“Just in case,” Hallow said.
I didn’t question him about what he meant; I didn’t have the attention to do anything but marvel at the sight of him without his clothing.
“Erm...” he said, touching the silver band at my wrist. “On or off?”
“On. I don’t think you’d like me with them off,” I answered, spreading my fingers wide on his belly, my gaze caught and held by his most prodigious gift from the goddesses. “That’s...that’s a lot bigger than Sam the groom’s manhood.”
Hallow glanced down at it. “Is it? I assure you it’s pretty standard size. That is, I’ve not had any complaints, but then again, I haven’t had maidens falling to their knees to worship my ability to wield it.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and took him into one hand, enjoying his resulting intake of breath. “Bertilde, the cook at our temple, swears that all men think women worship their manbits. You’re very hot. You don’t have a fever in it, do you? Does it need doctoring? I was never very good with medicines, but Sandor made me learn methods of alleviating a fever. Do you happen to have any leeches? Or I can make a poultice with fresh dung—”
His laughter interrupted my offer of manhood care. He pried my hands from his fevered part, pulling me down until I lay across his (truly breathtaking) chest. “My heart, I assure you my penis is not ailing, nor does it need a poultice, although it does have a fever...for you.”
I stopped trying to remember the dung poultice recipe, oddly flattered by both his term of endearment, and the compliment. “Well, then. If you’re quite sure all is well there, then I suppose we can proceed.”
“I suppose we can,” he said with suspect gravity.
I studied him. His eye were crinkling away like mad. “What would you suggest I do to take care of this fever I caused?”
“Oh, goddess,” he said on a half moan, half laugh. “Whatever you want. I am putty in your hands. Do with me as you will.”
And so I did. I stroked his chest. I kissed his neck. I even licked his nipples, but it wasn’t until I took his man parts in both hands that he moaned and beg the goddesses for mercy.
“Stop!” he demanded at one point, when I was working up a nice rhythm that had him writhing on the cot.
“Why? Don’t you like that?”
“Kiriah’s nipples, woman!” He lifted his head and glared down the length of his body to where I was kneeling between his knees. “Do I look like I don’t like that? I like it a lot. Too much. And if you don’t stop squeezing those, it will all be over. And I mean that in a literal sense as well as a metaphorical one.”
“I’m being gentle,” I said, giving the plump little sacks of flesh a very slight squeeze. “Sam said that a little squeeze was good, and that it heightened the sensations for men. He also said that sometimes, a finger inserted into—”
“Allegria!”
“What?” I asked, startled by the way he shouted my name with a gargle of laughter.
“I’m going to have a word with this Sam of yours, but until then, stop. No, not because you’re not being gentle. You aren’t hurting me, at least, not hurting me in the sense you mean.”
“Sam isn’t mine,” I felt obligated to point out. “He wed one of the camp followers who came to the temple in hopes it would rid her of the itch for men. Sandor said nothing but a strong salve would do that, and she’d be better off marrying a man who had the same sort of lust for coupling, and so she wed Sam. Why are you laughing?”
“You’re the only woman I know who can hold a man’s stones in one hand, his cock in the other, and detail the life path of a former lover. Are you done with the tale of Sam and his lusty wife?”
“Yes,” I said, releasing both handfuls of manbits. “Her name was Jenna, by the way.”
He shouted with laughter, and before I could tell him he was the oddest man I had ever met, flipped me so that I was on my back, and he was over me, a glint in his eyes that warmed me to my toes. “Now it’s my turn. And I can promise you I’ll do this without once mentioning any of my former lovers.”
“Really? How many did you ha—aieeeee!”
His mouth closed on one of my nipples, just about sending me off the bed with ripples of pleasure that spread outwards. “Like that, do you?”
“Why didn’t I use my mouth on your nipples?” I gasped, my hands flailing helplessly against the linen covers. “Let me do it now. Wait, after you do the other one. And then back to the first. And the second again.”
