"I thought you were going to be killed!" His voice was low and dangerous, showing his anger more eloquently than with words.
"I am fine, Kerian. I think that it has something to do with Merlin's gift. But I am not too sure. But I know that this little angel would never hurt me."
As Kerian stepped closer, the 'little angel' bared its teeth and snorted at him. It was the unicorn equivalent of 'get bent' and Kerian knew it.
"Can you now understand the unicorns too, Lady?" he asked as he stared at the beast, a dangerous glint in his eyes. It was the Kerian equivalent of, 'if you hurt her, you will pay.'
"No, I cannot, but I know that he will never hurt me. What is his name?" Her green eyes sparkled up at him as she continued stroking the equine, making Kerian picture her eyes glinting as they stroked a certain part of his anatomy, slowly, from the base to the tip. Would her hands feel just a bit rough, but warm, adding delightful friction as she sped up? Would his natural lubrication ease her motions as her thumb made small circles around the head of his cock, moving in time to the deep throb that was sure to make his sac tighten with the need to release his hot seed? Shaking off his fantasy, he answered her question.
"He has no name, Lady. He is a unicorn and that is what I call him."
Brieana frowned a little at that, but smiled brightly after a moment.
"Then I will name him, Kerian. From now on, he is Magic, Black Magic."
Kerian sighed at the strangeness of this woman. She had to put a name to everything she came in contact with. Her sword was Excalibur, her kingdom, the whole bloody thing, was called Camelot. Now she had named the unicorn Black Magic! Before long, she would be naming each chum that he owned!
"Very well, Lady. We will call this unsociable creature Black Magic."
The unicorn seemed to take offense and snapped at Kerian, but he ignored him. The smile lighting up Brieana's face made him forget his earlier annoyance and the rude beasts.
"How do you fare this morning?" he carefully asked, looking for any signs of the drug.
"I am fine, Kerian. But that is the reason that I sought you out this morning, instead of awaiting you in the hall. Why did your stepmother drug me?"
Kerian sighed and took her hand as she stepped closer. "She is a strange one, Brieana. She has never really been a mother to me, although she has defended me at a time when I was unable to defend myself. She is just cautious of new people and protective of Mirage. This is her only home and if something ever happened to it, she has no clan to turn to. She thought that we were keeping some knowledge of Mirage's welfare from her and sought answers."
Brieana made a face at his words, but he quickly continued with his explanation.
"I do not condone what she did, Lady Brieana, and I told her as much, but I can understand her fear. Rivals wiped out her clan before the treaty went into effect and gave us this uneasy peace that we now share. I think she is more afraid of losing her home than anything else. Still, what she did was dangerous and unnecessary. I have warned her about you, and I am sure that she'll keep her distance from now on."
"I refuse to be in the same hall with that woman now, Kerian. I can also understand her reasoning, but what she did was sly and underhanded. If she wished to kill me if she found out that I was a threat, she could have easily done so. What kind of potion did she use anyway? I cannot even remember what I told her and it had no effect on her!"
"No effect on her?" Kerian pounced on that statement like a hungry bloodhound.
"She tested her witch's brew before she served it to me, Kerian."
"She must have an antidote for it then," he decided as he stored that piece of information away. "But she will trouble you no longer."
"That is true, Kerian, because I refuse to go back in there with that madwoman!"
Nodding his understanding, Kerian released her hand, noticing how small and warm it felt nestled in his, and turned back to the area where he was readying the unicorns for travel.
"I mean it!" she called after him as she started to follow. "Do you understand, Kerian?"
It was an interesting procession that followed the Warlord as he walked back to the female unicorn. First there was a red-faced and sputtering Brieana, followed by a somewhat docile unicorn that snorted and stomped at everything that passed him, including insects and the wind, yet gently nuzzled his new mistress' shoulder. Bringing up the rear was a disgruntled and grumbling purple drack, with his wings held tight to his body and his tail nearly dragging the ground.
