A Fugitive's Kiss

by Jaime Clevenger

  Marian’s lips were tight. That Darin would remain at Aysha’s side had not been disputed by the Elders. Clearly Aysha couldn’t stay in the castle alone and Darin was believable as either her servant or companion. No one had questioned Darin’s maleness yet, either, but the squinted look Marian gave her now made Aysha wonder if she suspected.

  “It’s your choice,” Marian said finally.

  Once they were finally alone in the castle, or as alone as they would be since Marian and a few of the other Elders had decided they needed to have a cook and a guard there as well, Aysha and Darin settled into their room. There was one window in the room, two chairs, and an oversized bed. With all the rats she’d seen in the place, she had no desire to sleep on the floor as she’d gotten used to since leaving Glen Ore. Darin sat down on the bed, then leaned back and stretched across the length of it.

  “Do you know how long it has been since I’ve had a bed?”

  Aysha smiled. “Were you used to a bed like this?”

  “Once, in a lifetime I have almost forgotten, I slept on a bed just like this. I shared a bed with our grandmother when we visited her in the queen’s castle, in Ald. The mattress was filled with wool.” She stood up and pulled the blankets off the bed. “But it smelled better than this.” She opened the window and shook the blankets out, then made a sour face. “I’d like clean bedding. Now that we have a guard and a cook, perhaps we may have our own maid. Will you ask for that as well?”

  “I wasn’t certain you’d stay here with me,” Aysha admitted.

  “You thought I’d let you come to the castle alone?”

  “I know you don’t want to be in Tiersten at all. But maybe you don’t mind castles…You say you’d like a maid? A cook, a guard, and a maid?” She smiled. “I think you have a knack for this.”

  “You’re right about that. I’ve spent many nights in castles with better beds.” Darin set the bedding in a pile by the window. She turned about the room and then exhaled heavily. “I’d be sick if I left you. First because of the worrying. Then because of the longing.”

  Aysha held out her hand and Darin came over to her. Her grip was warm and strong. “I think I need to keep you close anyway. As Tobias said, you make yourself useful. And you seemed to know what you were doing with those swords.”

  “I’ve never been very good with one. But many have tried to teach me.” She touched Aysha’s creased brow. “What is it?”

  “What are we doing here? You’re here because of me. But am I crazy for letting them lock us in this castle? You know I’m no witch.”

  “And I was just beginning to like the idea.”

  Aysha shook her head. “Once things calm down in Caratia…”

  “What then?”

  When Aysha didn’t answer, Darin let go of her hand and went to unpack their few things. Someone had carried in their saddlebags and left them in the room for them. Now she spread their blankets on the oversized bed. A soft breeze came in through the open window. It was a perfect spring day and the hills outside were covered in bright green grass.

  “Then…I don’t really know,” Aysha said. “But I think we need a plan.”

  “I have a plan,” Darin said.

  “Are you going to tell me then?”

  Darin reached for Aysha’s hand. She pulled her toward the bed. “I’ve checked and the door is locked.” Her eyes were dark with desire.

  “You’re not suggesting…You know the guard and his wife could hear us.”

  “That’s why I locked the door.” Darin pulled Aysha into a kiss and then pushed her back on the bed. Her lips turned up at the corners. “I’m making myself useful.”

  Darin moved on top of her. Soon Aysha forgot about the guard and the castle. Kiss after kiss, the desire to feel Darin inside her intensified. Darin pulled off Aysha’s tunic and then her pants, then she bent her head to cover Aysha with more kisses, moving from her lips down her neck to her chest. A spasm of pleasure rushed between her legs as Darin’s tongue touched her.

  “I want you naked,” Aysha whispered.

  Darin slipped off her shirt and pants and then moved between Aysha’s legs again. Delirious with the feel of Darin’s hands on her body, her tongue tracing circles around her nipples, Aysha stretched out on the mattress. She loved Darin’s hunger and gave in to her desires completely. She moaned with pleasure when Darin’s hand moved between her legs. She guided her fingers to the swollen bud and then thrust her hips up, pushing herself onto Darin’s hand.

