Gazing at Elise and his sleeping sister, the desire to defend them nearly overwhelmed him. He would kill any man or beast who so much as breathed foul air in their direction.
Madness. Love is a madness. The truest truth I have ever heard spoken.
Absorbing his disquiet, Elise stirred and grumbled in her slumber. Krysta’s arm flopped across Elise’s belly, and she, too, fussed from her dreams. Ki forced his thoughts into compliance, and set aside concerns of war long enough to kiss his shanna’s damp brow.
“Are you leaving?” she murmured, reaching down to stroke his well-used cock.
“Fari has need of my time.” He closed his eyes, enjoying the soft squeezing from her fingers.
“I have need of you, inside me. Once more. Please, just once more.”
What could Ki do but oblige such an invitation?
After all, Elise’s mouth was already taking him in, sucking him to hardness again. And Krysta had already moved between his shanna’s open thighs. It would take but a few more stellar minutes for the three of them to take one last pleasure….
Three long hours later, Ki faced Fari in the war room. His brother was in foul temper, and Ki could scarcely blame him. Still, he did not regret his stolen time, or the effort it took to leave Elise with Krysta, limp in slumber on the library floor. Elise’s sweet musk hung about his face, hands, and loins, and the fragrance alone was enough to keep part of Ki’s thoughts on the night yet to arrive.
“Your thoughts had best turn to these threats.” Fari smacked a hand on a star chart spread on the war room table.
With force of will, Ki tore his thoughts from the feel of his shanna’s warm mouth and warmer quim. He glanced down at Fari’s pointing finger, and immediately saw the problem.
The OrTan fleet had changed positions. The models of their foul battle skulls had been bunched and moved closer to Arda.
Was this what my instincts tried to tell me, but a few hours ago?
“Yes,” Fari hissed. “Our enemy is moving. Our scouts reported mass flights beginning almost four stellar hours ago. I called for you over and over, but you did not answer. Our sister was unresponsive as well.”
Ki shrugged an apology. His mind had cleared as if icewinds had blown through his brain, and he was not interested in trading barbs or recriminations.
Fari, however, let out a long growl. “Will the Sailmaster and the captain of the Home Guard be hard at coupling when the hounds arrive at our very gates?”
“You cannot think they will attack us directly.” Ki shook his head. “It would be suicide.”
“Not if the Council throws force behind them.” Fari gestured to another group of ships, varied and larger than the skulls. “The Council force is moving as well. On an intercept course. Whether they mean to join or intervene, we do not know.”
Ki felt a numb chill spread through his chest. “The case is yet to be heard. The Council would not seek to act—”
Fari interrupted him with a snort. “They would if Gith has unknown allies. Or if he favored the right palms with the right currencies or pleasures.”
Surely this had been the source of his troubled mind. Ki knew now—though his instinct yet dug at him—that this extra threat must have been what bothered him so. His sharp eyes took in the corners and players on the map. Even at good speed, and assuming the worst, the combined force would reach Arda in ten stellar days. Nine if they caught the blessing of moon winds and slipstreams.
“Then our choices are few,” Ki said in a low voice, as if Elise might hear him and wake frightened without his comfort. “Send word to our surest allies. I will dispatch Krysta and the Guard to the skies immediately, to patrol for vanguards and saboteurs.”
Fari nodded. His expression remained tense, but his relief at Ki’s focus was obvious.
Ki’s anger mounted as he stared at the ships littering the map beside his brother’s hand. “And send Akad to my chambers immediately. Tell the people they will meet Elise Tul’Mar at Solstyce. When the moon rises. Afterward, we will announce the threat, and make ready the ground defenses.”
Fari’s frown deepened. “That is nine stellar days, brother. How can Elise be ready to handle pa so soon?”
“Because she has no choice.” Ki clenched his fists. “She is strong-minded and wise. She will find a way.”
“May you be as right as you have ever been. Our lives depend on it.” Fari turned away and stalked out of the war room.
Ki watched him go, knowing the abruptness indicated no disrespect. His brother was afraid. For the planet, and for Elise, and for Ki’s unborn daughter.
