“I don’t know, I—”
Emalek took a step toward them. “Ashek—”
Ashek’s arm coiled. His fist thudded into the boy’s face. The youth went flying into the sand, knocked back a good two paces.
“Ashek!” several voices clamored at once.
He stalked toward the boy, bleeding on the ground. “You didn’t see who it was. You took the shot and you nearly—”
“Ashek, I’m fine!” Talitha shoved between them. Her back ached and she would be bruised for some time, but neither those things was Kurzik’s fault and she was fine.
Chest heaving, Ashek glared past her. There was rage in him to level mountains. That thought did not frighten her as it should have.
“He didn’t know. It’s alright.” She laid her hands over the fists clenched at Ashek’s sides. “It’s alright.”
The tendons in Ashek’s knuckles relaxed little by little under her touch.
No one made to help the boy, but several Dunedrifters hovered nearby. Talitha half feared he would kill his own fighter. He’d done it before.
“I didn’t know where you were.” Ashek bowed his head. “I didn’t…” His hands shook as he framed her face.
His eyes darkened in the light of the fires. Then he kissed her, hard. It was a savage kiss, a Dunedrifter’s kiss. He kissed her like it was a war, like he meant to batter down every wall between them and take everything she had to give.
Talitha parted her lips without thinking. Her fingers clenched his shoulders as his tongue shoved inside her mouth, exploring, claiming. He seemed to fit against her—not like the boys she’d kissed when she was younger. That had been wet and sloppy with overeager teeth clacking awkwardly into hers. Ashek was a man and had a man’s kiss—strong and decisive and skillful.
Heat flushed her skin and she ached in all the places she wanted him to touch. If they hadn’t been watched by nearly fifty pairs of eyes, she probably would have wrapped her legs around his waist and cursed everyone who said she couldn’t.
“It’s alright,” she panted, breaking it off. “Ashek?”
He rested his forehead against hers, breathless just as she was. He stroked her hair, fingers clenching in the tangles for just a moment before he let it go. “Instinct,” he growled.
Talitha gulped.
Turning from her, he cleared his throat, not quite as rigid and not quite as confrontational as he had been. “I should not have struck you, Kurzik.” He lowered a hand for the boy, who hadn’t dared rise.
The youth took it and Ashek dragged him to his feet, clapping him on the shoulder.
“Forgive me, brother.”
Emalek blinked at Talitha with wide eyes.
Kurzik frowned, but bowed his head, muttering his own apologies and forgiveness.
Shaza caught Talitha’s gaze, watching her with a pensive silence. He was not the only one—Kasrei stood with arms crossed and mouth pressed into a hard line.
Talitha knew it, they knew it, Ashek probably knew it—duty or not, honor or not—if she was with Ashek for too much longer, she would tumble naked into his arms. It was just a matter of time.
That would endanger the stability of Ilios itself. Ashek was the choice she had no right to make.
They had best find Gilsazi fast.
Chapter Eight
Talitha stepped toward Shaza with the tribal leader under his foot. The woman appeared to be alive and staying that way for now. She struggled weakly, but it was useless.
The ensaadi crouched before her. “How do you break the ring of fire?”
The flames roared around them in a red-hot wall of fire. They weren’t hot enough to hurt from this distance, but they were more than hot enough to keep anyone away.
The woman coughed. “I’m dead no matter what I tell you.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
“You think I trust in mercy from a Dunedrifter’s whore?”
Though she was still flushed from Ashek’s kiss, Talitha didn’t respond. “You aren’t a Dunedrifter?
The bandit scoffed.
“Do you know where Xeram is?”
The bandit spat.
Shaza sighed. “I don’t think you appreciate the full severity of your situation.”
“You’ve killed my kin. All that remains is for me to join them.”
Talitha pinched the skin between her eyes. “Breida, was it? You’re young. You fought well. No one who fights like that truly wishes for death.”
Breida broke eye contact. “I will get it either way.”
Talitha sighed. “Everyone dies. You will die much sooner than originally planned if you do not help us.”
