“Why are you looking at me like that?” Dorhen asked.
“Do I stare, lad? Pardon if I’m having trouble grasping what’s happening here. That I am actually looking at…you. I knew it was you before you told me. You look unmistakably like her.”
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
Dorhen’s throat closed up, but he wanted to ask again.
“Do you remember your mother, lad?”
Dorhen nodded, but changed to shaking his head. “Who are you?”
“I’m your father’s brother. My name is Lamrhath. And you are…Dorhen…aren’t you?” He surveyed Dorhen yet again. “You have your father’s nose, but everything else resembles her.” Lamrhath reached toward his face. “Your eyes have the telltale green hue, and your brown hair—like a damned tree trunk.”
He laid his hand upon Dorhen’s cheek. His fingers smelled strongly of a fascinating scent Dorhen couldn’t place.
“You knew my mother?” Dorhen whispered, and Lamrhath removed his hand.
“I knew her. I met her the day you were born. She was weak and frail because you caused her a lot of pain when you came out of her.”
Dorhen paused in whatever he would say next and aimed his gaze at the floor. An ache crept into his throat.
“We’ll talk more of her later.”
Lamrhath put his arm over Dorhen’s shoulders and guided his attention to the woman he’d left on the floor, sitting on the rug, waiting. Though long, her soft-looking hair could not quite conceal her nakedness. It wasn’t Kalea, he knew by the feminine layers of fat on her belly and legs. Kalea’s body was gaunt because of how much she “fasted.”
“Dorhen,” Lamrhath said, “you and I are the only saehgahn here. We two are superior. And you are my kin, so I have special plans for you. I’ve no children, so you’ll be my heir. My young lad, I heard you like to sneak into convents, and that made me laugh.” He gave a smile. “Few things can.”
Dorhen frowned. “What do you all think I…?” He stopped himself before finishing the question.
“Come out here,” Lamrhath continued. “These girls were chosen for my audition. You may know some of them. I know this place is strange to you, so pick one to keep you company tonight. Don’t be afraid. They’re not allowed to refuse.”
As soon as they stepped into the corridor with Lamrhath’s arm draped around Dorhen’s shoulders, the women’s primping motions moved faster for a second before their hands fell into neat order by their sides or behind their backs. Too many eyes. Dorhen averted his own.
“Don’t be shy. The flashy ones know all about this business. Which one takes your liking?”
Dorhen struggled to find a way to refuse. “I’ll be fine alone tonight,” he said after a moment of awkward silence.
Lamrhath’s next word came as a spirited snap. “Nonsense.”
“I haven’t ever had a woman.”
Lamrhath stopped and narrowed his brow. “You’re a virgin? Then why were you caught when…?”
Dorhen tightened his lips. He would tell no one about Kalea.
Lamrhath sniffed. “We’ll talk all about you later. But listen to me. You’ll find out what we do here soon, and I’ll tell you now it’s hard. We hardly sleep, and as soon as night falls, we’ll be knocking at your door to join us in our ritual. So while you’re here, you’ll learn to channel your exhaustion away by methods other than sleep. It’s a process granted to us by the great and powerful Naerezek. Do you know of him?”
Dorhen shook his head.
“You’ll learn. And tonight, you’ll be initiated into his arcane faith. A lot of our rituals can get…rough. If you don’t lose your virginity in your own chamber, I’m afraid you’ll have to lose it on the ritual floor with all of us watching. I expect one option is more embarrassing than the other. The choice is yours…”
Lamrhath regarded Dorhen’s lost expression. One of his golden eyes twitched. “How about this? I’ll pick a docile one for you because that’s the impression I’m getting about you. So go on then, you’re excused.”
Sliding his hand from around Dorhen’s shoulder, Lamrhath gave him a firm shove.
