Sisterhood - Temptation Ch. 47

There was warmth. There was touch and a soothing feeling of closeness, but Katharina felt most vividly the pleasant heat on her skin. Vividly, and yet in a sort of slowly waxing and waning blur that passed over different parts of her body. Across her shoulders, and then on her back, was the fresh heat of the air, so humid now that its cling was tantalizingly like touch, but ephemeral, frustrating. She felt it most clearly just before each new prickling of sweat doused it cool. As Katharina's thoughts wandered without fastening themselves to any solid notion, she became aware very gradually of the much deeper warmth that covered the front of her body, from her chest across her stomach and down to her hips. There was a pressure, a blanket of softness into which she was snuggled. She was face down on a warm and comfortable cushion, and the whole of her front glowed with a cozy throb of satisfaction.

She felt it in her dick, too. She was accustomed to waking in bed and finding herself hard, and pressed against the bedcovers or a cushion. It was a very pleasant way to wake. But this sensation was more intense. When she tensed and twisted her hips she felt herself not rubbing against a bedcover or soft sheet, but sliding, and wrapped snugly in something deliciously smooth.

There was a tiny trickle of coolness between her thighs. As soon as she noticed it, she noticed another, across her lips and cheek. As sensation swept back into her limbs and she lifted her eyes half open, she realized that her face was pressed against warm skin, and her mouth was seeping with saliva. She smacked her lips and murmured, cleared a dryness in her throat.

Her thoughts wandered some more but now with a certain nagging distraction, drifting away into incoherence each time she tried to fix them somewhere. She wondered where she was trying to fix her attention, and felt sure that there was something. It felt as if she forced her eyes open several times, each time seeing something of the space around her, a bed, a wall, but then realizing that she could not move and that she was in fact trapped inside an imagined wakefulness, still not really in control of her awareness.

Then with a slight but sudden jolt, she found herself very definitely awake, noticing immediately the clear, detailed quality of the real world in the gentle sway of the curtains around the bed, the shimmer in the gauzy texture of the cloth. Her legs startled apart and she felt herself inhabit her body now in full vividness. She was lying on top of Mutia, in the bed.

"Mm-hmm," Katharina fancied she felt Mutia's voice as much as she heard it, as a very low drowsy tremor.

Katharina swung herself aside. Forgetting that she was still buried inside Mutia's pussy and now achingly hard again, she felt her dick bend awkwardly and then slide free with a loud slurping sound to rebound and smack her across the hip.

Coven gathering. Katharina recalled it suddenly. She was late! She saw in her imagination Ivy, sitting in the amphitheater, waiting for her. Or perhaps not waiting, not caring. How long had she been asleep? She had been asleep, she was sure of that much from the way in which her thoughts were still pulling themselves together, coalescing out of the tangle of a dream already gone. It felt as if it had been some time. There was a definite lacuna in her consciousness.

She was late for the gathering, she was sure of it. She had already been on her way there when she had stopped to lie down with Mutia. Panicking, Katharina told herself that sometimes a brief sleep, even one stoop of the eyelids, could produce the illusion of having been out for a long time. But the reassurance was difficult to square with her disrupted sense of time. She had to get moving.

Katharina swung her legs off the edge of the bed and sat up. She shook her head and shoulders, throwing off the fuzzy warmth of sleep. When she cleared her throat to speak, there was a particular sticky dryness to the roof of her mouth, as if her mouth had been open to the air for some time.

"Um," she leaned over to put her hand on Mutia's bare shoulder, "I have to go."

Mutia stirred, made a faint sound, a snore or a sigh. Katharina held her hand in place and felt the warmth of Mutia's skin for a moment. She stroked with the ends of her fingers, undecided whether she should try to shake Mutia awake or leave her be. When Mutia made no further reply, Katharina hopped forward and hurried round to the end of the bed.

The gangway was empty. Katharina supposed she should hurry straight to the amphitheater. She took her first several strides past the next two beds, then stopped. She had no clothes. Nakedness had become enough of a commonplace to her over the last few hours that the sensation of her own bare skin no longer insisted on her awareness. But the prospect of the amphitheater brought it back to her attention. There she would be among perhaps one or two hundred other girls, depending on how many attended. If she entered late she would be noticed. And her nakedness would be noticed.

