Chapter 15

"Of course you may come in, Lady Makro," Lavender said, standing up carefully so as not to hit her head against the low overhead. "You and the Ladies Fobie and Deimie are always welcome, although if you wanted to speak with Lord Nilsen he is not here; I believe he is out on deck somewhere."

"Oh, we know that," Makro said with a wave of her hand. "We didn't want to talk to him right now anyway. Also I think we can do without the 'Lady' crap between us. We're all in the same boat so to speak and it seems a little ridiculous, don't you think?"

"Well, it just seems that I should address my lord's sisters with the respect they―"

"Bullshit," one of the twins cackled as she wormed her way around Makro and threw herself down on the bed. Lavender was pretty sure it was Fobie, but she wasn't entirely sure. Whichever one it was looked up at her, grinned and continued, "Just us slave girls here now. A gathering of the harem, as it were. No need to be formal; we're all equal here."

"Ah, I don't think―" Lavender started but was interrupted almost immediately by Makro.

"While Fobie's language would certainly earn her a stern talking-to by our mothers," Makro frowned, "she is essentially correct." Lavender was slightly pleased she had guessed correctly as to the identity of the twin. "As little as we generally paid attention to that silliness in the past, it's of even less importance now."

"That's not true, My Lady," Lavender protested.

"Yes it is," Makro replied forcefully. "And that's part of the reason we wanted to talk to you alone. Nil can be a dear most of the times, but at others he can be a stuffy little prig, especially about some of the things we need to talk about.

"Now, before you say anything, let's look at the facts of our situation," Makro said putting her hand up to stifle Lavender's impending protest. "Do you agree that you are bonded to our Nilsen?"

"And the sun rises in the east," Lavender frowned at the obvious question. "Is there a point to this question, My Lady?"

"Bear with me, Lav. May I call you Lav?" Makro asked and Lavender nodded. "Good, I hope you will call me May, or Makro, and you can call these two twits Foe and Dem, if you aren't calling them something entirely more appropriate that is, like Doom and Despair." The twins giggled and outright laughed at the resulting stern look they received. Makro gave up and shook her head.

"Anyway, the fact is you are bonded to him, I am bonded to him, and these two are bonded to him. We three may be sisters by blood, but the four of us are sisters in spirit just the same. The fact of the matter is you are the eldest sister now and it's just plain silly for you to bow to any of us. Agreed?"

"But―"

"Good, I'm glad we've settled that part," Makro continued as if Lavender hadn't said a word. "Now, not only are you bonded to Nil but you are his lover," she paused momentarily as if to allow Lavender the time to protest. Lavender merely sighed and shrugged. Makro arched her eyebrows and smiled, "I'm glad to see you don't try to deny that. Although I admit it would be a bit of a stretch since you're carrying his child."

"I agree, it would be silly to deny," Lavender responded and shrugged again. "I do not know why he sees fit to allow me into his bed, but I will never deny him anything, especially my body. I would give my life for him; to give him pleasure is the least I can do."

"You poor thing," Fobie said in mock sympathy. "To sacrifice oneself for one's master is so noble. Of course you derive no pleasure from this vile deflowering."

"Of course not!" Lavender responded trying to sound offended. "It is horrible! But duty is duty no matter how harsh." She was able to keep a straight face only until the other three started laughing and she had to join in until tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Very well," she said when she could finally talk. "I admit it is not only pleasurable but more pleasure than I had ever dreamed was possible. I do not understand why he would want me, but I give thanks each time he does."

"Several times a day, loudly," Deimie quipped with a smile. She was rewarded with Lavender blushing, a bright pink glow that was prominent against her fair skin.

"I am sorry if I disturbed anyone," Lav whispered, still blushing.

"Don't be," Makro interjected. "I doubt that everybody in this part of the ocean heard, maybe. If anyone is disturbed by it that's just too damn bad. However, I will admit it certainly bothers a few of us, although maybe 'bothers' isn't the right word."

"Excites!"

"Enflames!"

"Impassions!" Deimie and Fobie traded words until Makro finally silenced them with a gesture.

"I think she sees the picture," Makro said dryly. Turning back to Lavender she continued, "The fact is your fevered fucking doesn't just leak through the bond, it gushes, making the three of us hornier than a mare in heat. I'm sure you know a little about what can pass through the bond. Now, before you get all defensive or start apologizing we want to tell you we don't want you to stop ― absolutely not ― but we do want to discuss when it will be our turn."

"Ah, ah, ah" Lavender was caught at a loss for words until finally she was able to coherently form a sentence. "But he's your brother!"