Intuition told Dorhen to walk briskly at his dismissal. He wanted to look back and gawk at the intimidating character but abstained. Lamrhath’s hateful voice raked his memory, and Dorhen couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
A few hours later, as Dorhen paced in his claustrophobic little chamber brainstorming escape plans, the door creaked open and a short, slim blonde woman wearing a long wool robe slipped in. She dropped a bag by the wall and leaned against the closed door and smiled. This one hadn’t been standing in line.
“What do you want?”
“I’m Selka. They sent me. I’m supposed to help you relax. Is it true you’ve never done it before?”
“Done what?”
“Had sex.”
His face flamed with heat. “No.”
Her smile curled wider until her teeth glistened in the candlelight. “Aw, that’s so cute.” She let her robe fall down around her bare shoulders. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. “I mean, look at you. You’re so tall and…mature. It’s hard to believe. How old are you?”
“You can go.” Dorhen pointed to the door.
She stepped closer. “Don’t be shy, sweetie. We can practice as much as you want. I’m considered an expert at this.”
When he dodged her hands, her attention turned to his mattress on the floor. She put her robe back on her shoulders and bent to gather it up.
“First we put the bed together.” She paused to regard him staring at her. What could he say to get out of this situation? “I suppose you like the floor better.” She dragged the mattress out a bit and spread it, smoothing the blanket and fluffing the straw pillow. She plopped down and patted the spot beside her. He didn’t move from his stance against the wall.
“You look troubled. What’s wrong?” Selka stood up and approached him. “Sex isn’t just carnal. It’s also about lovemaking, which is tender and emotional. We can touch each other. Here…” She gathered her long flaxen hair in a large lock and extended it. “Feel my hair. I recently washed it.”
He tucked his chin and kept his hands firmly by his sides.
She cleared her throat and let her hair drop. “Talking can be a big part of it too. So talk to me.”
“I’m not supposed to be here.”
She reached for his shaking hand. He’d never considered himself to be particularly large, but his hands were giant compared to her slim, graceful ones.
“Aw.” She patted the top of his hand. “Neither am I. But here we are… I’ve never been with an elf before. Well, except for the kingsorcerer. And he wasn’t nearly as nervous as you… Then again, I guess he’d done it a thousand times before he met me.”
She pointed a new, more intrigued smile at him. Her eyes were also enhanced with soot and a powdery blue pigment. Her lips were stained bright red. “You’re different than him, though.”
“Those girls out there were attacked and kidnapped!”
“Sit here, sweetie.” He pulled his hand away. “You need to relax.” She extended her hand toward his face, and he dodged.
He pointed to the door. “You have to leave.”
When he retreated to the wall again, hoping she’d go away, she approached behind him and put her hand on his back. His eyes watered, and he growled at the spark of pain she ignited.
“Did they whip you?”
“Yes,” he said through clenched teeth. Keeping his back turned from her, he wiped his face with a shaky hand.
“Hold on.” Her footsteps padded away, and the sound of her rummaging through her bag followed. “I can tell you’re one who is like an onion; I’ll have to peel away the layers to help you relax, starting with your physical wounds.” She swirled a bottle containing a thick substance and gave a bright smile. “Sit on the mattress and take off your shirt.”
He paced to the other end of the room and faced the
wall. The fiery burning in his back intensified. A cold sweat doused his temples and upper lip. He buried his face in his hands and receded into the corner to wait for her to leave.
“This isn’t happening.”
“What isn’t happening?”
What in the world was he doing here? Sixteen years he’d spent living in the fresh air, eating wild strawberries, blackberries, freshwater fish, and sleeping under the stars. Every other spring, he’d made his way to the southwest side of the Lightlands where the pines scented the breeze. So many times he’d brushed right past Kalea and not seen her. His life had changed forever when he did meet her. He’d known her face and her scent and her voice for a few sweet days, although time didn’t matter when it came to her. Her uncanny presence had attached to his soul. It belonged there. Finding her had been like a puzzle piece falling neatly into place. Wherever she dwelled, so would he. That handful of days had filled him with dreams and fantasies and her laugh. He’d found his place. His purpose. And then all of it…all of a sudden…had disappeared in one night.
