by Leo Hull
“I think you two have bonded enough,” Annik dryly stated, but her eyes were wide with the surprise that Tristan felt.
“Not with him wearing the Sliver. Here, let me show you,” Nessa stepped forward, her fingers working on his laces with practiced ease.
“I think we should try to make to Saeli tonight,” Annik weakly objected as Nessa pulled Tristan free. Despite their recent tryst in the woods, Tristan was ready to go again. “We don’t want Perran to have too much time to establish himself.”
“We’ll be quick,” Nessa promised as she turned, bending at the waist and pulling her panties to the side. She looked back Tristan, the violet of her eyes masked by the flashes of her lust. “Bind me. Make me yours.”
Tristan did.
Chapter Eight
Perran tugged at his shirt, fruitlessly trying to peel the fabric from his body as he paused to gather himself before meeting Talek.
He hated the moist air of the baths and hated Talek for making him come here. It galled Perran that he had no choice but to but to slink into the man’s den after losing Nessa, and it didn’t bode well that he’d been turned away at Talek’s office and told to meet him at the baths instead.
The self-proclaimed Son of Saeli held court in a private section at the back of the Saelian Public Baths for those that had fallen from favor. Talek owned the establishment through some unfortunate strawman and seemed to delight at watching those he summoned squirm as he sat naked in the pool, paying more attention to the groans of his attendants’ sexual displays than to whatever poor excuses the focus of his ire could muster.
Talek never even touched the women exhibiting unbridled pleasure. Perran cringed as he remembered how he’d praised Talek’s cleverness when the trader confessed the whole spectacle was to make his target sweat and put them off balance. Back then, Perran had been in Talek’s good graces, rising quickly and binding four Sparks for the Son of Saeli.
Stripped of three, Perran had lost his last Spark and now it was his turn to stand sweating while Talek’s beady eyes, barely visible under the shelf of fat that hung from his forehead, watched whatever hedonistic show had been arranged for him.
Not that the loss of Nessa, or any of the others, had been his fault. The first fulfilled her contract, and despite Perran treating her well she had decided to move on. The other two, well, the wager had been as sure as they come. Talek had forgiven him after hearing the incredible stroke of bad luck that had befallen Perran. Talek was a businessman, a man of reason that understood the inherent risks necessary for profit.
Surely Talek would see reason for Nessa’s loss as well. Those two brutes had appeared from nowhere! The coastlands east of the mountains were uninhabited, too far from the Albeder Sea to connect with the vast trade network that was the lifeblood of civilization. Everyone knew this!
It was also the perfect area for a certain Saelian to hide a cache of his wealth in case of emergency.
Or so a certain steward Perran had been bribing had told him. He and Nessa had scoured the region for a month and were on their way back to Saeli when that monster of a woman had found them. It was lucky she’d been wearing metal armor, but even then, it had taken a full blast from Nessa to knock the woman unconscious. Perran had seen Nessa clear the deck of a ship with less effort and shuddered as he thought about what might have happened if the foreigner hadn’t been separated from her vulta.
The man had been smarter, going for Perran’s Sliver and severing the bond that let Nessa throw her bolts. Perran was lucky to have gotten away alive to bring news of a possible invasion!
He repeated this to himself again, sure Talek would see things his way.
Someday he’d drown the fat fuck here.
Perran plastered a simpering smile onto his face and forced his head high as he walked into Talek’s den of disappointment, his silk shirt already sodden with mist from the baths.
“Perry!” Talek greeted, his jowls shaking as his shrill voice carried over the soft feminine moans coming from the bed set up in front of the bath. Perran cringed at the diminutive of his name, but he knew better than to correct the man. Perran’s eyes slid across the women tangled there, one blindfolded and tied down as the other two ran their hands along her naked body.
