Mercedes Lackey - Elvenbane

For a moment, her blood and heartbeat quickened. She was being fought over! It was like the old days, when elven lords dueled for the favor of a chosen lady. But that was long ago...long before elves came here, to this world.

How exciting...they were fighting for her'! She didn't know of anyone who'd had men fight over her...

But then, as she took in the damage that had been done so far (two broken chairs, a ruined table, and most of the ornaments smashed), her anger awoke. Laras had broken conditioning and training, and he was in the process of destroying her property. This was not to be tolerated. Even if it had been caused by jealousy over her...

She stepped into the room, her power tingling at her fingertips.

" Laras !" she shouted... her voice evidently penetrated the fog of rage that enveloped him, and he began to turn. When he saw that it was really her, he started to smile.

She ignored the smile. "You've been a very bad boy, Laras," she said coldly. "I'm going to have to make sure you never do this again."

As Laras winced, and his eyes darted frantically from one corner to the other, looking for a place to hide, she acted. Before she could change her mind, she called combat-fire and burned him to ashes where he stood.

She was merciful. He didn't even have time to scream.

Now, too late to stop the fight, other slaves came running; they arrived at the door just in time to see her punish Laras for his presumption, and most of them shrank back from her as she leveled an angry gaze at them. No one made the mistake of trying to run; that would be tantamount to a confession of guilt. And a suicidal move, given the temper she was in now.

"Who allowed this to happen?" she snarled, knowing very well that no one was going to answer. She raked them all with her eyes, and had the satisfaction of seeing them blanch. There had been times when she had punished everyone for misdeeds, and not just the guilty party. She was tempted to do just that right now, and reinforce the lesson in obedience she had just delivered.

But...there was another witness. She dared not give in to her anger around Mero. Not when she was trying to impress him with her charm and gentleness.

"See that the room is clean and refurnished," she ordered, knowing that everyone within hearing would leap to do just that. Her tempers were too unpredictable to take a chance with. "And see that everyone on the estate hears about this. I have no wish to see a repetition of this incident."

She picked one servant at random and directed him to see to Mero. He scuttled to the halfblood's side and helped him sit up. She stood by with a look of assumed concern while the slave checked Mero for injuries.

Fortunately for the halfblood, Laras had not even begun to punish him. All his hurts were superficial, and the slave helped him to his feet. Triana was a little gratified at his reaction of shock and nausea...it gave her a little thrill of power, but she didn't want that particular reaction to last. She took his arm as soon as the slave released him, and reexerted the glamorie, striving to wind him back to his former state of bemused contentment. He must come to see this as her protecting him from a slave who was crazed, an irrational man who could not be reasoned with.

She didn't even have to say anything; she just cooed over him and wove her magic, and before she returned him to his quarters for rest, he was as glassy-eyed as ever.

He was more than beglamored, she thought contentedly. He was half in love with her. This was going to work out very well...especially if she could figure out how to get rid of Valyn and the other two. Permanently, if possible. And soon.

Keman paced the hardwood floor of his enormous, luxurious room, and fretted. From time to time he glanced out the window, but the view of the ethereal lighted gardens gave him no answers.

Nothing was going right. Shana spent all her time in the library, and when she did come out, he got the feeling that she was hiding something from him. Valyn seemed to have lost all of his earlier fervor for the cause of humans and halfbloods, and acted as if he wasn't quite sure where he belonged anymore. And Mero...Mero was totally changed. He paid no attention to Shana, he was no longer practicing combined magics, only elven ones, and Valyn had confessed that he wasn't even confiding in his cousin anymore. And it was all the fault of that Triana...

She was trying to split them up, Keman thought desperately, kicking aside a footstool covered in emerald velvet. She was trying to make the group fall apart, and she was working on Mero as the weakest of the lot.

Keman had tried to wake him up; had tried to make him see what Triana was up to, but he had dismissed the dragon's attempts at reason with a shrug. He wouldn't even argue the point. He just ignored it.

Finally Keman had tried to distract Triana from her goal by making a play for her himself. I thought it would be easy , he recalled ruefully. After all, she had all those men...she should have been willing to go after anything that looked good, right ? He'd thought that when Mero saw her casting him aside for a new conquest, his friend would see what the elven woman was really like. He had brought her presents, tried to engage her in conversation when she was plainly on her way to a meeting with Shadow, and did his level best to charm her. But all he really knew of mating were dragon-courtship ways.

He flushed at the memory of his clumsy attempts at seduction. The approaches a dragon considered subtle...a few presents, which were followed, if they were successful, by the direct question of "Do we mate in the air or on the ground?"...were pretty inept by elven standards. Triana laughed at me . He flushed again at the recollection of Triana's reaction. She didn't even say "no"...she'd just laughed at him.

It couldn't have been his disguise...he'd chosen to appear as if he had full elven blood, and he had, in fact, modeled his disguise on several young elven lords thought particularly handsome. It had to have been his manner.

At least he'd amused her. He sighed. He hadn't done anything but amuse her, though. And he hadn't gotten his message across to Mero. Mero had laughed at him right along with Triana.

He had gone to Valyn then, but it hadn't done a bit of good except to worry him more. Valyn was helpless where his cousin was concerned.

And Shana was angry. Very angry. He could tell by the way she avoided everyone and everything and kept herself locked away in the library. He surmised that Shadow had said or done something to her that made her angry, but he couldn't imagine what it was.

And when he asked her what was wrong, she acted as if she didn't care. Which left him unable to think of any solutions to what was obviously...at least, to him...a problem.

He looked up in startlement from his pacing, as someone walked through the door without even tapping on the frame, then closed it behind himself and stood in the shadows where the light from Keman's single glow didn't quite reach. There was no mistaking who it was, though. Keman was surprised to see that his visitor was Mero.

"Keman...have you got some time to spare?" the halfblood asked hesitantly, shifting his weight from foot to foot uncertainly as if he wasn't sure he was welcome, and giving the dragon a slow, sheepish smile. "I seem to have gotten myself into a bit of a mess."

Keman looked from him to the door, Mero nodded, and turned to lock it behind himself. "That should be sufficient to keep us from being disturbed," Mero told him. As he turned back, Keman finally noticed the bruises on his face, and instantly surmised from the way he was walking that there were more like them under his clothing.