"Half-brother, that's true," Makro admitted. "And it's possible I would never have thought of it before having this little trinket wrapped around my neck. Well, that's not exactly true: I did think of it, but more as a fantasy than anything else. However, the more I've thought about it over the past few days I'm beginning to believe it would have happened anyway. Honestly, looking back now I have to say I've never imagined myself with anyone except Nil, not necessarily in a sexual way, but certainly never apart from him.

"That's changed," she continued. "Now, not only do I see myself being with him sexually but I'm looking forward to it. Turns out it's something I've probably always wanted but would never admit even to myself. Of course, as I've discovered, these two minxes have had him targeted for as long as they can remember. He never stood a chance."

"It's true," Deimie spoke up. "We've always known we were to be his and it is finally getting close to that time."

"What about your parents?" Lavender asked.

"What is, is," Fobie answered. "What will be, will be. We're sure they will have some concerns, but you will be surprised at how little they will really be. You see, there is some precedent for having close ties within our family."

"If you haven't heard," Deimie continued. "May's mother is our father's mother's sister ― his aunt ― and Nil's mother is her daughter, the king's cousin. As they say, 'incest is only relative'. You could say we are only following tradition, not breaking it."

"Oh my, that was bad, Foe," Makro said, wrinkling her nose. "But what she says is true. It's true our family tree doesn't exactly spread its branches widely. Of course, you know as well as we do that genetically there is little to worry about. Although we have seen some mutation creeping back into the gene pool, the chance of us having any problems are statistically insignificant. We feel the biggest problem is going to be overcoming Nil's natural reluctance to take advantage of us since we are bonded to him. The fact is we are going to have to seduce our way into his bed."

"And you want my help?" Lavender asked. Curiously she felt no jealousy over the expressed intentions of these women to bed her lover. Moreover, she felt a warm glow of friendship between the four of them, as if sharing their man drew them closer together rather than dividing them.

"Not overtly," Makro answered. "We have to do that ourselves, which to be honest shouldn't be very hard. We know him better than he knows himself. I anticipate he will put up token resistance, but I doubt it will be very strong and he will soon fall to our wicked desires. Mostly what we need from you is for you to ignore what we are doing ... pretend it isn't happening. Can you do that? It may be difficult but I hope you realize we are not planning to take your place; we wish to take our place by your side."

"I don't know why," Lavender chuckled, "but this feels right. He is doomed, is he not?"

"As a trussed up pig destined to be the guest of honor at dinner," Makro agreed with a grin. "But there is something else we need from you."

"Anything," Lavender said.

"It's Rabszolga. We want you to get to know her," Makro said, this time without smiling.

"The only thing I want to know about that bitch is how far her body can run without its head," Lavender growled.

Makro sighed, "We know you are having trouble forgiving her for what she did back in Salas, but the truth is she had no choice. If Nil had told anyone of us to do the same thing we would have done it. What our liege orders we must obey; you know that."

"Maybe," Lavender grudgingly admitted. "But she didn't seem very sorry for doing it."

"Probably not," Makro continued. "But then she didn't know us from any other stranger. She had been used that way before, and even worse. I've had a chance to get to know her and I believe she isn't as bad as you think. All I ask is that you try to get to know her, not to become her best friend. The fact is she is bound to Nil just like we are and we're going to have to learn to live with each other. It would be easier if you two weren't hissing and growling at each other all the time."

"Because you ask, I will try," Lavender agreed reluctantly. "But don't expect me to like the traitorous whore."

"Well, trying not to kill each other on sight will be a start," Makro said with resignation.

Rabszolga was standing next to the railing on deck looking queasy and even more pale than usual when Lavender walked up next to her.

"Feeling sick?" Lavender asked hoping her inner joy at the other woman's discomfort wasn't obvious. "They say it goes away after a time. I wasn't too sick the first time I was out at sea, but this time it seems all I want to do is puke."

"They told you to be nice to me, didn't they?" Rabszolga said looking up at the taller woman through narrowed eyes.

"They asked me to get to know you without killing you," Lavender replied. The 'they' wasn't even a question between the two of them. "I promised I would try, but I never promised to be nice."

Rabszolga looked around and noticed they were for the most part alone on deck, the majority of the crew being down below for the evening meal. There was the normal watch stationed, but for the moment were out of sight up on the quarterdeck and the foredeck.

"So, what happens now?" Rabszolga asked without seeming to care. "You dump me over the side and let the water take me, or will you slit my throat first? Might want to be careful about that: might leave blood all over the deck here. Could be difficult to explain."

"Hmm," Lavender grunted. "Don't I wish. Unfortunately Lord Nilsen has forbidden me to harm you; otherwise you would have been gone long before now. So consider yourself lucky; if you die it won't be by my hand."

"Lucky?" the shorter woman responded bitterly. "You make it sound like it is a good thing."

"Well, you are alive. That is something."