The Fly House (The UtopYA Collection) Read online

  "Did you speak with Wind today? Have you promised her all your dances for the House Party?" she asked. He stopped, only a foot from the door, and dropped his head back with a sigh.

  "No."

  "You cannot keep avoiding her, Diem."

  "I'm not. I never saw her. I spent the day opening a new catch."

  "I noticed," Breathe said, motioning to the streaks of egg-muck all over him. When he moved toward the bathroom again, she said, "When do you think you will talk with her?"

  He stifled his groan. "I don't know, Gra. Soon."

  What he meant was, never, if he could manage it. He knew his Gra meant well, that she wanted him linked with Wind so that the Fly House would have a Rha's wife that could produce him children. All they had to secure the Rhaship right now was Diem's younger sister, Karma. Since women no longer took the position of Rha and since Diem wasn't about to allow any men to get within fifty feet of his sister, there were no male heirs to take his position if the need arose.

  "You need to consider Wind, Diem," Breathe persisted. "We need to make sure that the House is secured with a future Rha. You don't have forever to create a successor. Children need time to grow up."

  "First, you are assuming she'd birth males."

  "Enough births and we are sure to have at least one."

  "Second, you are assuming that we have enough currency to make her purchase from Rha Span."

  "I don't expect you to make a legitimate deal with Span," she said. "It's not like he is an honest man. I'm sure he wouldn't be above trading something...like what you have out at your shack. I would expect it would only take trading one for you to gain a wife."

  "Wife." Diem puffed a laugh at her archaic. The old words and old ways and old manners that were no longer used since the scorching, were largely referred to as the archaic, and no matter how ancient they seemed to him, Gra still used them. Diem found it amusing. He shook a finger at her and stepped close to whisper to her, "You should not risk speaking aloud about that shack, Gra. Our overseer could hear."

  "Don't speak to me like I've no idea , Diem. I was Rha for a good long time and the Lord's made it so I'll always be older than you. Don't try to tell me that Puck doesn't know all about it. How could he not, since he's dealing in the Hope Market with you."

  "Gra," Diem began tightly, but then he relented. Gra Breathe and Karma were his only true family and he hated to be harsh with them, even when it was warranted. Instead, he decided to change the subject and lighten the mood. "Puck? Why not call the overseer by his real name?"

  Gra Breathe grunted. "That is not his real name and I don't care how funny it is to all of you to use the archaic that way. I don't care that he thinks it is a pet name and I don't even care how much he deserves to be called it. I am still a woman of class, even if you consider it archaic, and I won't call him by something so obscene."

  "A woman of class, you definitely are," Diem said with a grin. He pushed open the bathroom door to make his escape, but Breathe touched his arm.

  "At least think on it, Diem," she said. "I am sure Rha Span would agree, that just one would be more than fair payment for his daughter."

  Diem laughed. "It would be worth six of his daughters, especially if they are all like Wind."

  "Then consider this: that business you are conducting is such that joining Houses could bring us unity and protection we may need in the future. You two could discuss it at the coming House Party."

  The conversation was becoming too dangerous to speak of it openly, but even worse, it was hitting a raw nerve so close to the truth that Diem winced.

  "Enough of this, Gra. That linking is less about trade, than it would be about making Fly House vulnerable to Span. I don't care for Wind enough to risk my dinner for her, let alone giving Span the chance to get his claws into our House."

  "Then you must make that decision public and seek out other girls at the party," Breathe said. Her whisper became so faint, Diem had to keep his ear close to her lips to hear it. "I'm going to tell you, Diem, the way I see it, you may be avoiding Span, but you are still risking Fly House with your quiet business. Working with Phuck as you are, you are just dealing with a different set of claws. And those aren't even human."

  "I will think on it," Diem said. He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door to put a definite end to their reckless conversation. Gra Breathe was right, of course, but it didn't change the situation one bit.

  ***

  Diem saw her coming. He didn't get up to meet her, but remained seated beneath the rickety overhang of his shack. He didn't like her coming to his dragon grounds at all, but what was even more surprising was that she would chance coming to it by herself.

  She had to travel through the woods and a woman on her own in the woods was risking the chance of a male coming upon her. Even escorted, a woman would have to hope that the male with her was stronger or more clever than the male they encountered, but a woman on her own would have even less chance of escape. The Houses had long ago decreed that the creation of children was paramount to the survival of the human race. It had been expected, when the law was made, that the act would be consensual and as pleasant as possible. But the law had deteriorated quickly, as offspring became status among the Houses, to the point that the law eventually had no other expectation, but that the act would result in pregnancy. Although Diem insisted that the men of his House only partake in consensual sex, it was not an easy rule to regulate or maintain.

  Diem studied Wind's leisurely advance. She obviously wasn't being pursued. She stalked through the high grass toward Diem as though she were a predator herself.

  He chuckled at the thought. There was no denying Wind's body was desirable. As long as it would take a man to inhale his slowest, deepest breath, is about as long as it would take him to trace the curves of Wind's hourglass form. Despite birthing three children, and if a man could overlook her face, Wind's body was a phenomenon, from the soft rise of her breasts to the delicate sway of her hips. The woman's body, and how she used it, made every man Diem knew linger on thoughts of mating for days. Diem knew, as a possible mate to her, that he should want to rip the arms off of any man that even glanced at her. The problem was, he found it nearly impossible to give a damn.

