Dear Reader, There is something grotesque in this chapter - in the sense of "eewww". If you've ever seen any of the versions of "The Thing", you might recognize the image of bodily parts . . . moving beyond their natural appearance! lol! You'll know the scene when you read it. In other news, there is a reference here to the Choirs. If you are familiar with Catholic Church teachings, they believe in the Nine Choirs of Angels. Now, I am not referencing those Choirs here - only using the term "Choir", because I like the sound of the word and the concept behind it. You may be getting some ideas from this chapter about what kind of characters some of the "newbies" are. Hopefully, it's not too complicated. And in the next chapter . . . Ikkaku arrives in Gonow! Hooray! So, for everyone who's been patiently waiting . . . it won't be long. Peace, TK

Chapter 21 Regent Kennah

"I can feel you.
It's not a matter of sight.
Only of sound."

The Spirit
Graeme Edge

Quinlan Kennah.

Regent Quinlan Kennah.

The single most powerful soul in the entire lower east. A man respected by the same souls that reviled him.

He could hardly be called a political figure, for there were no politics in the lower east. Authority was concentrated in the hands of few dictatorial elites, each himself a tyrant and ill-disposed to resistance. As Regent, Kennah ruled over all of them as the sole lawmaker and executor of that law. He ruled by dictum, and his word was the law, which he executed as he saw fit upon those to whom he felt it should apply. And it did not apply equally to everyone.

He had a handful of advisors and below them, councilmen, to help keep the citizenry in line. Not that there was much complaint. Complainants were dealt with harshly.

That was the job of the Orator.

Nelphune was the interpreter and arbiter of the laws enacted by the Regent. It was he who heard the cases of infractions against the law. It was he who decided a soul's guilt or innocence. It was he who determined punishment. And it was often he who made sure he had a front row seat for observing that punishment.

And yet, even with such power and his own strange compelling person, Nelphune was not beyond kowtowing to the Regent, for he knew only too well that the Regent was as far above him as the clouds above the earth. Whatever he might be thinking, the Regent was three, maybe four, steps ahead. Whatever strength he might possess, the Regent's was greater. And if he fancied himself a manipulator of men's thoughts and actions, he could only count himself as an amateur when compared with Kennah.

All of which was extremely vexing, for Kennah was a physically repulsive piece of work.

The Regent was just short of average height and stoutly built. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. His skin had a yellowish tint, as if he had suffered in life from some disease of the liver. His face was square, pock-marked, and had a heavy, fleshy look to it. His eyebrows, over dark brown eyes, were black and thick like leeches. His hair was also black but with dyed red streaks, worn long and loose and without style. He had piercings through both eyebrows and a single hoop through his bottom lip.

His body, which he liked to show off, was not the fine specimen he imagined it to be. He was brutishly muscular but with enough flab on top to hide the lines of sinewy tissue. He wore a floor-length lungee of plain brown and an open vest of gold filament weave. His bare arms and chest were shaved, and it was well known that he shaved his entire body – even his private parts.

His arrogance was astounding – even to Nelphune. But the Orator always found something in him to admire, even as he felt repulsed by him. There was something that compelled attraction to the Regent, and Nelphune knew what it was: Kennah was simply more powerful than he was, and it was that power that drew people to him – albeit often reluctantly.

Nelphune stepped up into the respite past the guards standing watch. They had no reason to stop him, for Nelphune was well-known to them.

The Regent was sitting on a malleable floor cushion, surrounded by young girls, pubescent boys, and others whose sex was indistinguishable. He raised his eyes to see Nelphune approaching.

"Eeeeee, Nelphuuuune," Kennah dragged out the name seemingly to irritate, and his manner of speaking was much less formal and more in the vernacular of where he had come from. It was base and almost vulgar. "So, at last, you've come to see me."

Nelphune bowed slightly. "I was otherwise occupied."

Kennah's eyes roamed over to where Yumichika stood, eyes downcast and listless.

"With your new acquisition?" Kennah inquired.

"Somewhat."

Kennah grinned, showing a mouth of uneven and stained teeth.

"I've heard a lot about him," he said. His gaze swept with seeming indifference once up and once down Yumichika's body. "I'm . . . underwhelmed."

