24.6

Opening night at the Spider's Web in Geshna was a smashing success. All the well-heeled Lyrians who chose not to observe the Days of Darkness had come to Karteia for what promised to be the best party of the season. Not a single Geshnan was present; the natives all knew better than to leave their homes when a Snow Blight was about to strike.

Inside the cavernous building housing the Spider's Web, scores of heavy silver cables stretched from floor to ceiling at odd angles throughout the room, creating enormous, artificial webs throughout the establishment. Dozens of scantily clad bodies climbed up into the webs and hung there like captured prey. Several large cages hanging from the ceiling held gigantic, live spiders--each stood at least ten feet tall. Patrons hanging in the steel web taunted the spiders for amusement.

Magnus arrived a little before midnight, with Charles and Anthony in tow. Dirk arrived with his own entourage of soldiers a few moments later. The arriving monarch drew stares and tittering gasps from the Lyrians. Even wearing a heavy cloak with the hood up, he was still easily recognizable. He took up a position in the room's shadows, as far as possible from the caged spiders. Surveying the room, he noted three of his generals sat calmly sipping spirits at the bar. None of the men had any reason to be in Geshna. Between them, they commanded over six thousand of Dirk's soldiers. Dirk sneered darkly as he realized the scope of the betrayal underway. Soon, he would have no army to fight against Zyrdicia in the impending civil war.

A full half hour passed before Zyrdicia arrived. She walked in on the arm of a beautiful, red-haired woman with fine, narrow features. The woman had a wisp-thin build and stood a good head shorter than Zyrdicia. The woman's eyes had the unnatural paleness of a corpse.

Zyrdicia wore shiny, body-hugging black patent leather. A corset perfectly molded to her bosom and her curves was tied in a crisscrossing pattern at her bare back. Her long legs were covered by thigh-high boots that met an impossibly tight, short skirt. As if to acknowledge the snow storm brewing outside, she had a black fur stole loosely draped over her bare shoulders. Her hair was bound atop her head in a sleek, silver clasp. Six long, thick braids cascaded out the top of it, down her back. Despite her prettiness, to Dirk she looked uncharacteristically wan.

Within moments of entering, she was greeted by dozens of Lyrian acquaintances, including the club's proprietor. Everyone showered her with kisses to her cheeks. Countless people told her how beautiful she looked, how fortunate they all were to have her present, how glad they were that she was single again. As this was going on, her red-haired companion clung affectionately to her arm. Someone put a large champagne flute containing a bubbling, ruby-hued drink in her hand. She drained it quickly.

Andrea Crandall tried to stand at Zyrdicia's side, only to be shooed away deftly by the red-haired woman. Magnus kissed Zyrdicia's cheek and sneered at this woman who held Zyrdicia's arm. She pretended not to notice his unfriendly look and made an effort to pull Zyrdicia away from him toward the dancefloor. He rolled his eyes, gave Zyrdicia a knowing look and let her go.

Magnus made his way over to Dirk, whose eyes were fixed upon Zyrdicia. Dirk demanded, "Who is that woman?"

"Sindra. Vamp. Sorceress. Man-hating bitch."

"A friend of Zyrdicia's?"

"She never mentioned her to you?"

"No."

"Before Portia, she was Zyrdicia's assistant. She built most of the corporate infrastructure of Zyrdicia's financial holdings. I think the platinum mining cartel was even her idea. She's a fucking genius with money. And one of the most conniving, backstabbing, ruthless women in Lyr -- which is probably why Zyrdicia liked her. They were very close in the old days. I think they were 'involved' for several years. Sindra somehow convinced Zyrdicia to make her a vamp so that she would stay young forever. Sometime after that, it all went bad, and Zyrdicia fired her. I don't know exactly what happened. I wasn't even born at the time. But Sindra went mad. I never figured out why Zyrdicia let her live. Sindra's been a trouble-maker for years. This is the first time Zyrdicia's had anything to do with her as long as I've known Zyrdicia."

