The Scholomance (34 page)

None of these
thoughts were any changed from those that had tumbled around her head in the
past few days, and she supposed there was no point in wrestling with them again
now. Nothing had changed. Whether she needed him or not, Kazuul still wanted
her, which meant it was only a matter of time before he took her. If she wanted
that on her terms, this was the only way. Anything else was really a secondary
consideration. She would have to be careful, that was all. Armor her mind,
control her emotions, and say…

Say what?

She had reached
the last stair now and stepped out into the long tunnel that led to the demon’s
door. The time for manufacturing clever lies was running out.

Well, how clever
did it have to be, really? Most men of Mara’s experience had no trouble at all
believing in their own irresistibility, and whatever else he was, Kazuul was a
man. A man who was used to getting what he wanted without resistance. A man who
had invested a great deal of time and energy trying to get her on her back. Would
he really care how that happened as long as he got it?

Yes, Mara
decided, staring at the portrait carved into his door. He’d care, and if he was
at all suspicious of her reasons, he’d never touch her. He wasn’t stupid, even
if he was horny, and he knew she was a telepath too.

But perhaps
there was a way to use that to her advantage. Tongues could lie, after all, and
thoughts could deceive with practice, but a body never could.

Mara gazed into
the stone eyes of the carved Kazuul, then stepped back into the Panic Room. After
a lifetime of habit, she checked the Mindstorm first, but the hundreds of
people she knew were with her in this mountain had dulled through layers of
stone into a murky darkness which no single thought illuminated. It was
disconcerting.

Mara turned away
and focused on the monitors, making the body raise its robe and moving one hand
to her smooth sex. It was better here, undistracted by sensation and alert to any
discovery. From here, she could fine-tune every nerve’s reaction without the
inconvenience of having to experience it. Masturbation was a work of fine motor
skill, difficult to manage from the Panic Room, but she’d always been quick to
respond even to rough stimulation. She couldn’t feel her fingers playing over
her clit, but she could watch the body’s health monitor and see the tidal wash
of orgasmic blue as she brought herself to climax.

Now she was
committed.

She gave herself
a slow count of ten to wind down, then dropped back into herself and wiped her
fingers on her robe. She could still feel the glow of her cumming pulsing deep
in her womb, but it could be ignored. By her, anyway. She readied her defenses
and opened Kazuul’s door.

A chill breeze
blew up the stairs, bringing with it the smell of trees and earth and clean
rain. She descended, not bothering to light the lamps along the way, but when
she saw the curtains blowing across her path, she knew she’d reached the
bottom.

She looked for
daylight first as she crossed into Kazuul’s bedchamber and saw a grey sky
filled with bruised clouds that hid the setting sun. She walked to the aerie,
seeing no one, hearing nothing, and put out her hand to feel the rain.

A scrape of
claws over stone.

She smiled. “Hello,
Kazuul.”

There was no
reply, not even the drifting ghost of a thought, but on the other side of the
room, a candle sputtered into life. She looked that way and saw the shadow of
his longest spikes cutting off into darkness.

“Am I
interrupting you?” she asked. “Because I can leave.”

His growl emanated
from all sides.

Mara came away
from the aerie. “Are you surprised to see me?”

“I knew thou
wouldst return.”

“Naturally,” she
said, letting him know his subtle invitations were not as subtle as he may have
thought. “I come when I’m called.”

“As any
well-trained bitch.”

He lunged from
the darkness then, not out of the shadows where she’d thought him to be, but
leaping down from the broken top of a pillar to land heavily just before her. She
jumped back and hated him at once for grinning, for knowing he could make her
jump whenever he wanted. The only thing that kept her from lashing out at him
was the certainty that he would enjoy her anger as much, if not more, than her
fear.

“I knew thou
wouldst come,” he murmured, gazing down at her as she fumed in silence. “But
dost thou know why thee did?”

“Enlighten me.”

He reached out
to pinch her chin between his thumb and forefinger in what he no doubt believed
a sultry gesture. “For that thou art fascinated,” he purred. “Thou hast
recognized thy lord, thy mate and Master, and I do take thee in to fall upon
thy knees and worship me.”

