The Rising

by Kristen Ashley

Mm, those copper eyelashes.

  Watching them, his hand went from where it was shaking her hip, down and in.

  He toyed with her clit and she arched her neck.

  “Chu,” she whispered sleepily.

  “They amass,” he shared.

  And he felt his lips curl as her head immediately turned, all business.

  “My master teases,” she griped.

  “My mouse walks, talks, breathes and sleeps a tease,” he returned.

  Her eyes did a roll.

  He removed his finger from her nub and leant in to touch his lips to hers.

  When he pulled away, he ordered, “Up. We must position.”

  She nodded.

  Chu exited the bed one way.

  His princess went the other.

  Reginald, Royal Warden

  Slán Bailey, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  His, as well as six other pairs of boots, echoed on the stone steps as they jogged down the stairs.

  Reginald made the lower hall, turned right and saw them loitering about outside the open door to a cell.

  All the men except one, who was on his arse on the floor, his back to the wall beside the open door, holding a bloodied cloth to his head, rivulets of red that had not been wiped up marring the ink he had chosen to tell his story on the left side of his face.

  Reginald walked swiftly toward them and the guards milling about stepped away from the door, and in doing such, none of them met his eyes.

  He said nothing as he went to the doorway of the cell.

  There he stopped.

  Looked.

  And then drew in a deep breath.

  King Gallienus lay motionless on his blood-soaked pallet, his throat an open maw.

  Reginald followed the trail of the crimson which had dripped to the floor and run across it, nearly reaching the door.

  He looked down and left.

  The guard on his arse was struggling to take his feet.

  “Stay seated,” Reginald grunted before he turned. The first man he saw, he ordered, “Get him to the bloody infirmary.”

  That guard nodded and moved.

  Reginald then caught the eyes of the next man. “She was found in the room?”

  “She was not. She was sitting in the hall with our man, holding a kerchief to his head. The bloody blade at her side,” the man answered.

  “Where is she now?”

  “She is above. In…in…” the guard stammered.

  “Spit it out, man,” Reginald said between his teeth.

  “In the visitor’s lounge.”

  Of course she was.

  He made a move to leave and kept doing it even when another guard called, “Should we send a messenger to the Regent?”

  “I will report this to him myself,” Reginald answered, not looking forward to that and turning to the steps, alighting them, and not wasting time on his way to the visitor’s lounge.

  There were two guards outside it, both of whom stood straighter and dipped their chins when Reginald came to the door.

  He opened it and entered.

  Inside the room, a table sat, bolted to the floor, iron loops in it as well as in the stone of the floor on which to lock chains. There were also four chairs, one on one side, three far more comfortable ones on the other.

  And in the one on the one side sat Horatia, a Lady Royal, one of the wives of a now-dead king.

  She was facing the door.

  She was not chained.

  Behind her stood a single guard.

  On the table in front of her was a pot of bloody tea and a cup with saucer.

  She was still wearing her cloak, regardless that a fire had been lit in the small fireplace and the room was cozy warm.

  And across the chest of her gown and cloak was a spray of blood.

  Crikey.

  Reginald came to stand opposite her.

  “Lady Royal,” he greeted.

  “Warden,” she returned.

  “It seems you made some friends during your brief stay here,” he noted.

  Her head only slightly tipped to the side.

  But at first, she said nothing.

  Then she asked, “Is the guard I struck going to be all right?”

  She, personally, struck no guard.

  Not delivering the power behind the clout he’d seen.

  “He’s being taken to the infirmary,” he told her.

  “I lamented that part of the proceedings. Please extend my apologies.”

  There were, he knew, many things that made a lady.

  Now, he knew one of them was a lady remaining a lady even after she committed murder.

  He moved to the three chairs opposite her, pulled out the middle, and sat in it.

  “It’s my understanding Prince Cassius provided you with a lovely manor to the south,” he remarked.

  “I had occasion to return,” she murmured.

  “Mm,” he hummed.

  “I suppose I’ll occupy a different cell now,” she said.

  “This is for the Regent, uh, that is to say…the king to decide.”

  She inclined her head, but he did not fail to note a flash of gladness in her eyes when he had called Cassius their king.

  Reginald sighed before he queried gently, “Do I need to ask why?”

  “Moran died at the Battle of the Heights.”

  Reginald was confused.

  “Moran?”

  She tapped a finger on the table, then stopped herself doing that.

  And she spoke. “I had a love once, Master Reginald. He was a good man. But he could not have me, for I caught the eye of the king. But that did not mean his life ended. He married. They made two daughters, but their firstborn was a son. A son who became a soldier with the ambition of earning the coveted position as lieutenant to a prince he admired. Cassius Laird.”

  Reginald’s heart lurched as he whispered, “Milady.”

  “So of course, although he was still quite young, he had just finished his training and was proudly an endorsed soldier. Thus, when the prince called for his most loyal to fight the just fight, Moran was one of the first to volunteer. Thus, he was there,” she continued.