“Why are you shaking?” The voice cooed, soft and tender like the hand touching his arm. Like Kalea’s voice.
He kept his eyes clenched and hidden. He couldn’t take the chance of it not being her.
The hand tugged the back of his shirt up. “Let’s see now. Oh, dear. It’ll be fine, though. Hold still.”
The sound of a tipping bottle glunked. A cold wetness spread over one of the lower lash marks on his side. The cool put the burning out. After a long sigh, he took control of his breathing. He still didn’t want to open his eyes.
“There might be too much light in here for relaxation,” Kalea said, as if reading his thoughts. She blew out the candle, and the fire in his wounds quieted a little more. She tugged on his arm. “Come sit down, or you’ll never relax.”
He stumbled through the dark until his foot found the mattress on the floor. He sat hugging his knees as she pulled his shirt up around the back of his neck. She turned the bottle again and added more coolness to the screaming gashes on his back.
“A few of them have torn open, but most of them are red and irritated. This salve will also clean the open wounds so they’ll heal better.”
It must’ve been the same salve Kalea had used on her lash marks in the bath. Though the darkness enshrouded his vision, he held his eyes closed to keep out the unfamiliar surroundings. Images of the convent raid returned to him in the dark, however. Being drugged up on that flowery smoke they’d forced him to inhale had obscured his past, his present, and his physical awareness. His mind was clear now, and those memories and concerns had returned.
“Those girls…” he said, unable to keep the weepy sound out of his voice.
She shushed him softly. “You’re all right now.”
Anything Kalea told him must be true. After her hands finished covering his back with the cold, oily liquid, they went into his hair to massage his scalp.
“You’re safe now.”
“Kalea,” he whispered.
“Yes,” she whispered back.
Tingles ran from each of her fingertip points. He sighed again, and his shoulders slackened. From behind him, she pecked kisses on his cheek and traced them along his neck. Goosebumps rose on either of his arms, depending on which side of his neck her lips touched. Her hands grazed around to his chest and stomach.
“Lie down,” she whispered in his ear. She put his shirt neatly down, and he obeyed. “Careful, try not to rub the salve away on your shirt.”
When he lay flat in surrender, sore and too tired to move anymore, her hands went to his codpiece and fiddled the laces loose. He could’ve slept easily, but the touch of slender fingers sliding around and caressing his penis filled him with both a new alertness and an intensified relaxation. All his blood traveled downward in thundering pulses.
In a trembling whisper, he said, “I thought the lashings came after the unclean thoughts.”
A gentle little laugh rang in the darkness, though it rang flat. Was it still Kalea? Her laugh should sound like fluttery music. Her scent was different too. Thinking made his head hurt, though. Every part of his body except the part she handled went limp. He lay helpless in a medley of exhaustion and tingles.
“No more talking,” she responded. “You have to let me do my work, or they’ll beat me later.”
“I won’t let them.” He found her hair and ran his hand through the soft locks.
Caught by surprise as he stroked her hair, he sucked in a breath when a pair of lips kissed down on the tip. He exhaled over a long moment to savor the texture of her soft tongue playing around his foreskin. The lips slid down the length of the shaft and up again, squeezing, sucking.
His other senses fluttered away in the dim atmosphere of the last remaining candle. Shadows danced over the walls with its turbulent flickering. He let it all go. The warm radiance of his inner furor spread to every limb. Is this what it was like to be touched? An enchanting blend of relaxation and excitement he’d waited a long time to experience. He used to assume he never would.
When he opened his eyes again, the tree canopy bowed over him. Kalea was there, like in his dreams. Lying limply, he let her do with him whatever she wanted. A smile touched his lips. He melted into a drift of euphoric darkness.
Chapter 19
A Hole for His Heart
The knife plunged into his flesh. The other hands swarmed in and peeled the flesh open for the prominent hand to delve in. Dorhen screamed at the cold shock…
And woke up sweating on a stale mattress. Candlelight flickered on the wall in a small room with warm, salty air.
