John's quest is nearly at an end ... or is it just the beginning?
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"You were right."
John finished stepping out of the carriage and looked past the stoic woman that had opened the door for him. A large lake stretched away from the shore to the west and the setting sun beyond. As it was, the orange sun blurred out the island in the middle of the lake.
"A lake with an island," he mused. "Though it's hard to see. Quite some distance yet?"
"I meant you were right about the dock," Artesia said and drew his attention to a small stone and wood cabin that overlooked the stony beach. A wooden dock stretched out into the lake and served as a berth for a long rowboat. A wooden fence attached to the cabin wrapped around a section of green grass and stretched down to the stony beach and into the water a half dozen feet.
"Why'd you stop us up here?" John asked.
"There's no roads, My Lord," Artesia pointed out.
John looked around the cabin and the lake and frowned. "That's odd. "How do they trade goods? They can't possibly grow enough on an island that small."
"One way to find out," Zynga suggested.
John nodded slowly.
Sadie sighed. "Why are you here?" she asked. "What urged you to come here?"
"A bidding from my Mistress."
"An infernal being," Sadie said.
"Yes," John admitted. "I have... something I must do there."
Sadie fixed him with a stare. "It's no secret that I don't approve of your Mistress, John. Yet Eile grants me the powers needed to tend to you and your flock. No one is more confused by this than I. You, for all your shocking ways, continue to find a path that is good and just. Or at least good enough and just enough."
John smirked. "Thank you... I think. How does that have any bearing on what we're doing now?"
"Is it just?"
John tilted his head and the smiled. "I don't know what she has in mind for me, exactly. I will find out though, and when I do, I will do what I feel is the right thing."
Sadie pressed her lips together into a frown. She relaxed after a moment and admitted, "You've shown compassion and a child-like urge to do the right thing thus far, I trust you will continue to do so. If you stray from that, know that you will lose my support. Worse, you may force my hand against you."
John ignored the writhing darkness within him that seethed at her threat. It demanded obedience and supplication. It wanted her on her knees, begging for his forgiveness. John silenced the voice with the force of his will and said, "Thank you, Sadie. Like all the people who travel with me, I value and respect your counsel."
She eyed him a moment and then nodded. "Well, if we must go this way to the creepy cabin on the lake, can we at least be careful about it?"
"Of course," John said. "I don't see what's creepy about it though? Someone is obviously tending to it. The weeds are kept back and the cabin is in good repair."
"My Lord, there are seven of us," Roxanne pointed out while emerging from the carriage. She stepped down to the ground carefully and winced as she did so. "Six and a half, maybe."
"Hey, don't be thinking less of me because I'm short," Zynga snapped.
Roxanne grinned at her. "I'm the half, I can't walk straight after the fucking Master gave me!"
"All right," Sadie snapped. "Can we focus, please?"
John's smirk faded as he looked around and counted the woman around him. There should have been six but he only counted five. Where was... John closed his eyes and felt his connections to them. After his tryst with Roxanne he'd reclaimed a touch of power. Nowhere near what Beytrixxa had taken, but it was a good start.
And because of that power he was able to identify where Arika was. She was keeping an eye on the cottage from the last of the tall wheat. He only had the faintest of feelings for Jennaca though. She'd ended up North of the lake, somehow. Or somewhere. He barely had a sense of her, only that she was somewhere in the distance.
John plucked the tendril of energy that bound him to Arika and called to her. She responded instantly with an eagerness that he'd come to expect from her. Satisfied that she would return shortly, he refocused his attention only to find all the women looking at him expectantly. "What?"
"We were wondering what you wanted to do, My Lord," Artesia said.
"Yes, Master John, what would you like to do?" Zynga repeated.
John ignored the teasing nymph and turned to watch Arika walking on two legs across the top of the hill. She was naked and painted gold by the setting sun. Sadie sucked in a breath when she saw her and both Helleen and Roxanne mumbled words under their breath. She looked like she could be a golden statue of Syllenia, the Saint of love, romance, and lust.
"There's someone in the cabin," Arika said. "I could smell them."
"You smelled them?" John asked.
"Yes. It's a woman. Human."
John gawked at her a moment. "You can tell all that from how she smells?"
Arika stopped at the back of the carriage and opened the trunk that had her dress in it. "Yes, Master. I could tell more if I got closer."
John watched her dress herself and then turned to look at the cabin. His newest servant was just full of surprises. "All right, just one of them then. Let's head down there. Sadie, Arika, and Zynga, ride with me. Roxanne and Helleen you'll be on guard duty."
Helleen snickered.
"What?" John asked.
"No problem, My Lord," Roxanne said while shooting a dirty look at her sister.
"Just don't expect her to move too quickly," Helleen added.
