The Black Morass

by Gerald Lambert

  Gerald Lambert

  The Black Morass

  The rest of that day and the next morning, Nefin felt like he was soaring on Arget, though he never actually did fly with his dragon. He was simply excited for what felt like his first

  official date with Keeta. He had their lunch, with some valuable help from Ajh, prepared almost as soon as breakfast was over. After breakfast, Keeta headed off with Gerik for more training, and Nefin shot a frustrated glare at Brom, Var, and Will for neglecting their duty to help continue Gerik's training. They were all completely oblivious to his irritated

  look, of course.

  And could Nefin blame them? Now all he seemed able to think about was spending time with Keeta. His consolation was that from lunchtime on, he would get the rest of the day

  with her.

  Since Rhunön was still working on Ajh's sword and armor, Nefin decided to pass the rest of the hours of the morning attempting to track underwater. He took the needful supplies

  for that day's picnic to the meeting location then stripped off his shirt, boots, and socks and dove into the river.

  While Nefin was gone, someone arrived to wait for him, and it wasn't Keeta. This newcomer had just so happened—and not by accident—to overhear the important conversation that

  had taken place between Keeta and Nefin the day before, and she could not believe the idea that such a short little dwarven girl might ever presume to fancy the beautiful

  perfection embodied in Nefin the Dragon Rider.

  What irked the uninvited visitor even more was the insolent girl's casual—almost teasing—reference to her as the silverhaired, grayeyed beauty who was most likely twenty years

  older than Nefin and more infatuated with him than any of the others. She supposed she resented it so much simply because it was true and she had failed to hide it. She wished

  Nefin had noticed her regard, not the dwarf.

  But she was determined to have him, no matter that she truly was many years older. She didn't look any older than Nefin. And no dwarf girl deserved his affection, no matter how

  witty, kind, or smart.

  So the intruder sat with her back to a tree, facing away from the river so Nefin wouldn't immediately see her when he returned. She had taken measures to ensure her success

  today, and her secret wish was that the dwarf girl would arrive just in time to see her triumph.

  Nefin emerged from the water fifteen minutes before he expected Keeta to meet him. He wanted to dry off, get dressed, and have time to set out the picnic before then. He ran his

  hands through his hair and began saying the spell that would remove all of the water from his body when his sharp eye fell on a cascade of shimmering hair at the base of a nearby

  tree.

  Nefin's heart skipped a beat as he first thought Keeta had shown up early and that she might see him like this. Then he realized the shimmer was silver, not gold, and the person

  was sitting, not standing. She stood in a fluid motion, turning toward him.

  Nefin's heart sank. Not now, he thought. In the same moment, he remembered what he had told Keeta the day before, I'll believe it when I see it, and her sarcastic reply,

  not an invitation for one of them to attack you, I don't know what is. Had he doomed himself? This certainly had the feel of a calculated ambush.

  Nefin felt a dread certainty that Alanna had heard that entire conversation. And she's the one Keeta said was the most smitten, he realized with a building sense of panic.

  Nefin's eyes widened, and he took a step back as Alanna, the stunningly gorgeous elf standing before him, smiled seductively and advanced in his direction. "Hi, Nefin," she purred.

  "Alanna," he curtly acknowledged. "I'm planning on meeting someone. She'll be here soon."

  "I hope so," Alanna said in the same infuriating tone. Nefin felt a flare of anger that Alanna apparently wanted Keeta to see whatever she had planned.

  "Please go," Nefin coldly said.

  Alanna slowly shook her head and swept her eyes up his body, bold admiration on her face, while continuing her measured march toward him. Nefin took another step back,

  stopping when he splashed into the river.

  "So beautiful," Alanna breathed, though Nefin easily heard. "Sculpted, tall, powerful." Her eyes stopped on his face. "Perfection itself. I want you, Nefin."

  "I don't feel the same," Nefin firmly said. She was getting closer. Should he just escape back into the water? He should have, but he thought about Keeta arriving to find only

  Alanna, and his hesitation cost him the opportunity.

