"How does that feel?” Rin asked, tugging gently on the necklace but not extracting any of the pearls.
"I like it. Thank you, Master."
"Good. Kiss me.” She placed one of her knees on either side of his face and lowered her body. His tongue slipped between her folds, savoring the novel flavor. It found the bump of her clit, and her moans of pleasure made it linger there, working in tight circles until he felt her spasm and shake with release.
She slid down his body, leaving a glistening trail on his chest. Her heat engulfed his hard cock as she dropped down into his lap. Her body squeezed him rhythmically, still twitching for the orgasm he'd given her. He'd never been inside anyone before, and couldn't believe the pressure. He wanted to seize Rin's hips, pull her hard against him, drive deeper, but his tied wrists prevented it.
She rocked back and forth, breasts the size of halved plums bouncing. Deep burgundy colored her cheeks, and her golden skin shimmered with sweat. Leaf felt his orgasm building and struggled to hold it back until she gave her permission. Coming a second time, she threw her head back and moaned, yanking a pearl from Leaf's ass as she did. The stimulation drove him closer to the edge. He writhed and fought to control himself.
Another, and then another of the jewels opened his hole, tugged out as Rin rode him. He felt himself leaking within her. “Master,” he panted. “Let me come?"
"Go ahead,” she said, pulling two more pearls from inside him, helping him along. Her trail of hair pressed flat against his red nest as she thrust down, burying Leaf completely in her furnace-hot flesh. Just as his seed exploded into her, she withdrew the rest of the necklace. His spine bowed under the intensity of the sensation, and Rin had to grasp his waist to keep from being thrown off.
Her body collapsed forward and they lay chest to chest, Leaf's hands trapped between them. Outside the light faltered, and the windows glowed with the first mauves and indigos of evening. Rin sat up and waved at the scarf. It untied itself and she rolled it up. Leaf had never seen anyone but Master perform little charms like this. His curiosity about the Highwayman and her past with Leannan deepened. In her satisfied mood, she might be willing to answer questions. She might not, but he'd risk a slap or a whipping.
"What are the Wastelands like?"
"Chaos,” she said. “Always something or somebody trying to rob or kill you."
"I've heard there are monsters,” Leaf went on, hopeful. “Men with metal teeth who'll eat you."
"Yes, but the sorcerers are even more dangerous. Some of them wield the power of gods, and half of them are mad. They couldn't handle what they had to trade for their magic."
"But my Master isn't mad or dangerous!"
She laughed. “He's deadly. And your Master isn't a sorcerer."
"Then what—"
"Enough questions, Leaf. I have my own work to do tonight. Help me put on my armor."
* * * *
For the next few weeks Leaf and Rin lived together in the haunted school. They woke in the late afternoon and ate and bathed. They checked the defenses together. They played, sometimes in Leannan's defiled temple, but as often in the round bed or in front of the fire. When it got dark, Rin strapped her sword belt to her hips and snapped the high collar of her coat in front of her face. She covered her eyes with the goggles. Nothing showed but the spikes of her midnight hair, and she left Leaf to do her work.
Often when Rin returned, usually just before morning, she was in such ill humor that Leaf feared to speak to her. She stalked up and down the cement paths in front of the school, swinging the longer of her swords. Once she sliced through a large statue of an old man holding a stone tablet. Leannan had already covered the words carved there with his own painted declaration: “As thou will.” Leaf didn't think his Master would mind if the aged idol was now missing a hand and his head from the eyebrows up.
One night, only a few hours after Rin had gone, Leaf heard a loud crash come from the school's entryway. The red-head picked up his sword and went, trembling, to investigate. His Master and the Highwayman made no more noise than the ghosts when they came home, so he knew that some one else had made it past the fences. Alone, he would have to defend against the intruder. As he walked the darkened corridors, he vowed to die before he let himself be stolen and sold. He didn't want to live without Leannan.
A black shape lay on the steps leading up to the school's front door. It resembled a dead raven, wings spread. When he got a little closer, Leaf recognized the prone form.
"Rinko!"