Nelphune was not fooled. It was undeniable that Yumichika was attractive to every eye that beheld him, Kennah being no exception. But the Regent hated to concede in any matter, and so his reaction was nothing unexpected.

But years of acquaintance told Nelphune precisely how to handle Kennah.

"It is just as well," he said with an indulgent smile. "He is still very new at this and would not provide the kind of experience you deserve, Lord Regent."

Kennah regarded him with a droll sneer. "Did I say I wasn't gonna use him? Maybe he'll perform better for me, given my position."

"Oh, I am sure he will, Lord Regent," Nelphune purred deeply. He paused for just the right amount of time. "You would be his first."

"Huh-huh . . . are you gonna try and tell me you haven't fucked him yet?" Kennah challenged.

Nelphune pretended to be humble. "Of course, I have had him in my bed. I meant that you would be the first after me. He has not been in the upper rooms yet."

Kennah smiled condescendingly. "Maybe I can teach him a thing or two."

Nelphune raised a wicked eyebrow. "You may also learn a thing or two."

The Regent snorted a scoff. "Take him upstairs to wait for me. I'll be up when I feel like it."

Nelphune turned to Campion. "Take him to the upper rooms. I will stay here with the Regent until he is ready to . . . indulge."

"Yes, my Lord."

Yumichika accompanied Campion back across the ballroom, through an arched doorway and into a sort of vestibule boasting two grand staircases in the walls opposite each other.

They ascended the steps in silence, Yumichika convinced that Campion would not welcome any conversation. But he was at least able to feel some gratefulness that Campion did not lead him on the chain, but kept Yumichika at his side, the chain dangling slack between them.

At the first landing, they turned left into a long, dimly lit hallway. It was lined with doorway after doorway. Yumichika guessed there were at least fifty rooms. There were a dozen or so guards standing watch at various places along its length, and Yumichika recognized some of them from the Orator's household.

Campion went to the first who came smartly to attention at the approach of his captain.

"Still quiet?" Campion asked.

"Yes, Captain." The guard, whose name was Ik-Ihnar, could not help but look curiously at Yumichika. He had only seen the newest bedmate but rarely. "Will his lordship be coming up to use the rooms?"

"No," Campion replied. "This one is for Regent Kennah."

Ik-Ihnar nodded in a manner that made it clear he found the very name of the Regent Kennah distasteful.

Campion went on. "With that in mind, I thought now might be a good time for you to take a break and go get something to eat."

Yumichika saw the pall rise from the guard's face as relief eased his shoulders.

"Thank you, Captain. When should I come back?"

"I'll send someone to find you."

Ik-Ihnar nodded and was gone like a hare.

Campion went to the first room on the right. This floor was always reserved for elites from whatever estates they came, and Orator Nelphune's elites always had pride of place in the first twenty or so rooms on the right. The very first room was reserved for Nelphune's number one.

And at the moment, Yumichika was number one, whether he would be made available or not. Thus, the room had remained empty all night, yet kept ever at the ready.

Inside, it was sumptuously appointed in dark, rich colors, accented by the brooding light seeping from the low-trimmed oil lamps. There was a large window with an inlaid seat in the wall beside a fire place that was, at the moment, dark. The window, curtains pulled aside, looked out on the smooth, undulating waves of desert stretching away into the distance under the moonlight. The wooden floor was covered with the finest rugs, and the furnishings were of Himmel pine, rare and exotic.

"Wait in here until the Regent comes up," Campion said, sounding dull and insipid, then adding with equal blandness, "I'll keep the door open until he gets here."

"What?" Yumichika was confused.

"I'm not going in there with you," Campion stated. "I'm standing in relief of a man I dismissed. I have to keep watch out here in the hall. But I'm not about to let you sit in there unwatched in the meantime."

Yumichika scowled at him. "After everything that's happened already tonight, what are you expecting me to do?"

"Don't take me for a fool," Campion replied, his voice calm. "Shinigami. You could open that window and easily jump down to make a run for it – spirit energy or no spirit energy."

"And break something on the way," Yumichika grunted. He took a step into the room, then turned and looked at Campion in the flickering hall light. "Why did you dismiss that guard?"

Campion turned his gaze upon him, and there was something so superior in that gaze that Yumichika felt cowed for a moment. He considered that he might be standing face-to-face with someone who lived by a code of virtue that was so high above his own that it was unfathomable. Or perhaps it was just that the situation in a place like the lower east was so horrendous, that any strength of character seemed like an oasis in the midst of perversity.

