*
The little taxi scooted past offices, barracks and storage buildings, and finally the giant hangars that bordered the spaceport proper. By the time it reached the final checkpoint, the heat of the afternoon was upon them, the breeze no longer filled with the fresh cool breath of morning. There was still a lot of activity, mostly that of work trucks, lorries, fuel tankers, and a few motor-coaches making their return trips from the harbored ships scattered about. The driver zipped in and out of the traffic, hurrying along and taking shortcuts whenever possible.
Some two miles away, the imperial frigate, DishonPele, the ‘wonderful antelope’, awaited its nearing entourage, Mihai having requested the ship because it had two relatively large wardrooms for conducting meetings, something she felt need for during this coming journey. It was one of the newer vessels in the fleet, receiving a complete rebuild less than thirty years before, but it was already tired from constant use and lack of needed refitting.
The driver hurried along as best she could in the growing traffic. Mihai sat back in her seat, eyes closed, just soaking in the day while the wind lifted her golden locks, sending them a-twirl, she paying no heed to the possible growing tangle of knots the tempest was creating. The woman smiled with satisfaction. Hopefully there would be little to do in the remaining hours before the tiny armada departed and she could catch a catnap before dinner.
The driver suddenly swerved to miss a passing tanker truck, it sounding its trumpeting warning just as she did. Mihai chanced a glance to see all the fuss. Turning her head to watch the truck, she spied a distant figure walking across the tarmac. Something felt amiss. Looking closer, she saw it was Darla. ‘Strange. The girl doesn’t take to strolling when on duty. Out here, she’s always on duty.’ Getting the driver’s attention, the taxi turned hurried off in Darla’s direction. As it neared, Mihai called out, waving.
Darla looked up, surprised. She had not noticed the motorcar until Mihai shouted. This was the last person she wanted to see right now. In fact, she wanted to see no one. “Just leave me be!” She sputtered under her breath, disgusted. “Oh, Death, come take me so I need not suffer more torment...” Motioning the taxi away, she turned and started heading in another direction.
Mihai frowned, but was undeterred. That child was not going to put her off! It was time to show some kingly authority. Asking the driver to stop a distance away, she climbed out of the auto, telling the others to travel on, she catching up with them later. As the machine sped away, the woman took to matters at hand.
“Leftenant!” Mihai called out in her commander’s voice. “Halt and be addressed!”
Darla clenched her teeth, more out of dismay and frustration than anger. She stopped up short, but refused to turn about. Casting her eyes skyward, she quietly waited the approaching intruder.
Mihai hurried forward, coming to within a few paces before stopping. When Darla continued to ignore her presence, she entreated the girl, “My lovely Rachel, why do you find me abhorrent? It’s your sister, Michael, the one who loves you so. How is it that you do not know your loving companion?”
Following a flock of birds in the distant sky, Darla finally offered reply, commenting ever so casually, “It is such a beautiful day to start our journey, isn’t it? The sky is so blue this time of year, and the smells…”
“Darla, look at me!” Mihai stiffened her stance, hands on hips. “That’s an order!”
Ever so slowly, Darla obeyed.
Mihai sighed in dismay. It was all she could do to not reach out and hug her little sister. Darla looked a fright – swollen, reddened eyes, distraught countenance, a tear-stained face, revealing the appearance more that of battle fatigue. The girl had been crying, so much as to have stained the blouse of her dress uniform.
“Oh, my child!” Mihai exclaimed in sorrow, the words involuntarily escaping her lips.
For two long hours after Ardon’s vicious attacks, Darla had managed to contain her feelings, she concentrating fiercely on ship’s duties until Bedan finally arrived. When relieved of command, she had quickly departed, barely making it out of earshot when the torrent of tears and quiet wails erupted. Darla tried to smile, but just looking at Mihai brought a returning flood of tears. Stoop-shouldered, she stood there sobbing, no longer able to fight back her inner emotional warring.
Mihai, herself, tearing up, stepped forward, arms outstretched to embrace her little sister. She was abruptly motioned away, Darla crying out her warning. “Leave the dead bury themselves, lo you may well become consumed with their madness! I seek only the solace of the Silent Tombs. Leave me be to such glory. I feel even a dog deserves that kindness...”