  "You will," Alanna confidently assured, taking another step toward him.

  When the smell surrounding her hit him, Nefin cursed himself for not noticing sooner—soon enough that he could do something about it. What kind of tracker are you if you can't

  smell that from a mile away! Nefin wildly thought as the cloying, clawing scent of her love potion began clouding his senses, erasing his will and reason.

  Now all he could think was, Why resist? She is the most beautiful creature you have ever seen. And she just professed her desire for you. Nefin tried desperately to fight it,

  clenched every muscle in his body against the inevitable step back in Alanna's direction, but to no avail. He did take the step. And then another.

  Alanna smiled knowingly, invitingly, and then they were touching. That was the end of Nefin's willful resistance. Alanna appreciatively slid her hands up his bare chest, around his

  neck, into his wet hair at the same time his arms cinched decisively around her waist. He thought he was drowning in the pools of her amazing, wide, gray eyes before they closed

  and she was kissing him.

  And did he ever kiss back. Ah, she was so beautiful and perfect! Tall, slender, strong. She tasted amazing. She smelled heavenly. This was what he wanted. Not a short, small

  dwarf girl. Nefin suddenly felt an impatient irritation at the barrier Alanna's thin shirt was creating between them.

  He reached his hands under it and began lifting as he slid his hands along the silky surface of her bare skin. She murmured approvingly, always inviting and encouraging. The small

  part of Nefin's mind that was screaming at him to stop because none of this was really him continued to shrink under the effect of Alanna's love spell, growing weaker and fainter in

  the face of the irresistible temptation in his arms.

  Keeta tried not to rush to the appointed place so she wouldn't arrive early and seem overly eager. To keep herself from doing just that, she hummed a slow song and forced herself

  to keep pace with the rhythm. Nefin had asked her to have a picnic with him! Well, it had actually been her idea, but he had confessed that he wanted to spend more time with her

  and that he was already jealous of Gerik.

  Keeta smiled a little incredulously. Oh, Nefin, she thought. If you only knew how completely I belong to you, you would never feel a moment's insecurity again. Keeta decided that

  she needed to remind Brom, Var, and Will of their promise to help her continue Gerik's training. She was fully aware of Gerik's growing affection, though he carefully tried to

  regulate it. And if Nefin really did want to spend more time with her, having the males take their turn overseeing Gerik's training would only help everyone concerned.

  With these cheerful thoughts on her mind, Keeta nearly skipped into the clearing where Nefin had asked her to meet him. Then she stopped dead in her tracks, almost stumbling

  over nothing at what awaited her.

  She simply gaped in silent shock for about five seconds. Then she began to demand that she turn around and leave. But she couldn't because her heart was shattering in her chest
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  and she was forgetting how to breathe. Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes, and she couldn't even think to blink them away or stop them.

  Had Nefin invited her here to see this? Not only was he kissing the beautiful, silverhaired Alanna, he was practically making love to her.

  Are they already? Keeta wondered in numb, disbelieving denial. No, not yet. But they would be soon. His chest was bare, hers was. He was kneeling with her straddling his lap, and

  oh how they were pressing into one another and touching—no, fondling—each other. But their pants were still on. For now.

  The way they sounded reached Keeta's ears over the carefree gurgle of the river, which noise seemed almost mocking in light of what Keeta was unintentionally observing. At that moment, Alanna dragged her hands down Nefin's body toward his waist, shoving them between their tightly touching bodies with eager insistence. Keeta would have sworn the

  woman knew she had just arrived and was enhancing her performance strictly for Keeta's sake.

  Nefin grunted at this new touch and seemed to reach an entirely new depth of passion. His mouth moved away from Alanna's and began descending down her bare skin. Along her

  throat. Across her collarbone. Then down. Alanna encouraged him with breathless, enthusiastic sounds of delight the closer his mouth got to the flawless part of her body where his

  hands were greedily caressing.

