Dragon in the Dark (Kindred Tales)

“This Viridi Femma will now perform a miraculous wonder that all of you will marvel to see,” Minister Ostensio went on, cutting off her anxious line of thought as cleanly as though he’d chopped it with a knife. .

Iyanna looked at him in shock, her stomach clenching.

“Wait—what?” She looked at Dra’vik, who was frowning and shaking his head in obvious confusion, his horns glinting in the light of the overhead glows.

But before she could ask any questions, two of the male servants in the dark blue and silver uniforms went behind a curtain that was at the far end of the banquet hall and came back pushing a metal cart that hovered in midair. They maneuvered it to the head of the table, slightly to one side so that Baronet Sin’estor could have the best view, and then stepped back.

One of them whipped the cloth away and Iyanna stared blankly at what was revealed—it was a narrow rectangular planter about twice as long as her forearm. The planter was filled with dry, cracked soil that was obviously hard as a rock. Sticking up from the soil were dry, stiff stalks that looked like they might crumble to dust if anyone touched them. To Iyanna, they looked completely dead.

“What are these?” she asked, frowning in confusion. “And what do you expect me to do with them? Bring them back to life?”

“Exactly, my dear Viridi Femma,” Baronet Sin’estor purred. He was watching her now the way a cat watches a mousse it wants to play with.

“And if you can, the pleasure plants will be your reward,” Minister Ostensio put in.

Iyanna didn’t like to ask what might happen if she couldn’t bring the dead plants back—clearly they wouldn’t get the Lix’dorian version of the pleasure blooms but also, the way Baronet Sin’estor was eyeing her didn’t look good. She needed to make an impressive showing here.

But how?

Slowly, she rose and made her way to the planter. Experimentally, she touched one of the dry stalks. Immediately, it crumbled away to dust, just as she had feared it would.

There was murmuring around the long table and she could see people frowning at each other—clearly she wasn’t doing what they had expected.

Maybe because I wasn’t even trying, Iyanna thought. Of course, she hadn’t been trying when she’d affected the plants aboard the Mother Ship, but maybe she would have to make a special effort here, so far from the place where her supposed “powers” had been awakened.

Closing her eyes, she thought of all the plants she’d cared for in her lifetime—remembered the way her Granny had taught her a love of greenery and growing things. She thought of sunshine and rain and plant food and tending the rich, dark soil and watching tender buds and shoots appear—it always gave her such a thrill to see that first little pale green tendril poking above the dirt! And she loved the smell of her grandmother’s flower gardens and the feeling of accomplishment she got when everything was in full bloom.

She channeled all the positive emotion she could think of having to do with plants. Then, leaning down, she blew gently on the dry, dead stalks.

“Live,” she whispered to them. “Grow! Be healthy and happy and bloom!”

At first nothing happened. Then, it seemed as though one of the stalks twitched. Then another and another. Iyanna began to see streaks of green creeping up each stalk, slowly taking over the brown.

After a full minute, all the stalks had turned lush and green and then she began to see small but noticeable buds. A minute more and the buds burst open, displaying enormous, hand-sized blossoms of pure black with crimson streaks at their hearts.

There was a moment of silence and then the room burst into applause. The members of the Royal Botany Society left their seats and came crowding around the planter, looking in amazement at the revived plants.

“Wow!” Iyanna murmured to herself, still looking at the plants before her. Had she really done all that? Maybe she really did have secret plant powers! Just looking at the miracle before her made her whole body feel like it was throbbing with pleasure.

No…wait. She frowned. Plants didn’t usually make her “throb.” What the hell was going on?

Minister Ostensio’s strident voice broke her concentration.

“And now that the demonstration is over, it’s time for the Public Pleasuring,” she heard him announce. “You can have a moment more to admire the work of the lovely Viridi Femma and then if everyone would return to their seats, please. Each male will be availing himself of the services of the pleasure slave to his left.”

THIRTY-NINE

Wait—did he say the pleasure slave on his left? Iyanna thought. Her brain felt slightly fuzzy for some reason, but she knew this was a bad idea. Whose left was she on? Wasn’t it that awful Baronet Sin’estor? Ugh—she didn’t want to be with him!