Descent

"We must challenge the long-held theory that warding stones protect us from demons. Namu is not safe from Infernals. Even now, they might roam freely inside the ancestral wards of the city." -- Keya Oko, Magisterium lecture, 3125 by the Ummran calendar, 21^st day of the Red Dust Moon.

There is something primal about making love near the ocean. Tides are a ritual as ancient and magical as the original desires -- desire to couple, to find release, and to bear children. The beat of the waves, the rush of the pulse, and the wistful cries of seabirds provide the rhythm for that most elemental of dances.

At dawn, the sun peeked over the horizon, always leaping into the sky more quickly than I expected. I enjoy the sun most during that hour, when it is still low enough not to burn my ivory skin.

The villa outside the center of Namu city had been my home for the four weeks since I'd returned from the Ijon River swamp. It was just large enough to be comfortable for seven of my guards and a few servants.

Jinai and I occupied the rooftop apartment. As it was the dry season, we would sleep on a bed of furs on the broad terrace, where we could look out over Silmani Point and greet the sun. Each morning, our tongues and entangled limbs danced to the song of the sea.

On this particular morning, Jinai laid reversed atop me, in a position she said commoners called the "slippery knot." Her lips and fingers caressed my pink folds, while I did the same for her, my tongue thrusting into her steamy cunt. I stretched the cheeks of her ass apart, reveling in the stark contrast of our bodies. Jinai's sleek darkness, and the muscles that rippled just beneath her skin were so unlike my own pale curves.

I gripped her tightly as I came for the first time that morning, licking her nether lips even as I writhed uncontrollably underneath her. Just as I regained my wits, all the more determined to make her come, my eyes were drawn by a movement towards the open doors of the bedchamber.

One of the servants huddled in the shadows of the interior, watching me rut my handmaiden.

The peeper was a dainty thing with short, spiky hair and wide set eyes. Unlike the guards I had brought to the villa -- whose loyalty was beyond question -- I assumed this one would spy for my mother if given the chance.

"Jinai," I said softly.

My handmaiden betrayed nothing, her head still bent to lick my sticky thighs.

"She has been watching us for some time," Jinai whispered. "With her hand thrust between her legs."

"Lila," I called. Jinai lifted her leg, permitting me to rise. "Come here."

The servant straightened, the hem of her kanga wrap skirt dropping to its natural length at her ankles with the abrupt movement. "Forgive me, Lady Oko. We have no honeybush leaves for tea, because of the drought in the north. Shall I make hibiscus tea instead?"

I pushed a clump of golden hair from above my eyes. Then, irritated, I tied back the whole bush of it with loops of cloth while the girl fidgeted. Jinai crouched beside me, as still as a cobra.

"Come here," I repeated.

Lila hurried on to the terrace, sandals slapping against the smooth planks. "Yes, my Lady?"

She met my gaze for a moment, before she considered her feet. As she trembled slightly, I drank in the sight of the nubs that poked stiffly through her thin tunic. I guessed she was a year or two younger than me. Perhaps she had seen nineteen rains.

I still simmered from love-play with Jinai. That hunger inside -- something most profane, no doubt seeded in me by the demon Blossom -- reawakened as I watched the girl quiver. My lust was intensified by my own nakedness in front of Lila, so much so that my cunt throbbed.

"Have you ever seen two women together?" I asked.

"I d-didn't see anything. My Lady."

"That was not my question. Before now, have you ever seen two women make love?"

Lila nodded, still looking down. "In the pleasure houses of Tanga."

"You go to brothels?" Jinai asked.

Even though Lila's skin was brown as a coconut shell, her blush was obvious. "I had to run an errand."

Jinai snorted.

"Did you find that sight pleasing?" I asked.

"Not at all, my Lady," Lila said, still studying her toes. "It was a wicked thing to see."

"Just so. Come closer. Give me your hand."

The servant edged forward, holding her hand out to me. She was not tall. Her fingers dangled just before my face.

"The other hand," growled Jinai.

The girl complied. I drew her shaking hand to my nose and sniffed it. It smelled faintly of herbs. Underneath dwelt the more pungent scent of female arousal.

"And now?" I asked softly. "Do you find this sight pleasing?"

Lila did not speak. She stared in shock as I took her fragrant fingers into my mouth and began to suck them.

