“You are beautiful,” he said low. “I am surely the most envied man in Terah.” He undid the tie holding the halves of her robe together. His hands slipped beneath the silken fabric and up her back even as she untied his robe. He pulled her against him, and they sighed simultaneously as warm flesh met warm flesh. He kissed her a slow and lingering kiss that seemed to have no end. His desire for her began to make itself known, but he swallowed back his lust. They knew each other well, but he wanted her to remember this night above all the nights they had already spent together, and would spend together in whatever future was to be theirs.
Lara drew her head away from his, and looking up into his face said, “I love you, Magnus, and those are words faerie women only utter if they are true.” She took his face between her two small hands. Her green eyes met his turquoise ones. “You have the right to my heart, my lord husband. You are the other half of my soul.”
He pushed the robe from her shoulders, and shrugged his own garment away as he picked her up, and brought her to their bed. “Without you,” he told her, “I would have neither heart, nor soul.” He laid her down gently.
Lara was momentarily stunned by his incredible declaration. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she held out her arms to him.
Magnus smiled down at her seeing the emotion his words had brought her to, brushing a single tear from her cheek with a finger. Sitting down next to her he said, “We already know each other, my love, and there is no rush to consummate our now formalized union. Let me offer you pleasure of a different kind.”
She nodded, wondering what it was he would do. Lara watched as he reached down, and drew up a small basket of gold wire filled with alabaster bottles and jars. He rolled her onto her stomach, and turning her head she saw him debating with himself before drawing the stopper from one of the bottles. “What is it?” she asked him.
“A special lotion,” he told her, and held the bottle beneath her nose so she might smell it. Then he pulled her long golden hair to one side.
“Peaches,” she said, surprised.
“Peaches are my favorite fruit,” he replied, pouring some of the lotion into his palm. Then using her bottom as his cushion he sat and began to smooth the liquid up her back with long firm strokes. “Close your eyes,” he said. “Let the sensations take over.”
Lara closed her eyes and almost immediately was intensely aware of his hands on her body. The large palms smoothed over her back; the subtle long fingers scampered along the delicate bones of her spine, up and down, back and forth. She was enveloped in the scent of peach blossoms as he massaged her round buttocks, the edge of one hand slipping between the twin moons to rub sensuously between them. As he moved on to knead each of her legs Lara began to realized her entire body was reacting with increasing heat to her husband’s exciting touch. She struggled with herself to restrain her squirming.
He moved back up her body again, and she felt his teeth nip sharply at the nape of her neck. The quick pain was followed by a kiss upon the same spot. “Now, my faerie love,” he whispered to her, “you will turn over for me.” His tongue pushed into her ear, licking it, nipping at the lobe. He helped her into the position that suited him. She lay upon her back, eyes watching him as he chose another bottle, and poured a thin stream of golden liquid between her breasts. She could smell both peaches and honey from this bottle. He lapped at the fragrant stream with his tongue until it was all gone. Then he drizzled a tiny bit upon one of her nipples, and sucked upon it.
The liquid stung her just slightly. She could actually feel it sinking into her flesh as he suckled hard upon her to draw it out. And then an exquisite intensity began to envelop her being. He poured a tiny dollop of the golden liquid upon her other nipple, drew upon the sensitive flesh, and Lara could not stop the moan of delight that issued forth. Her breasts were both tingling with sensation, and felt so swollen she thought they might burst open. “Magnus,” she breathed hotly as he sprinkled drops from the alabaster bottle over her torso, and began to lick at the flesh with his burning tongue.
Some of the honeyed mixture ran between the slit dividing her nether lips, which were already pouting slightly open with her rising desire. She gasped as it touched her lover’s nub, and began to squirm frantically. His mouth was quickly on her, licking soothingly, sucking upon the nub fiercely until she was begging him to complete what he has begun. “Magnus! Please!”
In answer he bathed his lover’s lance with the same liquid, putting it to her lips. “Taste it,” he told her, “and then we will couple, but I need your mouth upon me as mine has been upon you!”