It wasn’t hard
at all to maintain a dry, unamused stare, or to armor the surface of her
thoughts with the same emotion. “I see.”

Kazuul shrugged
and dropped his arm, rattling the bone-spears that stabbed out from his back
and shoulders.
 
“What then?”

“I don’t expect
you to understand the analogy, but having some jackass lean on your doorbell
all day and night is irritating. Besides,” she went on his eyes narrowed, “I
would have come to see you again anyway.”

“Indeed?” His
smile returned, but did not touch his eyes as he reached up to take a lock of
her hair. He inspected it, then drew his hand slowly down all the way to the
tips, squeezing out several drops of bathwater which he rubbed between his
fingers. “And thou hast made ready for the occasion.”

“I’m actually in
the habit of bathing every day, particularly when my days consist of climbing a
lot of stairs, but you go on and think it’s for you if that helps.”

“Helps.” His
eyes came back to hers, cool. “Hast thou come to beg aid in thy quest?”

“If I thought
you had aid to give me, I might. But I know you don’t.”

“Then why? For
if I’ve nothing to offer thee, how then shall I meet thy bargain? Ah, but wait!”
he said, lifting one finger in feigned illumination before sweeping it under
her chin again, tilting back her head almost to the point of pain so that he
could smile into her face from an inch away. “I have just recalled that I am
Master here, and so there is no need to bargain. Whatsoever I desire, I have
only to demand.”

Mara rolled her
eyes and turned her back on him. She didn’t say another word, not even a “Never
mind, then.” She just went and he let her get all the way out of the room and
halfway up the stairs to the empty theater before he tried to call her back. Very
aware of the laws of the school, Mara nevertheless did not consider either her
name or, ‘Hold!’ to be specifically an order. She kept going, rounded a tight
curve in the winding steps, and nearly smacked into Kazuul’s naked chest.

Once more, she
made that hated backwards flinch, and probably would have taken a very bad
tumble if he hadn’t reached lackadaisically out and snagged her by the robe. He
didn’t pull her back, exactly, just kept her hooked on him until she found her
feet, making his enjoyment of her awkwardness quite obvious. Once she was
settled, he opened his fist and showed her his empty palms.

“How the hell
did you get in front of me?” she snapped.

“Truly, thou
shouldst attend more lessons. Didst thou not hear me call thee back?”

“You didn’t say ‘Simon
Says.’ If you’re going to insist that we students follow your orders, you’re
going to have to start making those orders clear.”

“Thou drawest a
fine line, my bitter sip, twixt reason and rebellion.” His eyes smoldered
briefly, lighting up his cragged face goblin-green, but then dimmed. “Speak. I
hear thee.”

“No.”

“No?”

“This mountain
is full of women who’ll cheerfully be your walking joke, but I’m not one of
them. So forget it. I was wrong to come here. Get out of my way.”

“I’ll not be
moved until I learn the reason for thy coming.” His smile grew dangerous. “Do
not force me to have it out of thee, Mara. Thy mind is not impervious to
determined assault and thy flesh is fragile yet.”

“Why did I come?”
She affected a hard, bitter laugh for him, her thoughts bristling with a sense
of self-recrimination she knew would amuse him. So far, so good. Now it got
tricky. “I came because I was restless and bored. I came because I was lonely. I
came—”

His eyes and
mind sparked at the same time. He leaned back on his heels and studied her,
wary.

“—because I
found you the least objectionable option open to me,” she went on without
pause, and laughed again. “Looks aren’t everything, clearly. I’ll show myself
out.” She tried to push past him.

He would not be
moved in any part, save for his head, which turned to follow her efforts as she
sought a way around him on the narrow stair. There was none, unless she
physically climbed over him, and that, she was sure, would only degenerate into
a wrestling match she couldn’t possibly win. In the end, she retreated, as they
had both known she would, and glared at him.

“Shall thee
feign surprise when I say I do not believe thee?” he asked calmly.