Lila's hands were small, but rough with calluses from mortar and pestle, washboard and knife handle. I kissed along the length of her fingers, my tongue darting into the crevices between them.

A sigh slipped from her open lips.

I wondered what she was thinking. Was she terrified because I was the daughter of a Great House, and her mistress? Was she repelled because I was a cursed albino?

Or was it an altogether different emotion that made her shake like a leaf in the breeze?

Lila swayed on her feet. Jinai drew her to her knees on the furs, pulling the younger girl down into a deep kiss, sharing my nectar that no doubt lingered on her lips and tongue. Then Jinai pressed the girl's head down even further, to the nest of short curls between her legs. I released Lila's hand, freeing her to attend her new duties. The girl began to nuzzle and lick my handmaiden's slit.

Had I changed somehow, since my encounter with the demon Blossom? I never would have done such a thing before. I had quailed at even revealing my desire for Jinai. Now I was seducing servants. Had I become corrupt?

Cruel, even?

There was no doubt the girl was aroused. And yet, we had offered her little choice. As Lila lowered her head, she presented the swell of her ass to me. I swept those troubling thoughts from my mind, even as I yanked the hem of her skirt up over the smooth globes of her butt cheeks.

Lila wore nothing underneath her kanga.

Well, then. The randy whore gets what she deserves.

I spread her cheeks, revealing the plump seam of her slit -- hanging between her legs like a juicy stonefruit -- and the dark pucker of her ass. Her skin had the sharp scent of wild sage, the herb commoners used in everything from stew to medicine.

Lila mewled as Jinai seized her head. The servant wiggled her butt as she licked and slurped at Jinai's cunt. When Jinai was satisfied that Lila would continue her ministrations, she lay back on the furs, continuing to guide the little servant with one hand on her scalp.

I swatted the girl lightly on her rounded cheeks. When she wiggled her butt even more, I applied force, slapping her ass until she gave a muffled whine. The insides of her thighs shone with arousal.

Intrigued, I pushed the skirt above Lila's belly, baring her entire ass and the delicate fall of her back. I knelt between her sandaled feet. Running fingers along her slit, I tested its dampness. I spread the dark flesh, until glistening pink was revealed.

I thrust slowly inside. Her cunt sucked my fingertip. With the other hand, I kept her cheeks spread, caressing the sensitive flesh, all the way to her winking asshole.

Jinai had been my first and only other woman. She was ten years older than I. I suspected she'd had many other encounters, with both men and women. As beautiful as her body was, my lover's responses were subtle. Lila squeaked and shook with every move I made, even as she continued to lap at Jinai's slit. Fascinated with the contrast, I soon had two, and then three dripping fingers working inside her.

As Lila's hips drove back against my hand, I reached the other hand under, to the top of her slit to tap her love button. The girl's thighs began to tremble, and she moaned into Jinai's cunt.

Drunk on my own arousal, my eyes slid to the bedchamber again.

It was there, buried in my satchel under a collection of scrolls. Blossom's summoning stone. More times than I could count, I had yearned to use it, to call the demon back to me. I imagined fetching it now and sliding the polished thickness of that phallus as deep into Lila's tight cunt as it might go. I imagined making her come hard on it.

But I knew, ever since Jinai rescued me from the demon's lair, that I could have Jinai or I could have Blossom. Not both. I was the only person in Namu who even knew what a summoning stone was, much less that I possessed one.

I rubbed steadily faster, fingers plunging in and out of Lila, until she gave a muffled, shaking scream. Jinai, either close herself or losing patience, ground the girl's nose against her little pearl. Her back arched, and she too came.

As the two other women panted, I continued to slowly rut Lila with my fingers. Jinai slid out from under her. The girl kept her head down, her butt still aimed at me as I pumped her hungry hole. Finally, I stopped.

Lila sat up as Jinai and I stood naked above her. I held my shining fingers in front of her face. She glanced at me, then obediently opened her mouth so that I could feed her her own creamy spend.

"Did she perform sufficiently to your liking?" I asked Jinai, as Lila slurped around my hand.

"She was tolerable."

"Hmm. Do you think," I asked, "that she needs further direction?"

The handmaiden shrugged.

I pressed Lila down on her back on the furs.

As the girl complied, I straddled her and sat my needy cunt squarely on her nose. I felt a frisson of pleasure as it pressed upon my slit.

