little drunk, perhaps… but I gave you a sleeping draught. Before, when I first came to you, demons plagued your sleep. You moaned that the room was moving, and you cried out that we were being attacked—”

“Nightmares,” I guessed. “Hallucinations.”

“Yes, Oberon.” She sighed. “You said hell-creatures were attacking us… and you called me Helda.”

“Helda!” The name went through my with a jolt. Helda… my lovely Helda, who had been murdered by hell-creatures in Ilerium. She had been an innocent victim. If not for me, she would still be alive today.

“That is right.”

“I'm sorry, Rhalla,” I said, trying to remember. Very little of it came back to me. “I don't remember…”

“Shh, it's not important.” She gave a little shudder. “Let us talk of more pleasant things.”

“Of course.” I gave her a light kiss on the forehead. “Thank you.”

“It was nothing.” With a long, sharp fingernail, she traced a pattern in the bristle of hairs on my chest. I found her touch sensuous. The smell of her, the musk she exuded, surrounded me like perfume. I breathed deeply, head swimming. “I was told to watch over you,” she continued, “in case you… needed anything.”

“Anything at all?”

She smiled in reply, and reading an invitation in that smile, I kissed her lips, her cheeks, and then her eyelids. Her long lashes fluttered against my skin like the wings of a trapped butterfly.

“And now?” I asked. “What do you think I need most?”

“This.”

Without warning, she leaned over and kissed me, long and hard and passionately. I responded without hesitation, pulling her closer. The world and my family and the Courts of Chaos be damned, right now I wanted her as much as she seemed to want me, and nothing else mattered.

Some time later, as we lay exhausted atop a tangled mess of bedding, I felt a deep contentment spreading through me. Rhalla still nestled against my shoulder, her breath warm and soft on my cheek, and I realized how much I had missed a woman's touch and companionship. It made me feel less alone in this world, more a part of something greater than myself. I sighed, sated, happy on some deep level.

“You are more than well, I think,” Rhalla said finally. She slipped like water from my grasp and left the bed.

Rolling over, I propped myself up on one elbow to watch. She had draped her robe and undergarments across the desk's chair, and now she reached for them.

“Not so fast!” I said.

“What, Oberon?” she asked, puzzled.

Swinging my legs to the floor, I leaped forward, caught her arm, and pulling her gently back to the bed. I kissed the insides of her wrists and elbows, gazing up at her beautiful face.

Smiling, she swayed closer, breasts at my eye level, enticing, teasing me, her scent filling my nose and throat with a heady perfume.

Inhaling deeply, I pulled her down on top of me. I had to have her, could not live or think or breathe without her, and for a second time we became a tangle of hands and tongues, fingers and mouths.

This time we made love slowly, the haste of first-time lovers satisfied. She was even better when we could relax and explore each other's bodies fully. Few women had ever excited me as she did, not even my beloved Helda. I never wanted to leave Rhalla's arms again.