Page 49 (1/2)

"I’ my coldness "I wish you hadn’t been confronted with all this Not yet, at least" He searched for the right words "Our ways are not human ways," he said, after a while "Some of us are more… considerate in our use of our powers than others Some of us are, quite sie us by human standards, and eventually you’ll come to understand that You’re one of us, Jane, whether you like everything about our co--to process what he was saying

"In the meantime," he continued, uncomfortably, "we do have a systeets too out of control And I’m part of that system So please don’t look at me like that"

He sounded so apprehensive that I blinked, shaken out of olden eyes, as if I could find the answers I wanted written on his corneas But all I got for my trouble was a flash of memory--the morasped thatto it like a leech

"Oh, Ryu," I said, reaching for hio home" And I really did, I realized Rockabill, and the word honificance for me

"I know, baby," he whispered into my ear "I’ll take you home when this is all over I proht, thinking of that poor man’s neck

He held me for another minute, as I recovered ong sounding froe of the raised dais

"Dinner time," Ryu said "You okay?"

I nodded, shaking myself mentally Ryu tookin the first row, near the dais, with Wally Ryu was careful to keep his between ed covert little nods, and I knew they had soenie wasn’t actually wearing any

After we took our seats, the Alfar high table filed in and took their places Morrigan and Orin were seated at the center of the table in the fanciest chairs, naturally, and Jarl was seated next to Orin He looked particularly threatening in a high-collared royal-blue robe that made him look like he’d raided a Martian overlord’s closet I also saith a start, that Nyx was seated at the very end of the high table Her hunk of hue of the dais, at her feet He looked lost and an There was another singer, but this tirayish-green skin and seaweed hair He was also unabashedly naked, although whereas Trill was relatively suy looked like he had a coral reef extending down his chest to his groin, enitals I leaned back intoHis voice spoke to h his words, I felt the ocean on , and thrilled to the echo of her waves in reat hall I relaxed just a fraction And when I felt Ryu’s slippered foot glide up ht Until I re slippers, and rin froht, carefully withdrawingRyu hadn’t noticed his friend’s infraction, so I kept ed atfor all the world as peaceable and har to understand that nothing was as it appeared, here in the Alfar court

After the singer, ere entertained by a group of incubi and succubae who danced like Cossacks trained by whirling dervishes They spun like tops, kicking high their legs and tossing each other gracefully up in the air Ryu put both hands on my knees, to remind my suddenly totally aroused body that it had to stay in its seat and not get itself a little tossing of its own

I breathed a sigh of relief when they were finished Dancing sexpots were all a little tooin Rather than individual plates, ere given large platters of food to share a was, of course, delicious About the only thing I could unreservedly say was good about the Alfar was that they sure kne to keep a body fed I’d never eaten so well in my life, and my dad and I are both pretty dab hands in the kitchen

During dinner there was a band One person played an electric guitar, another a bodhran, and a third the panpipes, but they were the only instrunized After the roup of succubae--this ti clothes--stood up to take their place

Oh no, I groaned inwardly Not again

But just as the little group jiggled merrily into position, Jarl stood He’d been oddly unfocused for the majority of the meal, his eyes turned inward as if he were in a trance I’d kept an eye on hiht in a web