As always, Talek filled the bath with his goliath size. He was naked except for the chain around his neck that was so dark it was nearly black. The man didn’t wear any Slivers of his own, yet that didn’t stop him from commanding a force that even the Saeli guard didn’t dare directly confront. The fact that he still wore the chain had always bothered Perran, but he wasn’t about to bring up that maybe Talek would be more comfortable without the fashion statement that dug into his stocky neck.
“Broker Saeli,” Perran managed to say without a hint of sarcasm. Talek’s ego knew no bounds, and he’d laid claim to the very name of their great city years ago. “I came as soon as I could with important news.”
“As soon as you could? Or as soon as you found Nessa’s contracted funds inaccessible?” Talek’s bead-like eyes never wavered from the bed just feet to Perran’s side. “Did you really think those funds would be yours if Nessa were to fail to meet the terms of her contract? She belongs to me, not you.”
“Yes, of course,” Perran hastily agreed, cursing himself for taking the day to try and grab the money. “I merely wanted to make sure it was secure.”
“You’re a Ground. I have others that can attend to that sort of thing. You exist for other jobs, chief among them managing the most powerful Spark in Saeli, a task that you seem to have failed at.”
“Broker—”
“Tell me how a week to relax turned into a month-long expedition to the east and the loss of Nessa. I’m simply dying to hear,” Talek’s high pitched voice whined above the soft moans of one of the women climaxing.
Perran wiped at his brow. How had this man ever gained such power? He was the antithesis of Saelian strength.
“Of course.” Perran forced a groveling smile on his face. He was sweating, and not just from the heat of the Baths. Talek had turned his black eyes from the bed and Perran hadn’t missed the escalation. Drawing Talek’s attention away from the entertainment rarely led to pleasant conversation.
Fortunately, Perran had prepared a practiced lie before even leaving Saeli. He pulled out a torn and dirtied scroll, crushed as if it had travelled a great distance in poor care. He unrolled the map to display it for Talek.
“Ah, the old Fallen wreckage lost in the costal marshes bit?” Talek chuckled, a grating sound that seemed as genuine as Perran had ever seen from the man. “Put that away. Some old man posing as a scholar too weak to make the trek but willing to split the treasure if you only make a small deposit? It’s been years since I’ve heard of that one being run, but I lost enough chasing that dream that I had to sell some of my first contracts.”
Perran gawked, surprised at Talek’s unexpected admission and ready acceptance of Perran’s carefully crafted cover story. He almost felt disappointed—through an intermediary, he’d set up a small operation running the scam, then purchased the fake map himself. His manufactured scammers were on call, ready to take part of Talek’s wrath, but instead the man just chuckled as he reminisced about younger days. Better Talek accept the lie than suspect Perran’s real aim.
“You fell for it?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. The mark of a great man is not perfection but learning from mistakes. Something you clearly have not done considering your history of shedding Sparks like a dog sheds fleas,” Talek answered, his smile taking on a sick twist. “Though, I suppose I can’t blame you for the first three. I am disappointed in your ability to learn, which continues to lag behind your talents as a Ground.”
“I’m your best Ground,” Perran insisted, hating how plaintive he sounded but getting the sense his usefulness to Talek was dwindling.
“You are. You were the only one that could handle Nessa’s powers and help her reach her full potential. But even you c
ould not manage her and others, which is why I arranged to relieve you of your other Sparks.” Talek’s eyes twinkled as Perran gawked at him. “What? You think I would have smiled and eaten the shit you were spewing as if it were honeyed liver if I hadn’t set things up in the first place? Perry, you continue to disappoint me.”
Perran reeled, wondering what else Talek knew. Talek always spoke carefully, and his revelation about the past was clearly a warning not to play him, that he knew and controlled everything. He’d swallowed the lie about the map and trip east even easier than the news about his lost Spark. Was this a setup?
If it was, Perran was already dead.
“So, Perry, enlighten me. How did my best Ground lose the one thing I trusted him with?”
For years, Perran had been at Talek’s side in these meetings, as close to a second as Talek had. He’d scoffed at the weak-minded fools that buckled before a man too fat to see his own dick. As Talek’s dead gaze tugged at his very being, Perran had a new appreciation for the fear the abominable mixture of fat, malice, and intelligence inspired.