She swiveled and made her way back to the bed. But she checked the floor and her clothes weren't there either. She had discarded them some time before, she couldn't recall when but before her shower at least. Maybe in the bar space.

She turned to face the side archway that led into the bar, but then saw the basket of clean towels at the foot of the bed in which Mutia lay. A scrap of glossy cloth hung over one edge of the basket. It was a deep earth brown color, disguised against the dark wood of the wicker. She took it and opened it out into what became a long dressing gown of thin silk. It was a little like the one that Jane had been wearing, though smaller.

The gown was probably Mutia's, or at least had been lent to her. Katharina hesitated. She felt it wasn't quite hers to take. She should leave it for Mutia. On the other hand, clothing had been discarded and exchanged very readily over the course of the ball. And Jane had mentioned that there was more clothing ready, for her and Mutia to wear in order to get home. Mutia wasn't going to drive home in a flimsy dressing gown like this one.

Katharina pulled the gown on over her shoulders and fumbled to gather up the sash belt and tie it in a quick bow at her waist. She looked at Mutia, head laid out on one hand and eyes closed. Holding her hair back out of her eyes, Katharina stooped and put her lips on Mutia's cheek. She kissed her, and whispered, "Thank you. I have to go. I am sorry."

Mutia stirred, her forehead creasing into deep ridges. She mumbled something, and smiled. Katharina watched her shift and turn her head, then she hurried away.

Striding up the gangway, the chamber about her empty, Katharina swept past the opposing archways. She knew that in one corner of the bar chamber there was a passageway that led up a flight of stairs to the tiers of the amphitheater. But she did not feel like crossing the bar space again, not now in a hurry. There was still a flicker of light and some faint chatter from beyond the curtain. There would be a few girls still sitting around, and one might recognize and detain her in conversation, or else notice that she was running late.

Katharina headed instead straight up the gangway to the northern archway at the far end. Even if she had only been asleep for a few minutes after spending time with Mutia, the dmurrhisi girls would be long done with their preparations. Most likely the dressing room would be completely empty, and from there there were two tunnels that led in opposite directions around the rear of the pit to each end of the seating area.

As she marched, Katharina glanced at the beds either side of her. Most now had their curtains parted, though untidily so, some tied back completely against the bedposts, some simply flung aside or tucked under the mattress to hold them part way open. Only a few beds looked as if they could still be occupied. Katharina did not slow to peer through the gauze or to listen. She heard nothing above the soft pat of her bare feet on the stone.

When she neared the far archway, she startled, feeling a warm, silky brush against her ankle. She looked down and saw a flash of glossy black as a shape darted away between her legs to the other side of her body. She twisted her head quickly in the other direction and saw one of the cats from the Summer House, with sleek black fur. She did not recall before having seen them in the North Wing. The cat glanced up at her, its expression unreadable.

Katharina scowled, and continued walking. As she did so, the cat began darting back and forth at her feet, slipping between her legs at the apex of every third or fourth stride. She stumbled at first, concerned that she would trap the cat's body between her ankles or kick it inadvertently if she walked too quickly. But when she resumed walking she found that as she carefully sped up her steps, the cat maintained a disconcerting elegance, slipping suddenly across her path just as she set one foot forward, sometimes brushing against her leg but never colliding with it.

She looked up just before she nearly stumbled into the curtain across the archway. Pausing to lift it aside, she took a few steps into the dressing room and looked around. There did not appear to be anybody there, but the atmosphere in the chamber was alive with the evidence of recent activity. Where before the chairs in front of each dressing table had been arranged neatly, they were now slightly shuffled and shifted. Some were spun to one side, some had been pushed away completely, and some were pulled close to the table and turned to face away from it, where perhaps a girl had leaned her head back to have her hair blow-dried. A few hairdryers lay on top of the dressing tables, along with small items of jewelry. The drawers of many of the tables were half open, overflowing with scraps of fabric or glittering chains of beads. Around the chairs or draped over the armrests were crumpled towels and some further items of clothing, a bra, two pairs of slim black underwear.

