The Book of the Blue House

So, just because some scenes are very long, there will be overlap in segments (as there is today) Also, at the beginning of next week, in addition to this, for those who have been reading Blood, Vein and Tooth, part 3 of the Strauss, Dunharrow saga will resume withThe Wicked.

They went up several floors. Conn knew they were traveling higher than the floor where Derek and Cal and Lorne lived, where he would be living, but he forgot to count and midway ip, when Nialla let herself take the breath Conn was holding in, Cal said, “Come on!” and she said, “Come on yourself, we should have taken the lift.”

They arrived, however, on a very different floor, spacious, with great windows, and there were few doors here, and one ahead of them opened to noise, and when they entered, Nialla seeming almost but quite as sheepish as Conn, they saw the great eating hall was full of Blues at table, all in robes, though some lighter than others. Some robes were hooded. Many were not, and Conn observed all sorts of Blues. Some were dark like the men of Ava and some white as Derek. Some were golden brown or olive like the old tribes and the Armorians. There were tall and short, black haired, red haired and bald. In the buzzing room was every type of beauty one could imagine, slender boys lithe like swimmers or men thick like ball players and several waved or nodded amidst the jostle of food being passed, but Cal led them to the table where there were many, including the boys they’d lunched with, and Derek rose up merrily in his smoke blue robe and embraced Conn.

“Did you all enjoy the city?”

“Bits of it,” Conn said.

Derek laughed, and there was laughter around the table. Beautiful men he did not know looked at him with affection, and Conn colored.

Conn said as he and Nialla sat down between Cal and Lorne, “I mean, I enjoyed what I saw, but we only saw bits.”

Nialla whispered, “I think he knows.”

“Try the fish,” Lorne offered to Conn. “It is cooked in a butter and wine sauce and the the bone is lifted right out of it before your eyes. Well, before my eyes.”

Conn looked around and he observed that at the table was fat Obala and there were other people, some of them women, who did not appear to be Blues.

“This is our fellowship night,” a red headed Blue whose name he did not know said, “Everyone in the house comes together on such nights and we all eat in the Upper Hall.”

“It’s not usually like this?” Conn asked.

The redhead shook his head.

“Usually only Blues eat here, and usually it’s the Blues who were at the evening service. A lot of times we eat scattered, but at least once a day every Blue comes to the hall to eat. You just don’t know who will come when you do.”

“You would know,” Derek said, bitting into a crust of bread, “if you came around and called more often.”

The red head rolled his eyes, and Lorne said, “Every since Gabriel went through Second Orders he’s become pretty high and mighty.”

“I hate you all,” Gabriel said with a sober face, “and that’s why I don’t eat with you.”

He chucked a crust of bread at Derek and and Cal asked, “How was this afternoon for you?”

Conn thought he was talking to him, but luckily didn’t answer before Lorne spoke.

“It’s a good thing we have to love them but not be in love with them. He was kind enough and gentle enough, and one could feel for him, He told me all about his children and his former wife and how his son was at home asleep, and he reminded me of a squirrel. I actually had to tell him to slow down. He was really all over the place. A bit of a biter until I brought an end to that.”

“It isn’t supposed to be about your own pleasure,” Derek said rather superiorly.

“It’s isn’t about my suffering either,” Lorne said, “and I won’t suffer to be covered in some squrirlish man’s bite marks. But in the end things went well enough. He was very eager. He kept using my name, which is too familiar for me, and he said, I sure hope I can see you again. I sure would like to see you again.”

“Did you explain to him,” Cal said, his eyes hooded and a smile across his face, “that we are not in charge of that, that whoever is sent to him is sent to him.”

“That’s exactly what I explained.”

“Oh, that’s terrible,” Conn heard himself say, and they all looked at him.

“I mean,” again, his face was red, “you might have to go through that all over again. If you’re sent to him.”

“Bless you, Bird,” Cal said with a touch of that drawl. “All Lorne has to do is go to the Master and say he isn’t going to be with that man again. Come to think of it, I could say the same ahead of time and spare myself an experience.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Cal said.

“Tnen what about… the poor person who ends up with him?”

“If someone is known to have… peccadillos or a complaint,” Lorne said, “then the Master will always tell whoever is going to him. If someone is out and out black balled that’s a whole other story. But you get warning about what’s going to happen. The men we come to may be surprised by us, but we’re not to be surprised by them.”

Derek said, “It’s always supposed to be a match. The right Blue for the right supplicant.”

Conn nodded thoughtfully.

“I won’t say no to him indefinitely,” Lorne said, “But I will let the Master know I’m not having him again anytime soon.”

Derek nodded and Lorne went on, “I know you say it’s a service and it is, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a drudgery, and I won’t have a string of bad lovers. And you know what I’ve had today?”

Derel blinked at him.

“A string of bad lovers.”

They burst out laughing but for Conn, whose face was red, and Nialla lifted a cup to her face ot hide her smile.

Their laughter came ot an abrupt end as Conn felt a presence at his back, and he turned around to see a not very tall, mild faced black man. His head was shaven and he was in a deep blue, hooded robe. From his neck hung a pendent in the shape of an open hand, and he said, “Since you didn’t come to me, I had to come to you.”

“Oh, Master,” Derek interrupted, “we meant to—”

“Peace,” The man was still smiling as he put out his hand.