  Darin leaned over her, her fingers thrusting faster until Aysha cried out, the climax starting.

  “The guard will hear you,” Darin warned.

  “I don’t care,” Aysha said, but she clenched her teeth when Darin bent her head between her legs.

  Darin’s fingers continued to thrust and Aysha felt the start of another wave moving through her. Darin turned her wrist, fingers buried in the warmth of Aysha’s center, and murmured her own pleasure.

  It was some time before Aysha could relax and only then did Darin ease her hand out. When she finally did, Aysha wished she’d enter her again. She reached for her wrist, but Darin only wiped her wet fingers over Aysha’s thighs.

  “Later it’s my turn with you.”

  “I might let you,” Darin said. “But I’m greedy.”

  “I noticed.” Aysha smiled. She combed her fingers through Darin’s short curls, tugging on the strands and then tousling it. “But you’ll want what I have planned for you.”

  * * *

  Darin was sleeping soundlessly next to her, naked and beautiful. Aysha didn’t cover her up. She loved to trace every line of her with her eyes, but Darin rarely let her stare for long. Now, she could enjoy her.

  She rolled on her side and her fingertips trailed up Darin’s arm. She followed the curve of her muscles and thought again of her wielding the swords from the front room. There was a way out of the castle if they needed it—a secret passageway that led out of their room to the outskirts of Tiersten. Tobias had insisted that they take this particular room because of the passageway and made a point of pulling them aside to show them the small door and the latch under the tapestry hanging on the wall. Before he’d left the castle, Tobias had given her the key to the door. Now it was hidden in the pocket of her cloak. She hoped she’d never have to use it. But if the town couldn’t hold back the soldiers, she had Darin at her side and a way to escape.

  At the moment she didn’t want to leave, however. She gazed out the open window. The scene was one from her mother’s memory. Beyond the stone wall surrounding the front of the castle, they had a view of the apple trees in the orchard, the roofs of the houses below and the green valley stretched far in the distance. Aysha picked out Tobias’s cottage and his barn, then her eyes wandered down the road to the edge of town.

  Tiersten looked small from here. The houses weren’t as many as she’d thought at first and she could follow each road to its end. If, or rather when, the Caratian soldiers returned, she would watch them enter the town. And she’d be expected to hold her post while the townsfolk defended the castle. Or attempted to. But from this vantage point, it seemed increasingly unlikely that the town would hold off the soldiers. There were too many roads into the town and a direct line up to the castle.

  At dinnertime, Nan, the cook, called for them. She had set out a modest meal of carrot stew in chicken broth with nut rolls on the oversized dining table. Nut rolls were perhaps her favorite discovery in the past week, Aysha decided. Almond trees grew in abundance in the area and their nuts were added to every dish that might not have meat.

  Joining them for the meal was Nan’s husband, Olaf, their guard. A stocky man with a full beard and a thick neck, he reminded Aysha of an ox. He kept his eyes on his plate as they dined, letting his wife do all the talking. Even when Aysha asked if they were to take the room opposite theirs he only grunted. Nan spoke up, saying that Olaf insisted on keeping to the front of the castle. He wanted the best vantage point of not only the large entryw
ay, she explained, but also of the courtyard and the road leading up to the castle. They had set up their bed in a dark nook of the domed reception room.

  When dinner was finished, Darin volunteered to wash their dishes, and although the cook was surprised, she agreed. Aysha retired to their room. She stretched out on the bed, resting on her back as she was used to sleeping on her bed mat. Fighting the feeling that the overstuffed mattress was trying to swallow her, she switched from side to side until she found a position where she could settle. She fell asleep to the chatter of the rats, imagining the creatures quite unhappy that the room had again been claimed by people.

  Aysha awoke to Darin’s whisper, “Hide in the passage Tobias told us of. Wait just behind the door.”

  Aysha opened her mouth to ask why, but Darin quietly silenced her with a finger held up to her lips. She placed a knife on the pillow next to Aysha and then went to pick up the sword she’d left by the door.

