Sunny - Mona Lisa Darkening

It wasn't anything Gryphon did that saved him. It was Halcyon who came to his rescue. The Demon Prince may have been struggling physically in this new and strange environment, but his mental power was unimpaired. Psychic energy swelled on the thick air, gathered like a hard invisible fist, and punched the giant creature, tossing it away from Gryphon. It squealed, grunted with pain, and loped away through the thick foliage at an awkward canter.

"Thank you for your timely intervention," Gryphon said, picking himself up off the ground. "Good thing you came along, I guess. Do all older demons retain their mental strength here?"

"Most do, not all."

"Yet you stepped toward it, not away, when you did not know if you had the means to fight the creature."

Halcyon shrugged. "It moved faster than I could; no use trying to outrun it. My only option was to stand and fight."

"Or let it eat me. and slip away while it was busy feasting on my flesh."

"Mona Lisa would kill me if I let that happen," Halcyon said dryly.

"You're already dead. So am I, for that matter."

"There's dead. And then there is true death," Halcyon said, offering Gryphon a hand up.

"Well, here's to staying in the first state and avoiding the second one. So how are you feeling?"

"I am better, less tired. My body is adapting slowly."

"Well, tell it to hurry up."

"As you wish," Halcyon said with a smile that made Gryphon realize how out of character he was behaving. Quick, glib remarks were less his style and more Mona Lisa's. Caution had been the hallmark of his previous self. Caution in what he said, what he did, even what he thought. The only time he had stepped away from that lifelong caution was when he had met her, Mona Lisa, and wanted her above all else, even his safety. Some of his confusion must have shown on his face.

"Your new demon nature is more aggressive, less controlled," Halcyon said. "Being in NetherHell brings that out more."

"It doesn't seem to affect you."

Halcyon shrugged. "It affects me as well, just not as obviously. One benefit of my greater age."

"So you become evil less quickly here," Gryphon said.

Halcyon took a long moment before answering. "Let's say that I am more slowly amenable to its influence. But, eventually, it will have just as marked an effect upon me also."

"Great," Gryphon said. "Then let's get going. Time, as they say, is a wasting." It certainly wasn't their friend.

One moment, nothing, just a vast rolling stretch of barren, dry land. Then we dipped down a valley, ascended a rocky rise and suddenly, spread out before us was this huge metropolis encircled entirely by walls. From where we stood, we could glimpse the tiny movements of the crowded populace that dwelled inside. In the center of that walled city lay a large golden lake.

"Is that water?" Mona Louisa asked — her words, my thought. The odd brilliant gold color of the water threw us both.

"Yes, the only water source available for a two-days' journey," Miles said. He passed a skinned water pouch to her, almost as if he knew the sight of water would trigger her thirst. Sure enough, it did, an almost unbearable urge rising. Hands trembling, she pulled out the cork stopper and drank. Sweet liquid wetness splashed down our throat.

The other bull dheus stopped and gulped down water also. The prisoners moaned at the sight of us quenching our thirst. Whips lashed out, and no more sounds were heard.

Mona Louisa poured some of the liquid out into her cupped hand. The water glittered yellow gold. She handed the water skin back to Miles. As he drank, she turned back to study the sprawling city down below.

A huge palace was erected closest to the water, occupying almost an entire side. The other half of the lake was edged more distantly by tall terraced buildings and round domed homes. More houses and buildings fanned out from there in an orderly mass. Lush plants and spiky palm trees were sprinkled like colorful jewels among the buildings. It was a most unexpectedly colorful and crowded oasis.

"Our city-state," Miles said, slinging the water pouch back over his shoulder.

A city-state indeed. Much more sophisticated and larger than what Mona Louisa or I had imagined from the bull dheus' primitive appearance.

The two suns had set, and three moons had risen in their place when we finally reached the closed gate. Up close, the walls that had seemed so tiny in the distance loomed tall above us, over thirty feet high. At a shout from Pietrus, the metal gate swung open with a creaking groan. We marched inside.

Traveling down the wide central street, we caught glimpses of men and women, but no children anywhere. The people, unlike the guards manning the battlements, were of normal size with lightly tanned skins, not the dark leathery hide of the bull dheus. But all had the same barnacle growths covering their skin. The women wore veils but the men's faces were left uncovered. All looked hideous, no matter how prosperous-looking or beautiful their attire. They had the bored look of city people who had seen it all, and scarcely glanced at the prisoners as they shuffled by. Their cold and shrewd gazes slid over Pietrus's smooth face. But when their gazes fell upon Mona Louisa's ivory-white skin and perfect flawless beauty, their eyes, both men and women, filled with lust and envy, hungry desire. They stopped whatever they were doing and crowded around her.

"Stand back!" Miles growled, pulling out his sword. But still they came closer, hands reaching out, as if their compulsion to feel that smooth loveliness was stronger than their fear of his sword… until it began to swing and cut. Demetrius joined in, adding the threat of his whip. It whistled through the air, cutting both skin and cloth as he shouted, "Back away!"

Through it all, Mona Louisa stood cool and dispassionate, her composure as smooth and unblemished as her lovely skin.

Why aren't you afraid ? I asked.

Because my men will protect me.

Such assuredness. Almost arrogant in her certainty.

Why aren't you surprised at the people's reaction to you? I wondered.

One glance at them, and you can see plainly what draws them — the beauty of my unblemished skin.

At her words, I was suddenly, painfully, aware of how much of that unblemished skin we were exposing. Not just hands and face, but a lot of bare leg, too. The cloth I had ripped off the bottom half of my dress left the new hemline at mid-thigh. Not terribly immodest but compared to the men and women here, who were covered from head to toe. some of them even wearing gloves… compared to them, Mona Louisa was almost flauntingly naked.

Beauty and unblemished skin — they are one and the same here, Mona Louisa observed.

Not quite the same, I returned dryly. Much as I had hated her, I could not deny her beauty — it was of the jaw-dropping variety. I sincerely doubted the crowd would have had the same visceral reaction to my plain face and less well-endowed body, perfectly smooth though my skin might be.

And yet with your plain face and flat-chested body, you managed to captivate your men as I never did mine. Until now, she thought, remembering when she had touched Miles's face and seen how he had looked at her. He loves me now, as he never had before. Her thought was both pleased and sad.

He didn't love you before? But he was loyal to you, even unto death.

Obedience and loyalty are not the same as love.

And the others?

They do not love me, not as Miles does was her cool observation. Their loyalty is more to him, although they no doubt feel a certain nostalgia for what I once represented. But it is him now that they follow and obey, not me.