Blazing Bodices Read Online Free PDF

priestess, the air swirled with thickening pink mist.
    "Undine!" I shook her by the shoulder. "What's happening?" But she ignored me.
    Suddenly, the swirling mist above the priestess compressed, snapping into a solid form. It was a form I knew well, one that had been foremost in my mind since the day I'd caught my wife coming home late from the market.
    It was the same elongated eyeball mounted inside a pyramid-shaped Egyptian symbol as the one that had hung from the silver pendant Bess had tried to conceal. Instead of silver, it looked as if it had been shaped from rippling red plasma, coursing with crackling tongues of energy.
    And as I watched, I saw it blink. A lid of scarlet flame swept down and back up within the triangle.
    It was then I realized, with a sickening lurch, that this eye belonged to something alive. Something that was gazing down at us all from somewhere else.
    Something, I could have sworn, that possessed an intelligence most malevolent.
    Why weren't the women in the least bit alarmed? Was I the only one in this vast underground vault who perceived the potential for danger?
    "Undine!" With increased urgency, I grabbed Lady Crenshaw's arms and shook her hard. "I need you!"
    It was enough to draw her attention and make her stop singing. "Whatever for?"
    Suddenly, a great shrieking cry emanated from the hovering eyeball, so loud and so shrill it set my teeth on edge. Another followed, even louder, even shriller.
    The piercing shrieks sent me reeling in a circle with hands clapped over my ears. "God save us!" I saw my wife turn and frown as I cried out, doubled over in pain. "What's happening? "
    Lady Crenshaw crouched in front of me and took my head in her hands. "Quid pro quo, darling."
    I gazed at her through tear-filled eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"
    "You're a very lucky boy, Algie," said Lady Crenshaw. "You get to witness the start of a new era. "
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    *****
    The fiery eyeball swiveled in its pyramid socket, and the red light in the cavern pulsated faster. The army of women from all corners of the globe danced with increasing abandon, wailing an otherworldly song in twisted counterpoint with the eyeball's ear-splitting shrieks.
    Only Lady Crenshaw and I remained still at the fringe of the frenzy...and Bess, too, who was suddenly quite interested in watching us both.
    "You should be happy for us." Lady Crenshaw smiled. She still held my head in her hands. "We are free at last."
    I felt dizzy. Was it the shrieking, the incense, the pulsating light? "Free of what, exactly?"
    "Think for a moment," said Lady Crenshaw. "If you were truly a woman, what one thing would you most desire to rid yourself of? What one part of your life would make it least worth living?"
    "Corsets?" I was having trouble organizing my thoughts. "High heels?"
    Lady Crenshaw shook her head. "One great burden has darkened the lives of women since the beginning of time, shadowing our every moment of existence." She leaned close and kissed me on the forehead. "The pain of childbirth, of course."
    The shrieking rose in intensity. The red light flashed faster, ever faster, until it created a strobing eff ect.
    Lady Crenshaw's face flickered like something out of a nightmare. "We have only ever had two options: bear the pain for the good of the human race or forego the pain and stop producing children.
    "But now, we have negotiated a third option." Lady Crenshaw smiled. "We have introduced a third category of 'parent' who will change the equation."
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bess lean down to stare at me, her image stuttering in the strobing red light. She cocked her head to one side, and her frown deepened with fascination.
    Lady Crenshaw kept my own head fastened between her hands as she spun out her tale. "Think of them as gods , darling, from elsewhere. A level up and over, if you will." Her eyes widened with feverish enthusiasm. "Becoming as one with us, they will infuse our systems with divine energies. Thus united, we