Gods Concubine by Sara Douglass

her mouth further, meaning to bite him, but just before she could bring her teeth down,

something surged through her…

A sense of terror.

Her breath stopped. The terror had not come from Aldred, nor from the situation in which

she found herself. Nor even from herself, for Swanne was furious, not terrified.

It came from memory.

It came from the memory of a woman silently screaming inside Swanne‘s skull.

No! No! No!

Then Swanne did feel the first inkling of dread, for she knew who that was.

Ariadne.

No, no, no…

Aldred had clambered on to the bed now, his hand still held brutally tight over Swanne‘s

mouth, and was kneeling over her, straddling her with his legs.

Something, perhaps the sound of Ariadne‘s terror, made Swanne look over his shoulder.

The faint illumination from the window cast Aldred‘s shadow on to the far wall.

This shadow was not that of the fat, loathsome man who straddled her.

It was of a fit man, tightly muscled…

…and with the head of a bull.

Up to this moment Swanne had been struggling with the huge man who had forced her

back against the wall. Now her efforts became utterly frenzied. She struck at him with her fists, beating without pause, and tried to jerk her knees into him.

She tried to bite him, but his hand had pushed her upper lip hard up against her nose, and

she could not force her jaw to close.

He laughed, soft, joyous.

―You know me for who I am now, Swanne?‖

She made a strangled sound under his hand, her body trying to buck under his.

―Come now, Swanne. No need for such histrionics. Ariadne didn‘t put up a fight like this.

You knew, of course, that she and I were lovers as well as siblings?‖

Swanne‘s eyes were wide with terror, but still her efforts to repel him doubled.

―Enough!‖ barked Aldred, and the hand and arm which held Swanne became as stone. He

shifted his hand slightly so that it covered both Swanne‘s nose and her mouth.

She stiffened underneath him, her breasts heaving in their frantic fight for air.

Suddenly, desperate beyond knowing, sure she was about to die, Swanne sent forth a

surge of power, trying to push him away with that surge, where her muscles had failed.

―No, my dear,‖ Aldred whispered. ―We can‘t have that, can we?‖ Without any seeming

effort he blocked the power, and sent it churning back into Swanne.

She heaved beneath him, unable to bear the twin agonies of lack of oxygen and the

painful bite of her power within her own flesh.

A moan gurgled in her throat, and her eyes rolled back into her head. Her struggles

lessened, her hands relaxing away from their fists and sliding slowly down the broad expanse of

his back.

―Listen to me,‖ Aldred whispered, leaning over her until his eyes stared into her dying

ones. ―I will not allow you to slip into either unconsciousness, nor even into death. None of that

escape for you. Indeed not. Instead, you can listen to what I have to say, and watch what I have to show you.‖ He paused. Then, ―Can you hear me, Swanne, my dear?‖

Swanne‘s eyelids slowly dropped in acknowledgment.

Aldred could feel her body twisting beneath his, and he grinned, pleased.

She would exist in this agony of half death until he thought to release her.

Then, of course, she would endure something much more terrible.

―Swanne, beloved…I may call you that, yes?‖

She made no response, but Aldred carried on regardless.

―You may be suffering under some disillusionment,‖ he said. ―You may think that the

darkcraft is yours, free and clear—even if it hasn‘t been of much use to you in this life. You may

have believed that Ariadne won it from me completely.‖

His voice and body both became rigid with threat. ―But there was a condition, my sweet.

A condition. And now has come the time for you to pay it out.‖

Swanne, who lay suspended between life and death, found her mind filled with images so

clear they might have been enacted before her.

… Ariadne clasped to Asterion; the Minotaur”s hand in her waistband.

“I want you to teach me your darkcraft,” she begged. “You are the only one who has

ever learned to manipulate the power in the dark heart of the Labyrinth. Now I want you to teach

me that darkcraft. I will combine your darkcraft with my powers as Mistress of the Labyrinth,

Asterion, to free you completely.”