Surprised, Mihai quipped, “Darla! Don’t think that way! I…”
Her fists clenched, Darla leaned forward, crying, her face defiant. “Is death such a bad thing to wish for?! So many of my companions have I already buried, there are none left to do so for me. I wish only for their glory. At least they stand as honored by those in this contemptible house.”
An angry fire flashed in Mihai’s eyes and she snapped back, “There is no glory in a death wish! Only cowards and those with no souls seek its release.”
Wailing, Darla shook her fist. “I am no coward!” She shouted in anger, lowering her head in grief. “I have no strength left to live. Go away and let me die! Leave me be. Cracked and broken was the child made, and even more so has the brattling become. Now leave me go… please...”
Mihai would have none of that. She plunged forward, wrapping Darla in a bear hug of an embrace. There she remained all the while the child wept, holding her close, singing gentle, soothing melodies in her ear. To Mihai, it seemed as if the world had stopped, paying its silent respect by restraining an intrusion upon them. For Darla, she remembered little other than the total despair in her heart.
After long moments had passed, Darla stood back, patting her uniform. She looked down at her soiled blouse and, with a sad half-smile, asked, “Do you really know why I wore this fancy uniform today?” Mihai replied she did not know.
“My Lord, you should understand.” Darla looked into Mihai’s eyes. “I was charged with commanding the Shikkeron until Captain Bedan returned. You know that it is only proper to prepare for the ship’s crew to show respect by officially honoring that officer on his arrival. It was my duty to honor Bedan in that manner.”
Mihai agreed. “Any good officer would…”
Darla looked away, interrupting, her face grave. “I had nothing else to gift him with that had not been soaked in the blood of the ones I love. The uniform Contorie made for me lies buried in the fields of Hailar, wrapping my loving sister, SaleenHavson, she having died in my arms in that barren wilderness shortly after we were attacked by Stasis. Indeed, I have no other garments of quality other than this,” She pulled on her blouse, “that has not been soaked with the blood of the ones I’ve loved.”
Looking back into Mihai’s eyes with her own pleading orbs, Darla mused with wistful sadness, “I had so much wished to journey this day for once feeling clean, washed, innocent.”
Then fear began to grow on her face, a dark cloud nearing panic. “But now it has found me! It has waked to take power over my mind. Even now it is clawing at my sanity. It laughs at me in derision, sarcastically accusing me of being the fool for allowing Ardon to live. It nearly took control of the monster within today, making me go blind with rage, its ugly laughter and my hatred for it all that kept my sanity.”
Mihai now felt her own panic rising. She clutched Darla by the shoulders, asking in desperation, “How long have you been resisting the demon’s advances? How long has it sought you out in your waking dreams?”
Shocked, Darla dumbly stared into Mihai’s eyes. How did Mihai know about her waking dreams? She had told no one, even keeping them hidden from Euroaquilo in their dream-shares. Finally, casting her gaze down and away from her sister’s searching eyes, Darla answered refle
ctively, “Off and on for many years, they becoming strong during the Great War, then retreating into hidden recesses for a while. But now they grow again, the demon being insidious and bold.”
An involuntary shudder ran down Darla’s back. “These last three nights have been most cruel on my constitution, the demon giving me no rest at all. Its very breath I feel upon me even now. I cannot escape it.”
As Darla’s own words began to sink in, a new fear grew in the girl’s heart, one she could not contain. Tears of terror brimmed in her eyes as she desperately pleaded, “It’s the blackness, isn’t it - the blackness that consumes all the damned, eventually driving them mad like the Stasis!”
She shook her head, whimpering like a little child. “I failed, haven’t I? Failed to love enough and care enough, to hate my own wickedness, my own evil. I tried to be good, but this last hour’s convulsions of wrath have driven me over the edge. It has come for me, hasn’t it? And I can’t stop it this time, for I have damned myself to it.” She bowed her head and began crying anew.