  Reginald had nothing to say.

  She had one hand in her lap, one hand close to her cup of tea.

  The hand by the tea flipped out as she said, “And he was behind it, you see.”

  Yes, the dead king was behind a great many terrible things.

  Including that.

  “I see,” Reginald replied.

  “Coram had lost enough at his hands. I am an Airenzian woman, and you know, Master Reginald, we are made of rather stern stuff. We are this, for we are born to lose. I was born in this land knowing I would have nothing but what a man allowed me to have, and I would give everything a man chose to take. But Coram?” she shook her head. “He had already suffered at the king’s hand. His losing Moran, well, really…it could not be abided.”

  “I understand,” Reginald said, and he did.

  However, as it was his duty, he was forced to continue.

  “I don’t suppose you’ll share with me who assisted you in gaining entry to the Bailey and access to the man who once was king.”

  “You are right,” she replied. “I will not share that with you.”

  “This will mean a full inquiry of all my guards and all others who are employed here,” he informed her.

  “Yes,” she said, and the next she spoke with all sincerity. “And please accept my apologies for the time it will take you to do that. However, I feel safe in the knowledge they will not be discovered, but if they are, I request that you deal with them with a kind heart. They wished nothing but to right a wrong, and I’m afraid I was rather clever in disguising how a wrong would be committed in order to do that.”

  She then spoke no more.

  So be it.

  He nodded and said, “I will petition the king to do his best to make you comfortable again in your stay with us, as I suspect it will be rather long.
”

  She nodded in return, took up her tea, and sipped a dainty sip.

  However, her hand was slightly shaking.

  “It is good to know,” he started gently as she set her cup back in its saucer and her gaze came to his, “that love does not die.”

  Her nostrils flared before she looked away.

  Reginald stood and turned his attention to the guard in the room.

  “Find her a clean, warm gown, bag the one she wears, and then escort her to her previous quarters,” he commanded.

  “Yes, sir,” the guard said.

  “Milady,” he murmured to her.

  “Master Reginald,” she murmured back.

  With that, Reginald exited the room.

  King True

  Guest Bedchamber, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  “Darling, look at me,” True demanded.

  Farah, concerning herself greatly with the clasp of his mantle at the base of his throat, lifted her gaze and looked into his eyes.

  “It is soon to be done,” he said.

  “What if there’s some trick?” she asked.

  “Then it would be a foolhardy trick,” he answered.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean more lives won’t be lost.”

  He took her chin against the crook of his finger and his thumb.

  “This will be done,” he stated firmly. “And then we will seek and dispatch the Beast. After that, we will return home, be coronated, and then set about the arduous work of making a family.”

  Her lips quirked.

  He fully grinned and asked, “Can I take that as indication you are at one with my plan?”

  “Can I request a single amendment? That we go about the practicing of the making of a family for, oh, say, six or seven months before we actually get busy with the work of doing it?”

  His grin widened. “I can grant that amendment.”

  She smiled up at him.

  He bent his head and kissed it on her lips.

  When he lifted away, he said, “Today will be a New Airen.”

  “Praise the gods.”

  He touched his mouth to hers again, took his fingers from her chin only to stroke her cheek, and then he left her in their chamber.

  Teddy

  Sheep’s Head Inn, Gulliver, A Town Seventy-Five Miles from the Firenz Border

  WODELL

  Teddy was interrupted in what he was doing when the noises came through the wall.

  He was certain to close his lips tight at the tip and keep his hold about the base strong as he released his mouth from Faunus’s cock and looked up to his warrior.

  Faunus had his fingers wrapped tenderly around the back of Teddy’s neck, and even though he had been watching Teddy’s work, his head was now turned to the side, his gaze to the wall.

  Feeling Teddy’s eyes, he looked down.

  And smiled.

  A knock sounded at the door.

  Both men shifted their attention to it.

  “Stay where you are,” Faunus ordered on a growl, before he threw one of his long legs over Teddy’s head in order to leave the bed.

  Teddy rolled to his side and watched his warrior walk to the door, snatching up a sheet of toweling as he went and casually wrapping it about his hips.

  Although it wasn’t yet dawn, and Teddy did not like a pre-dawn knock at the door, he could not stop his smile as he watched Faunus open the door, fully erect, hidden by nothing but some toweling.

  It was so very…

  Firenz.

  They should be home in a little over a week.

  And he couldn’t wait.

  “Yes?” Faunus asked.

  “A bird for you, sir,” the innkeeper’s voice could be heard.

  Then something else could be heard that was unmistakable, and while he watched Faunus take the missive, he also saw Faunus’s head turn to the wall.

  His love then returned his attention to the innkeeper, muttered, “My gratitude,” stepped back, closed and locked the door.

  He let the toweling fall to the ground and Teddy enjoyed the view as he walked back to the bed.

  He then did not protest, indeed he adjusted his position to accommodate it, when Faunus entered the bed and rested his considerable weight atop Teddy.