Growling, Ki shunned his own fears like a plague. The next days would pass in a blur. Too much preparation, too fast, but it had to be done.
Filled with new energy and purpose, Ki strode out of the castle’s stronghold and back toward the library. He intended to wake Krysta and get her on her way—but she met him on the run before he reached the main hall.
Her pale face, rumpled hair, and half-dressed state caught him by surprise. Despite her confidence and bluster, Krysta did not usually fly about the castle in disarray. Fari must have gotten word to her.
And yet, the gnawing in his gut increased.
Threat. Wrong. Trouble. Terrible trouble.
Krysta’s thoughts? His own instincts?
“You heard, then?” Ki asked, catching her by the shoulders.
“What?” Krysta’s breath came in short gasps. Tears spilled down her cheeks, further unsettling Ki.
“About the OrTans? The Council?” Ki gave Krysta a shake. “Speak. What is it?”
For a moment, Krysta said nothing. She looked as if the very thought of words pained her. Shaking, she at last opened her mouth, and uttered the last thing Ki expected to hear.
“Elise is gone, brother.”
“Gone where?” His mind both understood and rejected Krysta’s message at once. It was not possible. That could not be.
“Home. To Earth.” Krysta thrust a rumpled paper toward him. “She left you, Ki. She left you!”
Mouth open, speechless, Ki snatched the paper and stared at it. At first, he could not comprehend the writing, not until he battled back waves of dread and forced his brain to cooperate.
“No.” He closed the paper, then opened it again. It held his eyes like a magical force, even as his thoughts raced to solutions and rejected them.
Fari had no doubt put out the announcement of the Presentation. It was too late to call it back now. And even if they flew after Elise at top speed, they would never reach her in time. The enemies, approaching Arda—a flight of speeders or a frigate pursuing Elise might alert the monsters. Might lead them straight to his shanna and their helpless, growing babe.
Once more, he stared at the paper, shaking his head.
Once more, Ki Tul’Mar read his doom, written in his true love’s neat penmanship.
Dear Ki,
I’m sorry to do this, but I think you know I have to go. Georgia is my family, too, and I need her with me. Don’t worry, and don’t come after me, and please, try not to be too angry. I’ll be back before you know it.
Always your beloved,
Elise
Chapter 10
Elise tapped her fingers on the speeder’s companel. Her chest tightened, and her brain literally ached.
She had gotten away clean from Arda. The sky patrol hadn’t even attempted to contact her, since she was in Krysta’s speeder. She should have been glad, but instead, she felt like she had flown off and forgotten her heart.
Ki. I’ve gotten so used to his thoughts, his energy close by. It’s so quiet without him. So…empty.
“Just a few days,” she whispered against the thrum of the engines. “He’ll be mad, but he’ll forgive me.”
Won’t he? Christ. What if he doesn’t?
Visions of Ki’s dark hair and eyes flashed through Elise’s mind as she gazed into the black depths of space. Her hand rested on her belly, gently rubbing the spot where her daughter nes
tled inside, sleeping at the moment. She could sense the baby, just as she had learned to sense Ki. Akad had told her that somewhere around her hundredth day of gestation, she would begin to hear her daughter’s thoughts.
For now, though, everything seemed quiet and still. Too quiet, too still.
The stars watched her without blinking. Maybe they thought Elise was ungrateful, because they had granted almost every wish she had ever whispered in their direction—and here she was, possibly throwing away their hard work.
“I have to do this,” she told the stars and her daughter. “I can’t live happily ever after knowing Georgia’s all alone. She would never go to paradise and leave me behind. She would find a way.”
Calling up the star charts on the speeder’s computer, Elise studied her routes. The advanced Ardani technology would warn her of obstacles, debris, anomalies—even correct for them. Everything was preprogrammed and considered.
At least Elise hoped so.
She had learned much in the last week or so, but she knew she was no ace navigator, pilot, or master of clandestine activity. Her big secret plan consisted of sneaking off from Arda, flying straight to Earth as fast as she could, landing the speeder on top of her old apartment complex in Nashville (there was room—please, let there be enough room), grabbing Georgia, and zooming straight home to her husband.