“No! No! No! That is not true at all!” Mihai shook Darla, her needing to deny her sister’s wicked evil as much for her own sake as Darla’s. “It is not what you think! Cannot be! Cannot be! It is another evil warring inside you. You’re a good child… good child. Mother loves you more than most! I know! I know, for she told me so, herself.”
Darla mourned, resigned, having heard nothing of what Mihai said. “It calls to me, seeking my love. It yearns for my attention, gifting me with dreams of dismay, telling me it offers me only what I deserve. I am damned, and there is nothing for it. I should end it now before I bring the ones I love down to the pit, for that is what the demon seeks, yearns for me to desire.”
Mihai was beginning to panic. She saw not Darla, but herself slowly sinking into the abyss of damnation with every word the girl spoke. Inside her own head, she could hear sniggers and quiet laughter and, further away, from somewhere near, she heard the mournful cries of another beast calling out to hers, seeking solace from it. Darla’s demon was trying to contact hers! Mihai almost cried aloud, terror growing in her heart at that revelation.
Was she, too, going insane? Was it too late for Darla… for her? “No! No! No!” She shouted in desperation. “It cannot be! I will not allow it! Damn all the world! I will not allow it!” Squeezing Darla’s arms to the point of pain, Mihai demanded, “Tell me! Tell me, now! What about your dreams?! Tell me about your dreams!”
Through the fog of her own inner terrors, Darla heard little. Was she lost to the souls of the damned? The thought was so disturbing as to make beads of bloody sweat form on her forehead. She mumbled something incoherent.
Mihai’s heart was racing. She had to know. For her own sanity, she had to know. Violently shaking her sister, she screamed, “Tell me about your dreams! Fear me, for my wrath is worse than the fires of the abyss! Tell me of your dreams! Look at me! Look at me now and tell me about those god-damned dreams!”
As a caged animal fears the fires of its tormentor, Darla cowered in fright, she having shrunk up to a mere shadow of her stately stature. Those emerald green eyes so often filled with mirth staring wildly into a world of darkness and horrors. Hideous sights filled her head as the demon within sought control of her senses. But Darla was a strong child and she would not go quietly. Struggling to regain power over her mind and soul, she swore vile oaths and rebukes to all the worlds of the living and the dead. Slowly, through curses and beseeching pleadings, she regained possession of her senses.
Finally, she felt the shaking, Mihai’s shouting. Now she heard the questions Mihai was asking. Dreamily, she answered, “My lovers, all my lovers, are crying out to me, accusing me for all the death and tribulation heaped upon them. I see a river of blood as it reaches out for me…my lovers, all dead, rotting corpses with taunting voices, seeking my destruction, to drown me in that river of blood.”
“What else?! Tell me, what else did you dream?” Mihai shook Darla again. “Tell me!”
Darla nodded, she still being lost in a mind-numbing fog. “I feel the loathsome maggots feasting on my flesh and the scarabs chewing on my brain. They ever eat me up, constantly chewing, ever eating. And my… my insides are spilt out upon the ground where the dogs are consuming them. Oh! And my head…my head is being split apart by some power from the inside. Yes! By unspeakable visions! Oh, my head… My eyes have been crushed and my nose torn away. My very womanly parts have been ripped from my body. Oh, the agony!”
Wrapping her arms around her sister, Mihai cried out in remorse, “Oh, my dear little one, I am so sorry for the tribulation I have cast down upon you. You, the most innocent of children! It is I who belong with the damned for, if not for me, you would not have suffered these terrible things.”
Staring into Mihai’s eyes, Darla asked, confused, “What are you about? Has the universe all gone to rubbish? Are we all dead and not know it yet?”
Mihai smiled, holding her iron embrace on Darla. “It’s all right. The demon has not taken over your mind, nor have you slipped into the worlds of darkness and damnation.”
Darla did hear what her sister said this time. As if coming out of a stupor, she gently pulled away from Mihai’s embrace and stepped back, asking, “How are you so sure that it will be all right?”
Darla was listening, waiting. Mihai relaxed a little. “The blackness has not taken you or me… nor will it. Mother loves us and would never let those with the powers over the abyss harm us. That I know. And I also believe I can help you understand your torrid dreams, or at least the concept of them.”
