“Leave us!” Night Shadow Star commanded as she stepped out of her personal quarters. She wore a clinging black dress that was pinned over her left shoulder. Her hair hung free to her buttocks and gleamed blue in the morning light.
Her household staff was busy replacing the trophies Swirling Cloud had taken down, hanging them in their traditional places on the plastered wall above the sleeping benches. The rest of the wealth was piled in heaps just inside the door.
“Red Wing, stay if you would,” she added as he stepped down from positioning an old Quiz Quiz war shield taken during a great uncle’s raid.
Fire Cat eased himself down, careful of the stitches holding his wounded hide together. He made a face as he straightened.
Clay String led the others out, casting one last look to ensure the palace was empty.
Night Shadow Star’s gaze ran over the piles of blankets; jars of food and oil; wooden boxes, many of them inlaid, full of every manner of possession. It had all been stacked on the bare clay floor with its imprint of the now-missing mat. She’d had them rip it out last night and toss it down to the Avenue of the Sun. As she’d expected, it had been carted off by parties unknown—but welcome to it, fouled as it was by Natchez stink and Itza blood.
“Lady?” Fire Cat asked, rubbing his hands to clean the dust as he met her eyes. “Did you sleep well?”
“For the first time in a moon. I awakened clear-headed and refreshed.” She gestured toward the door. “From what I’ve overheard this morning, Clay String, Winter Leaf, and the rest are delighted to have you running the household again.” She gave him a lazy smile. “You’ve become their hero.”
He tried to hide a sly grin. “It would appear that in their eyes even being second choice after an Itza lord is improvement.”
She laid a hand on his muscular shoulder; just the touch of his warm and tanned skin kindled a desire in her breast. She met his level gaze, heart skipping. “You have become the hero of all Cahokia.”
“It will fade with time, Lady. All things do.”
She could feel him trembling, read the pain and desperation he tried so hard to hide behind that steady brown gaze. “Fire Cat, defeating the Itza came at a price. Piasa asked me to choose between your freedom and Cahokia. I … chose the city.”
He nodded. “As you should have, Lady. Anything else?”
“Isn’t that enough?” She felt the tearing within her. “I needed you to know that I would have chosen differently had there been any other—”
“Lady,” he said gently as he placed his own hand on her shoulder, a tremble running through her at his touch. “If that’s the choice Power gave us, I would rather live bound to you, emptying your chamber pot and carrying your water, than be high chief of Red Wing Town. The things I did? Swirling Cloud? The Itza warriors? They were not for Cahokia. They were for you.”
At the love in his eyes, the passion in his voice, her soul twisted, exploded. A frantic relief and terrible fear churned inside her.
“What do we do?” she whispered, pulling him close. “I am Piasa’s creature. To use as he will. And now there’s the Tortoise Bundle, with dangers and pitfalls of its own. My life is not mine to live, Fire Cat. I dare not allow anyone close. I have to keep parts of my soul walled off, aloof and distant. It’s just … just…”
“You are like lightning that can strike at any moment. Deadly and unpredictable. I am fully aware of the danger.”
She nodded, savoring the feel of his body against hers. The liquid warmth spreading through her pelvis came as a welcome surprise. She’d worried that the Itza had killed that desire in her. She could feel his male arousal through his breechcloth, and was reassured when he didn’t try to pull away in embarrassment. She tightened her grip, hearing him grunt against the pain in his wounds.
“Then you know why I have to remain aloof, distant.”
“I’ll serve you until we are finally destroyed, Lady.” She felt him tense. “And you promise me that you will never, ever, marry a man you do not cherish and respect. I really can’t bear it.”
At the tone in his voice, unbidden laughter came bubbling up from her exhausted core. “I do swear. You hear that, Piasa? The next mythical lord to appear, you find another woman to put in his bed.”
As if in answer, she saw only the flicker of movement at the corner of her eye.
Yes, he knows.
Only then did she push back, her heart hammering, her breasts tender and sheath tingling. His face was flushed, eyes smoldering like damped fires.
“Until we’re destroyed, Fire Cat,” she promised. “Now, I heard you say you owed some chunkey player a debt in River Mounds City. Use whatever you need to of this to repay it. Oh, and send Green Stick to find us a new floor mat.”
What a sense of joy to be concerned with the mundane problems of life. She would savor them. Enjoy them, knowing full well that such inconsequential pleasures would be coming to an end too soon.
“Yes,” Piasa whispered behind her ear. “Trouble coming. A fluttering of moths in the night. Soon now.”
She turned, but the terrible beast had already vanished, leaving only a shiver of fear to run down her spine.