Zayr nodded. “They have been, most of the time since the auction.”
I knew little about humans. Before the auction, their sex life hadn’t interested me at all. Now, with the tantalizing memories of Elaine riding on my lap with her ass pressing down on my engorged cock, my curiosity flared.
“Do humans go through a mating fever too?” I asked.
“No. With humans, it happens all the time, but…” With a quick glance around, Zayr took out a withered yellow flower from his pocket and handed it to me under the table.
I took a better look at the flower in my hand. It was a golden hyacinth, fairly crushed and beaten up from being carried in Zayr’s pocket for who knew how long.
“The demand on these is growing,” he said, leaning closer to me across the table and lowering his voice. “They’re really hard to find, but rumor has it that Mazra wants to plant and grow them, both to sell and for her own use.”
I turned the withered stem between my fingers. “What for?”
“To feed it to her Joy Vessels.”
I remembered Ray threatening Elaine with a flower like this one at the auction. She seemed to know exactly what it’d do to her, and she didn’t like it at all. In fact, she looked ready to start a fight over it with the male twice her size and ten times as strong.
“Did Mazra buy some Joy Vessels too, then?” I asked.
Zayr nodded. “She got the three remaining males. They say males are easier to please. But from what I’ve seen, femalepleasure is more appealing somehow. Females also climax more often, which Ray enjoys the most.”
I tried to return his golden hyacinth under the table, but he moved his hand away, not taking it.
“Keep it,” he said. “Feed its juice to your Joy Vessel if you want to keep making money off her. You’re already overcharging for what you’re offering. Trust me, General, when Ray starts selling the sexual joy of his Joy Vessels, all your clients will leave and go to him instead. Nothing beats the human joy of sex.”
“Did you taste it?” I asked, curious.
“No.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But I’ve seen its effects on others.”
“You mean on Ray?”
“Right,” he said in a clipped voice.
His expression closed off, and I would’ve bet all three of my throwing knives that Zayr was hiding something from me, something that he might not be sure about himself yet.
Pushing him to elaborate would be useless. It would probably alienate Zayr even further, when I still needed a huge favor from him.
“Zayr, I’d like to move from the beach to the Wall. Does Ray have any caves available?”
I’d rented the shack because that was the only dwelling I could afford before the auction, and I needed something to keep Elaine out of sight. I purposely didn’t search for clients in Ashgate, bringing them from Kalmena instead. The fewer people that knew about Elaine’s whereabouts, the safer she was. The only way I could protect her was to hide her from everyone.
But Ashgate was the city that never really slept. Someone was always awake and lurking even during the peak hours of the day when the sun was the brightest. The danger of someone spotting Elaine was real, and I couldn’t be with her all the time. I often had to leave to look for new clients or to deal with Zayr. Unlikethe flimsy shack, the caves had walls that no one could break through.
Zayr scratched his chest, making his chainmail clink and rattle.
“Well, you see…” he said slowly, stretching every word and clearly buying time to come up with an excuse to deny me.
I wouldn’t let him brush me away, however. Zayr might not know it yet, because I’d been rather agreeable with him so far, but I could also be very persistent, especially when Elaine’s safety was concerned.
“I just collect money and evict those who don’t pay,” he said. “Ray is the one who makes all the new renter decisions.”
“That’s fine, I’ll meet with Ray then.”
“Right, but…” He moved his shoulders uncomfortably, evading my eyes. “Ray is not meeting with anyone right now.”
“It doesn’t have to be right now.” I doubted Ray would rent me a cave before my debt was paid in full. He wasn’t a charitable man or even a trusting one. “But I’d like to have some kind of an agreement soon. Maybe we could split the gold between the debt and the rent? I’d be willing to consider any terms that would move me into a cave sooner rather than later.”
Zayr shook his head. “Well, as I said, Ray is busy with his Joy Vessels. He’s not seeing anyone.”