“There you are. Have a bad dream?”
He jumped at the voice of the blonde woman wearing a robe—Selka. She sat by the little fireplace, trying to ignite some logs. “You were so tired,” she said, tossing more kindling twigs in. “You suffered a small delirious panic attack, but after a good blow you fell right to sleep. You were out for a full hour. When you’re ready again, you can practice on me. Shouldn’t be long now before their ritual starts.”
“What do you mean ‘blow’?”
She burst out a flat-toned laugh and strode over, a smooth, naked leg sliding out of the robe with each step, and tousled his hair.
“You are so cute. I’m starting to like you.”
“Never mind. I think I understand.” The bile overflowed in his stomach. What had he done? This might be something Kalea would make him confess about. Of course, it would get him in boiling trouble with her, and his preference not to tell her battled with his desire to oblige her every request, as it usually did.
“You’re already sitting more loosely. Glad I could help.” She returned to the fireplace.
Leaning on his elbow, he pulled the blanket over his chest. His undershirt stuck to his back with the salve. “What’s the ritual you mentioned?”
“One of their routine things.”
“Why do I have to go?”
She raised her eyebrows and gave a breezy smile. “What do you mean why? You’re going to learn sorcery.” She poked the little burning twigs with a stronger one.
“Learn sorcery? I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Kalea won’t have it. She’ll never talk to me again. Besides, I have to get back to her.”
The woman played the name on her tongue. “Ka-lee-ah. You were calling me that earlier. It seemed to make you feel better, so I played along.”
“Oh, God.” Dorhen buried his face in his hands and curled up on his side.
“It was cute. Is she your sweetheart?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he rose to his feet. The front of his leggings hung open, letting the chilly air shock his genitals, so he refastened it and double-knotted the strings. He strode to stand over her.
“You’re going to tell me how to get out of here. Does this place really have magic wards?”
Her smile dropped and her eyes narrowed. “Think again, sweetie.”
�
�About what?”
She shook her head with a dark glare in her eye that made a shiver run through him. “They’ve got you now. Just like they got me.” She had made that comment before.
“Tell me how to get out of here.”
Her mouth tightened as she stood. “If I do, they’ll skewer me and make me a prop in their rituals!” She shoved him. “Don’t get me killed!”
Dorhen fell onto the naked bedframe’s corner post and remained leaning on it, his hands up. She stared him down with an intensity he didn’t want to challenge.
“I won’t get you killed,” he said. “It’ll be all on me, I promise.”
She threw a pointed finger. “I’ve worked hard to gain the position I have now. I even work in the kingsorcerer’s chamber. You won’t ruin my life, okay?”
“Okay.”
She sank back to her knees to continue with the fire. “When I’m done here, I’ll get you some supper and then I’ll teach you how to please a woman.”
He knelt beside her. “What are they going to make me do in the ritual?”
She glanced up, her lips pouting now. “I don’t know. But they sent me to teach you about sex, and if you don’t show them you learned something, they’ll beat me up good. That’s their way.” She leaned in and blew on the embers until a flame blossomed.
Dipping his chin nearly to his chest, he murmured, “They disgust me. I won’t participate.”
“I think you will.”
He grabbed her wrist as it moved for more kindling, and she froze. “Tell me something useful about this place. Anything. I swear they’ll never find out.”
She glared at his hand grasping hers and jerked away. She stood. “I’ll be back with your supper.” She slammed the door behind her.
A locking sound didn’t follow like when Harn and Jerick had left him alone in here. The fire crackled in the little stone-lined hole in the wall, filling the room with a portion of its smoke. All he had left of his possessions were his leggings, shoes, and his undershirt. Selka’s bag sat abandoned by the door. He threw it open and rummaged for anything he could use as a weapon. All he found were bottles of different colored smelly oils, some extra candles, and a book.
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