The Graveyard of Empires - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

A Return of Characters the Reader May Recall

"I'm so glad to see you," Eden said as they all took seats in Antonina's lavish sitting room. "It's been months since I had the chance to come by."

"Three months," Antonina said. "But I can't blame you, dear. There are other things vying for your attention." The winged madam had a special divan made for her, backless so it did not interfere with her great wings. She seated herself as regally as any queen. "But this is not simply a sociable visit. You came for something, I know that look in your eye." She poured a cup of tea for each of them and took one for herself, plinked a sugar cube in it. "Good that you did, too."

Eden raised a brow. "Something amiss?"

"Oh there are all kinds of things going on, dear. But mostly what I am concerned about is Ulysses," She stirred her tea with delicate motions of her spoon.

"Gray?" Eden looked at Sally, blew on her tea. "What about him?"

"I was expecting to hear from him by now," Antonina said. "He was headed back east, something to do back at Department L, but he didn't seem concerned about it." She shook her head. "He made mention of being back here for the Independence Day party, but I haven't seen him, or heard."

"Have you heard anything else?" Eden said. Antonina had once been an agent of the government, before her second career. She was often a font of useful information.

Antonina flicked her gaze at the Van Drakes, and Eden waved a hand. "They're all right."

Antonina shrugged. "Well, I only find it troublesome that Gray has gone incognito just when the former Captain Constantine has been released."

Eden and Sally both almost spat out their tea. "Released?" Eden banged her teacup down more forcefully than she'd intended. "I thought there was no chance of that."

"I would have thought so too, but the charges at the courts-martial have apparently been dropped. The man was called up for lapses of moral character and drummed out of the service, but he's a free man." Antonina shook her head. "I find the machinations of politicians far more nefarious than any of the intrigues normally associated with whores. Whores are paragons of honesty and virtue. When a whore intends to screw you, she announces it."

"Mackenzie," Eden said. "Gray swore that Mackenzie would never let Constantine get away with it."

Antonina sighed. "I have to point out that Colonel Mackenzie, while an excellent officer by all accounts, is regular army, while Constantine is Navy. The services do protect their own. Also, Mackenzie was assigned to the frontier in command of the 41st Infantry. A promotion of sorts, but it removes him from the orbits of the capital, where decisions are made."

"So Constantine is in the wind," Sally said. "Fucker. This is not a coincidence."

"No," Eden said. "And if something has happened to Gray. . . " She stared off into space. "There is more going on here than I can see." She shook her head. "First, I want to ask you a favor."

Antonina's brow shot up. "Me? What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping I could speak to Azrael," Eden said.

"Well, that would be up to her, but I don't see why not," Antonina said. "Though I appreciate you asking. I am protective of that girl."

Sally snorted and Antonina's brow arched up even higher. "Something amusing?"

Sally shook her head. "Protective of a girl who came within reach of destroying the country. It's funny to me."

"Well she's very dear to me, so be easy," Antonina said.

Eden drained her teacup and stood. "She's dear to me as well."

---

Azrael came out of her bath and stretched. She let the sun from her window shine on her body and felt the heat, turned in place with her eyes closed. Summer was her most favored season. There was a towel close to hand and she picked it up and dried herself, let her pinned-up hair down to spill over her shoulders. It was starting to get really long, and she was always thinking of cutting it but she never did.

She had no assignations this afternoon, not until dark, and she was glad of the rest. Not that Antonina would not give her all the time she wanted, but Azrael herself found she had to balance the right amount of work with her idleness - too much of either rubber her wrong and made her irritable and broody.

When she was dried off she took a bottle of oil and poured some in her hands, rubbed herself down. Not too much, just enough to give her golden skin a slight sheen. Done, she took a brush and swiped it though her hair until it was smooth and shining. She wanted something to eat, and then she would perhaps take a nap before the evening's fun. She left the bath chamber and went out into her apartments.

Here everything was done in reds and deep violets, shades she found sensual and comforting. Her bed was wide enough to sleep six people, which it had been known to do. Just now there was only a single huge form on it, black-furred and monstrous, the bestial shape of Merodach, her lover.

He was sprawled naked on his belly, his small, tail twitching absently as he paged through a dime novel, reading with his single good eye - the other was a mechanical construction so dangerous it was hidden under a heavy patch. "I don't know how you can read that garbage,' she said, coming to lie down beside him. He grunted as she leaned against his side.

"I don't know how they can write it," he grumbled. "Look at this," he held it up. "Captain Kane looks nothing like that. That woman looks as if she could kill an ox with one blow."

"The only one who has killed an ox with one blow is you," she said. She nuzzled his heavy ear until he flicked it, then she bit it and he grunted, pushed her over. Her stomach growled and he snorted.

"Hungry?" he said.

"I could eat," she said. She stopped and sat up when there was a knock at the door. "Who is that?" she said, half to him and half to herself.

Merodach sniffed, grunted as his green eye widened. "Speak of the devil, and she'll come to your door."

Azrael frowned and got up, pulled on a robe as she went to answer the door. There had not been another knock, and she hesitated for a moment, and then a voice said her name very quietly and she pulled the door open and stood looking into the eyes of Eden Kane.

They stood silent for a moment, looking at each other. It had only been six months since they had almost killed one another. Eden looked harder somehow. Sharper around the eyes and mouth, her dark brown hair pulled back. They both blinked, and then Eden reached out and took a lock of Azrael's hair and held it out. "Your hair's getting long."

Azrael took hold of her hand, and then the two of them melted into an embrace, Azrael squeezed her and felt her eyes sting. "It's good to see you," she said, her voice feeling thick.

"Good to see you too," Eden said. She drew back and smiled. "You're looking well." She looked over at Merodach. "You too, you child-eating monster."

