Rogue Within Read online

  “Good-bye, Moriko.” His voice was matter-of-fact, which was good. Any of the men who caught her eye should know by reputation that if they showed the slightest hint of wistfulness, she was gone. Moriko did not have friends. She had sex partners, assistants, and relatives. Ty-lee was a rough looking, rough loving man with a shuttered heart. They’d enjoyed each other a year or so ago, had a hiatus while he got serious about another woman, and were now back on for morning trysts.

  She stepped outside the room, closing the plain plank door. The hinges flowed silently, and she made a mental note to tell the maintenance workers in this section they were doing a good job.

  Her new assistant, Avis, hovered down the hall. She hurried forward, her willowy form and leather slippers making no sound on the wooden planks. She held two new message slips she’d received just in the quarter hour Moriko had been occupied on her break.

  “Inventory is complete from the banqueting chests. You’re right, we only have enough for perhaps two small gatherings. Princess Revay will have to delay her ten-Guild mastery celebration. It’s simply not merit worthy for the current status of supplies.” The pretty brunette bit her lip. “I was thinking your sister could tell her.”

  Moriko looked at the woman in amazement. “No. That would be a disaster. Do not send one Queen’s heiress to inform another her chance to politic is being denied.”

  “Oh. I thought they were friends. Now that Revay is out of favor after the Queen’s comment about her dress the other day, Akisa is one of the few Royals who is still wearing that shade of blue. I thought it was kind and brave of her.”

  Moriko stopped right on the watchtower stairs she was descending. “Avis, they are both heiresses.”

  The woman looked at her nervously.

  Moriko rethought her selection of this newest assistant. She’d liked the woman’s work ethic, but clearly her experience working in the higher Royal circles was lacking. She was the third person Moriko had tried in the two months since knowing Signy had duped her. Avis had lasted the longest.

  “There are no friends among the Queen’s heirs.” The five women and men were in dire competition to be found worthy. “Akisa wallows in the chance to be the center of attention by daring to wear it.”

  Avis heaved open the watchtower door’s thick planks. “So without any allies Revay is definitely finished.”

  Pausing to frown and stomp on a loose board, Moriko murmured, “Not at all. No one knows when the Queen will make her choice. It could be in tomorrow or ten years from now.” The flighty royals were so obsessed by being accepted by their peers that they rushed from petty drama to cruel excitement, delighting in creating factions and hurts. There was a snap in her voice when she replied, “Until our Queen declares Revay out, she’s in. Make a note to fix this board.”

  Emerging into the cobbled gateyard, Moriko breathed in the smell of oxen. How she loved this compound. She knew every corner of every stone. It was out of fashion to say so, but she enjoyed the few animals the compound kept, and thought most people did, from the amount of traffic the stables always drew. Three guards were gathered nearby.

  “—can’t believe the Queen isn’t demanding we march on Second City and cleanse the stubborn Mage Guild there ourselves. Clearly the Beasts were all talk and weren’t able to hold it. All this time, they’re always going on about how special they are and how strong. Yet a whole City is falling and they haven’t done shit. We don’t need ‘em.”

  “Yeah,” said another man loudly. “I hear the Beasts are being ordered out of Four and Five. At this rate, we should thank the darkmages for giving us control of our own Cities back!”

  Spinning on her heel, she strode up to the men leaning on the pale rock wall of the outer compound. They straightened when they saw her bearing down on them. Her thick brown skirt snapped with the force of her wide strides. All three came to attention when they recognized her.

  “The Queen has more information than you and the truxet have not lost Second City. You will refrain from discussing the problems in other Cities where citizens might hear you and you will maintain your belief in your Queen’s actions. Or I will whip you myself for treason.” Hands in fists, Moriko stared her disgust into all three shocked, shaken faces.

  “Yes, Princess.”

  “I’m sorry, Princess.”

  “We are loyal to the Queen!”

