Children of Chaos

town, Cutrath had been caught smuggling gold plate out of the palace. In that case Horold had sent a stern warning, and the snake had released her victim, but she did not deserve another chance. It was time to draw her fangs.

The big room was still hot, although mornings were cool now. Soon it would be time to have the winter doors brought back and hung. Ingeld wondered if she should order a fire laid. Short of another public pyromancy, the only way she might gain insight into the portents was by trance, and she had not risked that for several years. Patience! If the baby had been born in Kosord, then she would certainly recognize it when it was brought to the temple next sixth-day for Veslih's blessing.

And if Benard did show up tonight, then a serious talk with him might reveal more than the state of his loins. She wondered with a flash of amusement if it were possible to wander into auguries by accident. If anyone could, it would be Bena!

As she tipped water from the ewer to the basin, intending to sponge away the heat of the day, something fell on the grass outside with a muffled thump. Then another. Benard? He would not come that way without leave, and if he did, it would be through the gate, quiet as starlight She strode over to the arches in time to see a dark shape come down, but this one fell in silence and flopped shapelessly on the ground.

For a moment she was rooted to the spot by sheer disbelief, refusing to admit that the first two had been boots and the third a pall. Then their owner came over the wall also, landing on all fours, a huge white-furred beast in the twilight. She turned and fled. He was not in battleform, but he did not need to be. She was not even close to the door when arms like tree boughs closed around her.

'I don't want to hurt you any more than I have to,' he growled in her ear. 'Don't bother struggling.'

She gagged at the porcine stench of him, although it was mixed with scent, so he had at least tried. He had been drinking, too. She gasped several deep breaths in and out before she could speak.

'So it was yours!'

He grunted. 'Been spying on me?'

'You spy on me with your seers!' She tried to pry herself loose and merely confirmed her helplessness. Her head barely reached the middle of his chest. She tried her nails on a hairy thigh, but his hide was tough as pigskin.

'They tell me you still bleed,' he said. 'You're still fertile. And, as of today, I know I am, too.' Still clutching her tightly, he ripped the front of her gown open to the waist and began fondling her breasts. His paw was rough as earthenware. 'It has teeth, but it's quite human.'

She shuddered. 'You are not serious!' Of course he was serious. 'The mother died!'

'It was big for a newborn.' He had been drinking a lot. 'Women die in childbirth all the time.'

'I am going to scream!'

'Go ahead. I won't mind an audience.' He had both might and right on his side; she was as powerless in his grasp as that newborn baby. 'Veslih will help, because this is Her business. You swore to the goddess. And you swore to me, too.' He slid his hand lower.

It was true that a dynast owed her city a daughter to succeed her. On the night Stralg took over Kosord, Ingeld had negotiated the terms of her rape, standing between Ardial, her lawful husband, and the Guthlag beast, who had been quietly bleeding to death. She had agreed to bear two sons for that astonishingly handsome Werist at Stralg's side. But her promise to the goddess had come first, and he knew that as well as she did.

'One daughter and two sons, you promised,' Horold said, methodically stripping away her clothes without even seeming to notice her struggles. When he had her as naked as he was, he carried her over to the platform. 'Cutrath you agreed to later. Doesn't change the daughter. My daughter, to be dynast after you.'

He turned her to face him. 'So we have unfinished business. You're fertile, I'm fertile, and we're going to settle the matter now. I'm ready; you'll never be. Will you submit or do I force you?'

She gagged at his stench. 'Get it over with, then.' She lay down and closed her eyes.

¦

It probably did not last as long as it seemed, but it was terrible while it did. When he rolled off her, she lay and sobbed. The humiliation was worse than the pain and the pain had been bad. The worst part was knowing that he was right. She was old for bearing, but not impossibly so, and the goddess would hold her to her oath.

Horold stopped panting. He heaved himself along the platform until they were face-to-face again—face-to- snout. Fortunately it was too dark to see any details, but she could imagine his sneer of triumph.

'I know you have ways, wife. You don't need to hunt out some sleazy old chthonian behind the bazaar or poke around with sticks, but you will only delay the inevitable. You are going to bear me another child. The seers will tell me whose it is, and if it's any other man's, I'll kill it and start over.'

She turned her head away. The timbers creaked as he left the platform. She saw his outline against the brighter garden when he went to find his pall and boots. She was still shaking, still close to throwing up, but she must make her prayer soon if she wanted to shed his seed.

Sudden terror drove away the pain: Benard wouldn't come through the garden, would he? But he might be dallying out in the public part of the women's quarters. If Horold ran into him now, in his present drunken state, there would be murder done.

He came back in, dressed. 'You're bleeding.' He could see in the dark better than any cat.

'What did you expect? When you go out, tell them to send for a surgeon. I need stitches.'

'Rubbish. You'll get used to it. The girl did.' He stalked across the room to the door. 'Tomorrow at the same time.' He slid the bolt, then turned again. 'And every night until it's done, understand? That's what you tell the brides, isn't it? They owe this to their husbands?'

If their husbands were human. 'I tell the men they owe their wives respect.'

'If I find this door locked, I'll rip it down.' He went out and the anteroom erupted in startled screams. Soon the