“Help?” the woman scoffed.
“With information.” Talitha tilted her head to the side, surveying the young woman. “If you don’t know, say you don’t know and we’ll kill you quickly. Have you heard anything of Xeram or a tavrosi in these parts?”
Tavrosi were rare enough these days that one would be memorable. Especially the purebloods like Gilsazi.
Breida’s gaze flickered to the east side of the gorge, then dropped. “I don’t know.”
Talitha shook her head. “If only I believed you.”
“Talitha! Shaza!” Ashek waved them over, gesturing for Shaza to bring Breida to the edge of the wall of fire. Kurzik jumped to help, perhaps trying to redeem himself. Breida was small and wiry as a jackal, not difficult for the two men to heft or even one. They deposited her before Ashek, holding her tight.
The Dunedrifter surveyed the girl for a moment by the firelight, then shrugged. “Bind her to one of the rocks. If it spreads, she’ll be first to burn. We camp here for the night.”
“Ashek?” Talitha frowned.
“We don’t have to concern ourselves with a fire.” Ashek gestured to the ring around them. “Besides, it should burn itself out by morning.”
Talitha couldn’t argue with his logic. After they had gathered the sirrushes and calmed the animals, they bedded down and waited for dawn.
Breida sulked from the ground with a Dunedrifter watching her. Ashek was one of the last to bed down, pacing for a good two hours before collapsing with his back to Talitha and his arms locked across his chest.
Talitha lay awake watching him well after that. Long after he had fallen asleep and Kasrei had begun snoring.
She touched her lips, remembering his the possessive heat of his kiss, the sheer need radiating off him when he’d locked his arms around her. Swallowing, Talitha closed her eyes. She tried to think about Gilsazi and Ilios and needing to get back before Nehemian did something terrible.
Yet all she could see was Ashek and the heat blazing in his eyes as he’d kissed her.
That next morning the ring of fire had burned out, reduced to blackened scorch marks. Shaza was sitting beside Breida as if the two were old friends. Though she was still tied, she had a bowl of something hot in her hands and sipped quietly.
Talitha dragged herself upright with a groan. The bruises and scrapes from last night had finally caught up with her. Every inch of her ached from neck to ankles. She hadn’t been this sore for months, perhaps years. Nonetheless, she hauled herself up and slapped on a brave face.
Shaza spotted Talitha was awake and approached with a smug grin. “Xeram is two days from here in a place called Tivosha, in Lakeshan lands. He captured a tavrosi last week and Breida was told it was for ransom.”
Talitha’s brows rose. “How did you get all that?”
Shaza shrugged. “My father always said the gods had gifted me.”
Yet Talitha had always been immune to his charms. “I’ll tell Ashek. Where is he?”
“He went with that boy Kurzik to scout ahead this morning.”
“Is Kurzik alright?”
“Last I saw him. Seemed a bit nervous, though.”
God, Talitha hoped Ashek wasn’t planning on punishing the boy. Better warriors than him had done worse in the confusion of battle.
She found a somewhat private corner to relieve
herself, then returned to the central camp. Most the Dunedrifters were already saddled and had their sirrushes packed. Kasrei sat knotting a reed in her hands, back straight, eyes fixed on the western passage.
Talitha remembered finding Kasrei in the wild—all alone in her oasis with nothing but scorpions after two years. When a scorpion poisoned Talitha, she’d saved Talitha’s life, helped Gilsazi, then saved them all again. When Gilsazi and Kasrei had reappeared one morning, disheveled and covered in sand, everyone had known they were bound in samahu.
A sirrush snorted, head tilting in the direction of the western gorge. Talitha looked up to see a lone figure with a javelin across his shoulders marching back. Kurzik’s warrigal skins flapped loosely, overlarge on his unfilled frame.
“Where’s Ashek?” Talitha said the instant he was in ear shot.
The boy pointed. “He said to come back and tell everyone to meet him two miles up ahead in an hour.”
