She knew she couldn’t question Elan right now. She spent the entire long walk down the tunnels trying to figure out how to tell Fjola every single one of their slaves were part of a Cendian cult and planning a revolt. They must have been smart to do this right under her nose. Fjola didn’t think much of her husband, the king, other than he was weak, but she had been regent since he died. How had no one noticed?
And how was Fjola supposed to round up all their slaves without tipping off Avala and ruining years of planning before they hardly got started?
Chapter 17
Elan had a million questions for Tati. Especially when he managed to get Isolde down the hatch into the tunnels and Tati was waiting at the bottom. When they hunted together or met to talk, it was always on foot or Elan rode on her back. If a big black cat could look amused, Tati’s red eyes were sparkling.
“How do you think I come to you so quickly when you need me? I sense you and I can phase near you.”
“How? And why did you not show me before?”
” Place your beloved on my back so I may carry her. There’s no use in both of you being exhausted. What did you feel when you were touching and she was probing that man’s mind? There was power emanating from both of you.”
Elan gently draped Isolde across Tati’s back. “We feel things when we are touching now. I could feel her skin get ice cold like she was getting weak. I tried to send her a gentle flame to make her stronger. It didn’t work. She still fainted.” Elan felt like he had totally failed her. Tati was sure this would work. He probably did it wrong.
“No, my king, it worked as it should. She lasted long enough to get what we needed and she only fainted because she broke contact with you to stand. When she does this, you must give her your fire and strength, but you must not let go of her until she’s recovered.”
“How can you tell, Tati? You seem to be able to sense her a little and her you. That’s not normal, right? Can you hear people you haven’t completed the bond with?”
“Strong king, you know the answer. Isolde and I are starting to sense each other because you have started bonding with her. I suspect once your bond is complete, I will be able to speak with her and sense her like I do you. It shall be the same with you and Isolde’s bond animal.”’
“What happens to you and her bond animal when we go to the new planet?” He didn’t think he could imagine being without Tati’s guidance, even with Isolde by his side and so many advisors from the sixteen on both planets.
“All of us will follow you. We are not afraid.”
“Can you hear Isolde and I when we are together? Is that how you know the bond has started?”
“I felt it start, but I was not listening. The air in the forest suddenly became electrified and all of the pests in the air dropped to the ground dead. The area where the bond animals dwell is free from the swarms. I suspect something similar may be going on with the water on Avala.”
“I thought we were forming an alliance and moving everyone to the new planet. The paradise planet the faction found.”
“Your future home needs a name if you hope to make it work. There will be people here and on Avala who will not want to go. You can promise them peace and paradise and they would rather stay here. Would you want that man at the cabin’s followers on your new home? Some will stay, but they will be left with easier conditions than you knew.”
“Tati, how are we going to convince anyone to come to a new planet then?”
“It is perfect, don’t you see? The people who come with you want change. It’s not just that you promise them paradise. You promise them a new monarchy and a new way of living. You promise your people advancements with the Avalian scientists. There will be schools and the Cendians can do anything they want now.”
“What to do Avalians get from us?”
“Talk to Isolde when she wakes. I can only get flashes from her, but there’s something about the Cendians she loves. It’s very different from her home. I don’t know what it is. You will have to ask. Put her to bed and hold her. She will recover faster with your touch,” Tati said as they got to the entrance to the armoire.
He gently pulled Isolde off Tati. Tati shimmered, then disappeared. He carried her into the bedroom and tenderly placed her in bed. He kept one eye on Isolde and one eye on the tunnels and passages around him getting her back. She had been totally out and pale. When he climbed into bed next to her and pulled her into his chest, he could feel her skin was still a little cold. When he sent a gentle warmth to her like he had done at the cabin, she moaned and snuggled into him.
He tightened this arms around her when she kept softly moaning and moving restlessly. Her face was buried in his chest, so he couldn’t tell if she was in pain. He thought maybe she had seen something awful in that horrid man’s head. He had no idea if she was getting comfort from him too so he started sending a little more heat.
Isolde gasped his name and her fingernails dug into his chest. He was worried he hurt her so he tried to pull it back, but he noticed the noises that were coming from her now sounded more like the night before.
“Isolde? Are you awake?” he whispered.
She wasn’t. He grinned when he realized she was having naughty dreams about him. He loved that she was starting to think about him when she was sleeping. He had been dreaming about her since he found out they would bond and they were only more intense now that he knew her face.
“Whoa, Isolde!” he yelled as her hands went to the laces at the front of his leather trousers.
She was still asleep, but she was moaning and trying to get into his pants. He felt wrong about doing anything like that with her while she was sleeping. Her hand was as firm as iron as he tried to pull it away from his trouser laces. He called her name several times and tried shaking her with the arm he had around her.
When she finally woke up, she was startled and flew across the room into fighting pose. “What are you trying to do to me?” she demanded.
Her hair was tousled and her cheeks were flushed. Her fists were up like she was going to fight him, but she also looked a little….hurt? He couldn’t help bursting into laughter. Her brow furrowed and she straightened her stance a little. Her fists only lowered slightly and now she looked upset.
