Contrarywise

reflected her face in the torchlight. Like the black glass of a scrying mirror, she decided. Kel figeted under the man's steady regard. She felt pierced. As if her thoughts were no longer private. Kelandris licked her lips nervously. «Who are you?» she whispered. «I am Trickster's Emissary.» A chill skittered up Kel's spine. And she didn't know why. Still hearing the drumming in the distance, she asked, «Uh—did the Coins of Coincidence—» Zendrak chuckled. Walking toward Kel slowly, he said, «No, dear heart. I'm not part of your village ritual. I'm part of something else. Something a bit larger. But just the same, Rimble sends you his greetings.» «He does?» she asked, taking a step backward. Zendrak stopped where he was, opening his arms to her, his eyes kind. Then his strong physical scent swept toward her on the autumn breeze. Mythrrim to Mythrrim, she was undone. Zendrak's personal body odor intoxicated Kel's senses like a heady high. Her pulse raced. Gasping, the Revel Queen touched her chest unconsciously, aware of a pulling sensation in her heart. Pulling or sliding or aching—she wasn't sure which. Still holding his hands open to her, Zendrak gestured gently for Kel to come to him. Kelandris shook her head. «You don't understand. There's this ritual going on tonight. And I'm supposed to make love with—I mean—I—» Kel clapped her hand over her mouth in embarrass-ment. The man in front of her was a total stranger. And Kel doubted very much that it was wise to discuss such matters with someone from the outside—particularly someone who hadn't even come for the Hallows. Kelandris blushed furiously. «Excuse me,» she said as calmly as she could manage. «You'll have to go now. I'm—uh—waiting for someone.» Zendrak inclined his head toward the chanting of the villagers at the end of the Long Revel Trail. «Oh, they'll be at it for at least an hour yet.» He smiled. «Rimble says so.» «Rimble says—» Kel broke off in mid-sentence. «Who are you?» The man in green removed his long travelling cloak. He smiled at her, «My name is Zendrak.» Laying the cloak on the ground, he jdded, «I stand in for Rimble sometimes.» More interested in what the man was doing than in what he was saying, Kel's eyes widened. Was he making a bed? «Didn't you hear me?» she asked anxiously. «You have to go now. I'm waiting for—» «Me,» said Zendrak quietly. There was a short silence while Kel deliberated the truth of this. Zendrak raised an eyebrow. «Perhaps you prefer someone else?» Remembering Yonneth, Kel swallowed. «Well—uh—no. You' re—just fine.» Zendrak smiled. Lifting Kel's chin gently with his hand, he kissed her lightly, his warm tongue playing over her half- open lips. Kelandris thought she was going to die on the spot. From bliss. The last of her reservations about the rightness or wrongness of loving Zendrak folded. Zendrak's breath brushed her face. Kelandris groaned softly. Zendrak's personal animal scent—sweet, musky, and inviting—teased her senses. Delightfully drunk now, Kel could hardly see straight. Zendrak kissed her again, this time more thoroughly. Kel tried to match his five hundred years of passion, but her inexperience made her slightly clumsy. His eyes twinkling with amusement, Zendrak convinced Kel to come up for air. Then he taught her how to kiss him. Happily for all concerned, Kelandris proved to a quick study. Touching Kel's breasts for the first time, Zendrak stiffened abruptly. Kelandris had a razor-sharp knife hidden in her bra. Eyeing Kel ruefully, Zendrak pulled the knife free and dropped it on the ground. Zendrak chuckled. Then he said, «Trickster told me you'd be fierce. He wasn't kidding. Tell me,» he asked, «do you often make love in full armor?» Rolling her eyes, Kelandris picked up the knife and threw it expertly into a sapling. «There,» she muttered. «You've disarmed me.» «And you're vexed,» said Zendrak, his voice sober. «You've misunderstood. I enjoy a woman who fights her own battles. And shows her spirit openly.» He stroked Kel's cheek with gentle fingers. «Spirited women are the very best kind. And they're also the hardest to come by.» Kelandris wrinkled her nose in disagreement. «Oh—Tammirring makes my kind everyday. It's in the draw.» Zendrak laughed good-naturedly. «Believe me, Kelandris of Suxonli, the world has never seen one such as you before.» Taking in the whole of her hermaphroditic costume, Zendrak bent to loosen the leather dildo from her striped belt. Holding the erect penis sheath by its engorged stem, Zendrak winked at Kelandris. «I don't think you'll be needing this for a bit. I've a very generous nature.» Patting the lower portion of his green robe, Zendrak added, «And I'm happy to share.» Kelandris started to smile then hesitated. The color drained out of her face as her seventeen-year-old virginity got the best of her. «How generous?» she asked hoarsely, all of Yonneth's taunts coming to mind. Tales of pain and blood. Kel started to tremble. «My brother—» She broke off, tears in her eyes. Zendrak studied the fear in her face. He dropped the leather ritual dildo to the ground and pulled Kelandris to him, enfolding her pounding heart in his arms. He kissed her lovingly then said, «Brothers can be cruel sometimes, Kel. You must refuse such violence.» «I do,» she said adamantly, glancing at her knife stuck in the sapling. Zendrak followed her gaze. «Weapons are ineffective against psychic violence, Kel. Only spirit can overcome this kind of attack. Spirit, courage, and refusal.» Kelandris listened closely to Zendrak's words. They made her