“I’ll do whatever you want,” he chuckled, his hands caressing my belly. “But perhaps you might want to hold your list of demands until after I try this.”
“What?” I asked, thrusting my shoulders back so he’d notice my (sadly missing him) breasts. He kissed a path down my belly to the point where my inner parts started. “What are you doing down there? Sam never looked at my parts. Is something amiss? Are there black spots there, too?”
“There are no spots that I see, although I have to admit that I’m glad to be able to show you something Sam never bothered to teach you. Now, you might want to hold onto something.”
The warmth of his breath was the only warning I had before his mouth touched the secret parts of me. I grabbed his head, my entire being focused on one spot.
“Maybe something other than my hair,” he mumbled into my crotch.
“Kiriah Sunbringer!” I said on a gasp, and tugged his hair just in case he wasn’t paying attention. “What was that? Do it again!”
His tongue swirled at the same time a finger slid into me. I swear my eyes crossed with the warmth and tension and sense of coming explosion of joy. The sensation was so overwhelming, I quivered with expectation, and then suddenly, his mouth and fingers were gone, and I was filled with his very solid penis.
“So hot,” he murmured, nibbling on my neck as his hips moved.
“I told you...oh, merciful Kiriah!...I told you that you had a fever. Do you mind if I do this?” I flexed my hips to take him in deeper.
He reared back, his hair standing on end like a blond porcupine, his eyes so hot I swear they could set the tent alight. “Not at all. Feel free to do that whenever you have the notion. Now would be a good time.”
I flexed, enjoying this new feminine power I evidently possessed. I wanted to tell him that I never flexed with Sam, but felt that bit of news could wait for a later time. Instead, I matched my flexing to his thrusting, and in a very short time, we both lost the rhythm.
“I think...goddess, yes, my breasts like that a lot...I think I’m close...are you—”
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes. And if you move like that again, I’ll be over the edge.”
I dug my fingers into the thick muscles of his behind, and made the little swivel of my hips that I’d been inspired into trying. He gave a shout of completion, and made hard, fast little thrusts that pushed me into an orgasm so great, my entire body lit up glowing with the golden light of the sun.
“This...blessed goddesses, how is there even air left to breathe?...this is different,” Hallow panted, pushing himself up on his arms. “Please tell me you’re not going to flatten this tent again. I don’t mind you flexing your magical muscles, but I really don’t want to have to explain to everyone what we were doing.”
I looked down my body to where we were still joined. The few times I’d used my lightweaving powers, the light had clung to my hands only, but now here I was lit up like a moon bug in late summer. “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t do this with Sam, but then, he wasn’t nearly as proficient with his body as you are with yours.”
“Up,” Hallow said, sliding off me to stand next to the cot.
“What?” I looked at him in incomprehension. Was he asking me to leave?
“The cot is too narrow to lie together.” He pulled me up then laid down on his back before catching me around the waist and pulling me down on top of him, deftly whipping a linen sheet over our bodies. “I don’t have the strength to stand. Or talk. Or even think. Just lie here and let me
remember how to breathe.”
“You are definitely the oddest man I know,” I told him, relaxing onto his body with an exhausted sigh of happiness. “Luckily, I like odd.”
* * *
Darkness fell about us like a silken robe slipping from my shoulders.
I sat back on Hallow’s cot, watching as he gathered up fresh garments, and pulled them on, warmed by the heated, sated glances he threw my way.
I laughed softly to myself, well content with my decision to indulge my sensual demands, but at the same time regretting that I had to leave him so soon. A small herd of light tigers formed, and wrestled across my legs.
“Are you sitting on my—what on earth is that?”
Hallow stopped rummaging through a small leather trunk in order to stare at the tigers.
“Didn’t I tell you about that? I make little light animals. They are amusing, and very forbidden by the head priest at my temple.” I held out a hand, and one of the tigers jumped onto it before pouncing on my thumb.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. Can I touch them?”