Pulling her sister close again and speaking in little more than a haunted whisper, Mihai confessed, “You have seen my terror, what was done to me in that evil hour long ago. How, I do not know, other than the creature our brother planted within me is highly intelligent and able to reproduce itself, or at least once was able to do so… or, maybe, there was more than one planted within me – I’ll tell you why I think that is possible – and one has entered into you by traveling upon a strand of my DNA that you drank as I suckled you.”
Mihai frowned. “A terrible evil has enveloped you, one that I believe may be far worse than mine. You know of my demon and I know of yours, or at least that you have one. Now I’m beginning to understand something far more sinister. I can feel their camaraderie and ability to communicate to a degree through the mind. I also believed that he gave to me those demons on the day of his attack, but now I think I may have received them over time, he practicing his subversion during his many dream-shares he showered on me in the weeks before that damnable day.”
A chill ran up Mihai’s spine. She thought of the possibility of others being gifted with such evil during that same time period. But few were visitors then, he being so busy planning, only… there was another, and… No! Mihai could not bear to think it possible.
She forced that nightmare from her thoughts and continued. “I fear that I have added to the madness hiding inside you. Through our many dreams shared, while we opened ours minds up to each other, the demons may well have had the ability to do the same, taking advantage of our openness to communicate freely.”
“You see, my Lovely One, Mother gave to our brother power extraordinaire, and she shared many of her sacred secrets with him, she being so blindly in love with the man. I do not blame Mother, but allow me to continue. Our brother was given the ability to mix his genetics with that of his lovers, or at least his women lovers. Why he turned to hating his sisters so badly and giving his passion to his brothers is a question I have pondered many times. Anyway, Asotos could give the gift of himself to any woman he shared his love with, bonding her to him in a special way. Some women, like Anna, grew to loving him with a drunken craving. Whether it was him or the woman who cast or allowed to be cast such a spell, it was real, very real.”
Darla asked, curious, “So it was through the act of intercour
se that Asotos contaminated the mind of his sister, or could do so?”
“Well…” Mihai thought about it. “I feel it might have been that way, possibly, but he could have accomplished such a feat through any physical exchange of genetics, even through someone’s food, I believe. It is, or was, the spiritual aspect of matters, though, that set the stage for seeing his gift come to fruition. He had to get into your head. That is what your older sisters have called the ‘dream of dreams’. The man could get right inside you, become part of you, and then he could play upon your soul the sweetest, most exciting music a woman had ever experienced.”
She shook her head. “That power died when Mother took it away from him shortly after my assault, thus depriving him of additional victims.”
Inquisitive, Darla asked, “So who can offer up the dream of dreams today? Who has the power? PalaHar maybe?”
Mihai denied it to be so, answering, “The power is not with us at this time. It has been promised to us by Mother that she shall resurrect it at a future day. For now we must wait, or pine, as some have the habit of doing.”
Releasing Darla and stepping back, Mihai confessed, “All that is in the past now. The blissful life we once believed could never end, the countless dream-shares, even the tiny garden that so many of us came into womanhood in is gone, covered by the thorns of Time. But I digress.”
Reaching out and brushing a strand of Darla’s wavy black hair from her face, Mihai smiled reassuringly. “There are ways to rid ourselves of demon terrors, or at least ease them. And needs be it shall become for you to have such a cure. You see, it is nearing the anniversary of my attack, the hour of my coming of age, the moment when my heart and mind were forever torn asunder. I believe this prisoner exchange has been set to that date so that our brother can offer up some of his special deviltry that he’s so good at doing.”
“My dear child,” Mihai took Darla’s hands in hers. “as the hours progress, the demon will increase in strength and viciousness. This happens to me every year about this time, but this anniversary, I fear, will be worse. Maybe I’m just tired. I have been busy, you know.”
Darla shivered with growing trepidation. “So will it consume me… us, or is there something we can do to hold it in check?”