"They were involved?" Dirk repeated, arching an eyebrow, his eyes glittering in amusement.

"Yeah. I don't know the details. Zyrdicia never talked much about it. I heard bits of stories third hand. But to this day, Sindra is still really, really jealous of Zyrdicia's friends."

"How quaint," Dirk mused. He noted Sindra's likeness to Portia and nearly laughed out loud. He murmured, "I'd no idea she had a taste for redheads."

"She vehemently denies it," Magnus said, grinning.

They watched Zyrdicia and Sindra leave the dancefloor together. Sindra ran her hand along Zyrdicia's shoulders and smiled seductively. Zyrdicia turned away from her to receive a hug from another acquaintance.

Magnus took his leave from Dirk and said, "This is pissing me off. I'm going to go extricate her."

He made his way across the room and grabbed her hand pulling her away from her conversation, "Hey, sweetie, I've got a Yule present for you!"

Sindra nodded with careful politeness in Magnus' general direction, then tactfully left Zyrdicia's side. As she left, she squeezed Zyrdicia's hand, and they exhanged a knowing glance.

"What the fuck is that about?" he demanded, gesturing with his head toward Sindra.

"She wants control of the Magic Guild. And I'm going to give it to her," Zyrdicia answered. She smiled mischievously and added, "You told me last night that the Guild vacancy needs to be dealt with quickly. I just dealt with it."

"Of all the people in Lyr who shouldn't be allowed to have that much power, you pick that bitch?! She's already too powerful to easily control."

Zyrdicia's gaze became thoughtful as she stared across the room at Sindra, whose back was now turned to them. She said softly, "I've watched it for years. She took everything she learned from me and built a massive financial empire. She all but owns the Merchant Guild. She's been so careful not to come into conflict with me. It's amazing, really."

"If she controls the Merchant Guild, putting her in charge of the Magic Guild is dangerous. She is not an ally."

"Yes, she is. What happened between Sindra and me after her resurrection is ancient history. We mended our fences. She's coming back into my inner circle."

"You have to be kidding me!" Magnus grimmaced.

Zyrdicia shook her head. She whispered, "And it's the best thing that could happen to the Magic Guild. I taught her almost all the magic she knows. She didn't learn it from the idiots at the Guild." She glanced at Magnus, and noticed his disturbed expression for the first time. She kissed his cheek and said warmly, "Don't be jealous, darling! You're still my favorite vampire."

"You let her feed on you," Magnus said darkly. "The new skin on your throat is still pink."

"And?"

"She'll want more of your blood. She won't be able to help herself. The magic in it is addicting."

"Do you want some?" Zyrdicia offered sweetly, wrapping her arms around his neck. "We can go find a back room, if you want. She didn't take much."

"That isn't what I meant!" he protested. "You shouldn't let either one of us feed on you." He touched her stomach and shot her a knowing look.

"Oh, please," she scoffed. "That thing is supposed to house part of a demon's soul. It can't be as weak as everyone seems to think."

"I worry about you. Now more than ever."

Changing the subject, she said, "You said that you had something for me. What did you get me?"

He pulled a small, lilac-colored glass box from his coat and smiled. "Fairy dust."

She echoed his smile, throwing her arms around him again. Fairies were rumored to be extinct in Lyr-and almost anywhere else that Lyrian dust hunters could find them. Their populations had long been annihilated by the fairy dust trade. The dust was produced by plucking off the little creatures' wings, drying them and crushing them into a fine powder. Small amounts could also be gleaned by shaking a living fairy vigorously, but the Lyrian dust hunters found it more expedient to de-wing the little creatures. The resulting magical powder was a popular, intense mind-altering substance worth many thousand times its weight in platinum.

The dust's magic affected Zyrdicia in an extreme manner - making it her very favorite mind-altering substance. The quantity of fairy dust in the box was worth a small fortune. When Magnus handed it to her, she opened the magically sealed lid very carefully so as not to let a single glittering mote escape. Inside, the fairy dust glistened like iridescent, pink glitter.