“Connleth, I hope they’re treating you well. If you should need anything you must come to me, or any of the other senior preists,” he said gesturing to a table where there were several men in hooded blue robes, though most of them seemed older than the man before him.

“:You are the Lord Hyrum,” Connleth guessed, swallowing his food and bowing.

“Hyrum suffices,” he said with a smile.

“Was this… But the House could not be named after you.”

“No,” Lord Hyrum said. “The house was named for the very first Hyrum and every high priest after him takes his name. This is the tradition in all blue houses.

“So if Derek started a Blue House,” Cal interrupted, “then everyone after him would have to call themselves Derek when they were high priest.”

Derek looked aghast and Hyrum tilted his hand and said, “There’s a little bit more to it than that, Calon, but…” he smiled broadly, lazily, and touched Connleth on the shoulder before saying, “Calon, are you still attending me two days hence?”

“Of course Master,” Cal said with none of the feline calm he had so far possessed, but something like true adoration.

Hyrum nodded, winked, and was on his way, Cal still looking after him.

“What are we doing for the rest of the night?” the soft faced Gabriel asked.

Connleth didn’t want to say how tired he was after walking all over the city and a few hours of sexually frustrated sleep, but Nialla said, “I’m exhausted, and could use a nap. I’m so tired I don’t even know what else to think about.

Conn nodded and Derek said, “I think we’re going to the last night service, and then there’s the teacher who will be speaking down below.”

The way Derek said teacher made Conn want to go, but he yawned and felt like he’d challenged himself enough. All the Blues said they were going except for Gabriel with his red hair and soft expression, his eyes blinking through his spectacles.

“I am actually on duty tonight. Until after midnight.”

“When’s the last time you were on duty?” Lorne asked.

“Gabriel looked reflective.

“This year most of my work hasn’t been in the rooms. I usually only go one night a week,” the young man looked to his imaginary watch, “and this is my night.”

Connlet was surprised by someone who seemed so bookish and boyish and innocent being a priest who was casually going down to one of the rooms to have sex with whoever showed up, and that was exactly what Gabriel was going to do. Connleth tried to refrain from shaking his head in surprise. A single day could not make him used to this place. And he didn’t have to be. He was going to rest, talk with his sister for a while and, at last let a little sleep claim him.

When they stood in Derek’s room, looking at the bed, Nialla said, “It’s not their fault. They aren’t practical that way. We should have asked for another bed or a bigger one.

Conn had never seen the bed until now, and he realized it was too small for the both of them.

“We can work on that tomorrow and I’ll take the floor tonight, Nialla said. “I take it all the time anyway.”

“I’ll take the floor,” Conn said, “and we can talk in the dark, and later on, I’ll just go into the main room. There are sofas and everything.”

He said that but he was thinking of the huge bed where he and Derek had slept together and wondering if they could do that again,

“Wonderful,” Nialla said. “You get some cushions.”

And so while Conn lay in the cushions on the floor, and Nialla lay above him, the beginning of moonlight came through the widnow, and they whisperd about the day past, and from several blocks away heard the bells tolling in Purplekirk, telling the city that night had arrived in earnest, at last.

“Wakey! Wakey!” Conn heard, and something was moving across his face.

“Time to get up,” a voice said, and Conn remembered his brother’s friends putting bugs on his face and nearly shot up, but Cal said, “Are you alright?”

It was the hem of his robe. That he had taken off, and he weas in shorts and an open work shirt. A light was on down the hall and Nialla was sitting up, yawning.

“We wanted to know if you wall wanted to join us,” Cal said. “All I’ve done is ruin a good night’s sleep.”

“Of course we do,” Nialla said, tying her hair back.before Conn could say anything.

“What time is it?”

“A little past midnight. It was Cayman. He’s a Grey priest. He teaches a little long. You don’t mind it, but the whole night’s gone before you know it. And Gabriel is coming with us, He’s in the bathroom, cleansing.”

“I think a lot of people are coming,” Derek said in a quiet voice. Conn hadn’t seen him from where he was in the corner of the room, his arms folded into his long sleves. Lorne was singing to himself, and gathering things, and as Conn put on his overjacket and Nialla slipped on shoes, they headed out through Derek’s door. The three first years who had lunched with them were out in the hall looking eager and knuckling their eyes, and they all headed down the hall to where Derke had gone earlier to reach the Gorgon rooms, but now they were heading upstairs and Loren was singing, lustily.

They say a man gave up his

land to be the Woman’s Key!

Oh! And Seven came down

Oh, and Seven came down

Of all of them I’ve spoken

Except the one who’s broken!

Conn was right beside Derek, and Derek looked at him and smiled, shyly. Was it shyly? Maybe Conn was making that up, and Nialla said, “It’s times like this I wish Jon lived with us.”

They wound up to the next floor and then the next and they were at the seventh, and then they emerged into the night sky and the cool night air.

It was here that Lorne grew quieter and Conn thought, well no one’s rooms were near the stairwell, so proably no one heard him bellowing.

And then they emerged on gardens and benches. This must have been the roof of the Blue house and now, as Conn looked about, he saw that it was absolutely vast. He had not imagined the roof of the Temple, but what he saw now was trees and winding garden paths, little fountains and no end to it all. From where they emerged they were nowhere close to the sides of the building though, in the distance, he could make out what he thought was the the parapet.