Merlin's Kiss

by Stephanie Burke

  "Yet after I told you that it wasn't me, you persisted in believing the worst."

  "I am sorry, Kerian. I was frightened, not thinking. It will not happen again."

  "Likely story!" Angrily he grasped Blaze's reins and pulled the unicorn through a tall thicket of trees.

  What was wrong with him? She had apologized and yet he was still not looking at her, Brieana mused as she grasped Magic's reins and followed him.

  "I also accused Zorn," she called out, trying to figure out what was wrong with her Warlord. Men were so complicated. She would never understand them, not if she lived for more than a thousand years, which was what she had done. Men were still the most confusing species on the face of the earth!

  "Zorn once told you that I won't lie, and you believed him. Why the sudden mistrust, Brieana?"

  He almost sounded hurt. That was it. Brieana paused as the light suddenly dawned upon her. She had hurt his feelings.

  "Kerian, wait!" She rushed forward to stop him, to explain her frustrated hysteria, and nearly slammed into his back as he suddenly paused on the trail. Looking over his shoulder to see what had stopped him, Brieana felt her mouth drop open as the most beautiful lake she had ever seen spread out before her.

  "This has to be it!" she breathed in awe.

  "Brieana?" Kerian motioned her to his side and gave a terse warning. "Arm yourself, Lady. We approach the unknown here and the Sage Chicken did warn us."

  Wondering about his precautions, Brieana did as he asked. She had already hurt his feelings and didn't want to alienate him by pointing out that the Lady of the Lake was a helper to Merlin, so she placed the sword in her war belt. She noticed that Kerian did the same as he released the unicorns to graze.

  "Behind me, Lady," he whispered as he cautiously picked his way down the soft packed earth of the forest floor, to the bright green grass growing around the lake.

  When nothing happened, he motioned Brieana to his side and together they looked out over the beauty of the lake.

  "She has to be here!" Brieana said, excitedly. "I can feel her magic here!"

  "I feel nothing, Lady, but this is as good a place as any to rest. But let's keep on guard. There might be hidden dangers."

  Nodding her approval of his plan, Brieana hurried back for the unicorns.

  "What about Zorn?" she called over her shoulder. "Should we not go and search for him?"

  "The youthling will return when he smells the cook fire, Lady. He is all stomach, but then, most dracks are before they become drackoon. Zorn has a few years of being a youthling before he becomes a full-grown drackoon, but I believe that he is storing up energy for the process."

  Amusement tinged his voice now when he spoke of Zorn. Even though Brieana knew Kerian cared for all drackoons, she never thought to hear of his affection for the purple troublemaker.

  "You have forgiven him, then?" she asked as she led the unicorns over to Kerian. Together they began to unload the sleeping blankets and what supplies they would need for the night.

  "He was behaving as a drack. I expect no less from a drack. All creatures must stay true to their nature."

  "And me? Have you forgiven me, Kerian?"

  Kerian paused in unsaddling Blaze to observe Brieana.

  She was a born queen, denied her birthright, and had no reason to trust a man. From comments she had made, all the men in her life had let her down, from Arthur, the little boy she fancied herself in love with, to Merlin, who cast her into a stone prison for many a year. Brieana had learned mistrust from an early age. He was a fool to think that he could earn her trust so easily.

  "There is nothing to forgive, Lady." He tossed the saddle aside and moved on to Magic, ignoring the growls and snaps from the unicorns. "You must stay true to your nature."

  "And just what is that supposed to mean?" Brieana tapped her foot in the lush green grass of the little valley surrounding the lake. Forgotten was its blue/green waters and pale tan sand. She wanted an explanation for his statement.

  "I mean, Lady, that you must follow your heart. If your heart has learned distrust, then you will find it hard to trust others." He shrugged as he went about settling the unicorns and picking out an area to camp. "For now."

  Brieana started to run over and demand an explanation for cryptic words when she caught his last words, "For now." What did that mean? Was Kerian trying to change her mind about trust? Did he want her to trust him, to start some type of relationship with him?

