Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2016 04:46:30 +0000
From: Michael Offutt <kavrik@hotmail.com>
Subject: Chapter 38-The Orb of Winter-Gay Science Fiction

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				   *****

			   Chapter Thirty-Eight

   Alexi's appointment with Headmaster Ivan Boritsi gave him anxiety, and
it supposedly began in just two minutes. He'd already reconciled the fact
that he was going to be late.
   Alexi straightened out his orange and blue gown and checked the clock
outside the headmaster's office just to be sure. This morning, Paul had
helped him put his luxurious black hair into a fishtail braid. Then Alexi
added a jeweled comb as a finishing touch. A chill winter wind swept down
the corridor behind him, and a group of Fifth Years giggled and scurried
past, clutching their study notes for Professor Hepsibah's exam on
"Fetishes and Fossils." As for Alexi, he had an hour before his next
examination.
   Plenty of time to mentally decompress after this meeting.
   When he thought seriously about it, the appointment couldn't have come
at a more opportune time. Alexi intended to use it to purloin a harvesting
wand from the headmaster's necromancy cabinet when he wasn't looking. But
still, he did fret as to the nature of the visit. The Ball of Moon's Blood
was expected to be held tomorrow night, which was the official "graduation
ceremony" and celebration of womanhood. Of course, the whole
virginity-shaming mentality professed by girls looking forward to the event
had reached peak outrage at this point. The speculation of "who will get
keys to the Scarlet Chamber" had swirled for weeks now, and girls had
already started to vote for their peers in the annual yearbook for "most
likely to be a spinster," "too fat to shag," and "virgin 'til death." After
the ball there was usually a rash of suicides, which is why the academy
required all girls to sign an agreement to donate their bodies to
magic. The academy didn't want to waste a precious resource for necromantic
study. However, this didn't mean that the academy was entirely tone deaf to
suicide caused by peer pressure. Every year, they asked members from the
Demon Summoner's Guild to give a presentation on how suicide condemned your
soul straight to Hell. They even had it down to a specific level of Hell:
the seventh layer called Capaneus. And they always brought with them a
red-skinned succubus in shackles forged from Abyssal stone. They forced
this captive to tell the class what happened to sinners that occupied that
layer. Even now, it made Alexi shudder. Back then, he had nightmares for a
week. But as far as the "keys" went, no one would know until they got to
the door tomorrow night. No one, except Alexi, Paul, Rowena and a few
others.
   Because they were queer, they'd known the truth for years.
   The whole thing was a way for the headmaster to line his pocket with
gold by pimping what he called "sissy boys" to rich men with peculiar
appetites. In Zanda, there were far too many of those.
   The Scarlet Chamber, which had a door that would be unlocked for certain
"paying" men, had terrified Alexi every night of his life. The very first
day, the headmaster took the newly enrolled transvestites and the she-males
into his office and tapped each of them with a black staff that had a
crystal skull on one end and mumbled something. Each time he did that, the
eye sockets in that skull flashed yellow. Then, behind closed doors, he
informed them of their horrible fate and what really happened beyond the
portal of the Scarlet Chamber. The headmaster emphasized that he'd have
them killed if they ever revealed the secret to any actual female student
enrolled at the Lianon Pard Academy of Necromancy.
   Because Alexi had a near eidetic memory, he remembered the words the
headmaster had used as if he'd said them only yesterday. "Your families
dumped your unwanted carcasses here...on me...and I charged them a fortune
for that privilege. But make no mistake, you belong here. This is the only
place that can nurture your gift for dark magic. And never forget that you
are my slaves. I own you...I own your secrets...and I've just cast a
necromantic spell upon each of you that will reveal to me the moment you
speak of this meeting to any girl in this academy. I suggest that you never
do that, for your own sakes. Not if you value your lives.
