Gambit of the Gods Read online

  “Darling,” I whispered longingly, “it’s been so long since I’ve had your hands on me. What will I do if I never get to feel them again?” Giving him an enchanting smile, I willed him to want me.

  He’d left me after a particularly ugly argument, finding comfort with a plain, passionless girl named Paskia before the plague. But I’d always known I’d win him back someday.

  “What are you suggesting, Malyse?” He didn’t bother to mask his distrust.

  “Well,” I answered, never tiring of that feeling when the prey walks right into my arms, “I know the women are in control here, but they must be continuing their bloodlines somehow. Let’s go look for someone making love and see if we can join in.”

  I could sense he liked the idea, and that was no surprise. Men put a great deal of importance in their ability to make love to a woman. Wilde was no doubt wondering if he would ever have that ability again. In that sense, he wasn’t so different from me. Except that he didn’t use sex to gain power and control. The more fool, him.

  After searching for the better part of a day, we found a building marked with a sign depicting a fetus in the womb. Men wearing suggestive clothing stood just within the arched doorway. We followed a woman in a red dress up the steps and through the men lined up on either side. Some of the men lounged there with no expression showing on their faces, others cowered, and still others looked eager. The youngest appeared to be in their early teens; the oldest looked as though they had only recently reached full manhood.

  The woman in red walked over to the only other woman in the room, who sat writing at a desk. She stood, and they bowed briefly in greeting.

  “Lady Avelrie,” the woman said warmly. “The Goddess welcomes you to the Mating Temple once again. I take it this visit is sanctioned by the Eleven?”

  “Yes, Lady Selane.”

  Lady Avelrie handed her a wooden token. Approaching the tall sculpture of a winged woman with outstretched arms standing behind Lady Selane, she lit a candle and added it to the others flickering there. The winged woman’s arms held out a sleeping girl-child, as if offering her to the sculpture of a woman kneeling at her feet in prayer.

  “Any particular suitor in mind?” Lady Selane inquired, gesturing toward the waiting young men and boys.

  Lady Avelrie turned to survey her options. I, of course, surveyed them with her. I know another predator when I see one, and anticipation rose within me.

  They were all handsome, looking strong and hale, but those who looked cowed didn’t interest me in the least. Their spirits were clearly broken; they’d be no fun at all. Avelrie apparently felt as I did. She walked over to a young man with a “D” on a chain around his neck and a smile on his face.

  “This one will serve.” She took his hand, leading him down a hallway until they found an open door. Wilde and I followed, hardly hesitating as we walked through the door Lady Avelrie had just closed.

  Inside, we found a bedchamber featuring a large, four-poster bed hung with gauzy pink draperies and piled with pillows. A window stood open, letting in stray breezes. The moving air caused the bed’s draperies to billow every now and again in a way that looked very inviting. I moved over to Lady Avelrie, stepping inside of her as she turned to look at her young, still smiling companion. Wilde followed suit, stepping into the young man.

  “What is your name?” she asked, not unlike one asks what’s for supper. It felt so strange to stand behind her eyes, looking at him without being able to touch him.

  “Dacen.”

  He moved closer to Lady Avelrie so that she might finish unlacing his already half-open shirt. Dacen’s chest was nicely sculpted and he was already aroused, I noted with approval. Sighing in anticipation, I reached out for Lady Avelrie with my mind. I didn’t feel anything, but I’m nothing if not patient. A hunting cat that cannot lie in wait soon goes hungry.

  Meanwhile, I could sense Wilde within Dacen, doing the mental equivalent of half-hearted groping. I suppose he found this near-prostitution unappetizing. So I called out to him teasingly, in hopes of whetting his appetite.

  “Wilde! Don’t give up your manhood so easily!”

  As I’ve said, I’m used to getting what I want and I know what to do to get it. Wilde reached out within Dacen like a man drowning.