“I’m sorry, Isolde. I woke you up because of what you were trying to do to me. What were you dreaming about?” he asked, patting the bed.
The flush in her cheeks extended to her chest now. She dropped her predator pose and looked away. “What did I do?” she asked softly. She looked embarrassed.
Elan vaulted out of bed and wrapped his arms around her. “You don’t have to tell me your dream. You were trying to get my clothes off. You—”
“Oh, hell,” she moaned, burying her face in her hands.
She didn’t fight when he guided her back to the bed, but she didn’t want to lay next to him. “Isolde, I liked it. I like that you dream about me. I didn’t want to take advantage of you while you were sleeping. I was trying to wake you up so we could pick up where your dream left off. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You don’t ever have to feel that around me,” he soothed, twirling a strand of black hair around his finger. He didn’t really understand why this embarrassed her so much when nothing else had so far.
“That’s not it, Elan. Jovin always stressed control over almost everything else. I’ve done nothing but lose control since I got here. Once, when Botak threatened to beat me should have been enough to make me focus harder. You, you make me lose all focus.”
“That’s not true and you know it. Can you lay with me again?” He was relieved when she didn’t argue and draped herself across his chest. He felt her eyes close as he let his fingers run through the silky strands of her hair. “We worked together today. You got more out of Hikmat than any of us expected because Tati’s suggestion worked.”
“I know we work well together, Elan. I’d trust you at my back in battle. I wouldn’t trust me at your back.”
“Just because o
f your dream? Part of that could have been me. Tati said if I did the same thing I was doing in Galih’s cabin, you would recover faster. How do you feel now?”
“Confused! Every part of us that is touching is like an electric shock and I still want to take your clothes off, but I still know we need to talk about what happened at the cabin.”
“Then we take care of your body while we talk. Do you have massage on Avala?” he asked, getting up to get the perfumed oil. He’d never been able to visit to get one and he was never able to have someone here in private. Botak would give him a brief muscle rub after a hard training session before he sent him off to the hot spring. Elan thought he knew how to drag it out and make it feel good to her while talking about the cabin.
She was staring at him like she had no idea what he was talking about. “Can you take your clothes off, Isolde? Even your corset.”
She didn’t question him and she still looked upset. She wasn’t wearing the slave clothes when they left for the cabin. Botak had mostly bought her dresses, but after meeting her, another round of clothes had arrived. Elan had no idea who made these clothes or what story Sartika gave out. They weren’t like anything women wore on Cendis, not even the slaves.
Isolde had new corsets. She was wearing a new one made of black and russet silk. It was sewn into a tunic in a way he had never seen before. There was material at the top so that it wasn’t indecent, but you would give her a second look. There was material at the bottom that fell to the knees of the tight leather trousers she was wearing. She was working on all the eye hooks at the front of the corset.
“Is that getup similar to what you wear on Avala? My mother had it made, but no one dresses like that here. I like it.”
“No. I like this better than my old clothes. The clothes on Avala are made from a mixture of carbon and material fibers. It’s meant to keep heat in and protect you if anyone attacks. I’m told even infants clothes are like that. They are meant to protect you if anyone has a weapon they intend to use against you. I have those clothes and everyone in the palace does, but I think anyone who isn’t high born uses different materials for their clothes. I think Sartika is contributing in her own way to our new planet. New planet, new clothes.”
Elan and Isolde eyed each other for a minute. “We need to name it,” they both said at the same time.
He finally saw a hint of a smile since she woke up and went back to unhooking her corset. “We’ll do it together with whatever you’ve got planned once you’ve got me naked. Do you want me to take it off like a show?” she asked, holding the two pieces of her corset together.
He cleared his throat. That must be a universal thing. He’d read about that too. “Not now. Not until after we’ve bonded. It’s hard enough being around you naked. On your stomach,” he ordered once she had shimmied out of her clothes.
He pulled the silk sheet up to her waist and straddled it. She let out a little squeak when the cold oil hit her back. Maybe the cold really did bother her sometimes.
“What is that? It smells good, but I can’t tell what it smells like.”
“This one is sandalwood and sage. If it’s cold, I’ll warm it up,” he said, spreading the oil on her back.
She really did have a beautiful back. Slim and muscular from all her fight training. He could also feel it was tense and knotted, either from getting into Hikmat’s mind or because they didn’t do this on Avala. He slid his thumbs up either side of her spine, feeling the knots as he went. She moaned and all the tension went out of her as he worked the knots out of her back. He didn’t ask about the cabin. He waited for her to talk first.
“What do you think about Ragnis Crystal?” she finally said.
“For our first child?” It was a strange name for a child. Not a Cendian name and it wasn’t Avalian either.
“No. I brought capsules with me so we won’t. We shouldn’t until everything is settled on the new planet. Are you thinking about that already? I meant for the new planet. It means Fire Ice so both our people are being represented and it sounds powerful.”
