JOURNEY OF THE SACRED KING II

by JANRAE FRANK

  "Well, they have made this a war and a war they will have. I intend to take out their allies as well. They can wonder who is doing it while I hang on Bryndel's every word. Do you have any of those souls with you?"

  "Yes. Always." This was not how he wanted to finally touch her. Dynarien wanted it to be an act of love, not vengeance.

  "You're yuwenghau ... what effect will the bi-kyndi have on you? Will I hurt you?"

  "No. You mean that's all that's been keeping you from letting me touch you?"

  Talons smiled then, a sweet, yet sad, unguarded smile. "I wish I had asked you that months ago."

  "I – I love you."

  "I know." She pulled him down on top of her as she laid back. "What souls do you have?"

  "A battlemage; a moonmage, one of Tala's favorites – he was a hunter as well; and a warrior."

  "I want the battlemage."

  "Why don't I just give you all three?"

  "You can do that?"

  "Yes."

  "Then do it. Another thing, can the genetics be hidden? I mean, with all the drugs they've been giving me, it could be blamed on that if the Reader decides to go deeper than I want him too."

  "That also."

  "Stick it in and get it over with fast. Then get out before Bryndel comes back."

  "Talons..."

  "I know. I love you, but there isn't time for it now. Come to me later when we'll not be caught." Talons trembled violently as she opened her legs wide to him. She knew, though she could not remember it, that Bryndel had been inside her. Her thighs and womanhood were slick and wet with his juices. She hated him. She was about to change her life entirely in ways she thought unthinkable even days ago. She would destroy Bryndel and his allies. But what about the children? Could she raise them with love when all they were was a path and means to vengeance? A way for her grandsire to have his lineage continued through her and seal a political alliance he felt he needed? I'll try. I'll try hard to be good to them. To love them. They are innocent of what I'm doing. It isn't their fault I'm doing this.

  Dynarien's heart eased, but it did not rejoice. He started to disrobe and she stopped him.

  "Just open your pants," she told him.

  He obeyed, lifting himself out. He reached for her breasts to caress them and she stiffened.

  "Don't. Don't touch me. This isn't about love." She shivered. In her heart she still wanted to be caressed by him, but her anger at Bryndel overrode her needs. She just wanted to get it done with, to not engage her emotions – emotions made one slow, they got in the way. When this was done, Bryndel would not be able to force his child into her – which was what he wanted. He wanted to trap her, but she was about to turn the tables on him.

  Dynarien sucked in a deep breath and sighed unhappily. She lifted her pelvis toward him. He stared down at the sweet lips of her loins and hesitated. "Let me at least hold your hand so I can Read you as we do this."

  "So be it."

  He took hold of her and began to Read as he entered her. His pants rubbed roughly against her thighs as he moved. She wrapped her legs around him to bring him as deep as possible. It felt good. She shivered more violently. His cock found the places where her female lovers went with their long fingers. She moaned softly before she could stop herself. Her hand tightened on his. The bi-kyndi had not roused. Apparently she still had too much of the drug in her system for it to react.

  In the chill, emotionless joining Talons demanded, he came quickly. He felt her conceive and then it was over. She shoved him away and sat up, wiping herself clean with the blanket corner.

  "Now, bind the kyndi," she ordered brusquely. "And conceal the genetics."

  Dynarien put his hand on her stomach above her ovaries and spoke to them. A tingling sensation ran through Talons and then disappeared.

  "Finished?"

  "Yes."

  "Get out of here before someone sees you." She started dressing, ignoring him completely.

  * * * *

  He chose to be discreet and simply Jumped from the tent to the middle of the encampment. Josiah was walking arm and arm with Aejys as he arrived. They looked happy. That only made Dynarien feel worse. His had been a hasty joining and not at all what he had either imagined or desired for his first time with Talons. He felt crushed by her brusque dismissal as soon as the children settled in her womb.

  Dree rushed out of a tent and leaped onto his shoulder, purring into his ear.

  "Not now, Dree," he told her.

  < What's wrong? > She asked him.

  < Everything, > he replied and poured out his story to her.

 

  < Of course. >

  < Well, Talons is going to be very busy with Bryndel and the wedding plans. Jysy and Arruth will need someone else to act as their sponsor now. Perhaps you should clear it with Hadjys and then talk to the Patriarch. >

  Dynarien brightened. < I could do that. >

  < Yes and take a bunch of catkin with you. They served you well at Dragonshead, didn't they? And who's going to notice a lot of extra cats, considering how frequently real cats reproduce. And no one can tell them apart. >

  < Better and better. >

  < And start calling yourself a mage. It's more believable and less conspicuous. >

  < Do you want to come? >

  < No. I need to find my kittens before Margren and Mephistis do and get them to safety. >

  Dree jumped down and ran off.