  Lady Avelrie undid Dacen’s pants, letting them fall to the floor. Dacen stepped out of them, then began undoing the laces at the back of Lady Avelrie’s dress. It was a lovely thing: a floor-length, blood-red gown accented with tiny grey pearls. The dress joined Dacen’s clothes on the floor, Lady Avelrie’s silk undergarment soon following.

  The two admired one another’s nakedness. I thought I felt something, though I couldn’t be sure what. Lady Avelrie took Dacen’s hand once again, leading him over to the bed. She pushed him back onto it, and he crawled backwards toward the middle of the bed. She crawled after him.

  As she did, I felt it—like I’d crept past her defenses somehow. It made sense, I mused, as she climbed on top of the boy. I felt her emotions for the first time, as if from a distance, but still there—she’d relaxed completely, arousal shutting down her mind’s higher functions and inhibitions. With fewer barriers up to keep me out, I pushed further, sensing Wilde doing the same as the two we had joined with began pleasuring one another.

  I felt everything she felt now: the rising ecstasy, the blood pumping from her efforts atop him, her hope of becoming pregnant one final time. Still savoring her sensations, I reached out to Wilde to sample his. I guess I reached for too much at once, though, because my grip on Lady Avelrie slipped. But I got it back just in time to experience her orgasmic cry, along with the wash of deep pleasure afterward.

  Lady Avelrie collapsed on top of Dacen, utterly spent. I stepped out of her, meeting Wilde as he moved away from Dacen. He looked…well, wild. His emotions ran the gamut: first relief, then giddiness, then something beginning to taste like shame. I watched his grin fade as the latter overwhelmed him. I couldn’t allow that tiny seed in him to take root.

  “Wilde! Don’t go all saggy on me now, my love.”

  He looked at me almost with distaste. I could feel his mind spinning. But I wasn’t finished.

  “That was incredible, and you know it. If we don’t live through them, we might as well be dead in truth. You know I’m right.” I used the full force of my charisma on him, sending tantalizing thought-tendrils of flirtatious sensuality to remind him of all we’d just shared.

  He just stared at me for the longest moment. Mentally, I held my breath. Then Wilde’s shadowy shoulders straightened.

  “God help me, I do.” He looked away, over at the couple on the bed. I knew then that I had him.

  Now, three generations later, thinking back on that moment, I still feel the rush and triumph of it as if it’s just happened.

  I owned Wilde completely in that moment, taking the first, most important step toward ultimately controlling everyone within my reach. Wilde himself had unwittingly said it himself, though he’d just been joking: “We are like gods.” And I for one intend to get my fill of worship and service from those beneath me while I can.

  But first, the Dark Lady and I intend to play a little game with my fellow Transformed; a game we fully intend to win. The game is the reason she had me convince Kai to drop that beaker: she’d foreseen that it would set off a cascade of events which would eventually win her the revenge she seeks and enable me to control the lives of everyone on this island.

  I’m sure it won’t shock you if I tell you this secret: when I play games, I cheat. Not that I would call it cheating—a predator uses every advantage she can, always several steps ahead of the prey. I’ve been planning how to win this little game since that day when Wilde and I first tasted what it was like to live through another. The next step is to influence them, and ultimately, to control them.

  That day, with Wilde, I had a suspicion that has slowly been confirmed; one that hasn’t yet dawned on the others. Every time we join with a Chosen, those we�
�ve selected to live a kind of life through, we take back a tiny part of our own humanity. I’ll tell you this: I was less than thrilled when I figured it out. I so enjoy the power that being almost godlike affords me. I stopped joining with them completely at one point, thinking to preserve my ‘godhood’. But I found that being a god but not being able to manipulate others left me feeling empty. So I decided that, if I had to lose my godlike abilities, I would go out on top.

  That’s where the game comes in. In the Queensrealm, they play a form of it already. Various Houses rise or fall in the Standings based on which Ladies take the reins of power, ruling their Houses with the greatest style, popularity, productivity, lavish entertainments, and competitive spirit. The High Ladies use their sisters, cousins and slaves as pawns on a board of delicately balanced and counter-balanced schemes intended to carry them above their peers. It’s amusing to watch; even more amusing to play the playmakers without their knowledge.