  “There’s someone new in the castle. I can smell them…”

  Before Aysha could stop her, she’d opened the door and was gone. Aysha dressed quickly. She could hardly stand the thought of letting Darin face the intruder alone but knew she would be of no help. She took up the knife that Darin had left, even though she doubted she’d be able to use it, then found her cloak and searched the pockets until she felt the key Tobias had given her. When she set it in place in the lock and turned it, the door latch gave reluctantly.

  With a final glance at the bedroom, she squeezed through the narrow door into a small, dark passageway and let the tapestry fall to cover the opening. There was a latch on the inside of the door, but she hesitated to lock it. The space was too confined and the scratching nails of what she guessed were rats made her freeze in place. Something brushed against her ankle and she fought the urge to scream. It was only a rat, she assured herself, but she longed for a candle in order to be certain.

  She felt for the walls with her hands. They were barely the width of two men standing side by side and damp to the touch. There was only one direction to choose if she must make an escape from the castle. A scream pierced the silence. There was no doubting its human origin. She immediately latched the passage’s door but kept her shaking hand on the inside handle.

  Had the scream been Darin’s? If so, she should already be trying to work her way down the lightless tunnel. But the thought of leaving her behind was impossible. She sank to the floor and leaned against the door and began counting. If she heard nothing from her by the time she reached a thousand she’d leave. Her body grew stiff and cold in the tight space, making her wonder if she’d be able to stand, much less run if the need arose.

  The metal click of the latch answered that question. She was up and on her feet a blink after the sound registered. She put her hand on the handle, preparing to pull the door back and lock it when light flooded the small space and she saw Darin gazing at her. She reached a hand out to Aysha and pulled her into the bedroom. Her palm was wet. In the weak light, Aysha realized it was covered with blood. She grabbed her wrist, searching for a wound.

  “It isn’t my blood,” Darin said, her voice steady. “It’s the soldier’s. I had to carry him out to the courtyard and it made quite a mess. I left him in a wagon near the barn. We’ll have to see to his burial in the morning.”

  “And you’re not hurt? What about Olaf? And Nan?”

  “Olaf’s wounded. I told Nan that you would see to him. She’s shaken by what happened.” Darin started out the door, glancing over her shoulder to be sure that Aysha was following.

  “Was the soldier alone?”

  Darin nodded. “We’re safe for now. I’ll tell you more later. First Olaf.”

  Darin’s insistence made her fear that Olaf’s wounds were severe. She grabbed her supplies of herbs and one of the old blankets to use for bandaging, if necessary. Darin led her to the dining room where Nan was hunched over Olaf, holding a blood-soaked rag on his head. The floor looked as if an animal had been slaughtered on it, and she had to step over dark purple, jellied pools of blood to get to him.

  She soon realized that the pools of blood were not from Olaf. His wounds were minor, though the scrape on his forehead had an egg-sized swelling under it. Both of his eyes would likely swell and bruise by morning.

  Aysha sent Darin to boil some water for tea and instructed Nan to crush the herbs she had selected with a mortar and pestle. Olaf was conscious, but Nan claimed he could barely open his eyes. He had blacked out when the soldier struck his head, she added, and hadn’t woken for some time after. She was in nearly as much shock as her husband since she had thought him dead for those long moments.

  Darin returned with boiling water and then helped prop Olaf up as Aysha fixed the tea. He finished the drink in three swallows and in a short while was snoring soundly. Once he was asleep, Aysha made a paste out of a few of her other supplies and rubbed this into all of his wounds.

  “He needs to rest now,” Aysha told Nan. “Call me if you need anything.”

  Nan nodded, her wide eyes still filled with worry. She sat down on the bed mats they’d pulled over to Olaf and wrapped his hand in both of hers.

  “Maybe she should have some of that tea,” Darin said. “In fact, I wouldn’t mind a sip of it now myself.”

  Aysha reached for Darin’s hand. As soon as they’d stepped into the hall, she pulled Darin into a tight embrace. “If he’d killed you, what would I have done?”