   "For the next seven years, you will dress as a girl, you will talk like
a girl, and you will tell no one outside of this room. Your performance
must be convincing, and you'll wear high heels and dress as ladies. The
professors in the school will make special accommodations for you so as to
not arouse suspicion. You'll wear perfume and lace panties and you'll shave
any body hair that grows. You'll do this because that's what real men
like. If you do exactly as you're told, you'll be rewarded with an
education, which you can perhaps do something with to survive out there in
a cold, harsh world. Your last night here will be celebrated with a dance
called, `The Ball of Moon's Blood.' If you do not have a suitor...you'll be
in for a bit of a rape, as your tight, unused holes are worth good
money. You get no say in this. If you do manage to get a suitor beforehand
to fuck you in the ass on that night, that suitor still owes me for that
privilege. If I find out someone's taken your virginity prior to that and
not paid me, I'll have that offender and yourself completely
castrated...twig and berries. Am I clear? So be wary of whom you fall in
love with. If you happen to be straight and actually fall in love with a
girl, I'm going to have her killed and make it seem like an accident. There
are lots of `accidents' in Zanda. No one will notice a missing girl, trust
me on this.
   "Make no mistake. I'm selling your wretched little boy pussies for a
thousand gold crowns, and those `donations' better be paid to me personally
with as much respect as your suitor can muster, or a horrible accident will
befall you. If the man can't afford to pay, then a man that I have in my
books will. I've a long clientele, and I'll be keeping my eye on each of
you. Zanda has quite a few rich men who are willing to shell out yellow
coin for a night of indiscreet taboos. You should count yourselves lucky,
because we've purposefully created a virginity-shaming culture in this
school. This means that the girls will idolize those among them that get
their cherry popped in such a public fashion. So for a single night, you'll
be a celebrity.
   "What the girls don't know is that we limit the `ladies,' and I use that
term loosely, that can enter the Scarlet Chamber by issuing keys to the
door. Only transvestites, transsexuals, and she-males get them because
that's what people pay for. This city is awash in hetero whores already, so
actual pussy is too cheap to make good money at. And men aren't too keen at
the prospect of getting an actual girl pregnant...a thing they don't have
to worry about from you faggots. Parents who send their girls here usually
have more conservative values and are high society, so we use the prospect
of being deflowered in the `Scarlet Chamber' as a reason to extort
protection money from them to make them more marketable to future
husbands. In other words, they pay us to keep a key to the Scarlet Chamber
out of their daughter's hands even if we had no intention of giving one to
them in the first place. It's a good con job, if you think about it. And
it's made me rich, this...selling of flesh.
   "The giving out of keys will seem random, and girls will hate you when
you get a key in front of them because it means you're going to get fucked,
and they won't. At least...they won't on that night in front of the whole
class. But truth be told, a lot of the little sluts that go here will have
lost their virginity by the seventh year anyway. If you ask me, a hymen is
overrated, not that your lot will ever have to worry about that. You
buggers would be hanged if you hadn't come from families with means and
didn't have `the gift.' Degenerates like you are a curse to a society that
wants to avoid becoming as corrupt and awful as the Noremarians."
   Recalling that speech brought back all the feels, the pain, and the
hurt. Alexi cried for an hour after that meeting, and he'd lived in fear of
the headmaster ever since.
   That kind of trauma damaged a person forever.
   "Perhaps that's why I'm drawn to darkness," Alexi whispered to
himself. I will kill Headmaster Boritsi someday, and it will feel so
good. Right before I raze the city of Zanda with The Hunger, which I shall
call from their barrows deep under the ground. No one that was ever cruel
to me shall be spared.
   He stoked his courage and reached for the door handle, but his nerves
failed him.
   What's this meeting about? Alexi thought. I hate not knowing. Have I
done something wrong? Has he discovered my hideout in the ruins? How could
he? Ziggy helped me set it up, and he never makes a mistake.
    That's when he got a wild idea. He reached within himself and stirred
Drago and that strange knot of necromantic power within his guts responded
by filling his soul with the tensile strength of its power. Alexi's
nostrils flared, he raised his hand, and encouraged tendrils of raw
necromancy to penetrate the door in search of stray thoughts or
consciousness lurking beyond what his eyes could normally perceive.
   And to his surprise, he encountered a mind almost immediately.
   It was a vast powerful mind, filled with many dark thoughts, and
feelings of entitlement and cruelty.
   Measuring his breath, Alexi pushed his way into this formidable
consciousness. It yielded to his touch gently, as if it were unaware of the
intrusion. Only after a minute had passed did Alexi realize he'd invaded
the inner thoughts of the Dreaded Irtemara herself.
   His eyes bolted open in panic.
   "She doesn't know I can do this. She can't hear me. Relax," he told
himself." Why is Kahket here at the school? Where are her guards? Alexi had
so many unvoiced questions.