Because Arda was Elise’s home now, and she already missed Ki so badly she wanted to cry. She missed the castle, the libraries, the mountains, the clouds, the Chimera—everything. And Krysta and Fari, too.
Without thinking, Elise reached up and kneaded her breasts through the soft tunic. The tips still felt tender from her lovemaking with Ki and Krysta, and she slipped her hands beneath her long shirt. When her fingers found the hardened flesh of her nipples, she let out a sigh. Half pleasure and excitement, half longing.
At the moment, she wanted five or six uninterrupted days and nights with Ki. She wanted to be on her back, legs spread, taking his full cock as hard as he could give it to her. Or on her knees, feeling him pound into her from behind. Elise rubbed the ends of her nipples and groaned.
His mouth felt so good on her lips, her breasts, her skin and pussy. His cock felt so perfect planted inside her. Elise reached down and toyed with her clit to relieve the ache, then slipped her fingers back, inside, where she wanted Ki. Her body was made for him, and his body for her. Touching his thoughts, knowing his heart, being consumed in his passion—loving him had come so easily, despite the odd beginnings.
As the speeder hurtled toward Earth, deftly skirting solar systems and dodging asteroids, Elise leaned over the com-panel. Her nipples brushed control switches as she stroked her swollen clit and dreamed of Ki. His warm presence. His throbbing, hot cock. The hard muscles of his chest, and the swirling silver of his pa-mark. The look of keen pleasure on Ki’s face as Fari used his mouth to bring her to climax. The desire raging through Ki as Krysta gently sucked Elise to new heights of discovery.
Everything Elise shared with Fari and Krysta only brought Ki closer to her. It felt so right and natural. The speeder careened ahead, and so did Elise’s fingers. Flying now, hammering against her pulsing clit until she came with a loud, releasing scream. Knobs scraped her nipples. The cool metal floor grounded her feet, and her knees shook until she sat down.
Stripping off her tunic, she started over. Lying naked in deep space, trusting the ship to see her safely through, she squeezed her breasts, then thrust her fingers in and out of her wet pussy. Orgasm after orgasm, she called Ki’s name and thrashed. Completely unashamed. Wild with the freedom, until she lay gasping and half-asleep on the speeder’s small deck.
Her last thought as she drifted to sleep was of her mate. How he might like to watch what she had just done. And how she wanted to show him, as soon as she got back to Arda.
* * * * *
Elise’s thoughts and emotions carried to Ki as he lay unclothed and alone in his bed. The bed he should be sharing with his wife. His mast ached and swelled, and he relieved the pressure time and again with his own hands. It did not matter. In moments, he would gather another whiff of Elise’s sensations, and harden all over again.
She thinks of me as she climaxes, just as she did the day I found her. Her heart is true to me. And yet she carves my soul to bits.
Under the circumstances, he could certainly ask any willing woman to meet his need. No doubt there would be many volunteers among the servants, or among the many citizens or rescues-becoming-citizens on Arda. Custom and tradition allowed a husband or wife to satiate sexual desire in the physical absence of their mate—but most soul’s mates had no interest in doing this. Ki understood that now. He wanted only Elise’s touch. Only her hot, sweet sheath around his flesh.
It had been mere hours since he plumbed her hot depths, but it felt like years. And now, her trace-thoughts grew ever more distant as she sped out of his life. Out of their life. He would likely never see her again. Even if Elise survived her trip, Ki Tul’Mar would likely be dead by the time she returned.
It was the law. There was little Ki could do, even though he knew—and Fari and Krysta knew, especially now—that his shanna had not left him in love or spirit. Only in body. And she planned to return with due speed. Still, the Presentation announcement had been made, and there was no taking it back now. Another statement of illness would prompt a medical evaluation, as per provisions of Ardani custom—to avoid the endless hiding of a Sailmaster’s abandonment. There would be talk. Already begun, no doubt.
