The Priestess and the Thief

by Evangeline Anderson

  “Deep, huh?” He still looked skeptical.

  “Don’t look at me like that!” Elli exclaimed. “You didn’t look at me like that before when I told you I could communicate with zorels. You acted like it was perfectly natural—don’t try to make me feel crazy now, like everyone else I’ve ever talked to!”

  “I’m sorry,” Roke relented at once. “It’s just that he’s so damn dangerous—maybe I don’t want you to have an instant connection with him.” He took her by the shoulders and looked into Elli’s eyes. “Or maybe I’m jealous,” he murmured. “Maybe I want to be the only one with a connection with you, little priestess.”

  Elli felt her cheeks getting hot but somehow she couldn’t drop her gaze.

  “Roke…” she whispered, remembering exactly how closely “connected” they had been the night before. “You don’t have to be jealous, it’s different with zorels. They’re a little like children—although I have to say, Demon is definitely the smartest zorel I’ve ever connected with.”

  “Oh?” He released his hold on her shoulders and gave her an interested look. “What does that mean?”

  “Well, to start with, it means he’s definitely trainable,” Elli said. “Though it’s going to take some work on my part. He’s never had a rider on his back before.”

  “Are you afraid he’ll throw you or trample you?” Roke was tense at once, ready to suggest taking her to safety, Elli was sure. So she hastened to reassure him.

  “No, no—I’m not afraid for myself at all,” she said quickly. “Demon would let me ride him tomorrow if I asked him, I’m sure. It’s getting him to let someone else ride him that worries me.” She shook her head. “If he does let someone ride him, they’ll have to be respectful and kind and earn his trust. He’s not the kind of creature who can be ‘broken’ to the saddle—he might agree to carry a rider, but it will always be on his terms.”

  Roke snorted.

  “Somehow I don’t think the Crown Prince is going to like that idea. He doesn’t strike me as the respectful and kind type.”

  “Yes, that might be a problem.” Elli nibbled her lower lip thoughtfully. “I wonder if I might try to train him at the same time I’m training Demon?”

  “Train His Majesty?” Roke gave her an incredulous look. “What makes you think that’s even possible?”

  “It might not be, but it would be helpful if I could,” Elli said, frowning. “These Tenebrians really do have the most backwards ideas about zorel training. The idea of hurting or hitting an animal until its spirit is so broken it will allow you to sit on its back and carry you around is just the wrong way of thinking!”

  “Oh?” Roke raised an eyebrow again. “And what’s the right way?”

  “Communicating with it, of course!” Elli exclaimed. “Letting it know what you want and finding out what it wants as well. Promising to protect it and care for it. Loving it.”

  “I’m not sure you’re going to be able to convince the Crown Prince of all that,” Roke said skeptically. “I have an idea the only person His Highness really loves is himself.”

  “You’re probably right, but I have to at least try,” Elli said firmly. “Otherwise, getting him up on Demon’s back will be harder than…well, than anything I can think of,” she finished with a sigh.

  “And how long do you think it’s going to take?” Roke asked, raising his eyebrows. “How long do we have to stay in this fucked-up Court where they all switch partners at supper every night and eat rotten eggs for breakfast the next morning?”

  “I don’t honestly know,” Elli said, frowning. “A lot will depend on how willing the Crown Prince and Demon are to listen to me. But not too long, I hope, she added. “I need to get a piece of that Healing Lattice back to the old Priestess Superior as soon as possible.”

  “Let’s just hope His Majesty is as willing to be trained by you as Demon is, then,” Roke growled.

  Elli could only agree.

  “At least we don’t have to go to Supper tonight,” she pointed out. “The Crown Prince said that he understands how ‘taxing’ my day has been and has excused us from dining with the Court.”

  “That is good news, I suppose,” Roke remarked. “Although I must confess, I wouldn’t mind doing some more ‘Mirroring’ with you, little priestess.”

  Elli felt her cheeks get hot.

  “Roke, don’t talk like that!” she chided him. “You know we were only doing what we had to. It’s not like we were doing what…what we did because we enjoyed it.”

