He suddenly wondered whom Fina would choose should he succeed.
She stared for a moment, worrying her bottom lip. He could see the wheels turning in her head. “How did you come to find out about us?” she asked.
“The Mistress of Bees, Colel, said she encountered your tribe while tending to her flock.”
“You mean the crazy lady who wears a living hive on her head?”
He nodded. “That would be the one.” Or “bee” the one? Who knew. “And of course, Cimil, Goddess of the Underworld, agreed that I should make this journey.”
Fina’s mouth fell open. “Did you say Cimil?”
“Yes.”
“The one who rides the invisible beast that breathes fire from its nostrils and can incinerate a man in three seconds?” Fina spoke excitedly, as if they were discussing her favorite rock star.
“Yes. That would be Minky, her insane vampire unicorn.”
“I have to tell Mother.” Fina turned to leave again. She looked like she was terrified.
“Wait! Where are you going? What about your kitten?”
Fina turned and darted back. “Oh crap. I forgot.” She went behind the tree, and within a few seconds, Brutus was loose.
Brutus stretched his sore arms. “Ahhh…that feels incredible.”
“Hurry! Hurry up. There is no time to waste.” Fina began tugging on his hand. “Get Zeus, and let’s go.”
Brutus felt a sharp tingly sensation spike up his arm, radiating from where her hand touched his. What is that? Like before, when she’d touched his “spear of delight,” it felt incredible. Amazing even.
He got to his feet and blinked down at her, feeling his heart thumping away inside his chest. He wondered what magical powers this warrior princess might possess.
“Wake up!” She slapped him.
“Ow! Why did you hit me?” He covered his stinging cheek.
“You seemed entranced or something.” She started pushing him toward the tree. “Chop-chop! Get the kitty.”
The hitting was very rude. He was a seasoned soldier and could take all sorts of pain, but he hated bad manners.
“Turn away,” he commanded.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I am unclothed.”
She laughed. “Are you getting shy all of a sudden?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.” He’d never climbed a tree with his nuts hanging out.
“Fine.” She turned, but when he got up to the first branch, he caught her looking.
He almost said something, but the look in her dark eyes made him take notice. Was that a spark of lust? Perhaps the spark he felt, albeit unusual, was mutual.
Strange to feel something so soon after losing Colel. Perhaps all this hanky-panky was messing with his head.
CHAPTER FIVE
Brutus thought that Fina’s village looked like something out of a fantastic dream, with the dwellings built into the green-and-black cliffs, and tiers of towering bamboo ladders scaling hundreds of feet off the ground. A ten-story-high iridescent-turquoise waterfall spilled down the center of the cliff, directly between the rustic dwellings.
“Great Waterfall of Manacapuru,” he muttered. He’d heard legends of it over the years, but no one had ever seen it in person. It’s even more beautiful than I imagined.
The waterfall emptied into a wide lagoon with two sandy white beaches on either side. At the far end, where the mouth of the lagoon flowed out into a small river, a wooden bridge connected the beaches, where groups of women either practiced their swordsmanship or sat under an open-aired thatched-roof structure, drinking, eating, and grilling meats over an open pit.
Food. Swords. Warrior women. I’m in heaven.
“This is beautiful,” he said, staring at a group of topless women wrestling in the sand.
“Keep marching.” Fina pushed him from behind while he held the kitten.
Almost immediately, heads began turning, and it became instantly clear that he might be mistaken about this being paradise. He resisted the urge to press Zeus over his groin as an act of modesty.
Who am I kidding? I’ve had sex with everyone here. Everyone except Fina and her mother.
Not that he wanted to. He hadn’t even enjoyed his time with the others, the acts feeling completely mechanical even when he came. Like scratching a tickle in my nose. He would hardly call it climaxing.
Helga was the first to break away from the crowd under the thatched roof to their right. “Fina! What is the meaning of this? No man is allowed inside our village.” She drew her long hunting knife from the sheath strapped to her side.
“Put a fig in it, Helga, or I’ll have you walk the coals tonight.” Fina pushed Brutus from behind once more. “Keep moving, big man.”
Helga snarled, but proceeded no farther. The other women held their fierce, dark gazes on him. Some even yelped, like they were terrified by his presence.
What am I missing?
Fina brought him to one of the few huts at the base of the cliff. A tiny flower garden occupied the front, along with a large clay statue next to the bamboo door. The figure was only three feet tall, but the big eyes and perplexed expression were unmistakable. “Why do you have a statue of Cimil?”
“She is the goddess who protects us. We serve her and only her.”
Oh boy. That can’t be good.
“Now get inside.” Fina opened the bamboo door. “And if I were you, I would not step outside until I come for you. You are now on sacred land, and your male energy is considered a bad omen.”
He might take that as an insult if it weren’t for the fact that these women were completely nuts. Anyone who worshipped Cimil couldn’t be right in the head.
Brutus ducked inside the small one-room structure and turned to face her. “And what do you believe? Am I poison?”
“I believe that nothing good can ever come from a man except his seed—to make more women, of course.”
“That’s a little sexist, don’t you think?”
She shrugged. “If what you say is true, and a plague is upon us, I assure you it is because your sex has displeased Cimil—the almighty goddess.”
He tried not to vomit in his mouth. “Cimil is a—” He was about to say lunatic but decided it wasn’t wise to insult their favorite deity. “She is sister to thirteen other deities, you know. She is not the only god.”
Fina smiled. “Stupid man. She is the only one who has the ear of the Universe. Cimil holds our fates in her hands.”
That was like saying his left ass cheek could decide the weather. “How do you know this?”
“Time for chitchat is over. Someone will return shortly with clothing and hot water for bathing. You are to make yourself presentable to speak to my mother before dinner.” She turned to leave. “Oh. And feed my cat. There’s monkey jerky in that chest.” Fina left, and he heard something hit the door. Likely a brace of some sort.
Brutus looked down at the little kitten in his arms. “Is she always this grumpy?”
Meow.
“I agree.” Fina was wound tighter than a hemorrhoidal vampire. “What do you think will happen to me tonight?”
The kitten looked up at him with its big green eyes. It didn’t know.