She reached into the box and pulled out a large pinch of the magical substance. She cupped it in the palm of her hand and quickly inhaled it. This first dose caused her nose to tickle, and immediately induced a fit of giggling. Her nose, lips and tongue tingled intensely. Five more pinches later, the giggling subsided, and she settled into a giddy loopiness while the fairy magic worked its way into her.

All the thoughts from the room's many patron's that had been stirring chaotically against her mind gradually receded until her mind was totally severed from them. Within seconds, her sensory perception changed. She became wrapped in a blissful, tingling blanket of drug-induced euphoria. Every sensory nerve in her body seemed to fire deliciously at once.

She felt every luscious fiber of the velvet cushion under her hand move to caress her. The leather of her dress seemed to nuzzle her body. Even the movement of a braid of her own hair brushing against her back was pure pleasure.

Magnus ran his thumb along the her neck, and laughed at the reaction it caused.

She pushed the glass box toward him. He shook his head, "No, I need to stay sober to keep an eye on you."

Charles marched up to her then, glaring angrily. "What the fuck do you think you are doing?"

"Floating," Zyrdicia giggled. She was, indeed, hovering a few inches in the air, due to the fairy magic.

"'Dicia, you have no business doing that shit now."

"There's plenty left. Have some!" Magnus offered.

"That is not the point--" Charles paused, then snatched the box from Magnus' hand. "Thanks. But the point is that she shouldn't be doing this stuff."

"But it's sooooooooo fun," Zyridicia laughed. "The air tickles!"

"She just shouldn't be doing it!" he snapped.

Magnus said defensively, "She's fine. It's not like this can hurt her. She deserves to feel good for a change."

"Yeah, but you don't know-"

"--Yes, I do," Magnus interrupted irritably.

Zyrdicia cut them both off by pushing Charles roughly aside. Laughing, she dragged Magnus to the dance floor.

Just as she reached the edge of it, her way was blocked by a familiar face. She stared at the tall, smiling young man for a moment, her inebriated mind struggling to place him.

"Hi, Princess," he purred.

"Who the fuck is this?" Magnus demanded, surprised that he didn't know the young man who obviously knew Zyrdicia.

"Andireon," Zyrdicia said slowly. The Sephiroth looked nearly perfectly human. She turned to Magnus and said blearily, "Andireon is one of them. Like Azriok."

"Sh!" Andireon said playfully. "When I pass for a mortal, just call me 'Andi.'"

""Kay," she said, nodding emptily.

Andireon gracefully extracted her hand from Magnus' grasp. The sudden cold on her skin caused her to laugh uncontrollably for a moment.

"Show your wings," she demanded merrily. "I want to touch them."

Andireon wagged his head playfully and said, "I have something better to show you."

As she started to follow the disguised dark angel, Magnus grabbed her shoulder. He said, "You aren't going with him. Not with you like this."

Zyrdicia kissed his cheek quickly and smiled. She and Andireon vanished into the crowd in the blink of an eye, moving faster than even the vampire's eyes could follow.

24.6.1

From a perch high up in the cabling in the Spider's Web, Andireon and Zyrdicia watched the mortals in the room below. Too high for anyone to reach without magic, they were alone.

"The Chosen. See how he sits there, searching for you?"

Zyrdicia closed her eyes, savoring the sensation of being nearly a hundred feet in the air. She bent her knees around the cable she sat on, and allowed her body to slip backwards, so that her torso hung upside down. She laughed at the sensation.

Andireon hovered magically in the air for an instant, then floated down so that his face was even with her own. He stared into her eyes briefly, curious at the state of her consciousness. He asked, "You use the primitive magic of fairies to cloud your mind, and render it as useless as a dumb animal's. Why?"

"Fun."

"Fairies are to us like gnats."

Zyrdicia giggled inexplicably at Andireon's confusion at her choice.

