Lifelight: Calypso Returns

13.

The next few days went by fast. She discovered the library which was so beautiful, so massive, so exotic, it made her weak in the knees. She slept in a kind of women's section. In the morning Mika and other women left for breakfast and work while she slept till mid-morning and spent the afternoon chatting with Abu and the rest of the staff.

In total there were four sections of the house, one main and two wings.Hera had explored it all by the end of the week except the men's quarters. She was ready to explore outside by the end of the week.She assumed Kairu and Yuli had gone back to their normal duties because she barely saw them and the voice was gone.

Abu made a ginger and rum cake that almost made up for her abandonment.He and the kitchen's chef Ake kept her company most of the time. Ake offered her food every time she frowned. When she was full she stared at trainees of the king's guard from one of the higher balconies. She was slobbering at a shirtless pair mock wrestling when Mika found her.

"Stop it, he's a monk. So I have most of the weekend off. How about we get you out of the cottage for a bit?" Mika said.

"You are an angel. You have weekends?" Hera said

"3 days long on this side."

"Great."

"I'll find you in your room at dusk tomorrow."

"Wait,I have nothing to wear."

"Stand."

Hera did as she was told and a tape measure materialized in Mika's hands. She took her measurements without recording anything and then left without a word.

It was as she showered in preparation for the night ahead that it occurred to Hera that she had never gone on a proper night out before, a few parties and raves at the college but never in a city as big as the capital was bound to be.

The outfit, complete with shoes was on her bed when she got out of the shower. Taped on the head rest was an obscene note signed by Mika daring her to put it on. She did.

The club was an underground theater with music so loud it synced with the beat of her heart. The only way to speak was to lean in close and scream. Hera never wanted to leave. Mika dragged her past the heaving mass and to a smaller room.

They got shots, Absinthe was certainly popular in Saira. She slammed three and was happy for the handful of ragers she had bothered to attend.

Mika had not bothered to acknowledge the people in the room so neither did Hera. There were eyes on them but that was because Mika had on shorts so short they might have been stretching the meaning of the word shorts and she well, her dress was little more than an assembly of well positioned cords.

"Now can we dance." Mika said.

"Let's go." Hera said.

Hera was right in the middle of the crowd. Two Saires had her between them. She danced with her eyes closed. This was escape. She did not have to think about it, she only had to keep moving. The men dwarfed her, two walls keeping her from everything else.

One moment she was lost to bliss, the next her walls were gone. New hands held her hips and he smelled of spice. She opened her eyes but never stopped dancing.

Ardan. He did not say anything just smiled and spun her so her back was to him. Her head only came up to the middle of his chest. The beat picked up and she went with it. He did not so much dance as stand and let her use him as an anchor. He was a charmer and she was a cobra.

With her legs wrapped around his waist, his hands on her hips and the small of her back, he leaned to kiss her and she tightened her hands around his neck.

"Can't have that. We gotta go."

Mika ripped her from Ardan's arms and they left the club. The streets of the capital were littered with partiers like them. Mika pulled out a glass bottle from her purse and layered her in perfume.

"What are you doing?" Hera said.

"Masking him. What are you doing grinding against Ardan Matridanme?" Mika said.

"We went out on a date." Hera said.

"Are you serious?" Mika asked.

"Yes."

"Well,I don't think anyone will catch it. At least 7 guys rubbed against you. I thought I even saw a Thairn."

"A who?"

"The thin guy with the freakishly long fingers."

"Oh, yeah. He said his name was Wolf or something."

"So I really did see him... In that case, congratulations."

They took Mika's bike to the cottage. It hovered above the ground going two hundred miles an hour. The ride sobered Hera right up. She expected a sleeping palace but lights were on everywhere and bikes and cars were parked all over the front of the palace.

"Doesn't anyone sleep here."

"They have slept, it's early morning Hera."

She had been dancing for hours, in Mika's stupid heels. Time must have been different in Saira. Suddenly nervous about going through the front door, Hera hung back and hoped there was a ladder to her room somewhere on the grounds.

"Oh now you're shy, you just fused your body to Ardan's!"

"I'm not shy, let's go. Wait." Hera said, "Who lives on the top floor? Behind a stone door, and will he be here?"

"You little minx, what are you doing skulking around the top floor?"

"I was lost."

"I think the proper introductions should be made by him."

If the door had been any louder when Mika opened it, it would have shattered glass. The noise from the living and dining rooms died down. Hera slipped off her heels as they walked into the palace. She refused to hide behind Mika.

There were at least a dozen men and women getting breakfast. They all stopped and stared at her. Not Mika just her. Kairu's bowl of fruit was forgotten as he stood from the sofa. Yuli smiled from his perch on a stool.

"You smell like a sweaty florist." Kairu said.

"Thank you." Hera said.

"You have legs." He said.

"All the better for walking." She said.

Hera started to inch towards the stairs. Once she was out of sight of the viewing party, she took the stairs two at a time and raced to her room. The curls that Mika had styled hung over her eyes and were the reason she crashed into someone in her scramble to her room.

He steadied her and then inhaled, a long drawn out sniff. Hera would never get used to people smelling her. She looked up at the hooded figure and took a little sniff herself. She had an inner shudder. He smelled like smoke.

"Why do you run?"

"The dress, I loved it but it's only good in dark, cramped, loud spaces."

"It is magnificent. Take it from a man seeing it in the light."

"Still, I'd like to change it."

"That is unfortunate."

"Let me see your face." Hera blurted out.

"Another time, when I don't scent Court vermin on your skin." He said.

He released her and walked past her without another word. Taking the dress off took longer than her shower.