“Arrgggh. My head.” His voice was suffused with suffering.
“My Beloved Lord.” Maion watched Lemuel carefully, afraid that the endearment would be going too far, too fast, but he was pleased by it. “Drink this and take these medicines. They will greatly reduce your suffering.”
“Truly The Lord of All was right in saying that indulgence brings grave punishment.” Lemuel’s voice was cracked with the force of his hangover.”
Tears started to form in the corners of Maion’s eyes. “I am such a grave punishment?”
Lemuel almost panicked at the thought he had hurt her. She’d been the only female in weeks, months, who had shown him any courtesy or consideration, let alone the love and attention he had the right to expect only from his mate. “No, no. You’ve been wonderful. You are wonderful. I just feel so ill.”
“Perhaps the strength of your prayers for Our Holy Father has taken too much energy from you. I have some food prepared, and more water. Would you honor me by taking refreshment before I go back down to the floor.” She went over to a side table and fetched the dishes containing Lemuel’s breakfast. It was, of course, his favorite. He drank more water, feeling its coolness soothe the parched tissues of this throat while the hammering in his head started to ease.
“Go back down to the floor?” Lemuel was confused.
“I have no patron most noble Ophanim. So, I must go down to the floor of the club and serve those who are down there. If any want me and have the price then I must go with them. Some of them are nice.” Maion shuddered theatrically. “But if I had a patron, then I live in one of the apartments here and serve only him. I would still perform my reverential dances downstairs but would not have to work the floor.”
Lemuel finished his food and grinned at her. “I think we can fix this. Maion, would you accept me as your patron?”
“Oh, yes Sire.” Maion’s eyes shone with genuine happiness. For the first time in more than a year she could see a way out of the trap she was in. “We must speak to Charmeine-Lan to make the arrangements.”
“Then let us speak to her without delay.”
By a “strange coincidence” Charmeine-Lan was just outside their room when Lemuel and Maion left in search of her. Unseen by Lemuel, Maion gave her the high-five success signal and that caused Charmeine-Lan to relax. The scheme had gone off perfectly. “Was Maion satisfactory Most Noble Ophanim?”
“Very much so. I understand I can become her patron?”
“That is so, although I must warn you that it is not an inexpensive undertaking. You must pay rent for her new apartment, and an allocation for her living expenses. For that you may visit her any time you please, you may eat in the club without charge and Maion will be reserved for your service alone. She will continue to dance in the club but that will be all. You will also need to give her an allowance so she can keep herself properly.”
Lemuel nodded. Charmeine-Lan pulled a pad out of her robes and wrote quickly on it. “This will be the amount in question. Maion’s allowance will be for the two of you to agree on though.”
Lemuel looked at the number in shock. His heart had sunk when he had heard Charmeine-Lan listing the things he would have to pay for but the total amount was a small fraction of what he had expected. He could afford it easily and still give Maion a generous allowance. Watching him, Charmeine-Lan carefully his her amusement. The amount she had been told to charge was indeed a small fraction of the usual cost. Michael-Lan had told her the business would eat the difference.
“Could we see Maion’s new apartment please?” Lemuel spoke carefully, this was a major step for him and one he wasn’t certain how he could justify to himself. Other than the fact that he was being frozen out by his formal mate and Maion had shown him the first tenderness he had known in months.
“Certainly, come with me.” Charmeine-Lan took the couple up another flight of stairs. “We have a few apartments vacant. This is a nice one.”
It was a simple suite of rooms, not so very different from the one in which he had spent the night with Maion. Lemuel looked around with his lower lip pushed out. In contrast, Maion’s eyes were shining. “It’s lovely Most Noble Ophanim.”
“Hmm. Charmeine-Lan, is this the best you have?”
“Well, we do have some better ones, but they’re usually for… Well, let me show you one.” She led the couple down the hall and around a corner. “These apartments are much quieter and a little larger.”
She opened the door and Maion gasped. This suite was much larger and more luxurious. The bare stone walls in the other suite were here covered with semi-precious stone and the furnishings were opulent rather than just comfortable. Charmeine-Lan gave Lemuel another note with the extra cost on it. Again, the amount was small enough to raise his eyebrows. “We’ll take this one.”
Maion dropped to her knees, her wings swept over her head. “Most Noble Ophanim, I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, you can start by calling me Lemuel.” He patted her on the rump as she ran into her new apartment. “Charmeine-Lan, my work may call me away for unknown periods. So there shall be no misunderstanding, I will pay you for a year in advance. Is that acceptable?”
“It is indeed. If you like, you can leave Maion-Lan-Lemuel’s allowance for the same period with us and we will be sure she gets it on schedule.”
Lemuel looked at her doubtfully. He could see several objections to that plan. “I will consider your kind offer and return to you on that. Now, I will give you a note of hand for the year’s payment and you can reclaim the gold at your convenience.” The money would be drawn from the amount he and Onniel had saved over the years. And if Onniel found out and didn’t like it, she could leave.
The business completed, Lemuel was about to join Maion in their new apartment when two rolls of thunder swept over the Eternal City.
The Forum of Indefatigable Exaltation, Eternal City, Heaven.
“Remember I once told you that humans went in for overkill? Well, this is what I mean.” Michael-Lan waved his hand at the devastation in the market. “First bomb was over there, it panicked people and crowded them into the killing zone of the second bomb here. Standard human tactics. They’re good at this sort of thing.”
“Humans did this? In the Eternal City?” The sudden change from his delight in Maion’s company to his horror at the scene of carnage was more than Lemuel could endure.
“I thought so.” Now the zinger thought Michael. “Only, after the bombing we have started to find these scattered around the City. He held out a crude poster.
“The search for justice knows no mercy. We demand the release of all the political prisoners seized in recent raids. If our demands are not met, the blood of those who die in future will be on your hands. The League of Divine Justice.”
“League of Divine Justice?” Lemuel was confused and still in shock. “Who are they?”
“Not human. Humans would have made reference to ‘the people’ and phrased this differently. The reference to The Divine and the way this is written sounds to me like a group of Angels who are trying to copy humans.”
“We have another conspiracy?” Lemuel looked even more shocked.
“We surely do. We’ve just got rid of one and now we’re faced with this. How’s the investigation into the other thing you were looking into by the way?”
Lemuel faked a complete lack of concern. “It’s nothing to worry about. The more I look into it, the less there is to be concerned about. Just over-enthusiam, that’s all. It doesn’t amount to heresy or blasphemy, we might as well not worry about it any more. Compared with this horror… ” Lemuel stepped back as he turned to wave and felt his sandal slide on something. Looking down, he saw it was a part of an angelic wing. He barely avoided vomiting.
Michael-Lan nodded sympathetically. “Your decision of course, but I think you are absolutely right. This atrocity must take precedence.” Especially since it means that I can now claim credit for the nuclear destruction of Tel Aviv and if anybody argues about it, we can link them straight to this. “We will have to get back to headquarters and see if Salaphael knows anything about this.” If he has any sanity left.
Chapter Forty Nine
DIMO(N) Test Facility, Camp Hendrick, Hell
“Tucker! How are you, what are you doing here?”
