Sex Rites

by Brandon Fox

  “He says we’ll need to start exercising at dawn too,” Thane said. “Learning his way of fighting is going to take a lot of work.”

  “I expected that,” Ander said. “Last night was the first time I’ve seen him miss an exercise since we started this journey.”

  “And I paid for it this morning,” Dannel said as he joined them at the table. His smooth skin glistened under the telos light. “At least we can use the sweat lodge and washhouse while we’re here. I’m going to go start a fire and clean up. There’s a water reservoir over the fire; it should be good and hot in an hour if you want to use it. Just follow the trail on the other side of the stable.”

  Thane rolled up the scroll he was working on. “That’s a good idea.” He went over to the fire pit and picked up a clay pot with a piece of leather tied over the top. “The raffia oil finished distilling last night. We can try it this morning. It’ll work best if you and your partner are warm and relaxed. Have you decided who you’d like to try it with?”

  Dannel cleared his throat. “What, um, what exactly do I need to do?”

  “Don’t worry, you’re not ready for anything complicated. The first step is for you and a partner to try forming a bond. The bond will help him dispel your anima. And if it’s strong enough, he can feel when you start to lose control and keep it from happening. That’s what I hope, anyway. You should try this in a trance state the first time.”

  “A trance? How can I have sex while in a trance?”

  “Your only task is to forge a bond and control the firestone. The trance will help with that. The rest of us will take care of giving you and your partner pleasure. Any of us would be honored to share your first bond, but you should choose for yourself.”

  Dannel swallowed hard and glanced at Ander. He blushed and looked at his feet, but not before Ander saw the unspoken plea.

  “Would you like me to show you what comes after the kiss?” Ander asked.

  “Yes,” Dannel said, nearly inaudible. “I’d like that.”

  “A perfect choice,” Thane said cheerfully. “Ander’s sensitive and forms bonds more quickly than most.” He carried the clay pot over to the table and untied the cord that held the leather cover in place. A rich aroma wafted out, like sandalwood and eucalyptus. He took a careful whiff, then put the cover back on. “It’s ready. Come back after you finish in the washhouse and we’ll have some breakfast. You’ll want to rest before we start.”

  Dannel nodded, giving Ander a grateful look, then turned and quickly left the hall. Thane watched him go. “It must be hard, after going without love all your life. Do you think we’re rushing him?”

  Ander shook his head. “He’s nervous but desperate to get on with it. And remember, you said he might hold the key to solving the mystery of this place. Don’t forget the zamindar’s reward for your capture. Time is a luxury we don’t have.”

  DURING breakfast, Skorri decided the best way to prepare Dannel for his experience was to tell him everything he knew about pleasuring Ander. A few months ago the bawdy observations would have left Ander paralyzed with embarrassment, but as an initiate at the lyceum, he had learned to approach lovemaking as an art and a voyage of discovery. Besides, Skorri knew what he was talking about.

  Dannel’s reaction to the suggestions was more complicated. His red cheeks showed how unaccustomed he was to candid talk about sex, but his heated glances at Ander revealed intense interest in the information. He was soon squirming, breakfast forgotten, his erection awkwardly confined by his leather trousers. Embarrassed or not, he sizzled with desire.

  When the meal was finished, Thane handed Ander the pot of refined raffia oil, then turned to Dannel. “We’ll give you time to get accustomed to the oil before we join you at the sweat lodge. It’ll be easier for you to start forming a bond with Ander if there aren’t distractions. But don’t try anything beyond touching until we get there. The oil alone won’t be enough to defeat the firestone.”

  “I’ll remember,” Dannel said as he stood. Now that the moment had arrived, he looked painfully nervous, but the long mound under his leathers showed that fear couldn’t conquer his body’s demands.

  “Give us half an hour,” Ander said. He and Dannel left the hall, accompanied by Skorri’s last-minute salacious advice.

  A short hike through the awakening forest brought them to a clearing at the base of a hillside. A stream flowed from a spring halfway up the slope and spilled into a stone trough where it was captured and channeled to a small cistern on the hill. Beneath the reservoir stood a log building that extended from the clearing into the hill itself. Smoke curled from a stone chimney.

