Sailkeeper's Bride

by Annie Windsor

  “Her revenge.” Elise shrugged. “Some way to hurt you as much as you hurt her—to show herself she doesn’t need you, or any of us. Maybe she set out to find Krysta on her own. Never can tell.”

  “Perhaps I should scour the outlying cities. The distant countries.” Fari’s heart felt tortured. Georgia was all he could think of, but his mind told him time and again he wasn’t good enough for her. He’d failed her. His lack of vision almost got her killed or taken hostage, like Krysta.

  “I will manage the search for our sister,” Ki said flatly, and Fari knew the Sailmaster was still annoyed.

  Fari tightened his grip on his sword. “Because you think I am not competent. Admit it. After what happened to our parents, I should have never been named Sailkeeper. The damned priest Akad would have done a better job.”

  “Get out,” Ki snarled. “Your self-pity tries me.”

  Fari drew his barbed blade, feeling a mix of self-hatred and blind anger. “Say it, Brother! I am not fit for my duties. I have never been fit. My foolish lack of awareness resulted in the death of our parents, and now our sister—“

  Lightning fast, Ki drew his own diamond blade. Before Fari could react, his brother disarmed him with a smashing basal blow to Fari’s sword hilt. The shock traveled Fari’s arm, and his fingers turned loose the blade on reflex. There was nothing he could do but drop to the floor, gripping his throbbing wrist.

  The point of Ki’s blade pushed into his throat. Not far enough to penetrate, but far enough to hold Fari—and his attention—as still as a stone.

  “What happened to our parents was tragic.” Ki spoke slowly, irate teacher to stubborn pupil. “No one knew—no one could have known—of the advances in OrTan skull cloaking. The lizards had never used it before. And they had never made raids to murder. When you scanned for our parents’ passage, the skies were clear. You sent them off in good faith.”

  Fari wanted to argue that his senses should have told him otherwise, but the sword at his throat persuaded him to remain silent—and Ki’s words were slowly sinking into his brain.

  His focus on the past, it was useless. Worthless for Georgia, for Arda—even for himself. And above all, it was selfish.

  “As for Krysta,” Ki continued as Fari felt his new revelations at the deepest of levels, “she was a willing participant in a brilliant military tactic. Our one error, and I mean ours—yours, mine, Krysta’s, the Fleet’s, every soldier involved—was to misunderstand Outlander purposes. We cannot always be right, Brother. And in the absence of right, we regroup and try again. ”

  I understand, Brother. A great, hated weight was lifting from Fari as he spoke, replaced by the enormous pain of realizing how he had betrayed his shanna. I finally do understand.

  Ki started to ease his blade back, but from the bed, Elise shouted, “Stop!”

  Both men froze in place.

  Tenderly, Elise laid Ilya in the center of the massive bed and climbed down to where the two men stood locked in a semblance of combat. When she approached Fari, it was with an expression anything but tender.

  She walked right up on him, then knelt until she was eye to eye with her brother-by marriage. Her ample pa blazed with the force of her emotion, and Fari couldn’t help but think Lorelei.

  Childhood stories, cultural memories—a thousand factors fed into his sudden respect for this otherworldly woman before him. Elise, yet not Elise. Something more, something older and powerful beyond reason.

  “Ki will search for Krysta. You—you find my cousin.” Elise’s words sounded low and menacing. “You bring her home to us, and heal the damage you inflicted. I want my Georgia whole and happy, or I will make you miserable for her sadness every day of your life, as long as you live.”

  “Such threats are not necessary.” Fari could not nod lest the point of Ki’s sword do the damage it was forged to do. “If I fail to find my shanna, to explain myself and ask her forgiveness, my misery will be greater than any you could inflict.”

  This seemed to satisfy Elise—and Ki, who withdrew his sword.

  Whatever it takes. New determination flowed like a river through the Sailkeeper. I will bring her back to us.

  Chapter 21

  The enclave of priests, a spiritual retreat in Arda’s distant southern mountains, had to be one of the most beautiful places Georgia had ever seen. Lia, her Chimera, had followed her requests to this perfect place, presumably because Akad had trained her long ago.