Finally when they reached his objective, the female with the golden stripe down her face, Brieana's mouth slammed shut.
"I suppose you wish to name her too?" he asked as he removed something from the pack on her back, neatly avoiding her snapping jaws and disgusted looks.
"Blaze. Her name is Blaze, Kerian, and she is a fierce protector."
Kerian rolled his eyes as Brieana rushed over to stroke this unicorn too into blissful docility. He bit back a feeling of jealousy as he brought his cloth-wrapped package forward.
"If you are done playing tamer of all animals great and small, I have a promised gift to offer to you."
Brieana turned around, a delighted smile still on her face as she assessed Kerian's words.
"What have you promised me, Kerian?"
"Have you forgotten so quickly, Lady?" he teased as he presented the package to her.
Abandoning her new living toys, Brieana eagerly reached up and took the gift from his hands. The weight of it almost seemed familiar to her as she quickly unwrapped it.
"My sword! Kerian, it's my sword!"
"As promised, Lady."
But Brieana was already lost in the wonder of the object that she held within her hands. This was a sword like no other. Its curved blade was serrated on the inside curve and spiked on the outer. The hilt was fashioned with an ornate silver hand guard and a single emerald embedded in its pommel. The black leather grip fit her small hand perfectly as she hefted the blade to test its balance. This was a warrior's sword. With it she could protect herself and any others they deemed worthy.
"This is beautiful, Kerian," she sighed as she gave it an experimental flick with her wrist. "You designed this for me?"
"Of course, Lady. I also remember saying that I could never restore your lost sword to you, but I may have a chance to do just that."
"Thank you, Kerian." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. No one had ever given her a gift quite like this before. Merlin gave her the torc, but that was all part of his schemes, and Arthur never gave her anything at all. "I have never before received such a thoughtful gift, any gift for that matter."
Touched by her obvious regard for the weapon, Kerian again felt a swelling within his heart. No one ever touched him like this small dark-haired woman. Her every tear had the power to render him useless.
"Then shall we go and claim your sword and birthright, Lady?" Kerian asked. Anything to stop this awful, awful, wonderful burning sensation in his chest. "Shall we go and save your kingdom?"
"Yes, Kerian! Yes!" Her passionate answer caused an uncomfortable tightening in his loins as he pictured her entreaty under different circumstances, mainly under him.
"You have eaten?" he asked, his voice a little tight with his growing desire.
"I have food with me," she replied, still looking at the sword with glazed eyes.
Bread and cheese, as if a meal, they make! Zorn grumbled still miffed about his lost meal.
"Then let us be off!" Kerian turned to Blaze and, deftly avoiding the bite that surely would have caused him lots of pain and the unicorn great satisfaction, he settled himself upon her saddled back.
Tucking her sword into a scabbard on Magic's saddle, Brieana quickly scrambled onto her seat atop the great stallion, and turned to face Kerian.
He looked a bit uncomfortable sitting on Blaze's back. The way he kept shifting signaled that he was in some discomfort. Perhaps it is just the transition from drack riding to unicorn riding, she decid
ed as she watched him ready himself for their journey.
"Not what you want to be riding, Kerian?" she asked slyly, referring to the ease in which he rode drackback.
"Not at all, Lady," he gritted as her words sent another erotic picture running through his head. A picture where she was beneath him, thighs wrapping tightly around his waist as he rode her to a mutually delightful finish. "Not what I had in mind at all."
Blaze snorted as if she could read his mind and was amused by his private fantasies. Zorn gave him another odd look, which he ignored, and skillfully turned Blaze into the direction of the Forbidden Forest. Putting the pleasures of the flesh, with great difficulty, out of his mind, he gestured in the direction that they were supposed to go.
"Your destiny awaits, Lady!" he called to her as he urged Blaze into a fast gallop.
"Our destiny, silly man!" she called to him as she kicked Magic into a full gallop and raced her future mate to their fortune. "You are just too silly and vain to realize it!"