At this point Ariadne paused, and rested her hands on Asterion”s ruined chest. “I will

combine our powers together, beloved brother, to tear apart the Game once and for all. Never

again will it ensnare you. That will be my recompense to you for my stupidity in betraying you to Theseus and my payment to you for giving me the power to tear apart Theseus and all he stands

for.”

―She was persuasive, wasn‘t she?‖ Aldred whispered. ―Who could resist such hair, such

eyes, such a mouth…and those breasts! She had just betrayed me to her lover, she had arranged

my murder, and here she was, cooing all over me, offering herself to me, and asking me to give

myself and my power to her completely. Of course I allowed myself to be tempted! After all,

Ariadne was offering me the ultimate aphrodisiac: a life where I‘d thought to endure only death.‖

He paused, and he grabbed at one of Swanne‘s breasts, squeezing it painfully. ―Of course,

I was not a complete fool for her.‖

He held her eyes steady, looking for deception. “You would destroy the Game? Free me

so that I may be reborn into life as I will?”

“Yes! This is something that only I can do, you know that… but you must also know I

need the use of your darkcraft to do it. Teach it to me, I beg you.”

“If you lie— ”

“I do not!”

“If you do not destroy the Game—”

“I will!”

He gazed at her, unsure, unwilling to believe her. “If I give to you the darkcraft,” he

said, “and you misuse it in any manner— to trick me or trap me— then I will destroy you.”

She started to speak, but he hushed her. “I will, for there is one thing else that I shall

demand of you, Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth.”

“Yes?”

“That in return for teaching you the darkcraft, for opening to you the dark heart of the

Labyrinth, you will not only destroy the Game forever, but you will allow me to become your

ruler. Your lord. Call it what you want, but know that if you ever attempt to betray me again, if

you do not destroy the Game, I demand that you shall fall to the ground before me, and become

my creature.”

“Of course!”

His expression did not change. “„Of course”? With not even a breath to consider? How

quickly you agree.”

“I will not betray you again, Asterion. Teach me the darkcraft and I swear— on the life of

my daughter! — that I will use it to destroy the Game utterly. It will never entrap you again.”

Aldred‘s fingers were still groping at Swanne‘s breasts, but the pain of his sharp-nailed

fingers could do nothing to eclipse the sickening dread that now coursed through Swanne.

Aldred‘s hand on Swanne‘s mouth and nose loosened a little, allowing a thin draught of

air to trickle between his fingers, and Swanne‘s chest bucked in the effort to heave precious

oxygen into her lungs.

―And what did you do, Swanne-who-was-once-Genvissa?‖ Aldred whispered. ―What did

you do? Why, you started the Game again, thinking that I was too far distant to stop you. I don‘t

care to hear of your excuses and your reasons, for I know them all. All I do care to hear is your

acknowledgment of Ariadne‘s oath. She is the one who is going to destroy you, Swanne. Not

me.‖

His hand removed from her mouth, and Swanne gulped air into her lungs. Aldred sat

back, sitting on her lower legs, one fat, dimpled knee to either side of her hips, his hands to his

own hips, regarding her with amusement.

―Well?‖ he said.

―What?‖ Swanne gasped, and then screamed, her body contorting as Asterion‘s power

surged through her.

―Do you acknowledge Ariadne‘s oath?‖

She was still shrieking, and Aldred lifted a hand and struck her hard across the face.

Blood spattered in an arc across the bed.

― Do you acknowledge Ariadne”s oath? ‖

―Oh gods,‖ Swanne moaned. ―How can I…?‖

She screamed again as a counter blow sent her head smashing into the wall.

―It was an oath made on power and on the life of Ariadne‘s daughter, my dear. One that

bound not only Ariadne, but through that daughter, all Ariadne‘s daughter-heirs. What a

foremother, hey? What a legacy.‖ Aldred laughed, the sound rich and deeply amused. ―Now, do