Mac Tire � Son of the EarthPart 16 - ...The Food of Love...Dom resisted the temptation to knock on Lij's door to see if he was ready for Cormac's recital. The thought of Nekeb answering and refusing him admittance - or worse still, of Dom catching a glimpse of Lij unclothed - sent a chill down his spine. It was too long since they had made love, and Dom longed for intimate contact with Lij. So he waited patiently until Lij knocked hesitantly on his door. Lij looked beautiful this morning. Beautiful, but exotic. Dressed in a fine blue woollen robe, with his eyes lined with kohl and his hair dressed Egyptian-style, he looked like a rare oriental creature. Dom was never more glad of his grey leather breeches. They hid what a robe would not. He pulled his cloak firmly across his swelling groin, and stepped out into the corridor, smiling at his love. Cormac's room was on the other side of the castle. The two men found it with a little help, and Cormac, meeting them at the door and looking swiftly up and down the corridor - checking for his mother, he said - swiftly ushered them in. "I am sorry I could not send you word," he grinned, as the two men sat down. "She gets to hear of everything, you know, and I wanted this time alone, to be myself, with my music - and you." Lij looked around him. The room was the same size as his, but not so well appointed. There was a plain chest and a small table, and several chairs, but that was all. No fur rugs, no intricate embroidered bedcover, no ornaments. Cormac saw Lij looking. "I hate fuss. I like plain things about me. Except for her of course." His hand smoothed down the fine carved wood of a beautiful harp, the very twin of Dom's Osian. Cormac blushed. "I know it is the same. I tuned yours when we got here, and I knew I had to have one the same. Mother organised it. She knows everyone - everything." Dom and Lij did not for a moment doubt it. Both men wondered how it was that such a woman had given birth to this naturally friendly and open-hearted man. A servant tapped the door and brought in mead, and the three men fell into a very interesting discussion about music. * Nekeb was bored. He had taken care of the laundry, scanned his list and added something to it, and spent all the time he thought wise asking questions and poking about the castle. He had spoken privately with Cass and was as convinced as the former guard was that it was the Lady Ede who constituted the most danger to the people of the country. Cass also pointed out that servants were gossiping that Connor had noticed his wife's gaze was centred on the new ollave, Dom, far too often for propriety, and had the night before, during a spectacular and extremely noisy fight about the matter, given the lady a black eye. She was now resting in her room, whilst her lord was sulking in the stables. Nekeb sniffed. Good enough for them both. He hated this place, full of intrigue and dark secrets. Nekeb thought about calling at the kitchen for some wine and dates, but realised they would be in the process of preparing the noon-day meal, and would not relish the interruption. There was a knock on the door, and Nekeb, glad of the diversion, rushed to open it to find little Orla standing there bearing an enormous wooden tray on which rested a decent sized bowl of steaming mushrooms laced with garlic, and a rope of dates. The little mite refused to tender up her burden, and slowly and purposefully carried the tray in and placed it on the table. She looked around her. "Is himself not here, then? The Lady Ede will be cross. She said to tell him to eat them up while they were still hot." She rubbed her sweating forehead with the back of her hand. "They do smell awful, they do, so. I cannot think why anyone would want to eat them, especially drowned in the burny stuff...garlic, is it?" Nekeb nodded, as the girl looked seriously up at him. "There was no need to tell me not to steal any of the rare things. I wouldn't have them as a gift, I would not. But apparently the foreign lord is very fond of them. So, he is welcome to them. I shall not tell her he was not here. If he eats them hot or cold, what does it matter?" She smiled up at Nekeb, and adjusted her belted dress. It was far too big, and cinched in at the waist as it was, made the girl look like a homeless waif. Nekeb's sense of sartorial style was offended. "Have you no mother to look after you, girl, that you dress so...so...? Nekeb couldn't think of a word. Untidily came close, but not close enough. Orla nodded. "Yes, I do. My mother works in the soldiers' quarters "providing for their comfort" she says. I don't think she likes it there much - but where the Lady Ede decrees, one goes. She said I was not to accept any of the pretty clothes people might offer me, and