  Keeta shook her head. She couldn't watch this anymore. Wouldn't. There was no question in her mind that Nefin desperately wanted Alanna. She couldn't believe he would do this

  before getting married, since all of the senior Dragon Riders' children had learned the same lessons when it came to intimate love. But he was nevertheless preparing to and she

  needed to leave them alone.

  Leave, Keeta, she begged herself. He's not yours. He never said that. Are you really surprised he would want such a fabulously perfect female? Just leave. He will never love you

  like that. Never want you like that. She was a little surprised Nefin hadn't heard or seen her yet, and then she wasn't. He was wholly enthralled by the woman in his arms, on his

  lap . . . in his mouth.

  A heartbroken sob escaped Keeta's lips before she could clap her hand over her mouth and turn around. As she began to blunder away, she frantically thought, Lightning! Come get me! Please hurry!

  If there was any chance Nefin had sensed she was there and came after her, she had no hope of outdistancing him without her dragon. And she couldn't face Nefin right now. Maybe

  not ever again.

  Somehow Keeta's desperate sob reached Nefin's awareness through the magically induced haze in his mind. And he could feel how crushed she was, totally and completely. He

  jerked away from Alanna's body, grabbing her wrists to stop her hands.

  "Enough," he spat, her taste and touch suddenly poison to him. "Is that what you wanted? To break the heart of the sweetest girl I know?" He unceremoniously slid her off his lap,

  shuddering at the look of her perfect bare chest—still wet in places from his mouth—which had seemed so enticing under the thrall of her love potion.

  "You are hideous to me," he said in an icy tone. "Selfish and cruel. Do not ever try something like that again."

  Without looking back, Nefin stood and strode after Keeta. He heard her stumbling ahead of him, and his heart constricted. He rubbed his hands over his face, across his mouth,

  down his chest, trying to wipe away the taste and feel and memory of Alanna from his body. He was sure Keeta had seen that, precisely as Alanna hoped. And how must it have

  looked to her? Like he wanted more than anything to make love to the elven woman whose only hold on him had been magical.

  "Keeta!" he anxiously called. "Wait!"

  Keeta's finally did stumble when Nefin called out for her. And now I'm waiting, she bitterly thought as she hit her knees. Whether I want to or not. She hung her head and sobbed.

  There was no point in trying to get up. Nefin would be there in seconds. Lightning! Where are you?

  Coming, Keeta! came her dragon's worried reply. What happened?

  You'll know soon enough, Keeta absently responded, trying to distance herself from what she had just seen so she wouldn't seem like a blubbering idiot when Nefin came.

  yours. Never was. Act like it was nothing, just a misunderstanding. She halfheartedly wiped her cheeks but knew she would never be able to hide her tears.

  Then Nefin was there, kneeling in front of her. He took over wiping her cheeks as Keeta's hands dropped back to her lap.

  "Sorry I happened upon you like that," Keeta blurted. "I must have misunderstood yesterday. You can go back."

  Nefin shook his head and gently lifted her chin. "No, Keeta," he said. "I am sorry. So sorry. I can't even begin to say how sorry. You didn't misunderstand. I wanted to meet and

  spend time with you today more than anything else. Alanna overheard our conversation yesterday and decided to interfere. She created a love potion type of spell and surrounded

  herself with it. All it took was for me to smell it. I'm sorry I was so careless and that I couldn't resist better. Keeta, I'm so sorry. Oh, I'm so sorry for how I have hurt you." He

  stroked her cheek with his other hand, trying in vain to clear away the new tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Though Nefin held her chin up so he could see her face, Keeta was staring blankly through him.

  "Please, Keeta. Say something."