Weakly she lifted her head. A dark line stretched vertically from the corner of her mouth. Her sword was still in her hand, and in a quick motion she flipped it in her fist and raised it, hilt pointing behind her and cutting edge six inches from Leaf's gut.
"It's me!” he said, and she relaxed her arm. “What happened to you?"
"I was standing on the wall outside the military headquarters,” she said. Something gurgled in her throat when she spoke. “I got shot and fell and hit my head. Those bastards have a wizard, I know it! No one else could have sensed me—"
"Are you all right?” Fear froze Leaf's blood, a fear different from the nerves he felt when he didn't know how to behave or what to say. This terror made him acute, sharpening his sight, hearing and concentration.
Rather than ask for Leaf's help, Rin braced the point of her blade against the stone stair and used it to hoist herself up. She stood for a second before her knees buckled. Reflexes quickened by fear, Leaf caught her under her arms and pulled her toward the door. Her heavy boots dragged along, bouncing up the steps.
"My Leannan Sidhe can fix me,” she muttered. “Have your Master make a potion, my love."
"He's not here, Rin. He hasn't come back."
"Killing wizards is tricky work, I suppose. You'll have to fix me, Leaf."
"Me!” His shock at her suggestion surpassed even the surprise of his Master's “work.” They'd reached the kitchen, and Leaf lowered Rin onto a bench. “Rin, how can I do anything? I'm nothing more than a slave boy."
"You're everything. Please. I'll teach you what to do.” She forced a smile and touched Leaf's cheek. “Now, take off my coat. Just cut it."
He did as he was told, slicing through the black vinyl with his rapier and peeling it away. As instructed, he removed the rest of Rin's clothing and armor. It took many minutes, as she cried out any time he moved her left arm. After she was undressed, Rin struggled to lay, belly down, on the bench. Blood poured from two holes near her shoulder blade, ran down her arm and pooled on the floor.
"Leaf, get my wakazashi,” she said. “The smaller sword. I need you to take the bullets out of my back. Hurry and cut them out!"
Leaf looked at the short sword and at Rin's wounds. He'd never been more terrified in his entire life. Since coming to live with Leannan Leaf hadn't even seen a piece of meat. He and his Master ate only bread and milk and fruit. The ferrous smell of the blood filled the kitchen. The fluid had become thick and sticky on the floor. Dizziness struck, turning his legs to water. He clutched the side of the bench, clamped his eyes shut to banish the stars, and said, “I can't."
With a great effort, Rin looked up and met his eyes. “If you don't do it, Leaf, I'll die."
"All right. I'll do it.” He sat down beside her, hands shaking so badly he could hardly hold the knife. With a white cotton towel he blotted as much of the blood as he could, hoping to expose the piece of metal he'd have to excise. But as soon as he sopped it up, more spilled from the hole. He stuck the wakazashi's point into the wound, digging in the soft tissue, choking back vomit. He couldn't even imagine how painful it must be for Rin. Her skin had turned from rich gold to a sickly pale yellow. Finally the point of the blade struck something hard. Leaf wedged the knife underneath the clump of metal and pressed the hilt down, driving the bullet to the surface. He pinched it between his thumb and finger and pulled it out.
There was so much blood. Leaf tried in vain to hold the towel over the first wound while rooting for
the second bullet. In mere minutes it was soaked through. Worse yet, the second bullet had lodged behind the bone of Rin's shoulder blade. Leaf had to cut an inch long gash, spread the oozing meat with his fingers, and burrow the point of the blade behind the exposed bone. Rin screamed and sobbed. By the time he'd finished, blood slicked Leaf's arms to the elbows. He stood, mopped his damp forehead on his bicep, stumbled to the sink and puked, still clutching the wakazashi.
Dragging Rin with him, Leaf went to the huge stone tub. It had once stood on the back lawn, but Leannan had transported it here so they could bathe. Luckily Leaf had filled it earlier to wash and hadn't let the water drain out. Though the liquid inside was cold and milky with soap, it would at least wash away the clotting gore from their bodies.
