by Nhys Glover
“No, but it’s somewhere to aim for. Where do you think we should go?” I snapped.
He scowled at me, all disgusted disdain for my stupid girl-thinking. “It’d be easier to find the road to Highlund... or Highairshan... or whatever the frag you people are calling it these days. We can hide there in the city better than we can wandering around in the open, looking for an army that might or might not be nearby.”
I stared at him in shock. It was a long way to Highairshan from here, wherever here was. “Even if we find the Highlund road, we’d be easy for the Devourers’ Soothsayer to locate. If she looks into her scrying pool and sees us climbing, she’s bound to assume we were heading for Highairshan.”
“I don’t want to walk into the middle of a full-scale offensive, Flame. It’s dangerous and not what we’re supposed to be doing,” Laric argued back.
“Then which way, Lud Laric? As you’ve been so good at staying free of the Devourers lately, haven’t you? Oh, wait, no. If not for us you’d be in their clutches by now.”
“I just was in their clutches, and it was me who put the kidnappers out of action and broke down the cellar door. We’d still be in there if I’d left it to you!”
“You’d have still been lying on your comfortable bed down there in the dark, if not for me!” I yelled, hands on hips, just moments away from punching him. Gods, he was infuriating!
That’s when he did it. Shockingly, mortifyingly, he dragged me into his arms and kissed me. No, it wasn’t the kiss that was mortifying. It was my response to it. Instead of fighting his assault, I gave in to it. I let him have his way. Because it was my way as well.
Gods, his lips felt so good against mine. Hard and demanding, and yet not in a hateful way. Not in an Airshin way. They conveyed need and passion, and they required the same from me. I gave it to him. I gave him all of me in that moment. Blissfully, blindly, stupidly, I gave myself to him.
The kiss grew in heat and intensity, hands desperate and seeking, caressed and stroked every place they could reach. My fingers threaded through his hair, his black-as-midnight hair that fell like a shiny curtain around his face. It was just as silky as I’d expected it to be. It felt like pure luxury to run my fingers through it.
Laric’s hands were under my tunic and against the bare skin of my back. Hot as brands, those hands. And I wanted them everywhere.
But as suddenly as it had started, it was over. Laric groaned and drew away, leaving me barely able to stand. My lips felt bruised, my skin alive with sensation so intense that even the brush of my coarse tunic against it felt too much.
His heavy-lidded eyes stared at me as he panted. I wanted to know what he was thinking. I needed to know! Why had he kissed me in the first place? And why did he stop in the second?
“Don’t look at me like that, Flame. You’re going to regret this. You know you will. Not only will you start feeling as if you’ve betrayed that loyal hound of yours but that you risked our safety as well, with the Devourers coming after us. It’s just lust, all right. We’ve been through a lot and it makes sense that we took the easiest way to blow off steam. That’s all it was. No infidelity on your part. No unrequited love on mine.”
I listened to his words, but they wouldn’t make sense in my lust-befuddled mind. He was stopping because I’d regret it later? What did a hound have to do with anything? How was what we did make me unfaithful...
And then I remembered Zem. Gods, how had I forgotten Zem? He’d be going crazy trying to find me, and I was about to have sex with Laric! Of all the people it could have been, I was about to let him take me—right here, right now—while two Devourers lay caught in nightmares not ten steps away. The rest of those damned priests could be about to explode out of their rippling pool to recapture us at any moment!
I sickened myself. Laric sickened me!
“Good! Thank you for that. You’re so right. I was already feeling disgusted with myself for what... what we were doing. You’re right. It’s what happens on a battle field. I experienced it with Zem in the aftermath of that final battle. Normal. What we felt was normal.”