  Her face was nowhere close to matching the caliber of her body, but what made her so unattractive to Diem wasn't that. It was that he knew her details.

  Wind had a careless tongue and her ideas of generosity were based solidly on her returns. What made her ugliest to him was knowing that she wanted to link with him solely because he was the Rha of Fly House.

  "Blessings," she greeted. The dragons, in their caves at the opposite end of the House training grounds, shot streams of fire from the lattice-gated cave openings. Diem whistled to them from the porch of the cabin, low and sweet. The restless dragons calmed. Diem put his cup down on the bubbled, gorne stump beside him as Wind walked up. He didn't bother to rise from his seat.

  "Blessings," he returned, squinting up at her. "What are you doing here?"

  He didn't offer his lap to her, which would be proper, even if he was just seriously considering mating with her. But he wasn't, so he didn't.

  "I was hoping you'd promise me all your dances at the coming House Party," she swung her head to one side, the mane of her light hair cascading over her shoulder, the ends dancing on her breast.

  "I won't be attending," he said. Her head snapped upright.

  Diem knew it was his mistake that he'd ever tolerated Wind at all; that he'd ever been intrigued by the curves of her body or mildly amused by her tenacity. He realized more quickly than she, that her skin wasn't enough to satisfy his mind and that her tenacity wore his patience thin. He'd spoken to her about it, and tried to be gentle, but she refused to believe he didn't want her.

  She had continued to visit Fly House for weeks at a time, which was only customary if a man from the House was considering a mating or a link with the visiting woman. During a customary visit, a woman would typ
ically contribute, by taking up some of the workload, which was intended to prove her worth to the other members of the House. However, Wind's visits were what Breathe called 'a vacation', and which Diem took to mean a nuisance, since Wind didn't lift a finger, but insisted on being waited upon during her stay.

  Diem continued to squint into the sunlight that shone beyond her. She fastened her hands to her hips, but didn't bother to cast him a comfortable shadow.

  "So it is true. I am ashamed that I had to hear from your overseer that you are trying to increase Fly House's portion."

  Ah. So this visit wasn't only about dances or mating after all. Well, not exactly.

  "Had to hear?" He stood, taking his cup with him, into the shack. He hoped that turning his back to her would be offensive enough that she would leave, but her footsteps followed close behind him, so he continued to speak. "You should be ashamed for listening to what is not your business, Wind. And my overseer shouldn't have been talking to you. My House's portions aren't your concern, so stay out of it."

  Her tone softened. "But as your Link, I would be..."

  He silenced her with a sharp turn. She plowed into his chest, but he stood rock solid, staring down at her with a hooded glare.

  "Even then, I would not discuss my business with you. You forget your place as a woman, Wind, and you're forgetting your place with me. I haven't visited your father or asked Breed House for your mating, have I?"

  "You could."

  "I haven't."

  "But why not? I know you like my body. I see you watch me. And I am the daughter of a Rha. What could be a better Link for you? Is it because I haven't offered myself to you?" She stepped in close to him, snaking her arms up his chest and over his shoulders. Her fingers stroked the sensitive cords at the back of his neck like a dry kiss. He held his cup firmly, so he wouldn't spill the remaining caffe on the floor. Pressing her hips to his, she rose on tiptoe, tilting her head in anticipation of his kiss. When he made no move to assist her, she tugged on his neck until she could reach his lips. Diem stood motionless as her mouth moved against his.

  To do it was as cold as ice seeds, but he had to make his point. He didn't respond, even as she sucked at his lip and ground her hips against him.

  "You want me to believe you prefer the men to me?"

  "In some ways, definitely." He tried not to laugh as he untangled himself from her.

  "Don't tell me that you are shebele, Diem. I know better."

  "I wish I were. Men nag me for my mating far less than you do." He crossed the floor to upend his cup in the sink basin.

  "Maybe you are shebele," she said, her eyelids drooping until her lashes dusted her cheeks. "Now that you mention it, I've never heard of your offspring in any House. Maybe you should make your intentions clear, so you do not insult the daughter of a Rha by presenting yourself as available for mating."

  This wasn't playful banter anymore, it was pure insult. To be shebele was to disappoint, since the shebele were uninterested in helping to populate the race. Diem felt the fumes of his anger rise with Wind's manipulation. She was threatening his position of power, his seating as the Fly House Rha.

  With the human population still teetering on the verge of extinction, sex was highly encouraged, even insisted upon, even though official mating ties drew the opposite reaction. Early on, it was recognized that mating a couple together created extra competition and made for warring between the Houses. In the beginning, a mating happened once a woman became pregnant. The man would leave his House and join the woman's House. It created hardships for the Houses that lost a man's strength and it created horrible confrontations and power struggles in the Houses they joined.