Finally, he said, "It dulls the pain of the arrow, doesn't it?"

Zyrdicia flipped herself off the cable, finding that she floated freely in the air, without any magic of her own. She whirled in the air, laughing. She found Andireon far more boring than the air itself right now.

Without touching her, Andireon caused her to turn in one particular direction. Pointing at Dirk, standing in the shadows of a far corner of the room, the Sephiroth coaxed, "Just look, princess."

Zyrdicia realized then that a massive golden arrow protruded from Dirk's chest. The wound should have been lethal.

"It's like the one I shot into your own heart," Andireon whispered. "It's been there for quite a while. You only see it now because I reveal it."

Zyrdicia's mind began to reel. She stared at the wound in her own chest, now visible again. Her consciousness began to spin. She had the sensation she was falling.

21.6.2

A moment later, Zyrdicia found herself on the dancefloor, next to Magnus. She had no idea how she had arrived there. Befuddled by the pixie dust, the relentless pulse of the music - which she could visibly see in the air - and the motion all around her, she pressed herself into Magnus, who caught hold of her instantly.

"Where did you come from? You weren't there a second ago," he said.

"I don't know. Andi--I don't know where he went."

"Did he hurt you, sweetie?"

"Huh-uh. He's harmless," she shrugged, trying to forget the episode and let the pixie dust work its magic. She swung her arms around Magnus' shoulders and moved with him. She allowed another fit of laughter to grip her.

After they left the dance floor, Zyrdicia was spinning in a euphoric haze induced by the motion of her body, the music, and the blinking lights. Magnus lifted her up onto one of the silver cables of the venue's massive web, just a few feet off the ground. She draped one arm around a vertical cable, and sat perfectly poised on a horizontal one. She closed her eyes and threw her head back, laughing.

Her body started to drift upward, floating. Standing in front of her, he put one hand on her knees, gently holding her down. He kissed her cheek and said, "Stay put. I'm going to go get a drink. Want anything?"

Zyrdicia nodded her head and said, "Something with bubbles."

She smiled happily to herself, watching the lights flicker against a far wall. Despite substantial misgivings, Magnus left her alone then. He moved toward the bar, deliberately walking past Dirk.

Without turning to address him directly, Magnus faced the bar and said, "She's pixied out of her skull. She's all yours, if you can get her to go with you."

"Pixied?" Dirk repeated.

"She inhaled pixie dust. She's adorable when she's like this. Just don't leave her alone long. Sindra would probably love to take her home even more than you. And Zyrdicia would probably go home with anyone who asked right now. Just go!"

Dirk lost no time making his way through the room toward Zyrdicia. He saw Sindra attempting to move through the crowd too and made sure to reach Zyrdicia well before she did. She backed off then, watching him carefully.

Zyrdicia was floating just above the cabling, about four feet off the ground. Her arm was bent loosely around one of the vertical cables to keep from drifting up to the ceiling. Her eyes were closed and she smiled blissfully to herself. Occasionally she laughed at some private joke inside her head.

Dirk stood squarely in front of her. He wrapped his hands around her calves and pulled her down to eye level. She opened her eyes and stared at him with befuddled expression.

"Hi," he greeted cautiously.

"I don't usually hallucinate from fairy dust. So why am I hallucinating you?"

"You aren't."

"Yes, I am. The real you has an arrow through his heart. So I know you aren't really you," she said with child-like certainty. "Go away. I want a better hallucination."

"Whom do you have in mind?"

"Mm," she laughed. "Azriok. Wings are a total turn-on."

"That isn't amusing."

"I'd rather hallucinate anyone else, frankly."

"And why not me?"

She wrinkled her nose as though she smelled something foul. She said, "Because you're unpleasant. And I refuse to entertain unpleasant hallucinations tonight." She snapped her fingers. "Shoo! Send the next one now."

"There is no one else, I'm afraid."

