Two Funerals?
1679 Words
The funeral for Marjory, daughter of righteousness, was held in her family's local cemetery outside the city by ten miles. The family of four brothers and two sisters mourned her death in different ways. The last rights were spoken, and the body, covered with the gauzy death shroud, was then lowered into the ground. Each of the family members came to Kontessa and told her memories of her childhood. Of how she, as the youngest, would tease her brother about every girl they liked and how she would tell on her older sisters about everything they did. She would even make up things sometimes.
When all were gone except the friends Marjory died with. Alexander broke wide with a bottle of fifty-year-old cognac that tasted smoky to Kontessa. They all drank a single swig except for SunRue, who said she could not honor the fallen sister unless she were sober. When all the drinking was done, they poured the last of the bottle onto the body as the gravediggers filled the hole.
A bit away from the grave, resting by a tree, sat the ancient elvish woman who had given the dress to Kontessa. The black-skinned demon with the eyes of ebony drew her sword and marched over to the woman. But before she could swing, the eyes of both locked, and a cruel smile came to the elf’s face.
Then Kontessa froze.
In the old elf's eye, Kontessa saw her mother's face laughing.
Terror took the demon’s breath.
A burst of cackling laughter came from the ancient one.
· * *
A wrinkled, ancient hand rested on a table on a ship some years away. In a crystal ball, the image of a black-skinned demon saw the mother she both loved and feared in the eyes of an ancient woman. The blue serpentine eyes gazing into the crystal saw this and more. Here were some of the heroes that he would use this time. A Ronin from a distant land, His sister the lovely poet warrior and the black one. These were some he would choose. This time.
The end?
Chapter 10
Kontessa, her Demon Mother, and Hell.
Show me a fairy, for dance and delight
Show me a lust of fairy so bright
Show me a lust of fairies tonight."
Book 1, set 1
Ja Nita hung from the roof of the absolon brick ceiling by her hands. Blood filled the floor in a puddle at the demon Kontessa’s mother’s feet. Anger seethed in her eyes as her deep burgundy blood spill from the lash marks on her back as she cursed his house to oblivion.
He grabbed her hair and pulled her back by her head. “Get her back,” he firmly whispered in her ear. “Damn her soul to oblivion if you have to but get her back. She’ll spawn where she was born, in my house.”
"She's happy in the mortal world; why can't you let her be?" she asked through clenched teeth.
"I promised her to Lord Masonic, it will seal the deal that will make my house contender for the throne of our seven-hundred hells.” Jacob Eldeman pulled the strap that untied the bonds that held his wife’s hands aloft.
Ja Nita rubbed her wrist for a moment, then turned and punched the male in the face, bringing tears to his eyes and a trickle of blood from his nose.
"I half expected that, but you will bring her back. You will bring Kontessa back." With that, he walked out of the room.
Ja Nita continued to rub her wrists as she followed her husband out of the room with her eyes. She knew what he would do if she failed; he would damn her to oblivion and set up a trap at her spawn point and make her watch him eat, sleep and torture his underlings. He was a ruthless master.
However, she had her victories.
This would be one of them.
* * Toyama sat on his ruddy stallion, looking out at sea. He looked for his sister, but she had told him she would probably go back to the ship to prepare a surprise, and he had laughed and told her he would stay for an hour. That, an hour ago. He looked at the cool spring sun. The ship's crew had called them back from the city to show him the huts they had put up.
Also, they said they had a surprise for him.
He turned his horse around on its hind legs and took off at full gallop down the beach.
When he arrived, he was shocked to see all his men from the overlooking sand dune. All of them were sitting on their knees in front of a low table. As he got closer, he saw the sword, the Katana, resting on a wooden platform where he usually kept his sword. But this sword seemed to be another one, red the scabbard and red the laced hilt.
All were quiet.
He dismounted and kneeled at the front of the two rows of men with his sister in her best kimono, blue with white flowers in the lead position. The captain of the ship came to him and placed the sword in the Ronin's hands. He went back to the stand and picked up the bowl of water that rested in the sand there. Coming back, he then poured the water over the Katana from top to bottom.
The captain washed the impurities and other spirits from the blade to be pure in the Ronin's hand.
“This, my lord, will steal the souls of the men you kill. See the sigils," the captain continued. "They ensure you will never go into battle alone. It will even kill demons from the seven hundred hells."
"I thank you, my friend," Toyama said reverently. "Now, saki!"
A cheer went up among his men, and his sister smiled.
* * Kontessa sat drinking.
Alexander had kept track of the ales right up until the fifth. That had to be three ales ago. He also sat drinking to help Kontessa forget the cruel ways of her mother and the demon dress that killed her Love.
“Bring more ale," the black-skinned demon yelled at the serving girl with the black hair.
"I think you both have had enough." The black-haired girl stood and put her hands on her hips. "What would Marjory say right now if she saw you? Think of that, would you."
“I don’t care what the woman I buried yesterday would say…."
"Yesterday?!" She turned on her heels. "That was last week. I don't care… find somewhere else to drink yourself to death at!
Alexander got to his feet as he swayed back and forth in front of the table. “To Hell with this establishment. We can drink somewhere where our money is good."
Kontessa laughed. “You mean your money,” the demon said as she too got to her feet. “You forget that I ran out of coin sometime in the past week. Week!? What about that rice shipment on the docks?”
“Let’s just get out of here.”
Kontessa grabbed her head. And swayed back and forth for a minute.
“Maybe she’s right,” the demon answered.
"Forget the wench; let's go to the Red Boar."
“The red boar?” Kontessa answered. “That dive? No. I refuse!” she put her finger in the air. “I refuse to lower myself to your standards, good sir!”
“Who are you joking,” the merchant said. “Right now, you go where there’s drink.”
They put their arms together and laughed as they walked out the swinging doors side by side. The two walked down the street sing vulgar drinking songs and catcalling at the girls passing by. They knocked over a vegetable stand. The owner began to yell, and Kontessa drew her sword. It swayed in her hands.
Toyama walked up to them from nowhere and stood between the sword `and the now terrified stall owner.
“Put it away,” Toyama said. “Just put it away. I am taking you both home. SunRue has food that will be ready when we get there.”
Kontessa took a step forward in the mid-morning sunlight and fell flat on her face, unconscious.
* * Kontessa awoke in her bedclothes. Her head pounded and throbbed, and for an instant, she forgot she lived in this house. She looked around, and then a chill ran down her spine because she remembered, now that she was sober, that Marjory lay in her grave.
She had mourned the death of a lover before but knowing she brought about this death by disobeying her father brought particular pain to her soul. So young she had been. So young and full of life. This one, this one, would be the last lover she would take. Tears filled her eyes, and she turned to bury her face in the pillow.
“Tea, that is what you need. Strong Cambien tea.”
The black-skinned demon looked up to see SunRue in her red kimono walking with her tiny steps into the room, carrying a tray with a porcelain teapot and cup on it.
“The best thing for a hangover because of death is tea. Strong and black.” She set the tray down on the bed and poured the steaming black, mint fragrance into the cup. “You’ll see you’ll come back to your father and me.”
“What? What did you say?” Kontessa was stunned by the words coming from her friend’s mouth.
"I said you need strong black tea," said the Geisha.
“No, you said you’ll come back to your father and me."
"That's what I said, daughter," came the words from SunRue's mouth. "You have until the next full moon to come to Hell's Gate in the northern mountains, or I'll take this one, too."
Kontessa then looked
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