Merodach snorted and sat up, tossing his book aside. He sniffed. "You didn't bring Zenobia and her brat did you?"

Eden laughed. "No, I did not. In fact, I am here because I am short-handed."

"Something happened to Zenobia?" Azrael said, concerned.

"No, no, nothing like that. I'm just stretched a bit thin, is all." Eden closed the door behind her and leaned on it. "Belial is gone, Gray is nowhere to be found, and I have a new war to fight. A war I don't even know all the sides in. I could use some extra muscle."

Azreal looked uncomfortable. "Eden I would like to help you, but I just. . . I don't know. . ."

"Oh no dear. No no." Eden shook her head. "I would not ask you to do that. I know, I. . . I know." She smiled gently. "I actually came to ask if I could borrow your monster." She gestured to Merodach, who grinned to show all of his dagger-like teeth.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" he growled, climbing off the bed. "I would love the chance for some action." His cock stuck out in front of him and he slapped it lustily. "All kinds of action."

---

Calliope found herself in some kind of vulgar lounge with Alex and the pirate woman called Diamondback Sally. It was not vulger, per se, but was ridiculously opulent and decorated in the most lewd fashion imaginable. The painting above the bar was so obscene she blushed just looking at it. She found herself among half-dressed girls who seemed there for decoration and a smattering of men who in no wise fit the term 'gentlemen'. They looked like pirates for the most part, and she did not like the looks they gave her, despite that there were plenty of uncovered women for them to gawk at.

Alex gawked at them too, and no amount of narrowing her eyes at him seemed to have any effect. He was wholly unprepared for the onslaught of unclothed female flesh, sufficient to make Cally feel like a schoolmistress in her dress and corset, both of which could stand to be cleaned, as she had been in them for several days. She would get abducted without her luggage.

She was offered a drink but knew she could not accept without incurring Alex' displeasure. Just now she was tempted to risk it anyway, just to spite him for staring, but she could not justify getting too angry with him when she herself was unable to resist staring. She was not used to such wanton displays of feminine nudity either.

She spent a while wishing for a drink, or a book at least, and then she remembered she was aboard the Princess of Texas and there was something she had always wanted to see down belowdecks. The realization bolted her right out of her chair and Alex almost fell off his she startled him so badly.

"What? What is it?" he said, blinking.

"I am going down to see the engines!" she said, the excitement of it taking over her like the rush of a stiff drink. She was off for the door before he could even start to come after her.

"Cally? Cally! I don't think roaming around aboard a flying bordello is really the best idea - wait!" He hurried to keep up with her as she trotted down the hall. "Calliope!"

She didn't slow down, just took a turn left and found a stairway leading down. There were half-naked girls all around and she did not pay them the slightest attention. She tried to picture where a service hatch would be as she descended into a hallway that smelled of steam. There had to be a bath or a laundry around somewhere, and that meant access to the engines - unless the engines of this ship did not produce hot water. She was suddenly very keen to find out.

There! She spotted a cluster of thick steam pipes and followed them down the corridor, ignoring the queries of the girls and the sounds of Alex following her. They led around the corner, then vanished into the wall above a heavy curtain. She yanked it out of the way and faced a hatch-styled door set in the painted steel wall.

Three quick turns and the hatch opened, and she saw a dark, close corridor behind it, steam drifting and a distant pulse in the air. She stepped through and felt a subtle vibration underfoot. Ha! This was the place.

"Where are you going?" Alex said, coming through the door behind her. "I really. . . I doubt we are supposed to be back here."

"This is what I came to see, silly," she said as she headed down the hall, skirts bunched up in her hands. "Not half-naked girls and lewd paintings. I came to see the engines."

She went down the corridor, wishing she was in something less cumbersome than a dress. The way was quite narrow in places. She pushed through until they emerged into a more open space and she peered around, trying to get an idea of what she was seeing. "All right, that's a heat exchanger, so the drive generates heat. Those there are venting excess heat out into the air. That's a steam conduit, and it seems to pass through. . ." She shook her head. "The steam comes from the drive, this is all a cooling system."

"Are you talking to me?" Alex said.

"Sort of," she said. "Have to go further forward to see what this drive looks like." She hunted for another hatch and found it. It was stridently labeled DO NOT ENTER but she went in anyway. The corridor behind it was wider and cleaner, and she could move faster, Alex straggling behind her. he had a harder time ducking under things, being so much taller than she was.

She emerged into another room filled with what looked like drive pistons but clearly were not. They were cold to the touch and she moved in among them, fascinated. There were cold pistons that did not seem to pump anything, and hot steam pipes that bled off heat, thus allowing the cooling. The mix made for a lot of mist in the air, and she got quite damp poking in among all the machinery.

Suddenly a hand snaked out and caught her from behind, another covered her mouth to cover her squeak. "Well now," a voice grunted in her ear. "What have we got here?"

She was dragged out of the shadows and thrust into an open space lit by lamps. Here was a table made of some immense gear propped up sideways on a crate with cards scattered across it. There were four men at the game, and they all had the greasy, muscular, uncouth look of machine workers. She stumbled against the table, her heart pounding as they leered at her.

Cally turned and faced her captor, found him a handsome if scruffy man of dark skin and eyes, guns on his belt. He smiled. "You know, there is a penalty for entering the engineering spaces without permission, mi hermana."

"I have permission," she said, lying rather badly, and they laughed.

The man shook his head, sharing looks with his companions. "Trespassers will be prostituted," he said, and there was laughter.

"Look I just came to see the engines," she said. "Is there any way to persuade you to let me go and do that?"

"Sure," he said, patting his crotch lewdly. "Persuade me."

Continued in Chapter 12

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