Chapter Fifteen
The smell of damp vegetation and moist earth filled Brieana's senses as the darkness of the forest closed in on her. They had been traveling for hours inside the dark wooded areas and only just now had the forest truly closed in on them.
With visibility at a low, Brieana followed the clip-clop of Blaze's hooves and tried to get as close to Kerian as possible. For once, Zorn was quiet, not even complaining when Kerian sent him off to hunt like a drack, instead of mooching people food. But it was the silence that unnerved her most of all.
When they entered the forest shortly after daybreak three days ago, the birds were chirping and the insects were droning; now there was total silence. The tall trunks of the strange trees seemed to absorb any sound and emphasize an atmosphere of doom.
When they crossed the bubbling cold river that Kerian had warned her about, she had not felt this sense of an unnatural presence, even after she wanted to test his theory and fall in. They had to stop for the night and build a fire, things he had not wanted to attempt that early, but because the cold had sapped all of her strength, Kerian felt it was for the best.
She had not felt this sense of unease when she wandered over to the beautiful flowers that Kerian and Zorn had warned her about and almost lost her nose as she bent for a close inspection of Man Snapper flower. She had only wanted to see the teeth that they had claimed the flower possessed. How was she to know that they moved about the earth on root-like feet to more easily obtain a meal?
Not even the fireflies that now spat fiery acid at their prey had unnerved her like this small clearing they had stumbled upon.
"Kerian?" she whispered as if afraid to draw some unknown monster's attention to her and her party. "Is this place natural?"
Suddenly there was a rustle and quick footsteps behind her. Twisting in her saddle, and automatically reaching for her blade, she looked back and saw…nothing.
Pulling Magic to a halt, she turned and closely examined the trail behind her. Still nothing.
"Kerian, did you hear that?" she called out, and was met with silence.
She faced front, only to find that Kerian was nowhere in sight.
"Kerian?"
Then there was another rustle to her right. Her nerves screaming and pressure building up in her chest, she whipped towards the sound and again saw…nothing.
"Beware… Beware her ire!" a low voice seemed to whisper in her ear.
Magic shied sideways as if he too heard the warning, and Brieana spent a few moments calming him down.
"Zorn?" she called out, but her trusty drack bodyguard was not with her.
"Zorn!" she called out louder, fear beginning to build up pressure in her chest. "Kerian? Answer me."
"Beware, beware her ire!"
Whipping to her left, the direction of the whispered warning, she again heard a rustle and then nothing. But she had no time for contemplation, for Magic, frightened by the low voice, reared up on his hind legs, as if fighting with some unseen enemy.
"Beware. Beware. Beware!"
The voices were coming in from all around her and Brieana could feel a cold sweat building as the unfamiliar metallic taste of terror filled her mouth.
"Beware!" to the left.
"Beware!" in front of her.
The hair on the nape of her neck rose and the voice taunted her from behind.
"Beware, beware her ire!"
Whipping out her sword and turning her unicorn around, Brieana again saw nothing, but could hear the rustle of…leaves? "Who are you?" she cried out, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. "Where are you? What do you want?"
"Beware!" came from the right.
Giving in to her building hysteria, Brieana swung the sword to the left as she jerked Magic around to see what was tormenting her. Nothing.
But before she could recover, the voice whispered from in front of her.
"Her ire, beware, beware!"
"Stop it!" she screamed, fear lending her voice volume. "Show yourself! Coward!"
An enemy that she could see, she could fight. This unseen menace preyed upon her fears and caused her to react like a green soldier, going into her first battle.
"Beware!" the voice taunted and Brieana gave in to her hysteria and began to swing her sword like a madwoman.
"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" she screamed, frustration drying up her fearful tears before they could trickle down her face. "Leave me alone!"
Then there was a clang, and a painful vibration flowed up her arm before her sword was knocked aside.
"Brieana?"
"Bastard!" she screamed as she dove at the thing that had disarmed her, taking them both to the soft packed earth.
Her flailing arms and legs landed many a good blow as she fought for her life.