I drew in a couple of calming breaths to stop myself babbling on any longer. Instead, I turned to look at the road—what there was of it—that led away from the dilapidated hut. It ran east, parallel to the mountains that rose skyward not far away. Though it was clear no one had travelled the dirt road for many suns, I knew it would lead to a main road sooner or later. Maybe I’d see the Airshan army camped there. At the very least I’d get away from the Devourer’s way-station, because they would be coming after us, maybe at any time now. Why had I let lust fog my brain so much that I forgot that essential fact?
I needed to get back to the others. I needed to get back to Zem!
In growing panic, I started to run, not caring if Laric joined me. But when his long legs brought him alongside me in no time, I felt relieved. It wouldn’t be good if we separated. We were The Five, we needed to stay together if we were to have any chance against this malignant force. A force that was growing more overwhelming with each passing turn.
The Devourers could double their manpower and travel across huge distances at will. They had a seer who could predict our every action before we took it. We were attacked and captured inside the stronghold of the Airshan government, for frag’s sake! Under the nose of the Goddess Incarnate herself. This couldn’t get much worse.
“You’re the one who thinks that giving up in advance is stupid. So why are you feeding yourself all those defeatist thoughts? Are they helping you run harder or allowing you to get insights into our situation?” Laric asked me, barely panting.
I knew they were rhetorical questions. Of course my thinking wasn’t helping me. But not looking at a bad situation—ignoring it—didn’t help either.
No, I knew that was just me trying to justify my thinking. I couldn’t afford to give into those thoughts of disaster. We might have been captured in the Goddess’ own stronghold, but their Seer wasn’t all-knowing. She hadn’t known Laric would convince the priests to take him with them, or that he’d get a chance to use his magic on them so we could escape. No, she wasn’t all-knowing.
And we were not without resources. We had the might of the whole world on our side. We had the Goddess of All Creation with us. And she’d promised that if we could make our individual selves—five powerful mages that we were—into one unit, we had a chance to defeat The Jayger. We had power on our own, but we had even more together.
I noticed Laric smiling out of the corner of my eye.
“What?” I demanded with annoyance.
“Is that what we are? Five powerful mages? Powerful enough to defeat even this monster?” It was said jokingly, almost snidely, and yet I heard vulnerability in there too—the need for confirmation and assurance that we had a chance.
“Aye, we will be. Do you think the Devourers are putting all this effort into capturing us— me in this most recent incident—because we haven’t got a chance? And though they might be able to multiply their numbers, they can’t do that indefinitely. There is a limit to them. Every time we take some down we cut their numbers.”
“How often do you think they can be divided?” Laric said, beginning to pant almost as heavily as I was now.
Maybe he’d been showing off before, making out the pace wasn’t getting to him. Now he’d let down his guard, and I could tell he was tiring as much as I was. If I didn’t slow down soon I’d be collapsing from sun-sickness.
“I don’t know. I got a sense that every time they divide they become weaker. I think the ones... some of them anyway, who attacked you were divisions of divisions. I think the ones sent to the palace were stronger, being just one division. I’m not sure how true this is, I just got a sense of it when I was in the nightmare.”
Gasping from all the talking and running, I stopped and bent double, as pain stabbed like a dagger into my side. Laric, who had run on a few steps more before realising I’d stopped, came back and stood staring down at me in
concern.
“We’ll need water if we’re to keep this up. Ideally, we should get out of the sun and only move on after the sun goes down.”
I knew he was right, but I hated it. My mouth was already a desert. I’d drink water out of a ditch right now, if it was all that was on offer.
To distract myself, I looked around. I estimated we’d run a league from the way-station. Not far enough to be safe, but far enough to put them off our path a little. Unless they had a tracker who could identify our footprints and follow them. Why hadn’t I thought of that? We should have cleared our tracks like Trace had cleared his and Airsha’s when he’d kidnapped her. He’d done it so well that we might never have found their path if not for Zem.
Zem! Gods, I missed him! And Landor. I hoped he was keeping Zem sane.