"What concern is that of yours?" Campion replied, and although it was a question, he said it as a statement.

"He didn't want to see the Regent, and you made sure he wouldn't have to," Yumichika said.

"And again, that is no concern of yours."

Yumichika was not going to get an answer. And that fact of the matter was that Campion was right: it really was none of his concern or his business. He had no right to inquire. It had only seemed to him to be a remarkable show of consideration from the stone-faced captain towards one of his guards. The truth was Yumichika had asked the question, not so much out of curiosity for why the other guard had disliked Regent Kennah, but so that he might discern a clue or at least some small insight into the inner workings of Captain Campion.

But once more, he found himself baffled and frustrated. He sat down on a duchette at the foot of the bed.

And tried again.

"I guess I should thank you."

When Campion did not take the bait, Yumichika went on anyway. "You came at just the right time downstairs—"

"You are the Orator's property. He can do with you as he pleases," Campion cut him off. "I didn't show up to stop what was going on. I showed up to announce that the Regent had arrived and was asking for the Orator."

"Either way, you stopped them and saved me from a humiliating experience," Yumichika insisted.

Campion shook his head once in subtle disbelief. "You think coming up here saved you? You think having Regent Kennah climbing all over you is going to be preferable to what Damir was doing to you downstairs? You're as dumb as you are beautiful."

"At least this will be in private—"

"Stop talking. You—you don't realize how absurd you sound."

But at that moment, Yumichika did realize how absurd he sounded. After several seconds of silence, he attempted a shot at his other concern. "Don't be angry at Supho."

"That is also not your concern."

Yumichika scowled. "It is my concern. It was because of me that he got in trouble—"

"He isn't in trouble."

"I saw the way you looked at him," Yumichika protested. "You were angry. Are you—are you going to take him off this duty—"

Now, Campion showed a spark of emotion. "Do you always only think of others in relation to yourself?" He did not wait for an answer. "You don't care if Supho is punished, as long as he isn't removed as your personal guard." He stepped into the room and regarded him coldly. "The mistake he made is a mistake we've all made – many times. Having sympathy for the plight of an elite would seem contradictory, given the animosity between the guards and the bedmates. But there are times—there are times when . . . before they come to like it, there are those times when we see how it affects them, how demeaning it is, how frightened they are . . ." He tightened the control over his voice. "We're guards. I'm very particular in my choice of men to fill the ranks. It's in our nature to want to protect. Supho wanted to protect you, but he can't go against the Orator. So instead, he did nothing. Yes, I was angry at him, but not for the reasons you think."

Yumichika was astounded at this burst of explanation from a man who tended to speak very little. "Then what?"

"If he disobeys me, the discipline is mine to choose. If he disobeys the Orator, then the Orator decides on the punishment. What he did today was minor. The Orator probably didn't even notice. But I did. And I won't take the chance of Supho's empathy getting him into trouble."

"So, you are going to pull him off this duty," Yumichika surmised gloomily.

"Yes."

Yumichika felt as if the wind had gone out of his lungs. At length, he managed to ask, "Will you at least let him remain assigned to me for the rest of tonight? It will give me a chance to apologize."

"I don't think an apology is needed," Campion replied. "He'll be happy to come off this duty. But yes, he'll finish out tonight with you." As he turned to go back out into the hallway, he heard Yumichika behind him.

"You said before that you trusted him, that he wouldn't be drawn in by me. Have you changed your mind about that?"

Campion did not face him as he replied. "He wasn't drawn in by you. Your beauty and allure have no hold on him. Like I said, he made a mistake we all make. Empathy has little place in a house guard."

"I think it's a good quality to have," Yumichika put forth.

A scoffing noise sounded deep in the captain's throat. "How would you know?"

"Your captain has the worst timing in all of Soul Society. "

Supho knew when Damir was taunting him, so he ignored the provocation.

But Damir was not so easily deterred. "It was actually very pleasant," he went on. "Yumichika has a sweet taste to him—"

Supho stood up.

"Are you leaving? Where are you going?" Damir teased.

"Away from you."

"Oh, don't be that way, Supho," Damir teased. "Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous."

Supho turned a cold eye to him. "You do know better."