  “I wonder if he used his fingers or his mouth to teach her to explode,” Faunus said on a grin, referring to the earlier unmistakable noise.

  Teddy grinned back, but did it shifting his hand to something else he wished to make explode.

  Faunus made a sound like a purr and gently thrust into Teddy’s hand as he used his own fingers to unroll the narrow scroll of parchment and cast his eyes to it.

  Faunus’s movements stopped and his brows drew together, so Teddy’s ministrations also stopped.

  “What is it?” Teddy asked.

  Faunus did not immediately reply. He simply stared at the strip.

  Teddy squeezed his cock, thus earned his attention.

  “What is it?” he repeated.

  “My king orders Saturn and I to make haste to Sky Bay.”

  But…

  They were so close to home.

  “No,” Teddy whispered.

  “Yes, bello,” Faunus whispered back. He began thrusting again, at the same time commanding. “You will take Moira to Nyx and Lorenz.” He then switched to assuring, “And you will do so safe on your journey, Teddy.”

  “We’ll go with you,” Teddy returned.

  “You will not. This,” he lifted the parchment, “is an order to a warrior from my king as my commander. This is not a summons from my king as a subject.”

  “We still will go with you,” Teddy retorted.

  Faunus shook his head. “Airen is at war.”

  “And I will not leave you, and Moira will not leave me, or, I suspect, in the now,” he tipped his head to the wall, “Saturn.”

  “You do not take your mates to war.”

  There it was again.

  War.

  Teddy released his still-plunging shaft.

  “Teddy,” he growled.

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “You, nor our sister, is going with us.”

  “I feel safe with you and she feels safe only with us.”

  “Our countries are now allies. You will have no issue getting home.”

  “Faunus.”

  “Teddy.”

  They had reached a stalemate.

  Teddy was the first to attempt to break it.

  “What if something happens to you?” Teddy asked.

  “It won’t,” Faunus stated swiftly.

  “So, you would have me, and our sister, journey home in the same state of mind you were in the entire time you searched for me?”

  This caused Faunus to keep his silence.

  Teddy took heart.

  “We will not be a bother and we will not slow you down,” he said hastily.

  “I do not want you near danger,” Faunus bit off.

  “I do not want you near danger either, but I have no choice, and I’ll add, tato, neither do you,” Teddy stated firmly. “You cannot simply tell me to go home and expect that to happen. If you leave, I am free to follow you. And this I will do.”

  Faunus’s face grew dark, and seeing it, Teddy had to fight against grabbing hold of his cock again.

  “Right,” he rumbled. “Then if you will not slow me down, you better hurry up.”

  Teddy smiled victoriously.

  “This is not hurrying up,” Faunus warned.

  Teddy wasted not a moment hurrying up.

  Queen Ha-Lah

  Guest Bedchamber, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  “How many?” my husband asked.

  “Three,” I mumbled, beyond sated, practically stupefied from his lovemaking.

  “I only counted two.”

  I studied his arrogant grin before I lifted my gaze to his and declared, “It is unbecoming of a king to seek compliments.”

  Aramus started c
huckling and dipped his head as if to take my mouth, but I pushed further into the pillows behind me and he stopped.

  “You are sure that all is in order to thwart what they intend to do?” I whispered.

  “I am sure.”

  “If it is not?” I asked.

  The question had excellent timing, for above us could be heard a great flapping.

  My king’s eyes had gone vague in the listening to it, but they again focused on me.

  “Cass is rather proud of the architecture of Sky Bay and as such is rather intent on keeping it just the way it is,” he stated.

  It was then, my eyes went vague.

  “My queen,” he murmured.

  I pushed up to sitting in the bed, and as he had been leaning over me, held up by a hand in the bed to one side of me, he came up as well.

  But I grasped his head behind either ear to keep him close.

  “I do not have a good feeling about today,” I admitted.

  “It will be well.”

  “Something is very wrong,” I told him.

  “If you are right, then we will see it through.”

  “Darling—”

  “Ha-Lah, I want to be home. I want to spend long lengths of time in my castle with my wife. And then I want a great number of other things, but as those are most important, I wish to start with that and do it without a great delay. I am not alone in wishing to be amongst my own, in peace, with the woman I love, guiding my realm to prosperity. Thus, we will see it through.”

  I nodded.

  He kissed me, pulled away and said, “I shall join you for a late breakfast.”

  At his optimism that what was about to happen would not take very long, I shook my head, but did it smiling.

  Yes, my king was arrogant.

  And truly, though I would never tell him this, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  He grinned at me, lifted to kiss my forehead then pushed from the bed.

  He had his hand on the door when I called, “I love you, my king.”

  Aramus looked back. “And I you, with the depth and breadth of the sea.”

  And with that, he was gone.

  Marian

  Argyll Forest

  AIREN

  I saw them, but not before he.

  I could feel his elation.

  And I could sense the power coming from there.

  It was a hum so strong, it was a vibration.

  And not from the veil that the priest spoke about.