Lara did not hesitate, but took him between her lips, and suckled upon him. The coating covering his flesh was the most delicious flavor she had ever tasted. She could not stop licking at him, drawing upon his flesh. But then he gently pinched her nostrils together with firm fingers, and when she gasped for air he drew himself from her mouth.
“More!” she begged him. “More!”
In answer he moved himself down her fevered body, and pressed the length of his lover’s lance into her body as far as he could reach. Her slender legs wrapped themselves about him in an effort to bring him deeper. Her sharp little nails began to rake frantically down his back as her passion built from a flame into a conflagration of desire. She screamed as he drew himself almost completely out of her, then thrust hard over and over and over again until their combined lusts exploded, leaving them both drained and barely conscious. When they came to themselves again, the dawn of a new day was beginning to tease at the edges of the horizon.
What had happened? Lara attempted to remember the desire that had brought them to such a weakened state. She sensed he was also awake, and wondered what he was thinking. “Magnus?” Her voice was a whisper.
“Then I did not kill you,” he half groaned. “Praise the Great Creator!”
Lara laughed weakly. “Nay, you did not kill me. Did you mean to, my lord?”
“The lotions and liquids,” he said weakly. “I have never used them before. Corrado bought them from one of the Hetarian traders. They call them Pleasure Enhancers, he said. He thought we might enjoy them.”
“Pleasure Enhancers are used in the Pleasure Houses by the Pleasure Women. Their purpose is to encourage a lover whose interest cannot be gained by ordinary means, or who can no longer function as he did in his youth. They are not for lovers in their prime, my lord,” Lara explained, half laughing.
“We will not use them again,” he said.
“We do not need to use them,” she replied. Then she snuggled into his arms. “Put them away, Magnus. I will always be able to share pleasures with you without such means. The mere sound of your voice renders me weak with desire. But now I find I am so exhausted that I must sleep, or fade away.” She closed her eyes with a sigh. The familiar scent of him was comforting.
The Dominus grinned. He was just as exhausted as she was, but relieved he had not had to admit to it. “Perhaps I will rest a bit, too,” he murmured casually.
Lara swallowed back her laughter, relaxing against her husband until she heard him begin to snore softly. Only then did she allow herself to drift away.
They were awakened several very short hours later by an apologetic serving woman. “Domina,” the woman shook Lara’s shoulder gently. “You must awaken.”
Drawing the coverlet about her Lara sat up. “What is it?”
“The Lady Persis is preparing to leave. She insists you both come and bid her farewell. She also says she would like the fur cape you promised her. She would remind you that it is cold out upon the water.”
Lara laughed, shaking her head with amusement. “Tell Lady Persis that the Dominus and I will be with her very shortly. And she shall have her cape.”
“Yes, Domina,” the serving woman said, and withdrew.
She turned to Magnus.
“I heard,” he said with a groan.
“She cannot leave until we have bid her farewell,” Lara reasoned with him.
“What about her cape?” he asked. “There has been no time to have one made. She will not leave without it, you know.”
“She shall have it,” Lara said, rising from their bed.
“Faerie magic?” he asked.
“What other choice have I?” she replied. “Sirvat says she is angling to return to the castle. If you want her here I will acquiesce, but I suspect she is not an easy woman to live with, Magnus, and I have little tolerance for fools.”
“I would build her a house of her own before I would let her return to the castle,” he said. “There would be little peace with her in the castle, and I cannot rule a kingdom if I must contend with chaos in my home.”
They quickly bathed and dressed, and went to seek out Lady Persis. Lara carried a beautiful full-length fur cape over her arm. They found the Dominus’s mother and her two elder daughters in the day room of the Women’s Quarters.
“She would not let us depart before we had seen you,” his eldest sister, Narda, said. “She has forgotten what it is to be young and in love.”
“I have forgotten nothing, rude girl!” Lady Persis replied.