"Do I?" Damir leaned close and put his arm around Supho's shoulder. "I think you actually like him."

Supho stepped out from under his arm. "I do like him. And I don't want to have sex with him. I know you can't understand that. "

"Then why are you so upset?"

"Damir . . . go to hell."

With that, Supho left Nelphune's respite and headed for Regent Kennah's. But when he saw that Campion was not there—and neither was Yumichika—he headed for the upper rooms.

He found his captain standing in the hallway outside the first room, chatting with one of Lutan's house guards.

"Captain."

Campion, seeing who it was, excused himself from his companion.

After the other guard had left, Campion regarded Supho with a neutral expression. "Supho, what are you doing up here?"

"I couldn't bear being around Damir anymore."

Campion allowed an acknowledging grin to spread over his face. "You need to work on your patience."

"Yes, Sir." A pause. "Captain, I want to apologize. I know I didn't do my job downstairs."

Campion moved down the hall, away from the open door, and Supho went with him.

"It was a minor infraction," Campion said. "Fortunately, the Orator wasn't angry, or we'd both be on the post."

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"After tonight, you won't have to worry about it," the captain said. "I'll assign someone else to Yumichika."

Supho lowered his eyes and nodded. "Yes, Sir."

Campion heard the embarrassment in Supho's voice.

"It's not a punishment, Supho," he assured him. "You just let your emotions get the best of you, and I need to pull you off this duty before you get yourself in real trouble."

"I understand, Captain." Supho sighed.

Campion regarded him intently for a moment, then asked in a low, serious voice, "Do you feel something for him?"

Supho returned his captain's gaze with equal intensity. "Pity," he replied.

"Are you sure that's all it is?"

"Captain . . . he's not going to be like the others," Supho began. "He's never going to like it. This is always going to be like torture to him." He shook his head. "He's not going to last."

Campion was thoughtfully silent, then he said, "They all end up liking it. And . . . even if he doesn't, that's between him and the Orator. We can't get in the middle. And we can't let our feelings stop us from doing our job."

Supho nodded. "Yes, Captain."

"Will you be alright finishing out tonight with him?"

"Yes. It won't be a problem. I won't freeze up again." A pause. "Where is he?"

"He's in the first room. The Regent should be coming up any minute." Campion saw the look on the young guard's face. "You still sure you can manage things for the rest of the night?"

"As long as I don't have to watch," Supho replied.

"Well, I'll be up here with you while the Regent is up here," Campion informed him. "That should be all of five minutes."

"Five minutes longer than you would ever last, Captain Campion."

Both Campion and Supho turned to see Regent Kennah at the entrance into the hallway.

Campion did not even blush a shade. "Regent Kennah."

Kennah sauntered towards them, a challenging smile on his face. "So, how 'bout you join me for those five minutes, Captain. We could have a nice threesome. Your man here could come in and make it a foursome."

"No, thank you, Regent," Campion declined smoothly. "I'm on duty. And men aren't my thing. Slaves aren't my thing."

"Nothing ever changes with you." Kennah stretched out his hand and straightened the lines of Campion's uniform. "So much masculinity all going to waste."

Campion's smile was indulgent and almost condescending. "I appreciate the compliment."

Kennah made a sound deep in his throat. "One day . . . one day. But for now . . . I'll settle for the overpriced piece of pie. He's back there in the first room?"

Campion nodded. "Yes, Lord Regent."

"Good, then let me go see what Nelphune wasted his money on this time." He turned and headed for Yumichika's room, disappearing into the room with a quip. "I'll see you in five minutes."

Yumichika looked up from where he sat on the bench at the foot of the bed. Even from across the room and in the dim light, he could see the smug glibness on the Regent's face.

"Didn't Nelphune tell you you're supposed to stand when I enter a room?" Kennah said, crossing the room and going to a small table on which there were several decanters of various beverages. He poured himself a glass of some liquor, downed it in one swallow and tossed the glass carelessly to the floor.

"No, he didn't," Yumichika replied, and he remained seated.

Kennah went to stand directly in front of him. "And I've just told you, and you're still sitting."

Yumichika got slowly to his feet.

"That's better. So, take off your clothes and lie on the bed," the Regent ordered.

Yumichika was somewhat surprised at his bluntness and lack of interest in any kind of lead-up. "I'd rather not," he said, assuming a deferential tone.

