13.3

Chaos gripped the Cauldron when Zyrdicia and Magnus finally reached it. It was very late. The revelry was well underway without them. The opera's post-premier party spilled out into the square outside the building. They walked undaunted through the crowd to the main entrance. Arm-in-arm, they looked stunning together.

They entered the cavernous main room, laughing together as he whispered in her ear. Almost every head in the room turned to stare at them. An instant later, they were surrounded by a throng. Everyone who mattered in Lyr was present, and each wanted to say a few words. Some congratulated them, assuming the display at the coliseum a few days ago was some sort of public statement. Others wanted to welcome Zyrdicia back to town. The pair made no effort to escape to the Sanctum. They seemed to be enjoying the attention. She was still aglow from the music. The opera was a smashing success, easily the composer's greatest work ever.

Zyrdicia looked around at the faces chattering at her. There were friends here tonight whom she had not seen in several years. Champagne appeared for them before they had even made their way to the couch that immediately opened up on a dais in the main room. She waved the proffered beverage away and called for absinthe instead. She had no intention of staying even remotely sober.

Scores of people surrounded the pair, babbling alternately about the interview, their performance at the fight, the opera and the night's party. Old friends entertained her with new stories about recent adventures, and laughter joined the deafening music in rounding out the room's soundscape.

Zyrdicia leaned back on one arm of the couch, her long legs stretched out across Magnus' lap. His arms encircled her bare knees. There could be no question to any casual observer that they were intimate.

It seemed as though everyone surrounding her had to touch her - taking one of her hands, touching a shoulder or her hair as they talked. She was the center of attention, absolutely adored. She liked it. It was good to be home.

She turned her head suddenly when she heard a familiar bubbling sound. She sniffed the air and smiled. She watched Portia inhale deeply from the tall, water-filled device. "Me too!" Zyrdicia called. Portia smiled back and nodded, exhaling. She went back to the contraption and refilled her lungs, then leaned over Zyrdicia. Their lips met, and she exhaled opium-laced smoke into Zyrdicia's mouth.

"Are you jealous, Magnus?" Anthony teased while the women kissed.

"Not even close. I haven't seen Portia smoke in years. What's going on with her?"

"Stress," Kaz answered. "She's been running all over dealing with business. I think she misses that guy, too."

When the kiss ended, Portia went back to refill her lungs and repeated the process. She sat down on the arm of the couch so that Zyrdicia could lean against her. Zyrdicia's body now sprawled across both Magnus and Portia. She looked content. The world was as it should be tonight. Zyrdicia sighed, enjoying the tactile sensation of her friends' touch, and eventually, the emergence of a swirling absinthe fog complemented with the gentle numbing sensation of the opium. Baal's murmuring receded to the back of her consciousness. She was as close to happy as she could be under the circumstances.

She looked up at Portia and pulled her down to whisper something in her ear. Portia looked at Magnus and giggled. Magnus' nodded silently, his eyes twinkling. Behind Portia, he saw Samantha glaring at him in the distance, her arms crossed angrily. She would be much angrier before the night was over. Not that he cared.

Portia bent down over Zyrdicia and kissed her again. A moment later Magnus leaned over and entered the fray. The entire room seemed to gasp at once as the three very attractive people enmeshed in a tangle of torsos, hands and tongues.

13.3.1

From the other side of the room, Cai and Dirk stared at the display, shocked beyond words. Cai had not known that Portia was on the premises until she came out of a hidden door when Zyrdicia and Magnus made their entrance. They had all been so surrounded by an adoring mob that it had been impossible to get near them.

Despite his disgust, Dirk watched Zyrdicia's face very carefully as her two friends' lips moved slowly down her neck. Her smug, impish facial expression was one he knew to associate with her when she thought she had perpetrated a particularly wicked trick. It was not the exhilarated look of bliss she normally wore during a sexual encounter. The fact that he was certain that she was merely performing for an audience, however, did little to settle his fury.

A small woman suddenly tried to push past them in an effort to make her way through the crowd. The tiny creature had little luck shoving the two tall men aside. "Get the fuck out of the way," she snapped as she bumped into them.

"Samantha?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't recognize you, Cai." Tears welled up in her green eyes. She wound her fingers nervously in her red curls. "I just need to go outside and get some fresh air."

"Are you alright?"

Samantha shook her head, her expression pained.

"You are upset about, Magnus?" Cai asked gently.

Samantha nodded, "I can't fucking believe Portia is involved in this too. She knows how much he means to me!"

"You don't think that was real do you?"

"How should I know? They all lie pathologically. Every one of them. Nothing is real to them. The whole fucking world is a game, and only they know the rules. Magnus is fine when Zyrdicia isn't around. Then she comes back into town, he goes into orbit around her and nothing else matters."

"Aren't they just friends?"

Samantha shook her head emphatically. "That's the best lie of all. She sleeps at his house all the time - in his bed, with him in it. At the coliseum a few nights ago, they made out in front of fifty-thousand people. Afterward he had the balls to tell me it was just a new form of 'cuddling'. Now they've decided to 'cuddle' with my sister too. That's what friends do, right? They're all sick." A tear streamed down her pretty cheek.

