by JANRAE FRANK
Isen blinked, her fork pausing over the mushrooms on her plate. "Oh, yes. I remember his eyes."
Osterbridge wondered at the way she hesitated. Those students sixteen years or older, who had been confirmed by the temple, were allowed access to the Guild Wing. Isen had to have met Yahni. "So, do you have a room to yourself at the dorm? Or do you have a roommate?"
"One to myself. It's because I'm one of the special talents." She lowered her eyes and glanced at him between the lashes with a "come hither" smile.
The look she gave him made Osterbridge's loins tighten. He had been taking it slow with her, just a bit of kissing, hand holding, and cuddling. The very last thing he wanted to do was to make a mistake. Osterbridge remembered how easy it had been for him at seventeen to fall in and out of love – the age she was now. Yet, Isen seemed so mature for her age, so different from all the others. He wanted her, wanted to make love to her, wanted to wake up every day for the rest of his life with Isen in his arms. Maybe this was the night to ask her, to hold her naked in his arms while he cherished her body with his own.
He struggled with what to say next and fell silent for a time. They ate slowly, sipped wine, and talked late into the evening. Eventually the owner came out and gave them a look suggesting that he wanted them to leave so that the café could close.
Osterbridge dipped his shoulders at the mon and stood up. "I ought to walk you back."
Isen slipped her hand into his. They took the underground route to the school. Few people were about and there were long stretches where it was just the two of them. Osterbridge paused, his hand went out and he tilted Isen's head up. His lips covered hers in a kiss. She trembled and he wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close, pressing her body to his.
Isen's hand drifted to his loins, stroking his hardened spear through his pants. "I want you," she murmured. "Tonight. In my bed."
Her words sent a rising spiral of joy and eagerness through Osterbridge. He kissed her again, his tongue pressing past her lips, questing into her mouth for a response. Isen stiffened for an instant and then ran her tongue over his in a clumsy manner.
Osterbridge broke the kiss off. "You've never done that before?"
Isen shook her head. "No."
"You're seventeen? Someone told me you just had a birthday a month back."
Isen looked away from him.
He remembered her reaction to his question about Yahni earlier. "You never met Yahni, did you? What color were his eyes?"
Isen stared at the middle of Osterbridge's chest, her stance shifting uneasily. "Blue. Bright blue."
Osterbridge felt a surge of tension in his body. "Wrong. They were a deep blue-green like chrysocolla stones. No one who ever met him forgot that. Terrys was always bringing young girls to look at his eyes. Considering how pretty you are, she would have dragged you over to meet him at least once."
"I met him. How could I not? I'm seventeen."
"Are you lying to me? I'm going to ask around."
"I'm of age. I'm an adult," Isen responded stubbornly.
"Of age? Of age is fourteen. How old are you? Tell me the truth."
Isen's face screwed up. "I'm fourteen."
Osterbridge spun around, putting his back to her. "Gods, and I was going to seduce you."
"I want to make love to you," Isen said. "I'm taking the contraception herbs ... I've been taking them since the day after the warehouse. That's how long I've wanted you."
"And you're a virgin."
"Of course."
"Well that makes it even worse."
Tears welled up in Isen's eyes. "What do you mean worse?"
"I'm twenty-six years old, Isen. I'm too old for you."
"Why should all these things matter? She clutched at his dress tunic, trying to pull him closer, to make him look at her.
Osterbridge tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. "Because I'm in love you."
Isen released his tunic and stepped around in front of him with her hands on her hips. "Old enough to fight and die, old enough to love," Isen quoted the Sharani proverb at him that she had picked up from Jysy.
He grabbed her hand and strode off with her, practically dragging Isen along. "You're not Sharani, so don't quote that at me."
"Will I see you again? And I don't mean in a group." She stumbled, struggling to keep up with him as his hand on her arm kept throwing her off balance.
"I don't know, Isen. I just don't know if I can cope with this."
"I knew you'd act this way," Isen snarled suddenly. "That's why I lied to you."