  The challenge I will lay before my own peers today, three generations after the day Wilde and I joined with Lady Avelrie and Dacen, will ultimately show them that I own each of them and all those they care about. The game is mine; they’re just pawns moving in weak counterpoint to my brilliance. The Dark Lady, of course, has told me what she wants to have happen, but she’s given me quite a bit of leeway on the way to her ultimate goal. Her enemies have become my enemies, because my enemies care for hers, but not even she knows everything I have planned. I hold the reins of ultimate power, just as she promised on the night she first appeared to me.

  When the others show up at the full moon for our usual meeting on the plains, once again I see only prey…fodder for my little game. Rather than pretending to listen to their ridiculous stories about their Chosen, I get right to it.

  “I’d like to suggest a game,” I announce casually over the small talk. They all turn to look at me with blank curiosity on their dumb sheep-faces. The children look eager at the mention of a game. Now, to set my trap.

  I look to Gideon meekly as if for permission, since he’s the one everyone bows to as leader. He nods. Soon, they’ll all learn who leads and who follows.

  “I’m just so bored lately. I had an idea that could inject some fun into our sad little non-lives.”

  Sensing their disapproval at this comment, I sail on as if I hadn’t noticed.

  “I was thinking: we’ve been given this power to change people, but we don’t even really use it anymore. I just think it’s such a waste, you know?”

  “I agree,” Kai declares, his soul-light brightening.

  I’d asked him before the meeting to agree with whatever I said. As my current paramour, he’ll do whatever I ask. Wilde is fun, but his conscience has grown annoyingly as time passed. We don’t agree on anything anymore. He’s taken to spending all his time with the slaves involved in plotting an uprising, while I spend all my time meddling in the Ladies’ schemes. Fortunately, with Kai, there’s no conscience to get in my way.

  “So here’s the game I thought of. First, we each give our Chosen an interesting ability.”

  I know some of them have spoken of wanting to do this, so I’ve got their attention. Now that I’ve lulled them with my carrot, it’s time to shock them with my stick.

  “Then we pit them against each other to see which Chosen survives.”

  I watch in secret amusement as the others react predictably with varying expressions of horror. They’re all talking over one another. I hear words like ‘immoral’ and ‘wrong’ most often as their disapproval washes over me.

  “And since every game has rules,” I continue over their protests, “I’d like to propose a few. Don’t show yourself to someone else’s pawn. Don’t claim you’re a god. Each pawn can only have one new offensive or defensive ability. And don’t tell your pawn about the game. What do you think?”

  Gideon clears his throat.

  “Malyse, that’s very…creative. But I sense from everyone here except Kai that using people to play such a ‘game’ is, well, repugnant to them.”

  The others murmur their agreement.

  “I can understand that,” I assure him. “Truly. But there’s one thing you all don’t realize.” I watch as they all mentally approach the trap I’ve set. It’s going to be so enjoyable springing it.

  “What’s that?” Gideon asks. I finally allow them to sense my real feelings. I’m feeling more powerful than I have in a long time.

  “Why, the game has already begun, of course.”

  I watch as understanding rocks most of them back.

  Gideon starts to speak, but I cut him off.

  “Now, please. Remember the rules. Don’t show yourself to someone else’s pawn. Don’t claim you’re a god. Each pawn can only have one new offensive or defensive ability. And don’t tell your pawn about the game. Don’t worry. If you play nice with me, I’ll try to go easy on your Chosen.”

  Darkening my aura, I travel back to a place only Kai and I know in the Queensrealm. It’s a trick I’ve been practicing for decades, and I’ve finally got it down. Kai will tell me what those sheep say next, but it doesn’t really matter.

  The game is in motion. The only thing they can do now is play it if they want to protect their dear little pets. At least, they can try. But like I said, I cheat.