Just as he was about to plunge his arms into the frigid bath, Rin touched the water's surface and said “Atsui." At once the liquid steamed pleasantly.
Leaf scrubbed his arms and then wiped Rin's body down with a wet towel. She still bled, but in dribbles instead of spurts. After he had her clean, Leaf tore a few fresh towels into strips and bandaged the wounds as tightly as he could.
"I'll carry you to the bed and come back here and clean up,” he told her. He hoped he'd be able to accomplish it; he only had about three inches and maybe twenty pounds on the Highwayman, and the surgery he'd performed had exhausted him.
"I can walk, if you help me,” Rin said. “Leave this for now and come along."
"If Master sees this mess,” Leaf said. Leannan couldn't bear anything dead or rotten, not even moldy bread or curdled milk. “Besides you should sleep."
"No,” she said. “I hit my head. I have to stay awake. You have to keep me awake."
* * * *
They lay on the round bed, passing a bottle of tawny port between them. Rin had already started to drift off.
"Tell me a story, Leaf-kun. Keep me from falling asleep.” Her cheek felt cold as autumn rain against his shoulder.
"I don't know any."
"Of course you do,” she said. “Everyone knows stories. That's how we remember the past. Tell me how you came to Leannan."
Bristling a little at the unexpected request, Leaf considered. Already her words had dredged up memories he'd rather forget. Nothing before he'd come to his Master mattered. His life had started the day he'd met Leannan.
"Leaf, please?"
"All right. Where should I start?"
"Well, where did you live before you came to Leannan? Did you have another Master?"
"No.” All of this seemed so distant, Leaf couldn't be sure it had ever happened. It felt like a half-remembered dream. “I was free. I lived down there, in the city, with my sister. Her name was Molly. We had a little cell to live in, and we made money mending shoes. We were poor, but we usually had enough to eat. Then the civil war started. When it looked like General Waltman and his factions would be victorious, my sister thought it would be a good idea to get out of the city. She said the General was a madman, and that he hated women."
"I've heard that, too,” Rin said.
"A lot of people had the same idea. We packed up as much food as we could carry and started for the gate. We had to be careful, because soldiers were arresting anyone who tried to leave. Lots of people were killed. We traveled at night, and in three days we made it through the crop fields and to the edge of the city-state. Then we had to look for a hole in the wall, or a place where we could climb a tree and make it over."
He closed his eyes, remembering Molly's face, so like his own. She'd worn her strawberry blonde hair in a tight bun, and years of crouching over stinking boots had lined her face and bent her back. But she'd provided for her little brother, working by candlelight while Leaf slept on a cot nearby. As a child he'd open his eyes to make sure she was there, sewing by firelight. She'd protected him, too. At least she'd tried.
"You didn't make it,” Rin said gently.
"Soldiers were everywhere, just running rampant, doing whatever they wanted. Celebrating, I guess. About six of them found us in a cornfield. Molly tried to fight. Told me to run. They beat us so badly. I remember I tried to keep hold of her hand."
Rin's fingers wove into his, and he continued. “I woke up in a cell at Headquarters. I was there a few days, I think. I couldn't see the sky, so I'm not sure. The soldiers beat me all the time.” They'd also raped him repeatedly, but for some reason he didn't want to tell Rin that part. “I couldn't stand up anymore. I thought I'd die. I didn't know where they'd taken my sister.” He remembered being, for the first time, scared and utterly alone.
"Then Master came. The soldiers stood up when he walked in; they called him Sir. I'd never seen anything like him. I thought he was a hallucination, from the pain. Then I wondered if he was an angel."
"Hardly,” Rin chuckled.
"Yeah,” Leaf said, smiling. “He wanted me, though. Asked who I was and if I was for sale. The way he looked at me, like he was amazed. Nothing has ever made me feel the way I did when I saw that look, realized it was for me. I think the soldiers were afraid to deny him. They said I hadn't been branded or processed yet, and that they'd sell me under the table. Leannan bent down and picked me up, carried me out of that horrible place. I woke up here."
"And then?"