She pouted for a half-second, her gaze falling to the shiny, silver studs on his armor at his chest. She watched the flashing lights reflect off them, fascinated. Her hand moved to his chest then balled into a little fist.

"What, pray tell, are you doing?"

"I caught a streak of light bouncing off the metal," she grinned. She giggled briefly and added, "And it tickles."

"Show me."

She shook her head adamantly, and said, "It will escape."

"You can always catch another."

She opened her gloved fist, still pressed against his chest. She inhaled sharply as she watched the captured streak go. Her hand twitched at the sensation of the imaginary light escaping.

He was standing so close to her that they could both feel the warmth of the other's body. While she was fixated with the light reflection on his armor, he studied her face closely. He could see the shadow of exhaustion beneath the drug-induced mania. The fits of fairy laughter that gripped her were superficial and involuntary. Her eyes were glassy and weary, despite the magical mirth that held sway over her.

He touched her face with a gloved hand and ran the back of his hand gently over her cheek bone. The touch evoked a shudder, and a delighted grin. Her reaction emboldened him. He caressed her face with both hands. Her toes curled in delight.

He noted that this fairy dust had stripped away every violent impulse she had and magnified the playful, pleasure-driven aspect of her personality. Having a serious conversation with her now would be useless.

She stared at him now with an air of infinite amusement. "More!" she demanded, laughing.

"But you find me unpleasant," he mocked.

"I find the real you unpleasant. I like the hallucination right now because it's fake."

He hesitated a moment, calculating as she stared at him impatiently. Intoxicated as she was, he did not want to do anything to threaten or frighten her. He needed to handle her gingerly to keep her interested - and docile.

"Tell me, what precisely is it you want me to do, dearest?" he wondered, his tone seductive.

"Amuse me," she grinned impishly.

Without removing his hand from her cheek, he leaned toward her and kissed her. The gesture was deliberately playful - and uncharacteristically gentle. Their lips had barely touched, and she pulled her face abruptly away about an inch. She stared at him in wide-eyed amazement.

"Oh, come now," he whispered. "If I'm a mere hallucination, you've no reason not to be pleased by this."

She sneered, "But I fucking hate the real you."

"You needn't worry about that tonight, pet."

"I really want a different hallucination," she whined.

"Shh," he admonished, putting one finger over her lips. He bent to kiss her neck. His lips grazed its surface on one side, then the other. She shuddered, closing her eyes and tilting her head to one side to give him more skin to kiss.

"Amused?" he breathed into the flesh of her throat.

"Mm," she smiled happily, "But I'd still rather have a different hallucination."

He put one hand behind her head and lifted it up from where it rested on her shoulder. Then he kissed her again. This time she didn't pull away. Their lips lingered against one another for a long moment as both savored the sensation. When her jaw parted slightly, her tongue's caress against his was fleeting and curious - as though she weren't quite sure what to expect. It reminded him of the very first time he had kissed her.

Her hands, which had been pressed to the armor at his chest, moved up to entwine around his neck. He wrapped her in his arms, and slowly pulled her toward him. She melted into the warmth of his embrace.

She smiled and said, "More!"

He was only too pleased to placate her demand. But as the minutes passed, he noted how strange these kisses were. It was the first time she had ever kissed him with her eyes closed. There was no stirring of her mind reaching out to him inside his head. The magical drug in her system had shut down nearly all of her brain but the part that processed sensory perception.

He realized then that she simply wanted touch - any touch - and she didn't particularly care from whence it came. She was reacting to the fairy dust's magic, and her response to his touch had nothing to do with a desire to reunite. He was glad at least that her craving for touch was playing out with him, rather than some stranger.

Without interrupting the kiss, he parted her knees and pulled her torso against his own. She giggled momentarily at the sensation of being crushed against him. The laughter trailed off into a delighted purr as his hands moved from her hips, up the leather of her corset along her rib cage.