“And why shouldn’t
you, when you built a damned bed just for that purpose? I’ve been told it’s the
done thing here for students who would really rather not sleep on the ground,
which I have done now for several days, and if you believe nothing else, you
can believe I’m sick of that. And for Christ’s sake, what was I supposed to do
while I was here? Stay celibate? Pick up one of these chanting asses so they
can try to turn some simple fucking into an experiment in fake magic?”

His expression
hadn’t changed, not so much as a flicker of light in the green glow of his eyes.
“There are others than I to meet thee, brothers more accessible.”

“That was
actually one of your selling points,” Mara said. “I don’t need the whole
mountain knowing my business. I thought you might be discreet, since most of
these fools don’t even know you exist.”

“Ah.” He
contemplated her a few minutes more, his thoughts in unseeable motion behind
his eyes, and then he smiled again and opened his arms just slightly. “Shall I
disrobe?”

“I said that was
why I came,” Mara told him in a voice that dripped ice. “But you thought it
would be more fun to tease me. Well now you can laugh at me all the way out the
door. Move.”

“Thou art
over-sensitive.”

“I’m not
sensitive, I’m unforgiving. Move.”

“Is that
command?” he inquired, unbuckling his belt.

She glared at
him, projecting heat and contempt like walls all around her. “You can make me,”
she said. “And I’ll lie down for it, but I won’t be there and when it’s over,
you will never see me again. Understand something, demon—”

His eyes
flashed.

“—you are
my
toy on
my
terms for this game, not the other way around, or I don’t
play.”

“Thy toy.” His
foreclaw tapped idly at the metal framework of his belt, but did not unfasten
it further. “Need I tell thee my thoughts on these terms?”

“You can if you
want.”

“I think of
tickbirds.”

Her eyelids
fluttered, but she managed not to lose too much of her glare to puzzlement, she
hoped. “Tickbirds.”

“For I have seen
them in bygone days, flown down to the backs of dragons, to feed in safety on
one who could as easily snap them up and end their lives. Thou knowest, I
think, that thou art prey in this place and so thou wouldst seek out some great
dragon to shelter thee, trading thy flesh for my protection.”

“Oh please. Protection
from what? You are all the same in here, don’t you know that? I could have what
I want out of anyone.”

“Then why seek
me?”

“Because I
stupidly thought you wouldn’t embarrass me. As you’re determined to, consider
the offer resigned.”

“Offer?” His
brows rose and this time, she didn’t think his surprise was feigned. “Offer,
dost thou say? Thinkest thou that thee might dangle so sweet a prize before me
and be safe from the snap of my jaws? Ha! Speak on, woman! Tell me the hook
that lies beneath the luscious flesh thou wouldst
offer
.”

“If I’d known
you were this suspicious—”

His hand stabbed
out, his pointing claw stopping just short of her eye. “Do not play me for thy
fool,” he said, very quietly. “We are neither one of us made for it.”

“Suit yourself. I’m
still trying to leave.”

He waited,
waited, and slowly began to frown. Suddenly, he straightened up, and there was
nothing like that swift, powerful motion to accentuate his size, his breadth,
his sheer inhumanity. Again he hooked her by the robe, but she wasn’t sure this
time if he meant to steady her or just to snatch her. “Thou art in mine own
lair, Mara, in
my
theater, in
my
school. In this place, there are
only Masters and those who serve. There are no bargains here.”

“I’m not here to
strike one, damn it! I have an itch that needs scratching, that’s all. Why are
you so determined to see some insidious plot?”

Kazuul grunted
and released her. “I wonder.”

“You’re far
enough out of the way that I can come and go without attracting a lot of
attention, and—” She shrugged one shoulder carelessly as she straightened out
her robe. “—you’re not hard to look at.”

He bent his head
in mocking acknowledgement. “High praise indeed, from heartless Mara.”

Her jaws
clenched. “I’m not heartless.”

“Hm. Long it has
been since last I took fleshly pleasure, and perhaps it is true that I have
forgotten the ways of courting. Mine overtures could not lure thee in and so…” His
green eyes sparked with humor. “And so in ceasing them, I have won thee. Whatever
is there in this to suspect?”

“You could
suspect that if you hadn’t been such a horndog in the first place, I might have
been here sooner.”