Mihai said there was. “Yes, yes there are positive things we can do, and not so difficult to manage, either. Seek out the attention of Euroaquilo. Make him keep you at his side for these remaining days before the prisoner exchange. Tell him your need for protection from your dreams, from your demon. Many are the nights he has already acted gallantly in your behalf, even in mine. Go to him. Mother has given him the power to protect you.”
“What of you, my Lord? Who will protect you until then?” Darla asked, more concerned for Mihai’s fate than her own.
Mihai fussed, “You worry about you. Your demon has been acting a bit unruly this day. Have Euroaquilo put it in its place. Besides, Mother has given me a fellow who’s pretty good at holding back the goblin. He may not have learned how to be the best lover… yet… but he knows how to take on a fight with that demon and best it! Like that!” She snapped her fingers. “Like that!” Secretly she wished to herself to have Euroaquilo by her side, but it could not be.
Seeing and understanding, Darla insisted that Mihai be with Euroaquilo. Mihai resisted fervently. “No! That must not be. If the demon gains success, it may never be rid from you, and that may well bring you to the damnation your most fear…a living Hell for a long as breath exists within you.”
As her own words sank in, Mihai’s countenance failed her. She lowered her head, tears falling. “I am so sorry. Except for my selfish desires, my dearest little sister would not face these dragons. Her fate rests in my hands, and those hands have brought her to the edge of destruction…”
“Sister...” Darla tugged at Mihai’s jacket. “Sister...”
Mihai looked up to see a serene, smiling face and sparkling eyes staring into hers. “Does the doctor never need a cure? Is it not true that the most fearsome of wild beasts will one day spread a grand feast for the lowliest of creatures? My sister, one day we will feast upon the evil creations of our brother, and he will shudder because we will then rule the worlds of men and gods.”
It was Darla’s mouth that formed the words, but Ma-we’s voice that Mihai heard when her sister spoke again so reassuringly. “The most terrible of trials may one day become the greatest of gifts. Those who pass through those unspeakable fires forever are bonded together as but one person. Mihai, you and I have shared the blood grape, we have loved in its passion. We are one, you and I, never to be torn asunder.”
“We, you and me, are also bound together by a living evil, married to a fiend that seeks our destruction. Yet it is we who feed upon its malice to accomplish our own desire for vengeance. We crave our demons as much as they crave us, for the power beyond what is normal for us from them we attain. Their blood sustains us when all others’ powers fail. Their spirit drives us onward when the bravest in our midst quail in fright. No, they are the host upon which we feed to our own glory. Our demons cannot win for they are abominations of a corrupted mind. We, my sister, cannot fail, for we are the progeny of an immortal spirit.”
Darla gave Mihai a tender kiss. “We have but one soul, mind, and heart. We are the Daughters of Darkness, borne to rid the universe of all that is evil. By evil shall evil be brought to nothing. My Love, we are the Queens of Darkness, the gorgons who ride Shiloh’s flank in the coming War of Wars. The price? We fear not the price for this success, for we know the future treasure is of far greater value than our frail bodies.”
“Should I die tomorrow, I will feel no regret, for you, my sword and shield, have comforted me during all this time. You have given me life and breath. Your milk has given me life and power, for with the power of Asotos’ demon, I shall bring his house down to nothing!”
Kissing Mihai again, Darla crooned, “Oh, my sister, my flesh and my blood, I do love you so much.”
Their embrace was unhurried and soothing both to soul and heart. When the two women finally released their loving hold, the weather was changing. Billowy clouds were filling the sky, being driven along by an agitated breeze. It was mid-afternoon and the time, like the clouds, was racing along toward a determined destiny. Still, time must wait for Mihai. She had some unanswered questions that troubled her.
As Mihai wiped Darla’s face with a clean, white kerchief, she puzzled over the girl’s earlier comment concerning Ardon and wondered aloud about her soiled blouse. She had been so absorbed earlier so as to forget the reason for her sister’s dismay, but now she wondered the why-for of it.
Darla was a good trooper, brushing it all off as nothing, a mere misunderstanding.