feel strong inside. Strong, relieved, and hopeful. She smiled tentatively at the man in green. «Okay,» she said. Kel shrugged shyly, her face scarlet. «Let's—uh—share.» Zendrak chuckled. «Okay.» The boyishness and innocent glee of Zendrak's ready smile undid Kelandris utterly. Abandoning her fear of Zendrak's male differentness from herself, she allowed Zendrak to remove her costumed codpiece. Kel's eyes widened as she felt Zendrak's fingers explore the confines of her costume—and release her from it. Then, giving Kelandris a reassuring smile, the man in green kissed the tuft of dark hair between her legs. To him, she was a Mythrrim and she was «in season,» which meant desirable. Kelandris felt a twinge in her abdomen. Zendrak raised his eyes to meet hers. «The blood comes now.» «The blood?» asked Kelandris, unsure of what he meant. Then, feeling the wash of something wet issuing from her vagina, she yelped. Her menses had arrived for the first time. Kelandris regarded the blood dripping slowly down the inside of her thigh with horror. «It can't come now!» she cried. «The Blood Day Rule! I'm the Queen! The village expects me to dance!» Kel red her mouth, her eyes desperate. «They'll be so angry if I dance.» Tears brimmed in her eyes. «And so angry if I do.» «Rimble- Rimble,» said Zendrak, his tone matter-of-fact. Kelandris regarded him wildly. «What should I do?» Zendrak kissed her belly. «Make love.» «Yes, but—» «And then decide,» he added calmly. «Hmm?» Kelandris shut her eyes, feeling anguished by her internal conflict. Zendrak got to his feet. Mythrrim to Mythrrim, Kel's first blood sounded a passion in both their bodies that neither could restrain. Kelandris groaned, buckling. Zendrak lowered her to his cloak. Slowly, inexorably, he convinced Kel's body of the rightness of their mating. This was animal-talk. Kelandris opened her legs, inviting the spreading reach of Zendrak's fingers inside her. He stretched her and aroused her. Then, Zendrak entered her. Greatkin to Greatkin, their bodies fit together like a living socket and plug, the current of raw sexual potency streaming from one to the other and back again. Surprised, Kelandris immediately clamped down on her energy. But it was like trying to hold back an enormous waterfall. Power surged and threatened to overwhelm her if she didn't let go. Zendrak pressed his hand against the area between Kel's ovaries. «Just breathe,» he told her quietly. Kelandris tried to do so but ended up panting instead. Zendrak cupped one of his hands around the back of Kel's skull and slipped the other into the curve of the lower portion of her spine. The effect was immediately calming. It felt to Kel as if he were absorbing unclaimed current directly into his hands, thereby steadying the wild fluctuations of psychic energy in her body. «Follow me,» he said calmly and began to slowly rock his penis back and forth inside her vagina. In no time, the power began to build again. This time, Zendrak took control of it, allowing Kel only as much as she could safely accommodate. Kelandris groaned, arching her back. The pressure building inside her body made her feel dizzy and almost nauseous. Losing the rhythm between them, she squirmed under Zendrak. «I can't do this. I can't— «Yes, you can, Kel,» replied Zendrak, kissing her firmly, thrusting his tongue deep inside her mouth. Kelandris hesitated then met his passion with her own. Lights danced before her shut eyes. She felt her body finally relax into Zendrak's full embrace. Now something shifted between them. Something controlled, something electric, and something wildly fertile. Zendrak pulled back from Kel for a moment. He studied the dazed expression in her face then said, «You're doing fine.» Kelandris frowned helplessly. «But what am I doing?» «Becoming the he. Becoming a divine potential. The line to your womb is open now—thanks to your blood. Through you, Suxonli Village will come face-to-face with the Presence. And all will be changed.» Kelandris hadn't the faintest idea what he was talking about. She shuddered, surrendering briefly to the steady pulsing of power streaming out of her hands, legs, and crown. She blinked. Heart pounding, she stared hard at Zendrak. «What— what?» «Let it happen, Kel. Become both.» Kelandris shook her head dazedly. She felt terribly strange—as if her body were literally changing shape. Or sex, she thought. Like a Jinnjirri. She felt for her breasts. They were still there. Utterly confused, she couldn't get rid of the sensation that she might be female and male simultaneously. Zendrak kissed her forehead. «Don't fight it, Kel. It's what you were born to do.» Then Zendrak whispered Trickster's rhyme: Will you turn the inside inside-out, And be sanely mad with me? Will you master the smallest steps of my turnabout, And come to my ecstasy? Kel's world suddenly doubled, and she saw Zendrak's face from both a male and female perspective. It was as if all the concepts of gender she had ever held paradoxically collapsed and expanded inside her mind at the exact same moment. She was no longer male or female. She was a peculiar intermarriage of both. And yet her physical body remained female. Had she always been like this? Kel put the question to Zendrak. Trickster's Emissary nodded. «The visible rests on the invisible. Always.» He stroked Kel's cheek. «In this way, my maleness rests on my femaleness. In a manner of speaking, you could say I am Trickster's she.» Zendrak smiled, massaging Kel's abdomen deeply. «However,» he whispered, «I'll never embody it the way