  Chapter 4: The Dark Lady/Taini

  “Malyse has made an excellent start of things,” I agree, turning away from the image in the fire. Niska gestures, severing the link. “I admit, when you first told me of your vision and explained what Malyse could accomplish for us all those years ago, I doubted. I’ve never been one for plotting over hundreds of years. And you know how I’ve fretted since we’ve awakened to our true selves this time, watching Little Squirrel and Spark together. I could have just killed her and been done with it. But ultimately, this plan is so much more satisfying. She will lose everyone she loves while I watch, and she’ll never even suspect me until it’s too late.”

  Niska smiles, pleased. “You and I will both get the revenge we’ve longed for, Taini. I knew there must be a way to achieve our ends at the same time, and this way, the Na’e and Malyse will get what they want, as well. It would only have been a matter of time before fate drew Little Squirrel, Spark, Artan, and Kella together again. Looking along the Chance-Lines, I saw the perfect way to deliver them all into our hands. And it all began with a man dropping a beaker, and a woman riding out on her horse. Everything that happens to Little Squirrel and her friends now will lead them inexorably to us, just as I foresaw so long ago.”

  “Little Squirrel has always been immune to my coercion, but Spark is ready for the next phase of the plan. The Higher Path is the perfect element to tie him to me forever.” I sigh, feeling the weight of many past lives and deaths press down on me. My mind-mate soothes away my momentary disquiet. “Revenge will be sweet, Niska. When Little Squirrel begins waking to her true self, I’ll be there to see the realization dawn in her eyes.” Seeing Little Squirrel’s face in my mind, I whisper, “I’m taking back what is mine this time, Niabi.”

  Chapter 5: Wilde

  We’re staring at each other in various stages of shock, disbelief, panic and anger. Then everyone starts talking at once.

  “We can’t allow—”

  “What did she mean when—”

  “—do we do?”

  “I can’t believe—”

  Gideon waves his arms until we all quiet down.

  “One at a time, please. Who would like to speak first?”

  The adults, as always, defer to the children. Once again, it’s Jacob who says what the rest of us are thinking.

  “We can’t let her get away with this.”

  We all voice our agreement. Except Kai, who stands to one side, smirking silently like he knows a secret. He thinks I don’t know he’s replaced me in Malyse’s sex romps, but the truth is, I’ve known for quite a while. I’ve been trying to distance myself from that evil woman for years, and now that I have her claws out of my soul at last, I’m thr
illed…and ashamed that I ever let her put them there in the first place.

  The others look suspicious of Kai, too.

  “He’s on Malyse’s side,” I affirm, gesturing toward him. “And there’s no point in going after Malyse. She knows how to hide her aura. She bragged about it to me.”

  I give Kai my most dangerous look. “If you’re not going to help us, then go. If this really is a game, then it’s us against you. We don’t need you listening to our plans.”

  He looks surprised before catching himself. I feel a momentary satisfaction at besting my would-be rival. No doubt Malyse hoped he’d stay behind and bring back information.

  Lark, Jade and Jacob crowd around him, making Kai take an involuntary step back.

  “You’re not welcome here,” Lark growls, staring him down. She’s a head taller. “Go find your mistress.”

  In a blink, he disappears. We cheer our small victory.

  “He always was a coward under that arrogant facade,” Sera laughs with satisfaction.

  When Jacob and Lark exchange a look, I sense what’s coming next.

  “How do we know,” Jacob demands of Sera and me, “that you’re not secretly on Malyse’s side as well? You’ve both spent time with her in the Queensrealm. Especially you,” he adds, gesturing toward me.

  Sera steps forward, hands spread. “I’m on your side. I can’t stand that self-centered woman. She treats people like they only live to serve her.” She looks downcast for a moment. “When we lost our bodies, I died a little inside. All I could think about was getting back what I’d lost.” She shakes her head, then raises her chin with determination.