  “You’ll like this,” Dannel said as they approached the building. He pointed to the cistern on the hillside. “It’s lined with slate and catches the sun’s heat. Then the water flows over a stone channel in the washhouse, heated by a fire beneath. By the time you use it for washing, it’s hardly cold at all.”

  “I wish we’d had that in Pella,” Ander said. He resisted the temptation to tell Dannel about the hot springs serving Thane’s manor, where the luxury of hot water could be enjoyed at any time of the day or night. Instead he admired the ingenuity that made creature comforts possible in such a remote place.

  Dannel opened the door to an antechamber lined with wooden benches. “We leave our clothes here. The inner room is for bathing and sweating. It’s inside the hill, an old cave that was enlarged. I put some stones in the steam pit after washing, so it should be warm now.” He took a deep breath and closed the door, all the while watching Ander nervously. “I… I guess we’d better get started.”

  Ander laughed as he put the jar of oil on one of the benches. “Don’t try to tell me you’re suddenly reluctant. I’ve spent enough time with randy boys to know better. I hope Skorri didn’t embarrass you too much.”

  Dannel’s serious expression didn’t change. “I’m ready. You can’t know how much this means to me. But what if we fail?”

  Ander took Dannel’s hands in a firm clasp. “If this doesn’t work, we’ll look for something else. Defeating the firestone won’t be easy, but we’ll find a way.”

  “I’m glad you’re the first to try,” Dannel said, pulling him closer. His reticence about physical contact had passed along with the night. Wrapping his arms around Ander’s back, he pulled their bodies together and initiated a deep kiss.

  Even to someone as accustomed to passionate kisses as Ander had grown, Dannel’s intensity was dazzling. He explored Ander’s lips and mouth with fierce concentration, as if engraving every moment of the experience into his memory for eternity. Ander submitted to the passion without reservation. The kiss left him breathless.

  “We’d best begin,” Ander said when Dannel finally gave him a chance to speak. “They’ll be here soon. We need to begin forging a bond before they arrive.”

  Dannel released him and stepped back, his hungry gaze never wavering. “I don’t understand these bonds. How do they work?”

  Ander sat on a bench to pull his boots off, and Dannel did the same. “Thane isn’t sure, but they’re forged in the kei. He thinks the kei somehow connects everything. Like a river that flows through the whole world, the stars, even time. He says the world is much more complicated than our eyes can see. Maybe more complicated than we can ever understand. But that won’t stop him from trying.” Ander kicked his boots under the bench, then loosened the drawstrings and pulled his shirt over his head. His skin was already glistening with a sheen of sweat in the warm room.

  “So what happens if we do form a bond?”

  Ander stood and unfastened his belt. A shimmy sent his pants into a heap around his feet. He gave Dannel a sultry look, pleasantly aware of the avid attention his body was receiving. Dannel had taken his shirt off but not his pants. “A bond is what can happen if you become sensitive enough to what your partner is experiencing. You sense his reactions, even how he feels. The closer you grow, the more you can feel.” He paused, considering a new thought. “Maybe you ha
ve a hint what it’s like from your training. When you fight, do you ever start to know what your opponent is doing or feeling?”

  Dannel nodded. “If he’s hurt, I can tell what he feels. Even feel it myself a little.”

  “A bond is like that but much stronger. Touch your partner and it’s like touching yourself. Lick his cock and it’s as if you’re licking your own. Fuck him and—”

  “I understand.” A blush was spreading down Dannel’s neck to his chest. Ander touched his right arm and traced the hard curve of muscle, following it to the sensitive skin near Dannel’s armpit. Dannel gulped and started to sway.

  “You’ll like it,” Ander said softly. “Since I’ll be able to experience what you feel, I can go as slowly as you need and help you control your sensations. That’s why the art works. You can feel your lover’s sensations, help pleasure grow without making him come. Perception grows with the pleasure until you can even sense the kei. Without the bond, sex can’t increase awareness enough to reach other realms.”