  "I will go and gather water for our evening stew, Lady," he called over to her, wondering about the bright sparkle in her eyes and the bemused look she now wore across her face.

  "Be careful, Kerian!" she called over to him as she spread out their blankets and began to gather up small stones to build a fire ring. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

  "I wonder what is in her mind now?" Kerian quietly asked himself as he went to fetch the water. "Women!" There would never be a man who could understand them.

  Chapter Sixteen

  As the sun began its downward path, bathing the calm waters of the lake in a kaleidoscope of warm colors, Kerian and Brieana finished their meal of traveler's soup and bread. Kerian had packed enough supplies for a long journey, but they had hardly made a dent in the provisions. Now, settling back after their final meal for the day, they both paused in their clean-up chores to admire the sun lowering in the west.

  "Is it not like a dream, Kerian?" Brieana asked as she gathered up the bowls they used for eating.

  "I have never seen the lake before, Lady, so this is a rare treat for me. I have seen the waters surrounding the Light Isles, but never the lake."

  Ever since their earlier confrontation when Kerian let it slip out that he cared to earn her trust, they had both been a little uneasy around each other.

  While Kerian fetched the water, Brieana built the stone ring and gathered wood. While she retrieved the foodstuffs they would need, he started the fire. Together they worked like a well-oiled machine, anticipating each other's wishes and needs oftentimes before the other person became aware they needed something.

  Now that their evening meal was over and Zorn had returned, a few feathers hanging off of his mouth and a disgruntled look on his face, she could feel the tension building in the air.

  "I think Zorn is still upset about losing his dinner and having you give him drack lessons!" Brieana giggled as she rose to her feet and started for the lake. "You make an impressive drack, Kerian. You caught his dinner with great skill."

  "Gren taught me everything I know," he almost chuckled and shot the youthling an amused look. "Do not worry, Zorn. I'm sure you will find a woman to do your hunting for you."

  Zorn refused to answer the taunt, but instead turned his back on the suddenly playful man and the giggling woman. He was not sure he approved of this sudden sense of humor that had struck the Warlord. He did not like the unpredictable.

  "I will walk to the lake with you," Kerian said as he saw Brieana carry the used bowls down for cleaning. "I wish to put cool water on my eye. I believe you have bruised it."

  "It was only a small tap, Kerian!" Brieana wailed as she again felt a flush of guilt.

  "'Twas merely a jest," he said before he took the lead in their stroll to the lake.

  The dim evening light clearly showed the small bruise beneath his eye, but it also highlighted his near perfect profile. Kerian was a handsome man, and now that he was acting interested in Brieana, he was displaying a charm she never thought he possessed.

  In truth, Kerian had decided to stop fighting his awareness of Brieana. Too much did he remember of her fiery hot kisses and baby smooth skin. He would be a fool to give that all up! Plus, she caused him to feel something he thought to never experience again. His past history with wary females had taught him to be careful of giving his heart to a woman. And he wasn't thinking about mere lust either.

  When he had earlier seen her frightened and nearly hysterical, fighting with feverish intent, he felt the cold ice i
n his heart shatter into a million pieces. He never wanted to see her that fearful again. He would personally see to it! She had once declared they would be mates, and now he was ready to accept it. She may be the Queen that would unite the Isles, but she was also a woman. A woman who had the same needs as any other woman. After watching her these last few days, Kerian was sure he was the man to fulfill her every need, but first, they had to complete this quest and fulfill her destiny.

  "Shall I help you wash the dishes, Lady?" he asked as he crossed the soft sand and headed for the edge of the lake.

  "Let's do it together," Brieana smiled up at him and stepped to his side. "I'm surprised you are willing to help. The men I knew considered this to be woman's work." She knelt and began to heap sand into the small kettle they’d used for cooking.

  "I am not like the men you knew." His voice came out a little sternly, causing her to look over at him as he knelt beside her, scrubbing plates.

  "I know that, Kerian. You are special."

  She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a small blush begin on his cheeks.

  "Kerian, I know that Merlin…"

  "Merlin!" The voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere.

