by Brandon Fox
“I know that look,” Ander said. “He’s close.” He reached for Dannel’s hand and guided it to Skorri’s cock.
Dannel extended his fingers and let the rigid phallus stretch across his palm. His mouth fell open as Skorri’s cock throbbed in his light grip. “I… I….” Suddenly his nostrils flared, and he wrapped his fingers around the erection. Erik and Skorri both gasped, ecstasy filling their faces. Skorri’s cock spasmed and sprayed jet after jet of semen across his smooth chest. Erik’s hips moved in short thrusts as he shared the shattering climax that had overtaken his partner.
At last Dannel pulled back, looking stunned. Come dripped from his fingers in white strands. He looked at it with wonderment. “I felt them,” he whispered. “Like Erik was inside me.” A wide smile blossomed. “It was wonderful.”
Skorri opened his eyes and watched Dannel with open curiosity. Erik’s cock was still inside him. “We felt your pleasure too. Did it make you come?”
“Almost. But whatever happened, it didn’t trigger the firestone’s spell. The oil Thane gave me must have worked.” He rocked back on his haunches, making his long cock slap up against the furrowed muscles of his abdomen. “Maybe there’s hope for me after all.”
“You can fuck me if you want,” Skorri offered. “You’re big, but so is Erik, and we’re both slick.”
Ander rubbed Dannel on the back. “Might as well see what happens. If nothing else, you won’t be a virgin any longer.”
Dannel blushed, quivering with excitement. “You’re sure? I mean… I’ve never….”
“Ander’s right,” Thane said. “The firestone’s spell is designed to prevent sex. We should find out what real sex makes it do.”
“It’s decided,” Erik agreed. “Move beside me, so you can slide in as soon as I’m out. It’ll be best for Skorri that way.” He pushed Skorri’s legs forward, along his sides. Ander took hold of one and Thane grasped the other, flanking him like attendants. Dannel watched, dazed, then slowly put his hand on his own cock and added Skorri’s come to the slippery oil that already covered his shaft.
As soon as Dannel was at his side, close but not touching, Erik leaned forward and extended his arms to hold himself above Skorri’s body. He lowered his head and kissed his partner, paused to lick some come from his cheek and chin, then slowly withdrew from their coupling. Come smeared his phallus and oozed from Skorri’s opening. He pressed their bodies together, sharing another tender kiss, then moved aside to make room between the splayed legs.
Dannel moved into position carefully, making sure Skorri’s legs didn’t touch him below the waist. He leaned forward and supported himself with one arm, using his other hand to press his cock down. Now that the moment had arrived, he hesitated, as if fearing the experience he had been denied all his life.
“Do it,” Ander said. “It’s time. You’re done with waiting.”
Dannel took a deep breath, then rocked his hips forward and guided his cock the last inch to Skorri’s body.
As his glans touched the slippery flesh, he bellowed like a man caught in an avalanche. His cock slid smoothly into Skorri as his body curled in a contraction.
Ander shuddered as an intense orgasm seized him. He clutched Skorri’s leg as his cock spat semen against his chest and face. The sensation was overwhelming, making his body jerk as he released his seed. A groan made him look up to see Thane in the throes of ecstasy, his come fountaining into the air.
Dannel had collapsed on top of Skorri and wrapped him in a fierce hug. His hips hunched back and forth as he pumped his seed into the strong body. His breath rasped like a runner’s at the end of a race. A red aura surrounded them both, and a blue symbol shimmered on Dannel’s back like a ghostly tattoo.
Ander fell back, dizzy from the wrenching orgasm. Dannel and Skorri remained entwined. Their convulsing bodies showed no sign of escaping pleasure’s grip.
“He’s under the spell’s power,” Thane said. “Help me get them apart.”
They pried Dannel’s arms from around Skorri and pulled him back while Erik tugged from the waist. Dannel’s cock was still jerking as it emerged from its warm sheath. The spell had affected Skorri as well; he had climaxed again, and fresh come smeared his belly.