   Then he heard her words echoing in his mind.
   "Headmaster, my third child is due any day now. When he's sacrificed by
the israfil, Typhon the Terrible will be unleashed upon this world as my
slave. Our armies gather on the outskirts of the city, and a Zandan host
the likes of which the world has never seen shall march south and east to
the Icewall Mountains. There we will throw down the Keep of Silverhawk, and
I shall seize the Orb of Winter myself. My husband is, even now, stirring
in his sleep. He will hide our entire host from detection, disguising it
within an illusion that even silver dragon eyesight cannot pierce. We will
crush the bones of our enemies under our hooves and grind them into powder,
and we shall take their women and children as slaves. You've served us
well, and the throne never forgets its most loyal servants," Kahket said.
   Alexi saw many images in her mind. He saw a gargantuan five-headed
dragon of many colors melding into one. He saw a keep high in the
mountains, surrounded in a blizzard of snow, and he saw her husband,
Zandine, standing ten feet tall and encased in a nimbus of pure violet
flame. The god chose the form of a man with the legs of a goat and the head
of a ram, the whole of him draped in black shaggy fur. He stood upon a
platform carried by a hundred slaves. But Alexi knew Zandine could appear
in any form he desired, for he was the god of chaos, illusion, and
lies. Then his mind saw a map revealing a location marked with an "X"
somewhere inside the Icewall Mountain range: the Keep of Silverhawk.
   What is the Orb of Winter? Is that where it's hidden? Why does she want
it? Alexi's thoughts leapt so quickly from one to another.
   "It's an honor to serve, Dreaded Irtemara, and I'm pleased that the
throne entrusts me with this small matter. I shall not fail."
   What small matter? Alexi thought. He tried to dig deeper, but only
caught a word from Kahket's mind: Constantine. Who is that? Is it a person
or a place?
   "I must be going," Kahket said. "See to it that those three necromancers
from the graduating class get sent to me after the Ball tomorrow. I will
have need of their mana once I give birth."
   "Is there no way for you to leave them alive?" the headmaster
asked. "Their parents were quite distraught."
   Alexi immediately withdrew his mind and sweat formed on his brow. Mind
racing, he recalled a scandal from earlier in the year printed in the
Zandan Bugle. There were two girls in his class that went missing during
mid-terms. Their dried husks were found a couple of weeks later, floating
in a sewer. Daphne said she'd heard from a friend in the morgue that they'd
been sucked dry of all necromantic mana—something akin to a soul—only
in necromancers, it was the source of the gift.
   "He killed them," Alexi whispered to himself.
   Just then, the door opened and Kahket herself—followed a few steps
behind by Headmaster Boritsi—appeared in the door frame.
   Alexi swallowed and felt self-conscious in this woman's shadow. She wore
a necklace of gold. Rubies encircled by fine diamonds dangled from the band
against her pale alabaster throat. She was a statue, mouth red as blood and
shaped cruelly and overly long for the bottom of her face. And the muscles
in that face did not move at all. She looked expressionless even as he felt
her eyes move over his body. Alexi dropped his gaze to her massive cleavage
and enormous belly, both burst from a black dress inadequate to hold all
that firm round flesh now scarred with stretch marks. But she had the
blackest hair he'd ever seen. It fell all the way to her knees. The
fingernails on her hands were more like painted talons, and she put one to
her chin.
   "What do we have here? My dear...what a horrid little girl you
are. Makeup does not cover up acne, and this dress is a travesty. You are a
plain thing, aren't you?" she asked, reaching out her fingers to brush a
stray hair from my face. "This is why it's important to have male
prostitutes. A thing like this has no chance with anyone decent. You don't
even have any cleavage. Ivan, take pity on this waif and buy her some fake
tits."
   Alexi took a step back.
   "Are you afraid, child?" she asked, sloe-eyes narrowing
dangerously. There was so much evil and power behind that gaze that it made
Alexi tremble. Kahket dropped her hand to her distended belly, and Alexi
saw claw marks form within, pushing up on the waxy albino skin. He'd never
seen a pregnant woman so large and round. It literally looked like she
carried a medicine ball under her flesh. However, it hadn't affected her
posture even though she wore eight-inch stiletto heels today. "Don't ever
be afraid, child. You have the greatest weapon ever created lying somewhere
between your knobby knees. Even an ugly thing like you will learn to use
it."
