Children of Chaos

'Unwrap it and see. Just don't knock it over.' Benard sat back and relaxed while the boys wiped his limbs with cool damp cloths and soft towels. Others refilled his beaker and laid out plates of sweetmeats. Luxury would pall, he thought, but it was enjoyable at times. This was as close to it as any Hand of Anziel would ever come. The shady park fussed with birdsong and insect noises. Nerio seemed to be taking a long time.

'Darling!' Hiddi came running. He jumped up to embrace her as she threw herself into his arms. She was wearing nothing below her earrings except bathwater, but that was not at all unusual for her. Her welcomes were always passionate and prolonged. By the time she released him, Guilio and Cosimo had removed the sacking from the gift, a painted pottery figurine, about half life-size. Even Nerio had joined the crowd gathered around to admire it.

Hiddi said, 'Nerio said you brought me a ... Ooh! Oh, it's lovely!'

Yes, it was. Benard considered it one of his best creations yet, a model for the full-size Eriander he planned for the Pantheon, an ambiguous, androgynous youngster with a cryptic smile. She was naked, but clutching a cloth to her chest, and the fall of drapery concealed enough to leave her sex in doubt. The pose was oddly shy, but the sleepy invitation in the eyes was not at all ambiguous.

'He's gorgeous!' Hiddi stooped to peer closely at the image and caress it, which is what a true art lover would instinctively do. She was no connoisseur but she recognized sensuality. She touched the cuneiform on the base. 'What does this sign say?'

' 'Eriander.' I copied it off the shrine in the Pantheon.'

'Clothed? I never seen Him with clothes on before.'

Benard chuckled, happy to see his work approved. 'She's not wearing any more than you are.'

He had based this Eriander on the image in Ingeld's chamber. The features had turned out with the same tantalizing familiarity, although he had tried to model them on those of Thod's youngest sister. It must be an illusion caused by the ambiguous shifting back and forth between genders. Hiddi began jumping up and down with excitement, demanding that the new idol be brought to her bed-chamber at once, so Benard heaved it up for the last time and carried it across to the house. He had made some progress in remaking the room, but it still contained far too much clutter. Hiddi was a slow pupil when it came to understanding the difference between quality and sheer quantity.

He set his creation in place on the sleeping platform while Hiddi removed the grotesque hermaphrodite he disliked so much.

'What does one do with an unwanted god?' she said, puzzled. 'I can't throw Him out or break Him!'

'Give Her to the temple,' Benard suggested. He took the offending plaque and laid it behind a chest, out of sight, where it couldn't watch him.

'This one's much prettier!' Hiddi hugged him again as they admired the figurine. 'You are good to me, Bena darling!' She kissed him fondly. 'Won't you help me make an offering to Him, just this once?' She kissed him again, even more so.

Knowing where this was leading, he broke free long enough to pull off his loincloth and throw it over the image of the god as a cover. 'No. But I want you to do me a favor.'

'Anything.' She pulled him down on the mats. 'Anything you want.'

'I want you to make the first offering to the new god with Nerio.'

'Nerio!?' Suddenly she was pushing him away indignantly. Hiddi could change direction faster than a bat. 'Nerio is insolent! I hate him. He doesn't know his place!'

The place Nerio regarded as properly his was now occupied by Benard. 'Dismiss him, then. Send him away and hire another swordsman. If you don't want me, I'll get started on the tiles.' He reached for his loincloth.

'No!' She grabbed his arm. 'How can you possibly want me to make love to Nerio? Don't you care for me at all?' Now she was a hurt child. Her moods never seemed faked. She really felt them all.

Benard folded her into his arms again and they stretched out on the mat. 'I care for you very much and I want you to be happy. You're making Nerio miserable and he's upsetting the slaves. Your household isn't running as well as it used to. Now promise me—the next man you make love to here will be Nerio.'

Hiddi pouted. 'Oh, very well. Just for you.'

'And you will be very, very nice to him? Like you used to be?'

She was purring as he stroked her thigh. 'All right. I'll pretend he's you.'

Benard muttered approval into the space between her breasts and nothing more was said.

twenty-seven

INGELD NARSDOR

had never baked a loaf or plucked a goose in her life and had a staff of many sixties to run the palace for her. No matter; preparations for a major festival like the Harvest Feast of Ucr still ran her as ragged as any peasant wife organizing a daughter's wedding. Paradoxically, the knowledge that Saltaja would be arriving tomorrow had turned out to be a blessing, in that Horold had flown into a panic and fled town. Confident that she would not be molested tonight, Ingeld retired early to her chamber and knelt in prayer before the hearth. The evening was chill, and she must soon order the shutters installed in the arches, but she hated to admit that winter was on its way.

Even the scent of burning godswood did not quite mask the reek of Horold that now hung in her chamber. He would return. Like Benard, the satrap was slow to change course, but nothing would deflect him when his mind was made up. Three nights now he had forced himself on her. Fortunately he did not know the proper rites for what he wanted, but the goddess could always waive ritual. Each time Ingeld had cursed his seed so it could not quicken her womb, but each rejection had proved more difficult than the last. She was using the goddess's blessing to defeat the goddess's purpose, and obviously that course would not prosper long. Veslih was showing Her displeasure by refusing to answer Her Daughter's pleas for guidance. Flames leapt in endless play, bouncing shadows off the