Page 41 of Obsidian Prince

"The wife of the lion-kin that I killed gave it to me."

Pete ran his hand through his thick red hair. He scratched the back of his neck. "Um, Lilly, did you murder a man last night and get paid for it by his wife?"

Liliana grinned, amused by his discomfort. "Are you going to call Detective Jackson to arrest me?"

"I won't, but I'm wondering if I should."

"Some lionesses asked me for help. The new pride-king was chosen last night. A very unworthy man would have become king. He would have killed many people, including those three lionesses, sparking a pride war that would have killed hundreds more."

Pete's pale skin paled a little more. "Yikes. The pride war in South Carolina in the '20's killed over three hundred people, and a couple thousand were injured."

"They wanted to hire my friend, the Celtic wolf, to kill the unworthy lion to prevent that."

"Why didn't you send them to me, then?"

"I promised Janice Willoughby you would protect her husband last night."

Pete got an "aha!" kind of look on his face. He pointed at her. "I can't be in two places at once."

Liliana smiled at his boots. "I watched you and Doctor Nudd fight the Wolfhound pack. You were magnificent."

Pete knelt beside the couch. He squeezed her uninjured hand. "I had an excellent teacher."

She felt warm in spite of the ice on her arm and her ankle.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"I will be fine, Pete. I am tired now. I would like to sleep."

"Okay, I'll let you rest." He leaned in and kissed her forehead.

Liliana closed all her eyes, smiling.

Pete left.

Liliana dozed.

Another knock on her front shop door woke her. She looked, thinking she would just ignore it, but got up instead. It was Janice Willoughby with enough casserole for the spider-kin to eat for days.

Liliana ate some of the delicious warm casserole, then lay back on her couch, not really sleepy anymore, but not interested in doing anything. She didn't even want to open her fourth eyes. She was afraid she might see something important and feel compelled to do something about it.

The spider seer wondered if it might be nice to have a holovision set, or one of the communication centers people had now instead. She had enough money to get one now. She should at least turn on her room-bot so it could pick up her soiled clothes and clean the dirty dishes she’d left in the sink, but even getting up to turn the robot on seemed like too much trouble. If she had a communication center, she could tell her house AI to turn on the room-bot, but that seemed lazy to her any day other than today when half her body was throbbing with agony.

Someone knocked on her home door before she got settled back on the couch with new ice packs. She looked with her fourth eyes. Doctor Nudd and Siobhan. "Come in!" she shouted. The door was not locked, and she did not want to get up again.

Doctor Nudd and Siobhan brought her medicine. She’d forgotten she had some already. That would have helped. Doctor Nudd brewed chai tea to mix with the powder to hide the bitter flavor.

Liliana drank the medicine-laced tea gratefully.

Doctor Nudd and Siobhan helped themselves to a craft beer each. Once settled on the armchair and the couch arm respectively, they asked her for the story.

By the time she’d explained the essentials, the pain in her wounds had faded to insignificance. She felt rather delighted with everything.

I wonder if this is how my venom makes people feel?

"Thank you, my friends," Liliana said. "You are the best friends in the world, the best friends that anyone ever had."

Siobhan giggled. "Sure, Spider Girl. Glad to see you're feeling better."

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