“I think it’s perfect. You did something when you gave it a name. I heard Tati. She somehow heard you. She loves it. How are you feeling?”
“Does Tati purr like our cats on Avala? If I could, I would be right now. What next?” she said, stretching underneath him.
He cleared his throat. “You could, um, show me what you were dreaming about.”
He didn’t fight her when she wrestled him onto his back. This time, she was the one straddling him. She was tugging at his tunic and kissing him at the same time. He had to grab her hips to slow her down because she was grinding hard and fast on his erection.
“What were you doing to me that you thought you made me dream that?” she asked between kisses.
“Isolde, slow down,” he begged, pressing her shoulders away from him. She sat up and looked down at him like she was confused. “Damn it, Isolde, when you do that, all I want to do is make love to you. I don’t care about the bond, I just want you.”
“I have an idea. It may speed up the bond,” she said, grinning impishly and grinding her hips into him in agonizingly slow circles.
He growled. He couldn’t take any more of a nude Isolde on top of him when she was like this. Thankfully, his bed was large and she didn’t fight him when he grabbed her and wrestled her onto her back. He trapped her under his weight and gazed down on those green eyes.
“That’s much better. I can think now. Did you want to do what you were doing or throw out ideas?”
“Both. When I was sleeping and when I was in Hikmat’s head, what were you doing?”
He groaned when she craned her head to bite his neck. “Isolde, back off a little, or I’ll take you right here on this bed.” She laid her head back on the pillow and seemed to look impatient with him. He was both hot and cold at the same time and all he wanted at this minute was her. “I was sending you strength and warmth at the cabin and I was sending you comfort and warmth when you were sleeping.”
“That’s what I thought. It has a little side effect, I just didn’t feel it when I was awake because it takes so much focus to steal thoughts. I’ve been trying to send you the same thing. Do you feel it?”
“Yes, Isolde, I feel something intense and it hurts a little talking instead of acting on it.”
“Take your clothes off,” she commanded, letting him go. He was out of his clothes in seconds.
She was sitting on the side of the bed and blocking him from joining her. What was she playing at now? He was about to ask her to tone it down a little when she asked him to come to her.
“Send it back to me, Elan. Focus.”
She ran her tongue along the underside of his cock and he shuddered. He realized he had gone ice cold and had to focus on warming himself up. The only thing that felt warm was her wet mouth.
“Focus, Elan,” she said again before taking him deep into the back of her throat.
He groaned and tangled his hands in her hair. He tried to focus on her and push back against the cold. His body went hot, but a cold sheen of sweat trickled down his back. He tried to send that to Isolde. She had him in her mouth when she moaned and it was like he could feel that moan in his entire body.
He’d never tried using his mind gift like this before, but he was starting to feel like he could do anything. “Spread your legs”
She was still only teasing, licking and sucking, but she opened her legs on the bed. He focused his mind on that little bud between her legs he spent last night licking. He imagined his tongue there again, loving her. He missed tasting her, but it clearly worked. Her hands tightened on his thighs and she gave a little muffled cry he was coming to know.
He lost control. She was sending him what she was feeling and he was sending the same to her. Every jolt that went through her body went through his. He had his hand pressed firmly on the back of her head and couldn’t help thrusting into her mouth a little. He stopped because he worried he would hurt her. He didn’t kn
ow how, but he heard her in his head.
“Do it that way if it pleases you. I’ll adjust and you won’t hurt me.”
“How—”
“Ask later, Elan. Don’t stop what you are doing to me. I’m close,” she begged in his head. She sounded like she always did instead of the monotone she used when she was telling them what she saw inside someone’s head. “Let go, Elan.”
She was right, she did adjust. He tried to be gentle. He knew her muffled cries were from what she was feeling and not what he was doing to her mouth. He could feel how close she was and his mind and body were out of control. He was working her faster than he ever could with his own tongue with his mind. He felt a tingling in his lower spine before he was engulfed with a wave of cold from her. His fire fought right back and collided with it as the two of them climaxed together.
He gave four sharp thrusts into her mouth as his vision went white. She was crying out and trying to nurse every drop out of him at the same time. He collapsed over her as she continued to suck him until he was soft. He was still with her, slowly coaxing the last bits of her orgasm out of her.
His entire body was vibrating and some of it was her as they snuggled into each other in bed. Neither of them understood what they were sending to each other, but they kept doing it as they laid there in silence.
When he was finally able to talk again, he had to ask. “Can you hear me now, Isolde? I heard you clear as a bell.”
“No, I still can’t hear you like I hear everyone else. I don’t think I’m supposed to. We’re supposed to love and trust each other unconditionally. That wouldn’t work if I can hear your thoughts, but you can’t hear mine. I think I can talk to you when I need to say something privately, but I’m going to have to learn your body language to see what your response is. I could feel what you were feeling. You were worried you hurt me and you were trying to restrain yourself.”
“It’s a little unfair your mind gift doesn’t work on me, but mine works on you,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
Child of Fire, Child of Ice-A Sci-fi Romance Series (The Waljan Chronicles Book 1) Page 12