  Dannel quivered beneath Ander’s touch but stood his ground. His hands moved down Ander’s sides, following the taper from broad chest to slender hips until coming to rest on buttocks. His fingers pressed into the solid flesh as Ander’s erection pressed against him.

  “Let’s begin,” Ander said. “I’m as eager as you. But leave your pants on until the oil has had a chance to work.”

  Dannel’s skin glowed with the flush of arousal as he turned and led the way into the next room. Ander picked up the jar of oil and followed.

  A small fire in a stone oven illuminated the inner room. A pile of rocks rested on top of the oven, absorbing heat. The back two thirds of the chamber were carved from solid rock. Water flowed from a stone spout near the oven and into a basin carved from a boulder before overflowing and disappearing through a cleft at the back of the cave. A steam pit next to a wall contained a bed of pine needles and several hot stones Dannel had placed in it earlier. The air was pleasantly warm and humid.

  Ander put the clay jar near the fire, then dipped his fingers in and scooped up some oil. He started with Dannel’s right hand and forearm, giving him time to adjust to the slippery feel. Dannel shivered, despite the room’s wet heat, at the slick strokes against his flesh. “You too,” Ander said. “The bond has to work both ways, each sensing what the other feels.”

  They stood face to face as their journey of discovery began. Ander used the raffia oil liberally, stroking solid biceps and strong shoulders before sliding his hand around his companion to trace tapering back muscles. Dannel returned the caresses, his callused hands applying oil and stroking Ander from neck to buttocks.

  At first the glide of oiled hands against taut flesh felt like ordinary foreplay—though Ander was sure nobody would ever regard a tumble with Dannel as ordinary. The impression did not last long. As the oil’s ingredients started to take effect, a mild jolt tickled Ander’s fingertips, like brushing a cat’s fur on a dry day. The sensation had a sharply erotic edge; Dannel was tense with lust. As his fingers caressed one of Dannel’s nipples, the charge intensified and a pleasurable echo twinged through his own flesh.

  “It’s started,” Ander said. “The oil’s working, much faster than usual. Can you feel it too?”

  Dannel’s hand trembled as it stroked Ander’s side. “Yes,” he whispered. His eyes were half-closed, and his chest rose and fell with deep breaths.

  The bond was already strong enough for Ander to sense the ache of Dannel’s hard cock in his leathers. His own erection twitched in response. The blending of sensations, constricting clothing and the freedom of nakedness at the same time, was strange even for an initiate. For Dannel it must have been bewildering. But the bond’s effect was also a tool. Ander seized it. “We don’t have much time,” he said. “We should try to strengthen the bond before the others get here.”

  Dannel tensed, then nodded. While his fear of failure was easy to see, Ander also felt his trust.

  Closing his eyes, Ander pressed against Dannel. Their chests touched, skin moving against skin. Ander felt his companion’s heart beating rapidly and strongly. “Easy,” he said as he brought his arms around in an embrace. “Remember, I’ll wait until you’re ready.” Dannel relaxed a bit, but he still quivered like a stag poised on the brink of flight, his hands resting lightly on Ander’s hips.

  The sights and sounds of the sweat lodge faded as Ander concentrated on the muscular body he held. Gradually, awareness of his own sensations faded. He began to feel hands pressed against his back, an echo of Dannel’s feelings. Dannel remained silent, his anticipation palpable.

  Ander moved his hands lower. When they were within an inch of Dannel’s leathers, a dizzying surge of pleasure swept him from head to foot. Dannel moaned, part warning and part excitement.

  “I felt it too,” Ander said. “Try to sense what I’m feeling. Use it to anchor yourself. I know it’s confusing, but try.”

  Dannel’s heart hammered, but he pressed his cheek against Ander’s and nodded.

  Ander waited a few seconds and then moved his hands to Dannel’s waist, level with his navel. He waited until he sensed tension beginning to ebb. A spark flickered into existence inside him, a fiery point of surprise and delight. He smiled and opened his eyes. Dannel had found the bond.