that I would fare much better in this." Orla pulled a face as if she thought her mother stupid. "Only no-one has offered me anything pretty, I'm sorry to say." The Egyptian sighed. It was the same the world over. Except at home where, since Kishlan, there were no slaves, only those who swore to serve and no servant was forced to do anything repugnant to them. Lij saw to that. "Your mother is a wise woman, girl. Heed her words carefully." Orla grinned at him, and he picked a date off the string and popped it in her mouth. She chewed it with delight, bobbed a curtsey and saying she would be back for the empty dishes in a while, as instructed, and skipped out of the door. Nekeb eyed the steaming dish. He remembered only too well how sick his friend had been after the night Dom's foolish words forced Lij into eating the previous bowl of the despised mushrooms. And he also knew that Lij's innate sense of good breeding would mean he would eat the mushrooms even though they made him ill, because it was preferable to returning the dish untouched and insulting the Lady Ede who had so kindly sent them. Nekeb knew where his duty lay: he pulled up a chair and started to eat. * Dom had been impressed. Cormac played very well, very well indeed. He had blushed when Dom clapped him on the shoulder and said seriously that he would have been proud to have had the training of him. "I love music," Cormac said simply, a short while later. "It's better than food to me." As he was biting enthusiastically into a leg of duck at the time he spoke and had the juices of the piquant gravy dribbling down his chin, Lij laughed. "Better than, or only equal to?" Cormac grinned at him and picked up another piece of duck. They sat in the solar where Cormac, Dom and Lij were joined by Ede, Connor and Morne for the mid-day meal. Ede was feasting on some mushrooms, heavy with garlic, and Connor wrinkled his nose fastidiously. "Pass me the duck, wife," he said tartly. Ede stopped eating and handed the heavy dish to Connor with a smile. Dom looked at her face. Someone had struck her and she had attempted to cover the bruising with some lotion, but it had not succeeded in hiding the swelling. The stuff Gronya had made for Cass was far superior. "Here you are, husband," she said, looking at him sweetly. Lij nibbled on the dates he was delighted to find on the table, and Ede looked at him carefully. "Are you not hungry, my lord?" she asked solicitously. Lij shook his head. "Thank you, no, lady. I had a large breakfast and I rarely eat much at this time of the day." Ede passed him the cheese. "Try a little of this goat's cheese. It is most refreshing." Politeness made Lij cut a small slice and eat it, but everyone else ate heartily. The atmosphere at the table was a trifle uncomfortable. Morne had said little, but was perfectly amiable as he applied himself heartily to his food. Ede addressed a remark to him, calling him "Torna". It was the first time either of the men had heard Morne addressed by his given name. Dom thought the name appropriate - it meant "puffed-up". Connor looked morose, as he slowly ate his meal and Ede seemed preoccupied - so the burden of the conversation fell on Dom, Lij and Cormac. The talk was of music, and was obviously not to Connor's taste. He quickly finished his meal and stood abruptly. The others rose as he left with a terse word. "I am going out with the dogs," he threw at his wife as he left the room. She watched him leave and then sighed. "He is not feeling well. He has the toothache," she said to Cormac's enquiring glance. "Please continue with your meal. If you will excuse me, I shall retire, too. I have things to attend to." Cormac shrugged and grinning at the others returned to his favourite subject - music. * Dom had promised Cass that he would meet him for a while up on the ramparts to discuss any news or information that might have come Cass' way from Brian, the Captain of the Guard. Dom had rightly thought that Cass might be more revealing of things he had heard if Lij was not close by. It was not that Cass was ashamed of his sexual needs, but rather that talk between two men was easier for him in an informal setting. Lij agreed, and leaving Dom climbing the stone stairs to the roof, returned to his room to change for the ride he had promised to take around the lake with Cormac and Morne. He would never forget the sight that met his eyes when he opened the door. Nekeb was lying curled up in a ball on the floor, his face twisted in pain, his eyes wild with terror. "Lij!" he gasped as he saw his beloved friend enter the room. He reached his hand up and Lij ran across the room with a cry and grasped the hand. "Nekeb? My dearest friend, what ails you?" He knelt on the floor and took the shivering figure in his arms. "Water!" the sick man whispered, and Lij rose to find the ewer. Having given the drink, Lij picked Nekeb up from the floor, fear giving him a strength he never knew he had, and placed his friend carefully on the bed, covering the shaking form with warm blankets. He ran to the door and shouted for a servant, then ran back to the bed. Nekeb was whispering something and Lij could not hear him. He climbed on the bed and took his friend in his ams again. As he did so, Nekeb stopped his restless twitching and sighed. "Dear friend?" Lij said softly. "What is it?" Nekeb opened his eyes. "Poison." he breathed. "Mushrooms ... meant for you...she..." Here a bout of coughing stopped his voice and a spasm of pain wracked his body. Lij felt his skin crawl. He knew poison intimately. He knew there had been too long a time between his beloved friend ingesting the poison and his arrival. He felt Nekeb's legs, and they were as cold as stone. This was his oldest friend; the man who had been with him since childhood. Lij felt empty as he held Nekeb even closer to him, feeling the coldness creep up the resting body, feeling the slight tremors as flesh gave way under the virulent poison. Lij recognised the smell. It was one once used upon him, a long time ago. Orla appeared at the door. "You called, Lord? I.." "Fetch Ede, quickly. Nekeb has been poisoned." The little girls mouth opened and shut without a word and she ran away sobbing. Lij felt Nekeb rouse himself, felt the vast effort the dying man was putting into his last few moments. "Nekeb...shush, dear friend," he murmured. Let him pass gently into the Otherworld, Osiris! But Nekeb was trying to speak. "...must...Ede...sent them..." His lips were turning blue. Very soon the poison would reach his heart and he would be gone. Lij felt the tears run down his face and he brushed them off angrily. Nekeb was dying, not him. Why then, should he weep? Nekeb's voice was barely a thread. Lij had to bend his head low to catch the words. "I will die... the gods...won't find .. I ... wander...in darkness forever...searching...for you...my only love." Lij felt his heart would crack in two. He put his cheek next to Nekeb's cold one. "And I too, love you, my dearest friend" Nekeb shook his head, impatiently, turning his dying gaze onto Lij. "Don't...understand. I love you...as you love...Dom. always...have. I never...told..." Lij was nearly paralysed with grief. All these years he has felt for me as a lover would, and I did not notice his devotion? How could I have been so blind? Nekeb, my dearest friend...my poor... Nekeb's voice got even quieter. "But ...now I ask ..a last..." Lij bent to kiss Nekeb's mouth but Nekeb stopped the kiss with his trembling hand. "Poison.." he breathed. The king kissed his eyes and his cheek instead. "Beloved friend," Lij murmured, his voice husky with grief. "How did...you...know...?" Nekeb smiled despite the pain. Lij whispered, his heart too full to speak properly. "Because I, too, love as you love. And his kiss is the last thing I would feel in this world, too. Be at peace." Nekeb's face was calm; his breathing slow and laboured, but he was no longer in pain. "It is cold... Tell me of ...home as I ...sleep." Lij kissed him once more, and Nekeb sighed with contentment. Lying here, in his beloved's arms, he felt cherished and secure. He snuggled in closer to Lij's chest. No matter that he was dying, now. He had saved his Lij from it and that was worth the price he had to pay. Lij's voice was soft and sweet. Nekeb felt the sun rise over the temples of Luxor as Lij described their home to him. "...and now, we are sitting under the palm trees of Kampfet, drinking wine and talking. The servants are waving their fans over us, and we are watching the children at play�and the new ones yet to be. The fish jump in the river, and the water is full and clear. Two hoopoes fly overhead and the scent of the cala lilies reminds us that life is sweet, and love is passing fair..." Lij looked down. Nekeb's eyes closed and his mouth parted slightly. He did not speak, but Lij saw the words "I love you" framed by the dying man's lips. Lij kissed him again and felt his friend's last breath fan against his cheek as he sat there holding him carefully in trembling arms. "Anubis, old enemy...old friend...guide him carefully into Osiris's presence, for he gave his life to save me, and is a prince amongst men. He is named Royal Friend. Treat him with due reverence as is his just reward." Lij brushed the hair softly from the lifeless face, and drawing his friend close, kissed him again. Dom came to the door as he did so, pushing it wide open and stepping in. He saw Lij on the bed, with Nekeb in his arms, kissing him, and turning on his heel, he stormed out without a word. |