Cai leaned down and brushed it away softly. That only caused her to cry more. She was so very unlike Portia. He glanced up and saw Blackpool standing behind Samantha, glaring impatiently, his arms crossed. "Sam, I know this is a bad time, but I really need to talk to your sister."

"A mountain giant couldn't get through that wall of people, Cai. Half of them are friends of theirs, the rest are Magnus' goons. They like to make a point of looking accessible when they are really untouchable."

"It's very important. I really need your help. Please?" Cai purred, his expression pleading.

"I don't want to talk to Portia right now!" Samantha sobbed.

Cai glanced at the prince again, who stared at the girl with unadulterated scorn. Cai's expression remained caring and concerned. He put his hands on the young woman's shoulders as he leaned down to be at eye-level with her. She was even smaller than her sister. "Sam, if I can talk to Portia, Zyrdicia will leave Lyr tonight. We'll take her back to our world. You could have Magnus all to yourself again."

"Really?"

Cai nodded.

"Promise she'll never come back?"

"We can only hope," Cai smiled.

"You are way too nice to be involved with my sister."

"Will you please go tell her I'm here?"

"No, even I can't get through to talk to them. But come outside with me. I'm friends with one of the bouncers at the door. He can get through the crowd to take Portia a message, even if they go upstairs to the Sanctum."

"I'll be right out in two minutes, alright?" Cai responded, his tone friendly.

Sam nodded, her eyes red and puffy from the tears. "Meet me at the front door."

When she was gone, Cai's expression changed, and he sighed in irritation. "That was difficult enough!"

"Your concern was quite moving," the prince jeered.

"She bought it. That's all that matters. I think I now understand why Portia regards her with almost as much contempt as you do Geoffrey."

"You should be careful. My brother may be a fool, but he is still royalty," Dirk smirked.

"I'll have Portia send Zyrdicia to you at once, my lord. If you stay right here, we should have no difficulty finding you."

The prince nodded wordlessly, his azure eyes traveling across the crowd to watch Zyrdicia again. The assassin appeared to be getting up to leave. The man whispered something in her ear. He kissed her cheek then nuzzled affectionately against her throat before turning to depart.

She smiled vacuously. She looked very inebriated. The decadence of her world disgusted Dirk. The slavemaster he had seen at the door earlier now moved into the vacated seat next to her and wrapped her in his arms. An unknown man appeared and whispered something into Portia's ear. Portia shook her head and looked irritated. He spoke again and she got up from her perch on the couch. She followed him to the door.

Dirk struggled to quell his anger toward Zyrdicia for now. He could not afford to quarrel with her - yet. He fully intended to express his scorn for her debaucherous lifestyle, her need to publicly debase herself with such vile amusements. She behaved like a common whore. Worse, in fact. Dirk loathed the need to recall the vile creature to his world. At this moment he regretted ever becoming involved with her. His sole objective was to retrieve the key to his conquest of the South back to his dominion.

That objective was his last conscious thought before his mind descended into darkness.

13.3.2

Outside, Cai sat with his arm around Samantha as she sobbed. He was quite bored. The messenger seemed to be taking a long time bringing Portia. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Magnus leaving with a small group of his assassin goons. Samantha's back was to him. He stopped and looked at Cai, then smiled in greeting, clearly surprised to see him in Lyr again. He made a gesture toward Portia's sister and rolled his eyes, shaking his head. Cai nodded knowingly. Magnus walked on by, entertained that someone else had to deal with Sam's emotional outburst.

Portia stumbled outside at that moment. She stared at Cai in surprise, her eyes still bleary. She blinked several times as though she suspected it were a hallucination. She walked up and pinched his arm hard.

"Ow! What's the matter with you?"

She tried to focus, frowning, "I didn't think you were real. You shouldn't be real. Are you fucking stupid coming here?"

Cai extricated himself from Samantha as tactfully as he could and stood up. "Nice to see you too!" he answered sarcastically.

"I'm serious! You have no idea how dangerous it is here," she said, leaning heavily against the wall behind her.

"I had to see you," he said softly, taking her hand and raising it to his lips gallantly. "Can we talk somewhere in private?"

13.3.3

As Cai led a still less-than-sober Portia through the main room to the spot where the prince was supposed to be waiting, he silently dreaded the tirade that he knew awaited him. He had left his lord waiting an unacceptably long time. He knew that. He and Portia had lingered far too long in Cauldron's business office. Her initial reaction aside, they had missed each other a great deal.

The time in the office had not been entirely unproductive, though. Cai had enlisted her aid in convincing Zyrdicia to return with the prince. She was willing to do almost anything they needed to help them accomplish the task.

Blackpool was nowhere to be found. They walked through the crowd for several minutes. "Are you sure he was supposed to be waiting here?" Portia asked.

"I'm positive. We were standing right next to this statue. He said he would wait here."

"Zyrdicia is up in the Sanctum now. She's even loopier than I am given what she is drinking. She'd probably go with him pretty easily. Maybe he got curious and wandered off."

"He would not have wandered off, Portia!"

"I'll have one of the bouncers wait here for him here. When he wanders back, someone will come get us." She leaned against Cai unsteadily and smiled, "Until then we have time to ourselves. She isn't going anywhere."