"Well you were right. I'm going to drop you off at the dorm and leave."
"Why? I'm not a child."
Osterbridge stopped at the stairs to the dormitory and faced her with a pained expression. "Isen, I don't want to be a young girl's first love."
She threw an angry glare at him. "Why not?"
"Because myn your age fall in and out of love too easily. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want to be hurt by you. I want permanence, not a casual fuck."
Isen bristled, her fingers curling into fists and she hit him in the chest. "I wasn't offering you that!"
"I didn't say you were." Osterbridge ran his hands through his hair, feeling deeply frustrated. "Your first sexual experience should be with someone your own age."
"I don't want someone my own age. The youths my age bore me to tears. I'm too mature for them. I want you."
Osterbridge shook his head back and forth for a moment. "Isen ... Isen. I don't think this would work. Have you any idea how many women I've had over the years?"
Isen lifted her head high, tilting it to an arrogant angle. "Five or six?"
"At least that. I might want things in bed that you couldn't cope with."
"If you're trying to frighten me, forget it. I've read all the naughty books." She gave him a cheeky smile.
Osterbridge grinned back at her. "You would."
"Besides, I wrote my mother about you. She has no problems with the difference in our ages."
Osterbridge exhaled heavily. "It isn't your mother I'm worried about. It's me."
"Are you still going to walk me to the Training Grounds tomorrow? I'll go alone if you don't."
He lifted an eyebrow at her. "You have me over a barrel, don't you?"
The cheeky smile came back as she said, "Yes."
"I'll be there."
Isen put her hand on his arm. "Will you hold my hand tomorrow?"
Osterbridge's face clouded over. "All I said was I'd walk you to class. That's it. I don't want to talk about it any more."
Then he turned his back on her and stalked off, his shoulders hunched.
* * * *
Bryndel spent most of each day with Talons: It was the only way to keep Lord Wrathscar from screaming about Edouina. Bryndel had, also, begun having sex with Talons again. He always apologized to Talons first. Then, because of the way her belly had swollen, Edouina would often help Talons onto her side and support her while Bryndel did what he had to do. Talons bore it in silence, as if she were made of wood, opening her legs, and turning her face away, which transformed it into a distasteful act that was little more than masturbation for Bryndel.
He had told Edouina that they would ask him about it and that they would know if he was lying. But he would not tell them who they were. Whenever Bryndel referred to them there was a palpable aura of terror about him. If they tried to force the knowledge from him, they would rip his mind apart and that could well set his father off, and have far reaching effects they were not willing to risk. So Edouina and Dynarien decided not to push it, not wanting to risk triggering another suicide attempt from him. It frustrated them.
A tentative kind of friendship slowly developed between Dynarien and Bryndel over the weeks following his attempted suicide. Dynarien accepted the fact that Bryndel had tried to take his own life rather than become the instrument of harm to Talons. But neither did he, nor Edouina, nor the knights leave Bryndel alone with her, knowi
ng the vampire's coercions still resided within him. When Dynarien had tried to persuade him to let him remove the coercions, Bryndel had been seized with panic and fled. After that Dynarien gave up.
That morning in late summer, Edouina positioned Talons for Bryndel, propping her with pillows. Bryndel sat beside them on the bed, nude, hard, and ready. Edouina sucked in a deep breath. It had become very difficult to watch, knowing that Talons did not want him touching her, but refusal brought a backlash from Wrathscar, Galee, and the Grand Master.
"You'll be gentle with her?" Edouina asked Bryndel.
"Yes, of course I will."
"Talons, will you be okay if I leave?"
"Yes," Talons said in a small voice, with a whiff of sorrow that only Edouina caught.
"Then I have things to do. I'll come back later."
Edouina left the bedroom. She went to the cabinets in the parlor, intending to make tea, but reached for the bottle of Dragonsbreath instead. Our attempt at a triad isn't very successful. It's all rather lame. We don't want him.