The two came to their senses as soon as they were separated. Dannel rubbed his eyes, then reached out and touched Skorri’s arm. “Are you all right?” he asked.
Skorri, still panting, was staring at Dannel in awe. “It felt like we were going to keep coming forever.” He blinked as he recalled the experience. “Can you teach Erik and me how to do that?”
Thane tugged one of Skorri’s toes. “We have to master the firestone’s spell first. Then you can help him catch up on the tumbles he’s missed. But we saw something that might help.” He turned back to Dannel.
“There’s something on your back, a marking that appeared when you were coming. A circle with glyphs inside it, like the ones inside the Aerehoth Gate. Do you know anything about it?”
Dannel shook his head. “The hierophants give us a sleeping potion when they use spells on us, to protect their secrets. I didn’t even know I have a mark.” He reached behind his back with one hand and felt around. “Is it still there? I don’t feel anything.”
“No,” Thane said. “But think about what it means. There’s some kind of link between the Gate, the firestone, and the Aerehoth Guardians. I still think you might be more than a fighter. There’s stronger power in you than your masters have let you know. More than they’d share with any slave, even a warrior.”
Dannel shivered, looking lost and a little frightened. “If I’m not a fighter, then what am I? I’ve never been anything else.”
“It’s a mistake to let others tell you who and what you are,” Thane answered. “You need to discover that for yourself. And I think what you find will surprise us all.”
Chapter Seven
DANNEL shook his head in disbelief. “I’ve been trained to fight. That’s all. How could I be involved with magic?”
Thane shrugged. “I’m not sure. But magic is mainly a method for using anima. Maybe they use you to store it, or channel it.” He sprang to his feet and went to the pile of clothes heaped nearby. “Don’t worry about what happened with Skorri. No harm was done, and it gave me an idea. Something that might help control the firestone’s spell.” He slipped his shirt over his head, then gave Dannel a knowing look. “And you’ve finally shared pleasure with another, at least briefly. How did you like it?”
A shy smile dispelled Dannel’s anxious expression like the sun banishing storm clouds. “I’ll never forget it,” he said softly. His gaze shifted to Skorri, and he blushed. “I’ll be dreaming about you. I know it.”
Skorri leaned up to give him a quick kiss and then reached for his pants. “Only if Thane lets you sleep. He never rests. Just ask Ander.” Though he was teasing, the observation was mostly accurate.
“Who can rest when there’s so much to do?” Thane said as he stepped into his leathers. “And anyway, who can think of resting this early in the day?” He fastened his belt, then picked up his boots. “Dannel, you mentioned gardens. Would you show me? There are lots of plants around here. I’m sure we can find some useful ones.”
“What about us?” Ander asked as he dressed.
“The three of you should go back through the Gate. None of you had problems like Dannel and me. Explore more carefully, on foot, see if we missed anything. We didn’t really get a good look the first time.”
The eager nod in reply was endearing. Ander’s avid curiosity was one of the traits he loved most. “Let’s meet by the lake an hour before sunset,” he said. They finished dressing and parted company to pursue their separate tasks.
Dannel seemed subdued as he led the way through the forest, back toward the lake. Thane allowed him the refuge of silence. He had gone through a lot, and it wasn’t surprising he was still sorting it out.
Several minutes passed before Dannel lifted his gaze from the trail. “I haven’
t thanked you. I’m sorry. I keep thinking about Skorri, how it felt. After wondering all these years, and now finally to know. But it was still only a small taste of what love is like.”
“It’s a beginning. Love usually doesn’t come easy.”
A hint of bitterness tinged Dannel’s frown. “Harder for some than others. How old are you, Thane? Not even my age, probably. Yet you and Ander must have been together for years.”
The question caught Thane by surprise. He was still pondering how to answer when Dannel held up a hand in a gesture of apology.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be complaining. You’ve been a friend. What do I know about love? I’m probably being stupid.”
Thane could tell Dannel felt badly, but couldn’t bring himself to explain. The years of grief following Lucian’s death had left scars that even Ander couldn’t heal quickly. Memory still stung like a barbed lash.