24.6.3

Charles ambled up to Magnus, who was leaning against the bar watching Dirk and Zyrdicia intently. For twenty minutes, the royal couple had been engaged in a passionate, amorous display that seemed to be escalating in intensity. What had started off as a few kisses had heated rapidly into a lustful exchange.

"Damn. I hope they leave soon. But I wouldn't want to be him lying there next to her when she sobers up," Charles laughed. "He's so in trouble tomorrow morning."

"Maybe," Magnus said thoughtfully.

"Did you just set him up?"

Magnus shrugged nonchalantly and said, "He'll most likely live. It's up to her now." He watched as Dirk lifted Zyrdicia off of the cabling. She pointed to the dancefloor. He shook his head slowly and gestured with his head toward the door.

Just before they reached the exit, Sindra stepped in front of Dirk, looking concerned. She asked in a low, dangerous tone, "Just where do you think you are going with Zyrdicia?"

Dirk taunted smugly, "I intend to take my wife home to my castle and my bed."

Still in his arms, Zyrdicia nuzzled her face against his neck and giggled. Several of Dirk's soldiers came out from the crowd to surround Sindra, hands on their weapons.

Magnus quickly made his way across the room toward them to intervene. He arrived to hear Sindra growl menacingly at Dirk, "She loathes you, mortal. She isn't your plaything to spirit away. She may be too pixied to tell you that, but I'm not."

Annoyed, Dirk replied, "It's no wonder she tired of you quickly and disposed of you when it suited her. Now get out of my way."

Sindra flexed her fingers as though preparing to launch a volley of hellfire.

Magnus interjected, "Sindra, don't start this shit. Stay the fuck out of his way."

Sindra gave Magnus a derisive glare. She chided, "That Zyrdicia now deigns to call a weakling like you her friend is a disgrace. This mortal is her enemy. He won't walk out alive if he tries to carry her out of here. Remember who taught me my magic."

"This isn't your business, Sindra. It's between them."

"There is no 'them,'" Sindra said evenly. "She told me that herself earlier tonight. She despises him. If you don't know that, perhaps you aren't as close to her as you think you are, assassin."

Zyridicia's fit of giggling became more pronounced. She reacted as though she had never, ever witnessed anything funnier than this in her life. Dirk set her on her feet and reached at his chest to grasp the monocle.

Magnus said to Sindra, "If you want Zyrdicia's backing - and mine - for control of the Magic Guild, let this go. If you don't walk away now, I promise you someone else will be Guildmaster. The Council will never allow you to take the seat if we oppose it."

"Zyrdicia already promised she would support me when I take control of the Magic Guild."

"She's fickle. And she always listens to me about Lyrian politics. It would be easy to convince her that you would be a pain in the ass to have on the Council."

"You wouldn't dare!" Sindra growled. Magnus' expression left no room to doubt that he would definitely dare - and would enjoy doing it.

Sindra stared hard at Zyrdicia for moment. Telepathically, she tried to reach inside Zyrdicia's pixied mind for guidance. The response she received satisfied her. She nodded reluctantly, then disappeared.

Dirk glared at Magnus reproachfully.

Magnus explained, "Sindra looks like she isn't much of a threat, but she's really is a damned good spell caster. She's killed some of Lyr's best wizards in magic battles recently. She's also got about a dozen vamp minions scattered around the place. It would have been an ugly fight."

Dirk rolled his eyes, annoyed at the intervention. He turned to Zyrdicia, who stood with her head craned upward, staring at the bright, blinking, magical lights fixed to the ceiling. She was slowly floating upward. Her feet were already several inches off the ground.

Dirk forced himself to shed his frustration over the interruption and refocus his attention on what mattered. He might not have another opportunity if she lost interest now.

He reached up and grasped both Zyrdicia's hands and pulled her back down like a wayward balloon. When she was back on the ground, he gently tipped her head down away from the lights. Her unseeing stare looked right past him. He placed on hand on each of her cheeks and directed her gaze toward his face. She smiled at the sensation of his hands on her face, but her eyes did not refocus.