"I slept a long time. Healed. Leannan told me I belonged to him, asked if that pleased me. He said I would need to do whatever he said, but that he'd make sure nobody ever hurt me again. He washed me, gave me jewelry, taught me how to sit, taught me to do all of the things he liked. He was so gentle with me, so patient. I miss him. Will he be okay out there in the Waste? What if he doesn't come back to me?"
"He'll come back. He may not have the power he had access to before the gates closed between this world and the Other, but his magic is strong and he loves you. Leaf, what was your name?"
"You know my name."
"Before."
He had to think a moment. “It was Ryan. But I'm not him anymore. Master made me Leaf."
"Are you happy with this life?” she asked. “The life of a slave? Would you choose another path for yourself if you could?"
He thought for another moment and said “No. I'm always happy, except when I'm alone. I feel blessed to have the chance to serve my Master."
"Thank you,” Rin said. Her tone told him she felt grateful for more than the sleep-stopping distraction of a story.
"Why don't you tell me one now?"
"Hai," she said. “Once, long ago, the smith-god Ama-Tsu-Mara fathered a daughter with a mortal princess. This daughter went to her father and asked him to make her a sword. The smith god laughed at this request and made for his daughter a silver bowl to wash her hair. Insulted, the daughter took up a long knife used for cutting bamboo. She cast aside her courtly kimono and dressed herself in the rough clothes of a peasant. She wandered through her mother's province, challenging every samurai she met. In only half a year she had killed eighty-seven men with the bamboo-cutting knife. Still Ama-Tsu-Mara-sama wasn't satisfied.
"No matter how great and famous warriors fell before the daughter's rough weapon, Ama-Tsu-Mara-sama refused her.
"Next the daughter went into the mountains, to the home of Kuro-Ryu, the great black dragon. She fought with him for twenty days, and finally slew him. She carried his head to her father and set it beside his forge. No longer could the smith-god deny her the sword she sought. Ama-Tsu-mara-sama said that he had no daughter, but a fine son, and he made for this son katana and wakazashi, carving the hilts and hand guards from the horns of the dragon and making armor from the beast's black hide."
The tale answered some of Leaf's questions, but inspired hundreds of new ones. What was Rinko? What was his Master? He felt intensely jealous of the Highwayman, Slayer of Kuro-Ryu, Son of Ama-Tsu-Mara-sama, for her past relationship with his Master. He wanted to know everything she knew about Leannan. Since he'd just saved her life, he decided to ask.
"How did you meet Leannan?"
She blew air between her teeth, looking, f
or the first time, a little apprehensive. “I've never told that tale. But if it pleases you."
"There's so much I don't know about him. He's so—"
"—aloof."
"Out in the Wasteland, far to the North where the desert is cold, a wizard raised for himself a palace from the greenish, polluted ice. He was mad, and thought it might be fun to collect all sorts of creatures for his amusement. One of these was a kami. He put her in an icy cell, away from the sunrise, and he tried to dress and paint her like a doll from the Floating World. He made her short hair long, but with her mighty sword she cut it off. The wizard took the sword and made the kami's hair grow back. She tore it out. Even so she was pleasant to the wizard, and he used her body. Though he beat her every time she ripped her hair away, the girl would not let it grow in, would not let the mad wizard have his doll. The things he did to try to force her were more awful than you can imagine.
"At the same time, another group of wizards grew fearful of the power the Ice Wizard had amassed. Unable to defeat him themselves, they sought out a fabled fey assassin, a white phantom who struck like Death itself. These wizards met the sidhe's price, which was, as always, high."
"No,” Leaf said. “That must be wrong. My Master can't stand killing. He brews elixirs and makes flowers grow. He's a healer, not a murderer."
"A healer and a poisoner are the same man in different moods, Leaf. I have seen your Master kill. But he also saved me from that ice prison. He put my swords in my hand so that I could cut open the belly of that foul wizard and let his steaming innards melt the floor of his own palace. For many years we worked as a team: Gold and Silver. But no one living remembers that now."
Phaze Fantasies, Vol. VI Page 12