Isen and Alora watched her from the sofa. Osterbridge had not been seen in several days, and Edouina wondered what was up with him, since he and Isen had been all but inseparable for months. Now, she rarely saw them together.
The scent of roses filled the parlor and she turned, holding the bottle of whiskey in one hand and a small glass in the other. She saw Dynarien standing behind her.
"Don't go in," Edouina told him. "Bryndel's with her."
Dynarien's expression hardened and then saddened. "Talons," he sighed her name.
"If you want to talk, lets go to the study."
He gave a quick nod and followed Edouina, leaving Isen and Alora in the parlor. Dynarien settled into a large chair and folded his legs beneath him like an over-sized child. "She should have been mine, Edouina. We love each other. I wanted to marry her."
Edouina raised an eyebrow at that. "Honey, I thought you weren't the marrying kind."
"I told my sire I had finally fallen in love. That was more than a year ago. Before all of this... I wanted then to marry her. I didn't know about the untrained by-kyndi ... that she was afraid of hurting me. You can't kill me that way. Had she told me, I could have allayed her fears, and she would have been mine before Bryndel ever entered the situation. Those are my children."
Edouina moved to sit at his feet. "Surely you had some time together?"
Dynarien looked up and his face had tears streaming down it. "No. She only let me touch her once, and she made it a cold coupling. Said it was an act of vengeance on Bryndel, not an act of love."
"Then, honey, we've all had our acts of vengeance on Bryndel. I used the bi-kyndi to fry his seed the first night I returned. He'll never produce children."
"Does he know?"
Edouina shook her head. "No. And no one's going to tell him."
Dynarien sucked in a breath. "Knowing he's there ... knowing what they're doing ... it should be me in her bed. Not him."
"I agree. But it is far too late for that. We need to worry about trying to keep her alive. Then maybe the marriage can be set aside somehow."
"I want to take her to Imralon and have my sire look at her. Perhaps he could find a way to fight this poison. But Hadjys will not let me remove her from this realm for even a moment. He fears I will not bring her back."
"Then we have to keep trying in other ways."
Dynarien went silent, regretting that he had let his feelings out. For months he had not brought up the subject of kissing or touching to Talons. He loved her, in a pure, simple fashion, and if she wanted him to touch her she would ask. The time for games had passed. He no longer, even jokingly, climbed under her blankets as he had done with frequency when he first met her. Sometimes he kissed her hair, held her hand, and less frequently she would find comfort in his holding her. But it never went beyond that. The merry rakehell had become neither.
"We must find the master vampire," Dynarien said finally. "It must be a royal. A Lemyari."
"You're not telling me anything I don't know. All the ones in the warehouses turned out to be lesser bloods."
"Something big is going on." Dynarien wrapped his legs across Edouina's waist, caressing her hair and she leaned back against him.
"Bigger than anyone suspects, I think." Edouina closed her eyes a moment, shivering. "I heard from Eshraf today ... Channadar doesn't want it known, so we can't talk to him about it."
"About what?"
"Channadar was attacked and wounded. Sa'necari, royals, and lesser bloods. Eshraf wouldn't give me the details. That's why Channadar's holding private court, invitation only, and only rarely goes to the Grand Central Hall."
Dynarien ran his tongue over his lips, and then chewed on the lower one. "Someone's building an army."
"Sounds like it, but we've got no proof. No one can find this army. Not even the catkin." Edouina turned in his grip and looked up into his eyes. "Do it with me, honey," she drawled sensuously. "It would make me feel so much better. Take my mind off everything."
"Where?"
Edouina smiled then, and her entire face brightened. "Here on the floor? In the guest bedroom?"
Dynarien lifted her in his arms, and carried her to the bedroom.
* * * *
Arruth's death had devastated Jysy. None of them, not even Dynarien, could persuade her to go visit her sisters, where they believed she could find solace. She had been excused from classes for the season, and everyone expected her to spend her free time with Talons and her friends being comforted. Instead she spent nearly every waking hour at the training grounds, working hard, and expressing her anger and grief by fighting and learning the arts of war from Yukiah. The knights walked her wherever she needed or wanted to go, fearing that Arruth's murderer would come after Jysy also.