  She blinked. Lightning was almost there. She just had to say something long enough to fill the time. "I don't know what to say, Nefin," Keeta at last admitted in a dull voice. "I hope

  what you're saying is true because then I might be able to believe you didn't want that as much as it looked like you did. But it will be hard to forget." Her voice dropped to a

  whisper. "Really hard, Nefin. I can't imagine you ever wanting me like that. It just reminded me of what I've known all along and stubbornly tried to ignore. We don't belong

  together. We're not a good fit physically. I'll try to get over you so you can be with someone you deserve. And desire."

  Nefin opened his mouth like he would object, but Keeta staggered to her feet at the sound of her dragon's wings. "I want to be alone for a while," she told Nefin without looking at

  him. "Please don't follow me."

  Then she went to Lightning and climbed almost blindly to his back. He wasn't saddled, so Keeta tightly grasped his lowest neck spike in both hands and leaned her forehead onto her

  clenched fists, sobbing harder than ever.

  Just take me away from here, she begged her dragon. Far away. Then she opened her mind to him so he could read the answers to his questions in her thoughts and memories.

  Keeta separated herself from it as best she could, but she still felt the fresh agony as she relived the memory of Nefin with the beautiful elf in his arms yet again and saw him

  loving Alanna in a way Keeta felt sure he would never love her.

  Nefin watched Keeta make her way to her dragon, saw how she slumped over, noticed her tears streaming to his scales below her face. Keeta, he mourned. Please believe me,

  sweet Keeta. I love you. You. And now that I know that, it might be too late. Why did it take this, this drama, to wake me up to the truth? I'll never deserve you. What a fool I am!

  The despairing tears that had begun to fill his eyes as he witnessed Keeta's suffering abruptly disappeared under an overpowering wave of anger and selfloathing. He sprang to his

  feet and began running as fast as he could, desperate to escape the suffocating weight of his regret.

  Alanna saw this unfold from behind a tree, in the same way she had eavesdropped the previous day. Things hadn't gone quite as she hoped. It would have been better if Nefin had made love to her. How close she had been! She was sure she would never forget the feel of his lips, hands, and body—how longing, insistent, and strong they were.

  A small part of her brain kept tr
ying to remind her that all of it had been contrived. Nefin didn't really want her. He had told her so in a cold voice just before her potion and spell

  took effect. But the thought that he might want a dwarf was still so inconceivable to Alanna that she congratulated herself on at least succeeding in dashing whatever feeble hope

  the girl might have entertained by setting up her farce to take place right in front of her eyes.

  After donning her shirt, Alanna strolled into the forest with a cruel, victorious smile on her perfect mouth.

  When neither Keeta nor Nefin returned for dinner that evening, none of their companions was concerned. They all knew of the picnic plans and assumed they had extended to

  include the evening meal as well.

  But when Keeta and Nefin still hadn't returned by breakfast the following morning, and neither Brin nor Hanna knew why, the others began to worry.

  Brin offered to have her dragon Sunburst try to reach Lightning and promised she would report back on any discoveries at lunchtime.

  So after breakfast, instead of spending the day with Brom at Rhunön's atrium, Brin asked her dragon to meet her. Brin quickly explained, Keeta and Nefin have been gone since

  yesterday afternoon. When they didn't show up for breakfast, we all began to wonder why. Can you sense Lightning?

  Brin and Keeta's dragons were siblings and very close friends. I will try, Brin, Sunburst said. A few moments later, Sunburst relayed this message in an anxious tone,

  her to the Stone of Broken Eggs after something went terribly wrong with her picnic plans. Keeta does not want to return, but she is hungry. Lightning said she is listless, and he is worried about her. He suggested we come, though Keeta does not know that.

  I'm going to get some food packed. Should we take anything else? Brin asked, already walking back toward the kitchens.

  Lightning's saddle, her dragon replied. Keeta was so desperate to get away that he flew to her rescue just as he was.

  Brin worriedly considered this. What could have happened? Keeta had been so excited for her picnic with Nefin. And then she had suddenly run away? Desperately?

  Within ten minutes they were ready to go. Brin conveyed a hurried mental message to Brom, telling him not to worry until she knew what was going on.