Ki imagined he could smell the musk of Elise’s sweet nectar still on his face, his fingers. And perhaps he could. A soul’s mate could sense their beloved’s presence at great distance. And after long stretches of time.
Why did I deny her the one request she made?
But Ki knew he could not violate the law at will. He was a Sailmaster, not a god. Galactic laws of non-interference applied to him, too.
I should have found a way.
A knock rattled him from his trance, and he groaned. “Please. Leave me in peace.”
The chamber door opened despite his request, and Fari and Krysta entered. Akad was close behind.
Ki did not bother covering himself, or his miserable, insatiable cock.
The priest approached him warily, expecting violence. Madness. And Ki felt insane—but insanely sad. His anger had left him like a spent wind. All sails, inside and outside the Sailmaster, had gone flat.
“Sire.” Akad extended a vial. “This may relieve your physical pain, at least for a time.”
Ki turned his head to the far wall.
“Leave it.” Krysta sighed. “Thank you, Akad. And trust this stubborn fergilla to us.”
Footsteps padded across stone, and the chamber door closed with a quiet thump.
“Take the medicine,” Fari said.
Ki ignored him.
“Consume it, or we will pour it down your throat.” Fari tried to sound furious, but succeeded only in communicating his fear. “You cannot fight the both of us.”
“Do not tempt me,” Ki growled.
The next he knew, Fari and Krysta had him pinned, and his oh-so-gentle female sibling pried his lips open, dumped the potion in his mouth, then pinched his nose to ensure his swallow. The liquid burned his throat as it dove toward his belly, untying at least a few of the knots in his groin.
After a moment, his thoughts cleared a little, and the pain of separation from Elise waned. At least the physical pain.
“Damn stubborn fool.” Fari rolled off the bed. He staggered as he walked, and Ki realized his brother must have taken—or been forced to take—a dose of the same medicine. Krysta also seemed unusually supple, and her eye-centers were pinpoints in the room’s grayish light.
“Do you see now that you should have told her about the Law of Keeping?” Krysta stroked Ki’s forehead. Tears appeared on her cheeks, as if blown there by a sudden breeze. “You should have trusted her heart, and yours.”
Ki knew his sullen silence
was as good as agreement, but he did not feel like assenting out loud. After all, he would pay price enough for his folly.
“We will not let you die.” Fari moved to the sill of the back window. “We will explain. Or fight. Or find some diversion.”
Ki tried to speak, found his lips nerveless, then recovered his muscle control enough to say, “That has been tried in the past. Always with ill result, for the Sailmaster in question, and for Arda. I will not have my honor or my legacy sullied by cowardice.”
At this, Krysta got up with a sharp grunt. “No. As usual, you would prefer rash foolishness to be your trademark.”
“He did not teach her to fly a speeder,” Fari snapped.
“We all taught her to fly,” Ki mumbled. “And she loves us. She has gone to get the one missing member of her heart’s family. No more or less than we would have done. No more or less than we should have done.”
For almost a stellar hour afterward, Ki argued with Krysta and Fari about possible solutions to the dilemma, but they could find none. At last, in exasperation, he lay back on his pillows. “Let us work from the other end. Assuming my death instead of preventing it for a moment.”
“No.” Fari threw himself on the bed beside Ki, but kept his distance. He stared at the ceiling, gripping the sheets in his fists. “I will not hear that.”
“Nor will I,” Krysta agreed.
Ki frowned. “Hear me this far, at least. I want Elise returned with her sister of choice. I want my daughter protected. Perhaps if we work on those problems, the clear way out of my execution will become apparent.”
Fari and Krysta grew silent, which was, for them, a tacit agreement.
Relief swept over Ki. He no more believed he would escape death than he believed Fari truly bedded fergilla beasts, but for the moment, the focus of the group was where he chose for it to be. On Elise. On seeing his shanna, his precious baby, and his shanna’s beloved relative safely home to Arda.
* * * * *
Five stellar days after her “escape” from Arda, five impossibly long days full of tears, fitful sleep, and far too much self-gratification (which became less gratifying each time), Elise Ashton Tul’Mar swept into orbit around Earth.
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