“I have brought you your cape, madam,” Lara said coming forward, and wrapping the garment about the older woman. “You shall never be cold again in the icy season.” She fastened the cloak with delicate golden frog closings. “And it has a hood,” she added, drawing it up over her mother-in-law’s head. “I knew that marten would flatter you, madam,” Lara said stepping back to admire her hand-iwork.
Lady Persis fingered the thick rich fur. She examined the gold work of the closings, and saw it was perfect. There had been no time, she knew, for such a cape to be fashioned by mortal hands, and thus she knew it was faerie work. She smiled, very well pleased, for it was obvious her new daughter-in-law respected her — which was more than her three daughters did. “It is a wonderful cloak,” she said. “Thank you, Lara.”
Lara gave the older woman a gracious nod of her head. “I always keep my promises, madam,” she told Lady Persis. “And now I will bid you a safe journey.” She put her arms about her husband’s mother, and kissed both of her cheeks. Then she stepped over to his two older sisters, and wished them a safe journey as well. Each woman moved on to the Dominus, and then had no choice but to step upon the platform, which would take them to the quay below, and their vessels. Magnus Hauk shut the gate, and called to the giant who operated it. “Take them down now, and gently.” The platform began its descent, and then the trio were gone from their sight.
“Nicely done, wife,” he complimented her. “I could see the words forming upon my mother’s lips as you so neatly dismissed her and my sisters.”
“So could I,” Lara chuckled. “Now can we go back to bed, my lord?”
He laughed, and putting a strong arm about her escorted her back to their private apartments where they remained for the next several days isolated from the world, eating, drinking and making passionate love — but without the aid of the Pleasure Enhancers.
They also discussed the journey they would make to Hetar. It was better that no one knew of their going. They had previously discussed going to the Dominus’s hunting lodge in the foothills of the Emerald Mountains, where they would have perfect privacy. They would take no servants with them for Lara’s magic would be used to take care of them, they told Corrado and Sirvat. They would go before the Snow Month, and return with the spring that immediately followed it.
“What if we need you?” Sirvat asked her brother.
“For what purpose would you need me?” he replied. “You have your husband until the spring, for our trading vessels do not go to sea in the icy season. I wish time alone with my wife, and no interference from others. Other men have this privilege when they are first wed. Why should the Dominus not be allowed the same liberty?”
“I will give you a means of contacting us,” Lara reassured Sirvat, “but be certain you call us only in the instance of an emergency, not because you are bored or lonely. Your new home will be ready for you in early summer. You must continue working with the architect, and you need to speak with the craftsmen about the furnishings. And Corrado will want time to plan for the coming trading season so that the fleet’s time is put to its best use. And your husband needs an heir. You will be much too busy to miss us. It is the perfect time for us to slip away.”
Sirvat sighed. “I suppose you are right,” she said. “And it will be fun having the castle all to ourselves.”
“Just as long as you don’t decide to keep it,” Magnus teased his little sister, and they all laughed.
“I think I prefer being a sea captain to a Dominus,” Corrado said, and he wiped his brow in a gesture of mock relief.
“And for a brief few weeks,” Magnus Hauk replied, “I shall enjoy just being a man in love with his wife, without the responsibilities of a kingdom on his shoulders.”
Lara went to the stables the next morning to converse with Dasras. Speaking in a soft voice that only he could hear, she told him where they would be going, and why. “Will you remain here, or would you prefer to join the Fiacre again? Sakira must surely miss you.”
“It has been some time,” the great stallion agreed, “since I have run with my mate, Sakira. Now that she is just over the mountains, and not across a sea perhaps it would be good to join her again. When will you return?”
“In the spring,” Lara said low. “I will send for you, for I know it is meant we be together, old friend.”
“Take Andraste and Verica,” Dasras advised.
“Magnus and I will travel only as visitors to the City,” Lara answered.
“Take the sword and the staff,” he repeated. “Better you not need them and have them, than you need them and do not have them.”
“Perhaps you are right,” Lara replied thoughtfully. “The City can be treacherous, and from all the Shadow Prince has told me it has become more so in these last few years.”
Dasras shook his great head in agreement.