  Gothic stone structures literally carved into the jagged mountains. Waterfalls too blue to be called crystalline tumbled down the flower-coated slopes. Paths and bridges, carved and polished to remind Georgia of ivory, stretched like lattice-work, connecting libraries to living quarters to common areas. Everything was verdant, alive, green, and healthy. The air offered scents of blossoms and clean water. Rains fell every day, but only for an hour or two, in the late afternoon.

  And still, the home of Akad’s order offered Georgia little relief from the aching pain in her chest. It had been a week—no, more like a stellar week—since Fari turned her away. After all they had done. After all she had shared with him. From local gossip, Krysta was still missing. And Akad was nowhere to be found, but his fellow priests tended Georgia emotionally as much as she would allow. As for physically, sexually—no. She wasn’t up for that. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be up for that again.

  A monastery seemed like a safe place, only monasteries on Arda weren’t the same as those on Earth. Peaceful, yes. Idyllic, certainly. But, damn. The priests had more sex than Earth’s most practiced nymphomaniacs. They fucked hundreds of willing village women. They fucked each other. Alone, in groups, same-sex, mixed-sex—everywhere Georgia turned, orgies abounded. Even more so now that they were preparing for the Festival of Seasons.

  As far as anyone knew, the Festival was still on, would still be held on the grounds of Camford in less than two days’ time.

  That adventuresome part of Georgia’s mind, the part of her that hadn’t wanted to be tied down before meeting Fari, sometimes rose and wanted to participate in the monastery’s charged sexual atmosphere. She even thought about the Festival, and what that experience might bring her.

  What would it feel like to be fucked in the ass and pussy all at once? And to have a cock in her mouth, too? And just this morning, watching a village woman fully sated by triple penetration—plus a cock in each hand—damn.

  No wonder Ardani women were fond of mountain climbing.

  How many of these monasteries existed?

  There was so much Georgia hadn’t dared to think about, much less try. These priests seemed designed for one purpose beyond healing, and that was sexual pleasure. Giving a woman whatever she wanted, however she wanted it.

  Her pussy stayed wet from morning ‘til night, which wasn’t conducive to forgetting about Fari.

  This particular morning, she had positioned herself in a gazebo, complete with silken couches for relaxation. Georgia reclined on the first couch, which gave her a good view of the living quarters, and many of the common areas—fields, streams, gardens.

  Tons of fucking, too.

  There, by a golden statue—two women bent over each other in a classic sixty-nine, licking each other’s clits and groaning with the perfect match of their pleasure.

  Georgia wanted to drop her psi-barriers and enjoy the women’s thoughts, but she didn’t dare let down her guard. The last thing she wanted was for Fari, Ki, or even Elise to know where she was.

  She needed time. She needed healing.

  Closer to Georgia, in one of the gardens of yellow flowers, two priests pleasured a village woman. They licked her breasts and toyed with her pussy, each sliding fingers inside her wet slit at the same time. The woman bucked and moaned, clearly finding bliss.

  Georgia was naked, and she had brought an Ardani sex toy with her. One of the priests had given it to her—a little vibrator of sorts, like the penis-hilts of Krysta’s saddles. No doubt when she put it in her pussy, it would expand to wha
t she needed. Georgia had decided that even if she couldn’t bring herself to fuck somebody other than Fari yet, she could damn sure pleasure herself. Her nipples ached, and she squeezed them, not bothering to stifle her moans of relief.

  Yes, that felt good.

  Maybe people could see her, too. She liked that thought.

  “So, I’m an exhibitionist,” she admitted, still rolling her beaded nipples between her fingers. “I like to watch—and be watched.”

  “Happy to oblige,” said a low, sexy voice to her left.

  Georgia turned to find two priests settling on the gazebo’s railing. They were naked, too, twists of pa twinkling on their chests and cocks rock-hard. And then a priest and a woman eased up and settled on the other railing.

  As Georgia pinched her nipples, the two priests stared at her hands and her breasts. Thrills rippled through Georgia, making her nipples ache all the more. The men smiled and began to massage their own rigid pricks.