   "I'm not ugly," Alexi said.
   "Of course you are," Kahket said. "You've got a bit of a belly. Men
don't like blubber. But, you hide it well under that ill-fitted dress. Did
you buy that second-hand?" Kahket laughed. Then she turned to the
headmaster and said, "Good luck with the ball tomorrow. I'll be in touch."
   Then the sorceress moved beyond Alexi and continued down the hall.
   Headmaster Boritsi slapped Alexi across the face. "How dare you not show
the Dreaded Irtemara the proper respect? Come in here now, you fool!"
   Rubbing the sting from his cheek, Alexi walked inside and the headmaster
shut the door. They walked down a short corridor to a stairwell made of
bone. As they stepped on it, the stairs animated and started lifting them
up toward the headmaster's office. The grind of bone filled Alexi with
dread, and he just gazed at the cruel face of Ivan Boritsi in silence.
   Professor Boritsi was shorter than Alexi. He wore a beard that swept the
floor, and his skin was as black as the void between stars. Long gray hairs
sprouted from his ears, he had thick bushy eyebrows, and a pony tail that
(like his beard) almost touched the ground. Today he wore a midnight blue
robe covered in silver stars and moons. It had long sleeves, lined in black
velvet, and a hood long enough to hold his pony tail if he so desired. As
they rode the strange staircase, Alexi extended outward from his fingertips
a little of his necromancy, brushing the old wizard's skin. That's when
Alexi realized that the darkness of Ivan's flesh was not a function of his
race, but a side-effect of his mana, which stunned Alexi in its power.
   "You've become quite talented and bold," the aged necromancer said,
moving off the stairs into his huge office. "I can feel your necromancy
moving over my skin. Yes, it's the source of my mana. Very few know
that. But it's what makes me powerful and has allowed me to rule this
academy for more than thirty years."
   He motioned for Alexi to take a seat next to a stone balcony that
overlooked the street outside the academy. Beyond the glass-paned doors
onto the veranda, Alexi noted that there was a lot of street
activity. Carriages trundled by oblivious to the horrors committed within
this sprawling complex in the name of necromancy or otherwise, and people
walked up and down the boulevard window shopping or doing errands. Either
way, most headed to or came from the nearby river. In the distance, Alexi
could barely make out the flags of the Arena of the Flayed Man. They were
taut in a cold winter wind, and their presence meant that another pointless
Blood Bowl was being held. No matter what his fate might be in here, over
there men would be dying for the entertainment of others. The barbarity of
it all (and the brutality) made Alexi sick to his stomach.
   Down the stairs, Alexi heard the door open and then close. Then he heard
the stairs of bone animate once more, carrying some unknown stranger to the
meeting with Alexi and the headmaster. Alexi tried not to think about who
might be standing on those stairs. Instead, he looked around the room to
spot the cabinet that contained the harvesting wands.
   The headmaster's desk was a huge oak thing that displayed the gaudiness
typical of furniture from the neo-classic era. Lewd carvings of satyrs
raping women were embossed in gold. The dovetails on the corners and the
fine varnish mast have taken days for a master woodworker to perfect. It
had legs each the size of Alexi's waist, and a flat top covered in scrolls,
books, a platter of uneaten food, and various glass bottles containing
colored liquids and oils.
   On the far side of the room, a pair of overstuffed chairs fronted a huge
fireplace; the mantle held a tall blue bottle that had a corkscrew-like
thread of silver running around the neck on the outside. Above it hung a
battered shield displaying a coat of arms Alexi didn't recognize. It was
transfixed to the stone wall by a thick nail. Attached to that nail hung a
taut wire as thick as his finger; it divided the room in half and held
drapes on one end. Alexi assumed they could be drawn across the room to
separate the long office into two chambers.
   Perched on the unoccupied portion of the wire was a black raven, and it
stared at Alexi with its haunting eyes. As Alexi became aware of it, the
thing let out a loud, "Caw!" and moved its way down the wire so that it
stood above the head of Professor Boritsi, who sat quietly, staring at
Alexi while stroking the length of his mustache.