“I don’t see why not.” I placed the tiger onto his hand. A look of delight filled his eyes as the tiger gamboled up his arm, across his shoulder, and down his other arm.
“You truly are made of magic,” he said, laughing at their antics.
We watched them for a few minutes until they faded into nothing. I rested my chin on my knee, and said, “This changes nothing, you know.”
“About what? You leaving? I didn’t expect that it would, although I should warn you if you think to try to take Exodius, you won’t get very far. The only reason he allowed me to take him was because he said Thorn told him he’d find success with Lord Israel.”
I glanced over at where the shadow of the staff leaning drunkenly across the flap of the tent was visible. “Does the staff really talk?”
“Not to me. Honestly, I think Exodius is a bit ... affected ... by living alone for so long. I think he imagines some of the conversations he has with people. And things.”
“I wasn’t planning on taking the runeseeker. I can see that would be impossible, although I am still annoyed with the underhanded way you took him from me.”
“My heart, you never had him,” he said with laughter in his voice and eyes. I touched the lines that spread from his eyes, feeling—for the moment, at least—warm and happy and sated to the very tips of my toes.
“Why do you call me that?”
“What? My heart?”
“Yes.” I brushed a bit of hair from his forehead. “We’ve only just met. You can’t have developed affection for me.”
He lips twisted. “Do you think I bed every pretty wench I see? Of course I have affection for you. And annoyance. And exasperation. Lest you accuse me of toying with you, however, I will add that in my region, ‘my heart’ is the term we use for those we are sweet on.”
I liked the sound of that. Absently, I traced a protection rune in the air over his chest. I was under no illusion that our lovemaking had changed the fact that we were on opposite sides of the battle that was surely coming, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t cherish moments like this. “In my town, we say ‘sweeting.’ I think I like yours better.”
As the darkness deepened around the camp, Hallow went out to fetch us food, and left again soon after we devoured it.
“I’ll be back in a short while. I want to find out what the guards’ schedule is,” he told me before slipping out of the tent.
I took the opportunity to visit a privy—aware of the guards watching me while I made my way to the privy and back to Hallow’s tent—following which I spent a couple of minutes arguing with myself. My better nature lost the argument, and quickly, I made a search of his belongings for anything to replace the weapons that had been taken from me.
He had a sword that had clearly seen better days, a couple of daggers that glinted wickedly but were balanced wrong for my hands, and several books that looked interesting, but wouldn’t help me much in a fight against Harborym. “Which means I need to get my swords back. Not to mention the fact that Deo gave them to me, and I want them. How to get them is another mat—”
A shadow moved against the entrance of the tent, and suddenly, Hallow was there.
“Ah, good, you are awake. I wondered if you might not fall asleep, since I was longer than I expected.”
“Why do you smell like horse?” I asked, suspicion growing as I examined him. He was clad not in the white and gold garb of Lord Israel’s company, but in the same midnight blue and silver worn by the runeseeker. A cloak was clasped around his neck held by a silver brooch, and the black bird staff was strapped to his back. A sword hung from his belt, and in his hands he held a long object wrapped in a black cloth. I frowned, and glanced around the tent again. Now I realized what was missing. “Your saddle is gone, and you’re dressed as if you are going somewhere. If you intend on escorting me out of the area to make sure I don’t try to steal the runeseeker, you needn’t bother. I told you I wouldn’t try to take him.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t, but I know where the guards are located, and where they aren’t located because I bribed them to go elsewhere. Come. We don’t have long.” He handed me the object, which I was relieved to see was my swords and scabbards. I strapped them on, eyeing Hallow when he rifled through the papers in his chest. He pulled out a couple, folded them up, and stuffed them into the outer folds of his tunic before reaching back into the chest and extracting a black cloak. “Put this on, and pull up the hood. The less chances we give people to recognize you, the better. Are you ready?”