But worrying about tracks now was a waste of effort. They would either come and find our tracks, or they wouldn’t. How long would the Devourers wait for their missing men? When they didn’t arrive at their destination with us—with me—might they think they’d all been killed at the old palace? Surely, that would be their first thought. Unless the Soothsayer told them different. But they may not get her to scry for them until the kidnappers were well overdue. It was impossible to know for sure.
What I did know was that I had exhausted myself by running, and now I was paying for it. I needed to get out of the sun and conserve the moisture left in my body.
Not far away, a lone tree—its leaves olive green and grey, its bark as pale as a ghost—grew in solitary splendour. We’d be sitting ducks under it, if the Devourers sent anyone after us, but there wasn’t much choice. There was nothing else that could provide cover for leagues in any direction. Other than the hut we’d just left, of course. And that was out of the question.
I nodded in the direction of the tree and Laric nodded his agreement. Together we headed for the scant shelter. I prayed to the Goddess that it would be enough and that we’d be safe.
The shade was patchy and there was little we could do but sit close together, moving as the sun moved, so we remained under its protection.
The day seemed to have gone on forever. I was so exhausted my limbs seemed to weigh as much as a beastling’s. Fleetingly, I wondered if Laric had used his magic on me, and I was about to drop into another nightmare—this time one of my own making.
But when I looked over at him from under my lashes, I saw that he was looking as bad as I felt. I think he’d suffered more during the attack than I had. Except for a sore throat from being nearly strangled, I was remarkably unhurt. Laric had a busted nose from me, as well as numerous cuts and bruises on his face from the attack. His knuckles were raw and bloodied, and he’d been favouring one leg as he ran. I’d bet his back ached too from having pushed up on those doors, the way he had.
“I’m sorry about your nose,” I offered softly.
He glanced up at me, and from his look of surprise, I could see he’d forgotten all about his nose. Tentatively, he fingered it, grimacing with pain as he did so.
“It’s broken. I need to have it pushed back into place or I’ll have trouble breathing through it from now on. I can’t breathe through it now.”
“Is that why you were panting so hard?”
He shrugged and grimaced. “I took a beating. Given a choice, I would have stayed on that bed in the dark until I recovered.”
“But we had to get out of there!” I exclaimed, not believing he’d have considered staying, if he had another choice.
“I know. That’s why I didn’t. But I think I’ve got a couple of cracked ribs and there’s something wrong with my thigh.”
I shifted so I was facing him, concern probably written all over my face. “Show me.”
He lay down and lifted his tunic up so I could see the ugly red mottling along his rib-cage on his left side. I tentatively reached out and touched the spot, feeling for any obvious breaks. He grimaced at my touch, but let me continue my investigation.
Injuries during fighting practise were not uncommon and I’d had a few cracked ribs in my time, so I knew what they felt like. I also knew how painful breathing could become because of them. How Laric had run beside me for so long, when expanding his lungs would have hurt like daggers being driven into his side each time he did it, was hard to imagine. And then there was being bent almost double pushing up at the cellar doors.
“I can’t feel any obvious breaks, if they’re cracked it’s likely minor. But the bruising is bad. I think it would be good if we wrapped them tight. It must have killed you pushing on those doors and then running. You should have told me!”
He gave a painful little laugh. “Not so much from that but from my leg, yeah it hurt to do both. I was lying when I said I thought I was up to breaking my drought back in the cellar. Male pride.”
I shook my head. He’d been all about male pride all the way.
Before I started addressing his injuries, I needed to see them all. His breeches were dark, but now the tunic was pulled up I could see the fabric had been cut and there was dried blood stiffening it all the way down the pant leg. When I followed the flow, I could see his boots were shiny with it. How much had he lost?
“Take the tunic off so I can make bindings out of it. Then pull down your breeches so I can see that cut. Was it a knife or dagger?”
“Knife, I think. And I know you’re keen, but I really don’t think I’m up to–”
I groaned and gritted my teeth. “Give it a rest, Laric. Just let me do what I can. I wish Landor were here.”