Mihai would have none of that, she pressing her little sister until, bit by tiny bit, she squeezed the account from her. As details grew, her countenance became greatly agitated to the point of seething, but she dare not reveal it to Darla. At length, she asked for a close look-see at the blouse.
If Darla had a fault, it was her desire for quality and her meticulous passion for detail. This shirt had been hand-woven of a blend of the finest silks and jewelion threads. It was the value of at least a month’s leftenant’s wages, possibly more - not counting the golden and chrysolite weave in the embroidery and tassels. It was now ruined, Darla’s tears staining the dye of the fabric. Mihai doubted it could be repaired, even with another month’s officer’s wages.
“Give me your blouse, please.” Mihai ordered, her tone reflecting her mood.
Shocked, Darla asked why.
Mihai reached out a hand and demanded it, telling of her need to make a closer examination of it. “Now be a good servant and do what your king requests.” She would not accept ‘no’ for an answer.
Reluctantly, Darla pulled off the shirt and dutifully handed it to her king.
Thanking her, Mihai studied the blouse. Sure as
she had suspected, it was of the finest quality, and made by expert hands. Looking up to comment, she could not help to study the beauty of her sister as well. Few men dared Darla’s company, they usually feigning some great need or other to be about important business, but at what a loss! Darla was a natural athlete and well-practiced in all the martial arts of the day. Her rippling muscles, proud stature, voluptuous curves and deeply tanned, olive-colored, golden skin made her something to behold and desire.
Mihai smiled, waxing sadly, “What a shame to cover such stunning magnificence with these rags of stodginess called ‘clothing’!”
Darla shivered, not from the cold, but from her nakedness. “My Lord…” she said, nervous, glancing around, “I’m on duty. You know the rules. ‘Officers must deport themselves as such at all times while on duty’.”
“Oh, poop! Piss on those orders!” Mihai laughed. “I’m king and I can make or discard any orders I wish! Besides, if you recall, I was the one who made up those orders not that many years ago, when I was field marshal.” She grinned. “Maybe I’ll order that all officers should prance around naked while on duty. You know, I’ll have them tattoo their ranks on their butts…”
Both women laughed. It felt good to laugh. Then Mihai took off her kingly jacket made for her by Ma-we. Handing it to Darla, she ordered, “Here! Musn’t break some silly rules now, must we? I’ve a fine blouse to conduct my business in and have no need of this at the moment. You wear it like a good officer.”
Darla fussed, but finally relented. Mihai helped her sister. It fit a little snug, the revealing cut of the jacket acting like a lifting bodice, hiding none of the woman’s round, full bosom. Tightening the laces across Darla’s belly, Mihai grinned. “This’ll squeeze you in and push you up. Dear, you’ll be a sight to behold.”
When finished, Mihai stepped back for a better look. She good-naturedly fussed, “You make me jealous, my Love. You are rounder, fuller and bigger than the owner of that jacket. You are gorgeous… just gorgeous! It is said by the poets, ‘more perfect than perfect are the breasts of the one born last, and far sweeter are they from the maiden having not yet given suck.’”
Darla blushed, “You say that only to ease my spirit. I am a handmaid, not a maiden. Your golden locks and bouncing breasts stir passion’s desire in the hearts of all. And your pink delights that deliver the creamy elixir of life to the tongue are far more refreshing to the spirit than the finest of Medeba’s wines. I am but a tempting vessel offering up empty promises. You can satisfy both heart and palate.”
Mihai laughed. “You tease my heart, too, but tonight is not the night for satisfying our flirtings. Now hurry along and find your man and tell him all that I have commanded you to tell him.” She patted her on the behind. “Be off! And do not allow any cad to lure you away from your destiny. Many will take notice of you this day, and few will forget the sight, a kingly waif in kingly garb speaking with kingly authority. No! No one will forget my darling this day.” A mischievous smile danced across her face as she pondered people’s reactions.
Darla nodded, curtsied, and then kissed her sister so tenderly. “Thank you. Thank you for loving me.” Off she went to find her manly hero, Euroaquilo.
“And now for some other unfinished business...” Mihai fumed under her breath. Clutching the ruined blouse, she hurried toward the distant Shikkeron.