  She turned and strode away, sending one of the teen runners to give cousin Undine the task of breaking the news to Princess Revay. Moriko struggled to put the men’s horrible words from her mind. The thought of the only true deterrent to darkmage power, the race of shape shifting mage-warriors called truxet, or Beasts if one was coarse, being ordered out of Fourth and Fifth City made her want to break out in hives. And not because Fifth had the best Carpentry Guild and losing access to them would damage her ability to maintain the Royal compound.

  The Cities were seething with fear about the sharply rising power of a new, highly visible wave of darkmage activity, and alive with gossip about the role of the Mage Guild and the Beasts. She wouldn’t tolerate speculation about the two groups who had always been as much adversary as ally to Queen Idivay.

  All she knew was that some sort of looming crisis inched closer and the alliance between the three powerful groups wove tighter. They just had to speed things up. It was not her role to be in the know about the negotiations. Moriko just made sure the private audience gate was well tended, and the guests had a proper menu not embarrassing to the Queen.

  She pressed a fist to her stomach as she moved quickly away from the barracks and into the inner bailey. These weren’t her troubles. The fact Signy had fooled everyone around her, including Beast guards patrolling the Royal compound, wasn’t her fault. Oh, but it felt like it. The Chatelaine of the Royal Compound had taken a darkmage for her assistant. The supposed leader had been the puppet, failing her people.

  Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she focused on fulfilling her duty. The compound would not falter in these trying times with her at the gate. The other note Avis held was from the irate linen master, furious he’d been told to hold the linen laundry to two weeks instead of every four days.

  “Add him to our walk. I’ll talk to him in person.” He was not a supporter of Moriko and she wanted no chance for miscommunication in a note. “He’ll fit in between the gardeners and the masons.”

  Next, Moriko visited the progress on the monthly raking of the beach. Since the beach had become a major security focus in the last month, it was particularly important to adjust magelit paths and bathing areas. Avis gasped, as she always did, when they cleared the royal arch and the ocean spread out before them. The sea was the province of the Royal family, their most dearly held luxury. Moriko liked Avis more for her awe of it. Even though it was home to her, it was special.

  They descended to the soft white sand. This area was restricted to Royals only and even the workers in the chatelaine’s Guild rarely saw it. This section of beach was deserted on this windy midday except for the two men raking and the more distant guard staring along the gently undulating waterline. The breeze blew inland, which made it easier to hear the taller man’s steady chatter.

  “I heard the Mage Guild has lost fully half their members in their purging of darkmage acolytes. Birn told me their dungeons are full of bodies, because they can’t give them proper rest without admitting to how many there were. But all that death just attracts more darkmages, so that’s why the guards have tripled around the Mage Guild compound. They’re going to attack and eat all the souls trapped in there.”

  The other man replied, “My mother’s baker’s sister is missing. She thinks she’s been taken by the darkmages, but since the Mage Guild won’t announce who they’re holding, she can’t be sure if she’s been killed by her own Guild or the darkmages.”

  “Horrible,” the taller man said with excitement. “The Temple even led a prayer last night for all the missing.”

  Moriko paused at the end of the wide steps, j
ust before the beach. Summoning her magecraft, she sent a wave through the sand. Her affinity for earth made the strand one of her favorite places, not for the majesty of the revered ocean, but the expanse of delightful granulated soil. The men gasped to be suddenly buried up to their knees. They cried out, flailing, then saw her and fell silent.

  “Avis. Are these men members of the chatelaine Guild?”

  “Yes, Princess.” Avis sounded miserable.

  “Are they not servants of the Royal compound, dedicated to the privilege of assisting the governance of our race?”

  “Yes, Princess.”

  “So they are not in the Mage Guild?”

  “No, Princess.”

  “Make a note. Submit their names to the Mage Guild as potential members to be traded for services. I know the Mage Guild will need an influx of fresh students soon and these men are clearly interested.”

  One of the men moaned, his rake dropping from bloodless fingers.

  “Yes, Princess,” Avis whispered.

  Moriko studied the beach. “The magelight torches are still too far apart. All the rest of the compound is on austerity except for here. You were told this?”