"Let us see if you can do better than tolerable, Lila," I said, shuddering as I felt her tongue.

I rubbed her belly as she licked me. I pulled her tunic up over her small breasts, revealing those pebble-hard nubs, diddling them between thumb and forefinger. My own breasts hung pale and heavy over her torso, as I slid back and forth over her face. I found with delight that Lila would even tongue my ass if I rode forward far enough. The sensation made my eyes roll back in my head.

Jinai leaned in for a kiss.

My lovemaking with Jinai was affectionate, even reverent. This was something else. This was a taste of the lust I'd experienced with Blossom. Except that instead of me being thoroughly used, Lila was the toy. I felt vicariously what it was to be rutted, played with, and driven to orgasm as the object of another's pleasure.

As I rode Lila's face, the tide of my lust lifting me steadily to greater heights, I found her cunt again, the lips swollen and gaping. I bent over, my billowy breasts mashed against her skin. I licked her little fleshy nub while my fingers caressed and spread her nether lips apart. I even pulled her legs forward so I could prod her ass.

My climax came upon me quickly, a flash of fiery light as red as dawn. I cried out, smearing my own pulsing cunt all over her face. On a whim, my finger drove to the knuckle into her ass. Soon she was convulsing under me, her groans muffled.

I eased off of her. Lila was still gasping for breath. She gazed up at me with bleary eyes and streaks of spit and juices on her face. Again I fed her my fingers to lick clean.

"You have gotten me all dirty, Lila, and I have an engagement this morning" I told her, as I touched the back of her tongue. "Bring water for a bath."

Jinai had already pulled on her tunic. "If you tell anyone what you saw here this morning," she said to the servant, "we'll know."

Lila stared wide eyed at us. She rose, straightened her clothes, and hurried inside.

By the time I had washed and dressed, Jinai awaited me in the yard. She wore her usual - a loose, long tunic over trousers, concealing any number of lethal weapons. Her kinky hair was bound into two large puffs that framed an angular face.

I had chosen a flowing gown of rose that cloaked me from neck to ankles and wrists. I had piled a headdress over my hair, the tail of the scarf falling to the small of my back. As always, I carried my satchel of scrolls and writing material, with Blossom's summoning stone secreted beneath those, never far from my side.

A golden mask covered my face.

A warrior in red and gold harness accompanied us. I had only brought a handful of guards to the villa -- loyal men that I had brought back from the Ijon River expedition. Just enough to man the front gate and watch the walls. Musa smiled down at us as we passed. The wiry bowman was perched upon the inner wall, whittling a block of wood.

We passed through the gates of the double wall, onto the leafy dirt path that wound its way down from Coral Sands to the more modest district of Gigiri. Despite its name, Coral Sands was mostly a rugged hill, where canopy trees and thick underbrush shrouded the compounds of the wealthy. The Oko villa stood on the base of a headland that jutted out over the water, like the prow of a ship, at Silmani Point.

Within minutes, all I could see of the villa was the top of the squat drum-shaped main tower and a glimpse of walls through the foliage. My guard ranged ahead, waving aside travelers as we passed them on the narrow track.

"I only said that to frighten Lila," Jinai said. "You shouldn't be surprised if your mother already knows."

Knows we are lovers. We had talked about this before. Of course, it was known in the city of Namu that two women or two men might be lovers. Certainly other guards or servants had guessed we were rutting. But I suspected my mother would see my relationship with my handmaiden as an embarrassment.

That was one reason I had moved to the villa.

We crossed over the creek that separated Coral Sands from Gigiri. The terrain didn't allow for a wall, but ancestral stones followed the creek, the rune-marked obelisks matching the trees in height, warding off demons and evil spirits. City guards, the Goldshields, manned the little bridge, and bowed as we crossed.

We climbed a short path to level ground. Gigiri was much more built up, with round huts and walled compounds crowded close together, and roads choked with gaily garbed folk who dispersed before my guard's shouts.

The other reason I had moved to the villa was because I had learned hard realities in the swamp. No matter how capable I was, I would never lead my House. I would never marry, and likely never bear children, as much as I wanted them. I had brought my elder brother Zahar back from captivity. He was the unquestioned heir. What was left to me was the continuation of my scholarly research on infernals, and I resolved to conduct it as far away from the machinations of my mother as possible.