   In this, the study of a master necromancer, there were (of course)
bookshelves everywhere. It smacked of the academy library, only smaller,
and the fine script on the many bindings held titles few of which Alexi
could pronounce. Two read The True Names of Demon Princes and The Power of
Human Sacrifice. Another read, Codex Arcanum. And yet a fourth bore the
title, Necroscoping.
   Where absent space presented itself on shelves (for not every one was
full), bottles, medicine jars, and beakers took over. Alexi saw every color
of the rainbow represented. And then came the shelves containing trophies,
body parts, and misshapen ugly things preserved in alcohol. He saw a
cockatrice in brine, a two-headed baby, several sexual organs with hair
still on them, and a jar filled with eyeballs. The Headmaster even kept a
cup filled to the brim with human teeth. It sat on a shelf that held twenty
human skulls, all polished and white.
   Alexi's eyes finally settled on a large wardrobe. The top of it almost
brushed the ceiling, and it was a marvel of woodworking. Painted black and
with six-paneled doors covered in fine silver fabric and a knotted pattern
of decorative wood filigree, the lacquered surface glowed in the firelight
of the room. Small intricate maquettes decorated the outside. Some looked
like men and women in robes casting spells, others like undead and
demons. Silver knobs served as handles, and each was cast in the shape of a
small, circumcised penis head.
   Zandans widely believed uncut cocks would open a man's soul to demonic
possession, and were discouraged nationwide. However, in the seven years
Alexi had studied at the school, he'd never come across any facts to back
that claim. Knowing this now, made him curse his parents for mutilating his
genitals as a baby. It also made him appreciate Kian even more, because his
parents had left him whole as a boy should be.
   The wands have got to be in there, Alexi thought.
   The "clomp clomp" of footsteps jerked Alexi's mind back into the
present. Even without turning around, he would have recognized the odor of
a man who ate too much garlic, was cursed with oily skin and sweated too
much, and who believed bathing would lead to sickness. Still, he turned and
looked. He immediately wished he hadn't, for there stood a fat and very
"average" looking man in his mid-forties. The realization that this man was
probably here for Alexi filled him with dread.
   Average (in many ways) was worse than ugly. Average was mediocrity. It
was something everyone had access to and there was no specialness. There
was nothing unique. Sure...ugly could be worse from a certain point of
view. However, deformity had its own horror factor to it. There was
inherent a calling to gape and intensely study the fine details of things
most people found disgusting. But average had no such equity. And this was
true of the man before him now, who tipped the scales at obese for someone
that was five-foot six inches tall. His black hair held many gray threads
and was thick with dandruff, a unibrow of black bristly hair crossed over a
nose that sat like a potato on his face. Skin was wrinkled with age, and
the nose had large pores in it. The man had pale mottled skin, and
yellowing teeth...a thing expected at his age. Hair sprung from his huge
nostrils and big ears, and he had a complexion so greasy it looked like
he'd crawled out of a fryer.
   The man cleared his throat and spoke directly to Headmaster Boritsi. "Is
this her? Is this Alexi?" He rubbed his meaty hands together; his fingers
were so short and fat they looked like breakfast sausages. Alexi dropped
his eyes to the man's boots. The soles were worn down from the weight they
needed to endure, but only on one side. They were also mud spattered, but
the laces looked in good shape. Made of leather, they were quite blown out
on the sides...a clear indication of very wide feet. "I want her to rub my
bunions," the man said, "among other things. Do you go by `her'? I guess I
should have asked first."
   "Alexi, I'd like you to meet Calvin. He's going to purchase you tomorrow
at the ball."
   Calvin snaked out his hand and grabbed Alexi around the wrist. "I'll be
a perfect gentleman when we're in front of others. I want them to be
jealous that you got me," he said, the smell of garlic cloves and beer
washing over Alexi's nose. "Do you want me to shave my back, or do you like
hairy men? The few lovers I've had said I was like a bear." Calvin growled
at Alexi, and then pulled him off the chair to lick the side of Alexi's
face with his big sloppy tongue. "You taste like strawberries..."
   Alexi screamed and it so startled Calvin that he let go, dropping Alexi
to the ground. There at Calvin's boots, the smell of parmesan cheese wafted
to his nostrils, and he threw up on the ground.
   "Fuckin' hell," Calvin said, stepping back as quickly as he could. "What
the fuck was that? Is she sick? You promised me someone that wasn't
diseased."