  Almost imperceptibly, Ander edged his hands lower, into the area proscribed by the firestone’s spell. The spark within him flared. Streamers of pleasure shot through his body like lightning and converged on his cock. He stiffened, nearly overcome by the shared sensation as he struggled to accept and dissipate the searing power. His knees started to buckle. The look of panic in Dannel’s eyes was alarming. Failure now would dash his hopes for perhaps the last time. Desperately, Ander blanked his mind and let the spike of anima fill him. He felt like a vibrating bell, radiating with invisible ripples of energy. The wave of pleasure passed without cresting.

  Dannel staggered back, the firestone at his ear sparkling like a diamond in the sun. Ander grasped his forearm. “Are you all right?”

  Dannel gave him a dazed nod. “I… I didn’t come,” he said, a look of wonder spreading across his face.

  “I know.” Ander couldn’t help grinning. Dannel still had a lot to learn about bonds. “The anima you released was far more than one person could control. Even for two, it was a close thing.”

  “It worked, then?” Dannel straightened, and eagerness filled his features. “You can defeat the firestone?”

  “We’ve made a start. The bond was strong enough to let me draw part of the anima away. It’s only a beginning, though. We’ll need a much stronger bond to truly control the firestone’s power.”

  Approaching voices marked the arrival of their comrades. The sweat lodge’s outer door swung open, and Thane entered with Erik and Skorri close behind, all three carrying baskets. They crossed the antechamber and entered the back room, looking around curiously.

  Ander explained their progress at forging a bond while Erik and Skorri pulled blankets from their baskets and spread them on the middle of the floor. Thane listened carefully and watched Dannel’s earring as the stone continued to pulse with fiery sparks.

  “You’ve made a fine start,” Thane said. “Now we’ll deepen the bond and see if your combined strength can master the firestone.” He rummaged through the basket he had brought and extracted a glass vial containing pale orange liquid. After shaking the vial vigorously, making the contents turn cloudy, he handed it to Dannel. “Trances are a normal part of learning the art. They help you focus and forget distractions. But you won’t need them after you’ve learned how to forge bonds.”

  Dannel held the murky vial in front of his eyes and looked at it closely. “How much do I drink?”

  “Half. The rest is for Ander. You’ll both need to be in a trance for this to work. It will take a few minutes.”

  A scent like yeast spiced with jasmine wafted out when Dannel twisted the cork from the vial. He tilted his head back and sipped slowly, careful
to take only half, then replaced the cork and gave the vial to Ander. “Tastes good,” he said. “Feels good too.” He stretched sensuously as his body reacted to the potent elixir. His eyes became deep black pools as his pupils expanded, hazel irises shrinking to thin rings. He turned to Ander and gave him an inviting gaze.

  Ander drank his share and then pulled Dannel close. This time they kissed without hesitation. Whatever else it was doing, the elixir had further loosened inhibitions. He slid his hands down Dannel’s sides, their newly forged bond guiding him like a welcoming fire in an unseen realm beyond ordinary experience. A warm sensation filled him, like returning to a place once known intimately but long forgotten, when Dannel found the bond again. Their experiences flowed and merged as the elixir took effect. The press of skin against skin, of lips and tongues engaged in mutual exploration, seemed all-consuming.

  At last his fingers slid beneath the waist of Dannel’s leathers. The jolt of pleasure was as intense as before, but now they were prepared. Time slowed as sensation echoed between them through the strengthening bond. Ander kept his hands in place while the wave crested, then broke their kiss.

  “Keep going,” Dannel urged in a husky whisper. “It’s working!”

  Ander nodded, mute with the strain of controlling the anima surging between them. He could feel Dannel leaning on him through the bond, drawing on his strength and restraint, and shared his euphoria at the victory they had achieved. The elixir was already making him light-headed.

  He unfastened Dannel’s leathers, and they slid down. Dannel trembled, poised just short of release, as his erection sprang free and brushed Ander’s.

  Thane’s murmured approval encouraged Ander to slide his hands further down Dannel’s hips. The firestone assaulted his senses like the tide against a seawall, wave after wave, relentless. But the intensity of each wave remained constant. Between the two of them, the onslaught of pleasure was barely controllable.