DESCRIPTION
Lady Cathia lives in a dangerous world—one where Gods lust after mortal women. An alluring wife, she never expected to become the object of Lord Agar’s desire. Now, caught in a ruse to appease the god, Lady Cathia finds herself unable to deny him. She’s been tricked by the priestess, and left alone with a god incarnate. Just what will happen when she succumbs to the forbidden needs of an immortal?
EXCERPT
Lady Cathia wasn’t certain she expected much in the way of results from her appeal to Narfa, but she’d been brought up with the belief that he would help if the cause was just and the donations to the temple adequate. So, when she had finished making her plea, she took out the bag of gold she’d brought, and carried it to the priestess who came silently into the main room of the temple.
When she handed the gold to the woman, she whispered, “Did you get the answer you wished for?”
Lady Cathia shook her head. “I got no answer at all.”
“None that you’ve heard,” the priestess said. “But Lord Narfa works in strange ways. He told me of your wish and asked me to explain a way that might be achieved.”
Lady Cathia’s heart pounded. “What must I do?”
“Come back tomorrow at the same time,” she said, and disappeared again.
The next day, Lady Cathia found the priestess waiting for her. She took another bag of gold and led her down an unfamiliar corridor. “Are you familiar with sympathetic magic?”
Too proud to admit her ignorance, Lady Cathia said: “Vaguely.”
“It is murky to all mortals, but basically there is a symmetry between our world and that of Nafra’s. He heard you and he will help if you will offer what he wants.”
“What he wants?” She pointed to the gold. “More than this?”
“Narfa is a powerful god but he also has the desires of a man. He has said that he finds you desirable and will help you if you prove you honor him, and that you are obedient to him.”
“My obedience? I’m not certain what you mean. How do I prove obedience?”
The priestess opened a door, revealing a small chamber. In the center of that room stood an idol she’d never seen before. Carved out of marble it was a life-sized image of Narfa that portrayed him as a large, powerfully built man with a huge and stiffly erect phallus. Around him naked girls knelt in adoration. “This statue is dedicated to the god’s virile manhood—it honors that lusty and passionate part of him. If you wish to convince him, he wishes you to offer yourself to him right here, in this room. If he believes you are serious, he will come to you in the shape of a man and accept your offering.”
“As a man? Accept the offering?”
The priestess smiled. “Gods can incarnate when it suits them. You are not allowed to see the god in his human form so your eyes will be covered. The offering he demands is that you get naked and then to get on your hands and knees, expose yourself to him. and implore him to take you, use you as he wishes. And I must warn you that if you agree, he is a lusty and virile god.”
Lady Cathia knew strange things, sexual things, went on in the temples, but this was bizarre. And of course it was known that gods mated with mortals. “Why would a god want to couple with me?”
“We don’t question what he tells us. If you want his help, then you must do what he asks… in this case he wants to hear you begging him to take satisfaction with you. This is the way, one way, sympathetic magic works. You placate the god.”