"Brieana!" It spoke her name again in Kerian's voice. Kerian?
Brieana slowly opened her eyes to look up at the hideous beast that now held her in its death-giving grasp.
"Kerian?" she whispered as she saw who stood above her. "You bastard!" she screamed and let her fist fly.
"Brie…oomph!" her fist connected neatly with his right eye and he jumped to his feet, knocking her off his body.
"If you ever play such a mean-spirited jest on me again…"
"What are you talking about, woman?" Kerian moved a few feet away from her, more for his protection than anything as he covered his aching eye with one large hand.
"That whispering 'beware,' and all of that! Are you trying to frighten me?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about, woman!" he growled as his fingers gently prodded the rapidly swelling flesh of his eye.
"Then who was it, Kerian? Zorn?"
Yes, Lady? The purple drack sauntered into the area with something squawking and flapping in his mouth.
"Was it you, you little purple rat?" She spat the words at the youthling, causing him to open his mouth in astonishment and drop his meal. He had never before seen his Lady so angry, even though he had to admit the red tint to her skin made her more attractive.
Although neither Zorn nor Kerian had experienced all of the Forbidden Forest, and its secrets, they both knew the stories of strange happenings that occurred there. Perhaps Brieana's experience with the mysterious voice and their getting separated were things they could attribute to the strange area.
"Beware, beware her ire!" The thing Zorn dropped squawked as it ran in circles around the group standing there, all looking in astonishment at the bird thing.
"It’s a Sage Chicken," Kerian growled as he glared at Brieana. Walking over to the befuddled chicken, he knelt down on one knee and gathered it to his chest.
"Sage Chicken?" Brieana paused in her angry pacing to watch in amazement as Kerian cradled the bird in his arms, gentling it. The only chickens she knew of were good when cooked in sage, but she had a feeling that Kerian was not speaking of spices.
"They have lived in the Forbidden Forest forever and often warn travelers of danger. They also happen to
be a favored snack of the drack."
And rare, too, they are, Zorn agreed with Kerian as he hungrily eyed the quaking bird in Kerian's hands.
"Rare?" she asked still thrown by the idea of a talking chicken.
"Drackoon don't venture into forests much, Lady." Kerian glared at her, his eye still watering and smarting from her sneaky punch. Brieana, realizing that she had hit an innocent man, backed guiltily away and went to retrieve her sword.
"Beware, beware her ire!" the chicken interjected, breaking Kerian's gaze from Brieana.
"Who's ire?" Kerian asked as he continued to soothe the chicken's ruffled feathers.
"The Lady Lake, her ire is great!"
"The Lady Lake?" Brieana rushed over to Kerian's side, the sword forgotten as she heard what the talking bird had to say.
"Her lover's scent. She smells it much! Stay away from her jealous touch!"
"Lover? Smells? What is this chicken speaking of?" she demanded as she looked from one puzzled face to another.
"Beware, beware of her ire! Beware, beware!" the chicken clucked as it struggled to be free.
Afraid of doing it injury, Kerian released the bird and quick as a flash, it took off for the darkness of the trees. Zorn, seeing his would-be snack getting away, gave chase and soon both were lost in the darkness of the forest.
"What did that bird mean?" Brieana turned to Kerian, but the Warlord had already turned his back to her. "Kerian?"
"Not that you would believe my answers." He angrily searched the ground till he saw the gleaming edge of his large war sword. Its serrated blade gleamed in the dim light for a moment, before he walked over to where the unicorns were peacefully grazing and slammed the sword into its sheath.
"What are you speaking of?" she asked as she continued with her search and let out a triumphant crow when she spotted her sword.
"I told you that I played no jests on you, yet I was the first person whom you accused!"
"You were the first person that I saw, Kerian." Brieana tried to explain as she too made her way over to Magic and replaced her sword. The unicorns seem unusually docile around Kerian. She figured it was because you could almost feel the heated anger rolling off of him in waves.
Merlin's Kiss Page 13