Katharina caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror of the nearest dressing table as she walked past towards the rear of the chamber. She thought she looked flushed, still a little drowsy. She noticed that the dressing gown she had taken from Mutia's bed had a hood to it, so she pulled it up over her head.

Looking down, she watched the cat still following her steps, now simply trotting at her side as she walked. She hurried across the space behind the dressing tables to the corner of the chamber where a smaller archway led into a low tunnel. She pulled the dressing gown tighter about her body against the quiet draft of air that blew past her. The air was still warm, as in the rest of the North Wing, but it carried perhaps the faintest hint of freshness, of the night-time above ground, and the movement of the air cooled her skin a little where traces of sweat had dried.

When the tunnel turned left in a gradual arc, the breeze quickened and with it came a faint hushing sound. Indistinct at first, it sharpened and grew louder as Katharina hurried faster along. Then she paused, curious, and listened. It had appeared at first that the sound, now identifiable as the shuffling of feet and the loud chatter of voices, had been growing louder because she was approaching its source. But now, standing still for a moment, she noticed that it was growing louder, as if it were approaching her. She heard the rising babble of excited voices echo through the tunnel towards her and a pang of dread sank into her stomach. For a brief moment she told herself that she might still be hearing the movement of girls taking their seats for the beginning of the meeting. But if that were the case then there would likely have been other girls passing through the tunnel with her now. No, she was hearing them rise at the end of the ceremonies. She had missed it entirely.

Or perhaps there was a break in the ceremonies, or some girls were leaving early. But even as she scrabbled to reassure herself, to find some way in which it might still be true that she had not just missed by pure carelessness the most important event of the evening, a gathering certainty of her failure sank in. What tormented her almost as much as the bare fact of her mistake was its arbitrariness. There had still been time, when she had stopped to have sex with Mutia, and even after. And she hadn't been delayed by any special circumstance. She had simply fallen asleep. Her mistake meant nothing, could not be somehow justified or blamed on anyone else or on anything other than her own carelessness.

Katharina pulled her hood further forward over her head, hoping it might conceal the dismay she could feel on her face. She rushed to the end of the tunnel and stepped out into the flicker of torchlight beyond. The space of the amphitheater awed her for a moment and she felt compelled to look up before she looked around. In the far ceiling she saw the iron-grilled skylights and beyond them the deep purple tint of a sky on the brink of dawn.

She whirled about, taking in the crowded scene around her. She had stood in the amphitheater before, for other ceremonial gatherings of the coven, but she had never seen it so full, and so full of movement. She had entered at the eastern edge of the oval-shaped pit. The pit was empty, but the air above the floor was hazy with a slowly settling dust, and the dirt floor was scuffed and marked with footprints and with scraped lines where perhaps chairs or benches had been dragged.

In front of the pit was the high wooden stage that served as the focus of the space, and which drew Katharina's attention first. Just across the pit at the edge of the stage, closest to where Katharina was standing, a girl was descending, clambering down onto the floor. She was dressed in the thick, deep green robe worn by the Seven Sisters at ceremonies. The robe billowed up as the girl's flat shoes struck the dust of the pit, revealing pale slim legs and a petite figure clothed in a simple short yellow dress. The robe was pulled quickly back into place as the girl strode away across the center of the space towards another of the exits. Katharina could not see the face beneath the broad hood of the robe. Anna perhaps, or one of her sisters.

Up on the stage were several of the remaining Seven Sisters, likewise cloaked in their robes, most of their hoods drawn and partly obscuring their faces. They were in movement, gathering themselves near the back of the stage, behind a long row of high-backed chairs and almost out of view. Katharina craned her head upwards to watch them. She saw among the flutter of green robes the bodies of some of the dmurrhisi girls who had been offered, mostly naked or only scantly clothed. She tried to pick them apart in the huddle of bodies, to find those she knew, Emmie, Josephine, or Caroline, but her eyes were drawn to one figure who stood much closer.