  Georgia glanced to the right. The woman and her partner kissed, and the priest slipped his hand down, into the woman’s shaved folds. His fingers began a slow massage, right on the woman’s aching clit.

  Her own clit throbbed, and Georgia reached for it.

  “Yes,” one of the masturbating priests pleaded, “spread your legs. Let us see.”

  Georgia complied, opening herself to the scrutiny of her audience. It felt so exciting, so right and so wrong at the same time, to feel the heated gazes of other people trained on her slick, pulsing pussy.

  A gasp told Georgia that the couple had grown more active. Indeed, the priest had picked up his partner and impaled her on his impressive cock. He leaned against the railing and lifted her up and down. A slow but perfect pace. When the woman’s nipples moved before his face, he captured them and sucked, then let go, and captured them again.

  “So good.” The woman’s eyes were closed, but her partner’s eyes remained trained on Georgia’s pussy.

  Georgia stroked her clit, and the three men watching gave low groans of approval. All she had to do was beckon, and they would fuck her any way she directed. One in her ass, one in her pussy. She could have the other in her mouth, or press her face into the woman’s slit and lick the wet silk until the woman came.

  But all Georgia did was rub herself harder, faster. She kept one hand on her nipple, pinching it hard.

  In front of her, the priests pumped their hard cocks. The woman yelled as her partner increased the speed and depth of his penetration.

  “Damn.” Georgia let go her nipple, grabbed the sex toy, and crammed it in her pussy. As she had hoped, it warmed, then began to expand.

  “Aah. Aaaaah!” The woman came as the priest fucked her like a wild man. “Sweet universe. Yes. Yes!!”

  The sex toy in Georgia’s pussy hummed and grew, grew and hummed as she fingered her clit.

  Then, as if reading her shielded mind, the three priests and the woman moved to one of the other couches. One priest lay back, his rigid prick high and ready as the woman mounted him and leaned forward. The other priest positioned himself behind her, on his knees, and slipped his ample cock slowly, slowly, into her waiting ass.

  “Deeper.” She groaned, eyes closed. ”Fill me up.”

  Georgia felt her sex toy begin a rapid in-and-out motion. Her clit felt as big as a plum as she rolled it back and forth.

  The third priest offered his cock to the woman’s mouth, and she took it in with a grateful moan.

  As if choreographed by some master dancer, the three men moved in concert, fucking the woman for her pleasure—and for Georgia’s.

  “Umm. Ummm.” The woman’s metric groans doubled the fire between Georgia’s legs.

  She wanted the woman to come, and come huge. She wanted to watch the woman’s body bow and shudder as all three men came inside her.

  The sex toy did its work, pumping in and out of Georgia as she once more pinched her own nipples and stroked her clit.

  In front of her, the thrusting became frenzied. The woman rocked and groaned, taking every inch of what the priests offered.

  Georgia felt her own dose of frenzy, fucking herself, imagining…

  Fari, pounding his cock into her pussy…

  Ki, behind her, sinking deep…

  The yellow-eyed man in her mouth, purring as he stroked her hair…

  Krysta and Elise, licking each other’s clits as they watched…

  With a soul-wrenching howl, Georgia gave into a blistering orgasm. It shook her heart and her mind, and the images she formed wouldn’t turn her loose.

  She wanted Fari. She needed him. She didn’t think she could live without him. And her family, joining the Ardani way—even Tiger-Eyes, somehow a part of them now that he saved Elise and Ilya.

  Georgia jerked the sex toy out of her spent channel and flung it across the gazebo. She turned over and rolled into a ball, sobbing like a child who had lost everything.

  Vaguely aware of comforting pats and murmured words from the three priests and their willing concubine, Georgia let herself drift toward a miserable, troubled sleep.

  I’ll never have the family I dream about. I’ll never have what I want, and I have to do something drastic. Close that door in my heart, once and for all, damn it.

  And I know just how to do it.

  Chapter 22

  The Festival of Seasons day dawned clear under big sun and little sister.

