“I am glad you are coming to me now, my lord.”

Kelly sighed, stretched. He was, he realized, finally accustomed to not only the weight but the idea of a penis. Flaccid now, it flopped across his thigh.

“A sex drive is a terrible thing. It’s much greater for men, I think, than women – or at any rate for this man.” Kelly tapped his chest. “I didn’t want to sleep with you, but you made sure I did, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Mon’aella reached down and stroked his cock. “With which head? The girl head or the boy head?”

Kelly rolled onto his side and stared into his wife’s beautiful face. “Doesn’t it bother you that I’m really a woman?”

“Why? If it would gain me anything, I would sleep with you whatever your plumbing.”

“You Takisians are weird.”

“Practical.” She sat up and threw back her red-and-white hair. She reached over to the side table and snagged a clip. “Braid it, please. And besides, mating is very enjoyable whatever the sex of the partners.”

“Mon’aella, I can’t.” He held out the prosthetic right hand.

“I keep forgetting. We must get that regrown.” She began plaiting with quick, easy movements.

“I don’t think Blaise has any intention of making my life any easier.”

A small smile from his bride. “Blaise may not always be Raiyis of House Vayawand.”

Kelly glanced about, alarmed. “Jesus, watch it!”

“Blaise doesn’t play the Takisian game very well. He doesn’t realize that spies are power, and now that his Morakh pet is out of favor, he lacks an adviser of subtlety.”

Kelly chewed on his lower lip. “Durg was always saying that Blaise had no subtlety.”

“He doesn’t.” The woman clipped the end of the braid and, smiling, laid a hand against Kelly’s cheek. “This human -”

“Jay?”

“Yes. Is he your friend?”

“He’s become one.”

“Then I would take him, and his Tarhiji, and the child on some pleasant outing. I have noticed that our revered Raiyis lashes out at that which is in sight.”

Kelly swallowed the knot in his throat and felt it hit the pit of his stomach like a lead weight. “Is… is he likely to be lashing out anytime soon?”

“I’d say in the morning.”

“Why are you warning me? Why do you care?”

“Because I am of House Vayawand, and for seven thousand years my line can be traced. This mongrel, this abortion, is destroying our unique way of life.”

Before she’d dropped out of high school and run away to New York, Kelly had remembered his American history teacher saying that was how the Southerners had justified slavery. He didn’t think it was politic to bring this up to Mon’aella just now when she was being so nice to him.

“But I’m not Takisian.”

“I don’t care about your mind, darling. It’s your body that matters. The genes you carry, that you’ll pass to our children. We’re going to rule Vayawand. Maybe even a bit more if we’re cunning.”

“This is the sight and sound and smell of victory Wonderful, isn’t it?” Yimkin hawked and spat.

Looking at that quivering white glob of phlegm, combining it with the acrid scent of smoke and the cloying odor of burnt flesh was almost too much for Tisianne’s stomach. She tasted the morning’s breakfast before she forced it back down.

“This was not our fault.” The words sounded weak.

“I’m not saying it is. It is just ironic that we had to destroy Lirat’s capital city to save her.”

It had taken a few weeks, but they were finally on the move. Tis kept calling it D day, and there were similarities – it was the first time the Alliance had sought to penetrate the buffer of conquered Houses that protected Vayawand. Tisianne was a little depressed that her squabbling race could seem to pull together only in the face of outside threats – the Network, Blaise – but at least they were united. And maybe something good would come of all the destruction. The Alliance High Command had managed to put aside House pride, rivalries, and jealousies, and operate by consensus. They were also mobilizing to help other Takisians. A big change on a world in which it was every House for itself.

Unfortunately the first House to receive this “help” had been destroyed by Blaise’s retreating army. As a result the liberating Alliance was feeling pretty lousy.

Zabb dragged the toe of his boot through the scorched grass. “Blaise was here. It was by his personal command that the city was razed.” It was the desperate plaint of a man desperately trying to excuse himself.

“Still so sure we should not take the fight directly to Vayawand?” Tis asked in a low tone. Zabb spun on his heel and walked away.

“Ongoing disagreement?” Yimkin asked.

Bat’tam answered when it became apparent Tisianne wasn’t going to. “Lady Tisianne feels we must strike at the head. Raiyis Zabb…” He shrugged.

“Lady Tisianne is right. There are a great many cities, and the Abyss’s own armies between us and Vayawand. If Blaise is going to scorch Takis behind him, we must stop going head to head with him and try encircling.”

“Convince Zabb. I can’t -” She was interrupted by a cry from the ships, Incoming enemy!

She and Bat’tam went running for cover. A panicked madness seemed to have fallen over the conquerors of Lira. People ran in all directions. Ships leapt into the sky. And Tis wondered where by the Ideal her medical team had gone to. “Incoming enemy” proved to be two Vayawand ships. The ships of the alliance fired warning shots, and the two newcomers hovered and drew in their ghost lances. Everyone relaxed and returned sheepishly to what they were doing.

Tis and Bat’tam exchanged glances. Languidly the elderly man said, “Relatives from home. How marvelous. Perhaps they’ll have a letter for me.”

Zabb, Taj, and Yimkin were already deep in conversation with the five Vayawand nobles. The bridge of Zabb’s new flagship was crammed with people. Tis ruthlessly applied elbows and hips until she had forced her way to the front.

The spokesman – Sekal, Bat’tam provided telepathically, he was one of the first to swear loyalty to Blaise – was weeping.

Bat’tam leaned down to whisper to Tisianne, “Looks like the sparkle is most definitely off that pearl.”

My wife, daughters, sisters, all gone, all dead.

Sekal broadcast his distress to the assembled officers. There was an audible reaction. A rising murmur like a wind in tall pines as the Most Bred pulled the images of death and devastation from Sekal’s mind.

The story came out in sharp, painful pictures. How Blaise had returned home from House Lirat, already angry because he’d been forced to retreat, and even the destruction of the House hadn’t been enough to slake his bloodlust. Then had come the discovery that his wives had been poisoned. A death feast had raged in Rarrana. A few children had been saved.

ILLYANA!

Sekal looked at Tis for the first time, switched to the audible mode. “Your child is safe. The groundling and his woman were warned. They were away from the House when the killing started. But the wives…” The nobleman’s voice began to crack. “All the wives… my wife… killed.”

Mine too? thought Tis, giddy with relief at the news that Illyana was still safe. She blushed as she realized her imperfect shields had yet again sent the thought bleeding through the assemblage.

Taj stared at her from beneath his brows. “No, you’re still married.”

“Oh, grand,” Tis said.

“There’s some evidence it was the Lady Mon’aella who poisoned Blaise’s women,” Sekal said.

“Maybe she will make a decent addition to House Ilkazam,” Taj mused.

Zabb pulled the discussion back to reality. “So what do you want from us?” he asked. He was seated on an extruded desk, negligently swinging one booted foot.

“Return our House. Free us from this monster, this abortion,” Sekal replied in a voice gone ragged with hate.