   The headmaster stood and shouted, "Alexi! Stand immediately. Do not
embarrass me again!"
   Alexi got to his feet, faced streaked with tears. "Please, Master
Boritsi...I-I can't be with Calvin. Please don't make me."
   "Why?" Calvin asked, his moon face jiggling with indignation. "I'm not a
troll. So I like to eat. There are plenty of men who look worse than me! I
work for a living. I'm a fuckin' job creator, and own a tannery in Slippery
Squib. You should be so lucky, cunt! If it's the size of my dick you're
worried about I assure you, it's seven inches from tip to base. Probably
the biggest you've ever seen." He started to undo his trousers to prove the
boast to Alexi when Alexi shook his head emphatically "no" and then held up
his delicate hands for Calvin to stop.
   "Please, good sir, I meant no offense. I have a boyfriend." Then Alexi
turned to the headmaster. "My boyfriend will pay the thousand gold
tomorrow. I swear by the gods that he'll show up and purchase me, I
promise," Alexi said.
   "You said this one was available!" Calvin declared.
   The headmaster looked at Calvin and then sat back down. "I thought she
was," Ivan Boritsi said. "You might still be able to purchase her. Show up
tomorrow and we'll see if Alexi is lying to us. You wouldn't be the first,
child. But it won't save you. I'll get my money one way or the other and a
thousand gold crowns is a lot."
   "What if I show up there an' it's true and he's got a boyfriend and the
bloke fuckin' pays? Then I get blue balls that night? This won't set well
with my father, the duke—"
   "—I'm well aware of whom your father is," Headmaster Boritsi said,
cutting Calvin off. "There are a couple others I haven't assigned. Perhaps
you'd like Paulina. She's got real boobs, unlike this plain waif."
   "Now you're talkin'," Calvin said, wiping the oil from his brow. "I love
me some nice big titties as long as she's got a cock down there that I can
pinch. And afterward, I want her to eat my shit. I love watching that. Make
sure she knows I'm going to take a dump on her face so that she has some
things with her to clean up and make herself presentable."
   Alexi was absolutely horrified.
   "Paul and I share a boyfriend," he blurted out. "He's taken too."
   "W-what?" Calvin asked. "That's not allowed," he sneered. "I've been
going to these events for years, and its one man and one girl."
   "No, it's not," Alexi said. "If there's more than one suitor for a girl,
then an Auditor of Eilustriel is used to determine who gets to be the
girl's suitor. But there's nothing in the rules saying that two girls can't
date one man as long as he pays."
   Silence filled the room as the Headmaster sorted all of this
out. "You're saying that your boyfriend has two-thousand gold crowns, and
that he'll deliver that to me tomorrow night, in person at the ball before
the clock strikes nine o'clock?"
   Alexi nodded emphatically. "I swear by Zandine himself. May he strike me
down if I'm lying."
   "Careful, you clever twat," the headmaster said. "The Master may hear
you. Calvin, show up at your own peril tomorrow, but you must commit right
now and tell me if I can count on you. Otherwise I'll find a
replacement. Alexi and Paulina's ass will be sold tomorrow," he said
leveling his gaze at Alexi. "I apologize if this business with the
boyfriend is complicating our arrangements, but rules are rules. That's why
we have a `lawful' society."
   "I'm so sorry to inconvenience you," Alexi stated, voice heavy with
sarcasm. Then he spat on the floor.
   "Do that again, and I'll feed your tongue to my crow," Headmaster
Boritsi said. "Do you know what black fire is, Alexi?" Headmaster Boritsi
raised his hand and black flames with blue ends appeared around his
fingertips and raced down his palm, completely engulfing his flesh. This
made Calvin stagger backward in fear.
   "Yes," Alexi whispered, staring at the powerful necromantic magic that
the Headmaster summoned with hardly any effort.
   "Even so, I'll remind you. Black Fire burns you from the inside out,
slowly filling your skin with ashes. It can go through armor. The only
defense is to not be present when its used. If you disrespect me again,
that is how you'll die. You and this mysterious boyfriend of yours." Then
Headmaster Boritsi clenched his fist, effectively extinguishing the
flame. "Calvin, are you coming tomorrow?"
   "Yes," the man answered. "And I'll bring my brother."