They arrived at a grove of apple trees, just starting to bud. “Tell me about these groves,” Thane said, his voice tight. “They look healthy.”
Dannel looked relieved at the change of subject. “The guardians take care of them. The hierophants spend twenty days beyond the Gate before making us drink their sleeping potions. We use the time to tend crops.” He waved his arm, encompassing the nearly wild trees with the gesture. “It keeps us busy and gives us something fresh to eat. Besides, we need the food. The hierophants keep the caravans small. They don’t want anybody but priests and guardians to know exactly where the Gate is.”
They entered the grove. The smell of rotting apples left on the ground after the last harvest was thick and sweet. He felt a pang, remembering the countless hours he had spent tending gardens for Lord Tolmin and at his own estate. The leisurely pleasures of gardening now seemed an impossible luxury. “Do you grow anything besides food crops?” he asked. “Most of what we use for the art is less common.”
Dannel pointed to the right. “There’s another garden over that way. The hierophants tend it themselves. We’re forbidden to enter it, but I’ve never seen them bring food out.”
“That sounds promising. Let’s take a look.”
Dannel led the way down a trail paved with gently rounded stones. They crossed a meadow where root crops were already beginning to break through the ground, then passed through a stand of pines. When they emerged they encountered a wall eight feet high, made of stone blocks that fit together with meticulous precision. The entrance gate was twice as high as the wall and looked like a miniature version of the Aerehoth Gate, two tapering columns with flattened pyramidal crosspieces.
Dannel regarded the gate nervously. “I’ll go first. There might be dangers. No guardian has ever defied the hierophants and tried to enter.”
Thane held him back. “If there’s a cantrip, you’d not know until it’s too late. I’ll be careful.” He walked up to the gate and put a hand on one of the pillars. The stone was rough, like a coconut shell, and held heat from the sun. He closed his eyes and concentrated as he ran his hand over the gray rock. A sense of ancient patience seeped from the stone.
“No danger,” Thane said. “At least not that I can sense.” He craned his neck to look at the massive lintel overhead. It must have weighed tons yet seemed strangely insubstantial against the background of clouds. A shiver ran along his spine. Whoever had created this place understood the world, and dealt with it, in a way unlike anything he had previously experienced. He took a deep breath and let his hand fall away from the pillar. “Damn the rules. Time to break another of your shackles. Let’s see what your former masters were hiding.”
They entered the sequestered garden side by side. Tall zebra grass filled the area immediately inside the gate, striped blades and featherlike flowers obscuring what lay beyond. Thane brushed foliage aside and penetrated deeper, every sense straining. The seven-foot-high grass soon thinned. A fieldstone courtyard lay before them.
Thoughts of cantrips evaporated as the hierophants’ garden came into view. Thane felt like he was dreaming. The first plant to seize his attention was a bush six feet high with heart-shaped leaves, green on one side and shiny as mirrors on the other. Sun reflecting from the leaves made the plant blaze, an impression magnified by flowers with bright red petals surrounding orange and gold florets.
Another plant bore puffballs the size of peaches on long stalks. Faint clouds of colored pollen wafted from the spiky balls and left streaks in the air as a breeze stirred the foliage. Scents of lavender and honeysuckle teased Thane’s nose as they passed through the mist.
A sound like soft laughter emerged from the depths of a squat plant with broad leaves that curled into cones. Bees buzzed in and out of the cones, attending to the plant as if summoned by a mirthful jester.
Scores of marvels drew Thane’s gaze from bed to bed. Half the plants he had never seen before. He felt dizzy, dazzled by the garden’s wonders. A light touch on his arm reminded him of his companion.
“Do you know these plants?” Dannel asked.
“Only some of them. This place is a treasure trove.” His heart raced as he surveyed the extensive collection. Botany was one of the few things that could make him forget his worries, if only briefly.
Dannel looked skeptical. “You really think plants can defeat the firestone?”