“What’s he doing?” Talitha had no need to know. She had no right to know. She was not his commander nor was she his keeper.
“His prayers.”
“What?”
Kurzik held up his hands in the universal gesture for I don’t know.
Talitha looked to Shaza. “See my sirrush is readied and then come meet us.”
“As you wish. But you’re not fooling anyone!” he shouted to her back.
Talitha was already on her way. She buckled on her sword as a precaution and followed the direction Kurzik had come from.
A tangle of jasmine vines grew in the shade of the crags. The roots of the vine dug into the sand, rising up in defiance. There must be water somewhere near here or an aquifer of some sort. They would need to find water soon if they had to travel much longer—the well water from Kilgal wouldn’t last forever.
Talitha walked for perhaps two miles and was just thinking of turning back when she found him.
Was this how Hudspethites prayed?
Ashek had found an open space, glowing in the morning sun. He had removed his shirt and sandals and drawn his sword, running through drills. His back rippled and stretched with every motion.
He moved with a leonine grace—finessed and fierce. His hair was loose from its ties and shook around his shoulders with each swing and thrust, free as he was.
Ashek paused, holding a lunging stance for a long moment. Then he spun around, bringing his sword smoothly down from the shoulder. It was then she realized his eyes were closed.
He paused again, head silently bowed. He held that pose for just a moment, then carried on in the fluid rhythm. The motions were complex, practiced, executed with only the strength necessary. It displayed trained discipline and self-control. In some ways, Ashek reminded her of herself. Perhaps they were not so different.
Ashek paused, panting, his back to her once again. “And how long have you been watching me, ensaadi?”
Talitha’s face heated, caught in her voyeurism. “I came to tell you Breida knows where Xeram is.”
Ashek nodded. “Good. But that could have waited until my return.” He picked up his jerkin, lying over a low stone and pulled it over his head.
Talitha swallowed again and looked away.
Ashek sat on a low rock and begun lashing on his sandals back on. “I don’t like you standing back there. Especially since you stabbed me.”
“We stabbed each other.” Talitha nonetheless sat cross-legged beside him, careful to keep a good two feet of space between them. “Xeram has headed back west. Toward Lakesh.”
Ashek’s brows furrowed, but he didn’t answer.
“Do you think this is young Damara’s revenge for killing her father and brother?”
Ashek shrugged. “It was me who killed him, not you.”
“I’m the reason.” Talitha rested her knees on her elbows. “I keep wondering—did whoever take Gilsazi know I would come after him myself?”
“Yes.”
“That didn’t take long.”
“Think about it, Talitha. You’re an ensaadi who has fought your own battles and led your own armies since you became ensaadi. No one with any basic understanding of you would think otherwise.”
Talitha smeared a hand over her face. “I have made a terrible mistake.”
“You would be drawn into a trap or called a coward. You were damned either way,” the Dunedrifter growled back. “As far as politics. As far as doing the right thing, I would say you have.” Ashek began lashing his hair behind his head, wrapping the leather tie around his thick black mane. “Then again, it brought you back to me. I could be biased.”
“I just want to save Gilsazi.”
“He means a great deal to you.”
“Yes.” Talitha rubbed her thumb against a curve in the stone that served as their bench. “Since we were children.”
“How close?” There was no hint of jealousy in the words, probably because he would know nothing had happened. Gilsazi was bound in samahu to another woman and that usually only happened with someone’s first unbound lover.
“Siblings.” Talitha exhaled. “He was more brother to me than Sargon ever was. And confidante. But nothing more.”
“And others?” It was hard to tell if he was teasing or not.
She didn’t think she should be telling him, but it came out anyway. “No.”
Ashek had the grace not to react straight away. His hands slowed as he buckled the belt around his waist, but his response was measured, level. “You’re a virgin.” He didn’t sound surprised.
Talitha didn’t move. “Do you think less of me?”
Ashek slung his sword over his back. “You think it makes you less?”
“People have joked, people make comments.” Talitha folded her arms tightly across her chest. “Now that Esreth is married and with child, it’s worse.”