“Come,” Lara told the big beast, and he followed her from the stable into the courtyard. “Do not tell them where I am,” she whispered to him. “Just say I will visit them in the spring. Tell my son I send him my love, and will be with him soon. Go now!” And Lara watched as Dasras galloped across the courtyard, his great wings unfolding, lifting him up into the bright morning sky as he turned above her and flew toward the mountains. She hurried back into the castle to find Magnus.
Within the confines of their apartments they held hands, and Lara with a simple spell brought them to the safety of the Dominus’s hunting lodge in the foothills of the Emerald Mountains. The little hall was cold, but with a snap of her fingers she caused a fire to ignite in the hearth. He watched as she lit lamps, and put food upon the table by means of her magic. They ate, and then he showed her about the small dwelling, which was much like an Outlander’s house.
As they cuddled together in bed that evening he asked her, “When shall we go?”
“Let us remain here a few days, my dear lord. Knowing Sirvat, she is bound to concoct an emergency just so she may contact us. If we cannot answer her she will be terrified, and raise a cry.”
“By what means can she reach us?” he asked her.
“I gave her a small mirror. All she need do is look into the glass, and call my name,” Lara explained. “I will hear her.”
“Why do you believe she will call you shortly?” he inquired.
“Sirvat is curious. She will want to be certain the mirror works,” Lara replied.
“Of course she will!” Magnus agreed with a chuckle. “Very well. We will remain here until she has experimented with her magic mirror.”
And two days later Sirvat did indeed call Lara’s name, and Lara answered her sister-in-law. “What is it you want, Sirvat?” she responded.
“There is no emergency,” Sirvat admitted honestly. “I just wanted to make certain that your mirror worked, Lara.”
“Of course it works,” Lara said. “I made it myself.”
“Having a sister who can make such magic takes a little bit of getting used to,” Sirvat said. “Are you and my brother enjoying your isolation? The snows will begin in another day or two. They always come at this time of year.”
“We are quite cozy here,” Lara assured Sirvat. “I can light the hearth with just a snap of my fingers, and the wood never burns away.”
“What are you eating?” Sirvat wanted to know.
“We eat faerie bread,” Lara said. “It tastes like whatever you wish it to taste, and the lodge cellar has barrels of good wine stored. It is very beautiful here, Sirvat. We have walked down to the lake, which has just in the last day or two begun to show a skim of ice upon its surface. And it is so peaceful. I have beat Magnus twice playing Traders. My Hetarian vessels always seem able to outrun his Terahn ships to the Safe Harbor,” she laughed. “And he is not the best sport about it either. Did you always let him win?”
“Much of the time, once I learned how to play,” Sirvat admitted smiling.
“Well,” Lara said, “if there is no emergency you must go now, Sirvat. Please, do not call me unless you truly need me. Once we return to the castle we shall not have so peaceful a time. It is a luxury we are very much enjoying. Your brother needs this time to himself. Being Dominus is a great responsibility as you well know.”
She heard Sirvat sigh. “Very well, Lara. I promise not to use the mirror again unless it is a true emergency. Corrado said I was being childish. We will see you in the spring,” she replied.
“We will return home with the flowers,” Lara said with a smile. “Goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” she heard Sirvat call.
“Now can we go?” Magnus Hauk, who had been listening, wanted to know.
“Tomorrow,” Lara said, “or perhaps the next day. I must consider where to first bring us. I can hardly transport us into the middle of a public square. Our advantage is in our discretion. We must appear to be ordinary citizens of Hetar.”
“You do not really wish to do this, do you?” he said to her.
“I will do it for you, but we must proceed cautiously. Hetar is a dangerous place, Magnus. You have never faced the kind of danger that breeds there. The Shadow Princes gave me Andraste because I need her. My mother gave me Verica for the same reason. Here in Terah my need for them has been little, but when I return to Hetar, my need for them will be great. I have no friends in the City. If he caught me Gaius Prospero might attempt to enslave me again. And now that he is emperor he could change the laws as easily as he changes his garments.”
A Distant Tomorrow Page 32