  Kerian and Brieana both jumped to their feet and began to look around.

  "Lady, did you…?"

  "You dare speak his name, you slut! You trollop! You…you…home-wrecker!"

  "Home…wrecker?" Brieana turned a confused look to Kerian then they both continued their fevered search for the voice.

  "You dare to come here, reeking of his magic and flaunting your relationship in my face! Are you mad, woman?"

  Suddenly, the calm waters of the lake began to churn and bubble as if they were angry with the intruders.

  Kerian shoved Brieana behind him as the water began to crash and splash against the shore.

  "Bitch!" A large wave slammed against the shore, heading straight for Brieana. And it would have pulled her under too, if Kerian had not knocked her back to the grass beyond the sandy shore and blocked her with his body.

  "Kerian!" Brieana screamed, feeling all the color drain from her face as he was sucked beneath the waves of the now boiling lake.

  "And you bring another lover with you! Is not one man enough for you, you little witch?"

  "Kerian!" Brieana screamed as she struggled to her feet and began to race to the water's edge.

  Again, another massive wave approached, and just when Brieana thought she would be sucked in, something knocked her aside. She looked up to see Zorn being swallowed by the wave meant for her.

  "So you can control the beasts of the sky, but that will avail you not, whore! I will deal with you face to face!"

  "Zorn! Kerian!" Brieana ignored the voice and the wet gritty sand that covered her body. A cold hard wind lashed her hair around her head and chilled her to the bone, but she felt no discomfort. Her horrified eyes were trained on the once quiet lake, searching for a glimpse of either her courageous Zorn or her beloved Kerian.

  So intent on her search was she that she barely noticed the center of the lake parting and the head and naked shoulders of a woman rise as if she was being lifted on a platform.

  "Stupid bitch! How dare you come here smelling of him?"

  "Kerian!" Brieana cried out again, tears filling her eyes when she saw no sign of him.

  "How sweet! You call to one lover, smelling of the other. Where is he? Where is that bastard Merlin?"

  "I do not know what you are speaking of!" Brieana sobbed out, screaming to the heavens. "I do not know what you want!"

  She turned her anguished eyes to the woman who emerged from the lake. Naked but for the long streams of wet blue hair that twined around her body, the woman's yellow eyes glared at her. Raising her arms to the sky, she gave Brieana a nasty smirk that distorted her beautiful elfin face, before lowering her arms slowly.

  As her hands reached her waist two large round cages of water emerged from the angry lake. As Brieana peered closer, she saw a flash of platinum hair and knew Kerian was held within one of the watery prisons. Zorn had to be in the other.

  "Release them!" she cried, turning her attention back to the naked woman. "We have done you no wrong!"

  "You come here smelling of my lover's magic and claim to do no wrong? What are you? Blind or just plain stupid?"

  "I have no lovers!" Brieana called out to her, dancing from foot to foot in her helplessness. She knew Kerian had never seen a large body of water before, and it meant he would not know how to swim.

  "Don't play me for a fool, woman! I can smell him on you!"

  "Who? Who can you smell?" Brieana cried, again turning her tormented gaze to the woman.

  "Am I talking to myself or what?" she asked, eyes look up as if beseeching some higher power for patience. "Merlin, that faithless bastard! That's who you are screwing!"

  "Screwing? I have no idea what you are speaking of, Lady, and I have not seen Merlin since he cast me into the hand of the Rock of Ages!"

  "Liar! I can sense his power on you!" she screamed, her eyes glowing as the wind began to pick up yet again.

  "No lie! Truth!" Brieana begged. "I know nothing of Merlin! Please, release them! They have done you no wrong!"

  "What kind of fool do you take me for, trollop? I know you have been with him! I can sense his magic, idiot! But I will tell you what! Convince me to let them live and I just might spare their lives, before I send you to your grave."

  She crossed her arms over her blue-tinted skin, her hair whipping furiously around her, building with her anger, and exposing her perfectly formed body to Brieana's view. Almost arrogantly, she tossed her hair as she gave Brieana a superior look.

