Temple of Cocidius by Maxx Whittaker

Author:Maxx Whittaker [Whittaker, Maxx]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saving Throw Ink
Published: 2018-10-21T04:00:00+00:00

-The Garden-

Callista doesn’t look impressed by the garden.

“Do you want to come out to the terrace and meet the others?” Maybe some companions who aren’t hunting her or enslaving others will be a welcome change.

Her eyes narrow on one of the western bedchambers. “After artaois fuck, we sleep... For the good of everyone,” she concludes in a low growl.

“Got it. I’ll see you…” In a few hours? Months? I probably need about that long to recover.

Callista shrugs and strides away without an answer.

“Tonight,” I command, more dominant. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but after the cave, I think I know how she works.

I’m rewarded with a last, hooded glance and a small smile, thrown over her shoulder before she disappears through the archway.

Only when she’s gone do I slump, hand on the railing, and take a deep breath. I’ve come close to death so many times in my life, but always on the battlefield. What happened in her den, the danger and pleasure of it, the blood that still glistens on my skin...Indescribable. I want it again, now, to follow her through that doorway, and at the same time, I want to sleep for a month.

A glint catches my eye when I turn and start for the terrace. Cocidius’s bust sits in the alcove. Its clasp, faded with traces of gold earlier, gleams like it’s newly-leafed. A black spot appears, moves across the disk.

“You? I thought you’d gone. Happy to see me?”

The spider raises tiny front legs, beckoning.

“Feeling is mutual.” I hold out a finger and she picks her way gracefully up my arm.

I’m suddenly dying to know how the Gardener has changed, but she’s nowhere to be seen. I head for the garden.

Finna flows from the trees as I cross a small footbridge over the pond.

“Lir! I saw the portal flash.” She rests a hand on my shoulder, thins, and flows around me in a pale purple waterspout, heady with roses.

“So you’re happy to see me, then?”

She reforms, following me into the trees. “The only worthwhile mortal I’ve met in a thousand years? Absolutely.”

“Was there one in the previous thousand years?”

“Your kind had a decent run four or five millennia ago.” She peeks at me, sly. “Where do you think the demi-gods came from?”

“Hah.”

Her eyes widen as she takes me in, the blood spattered across my skin from bonding with Callista. “Oh, Lir. Your time in Vallespir must have been brutal.”

Claws, fur, teeth, raking skin, barbs. “You have no idea.”

Her brow furrows, but when I don’t elaborate, she shrugs, sets off again.

“Seen the Gardener?”

“No.” Her form deepens, giving her a frown. “Not all day, I think.”

“Huh. And speaking of my worthiness, that bit of you I kept inside?” I give her the eye. “It saved my life.”

She smiles, lips thick but without their usual density. “Then you can keep it a bit longer. Speaking of which…”

We’ve reached the glade. I stumble a step, still somehow surprised what awaits me.

Meridiana lays nude on a blanket in the brightest patch of sun.

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