  “Well, I certainly enjoyed touching your sweet, curvy body,” he growled softly, his eyes going half-lidded as he looked at her. “Almost as much as I enjoyed watching you find your own pleasure last night. The way you moaned and gasped…”

  “Roke!” she protested, her cheeks getting hotter. But she couldn’t help remembering the feel of his long fingers tugging at her tight nipples as she circled her secret spot with her fingers…

  Just the memory made her feel a rush of shameful desires, which Elli tried in vain to shut out. Why couldn’t she just forget what they’d done together and concentrate on the real reason she was here—training Demon so she could earn a piece of the Healing Lattice? Why—?

  At that moment, a knock sounded at their door.

  “I’ll get it.” Grateful for the distraction, Elli rushed to the door and flung it open to see the Duke and Duchess standing there, both of them draped in long, plush bathrobes and wearing stylized bathing slippers with plasti-rubber soles.

  “Oh hello, my dear!” The Duchess gave Elli an affectionate kiss on the cheek. “There you are! But why aren’t you dressed for the Bathing?”

  “The Bathing?” Elli looked at her blankly.

  “Why yes—didn’t you know? Tonight is a Bathing night,” the Duke said. He smiled at Roke, who had come to stand by Elli in the doorway. “Hello, old chap—got your suit all ready to go?”

  “Er…not exactly.” Roke frowned. “Ellilah and I had just planned a quiet night in this evening. She’s been working hard with Demon all day and the Crown Prince excused us from Supper.”

  “You might be excused from Supper but nobody is excused from a Bathing Day!” the Duchess exclaimed. “I’m afraid it would be a dreadful insult to His Highness and the entire rest of the Court if you don’t appear at the Bathing Grotto!”

  “It would?” Elli felt her heart sink. She’d been looking forward to a night in without any weird Tenebrian customs to contend with.

  Then again, being alone with Roke might get her into trouble, she thought, looking up at the big warrior. Maybe putting on the bathing costume the Tenebrian seamstress had made for her and going out to splash around for a while would cool off the tension between them.

  “I don’t really think—” Roke began.

  “That we can afford to offend everyone by not going,” Elli answered for him quickly. “Just give us a moment to change into our bathing costumes,” she said to the Duke and Duchess.

  “We really can’t wait, but we’ll save you a pool,” the Duke told her. “Just follow the main hallway down to the tunnel entrance and it will lead you straight to the Bathing Grotto below the palace.”

  “We’ll see you there! Hurry up though—you don’t want to be late.” The Duchess gave them a little wave and then the two of them walked, arm-in-arm, down the hallway.

  “Well, I hope you’re happy,” Roke growled, as they waved goodbye and shut the door of their room. “Now we’re stuck trying to honor more weird Tenebrian customs tonight, presumably while wearing fewer clothes.”

  “I doubt that,” Elli said airily. After all, she couldn’t imagine an outfit that covered less than the white lace dress she’d worn to Supper the night before…

  Thirty

  “This is indecent! I can’t wear this!” Elli looked down at herself in dismay.

  The “bathing costume” that the seamstress had left her consisted of two strips of fabric with long feathery fronds hanging from them. The smaller one went around he
r top, just under her arms, and tied between her shoulder blades while the larger one went around her hips and tied at the small of her back.

  Neither one of them did very much at all to cover her naked body.

  “I think you look fucking beautiful,” Roke growled. His suit wasn’t much better than Elli’s. It consisted of a kind of loincloth that barely covered the bulge of his shaft—which seemed to be growing alarmingly larger as he looked at her.

  “I look obscene,” Elli objected. And she really did. The white, silky fronds of fabric were so thin and fine they didn’t do much at all to cover her breasts and sex. In fact, it seemed that every time she looked down, the pink tips of her nipples were showing through!

  “Well, at least you won’t be the only female dressed that way,” Roke pointed out. “And hopefully I won’t be the only male in a fucking loincloth,” he added, looking down at his own suit in distaste. Elli thought it made him look amazing and showed off his long, muscular legs and firm ass to perfection—not that she would tell him that—he might get the wrong idea.