Kennah snorted, "It's not a request. Just do it. This won't be long. You don't look like you have much to offer . . . other than good looks. And I see Damir's been at you. Who knows what you really look like under all that shit." He was already shedding his own clothing. "I like good fucks. You seem too timid to be any good."

Yumichika still made no move to comply with the Regent's command. "I'm not any good," he said.

"I believe you, but I've gotta check it out for myself. I have a reputation for always getting my way," Kennah shrugged. "Now, take off your clothes or I'll just do what I have to do."

"Then do what you have to."

Kennah chuckled. "Have it your way." He was not a man given to hesitation. Having discarded his own garments, he was completely naked as he approached Yumichika and unclasped the chains. "We won't be needing these. They only get in the way." He tossed them aside, turned back to Yumichika and lifted the sheer. "Let' see what all the excitement is about." He leaned Yumichika over the bed and plunged inside.

After the sheer length and girth of Nelphune, Kennah barely registered, except that he was direct and a bit rough, thrusting right away and with more force than Nelphune usually employed.

There was nothing spectacular—or even noteworthy—about his sexual ability.

And then he suddenly stopped.

Cold.

"What the fuck . . . " he breathed. "What . . . the . . . "

The Regent grew still but remained inside Yumichika.

Yumichika felt it. The same probing, searching sensation that he'd felt with Nelphune – spreading throughout his body.

"Impossible . . . " Kennah's voice was barely a whisper. "It can't be."

Yumichika's nerves began to tingle, intensifying until his entire body felt like it was on fire.

"S-stop!" he gasped, the pain sapping the air from his lungs.

The burning only grew stronger, as did the impression of being searched.

"Come on, you fucking . . . come out! Show yourself!" With the last command, a burst of agonizing pain shot through Yumichika's limbs, a feeling that he was being devoured from the inside out. He hadn't even the breath to cry out.

Several seconds later, the pain stopped, and Yumichika felt Kennah withdraw.

The Regent pulled him off the bed and tossed him to the floor. Yumichika landed on his back and looked up at the scowling, red-faced brute glaring down at him with the same sort of expression a thwarted despot might show the peasant who had foiled him.

"You . . . you little fucking . . . you like to play tricks? There's no trick you can get past me! You think you can hide him?" He dropped down between Yumichika's legs, attempting to draw them up over his shoulders, but his vicious manner had made Yumichika resistant. He kicked him in the chin with his heel and scrambled back out of reach, only to have Kennah quickly regain his footing and leap towards him again, animal-like.

Yumichika might not have had the benefits of his spirit energy, but he still recalled his training; and despite the fact that Kennah was larger and heavier than him, he felt he stood a chance of prevailing if he could keep the Regent from closing with him. Any effort was worth trying, if it meant he could avoid being subjected to the burning probing again. He would even risk punishment at Nelphune's hands, so strong was his determination not to go through Kennah's violent invasiveness again.

As Kennah was about to pounce on him, he rolled to the side, snatched up one of the gold chains from the floor and whipped it out to encircle Kennah's left wrist, which he quickly twisted up behind him and trussed together with the right wrist. He shoved the Regent down onto the floor and headed for the door. But as he was about to grasp the handle, the overhead and kickboard latches slid into place – on their own.

Yumichika reached up and pulled at the upper latch, and when that would not budge, he tried the lower one. Also immovable.

He pounded on the door. "Captain Campion! Captain Campion! Let me out!"

"He's not going to let you out."

Yumichika turned to see Kennah, wrists still bound behind him, getting to his feet. "Even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to. He's not strong enough against me. No one is." He took a few steps forward as a glowing red mist began to rise from his body. "That was a clever move you made just now. I didn't see that coming."

Yumichika watched in horror as Kennah's hands were freed in the expanding red halo.

"Wh-what are you?"

Kennah let loose with a roaring laugh. "What am I?! What do you mean, what am I?" He came closer. "You know what I am. And I know what you are."

Yumichika matched each of Kennah's steps with his own retreat backwards until he found himself against the wall beside the fireplace.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he insisted.

"Liar . . . liar." Kennah's voice was low and had an almost chant-like quality to it. "You coming here was no accident." The red glow intensified.