  There had been a shift because of it, and for a while, women became the ones who moved to the new House after mating. That hadn't worked either. Women brought extra mouths to feed, an extra body to clothe, and some of the Houses were already too impoverished to care for themselves. Fights among the women were as hard to handle. The women fought with their links and with one another, cried for home, and often ran away.

  Finally, the decision was made that women would be planted with the men's seed, but couples would remain unlinked, both remaining with their own House. A mating would only occur when a man could pay a cost to the House that he wished to take a woman from. The Old likened the cost to what they called a dowry, in old words. Some consideration and trade took place on the rare occasions that a House was lopsided with one sex or another.

  In only a few years, matings came to be considered separate from impregnations. Matings seldom happened, since the payment was far too extravagant for even most of the Rhas to afford. But Wind knew Diem's pockets were deep enough and it was her ego, as much as her desire for prosperity and position, which made her pursue him with a vengeance.

  "Tell me what you want from me," Wind pressed. His answer was solid.

  "Nothing."

  "Nothing? You've never taken me, not once, but if you did, I know you would want everything from me."

  "We are not meant for one another, Wind."

  "Prove to me, at least, that you are not shebele. Have me and then you can tell me you don't want more."

  She turned away from him, bending deep at the waist. Her skirt climbed the back of her thighs; the soft rim of her bottom peeked from beneath the fabric. She wore no underclothes, as was custom for women who were available to be planted with young. His breath hitched at the sight. There was no denying that her body was amazing. She stretched further, her fingers finally reaching the floor, as she spread her legs slightly. The skirt hiked up over the puckered knot of her rear, like a curtain framing the glistening, pink flesh of her ready sex.

  He stirred. He was raised with the archaic manners by Gra Breathe, which told him to look away, but he tried not to give a damn about archaic, which was his right, once he became a man. After all, he'd seen women on more occasions than archaic would ever allow. When he was very young, the girls in his House had shown him theirs and he'd shown them his. They'd spent a great deal of time inspecting one another in wonder. But the way his Gra had raised him meant the archaic manners nagged at his conscience.

  When he became old enough to plant a woman with young, he'd avoided it. It was in the time when men were expected to leave their houses. Although it brought him tremendous guilt to withhold his much needed contribution, he was terrified of leaving Gra Breathe and his sister, Karma, the only real family he had. When the rules changed again, and women were expected to join the man's house upon being planted, Diem's closest friend, Eon, had brought in a girl who gossiped and fought with him and eventually ran away. Diem wanted no part of it.

  Going without sex had been excruciating, but as Rha, mating took on whole new layers of responsibility. Diem knew that many of the women he met simply wanted to be planted by a Rha, as it would heighten their status in their own House. Especially Rha Diem's young, since his House was the most prosperous, for the fourth year in a row.

  Diem was annoyed that it mattered to him, but he couldn't escape it. Even more shameful was knowing that he felt such a great need for a woman to want him in the same way that he wanted her. As a man, he should need no one else, but he did. Desperately.

  He wanted the loyalty of a woman as much as he wanted her intimacy. It enchanted him to imagine a Link that was as capable as he, that could live life with him, side by side. He wanted a woman to bond with in ways that would make their relationship as strong and sound as he'd made the prosperity of the Fly House.

  The women he knew weren't like that. They raced to please his every whim, to be whatever he wanted them to be, and they fought among one another for his favor. As much as it puzzled him, none of them held his attention very long.

  He knew, as Wind stood before him, her glistening apple prone and begging for both his mouth and his manhood, that she was no different. Her body was darkly hypnotizing and it was expected that women be taken, especially when offering themselves, and planted with young. To turn her aw
ay would be insult, but what Wind was asking for was far more than just his seed.

  Wind wasn't a regular girl. She was the daughter of Span, the Rha of Breed House. Standing about 5'3, Span was undeniably the most deadly man left on Earth. He mastered the elegance of archaic, charming women and appeasing men with his old manners, even moments before slitting a man's throat. Through charm and violence and theft, Span had increased Breed House's portion significantly. No one dared mention the odd coincidence that when Span wanted to add a woman to his House, a catch of dragon eggs or some restraint equipment or even that week's portion of gorne that the Plutians allotted each House, would come up missing from the woman's House. Even stranger, Span's offer for the woman he wanted was usually the exact thing that the House needed, which, strangely enough, was what had gone missing.

  Diem could only guess what Span would do to him if he mated Wind and then refused to link with her. But Diem knew it was just as dangerous if he refused her. She was still the daughter of a Rha.

  He stepped forward. She tilted her hips back to offer better access, but Diem took a deep breath as he drew down the edge of her skirt. She grunted as he pulled her upright by her forearm, twisting her to face him. Her glare hit him hard.

  She didn't yell or attack him. She did something worse.

  She stepped away and spit on his feet.

  "Gar nichts," she hissed. Nothing. It was Span's cultural archaic and he knew the curse when he heard it. It meant that she would report his refusal to Span. The guilt washed over Diem, that his entire House may have to pay for his refusal to plant a woman.

  He was ashamed that he could not be a man who didn't care who held his seed. Ashamed that he worried over how Span would make his House miserable, rather than being the man who would strike first, harder and faster. He was ashamed that his need to keep the peace made him reach for Wind.