"Can you see me?" he whispered cautiously.

"You aren't really here to see. You're a hallucination. Right now, I see spots. Maybe when the spots go away, you'll turn into someone else."

"My foolish one, you mustn't stare at the lights. Close your eyes, and it will pass." He bent and scooped her into his arms again. The sensation of being swept off her feet caused another fit of laughter to grip her.

24.6.4

Outside, the sky had already begun to spit green snow. No one stirred in the street.

A black, heavily armored coach awaited the royal couple at the door to the Spider's Web. As Dirk loaded Zyrdicia inside it, Kendall warned, "We should overnight in Geshna, Sire. The storm--"

"-No!" Dirk interrupted. "I won't spend this night anywhere but Castle Blackpool."

"As you wish," Kendall said reluctantly. The soldiers all exchanged worried glances. It was easy for Dirk to be certain of the weather from inside the steel walls of the coach. The soldiers all wore heavy black tarps large enough to cover their entire bodies, and the horses beneath them, but it was going to be a long ride to Castle Blackpool in a Snow Blight.

Just as Dirk was about to step into the coach, a crowd pushed out from the door of the Spider's Web. A dozen people pressed toward him, and his soldiers immediately reacted by drawing their weapons and closing ranks around the coach.

One of the strangers yelled, "Dirk! Dirk! Over here!"

Another bellowed, "Dirk, does this mean the rumor of a divorce isn't true?"

From the back, someone called, "What's the story with Zyrdicia and Sindra?"

He stared at them in shock for a moment, trying to figure out who they were, and why they dared to use his first name and speak to him in such a way.

To his right, a voice asked loudly, "Are you jealous of Zyridicia and Sindra?"

Dirk rolled his eyes as though no stupider question had ever been asked. He sneered and said flatly, "Of that woman? Are you daft?"

A bright light flashed in his face and someone near him said, "Lyrian Liar. Pose for a few pictures for tomorrow's edition?"

Dirk glared in reply then turned to get in the coach. He paused, realizing he could turn the situation to his advantage.

He turned around and said, "In response to the first question, any rumor of a divorce is a preposterous lie. As you saw tonight, our marriage is very much intact. Our bond is unbreakable. Zyrdicia has no interest in ever being with anyone but me - a fact that should be clear to you all after tonight."

"So why did she declare this barony's independence from your kingdom?"

"It was a game between us. Dagonia remains firmly part of Karteia - and its baroness remains my most cherished possession."

As soon as he paused, someone yelled out, "What about the break-up that was rumored?"

"She creates drama for amusement. You played into her hands if you believed that nonsense. As she told you in her last interview, she adores me," Dirk said cockily. He paused a moment, then added, "-As I do her."

With that he turned and climbed into the coach, leaving the crowd clambering for answers to more questions. Inside, Dirk found Zyrdicia running her hands along the soft surface of a fur blanket on the seat next to her. She was blissfully unaware of the exchange with the Lyrian tabloid reporters.

Dirk yelled to the coachman, "Go!"

The sudden jolt as the coach lurched forward caused her to fly against him. He caught her and pulled her into his lap. Without leaving his lap, she wriggled free from his grasp, and she turned to face him, her thighs straddling him.

He pulled the fur blanket up and draped it around her bare shoulders protectively. She was too drugged to notice the cold, but the night was frigid, and she wasn't dressed for it. She writhed happily for a moment at the sensation of the fur on her skin.

As the coach bounced and jerked over Geshna's icy, cobblestone streets, she pressed her body against him. "More!" she demanded childishly.

Dirk took a moment to savor the victorious moment. He pressed his lips to her throat and felt her pulse quicken beneath the smooth skin. He parted his teeth enough to take a bit of soft flesh between them. He caressed that flesh with his tongue for an instant before biting hard enough to evoke a surprised gasp from her.

His mouth moved from her neck to her lips. He kissed her hungrily, as though he intended to devour her.