"What are you talking about?! I don't want to be here! I—who are you?!" Yumichika demanded.

"Show him to me."

Yumichika reached back and grabbed the poker from the dark hearth. "I don't know what you're talking about," he repeated.

"I can see right through your lies. Order him to come out."

Yumichika could barely keep his wits about him. Like Nelphune, Kennah seemed to know something about the existence of Ruri'iro Kujaku. And while this gave Yumichika increased hope of the peacock's survival, it also put him at the mercy of two villainously perverse beings – whatever they might be.

"I told you . . . I don't know what you're talking about."

Kennah leered at him. "That's fine. I don't need your cooperation."

What happened next so stunned Yumichika that he fell instinctively back on his training as a Shinigami, but right away, he discovered that his spirit energy-depleted body and skills were no match for Kennah—a creature that seemed to generate its own form of energy.

The Regent's arms elongated—like rubber—stretching out to grab hold of Yumichika and sling shot him onto the bed, where they wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides.

"You can't hide him from me," Kennah warned in a gentle voice as he walked towards the bed, his arms retracting as he drew nearer. He leaned over and ran the tip of his tongue along Yumichika's jaw before standing upright again. "I'll make him come out. "

Yumichika felt something caressing his ankle then sliding up around his leg, encircling like a vine. He raised his head and choked back his disbelief, for what he saw was both repulsive and incomprehensible.

Slithering up his groin in much the same manner as a snake, was the elongated pinnacle of Kennah's masculinity. Like his arms, the Regent's penis had lengthened like stretching rubber – a grotesque display of an ability that was too bizarre and disgusting to even seem real.

And yet, it was real. And for this, Yumichika would not lie compliantly.

"Get—get off me!" he screamed, fighting and kicking, but to no avail.

He felt the snake-like appendage creep between his buttocks, and once again Kennah was inside him.

The agony resumed.

The search continued.

The tension in the hallway did not stop at Supho and Campion.

No, it reached all the way down to the end and even into the other rooms.

Yumichika's screams rattled through the doorways and walls.

For over an hour.

Other patrons had come out into the corridor to see what the commotion was. Other guards had come to inquire.

Campion was immovable. "Return to your rooms." "Return to your posts." "Everything is alright. It's just Regent Kennah and his usual exploits."

But Supho knew better. All of them knew better.

Regent Kennah it might be behind the door of the first room, but such blood-kurdling cries of pain and fear were not the usual. Kennah had a reputation of being in and out. A quick screw. Maybe a little rough-housing. But over an hour? Of almost non-stop screaming?

At last, Supho could hold his peace no longer.

"Captain, don't you think we should—"

Campion held up a hand, and that was enough to silence him.

Several seconds later, the captain spoke quietly. "The Regent is not going to risk doing any serious damage to the Orator's prized possession."

"It sounds like he's doing serious damage," Supho asserted. When his captain did not respond, he continued with warmth. "Whatever he's doing, he's hurting him."

After a long hesitation, Campion stated, "It's all part of being a bedmate. It comes with the territory. If this is what the Regent wants, it's what he gets. We aren't going to do anything to put the Orator on Kennah's bad side."

At that moment, the screaming stopped.

It was as if time had frozen, the silence was so unexpected.

Then the door of the first room opened, and Regent Kennah emerged, clothed and without a drop of sweat on him to indicate the activity he'd indulged in on the other side of the door. He turned an aloof eye to Campion.

"Fair. Nothing special," he said, then with a gleam in his eye, he added, "I'd have rather done that to you." A knowing smile. "Three hundred years ago."

Campion ignored him. He was more concerned with Supho, who had already brushed past the Regent and gone into the room.

Kennah gave a lurid chuckle. "Giving your men free access these days, Captain?"

Campion was silent.

"What would Orator Nelphune have to say about that? You giving his favorites over to your guards?" Kennah's attention suddenly shifted past Campion. "Ah! Speaking of favorites!"

Campion turned to see Lamos standing in the hallway, wearing a luxurious dressing gown that was, nevertheless, fully open down the front, exposing his privates.

"There's my favorite!" Kennah proclaimed, making to pass Campion.

But the captain held out an arm, preventing him from passing. "Lamos has other patrons already on the schedule."

Kennah eyed Campion sideways, and a smug grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Are you sure you want to defy me, Captain? The most powerful man in the lower east?"