“When we’re done with them, yes.” Thane pointed to a dwarf pine with long bluish needles on their left. “That one, for a start. We’ll harvest the small cones, make sure not to take the large ones. You grind them up between smooth stones, then add cold water to make a paste, and then strain it through a cloth. Then you mix it, very slowly, with oil squeezed from apricot pits, or if you don’t have apricots you can—”
“I believe you,” Dannel said hurriedly. “What do you want me to do?”
Thane went over to the pine and parted some needles to expose the cones. “Twist them off like this,” he said, demonstrating. “Fill your pockets. We’ll need a lot of them.”
Dannel began to harvest the small cones, less deftly but with increasing speed as he developed the knack for twisting at the right point.
“You have nimble hands,” Thane said as he watched Dannel’s rapid improvement. “Did you do work like this in Skarn?”
“Some. We did whatever the hierophants told us to do. Aerehoth Guardians aren’t officially slaves, but that’s what it amounts to.”
“Tell me what it was like. Maybe it’ll help me understand how their magic works.”
Dannel stuffed a handful of cones into a pocket. “I don’t want you to think I’m a complainer.”
“I know better. And I’d really like to know.”
Dannel resumed twisting cones off the pine. At first he was silent, as if trying to decide where to begin. Thane felt a pang of guilt, recognizing the struggle with painful memories. Finally Dannel began his tale.
“I was taken to the temple on my tenth birthday. You can’t be indentured until you’re that old. My parents, they… they….” He paused and cleared his throat. He yanked sharply at one of the cones, making the whole branch shake, then continued in a firmer voice. “They were well paid. I haven’t seen them since then, or my brothers and sisters. They used the money to leave Skarn. They didn’t even tell me where they were going.”
“The temple,” Thane reminded gently.
Dannel nodded. “New boys have to fast when they enter the temple. Three days with nothing but water, and they don’t start counting the days until you stop asking for food. They put you in a dark little room with small openings in one wall. Big enough to reach through, no more. On the other side of the wall is a table filled with food cooked for the hierophants’ own table. Roasted meats, fresh bread, ripe fruit, honey. They make sure everything is just beyond your reach.”
“Senseless cruelty,” Thane said, anger rising. “I’ve seen it often and can never understand it.”
“The hierophants have no mercy, but they always have a purpose. It’s the same lesson they taught us every day of our lives. Do what you’re told
, endure, and you’ll be rewarded in the end. They use food for the lesson when you’re a child. To prepare you.”
Thane felt a knot in his stomach. “For the firestone’s curse. It keeps something out of reach until you satisfy your indenture.”
“Yes. Most guardians learn the lesson well. Those who don’t have short lives.” His expression was bleak.
“Do the guardians have tasks besides protecting the temple and its priests?”
“Many. Guardians do whatever work needs doing. And there are many daily exercises. They even pay us a little, so our families can pretend it’s not true slavery. It’s less of a disgrace to indenture a boy than to sell him into slavery. And of those offered for indenture, the priests only take one in a hundred.” A frown crossed his face. “I could never understand it. They tell you being an Aerehoth Guardian is an honor but then treat you like a mongrel dog.”
“It is strange. But they have a reason for making children starve, so maybe they have reasons for the rest. I wonder if hardship is part of what gives you power.”
Dannel’s frown deepened to a scowl. “Do we have to talk about this? Today has changed my life, and I’d rather not think about the past. At least not right now.”
“Forgive me. I was thoughtless.” Thane bowed his head in apology. “I used to be even worse. Terrible, really. It’s a wonder my friends were so patient. Ander has helped a lot, but when we’re apart my old ways return.”
Dannel stopped working and gave Thane a puzzled gaze. “Your old ways? You don’t look like you’ve been a mage for long.”
Thane paused, knowing he owed an answer. He stuffed pinecones in a pocket and gestured for Dannel to follow. They took a flagstone trail deeper into the garden. Silence stretched while he pondered how to explain. As much as he disliked thinking of his past, Dannel was now an initiate and had to hear the story. That didn’t make the task any easier.
