CHAPTER TEN #3
“My Fourth Form is uncomfortable to hold for long periods, but Char.Lot thought it best not to call attention to myself.”
“I daresay you would call attention to yourself no matter what form you take.” Several more long blinks ensue before she shakes off her reaction and greets me with a smile.
“It is a pleasure to see you again, Lord Alad. Please.” She gestures towards the long building.
“I’ve so many questions, and I think it’s best we remove from the prying eyes of the street, don’t you?
” Her gaze sweeps around, and like my sweet one, she bites her lower lip before scooping up Char.Lot’s hand.
Following in the women’s wake, I soon find myself ensconced in a well-decorated room.
Panels of dark carved wood surround us. Canvases dot the walls.
Each of the paintings is magnificent. I’ve never seen art expressed so realistically.
It’s as if I could step within each frame and greet each person depicted.
“What a marvel.”
“The paintings? They are well done, aren’t they? My grandfather found the Italian Renaissance particularly to his taste.”
One of the paintings depicts an angry woman holding up a severed head. It’s gory and dark, and yet I enjoy looking at it. Looking at all of them.
I circle the room, evading furnishings unlike anything I’ve known.
A scene of soldiers gives me a temporary reprieve from the vertigo of spirit I suffer.
Except for dress and location, the painting could have been completed in my time, except we had nothing so fine. So accurate. So gloriously colored.
By the time I sink into one of the chairs, Char.Lot has already explained everything I’ve told her and everything we’ve done to her friend.
When she concludes, I add, “Char.Lot believes she is ruined. Is this true?”
“Absolutely not.” Mary’s face firms.
Objectively, she is fairer than Char.Lot. Her features are finer, her hair lighter, her eyes bluer. She’s like a painting to be admired, but I don’t feel the same snap of desire that I feel for Char.Lot. Mary’s beauty is a cold thing in comparison with Char.Lot’s fire.
Odd. I thought my attraction to Karu arose because of her exotic coloring. Had I been right, I would now prefer Mary, which I don’t. And if Karu and Char.Lot stood side by side and begged me to fuck only one of them?
I look at Char.Lot and smile. I would choose her every time. There’s a strange conviction I never felt with Karu, as if Char.Lot has been fashioned just for me. The thought of losing her is impossible, and so I will keep her.
I will keep her. Somehow. Some way.
Char.Lot rolls her eyes at me. I don’t know why, but perhaps it’s something in my expression. “Lady Mary is being kind,” she offers. “But we need to leave. I risk damaging her reputation with my presence.”
“Nonsense. I took care of the beastly Sir Gilead and Lord Peterson, who is far more civilized. There’s no need to be concerned about your precipitous flight.”
“Or the night I spent in Alad’s company?”
“I assured them that if they harbored the least misgivings over your journey with our mythological friend, I would convince my father to harbor misgivings about his investments in various archeological digs in which either of them takes part. To everyone’s surprise, they both quickly agreed to hold their tongues and thoughts on the entire subject.
” Mary’s voice is dry, exhibiting the sarcasm earlier absent from Char.Lot’s tongue.
“But surely word will leak out.”
“Nonsense.” Mary pats Char.Lot’s hand. “I am quite certain they are agreed we must keep Alad’s presence out of the gossip rags. Doing so is in everyone’s best interest, and these are gentlemen, after all. Which is why I’m thrilled, Alad, that you can take a human form.”
“Because I’m less threatening?”
The two women exchange a glance and begin laughing behind their hands.
Mary recovers first. “Not quite. However, despite your uncanny resemblance to a locomotive, even in human form, it’s easier to lie about your identity. A cousin, I think. From abroad.”
“Far abroad,” Char.Lot agrees. “You’re certain, Mary?”
“Completely. We’ll have such fun launching him upon Society. His true nature will be our little secret. First thing,” she adds, focusing again upon me, “is a bath and shave. A proper handlebar mustache, chin curtain, and sideburns are currently in fashion, but…”
“I prefer a clean-shaven man,” Char.Lot says. “All you need is some shaping of your facial hair to be quite au current.”
I’ll shave it all off. Of course I will.
“Well, we’ll allow his valet to decide what might best suit his face.
Meanwhile, we should concoct a story upon which we all agree.
And, er, find a way to disguise your night together, which was totally innocent, of course.
But still.” Mary rises, pink in her cheeks, and swishes to the corner where she pulls a cord.
Bells jingle in the distance. In minutes, I’m whisked above stairs by an older gentleman who tells me he’s Lady Mary’s butler, Soames.
I’m given an enormous room decorated in shades of green and gold.
A giant bed surrounded by a carved dark-wood frame beckons.
Fatigue rides me, despite my having been insensate for millennia, because I spent all night reading. I need rest.
But I need to find Gilgamesh more. I need to…
I don’t know. Apologize, maybe? He should be the one apologizing to me, but for him to have called upon the great god, Anu, he must have hurt terribly.
And in retrospect, my infatuation for Karu might have seemed like I was choosing the least over the greatest, especially to him. He must have felt betrayed.
And he was right. My infatuation with Karu was merely physical. It faded the moment I found her bathing the charioteer’s seed from her thighs, not because she’d fucked him, but because she hoped to fool Gilgamesh. I saw it plain. That deceit melted away a good part of my desire for her.
And Char.Lot? According to her, she has also lived a life of deceit. She continues to deceive her friend, Mary, who, by all appearance, is a kindly soul. Mary has opened her home and heart to Char.Lot. To me. So why does Char.Lot’s betrayal seem so forgivable, when Karu’s turned my stomach to lead?
I don’t know. I only know it’s the truth.
I pick up a figurine of glazed painted clay. A dog. Dogs are friends here, even those who don’t hunt. In my day, animals worked for their living.
So much has changed. So much remains the same.
At least I’m free from the obligation of offering marriage to Char.Lot.
Since she isn’t ruined, I can walk away without a shred of guilt.
Plus, tying myself to someone of a different time is insane.
I’m not certain what I was thinking to even entertain mating her.
I have a life to get back to. Somehow. Gil. My mother. My court.
“I can leave her.” The words tickle my tongue, but they result in a caverning sadness rather than relief.
A knock sounds upon the door. Before I can respond, the portal opens, issuing forth an army of servants, all of them bowing at me.
I’m taken up, turned around, measured, poked, prodded, gestured into a bathing tub, given an array of sweet and spicy-smelling soaps, and ultimately, coiffed and shaved.
I don’t object, guarding my energy for maintaining my Fourth Form. When I’m a new man, one I don’t recognize in the mirror as it’s been an eternity since my face was bare, I again ponder the bed.
Sleep, or read more in the room one of the servants told me about, in which books are stacked to the ceiling?
The books win out. I must learn all I can. Quickly. There’s no future until I know more.