Specifically, I was determined to learn everything about the summoning and banishing of demons. That meant finding those who had mastered that sorcery.

*

Amankar San awaited me in the Magisterium's fire lily garden. The trellised, partially-covered courtyard was full of broad-leafed shrubs and the striking flowers the garden was named for, whose petals rose up like licks of yellow and red flame.

San was a smallish man, only a hair taller than me without my headdress. His goatee was grizzled but neat, betraying his middle age. He wore plain black robes, with an emerald pin - the colors of House San, one of my House's foremost rivals.

His mask lay on the rocks next to him. In the Magisterium, nobles often went without them. Anonymity was unnecessary away from commoners. I had taken mine off as well.

San greeted me, asking about my father's health. He offered me a seat next to him on a low stone wall along the pathway. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he casually scanned my curves under the gown.

As I child, I had been taught -- both intentionally and unwittingly -- that my albinism was a thing to be concealed and pitied. But as I grew older, I realized that for some, my affliction was a bizarre attraction. I knew there were men who coveted an ivory complexion and straw-colored hair as an exotic curiosity.

"You caused quite a scare in your lecture last month," he said.

"What I said was true. From what I have learned, there could be demons in the city even now. Ancestral stones or not."

He nodded, considering. "And what exactly have you learned? Many scholars await your writings, and hope to discover your sources."

Blossom was my primary source. One I would never reveal.

"That is what I wanted to discuss with you, Lord San. I have learned that southern witches, amongst others, have the power to summon and banish demons."

"Ah. The Thandi."

"Yes, precisely," I said. Amankar San was the most learned authority on the expansion of the Sizwe Empire and the war that resulted - a war that ended at the Battle of Bandiri Slopes. He had written extensively about the period twenty-five years past. I had read his crowning work, Musings, which told of clans of powerful witches who were scattered by the Empire's formation. "Their magic may be the only way to keep the city secure."

"I will offer you a bargain, Lady Oko. We shall talk of the Thandi, and then I will propose," San smiled, "a collaboration."

I didn't trust his grin, which suggested some secret he hadn't yet shared. "Propose what you wish," I said.

"First, ask your questions."

"Do these witch clans still exist?"

"During my years researching in the Hill Kingdoms and the Empire, I never knowingly met one of the Thandi. But I've heard enough accounts to be sure that they are still living throughout the Kingdoms."

"Did any of those accounts suggest they could summon demons?"

San tugged on his goatee. "Not precisely. Sizwe leaders spoke of one witch, Anathe, who they greatly feared. She and her closest followers had the power to tame wild beasts. She rode an elephant in battle and bested their finest warriors in single combat. There were also reports that a massive, antelope-horned demon fought by her side."

A kukuru demon, from the description. I had transcribed an account from a trader who glimpsed such a creature in the shantytowns of Bocha. "Hulking, man-shaped? Horns like scimitars?" I asked.

San beamed. "Clearly, you are the authority on such creatures. In Anathe's case, it was even claimed that she was the offspring of a demon and human. But generally, the Thandi possess the same powers of witches everywhere. Brewing potions, beguiling men, and sowing discord."

"What became of Anathe after the war?"

"She was killed, at about the same time as the battle at Bandiri Slopes. By a Sizwe assassin, I would guess."

My gaze fell, and I hid a stroke of sadness. How exciting it would be to meet such a figure! But Bandiri Slopes had taken place months before I was born.

"Lord San, do you believe that any of these witches have settled here in Namu, or in Ikanje?"

"This sort of folk would keep their identities well concealed." He shrugged, but his smile was conspiratorial. "But perhaps you and I could seek them out."

I studied the rows of fire lilies across the path, curling towards the sky like a conflagration. Brightly colored starlings and bee-eaters flitted by. It was entirely too much of a coincidence that we had been left alone for so long.

"What do you propose?"

"A sponsorship."

"You want me to work with you?"

"Work under me." His eyes twinkled. His lips were dark, contrasting with bright, even teeth.

I was stunned. Amankar was a famed scholar, to be sure. But his area of specialization was wholly different than mine. And I would be subordinate to a member of a rival House.

Although, if the relationship he was proposing was not strictly academic...

"We could further both of our areas of research," he said. "Yours perhaps the most, since at my age I have little need to continue writing and lecturing."