  “I suppose we should get going,” she said with a sigh, reaching for the plush robe the seamstress had left for her. “We don’t want to be late and offend everyone.”

  “Wait a minute.” Roke caught her arm before she could push it through the furry sleeve. It was the arm that had been burned with Demon’s flame and Elli winced as he examined it.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “There’s something I want to try.” He looked up at her. “I told you my mother was Kindred but I didn’t tell you what kind of Kindred.”

  “Oh?” Elli frowned at him, wondering where he was going with this.

  “She was Blood Kindred,” Roke said.

  “Really?” Elli asked, surprised. “But you look almost Beast Kindred—I would have sworn you were when I first met you, except for your eyes.”

  He nodded. “In appearance, I take after my Sire. I didn’t take after my mother enough to get proper fangs like a true Blood Kindred, but I do have tiny ones—just here.” He bared his teeth and pointed to where a human male would have his canine teeth.

  “All right,” Elli said blankly. “But why are you telling me all this?”

  “Because…” Roke sighed. “Because I wonder if I might be able to heal you, the way a Blood Kindred would heal the…the female he cares for.”

  “Can you produce Essence?” Elli asked, interested. Essence was the pale blue liquid secreted by a Blood Kindred’s fangs which could heal their mate. It was also used in bonding, but she already knew that Roke wasn’t interested in that.

  “I never have before,” he admitted. “But I think…maybe…Look, I’d just like to try it—all right?” He frowned at the burn on her arm. “I don’t like the idea of you being marked for life and having a scar!”

  “I’m a priestess, not a beauty queen,” Elli reminded him. “It doesn’t matter if I have scars—the Goddess doesn’t mind.”

  “Well, I mind.” Roke looked at her intently. “Will you let me at least try to heal you, little priestess?”

  Elli felt her breath catch in her throat at the serious look in his blue and green eyes.

  “All right,” she whispered. “I…I guess it couldn’t hurt to try.”

  “Thank you.”

  Leaning over her hand, Roke stared at the backs of her fingers and began to lick.

  At first Elli felt nothing but the gentle warmth of his tongue, but then a cool tingling began. The feeling spread as Roke continued to lap gently along her arm, moving up the back of her hand and along the angry burn that ran the length of her forearm.

  When he finally pulled back to survey her arm, Elli gasped.

  “Oh! It worked!”

  Indeed, the angry red burn had turned from red to pink and, as they watched, the pink turned to her normal pale, creamy skin tones and Elli knew the burn was healed completely.

  “You did it!” she said, looking up at the big warrior. “You really did it! You healed me.”

  “I thought I’d be able to,” he murmured and cupped her cheek in his hand to tilt her chin up to his.

  “You…you were right. But what made you think you could in the first place?” Elli tried to speak normally but her voice came out sounding breathless in her own ears.

  Roke searched her eyes with his own.

  “Maybe because I’ve been getting entirely too close to you, little priestess. And I can’t seem to stop myself from wanting to get closer still…”

  “Roke, don’t,” she whispered, but she didn’t pull away when he kissed her. In fact, she pressed her body to his, enjoying the way the fronds of her bathing costume parted to allow her bare breasts to rub against his hard torso…

  They might have done much more than kiss except for someone suddenly banged on the door to their bedchamber, which Elli gasp and jump away.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, reaching for her bathrobe and pulling it on quickly to cover herself. “Who can that be?”

  “Don’t know,” Roke growled as he pulled on his own robe. “But they’d better have a damn good reason for interrupting!”

  It turned out to be a servant sent by the Duchess to find out what was taking them so long.

  “Begging your pardon, my Lady,” the girl said, panting—clearly she had run all the way from the Bathing Grotto. “But the Duchess says hurry up quick—His Majesty is due to arrive at any time and you don’t want to offend him by being late!”

  “All right—we’re coming right now,” Elli promised. “Can you show us the way to the Bathing Grotto?”