Yukiah understood grief, having lost two brothers to a sa'necari when he was Jysy's age and three brothers and a sister to the vampires. He worked her hard, taking over as her sponsor, walking her to and from the various practice fields, predicting to all who would listen that he had another Talons coming up fast.
He sat at the benches watching Jysy work through an elaborate sword dance with a pair of short swords and caught a glimpse of a student settling near to him from the corner of his eyes. Yukiah knew who it would be. Isen had taken to following him around ever since the warehouse episode, and even more so since Arruth's death. He wondered at that. Perhaps she simply felt safer around him. It had happened before. He had also had students fall in love with him and behave in a similar fashion, but he always put a firm stop to that nonsense. It might be well to stop Isen also. Yet something about her drew him strangely, filling him with reluctance to chase her off. She reminded him strongly of another mon, especially her eyes. He knew very little about her.
He drew the locket from beneath his shirt and opened it. He stared for a brief moment at his wife's picture, thinking about how much he missed her, the way that her eyes always made him think of swans. Yukiah closed it and returned the locket to its hiding place against his skin.
"Hello, Isen. Aren't you finished for the day?"
"Yes, Master Yukiah."
"Then what are you doing here?"
Isen gave him a long smile and then dropped her head. "I just felt like it."
"I'd almost say you were stalking me," Yukiah kept his tone bantering.
Isen's head came up and she looked shocked. "Oh no, Master Yukiah. I would never do anything like that."
"Isen, there are better things for you to do with your free time. I know your village gives you a stipend. So you're not broke."
"I'm waiting for friends."
Yukiah nodded. She always had an excuse for being around him, but sometimes she showed up in the oddest places, like the inner recesses of the priests section of the temple grounds and the common room in the teachers annex to the Guild student wing. She was watching him. She had to be. "Isen, it seems every time I turn around, there you are."
Isen grinned,
made an even sillier face, and said, "I'm protecting you."
Yukiah snorted and gave her a good-natured slap on the back. "Of course. I should have thought of it." What a strange thing to come out of her mouth. Perhaps it was time to hold a talk with these young knights of Eshraf's and explain just what they were up against. Three of them had already died and more would, if this proved to be anything like the last time.
"I haven't seen you with Osterbridge much lately."
Isen's expression turned unhappy. "He found out I'm only fourteen and he thinks he's too old for me."
"Ahhhh. Well, you're of age. He's a good mon. You want me to have a talk with him?"
Isen brightened. "Would you?"
"Sure." Yukiah tousled her hair.
"Thank you, Master Yukiah." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and scampered off.
Yukiah watched her go, and glancing beyond her, he saw Jimi, Alora, and Osterbridge coming toward her. Well, as least Isen wasn't walking around alone. Isen was a strange one, gifted and mature beyond her years. Yukiah decided that he would have that talk with Osterbridge, just as he had promised. They were good for each other. Osterbridge didn't seem so lonely and consumed by grief when he was with her. He would do what he could to convince Osterbridge that it was proper for him to be in love with Isen, to express his love for her. The same age difference existed between himself and his wife.
"Jynny, where are you now, when I miss you so terribly," he murmured softly to himself.
* * * *
"I want the other one," Lord Wrathscar told Galee, while they lay together in his large bed. He had drawn the bed curtains, closing out the midday sun. And it felt like a comfortable crypt. "The sister." His voice sounded hungry, almost starving. He had begun to display more odd symptoms that troubled Galee. She had Meilurk and his companions watching Wrathscar's daughters for signs of it, but so far none of them showed the slightest symptoms.
Galee kept him well fed, but he had become finicky. She would destroy him once the legalities involving Talons were satisfied. Perhaps Bryndel would make a more successful turning. She had prepared him in a gradual fashion, and could control him. There was a far smaller chance of his going rogue as his father was obviously doing.