  Fari stood at Camford’s main gates, fighting a feeling that it was wrong. All wrong. To have the Festival with Krysta and Georgia missing—it seemed like heresy. Or glib disregard.

  Even the High Priest Akad had not been found. The denizens of his own order had not heard from the priest since the Outlander battle. He was most certainly dead and his body as yet undiscovered—or Akad had been captured and held hostage with Krysta.

  Still, Camford’s front and side lawns were hives of activity. Bleachers had been hastily constructed, but Fari knew they were well-designed. Banners flapped over different seating areas, sewn in bright, clean cloth to welcome the tribes and towns who would sit beneath them. Life for the people of Arda had to move on.

  The Outlanders would make contact. Ki would do whatever it took to win trust, and then the Fleet would recover Krysta and perhaps Akad.

  As for Georgia, Fari was at a complete loss.

  His mind and muscles were weary from riding. Town after town, enclave after enclave. He had even started on the monasteries, but so far, no luck. Her absence tore at his soul. He missed her so badly he would walk on his knees to her hiding place, if only she would give him the chance to do so.

  Had his shanna left the planet?

  Stolen some forgotten vessel and departed the system?

  Fari sighed and scrubbed his hand over his stubble. Even that made his heart ache. Georgia had enjoyed the feel of his growing beard in between shaves.

  Whatever she has done, wherever she has gone, it is my fault. How could I have been so cruel to her?

  And what sort of revenge would she exact?

  No matter what it was, Fari knew he deserved it. And he knew one more thing for certain. He had to beat back his inner demons and find a way to apologize to his soul’s mate. He had to have her back.

  Great giggling and laughter tore Fari’s attention from his inner musings.

  The first of Arda’s unclaimed maidens were arriving, these from the planet’s western reaches. They were fair of skin but lightly tanned. Most wore Festival gowns of white and yellow, but a few were already naked and draped in flowers. These girls had started merry-making early, judging by the stumble of their gait and the loudness of their bawdy jokes.

  Accompanied by priests of the western orders, the girls were led to one of many large tents to begin preparations.

  They would be oiled and covered with blossoms, and pleasured to their heart’s content by the priests, by each other—and anyone else they chose to include in the gaiety. At the same time, a group of western warriors rode in on horseback, shouting and whoopi
ng even as the maidens disappeared from view.

  Today, many would find their soul’s mates.

  Tonight, many would know the fires of mating fervor, and the endless joys of a shanna’s love.

  At this moment, Fari could scarce imagine such joy, such abandon.

  Only Georgia would satisfy his heart, not to mention his stiff, unrepentant cock.

  Where are you, beloved? Will you give me no opportunity to redeem myself?

  An image of his parents’ exploding schooner filled his mind, and Fari grimaced.

  Sometimes, the universe gave no second chances.

  * * * * *

  By the time big sun and little sister crested in Arda’s sapphire sky, most of the contingents had arrived. Many were already being seated.

  Fari walked with Elise and Ki, listening to the laughter and the moans of pleasure issuing from tents—and even the observation boxes and bleachers surrounding the presentation area.

  Elise was clearly aroused. “This is unbelievable. I’m glad Ilya’s back in the nursery. I wouldn’t want her to see her mom so horny.”

  Ki pulled Elise close to him, draping an arm around her shoulder and teasing her nipple through the light, gauzy blouse she wore. “But you do not like public sex, shanna. You have told me this many times.”

  They passed a couple hard at it on the ground. The woman flung her arms above her head and shouted her approval as a partially clad warrior fucked her at high speed. His pants rested at his knees, and his scabbard slammed the ground with each thrust.

  Elise groaned as Ki rubbed her nipple harder. “Maybe I’ll make an exception. The spirit of the Festival, and all. Will you join us, Fari?”

  The question surprised Fari, and he did not know how to respond. He had been planning to sit with his family, and in point of fact, he was not formally joined with Georgia. No ethic, no law, not even any personal commitment prevented him from finding some relief with his brother’s wife. And the way Elise enjoyed double penetration, there would be plenty of relief, if she got into the spirit of the Festival of Seasons.