"I am your queen, Hortensio; that means when I say back up, you back the fuck up!"
"I don't think he can hear you," Sin said.
"Then Pierette and Scaramouche can repeat it to him later, right?" I said, looking at Pierette mostly.
She let go of Scaramouche's hand and knelt in front of me, putting her head to the floor in front of my feet; it was about as low a bow as she could make. Her hands were politely back near her shoulders so that her head was the only thing near my feet. It was the real deal, but then she'd had centuries to practice bowing in all sorts of ways.
"She'll stay like that until you tell her to rise," Jake said.
"That sort of works for me right now," I said.
Jake made a little movement with his mouth like I'd surprised him but pleased him at the same time. "You are the queen."
"That's right, I am, and the next time one of you forgets that, it won't be my knee that I use to bloody you. Is that clear, Scaramouche?"
"Are you saying you will kill us yourself?"
"No, that is not what she is saying," Jake said, quickly.
"I don't want to kill you, damn it. It's a waste of centuries of talent and power, but if you force me to make the decision, I will."
"I believe you," Scaramouche said.
Pierette's voice was muffled against the floor as she said, "Yes, my queen."
"Get up, Pierette."
She raised her head slowly, cautiously. "Do you wish me to stand, my queen?"
"Stay with Scaramouche, or stand. I don't care; just don't do anything stupid."
"Yes, my queen."
"You have tamed another leopard, Anita," Scaramouche said.
"How about you, Hortensio? Are you still going to be a pain in my ass, or have I made myself clear?"
He had his hands pressed gingerly over his nose. It made his voice sound odd, but it was understandable as he said, "Very clear, my queen."
I looked down. "And you, Scaramouche? Are you tamed?"
"I will never be tamed by anyone save my master."
"Then are we clear?"
He wasted a serious hate-filled look at Nicky, then looked back at me. "You and your Bride have been most clear."
"Great, then we won't have any more problems between us."
"We will not disrespect you, but we have a problem, our queen."
"And what would that be?" I asked.
"That the people you are having sex with have acquired our old speed and skills, or regained them in the case of Magda and other Harlequin in your bed, while those of us not in your graces continue to lose both skills and power."
I opened my mouth, closed it, and looked at Jake. "Is he right?"
Jake sighed, shrugged, and then said, "It is not a hundred percent certain, but as a hypothesis it has unfortunate merit."
"Well, fuck," I said.
"Not enough," Scaramouche said.
"We can't fuck everyone."
"If I cannot regain my former glory with a plan worthy of a warrior and a king, then I would agree to whatever arrangement Jean-Claude wishes."
I stared at the wererat. "Do you understand what you're saying?"
"Or is the pain speaking for you?" Jake added.
"I know what I am saying, and for the return of my power, I would be whatever Jean-Claude needed me to be," Scaramouche said.
Pierette just shook her head and looked scared. She wasn't willing to be whatever was needed, and I didn't blame her. That was too much carte blanche to give anyone.
"I will not be Jean-Claude's catamite," Hortensio said; his voice sounded worse as his nose continued to swell. He coughed and started to choke, having to struggle to sit up enough to throw up blood on the mat, which made his face hurt so that he moaned with the pain.
"We need to get them to medical," Jake said.
"Yeah," Nicky said, "they're bleeding all over the mat."
I looked to see if he was making a joke. His mouth was still bleeding enough that he was having to dab at it with the back of his hand. He'd taken off his gloves sometime during all of this. If he was being sarcastic his face didn't show it. The marks on his cheek weren't nearly as bad as his mouth.
"Or everybody could shapeshift and heal themselves," I said.
"They'll get goopy stuff all over the mats," Sin said. "Claudia has told us we aren't allowed to shift in the gymnasium."
"Fine. The hallway will work."
"I dare not, my queen," Scaramouche said.
"It's a dislocated knee. Shifting should heal it."
"Yes, but in my beast form I would need food to regain the energy I expended in the rapid healing."
"Yeah, so you walk down to the area where the live food is kept."
"No, my queen. If I shifted form, I could not guarantee that I would not see you and others as food for my beast."
"Are you saying that you wouldn't have enough control of your animal form to keep from attacking us?" I asked.
"I am ashamed to admit it, but it is true."
"You are the Harlequin, the ultimate spies and assassins. That means you have ultimate control over yourself, or that's what I thought it meant."
"Once that was exactly what it meant, but when our powers began to fade, so did our control of our inner demons."
I looked from him to the other two troublemakers. Pierette bowed her head and wouldn't meet my gaze. Hortensio was rolling around in fresh pain; apparently he'd squeezed his nose too hard.
"Are you saying that none of you can control your beast half?"
"When we first turn, we must eat flesh. Once we have eaten, we come back to ourselves and can control the beast, but until that first feeding we are mindless and will attack as if we are new lycanthropes who have not gained control of ourselves yet."
I looked at Jake and Magda. "Is this true of all of you?"
"I have not diminished in my abilities," she said.
"Because
you are sleeping with them," Pierette said, her voice bitter. She stared down at the floor as soon as she said it, as if afraid of her own reaction.
Jake's face was as blank and unreadable as he could make it. "I have retained my abilities as well, and I am not sleeping with our new leaders. Kaazim is also fine and not their lover."
"Wait, Jake, Magda. Are you saying that neither of you knew about this either?" I asked.
"I did not know," he said.
Magda just shook her head.
"You guys are supposed to report to Jake," I said, looking down at the others.
"He is one of the ones who betrayed our Dark Mother," Scaramouche said.
Hortensio found his voice again, though it was thick and harder to understand as his nose continued to swell. "He helped hide the golden tigers from us. If they had been killed as the Mother of All Darkness commanded, then you would never have been able to rise to power. You had to possess the power of the Father of Tigers and become the new Father of Dawn, and for that you needed the gold cats."
Scaramouche said, "Jake and Kaazim were both part of the traitors who knew the gold tigers had not been slaughtered, and now that they have won they still have their powers, while those of us who were ignorant of their plot do not."
"So maybe it's more than just sex with Jean-Claude and the rest of us," I said.
"Perhaps," he said, but not like he believed it, or maybe he didn't want to believe it, because if sex wouldn't fix the problem, then they were screwed in more ways than one.
"Does Micah know about this?"
Scaramouche and Pierette shook their heads. "We have told no one of our shame," he said.
"If we had decided to send you out on a mission like Kaazim just came back from, would you have told anyone then?" Nicky asked.
"We don't owe you an answer, Bride," Hortensio said.
"Then pretend I asked it, because it's a good question and I want the answer."
"None of the leaders here trust us enough to send us out," he said.
"We are trapped here in this small city when we had the world to travel for centuries," Pierette said, and she looked--grief-stricken was the only word. I had for the sudden haggard look on her eternally youthful face.
"I guess it is a change," I said.