  The men were only able to nod.

  “Close their distance by another armlength.” She turned and strode up the staircase.

  Day in and night out, she was tired of hearing these rumblings. The Guilds were in disarray, the Cities seething, and the links between them necessary for all their welfare were fracturing. And she’d lived with one of the causes, blithely oblivious, for over a year. She felt filthy, angry, tense.

  Signy had been her assistant and slept in her apartment. They’d eaten together, laughed together. Moriko had taught her every nook and cranny of the compound, and every aspect of its running. Tension gathered in her stomach as she strode up the wide terraced steps. It tangled her thoughts, skittered over her skin. She needed a release. Again.

  “Are you serious, Moriko? Do I really send a note to the Mage Guild with their names offered as barter?”

  “Yes,” she snapped.

  Avis fell silent, scribbling on her pad, neatly braided head of mouse-brown hair bowed. They left the direct ocean breeze when they turned into the corridor of the main castle again.

  A runner approached breathlessly and asked if Prince Katar could have three buckets of green paint from the storeroom. Moriko felt like pulling her hair out at her distant cousin’s random idiocy but said yes. Keeping the unnecessary Royals amused would only assist the Royals actively involved in governing during this crucial time.

  At the kilns, she was assured of the artists’ quiet work as they created shattering arrowheads instead of vases. At the bakery, she listened to the pastry chef’s plan for a dessert that would need no molasses. She sighed and approved it for one meal only, despite his pleas. The Queen had a sweet tooth and it was killing him not to create daily specials, but the ingredients needed to be saved. The Queen had sent Moriko a message supporting her increased frugality, but without a public decree, Moriko took the heat. By now her gut was churning again. She needed a break.

  At the woodshop, she invited one of the newer apprentices into a back room. He agreed eagerly.

  Avis fluttered in the front of the shop, calling out weakly, “I’ll just wait here, Moriko.”

  The young man closed the door to the small workroom. They’d dallied a few weeks ago and it hadn’t worked out. She hiked her skirts up and sat on a table scattered with woodshavings. They stung her ass and she spread her legs.

  “Come, let us enjoy a break. Get on your knees and serve me first.”

  He leaned against the door, eyes wide and gaze glued to her sex.

  This young man hadn’t been good enough to continue to fuck, but she needed a moment, so she was giving him a chance at her clit. He licked his lips and came forward, hesitant. She leaned back, bracing her hands behind her on the table. He brushed her closely trimmed muff softly and knelt.

  Reaching around, she grabbed his head and pushed him into her folds. “Suck me.”

  He lightly licked up one side of her valley.

  This wouldn’t do. Oh, dear. She’d forgotten his name. Tim? Jim? She’d had him about two weeks ago. “What’s your name again?”

  He looked up at her, shocked. “Kim.”

  “Right. Kim, it’s all right if you don’t want to do this. When I ask you if you want to go in the back with me, you can say no.” He should have been told by plenty of the men her word was good on this. She did not retaliate against partners who did not prefer her. Timid lovers were horrible. “Do you want to suck me or not?”

  He looked at her spread core and licked his lips. “Yes, Moriko.”

  “I’m aching for it.” She smiled to soften the edge in her voice. “Help me out.” She tugged on his hair. He slammed into her folds and used that nice big jaw to good effect. Within moments, her hips rocked, ass clenching, shavings grating her skin, like sand grating under her ass in last night’s dream, clit pulsing—“Suck!” Core tightening, toes curling, his tongue thrusting, swallowing—she came. Her head eased back, the fringe of her exactly razored hair fluttering across her shoulders. She sighed, loving the rush of heat softening her body. Again, for a precious space of time, she relaxed. If only it would last longer. But lately her need for release had seemed to grow with every waking hour.

  Pushing softly on his forehead, she eased him away from her. “Sweet. Good.”

  His gaze was blind, his mouth slack and chin wet. She smiled. Then, thinking he’d tasted Ty-lee’s jism with her own cream, she smiled wider and drew him back to her clit. There was a knock on the door.