  "It would be a shame to kill off such a hunk of man, anyway, but I will if you don't start convincing!"

  Falling to her knees in the churning surf, Brieana turned pleading eyes up to the woman. "Please let him go! Let them both go! I am begging you!"

  The woman yawned, before flicking her wrist and slowly began filling Kerian's bubble with foaming water.

  "You are killing him!" she shrieked as she watched the churning water reach up to his chest. Stoic as always, Kerian watched her with calm eyes, even though she could almost hear him willing her to run away and leave them in this place. "Please!"

  "Your begging is annoying me. You'd better try something else, or lover boy will bite it!"

  "Bite it? What are you asking for? Your words make no sense to me! But I beseech you, please let him go!"

  The woman peered closely at Brieana, as if seeing her for the first time. "Why should I?" She now had the Lady's full attention on her.

  "I love him!" Brieana cried out. "I love him so much, it hurts!"

  "What's love got to do with anything?" the woman demanded. She gave a flick of her wrist and floated closer to Brieana. Now that she wasn't standing up on her pedestal of water, Brieana noticed that the woman stood no higher than she did. When only a few feet separated them, the woman stopped and eyed Brieana as if she were a particularly disgusting bug she wanted to squash.

  "I loved that man, that Merlin, for centuries, and where did it get me? Hmm? I was the occasional booty call for him, but that was it! I loved him and he never even bothered to show up after the first few centuries. And that was fine, he was busy manipulating people's lives, and I understood that. But then the visits stopped, the messages stopped. He begged me not to give in to the darkness and cease to be, but he never came to keep me company. He begged me to continue this existence and then he abandoned me! And I stayed and suffered because I loved him and believed he would come back to me!" She paused in her tirade against the missing Merlin.

  "So where does love get me, you fool? I was better off loving myself! If I had not loved him I could have joined my sisters in oblivion! But here I sit, waiting from some kind of sign from him, and his bitch shows up, smelling of his magic and bringing her own lover with her. And how do you think that makes me feel?"

  Her yellow eyes bored into Brieana's gre
en ones, pain and sorrow mixed with anger, causing the yellow eyes to almost glow red.

  "I know nothing of Merlin and his intrigues," Brieana began. "And I am sorry he treated you so discourteously, but on the pain of death, I have never lain with him or any man! I was locked away in stone for centuries! I have come here to retrieve Excalibur from you and complete my destiny. But you must understand that man you are murdering is part of my destiny as well. I cannot exist without him! Without him, all of this is meaningless."

  "Stone, did you say?" the woman's breath hitched and the wind began to die down.

  "Your words are odd to me Lady, but I can understand you. Merlin wronged you, true, but I was no part of it. The only thing I have of Merlin is this torc he gave to me before he tossed me into the hands of the Rock of Ages. If I could remove it from my person, I would gladly give it to you. I would give up a kingdom, my life for him. Please spare him and take me instead!"

  The torc around Brieana's neck began to glow and the water around her began to calm. Blindly her hand reached up and gripped the jeweled necklace as she turned pleading eyes towards Kerian, now totally submerged in the water and struggling to hold his breath. "End this! Please!"

  "The Woman of Legend!" the Lady breathed and just as suddenly as the squall started, it ended.

  With a loud splash Kerian and Zorn's bubbles popped and they both crashed into the waters of the now calm lake. The woman, once again hidden by her long blue hair, stepped back and with a wave of her arm, sent a wall of water rushing up to the beach, depositing a coughing, choking Kerian and a water-logged Zorn at her feet.

  "Thank you!" Brieana cried as she dropped to her knees and lifted Kerian's head into her lap. "Thank you."

  She dropped her forehead over Kerian's, her hair falling to cover their faces, as she dropped tearful kisses across his forehead and hugged him to her pounding heart.

  "You are the Woman of Legend. It is said that you will come to deliver peace to this ravaged land. And I don't talk funny! Everybody spoke like this during the twentieth century!"

  While Kerian struggled to regain his breath, Brieana raised a tear-ravaged face to the Lady.