Lamos was at Campion's elbow instantly. "I have some time." He looped his arm through the Regent's. "And Lord Regent Kennah is my favorite customer. I'll certainly do a better job for you than that pathetic pincushion, Yumichika."

Kennah smiled – a clear taunt. "Now, this is what I've always liked about Lamos. He's always ready to prove that he's the best. Just like you . . . Campion."

But Campion was firm. "The Orator will be unhappy with me if I allow the schedule to get messed up because of unscheduled visits. Lamos, go back to your room and wait for your next customer." He looked to the guard standing behind Lamos. "Kyar, take him back to his room."

Lamos was petulant. "I'm going to take the Regent back to my room."

"No." Campion was firm. "You're not. Lord Regent, I must insist. Lamos is booked solid all night."

Much to everyone's surprise, the Regent, after a considerable pause, nodded his head and chuckled softly. "As you wish, Campion." He leaned over and delivered a sloppy, overly dramatic kiss to an eager Lamos, then with a daring simper cast in Campion's direction, he headed for the stairs.

Lamos glared at the captain. "You bastard." He spun on his heel and returned to his room, Kyar following behind him.

Campion drew in a deep breath

God, he hated working the upper rooms.

He turned and went into the first room, where Supho was sitting beside Yumichika on the bed. Yumichika had a sheet draped around him.

"Are you sure you're alright? All that screaming . . . " Supho was saying. "By the fates, what was he doing to you?"

"I'm alright now," Yumichika replied. His voice was a little shaky, but there were no visible signs of injury.

Campion reached out and partially unwrapped the sheet. No bruises or contusions. No visible blood, not even on the sheets or bed covers.

"Do you need to see a healer?"

"No, I'm okay," Yumichika replied. "Once—once he stopped, the pain stopped, too."

"What was he doing?"

Yumichika hesitated. "I don't know if I can explain it. It—it wasn't anything he did on the outside."

Both Campion and Supho were looking at him intently, Campion with something close to dread, Supho with wide-eyed fascination.

"It was . . . it was like with the Orator," Yumichika stumbled through his words. "He was looking for something, trying to force something out into the open. And where the Orator uses . . . feelings of pleasure, the Regent used . . . horrible pain."

Campion straightened up. "Well, either way, I think you're done for the night. It would best if you just stayed up here and kept out of Nelphune's sight. Otherwise, he might decide to make you available to others. Supho, you stay with him." Before he left, he fixed Supho with an expectant stare.

Supho knew what it meant.

No emotional involvement.

"Let's go take a walk outside."

Nelphune was not surprised. The suggestion of a walk was strange coming from Kennah. The Regent was not into admiring landscapes or cultivated gardens. But Nelphune had known Kennah would want to talk after his encounter with Yumichika, and clearly the Regent wanted no eager ears to hear the subject of their conversation.

And so the two men excused themselves from the festivities, leaving their guards behind, and ventured out into Lutan's splendid desert gardens.

Kennah was direct. "You didn't tell me.

"I know you like surprises," Nelphune replied with a subtle humor - and a certain degree of provocation.

"Did you know about this surprise when you purchased him?"

"No. Like you, I found out when I entered him."

"And what did you discover when you searched him?" Kennah asked.

"I could not reach him." Nelphune was anything but a fool, and the fact that Kennah was asking such a question could only mean that the Regent had also been unsuccessful in drawing out that which they both knew to be present. "You could not reach him either? And you are much more powerful than me."

"That only means we're not trying hard enough. He's in there."

"I have tried to draw him out, but he does not respond. I cannot even touch him," Nelphune stated.

"Leave him to me. You turn your slave over to me, and I will get him out," Kennah said with surety.

But Nelphune deferred. "I don't think that is a good idea. I am sure you can discern from what you sensed that he is more likely to be in the Seventh Choir than the First.

"It doesn't matter what choir he's in. What matters is drawing him out and finding out who he is."

"I have a better chance of drawing him out than you do."

"That may be—"

"Regent Kennah . . . you know I cannot prevail against your will. But if we are to be successful in breaking through Yumichika's barriers, it must be done in a way that is effective on him. Brutality is not the way."

Kennah drew in an impatient breath, but he found Nelphune's words to be reasonable.

"You have one month. After that, we do things my way."