He struggled out of his tunic, revealing a beautiful, if bruised and bloodied, torso. Then he undid and eased his breeches down off his right hip. He kept himself modestly covered, but I wouldn’t have been a woman if I didn’t notice the curve of his hip bone and the dark trail of hair leading down from his belly button to what lay hidden. My mouth watered a little for all it was dry as dust.
But the sight of the deep cut along the outside of his thigh just below his hip was enough to put my lust in its place. It looked like a razor sharp knife caught him a glancing slice, cutting into skin and muscle about a finger’s width deep. Yet the blade had been so fine that the cut would have looked superficial, if not for the blood oozing out from it.
“This needs cleaning and stitching,” I said gruffly. “Not just the skin, but the muscle too. But I can’t do it. All I can do is try to bind it closed and hope we find help soon. You’ll have to pull the breeches off that one leg.”
No smart comments this time. Laric was obviously in too much pain to even try to keep up the pretence of arrogant masculinity. While he removed his breeches, I began tearing up his tunic. I doubted it would be enough. He was, after all, a well-built man with two injuries requiring bandaging.
I took the opportunity to turn away and remove my own tunic, so I could tear off the bottom. I left only enough to cover my breasts. Once I replaced what was left, I turned to look over my shoulder, to see how Laric was going. He’d stopped half way and was staring at me with troubled eyes.
“What?” I demanded, more curtly than I’d meant. I was worried about him, and worried about us.
“I’ve never thought of a woman’s back as being sexually arousing before. I’m all about tits and... the more obvious parts. But your back is... beautiful. Especially as I know that milky skin is as smooth and soft as it looks.”
“I’ve got freckles on my back,” I muttered, feeling my cheeks beginning to burn.
“Just a dusting. Just enough to stop you looking pallid.”
We were sitting close as we shared a patch of shade. Laric leaned over and ran the back of his fingers down the side of my spine. The position must have hurt, but he didn’t appear aware of it. His eyes couldn’t seem to leave the skin not covered by the scrap of tunic I now had left.
My throat clogged and I tried to clear it. I was shaking from his words and his touch.
“Laric, you’re bleeding, you’re hurt and we have Devourers on our trail. Please... just take you
r breeches off so I can help you,” I pleaded. I knew if he kept doing what he was doing I was going to give in to whatever spell he was weaving between us. We were both at our most vulnerable right now, in so many ways. It would be madness to follow the path he was laying out for us so tantalizingly.
His fingers withdrew, and he sighed heavily. While I looked away toward the towering mountains, I tried to bring my juddering nerves under control. This wasn’t about me. He wasn’t attracted to me. He’d told me that right from the start. What was happening now was because the Goddess was drawing us together for her own purposes. It didn’t matter if Landor’s theory was right and we were parts of the same soul. We never would have come together if not for the Goddess. Which was good, I supposed. We needed to be united to save the world. But I had to remember it wasn’t real...
“All right, do what you need to do and then let me rest,” Laric said tiredly.
I turned to find him naked except for his breeches, which he’d placed strategically over his groin. As I busied myself winding tied-together strips of tunic around his upper thigh and his groin, the back of my hand kept grazing what looked like a sizable erection. I tried to ignore what lay under that fabric and to think of anything but the kiss we’d shared. Or the heavy-lidded eyes that seemed to bore into me as I worked.
Why wouldn’t my hands stop shaking? I had to do this. With every passing moment Laric was leaking away more and more of his blood, sapping his strength further. If the Devourers struck now we’d be done for.
Chapter Five
SHARDRA
I lay in his warm embrace, feeling his soft breath against my naked shoulder. His bright wings, the colour of tarnished silver, surrounded us both, keeping the world at bay.
“You are everything to me...” he breathed into my ear, setting off a stampede of prickles down my neck and shoulders.
“Without you I would go insane. Sometimes I think I am insane, and you are just part of that insanity,” I confided, feeling the tears pricking my eyes.