Read Online Under A Velvet Cloak by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online Page B

sail like a leaf in the wind, and quake with the intensity of her pleasure. It was as though they had known and loved each other forever.
    Flushed, panting, feeling like an innocent girl, she lay in his embrace after the first session, marveling at the event. “Have we met before?” she asked.
    He merely stroked her hand. Even now, that touch sent a thrill through her body. She was a thoroughly experienced woman, yet compared to him she felt amateur.
    They made love again, and again, and each episode radiated pleasure though her being. Then he departed, leaving her to sleep and dream of endless rapture.
    In the morning she pondered her experience of the night. She had no idea who her visitor had been, but she longed for his return. She did not speak of this to anyone else, somehow knowing that this was a secret she had to keep, lest she lose any continuation.
    Alas, her nocturnal lover did not return. Apparently she had been a mere stop on the way to wherever he was going. Her loin ached for lack of his presence. Almost, she was tempted to ask the Fey about him. Almost. It might be some mischief the Fey had wrought, in which case a question would play into her design. But if the Fey did not know of the man, that was surely significant in another manner. How could anyone enter her premises, and she not know?
    Jolie had misgivings about this. The identity of the man was a mystery to her too, and she did not like a mystery of this nature. Yet the lines had not blurred, so it had to be a legitimate part of the girl’s existence.
    Between assignments Kerena visited Molly. The brothel was close to the Fey’s castle, so this was convenient. The girl was a pleasant contrast to the mature cynicism of the Fey. Kerena said nothing of her missions, of course, only that she was now being kept by another client.
    The cloak’s first revealed property was invisibility. This had to be invoked by a special spoken spell, after she related to the cloak itself. “These things are fairly standard,” the Fey explained. “You must get close to the cloak, wrapping it about you naked. You must court it.”
    “Must what?”
    “Court it. Profess your love for it. It will respond if it knows you care.”
    “But it’s just a piece of material.”
    “Hardly that. It is enchanted material, imbued by a sorcerer I would like to meet; he clearly knows his magic. Disrespect it at your peril.”
    Kerena saw her point. “I do respect it; I first made love upon it.”
    “That’s a good start. Remind it of that. Then when you have its attention, solicit its power by drawing an analogy and forming a triple rhyme with it. Once you invoke it that way, you must always use that specific form; it will not respond to any other, or to any other person.”
    “An analogy,” Kerena repeated, not getting it.
    The Fey frowned. “I thought you were a bright girl.”
    And the lines of reality started to fuzz.
    Jolie moved back a minute.
Invisible like the air. Make me glare like the air, with my fair hair. Something like that, only less clumsy.
    “An analogy,” Kerena said. “Now I understand.” The lines clarified.
    Kerena went to her room and tried it. She stripped naked, wrapped the cloak around her, and whispered “Cloak of night, I love you. Make me part of you.” She kissed it.
    The cloak writhed, clasping her. It was responding! It had never done that before. But of course she had never tried to invoke its magic, not realizing its nature.
    “Cloak, hear my prayer,” she whispered. “Make us fair, like the air.”
    Something changed. For a moment she wasn’t sure what, then realized. that she couldn’t see her legs. She couldn’t see any part of her body, or the cloak. That was weird.
    She walked to the mirror and looked. There was nothing. She was invisible.
    She opened the door and walked out around the house. It was actually fairly small; the appearance of the great castle was merely to impress visitors, such as herself, the first time. The