Near the middle of the stage was Leah, Caroline's cousin. Katharina recognized her from her figure first, her big thighs and broad backside, the smooth tan skin of her back, the slight athletic thickening of her shoulders and upper arms. She was naked except for a slim gold chain that she wore around her waist. Her golden brown hair was thick and lush, more so than it had been before. She had perhaps had it brushed and dried before the ceremony. Even beneath the mounting rush of nervous confusion that was overtaking her, Katharina felt Leah's stark, voluptuous beauty work its way into her imagination. Her body began to warm and a twitch of stiffness crept up the shaft of her dick, nudging against the thin silk of her dressing gown.

Katharina pulled her gaze away and saw one more lone figure crossing the stage from the far end, walking slowly but purposefully towards Leah. Of all those in green robes, this girl was the only one whose hood was still draped about her shoulders, baring her face. Slim, beautiful, with her wispy blonde hair tied back in a high ponytail, Lena's long legs flashed out from beneath her robe, her high heels thudding against the wooden boards of the stage.

Katharina saw what it must mean if Lena was now among the Seven Sisters. Her first thought was to find Vera, but then immediately as she pictured the face of her mentor Katharina winced, knowing that to meet Vera now would almost certainly mean having to confess that she had not witnessed whatever events had just now led to Lena's presence on the stage in place of Vera. Vera's disappointment at the outcome would surely spill over and become one with a more minor disappointment in Katharina, at her special student's apparent indifference to her success. Though torn, Katharina decided that she wanted at least to see Vera, to find her here, if only to verify that she had been present at all, that nothing else untoward had happened to her.

Katharina whirled to look up at the stone tiers of the amphitheater just behind her, searching for Vera. As she turned, a body struck her shoulder, a girl shunting past towards the mouth of the tunnel that Katharina had just exited. Katharina staggered aside. More girls were moving down towards where she stood, making their way idly down the steep stone steps at one end of the seating area. Many of the Sisterhood girls had changed into the standard robes of ceremony, but others wore dressing gowns in silk or flannel, and a few were simply naked. There were far more here than Katharina had imagined to herself. As well as the hundred or more girls of the Sisterhood, novice and senior, there were other dmurrhisi guests, and some of the ka'ini.

Katharina scanned each tier of the theater, hurrying to examine as many faces as she could before they began moving. Many were still seated on the stone blocks, waiting for others in front of them to get up. Those who had stood were shuffling slowly to one end of the space or the other. The chatter of their voices now filled the chamber and echoed loudly all around.

Several girls filed past Katharina towards the tunnel. Katharina glanced aside to check their faces but did not see Vera. Nor did she see her among those sitting or standing in the audience. Then just as she moved to set her foot on the first high stone step in front of her, she saw a face half way along the very top row of seating. Not Vera's, but Ivy's.

Katharina mounted the step and hurried upwards, along the edge of the staircase that ran up beside the arc of tiered seating, taking two of the steps in each stride. Where the crowd of chattering girls slowly moving in the opposite direction grew thicker, Katharina twisted her shoulders and slid past, gently nudging them out of her path. From the edge of her vision, she noticed some look at her askance, and was glad of the hood that partly obscured her face from the side.

As she passed the penultimate row of seats and achieved the top of the staircase, Katharina paused to gather her breath. She was flustered, and could feel the grimace of exertion blending with the embarrassment in her pained expression. Looking around, she started on the edge of panic when she discovered she had lost track of Ivy's face in the crowd. But then she saw her again. Ivy had moved closer, was making her way towards where Katharina was standing. Katharina saw Lia now too, walking beside Ivy and talking animatedly, her words lost in the noise of the crowd. When the two girls reached the end of the row and the others around them spilled out into the slightly wider space at the head of the staircase, Katharina stepped forward to face them.

Ivy was wearing a long, loose t-shirt in faded black. The shirt was awkwardly large on her slight figure, and covered her to below the waist, where a ragged hem hung around her thighs. Katharina found the look suddenly disarmingly cute. It put Katharina in mind of Ivy having just emerged from bed on a weekend, and it reminded her of mornings they had spent together in their dorm, not always talking, but being together, and relaxing. Katharina couldn't recall whether she had resolved to be aloof with Ivy, to keep her distance and bide. She thought she had. Lena had advised her to do as much. But now, seeing Ivy dressed as she was, cozy, familiar, Katharina found she could not gather the heart to remain cool, and she felt her cheeks crease with a smile.