The twins didn’t give me time to gape at the mermaids for long. Grabbing more food and drink as we went, and discarding empty glasses and plates along the way too, they took me through courtyards and gardens, ballrooms that were as vast as the entire settlement of Kettering, and tiny parlors—where couples and groups of all description fucked without a care for who might pause in the doorways to watch them. In fact, I quickly had the feeling that those parlors were designed for voyeurism.
Again, I thought of Magnus and Rurik, and all the things they must have been asked to do for parties exactly like this one.
“What’s your pleasure?” a female voice startled me as I paused to stare into one of the parlors, where an angelic-looking young man with a mop of blond hair was on his knees, his hands and arms bound behind his back, sucking the cock of a massive, burly man covered with hair. Half a dozen middle-aged men stood around the edges of the room watching and bringing themselves off all over the boy, making him an obscene, sticky mess.
“I beg your pardon?” I asked, dragging my eyes away from the display to face the woman.
I did a double-take at the sight of her. She was taller than me by six inches at least—though that might have been because of the heeled boots she wore—and she was dressed all in black leather. Her hair was a bright, unnatural red, although I wondered if it would have been grey otherwise, her eyebrows were dyed to match, and she appeared to have bright green gems glued to her face. Possibly to hide wrinkles. Even with her exotic appearance, something about her was familiar.
And it wasn’t just that she was dressed in black leather. Her odd outfit was skin tight, the skirt almost like the mermaid tails of the women in the pool, but split on one side up to her hip. What truly startled me was that even though her breasts were covered, there were holes in the leather where her nipples protruded. Attached to each nipple was a wicked-looking clamp, and the clamps were joined by a chain from which green gems hung.
It took me a moment to realize I was staring at her nipples, mouth opened. When I realized, I snapped my mouth shut and jerked my chin up to look her in the eyes.
The woman tipped her head back and laughed, which allowed me to see one of her teeth was actually an emerald.
“You’re not from Royersford, are you,” she said, reaching out and ruffling her fingers through my hair. “Where are you from, Hastings? Lazio?” She eyed me like I was ridiculous, “Aktau?”
I was almost embarrassed to say, “None of those. I’m from Yacovissi.”
I prayed she hadn’t heard of it, but I was disappointed. Her eyes went wide, and she laughed even harder. “Oh, you’re afrontierboy, are you? No wonder.”
I should have said Kettering. Unsurprisingly, not a single person I’d encountered in my six weeks in Royersford had ever heard of Kettering.
“We’re not all rubes on the frontier,” I told her, crossing my arms.
“No, I’m sure you’re not,” the woman said, every syllable and every look screaming that she thought I was the worst kind of rube imaginable.
I was ready to shake my head and ignore her by turning to Leander and Darius, but my friends had disappeared while I was distracted by the woman.
I glanced around for a second to see if they’d gone into one of the parlors, but before I could move to search for them, the woman grabbed my arm.
“Come along, frontier boy,” she said, pulling me down the long hallway. “You need to become acquainted with the ways of the kingdom.”
“The frontier isn’t as provincial as everyone here seems to think,” I said, allowing the woman to lead me on. “In fact, you’d be surprised about the sort of experiences I’ve had.”
“Really?” she said with deep sarcasm.
“I’m a wolf,” I told her, trying to sound dangerous and daring…which made me come off as silly and immature. I knew full well I didn’t have the look or presence to be the sort of tough man I was trying to be, like Dushka.
“How lovely for you,” the woman laughed. Clearly, she had no idea what a wolf was.
She went on right away with, “These parlors are for unsophisticated pleasures. I don’t even know why the king called for them at this festival. They’re the sort of thing that attracts weak-minded sycophants.
“Still,” she went on as we passed a room that seemed to contain an orgy with a group of very young, lithe people painted in different colors on a huge bed in the center, “you can find whatever you want at festival activities such as these. Men, women, boys, girls, they’re all here.”
She gestured carelessly to some of the doors we passed.
I swallowed hard at her words, dread prickling my skin. I desperately hoped that she wasn’t being literal when she said boys and girls.
“Whatever size and shapes you desire, they’re here for the picking,” the woman went on, taking me around another corner. She glanced over her shoulder at me. “You like being fucked by large, muscular men, don’t you.”
My mouth fell open, and I blinked. “How did you—”
She laughed and turned away before I finished. “Frontier boy,” she said, as though that were all the explanation needed. “You think you’re so wicked.”
I snapped my mouth shut and followed her down another hallway. I had already lost track of where I was, and none of my friends were anywhere to be seen.
I was determined to keep my wits about me, since the woman could have been leading me anywhere, even to my death. But as we climbed a set of stairs to a much less populated corridor, I began to understand what she meant by something for everyone.