Perran told the truth.
Or rather, the truth as he saw it. His lie about his reason for being there safely in the past, Perran focused on the ambush by the towering, indomitable warriors that surely heralded an invasion that would overrun not just Saeli, but the cities further to the west as well.
He told of how the woman had fought in metal, a clear sign they were not from any peoples that had contact with Saeli, and how Nessa had fallen to her knees at the effort to bring the woman down. He told of how they’d captured the invader, yet were set upon by her male companion, a brute that shrugged off Nessa’s lightning and shown his cunning by going immediately for Perran’s Sliver. He told of how Nessa bravely jumped the man, begging for Perran to flee and warn Saeli—a request he had done to honor his Bound’s dying wish and save his people. He told of how the woman had recovered in minutes from a blast that should have killed her and raised the cry for more hidden invaders to come to her aid. These two were just scouts, the first touch of a mighty nation bent on conquest, and Perran had gallantly fled to carry warning back to Saeli.
Talek sat, unreadable as Perran told his story. Sweat began to sting his eyes and Perran wiped at it fruitlessly. Talek didn’t move, didn’t even appear to breathe, but as Perran’s story wound down some unseen signal abruptly ended the sapphic display next to him. The women padded out, their feet slapping on the floor, breathing heavily from their interrupted coupling.
Talek didn’t move.
Perran’s hands were shaking. He clutched them at his side, then behind his back. He stood there, waiting and wondering if perhaps Talek had actually died, his overworked heart giving out at the fear of an invasion.
“Why, then,” Talek’s grated suddenly causing Perran to whimper, “did Nessa show up this afternoon at the very desk you were at yesterday to claim her contract?”
Perran didn’t have an answer and stood with his mouth half-open.
“She claimed it on the basis that her vulta, you, had failed to defend her and abandoned the bond. The Arbiter found her very convincing, particularly the bit where the ‘brute’—your term, my man says I have taken bigger shits—pulls out your Sliver. The two have bonded!” Talek screeched, his words barely distinguishable as they echoed shrilly through the tile room like seagulls fighting over trash. “I’ll have to sell another stake in my brokerage to afford the bribe it took to get a delay on them recording the bond!”
With no warning, the Son of Saeli shot forward, not just faster than a man his size should, but faster than even the invaders in the woods. A tidal wave of bath water sloshed from the pool, but Perran barely even registered it before his head bounced off the tile floor.
Talek placed his meaty hand on Perran’s head and leaned until Perran screamed. It felt like his skull would pop if the Son of Saeli sneezed. Blood trickled from his nose and Perran reflexively struggled, flopping around like a fish pinned by a spear.
“Given your recent failures, I need some time to handle this myself if you fail, so you have until midnight tomorrow to recover Nessa or the little old lady you stashed in the cottage overlooking the cliffs is going to get a much closer view of the sea.”
Perran’s struggling ceased immediately. How could he know about her? Perran had taken such care, not daring to visit except at night. He never went there or returned directly and always made sure he had arranged some other business nearby in case he ran into another of Talek’s lackeys.
“Do we understand each other?” Talek asked, lowering his face so Perran had to stare into black pools recessed so deeply it was like staring into the bottom of a well. They seemed to drink the light.
Perran couldn’t even nod his agreement.
“I have men waiting for you. You will use them.”
Talek released his head, but Perran lay where Talek had put him as the corpulent man climbed from the bath. Talek left without looking back and Perran waited until he heard the exchange of guards that signaled Talek’s departure before moving.
Talek’s men were waiting for Perran outside the Baths. He greeted them with water dripping from his ruined shirt and a false smile on his face. He’d done his best to wash the blood from his face. A strategy had been formed without him, so rather than worry himself with the details Perran instead took the opportunity to reassess his plan to drown Talek with his own hands.
Much safer to have Nessa shock him in the bath.
Chapter Nine
Tristan would ordinarily have gawked at the spectacle of Saeli. The air was filled with the sounds of trade and the aromas of heavily spiced meat. The white buildings shone brilliantly in the sun, with open designs and balconies filled with a dizzying array of female flesh. If he had bothered to look, he would have enjoyed groups of women walking arm in arm with their supple curves visible through colorful fabrics that turned sheer in the bright sun.
But Tristan couldn’t tear his gaze from Nessa.
He could feel her. Not just her presence, but her. Her comfort at being back in Saeli was his comfort. When they passed a stand with a spinning round of meat smoking over a fire, the secondhand nostalgia set Tristan’s stomach grumbling. As captivating as the city should have been, nothing could compare to this alien link with Nessa.
It went both ways. She could feel him, feel his wonder and he could feel how that made her glow. She threw a smile at him, giddy as she basked in the feeling of Tristan’s fascination with their bond.
Tristan was secretly glad at the delay from the Arbiter that might prolong his bond with Nessa. The Arbiter had seemed sympathetic to Nessa’s cause and instructed them to return in two days for his final ruling. Annik had been frustrated at the delay, but Tristan wondered if there might be a way to extend it.
In a sudden rush, he moved forward and swept Nessa up in arms that rippled with muscles. He marveled at the feel of her smooth skin, running his hands along her sides until they cupped her butt. His heart raced in time with hers as their lips met. They stood in the middle of the street, their kiss deepening until Nessa pulled reluctantly away.
“Rooms first,” Nessa giggled, slipping to his side. Ahead Annik walked, confident navigating after just ten minutes studying a rough map erected near the city gates. She moved slowly and they’d had to backtrack a few times. Not that Tristan minded. She’d doffed her armor when Nessa’s warning that the metal would make her stand out proved true. Annik had reluctantly sold the armor for much needed funds.
After the Arbiter, their next stop had been to find some clothes for Annik that let her blend in. Annik’s size and musculature limited her options and Annik dismissed the more outrageous dresses that Nessa suggested. Eventually the two had settled on leggings and a top made from a stretchy fabric that clung to Annik’s curves like a second skin. It covered her completely, which was why Annik chose it, but she’d nearly made them return to the store after realizing the outfit turned see-through when stretched in bright light.
Annik’s embarrassment had softened once Nessa pointed out Tristan’s hungry gaze. He’d tried not to stare, but the bright outfit had completely transformed his Bolstered companion. Her breasts swung freely beneath the material and her nipples had hardened when she caught his gaze. When she moved, the definition of her legs and ass rippled. She was the picture of a prime athlete and Tristan longed to test himself against her in more than just combat.
Surprisingly, Tristan’s obvious interest had reassured Annik and now she walked confidently through the streets, the only distraction capable of pulling his gaze away from Nessa.
“How’s she doing?” Tristan asked, nodding at Annik. “Are we lost yet?”
“Nope! She’s taking a longer route but less turns. She’s really good at this sort of thing!” Nessa grinned, her teeth sparkling in the sun. “You’ve chosen a great head Bound.”
“I, what?” Tristan asked, looking sideways as Nessa giggled at him. She delighted in teasing him and Annik about the tension between them and never seemed to accept their reminders of how things really were.
“Annik is very determined, and she didn’t let any of the terms I asked for that weren’t related to the finding Perran into the contract! You would have liked some of them,” Nessa pouted, her lower lip stuck forward, but it lasted only a second before her smile burst through again. “It was wise of her to keep things simple. The more terms, the more loopholes and the more ways some slick lawyer can interpret things. That’s how I ended up with Perran for so long.
“Annik seems to just get it.” Nessa turned, a coy smile on her lips and dropped her voice. “Plus, she has great taste in women if she chose me to be your first.”
“Chose you?” Tristan chuckled. “I think that was more dumb luck and circumstance.”
“Don’t be silly. Everything happens for a reason and she could have kept you for herself while still counting on my help finding Perran.”