“Is she?”
“Yes.” Talitha realized that would be news to him. “A few months.”
“About that…” Ashek took a deep breath. “Why haven’t you?”
“It was never advantageous to Ilios.”
“Liar.”
Talitha blinked. “What?”
“You’re heir to the most powerful state in the Sandsea, the richest, too. You could have had any man you wanted under any terms you chose, but you haven’t.”
The ensaadi bolted her arms tighter across her chest. “I didn’t want to.”
“Why not?”
Talitha shook her head. “Enough. It’s your turn.”
“That is fair, isn’t it?” Ashek set both feet on the ground, ready for travel, battle, or whatever else. “I…am not a virgin.”
Talitha bit her lip.
“There have been six. All of them women bound to someone else.”
Talitha tried not to be angry. She shouldn’t be angry. She had no right to feel that way. It was none of her concern if he’d slept with entire legions as Shaza had.
“My first was the wife of Kantos, Ensaak Thasrus’s second lieutenant. I was sixteen. She was one of his field marshals and it seems she had a habit of taking slaves she fancied. Her husband knew, but he did the same thing.” Ashek shook his head. “I don’t even remember her name.”
Talitha wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.
“She eventually passed me on to her sister—Pudmea—who bought and trained me as a bodyguard. You can guess what happened there.”
Yes, Talitha could imagine all the things Ashek learned from his time there—for the bedchamber and the battlefield. She wanted to punch someone, but she wasn’t quite certain who. All the same, she said, “Go on.”
Ashek sighed. “There was an emissary from Iysto who came to visit. A cousin of Thasrus I was assigned to guard once. Some noblewoman who I didn’t really know when I was slobbering drunk at a feast. Then last was a magian at the Jak’mor college who was responsible for executing Pudmea’s will.”
“Pudmea?”
“The woman who owned me, remember?” Ashek’s mouth hardened. “Pudmea was a harsh mist
ress. Demanding. Cruel to her enemies. But she ordered my freedom and the same for Emalek and several others upon her death. When I saw Thasrus turning against her, I knew I needed an ally to see that her will was carried through—hence seducing the magian.”
Talitha swallowed. “Did you love any of them?”
Ashek didn’t scoff at the question as she expected. He let off a long breath. “Pudmea I respected the most. If I did not love her, then I at least admired her.”
Plucking at the hem of her tunic, Talitha tried not to feel anything at those words. “What made you respect her?”
“She was…” Ashek frowned. “She was shrewd. A great warrior in her own right. Her husband had taken their two sons to study as magians after his own trade.” He inhaled. “It sounds perverted, but I think I was a surrogate for both her children and husband.”
“It is strange,” Talitha agreed. “But I’ve seen it before.” Pudmea wouldn’t have been the first lonely parent and abandoned spouse to seek comfort with a lover half her age.
Ashek’s shoulders relaxed a little. “Pudmea was passionate, but not jealous. I was favored well before she took me to her bed. After, it was no secret I was her favorite.”
“You used her.”
“I used them all.” Ashek’s tone hardened. “I was a slave, Talitha. What would you have had me do?”
Talitha wanted to say something harsh, something hurtful. She bit her tongue.
“What would you know of being owned?”
“You’d be surprised.” Talitha’s voice shook. How many times had sleeping with someone been the easy way out? She’d lost track of all the instances her grandfather had hinted she should take this chancellor or that ensaadi to her bed. The idea had only sounded more and more repulsive each time.
“Is that everyone?”
“Yes.” Ashek gruffly answered.
All six of those women were from Ashek’s time as a slave. He hadn’t mentioned taking anyone since being granted his freedom. Living in places like Kilgal, no less.
Talitha took a deep breath. That didn’t make it wholly acceptable, but she could live with it.
“Do you think less of me?”
Talitha studied the ground at her feet. She shouldn’t even be having this conversation.
Dunedrifter (Warlords of the Sandsea Book 2) Page 6