  “Right this way, my Lady and hurry, please!” the girl gasped and started off at a trot down the long hallway, which forced Elli and Roke to follow as quickly as they could.

  It’s just as well she came when she did! Elli thought as they hurried after the servant girl. Roke and I were about to start something that would have been extremely hard to stop!

  She wished again that she wasn’t so hot blooded and that the cool, dispassionate grace of a priestess came more naturally to her. The very minute she got back to the Mother Ship she was going to sip from the cup of Mortem Amore so she could be rid of her carnal desires forever!

  But for now she was stuck with them, so she would just have to try harder to keep control of herself.

  Elli just hoped that was possible. She had never felt so strongly drawn to anyone as she was the big half-Havoc/half-Kindred warrior and it was getting harder and harder to stop herself from acting on her desire for him.

  Thirty-One

  The Bathing Grotto was an underground cave with a high, arched ceiling, lit by floating lamp-glows which cast a golden light over the shimmering surface of the hundreds of little pools that dotted the smooth stone floor.

  Each pool was filled with the same pale, milky-blue water which had run through the stream in the Supper room the night before. And from each pool came a gentle cloud of steam, indicating that they were substantially warmer than the stream.

  “Oh, there you are! We were worried you’d gotten lost!” the Duke beckoned them over to one of the steaming pools where he and the Duchess were relaxing. “Look—we saved you the pool next to ours,” he added, indicating the pool beside the one he and the Duchess were occupying.

  All the pools were the same size—around five feet in diameter—and all of them surrounded a much larger pool in the center of the Grotto, which was at least three times as large as the smaller ones.

  “Hurry and get in,” the Duchess said to Elli. “We had to fight off the Vanderbeaks and the Chinstraps to keep that pool for you, and the Crown Prince will be here at any moment!”

  “Of course, sorry!” Elli said. Taking a deep breath for courage, she slipped out of her robe, baring herself to the scrutiny of the Tenebrian nobles around her—not to mention Roke, who was watching with interest. Keeping her chin high, she laid the robe to one side of the pool and slipped into the steaming water, catching her breath at its warmth.

  “Fee
ls lovely, doesn’t it?” the Duchess purred, as she leaned back against the Duke’s narrow chest. To Elli’s relief, she was wearing the same kind of bathing costume Elli was. Though her pale white nipples didn’t stick out nearly so much between the white fronds of her suit as Elli’s pink peaks did.

  “It’s really nice,” Elli said, submerging herself up to her neck. At least the water was opaque, she thought, so no one could see her mostly naked body through its milky blue depths.

  “Reminds me of a bathing pool on one of the Kindred ships,” Roke said, also discarding his robe and slipping in beside Elli. He looked at the Duke. “Will we be doing any, er, Mirroring again tonight?”

  “Of course, old boy!” the Duke said heartily. “Whenever the Crown Prince is the center of attention, his motions must be mirrored! It is our only way to reflect His Majesty’s greatness!”

  “Of course,” Roke echoed dryly. “That makes perfect sense.”

  Elli felt her heart rise into her throat and start thumping. What sort of things would they be required to do tonight? And why did she feel such a mixture of anticipation and desire at the thought, when she knew that what she ought to feel was fear and shame about the no-doubt erotic actions they would have to engage in?

  At that moment, the Crown Prince entered the Bathing Grotto, draped in a golden bathrobe. He was already attended by one of the Court Ladies—presumably she had been chosen ahead of time—and he strolled to the large, steaming pool in the center of the grotto and began to disrobe.

  He took off his robe in a leisurely manner, as though to give everyone time to admire his physique, which they certainly seemed to, since the whole Court murmured “Ooos” and “Ahhs” as the Crown Prince allowed the golden bathrobe to slide slowly down his narrow shoulders and fall to the floor.

  He was wearing a loincloth that was also golden of course, but Elli thought it clashed horribly with his pale blue skin and emphasized his pot belly rather too much. Still, the entire Court seemed enamored of their monarch, so she tried to “Ooo” and “Ahh” along with everyone else as he finally slipped into the large steaming pool with the noblewoman he had chosen.