   "The one that likes to watch his dog rut a girl instead of doing the act
himself?" the Headmaster asked.
   "Yes, that's the one. But he participates too. According to your rules,
a beast doesn't count as a second suitor."
   "That's true," the Headmaster said. "But I'll still charge him an extra
thousand gold because I can."
   "Not a problem," Calvin said. "Bosephus can pay for it. He inherited a
lot of money from his wife when he murdered her. They never found who done
it, thanks to you."
   The Headmaster frowned when Calvin said this, walked around the desk,
and grabbed him by the arm. "Come with me and keep your voice
low. You...stay put!" he barked at Alexi.
   Then the Headmaster walked Calvin toward the bone stairs. As Calvin
placed his shoe on the top step, it animated and proceeded to carry them
both down to the ground floor. They talked in low whispers, which made
Alexi nervous. But seeing as he was left alone in the room for a few
minutes, he realized that this was as good a time as any to search for the
harvesting wand he so desperately needed.
   He hopped up from his chair and stared at the bird for a few
seconds. Alexi lifted his finger to his lips and said, "Shhh," to the
animal. The raven responded by cocking its head sideways, keeping its eyes
fixated on him.
   Then the young necromancer swept around the desk and made for the
wardrobe with the silver handles and the six panel doors. When he opened it
up, he saw an Auditor of Eilustriel. It was no doubt the one Ivan Boritsi
would have at the Ball tomorrow. Alexi studied it for a moment: a gorgeous
naked woman that stood about five-foot eight (just a little taller than
Alexi). It had a narrow waist, wide hips, full breasts, and white fake
skin. He'd studied them in engineering class. It was the ultimate sex toy,
complete with an authentically moist pussy that could even squirt if a man
fucked it in just the right way. This one had metallic blue hair that swept
down to a curvy ass, and its lips were barely parted, as if to
speak. Alexi's eyes moved off the auditor to a row of wands directly on the
right side. There, in a display box, were ten harvesting wands. Made of
precious ebony, and tipped with gold, these wands could be used to
magically harvest a ripened egg from a living girl. Quickly, Alexi grabbed
it and hid it within his robes. Then he put in its place a wand with no
magical properties that he'd painted to look similar to the one that he'd
stolen.
   Behind him, the raven started screeching. "Caw! Caw! Caw!"
   Alexi turned, slamming the cabinet doors. "Shut up!" he
declared. "Please, shut up!"
   "Caw! Caw! Caw!" the bird continued.
   A few seconds later, Headmaster Boritsi appeared at the top of the
stairs, walked over to Alexi and yelled, "I told you to stay put! What are
you doing here?!"
   "Nothing," Alexi said desperately. "I-I just came to look at this
painting. I saw it from across the room." He swallowed nervously and
pointed at a brown-skinned girl with gorgeous red hair and eyes of varying
color: one was purple and the other green. "Is she your daughter?"
   This seemed to calm down the headmaster, who grabbed Alexi by the arm
and moved him back toward the entrance. "She is," Headmaster Boritsi
said. "Her name's Annie."
   "Did she go to the school here, sir?" Alexi asked.
   "Was she a necromancer? Quite. She had a lot of promise, but she ran
away following graduation. Why is there suddenly such an interest in my
daughter?" the Headmaster asked.
   "No reason, sir. She's very beautiful. I hope she comes back to you,
sir. It must be nice to have necromancy in common with your daughter. I've
nothing in common with my parents."
   "Save me from your whining," Headmaster Boritsi said. "Go! I have work
to do."
   Alexi nodded and scurried toward the door. As he descended the bone
stairs, the Headmaster called down to him. "Alexi?"
   "Yes?" he answered.
   "I look forward to meeting your boyfriend. If he's got that kind of
money, he must be very ugly. No one in this world has it all, but I applaud
you for your resourcefulness. And good luck on your exams."
   "Thank you, sir," Alexi said, and then he ran for the door as fast as
his heels could take him.

				   *****

The complete novel is now available to read at
http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html under the label
"The Orb of Winter" if you care to read ahead.

I'm prepping "The Orb of Winter" for publication on Kindle. The cover art
for it is done. Anyone that wants to see it can pop over to
http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/news.html. It features a new picture of
Kian on the cover :).

If you go to my website forum directly from this posting, you will want to
begin with "CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE."