Page 31 of Poisoned Empire

“Gods, your face looks stupid. Bring it closer, you plain creature, and I’ll rearrange it for you.” It leered at her, its lion’s tail waving slowly from side to side.

“You know, I’ve either struck gold with a new hallucinogen, or griffins can speak,” Selene mused, studying the creature before her.

“Domina Amethyst!” Marduk roared in the distance.

Selene jumped, just barely stuffing down an undignified squeak.

“Let’s make a deal, griffin—you hide me in your wings, and I won’t poison you into compliance,” Selene whispered, grinning like a predator, hoping to intimidate the great beast.

“Come closer, and I’ll rip out an eye, you smelly cretin!” the griffin hissed.

“Poison it is!”

Selene inhaled deeply and blew out a strong sedative, instantly knocking out the beast. She hurried under its wing. Just in time. The strategos’ footsteps thundered on the wooden planks outside the griffin’s stall. Frustrated thumping accompanied the shrieks of demon horses.

“Fuck!” Marduk swore, the pounding of his footsteps growing dimmer by the moment.

A few more beats of silence, and Selene felt safe creeping out from under her makeshift hiding spot. It was not a moment too soon. The griffin was rousing. When it eyed her, she jumped back. It leapt at her, shrieking anew. Only chains kept it from mauling her.

“You little heathen! You dare to use your filthy magics on me?! If not for these damned chains, I’d tear you limb from limb!”

“Gods, calm down already. Most sedatives don’t kill, and you’re obviously fine. Besides, you called me a dumb cow. Be grateful I didn’t dose you with poison oak.”

The creature blinked, startled. It stopped trying to pull free of its chains and sat up, smoothing its feathers. It stared down its beak at her with cautious superiority. Gone was the vicious mockery in its voice, replaced with an air of refinement.

“You can understand me, girl?”

“Unless this is all some brand-new poison I’m enjoying?”

“Unlikely. You know, I didn’t take you for the type.”

“What type?”

“A murderer and a thief.”

Despite her initial success, Iliana was unable to convince her horse to do as she wished. The honey-coloured mare had decided that it very much liked the flowers bracketing the gravel-lined leisure path. Branches of trees reached overhead to provide dappled shade. In the distance, a field opened up. Nobles trotted along crystalline brooks and perfectly tended hedges as their servants hurried along on foot at respectful distances. Despite trying to discreetly pull the reigns and whispering threats, the beast was implacable. Other noblewomen were beginning to comment as they passed, giggling as Iliana’s back was turned by her mare’s positioning. At least they couldn’t see her mortified blush. The strategos had taken the time to teach her how to mount her horse and guide it gently, but in his rush to give Selene the same lesson, he’d forgotten to teach Iliana how to dismount. Selene’s instinctive fear of horses must be catching. The ground appeared to be quite a way down, and Iliana feared having the recalcitrant animal throw her for trying to dismount awkwardly. Images of the horse taking off while she was still attached ran through her head. It was true no one could die of embarrassment, but the last thing she could afford to do was make more of an ass of herself than this horse already had.

“Stupid strategos. Stupid horse.”

“Don’t blame the beast for your inexperience, Domina.”

Iliana gasped and tried to turn around. Her blush deepened as Marduk kept ducking back into her blind spot as she looked around her other shoulder. She growled, crossed her arms and refused to try again. His laugh was deep and rich as he took the reins from her hands and guided the horse along the path. The stubborn beast acted as though it had always been as sweet and biddable as a loyal dog.

Marduk was resplendent in his riding gear, his tanned skin and corded muscles on full display. The military stripes on his tunic and the large gold buckle of his belt denoted his rank, but it was the awareness in his eyes and his precise movements which would have given him away were he to discard the vestments of his station. Or perhaps she had simply taken to staring overlong at him. In her defence, there was a great deal of him to ponder.

“You never showed me how to dismount. I’ve been stuck sitting here like an ass,” Iliana complained, trying to steer her thoughts better than she could her horse.

“You can blame your friend for that. I’ve been trying to hunt her down since I left you. To think a person can be so scared of a horse,” Marduk snorted.

“Selene has many faults, but that isn’t one of them. Running for her life while being chased by mounted men is hardly likely to have endeared them to her.” Iliana’s reply was icy. She would not tolerate people mocking her friend.

“You always come to her defence. Have you considered that she might have been in the wrong on those many occasions?”

“I’m not a fool, Strategos. But if you purchase poison to supposedly kill rats, and then decide that the rat in need of killing is a spouse or parent or rival, is it really the poison’s fault? I make blades for a living, yet no one categorically sees me as a murderer. Am I to blame for all the blood a blade sheds in the hands of another? Surely you know those prejudices are just excuses used to shift blame to people without power.”

“While I agree with your general sentiment, I very much doubt your friend marketed her poisons as anything so innocent as rat poison or insecticide.” Marduk arched his thick brow.

Iliana tried to appear affronted and serious, the better to hide her cringe. Selene’s merchant smile slipped into her mind’s eye, along with her usual spiel to customers:Silently, gruesomely or painfully, we have the perfect lethal poison for you! Humiliating, debilitating or just plain unpleasant, poisons to teach ‘em a lesson they won’t soon forget. Get them here!

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