  “He was no threat to me. I wasn’t meant to die tonight.”

  Aysha let go of her and saw a strange expression on Darin’s face. “How did you know that? How can anyone know how or when they will die?”

  “I don’t know that someone won’t kill me or how I will die exactly. But I know when it will happen. A forecaster told me…I’m to die during a storm. Tonight was a clear night—not a cloud in the sky.”

  “What if that forecaster was wrong? What if they were only making up a story for you to believe—you risked dying because of it?”

  “I trust the forecaster who told me.” Darin grasped Aysha’s hand. “Tonight the danger’s past. If we can sleep, we should. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Any day that began with moving a dead body would be a long one. Darin had reason to begin it as soon as possible since the soldier’s body had to be buried quickly and quietly, before the news of his death sparked interest that Darin couldn’t afford.

  Before breakfast, she rode to Tobias’s home to find a gravedigger. She took the soldier’s horse—a fine mare with a shiny black coat and a long mane and tail. Her gait was quick but her temperament was mild, and by the time she reached Tobias’s barn, Darin decided she liked her enough to fight to keep her.

  Tobias was in his courtyard, just coming in from the outhouse. Darin hopped off the mare and raised her hand.

  “Something’s wrong?”

  “We need to find a gravedigger.”

  Tobias looked stricken. “Is Aysha safe?”

  “The dead one’s a soldier,” Darin replied. She told him as much of the evening’s tale as she thought he needed to know.

  “You shouldn’t have left Aysha alone. What if there are other soldiers hiding in the castle?”

  “Heffen was empty, save for the four of us, until the soldier rode in last night. He came alone. I think he was a messenger.”

  “A messenger or a spy,” Tobias said. “The king likely sent him to check in on Tiersten and report back. The king will send others if he doesn’t return. We need to send a message back.”

  “I’ve thought of all that. But I need a gravedigger first.”

  Tobias nodded. “I’ll send someone. Go back to Aysha now. And be ready to escape at the first alarm.”

  By noon the soldier’s body was buried and the castle grounds were freed from the stench. But as Darin made her way from the barn to the castle gates, she caught a warning in a gust of wind. It was a familiar scent—someone was out for blood—but it was so strong that
she guessed it was more than one hunter. An army. She stood still for a long moment trying to discern the direction of the wind, but it was impossible to pinpoint. The scent swirled all around her, but as she neared the entrance to the castle, the scent promptly dissipated. It was as if the castle was safe in the center of a hurricane.

  Troubled by the wind, she went to find Aysha. She found her in the front room of the castle tending to Olaf’s wounds. His face looked awful—both eyes were swollen shut and black around the rims. Aysha insisted he wasn’t as bad off as he looked, but Nan didn’t seem convinced. When Aysha went to the kitchen to make more tea, Darin followed her.

  “I’ve smelled something coming…”

  “I know you want to leave,” Aysha said. “I do too. After last night…I don’t want to stay another moment in this castle. I’m sending Nan and Olaf home tomorrow—as soon as we can move him in a wagon. We can leave then as well.”

  “I don’t think we should.”

  “What do you mean? You can’t want to stay here after what happened. When I was in that passageway…I worried you were dead. It was so dark and the rats were everywhere. I heard the scream…”

  “That was Nan. She thought Olaf had been killed. He looked dead, in a huge heap on the ground, and I still had the soldier to deal with.” She paused. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back for you sooner. I had to be certain he was alone.”

  “So, it was you, not Olaf, who killed him…” Aysha exhaled slowly. She stared at the boiling water. “You weren’t even hurt.”

  “He didn’t expect me,” Darin admitted. “I attacked him when—”

  “I don’t want to know how it happened,” Aysha said, quickly shaking her head. “But you aren’t even fazed by his death.”

  “I didn’t have any choice. If he’d gone back to the king…” Darin’s gaze fell to her knife. She swallowed back a rush of words. Aysha wouldn’t understand her reasons. And she would never know how every death weighed on her.