“Yes.” I slid him a look, biting my lip for a few seconds while I worked out what I wanted to say. “Hallow ... thank you.”
“For the cloak? It’s one of my master’s old castoffs—”
“No, for this.” I gestured toward the bed before pulling on the cloak, adjusting the hood so that it hid my face in shadows. “For the ... what did you call it? Interlude? And the food, but most importantly for not trying to stop me. I would fight you if I had to, but this is much easier.”
He laughed and took me by one hand, snatching up a lantern with the other. “I like your compliments, Allegria. You don’t indulge in any of the showy but meaningless words of the highborn. You speak of things that matter, like how much nicer it is to not have to fight your way out of a situation. This way. You have a horse nearby?”
“I have a mount, yes,” I said softly, allowing him to pilot me through the maze of tents. There were a few scattered people amongst the tents, but most of them were in the center clearing, the evening meal obviously being under way. Hallow paused for a couple of minutes next to a string of horses who were munching oats in their feed bags.
“Guard,” he said in my ear, gesturing toward the silhouette of a man leaning against a rocky outcropping. “He should leave in a minute.”
I turned my head, his breath tickling my cheek. “Then we’d best stay quiet,” I said, tipping my head back so that my lips brushed his.
His arms came around me, pulling my body against his at the same time his lips teased mine. “You are wise beyond your years.”
I was about to answer, but the silhouette suddenly stood, stretched, scratched his chest, and wandered off toward the privies.
“Another time,” Hallow said, taking my hand and leading me past the horses.
It took about ten minutes, but at last we made our way down the rocky hillside, avoiding both guards and the main road.
“Where’s your horse?” he asked once we reached the broken South Road.
“Hobbled next to a pond. I can find her. Thank you for your help.” I leaned forward and kissed him. “For everything.”
“Did you think you’re getting rid of me that quickly?” His face was just a faint oval in the darkness, but I could hear the humor in his voice.
“I don’t need you to help me find Buttercup. I know where the pond is. It’s just down the road a bit, and off a side track to the
east.” Annoyed that he thought I was so inept that I couldn’t find Buttercup on my own, I started down the road, keeping an eye out for guards who might have come down off the hill.
He said nothing. I glanced over my shoulder, a little surprised at his silence, but he was gone, just as if he’d disappeared into the night.
A pang of disappointment ruined the moment, but I told myself not to be so silly. Hallow had done everything I wanted, and I had no right to feel abused because he’d left without so much as a fare-thee-well.
“Has to be a spell. Maybe a derangement spell, one that makes me feel emotions that have no useful role in my life.”
Ten minutes later I found Buttercup grazing near the pond, her tail lazily swishing her fat sides.
“I see you haven’t suffered from half a day left on your own,” I said, removing the hobble and pulling the saddle out of where I’d hidden in it a squat bush. I brushed off the plant matter, shook out her blanket, and, ignoring her bared teeth, got her bridled and the saddle onto her back before she had time to do more than try to take a bite out of my behind. Getting the saddle’s cinch tight was another matter. “I swear, you’ve gotten fatter. Stop holding your breath.”
“Troubles?”
I gasped and whirled around to see the shape of a man on a horse standing behind me. My swords were in my hands before I could assess the threat, the chaos magic in me surging so that the runes on my cuffs glowed.
And it was at that moment that I realized why Hallow had smelled like his horse. He’d obviously groomed him before saddling him. I slid my swords back into their scabbards, and said, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Other than startling you? I had to fetch Penn from where I’d moved him earlier. Do you need help?” Hallow started to dismount, but I waved his offer away.
“No, I’m quite used to Buttercup’s attempt to avoid being saddled properly. What I want to know is why you’re mounted and bear the appearance of a man who’s about to take a journey.” I returned to the cinch and gave it a hearty tug. Buttercup sucked in even more breath, puffing out her sides.
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