  “Come in.”

  Kim stiffened. She kept her palm tight to the back of his head, holding him. When she reassured him by stroking the fine hairs at his nape, he began to suckle her again. It was better now that her clit was so sensitive.

  Avis spoke from the open door. The first time she’d walked in on Moriko, she hadn’t been able to meet her eyes for two days. She’d learned quickly but she still avoided Moriko’s breaks if she could. Moriko wondered if the girl was a virgin. The image of Kim sucking Avis off, the young woman’s lithe body naked on the table of wood shavings, popped into Moriko’s head. She loved her imagination. It kept her sane.

  She drew her heels up to the table’s edge, wishing Avis would just peek around the door and see the image they made together. “What is it, Avis?”

  But she didn’t. “The caravan from Fourth has been sighted approaching the Beast Gate.”

  It was virtually unheard of to bring Guilds through that Gate. Each City had five Gates in their towering spelled Walls and the Beast Gate was the least used. Partly because the truxet were a small fraction of the City’s population, their clanhomes being off in the vast Wild, but also because when they escorted humans about City business, they never used their own Gate. That they felt it necessary to go to this degree of security was indeed disturbing. She sighed and gently lifted Kim away. The mood was broken.

  A small grunt of distress escaped from his throat.

  “Thanks,” she said. “But I’ve been dallying too long. I’m sorry to short you on your turn.” She kissed him on the forehead and hopped down.

  With a wipe and shake of her skirts, she moved to the door, praised the men working hard on spears and arrowshafts, and went on with her day. They were past the halfway mark of her tour now and Kim’s effort gave her the centering to continue on.

  Outside the building, a group of women nodded to her in passing. But a pair further on ducked their heads closer together. In the span of a heartbeat, her gaze latched onto the woman’s mouth and read her lips when they formed the word “darkmage.” Her stomach flipped, and the image of the blunt, immovable face of her daring, rude lover popped into her mind. She wanted to run to him, to be wrapped in his arms, to disappear under his enormous body.

  There were so many duties to attend to. Some were scheduled daily or weekly visits, some were unannounced random checks
. As Chatelaine, she was the keeper of a miniature city within a City, the go-between for spoiled Royals, dedicated workers, and an extremely strained leadership comprised of Guild members and Royals both. The whispers, however, were shredding the respect she’d built. It was all coming to an end, because who could work for someone who’d chosen Signy?

  The distracting burn of need lit between her legs. Pretty sad when she looked forward to dream sex more than what she could scrounge during her day. She needed a new evening lover. Leaving the workshop, she lifted her shoulders back, mantling strength for the rest of the day.

  Across the wide brick path, in the shade of the entrance to the chatelaine Guild apartments, there was Leeno. Her darling toddler was currently on the ground, body arched in fury. The women gathered around them were all mothers, all chattering about how to handle screaming fits. And staring at the group of dedicated, caring women she’d known since birth, Moriko admitted to herself no lover would satisfy the grating pain inside her at having to turn over her keys.

  Organizing her people, having something to contribute, was who she was. The rumblings begun by Signy’s discovery had not faded, not at all. Soon they would become too consistent and the Queen needed a Chatelaine the people believed in. Idivay would be forced to assign a new Chatelaine. What would she do with herself?

  Chapter Three

  Bump, thump, slap. Bump, thump, slap. The dense little leather ball hit the wall, the floor, and returned precisely to his palm for the 6,723rd time. Approximately.

  He was so fucking sick of rules. The rules of alphas and their territorial instincts had sent him out of the Bear’s Lair into the realm of the Council. The rules of magecraft had gotten him tossed from the Council’s training. They’d tried to make him choose just one of the Six to specialize in. He couldn’t choose between the three that ruled him. Couldn’t. Which apparently made him too powerful to be a Council warrior. He also loathed the rules of honor that said he was doomed to live in the forest and watch chucks, a waste of his talent, all because he was an alpha and someday he might get so horny he’d go crazy and fuck someone else’s mate.