  * * * *

  Talons lay for a long time in the blankets, her hands pressing her stomach. It would be months before she felt the children stir. Dynarien had also blocked the bi-kyndi, casting kweigeyl. That was in and of itself an odd thing that only a yuwenghau could achieve. Life would have been far better if she had only known sooner what questions to ask. She dressed quickly and went in search of Bryndel, leaving the top four buttons of her shirt undone so that he could stare down her cleavage. She found him sitting at the central fire looking exaggeratedly morose.

  He's probably planning on writing off my hostility to a lover's spat. He's in for a serious surprise. Talons sat down beside him, slipped her arm around him, and nibbled his ear. "Bryndel, maybe these episodes have been my mind's way of telling me something I didn't realize. I don't know if I love you, but I'm willing to try. After you left, I found an Ishlani mage-friend and she blocked the bi-kyndi. I don't need the medicine anymore."

  "She did?" Bryndel squeaked, then recovered himself. "You don't?" He noticed the rounded edges of her breasts showing. It was so unlike Talons that it startled and drew him. He licked his lips.

  Talons pressed a deep kiss on his mouth, which produced nothing, no sign of the bi-kyndi's usual reaction. "Let me prove it. There's a lovely little copse by the stream..."

  Talons led him away to the stream bank, where she knelt and pushed through the bushes on all fours. She and Dynarien had sat there the day before talking. Bryndel's hand caressed her buttocks tentatively. She wiggled them at him and then shoved them in his face before crawling through to the bank. Talons settled by the water. She slipped out of her shirt and breastband before he joined her, turning to face him.

  He gasped and stared as if seeing them for the first time.

  "Isn't this what you want?" She cupped them, thumbing her nipples suggestively, calculating each move and motion. Her mind was totally clear, cold and deadly focused. At eleven, she had deliberately and knowingly killed a pedophile with a kiss, avenging twenty raped and murdered girls. Perhaps that was how she would kill Bryndel. Perhaps she would just stick him.

  Bryndel sucked in a sharp breath.

  "Maybe the medicine had a side effect. Maybe that's what prevents me from remembering those wonderful nights we've had. With the bi-kyndi blocked I don't need the medicine. I'll remember from now on."

  Bryndel looked uneasy. Did she know? No. She couldn't. If she did, she would have killed him already. He knew Talons well enough to be certain of that.

  She caught his shoulders and
pulled him close, rubbing her breasts in his face. His mouth closed on her nipple and he sucked it briefly, just enough to bring it erect, but not enough to satisfy her. She knew then that his lovemaking would be perfunctory at best. She thought of Edouina, her favorite lover, who could spend hours just on her breasts. She and Edouina had long considered handfasting. Could they make this marriage a Sharani style triading? Edouina was a bi-kyndi master; she could reduce Bryndel to a shivering idiot. Yes, Bryndel would like Edouina.

  Bryndel climbed out of his clothes and grabbed at her pants. He was breathing hard with excitement. He was thick and long and hard – almost as much so as Dynarien.

  Talons twisted away from him, stood, and slithered out of her pants. Once the children were born, the alliance and inheritances secured, Edouina would help her discreetly kill him. She began to shimmy slowly, rotating her hips and thrusting her pelvis. Maybe I'll cut his balls off and make him choke to death on them.

  Bryndel's face burned with delight and joy. He came to her on all fours, burying his face in her thick, black thatch. He wrapped his arms around her hips. She moved her pelvis against his face while he licked and probed her with his tongue. Talons bent forward, rubbing her breasts across his neck. He bored too quickly and pulled her onto the ground, again leaving her unsatisfied. She said nothing. Her loins had barely begun to moisten when he shoved into her. It hurt and she gasped sharply. It took him forever to come. Her juices dried and still he sawed at her relentlessly. Finally he spilled forth and collapsed atop her.

  Maybe I'll stake him out and pile stones on his stomach until something ruptures.

  Bryndel lay a long time atop her, savoring the feel of her body beneath his, in total submission to him, finally trapped by his sheer maleness. Galee had thought it would take longer to bring her to heel with the drugs and vampiric coercions.

  "Bryndel, I'd like to have another go, but if we don't get back soon, someone is bound to come looking for us."

  Bryndel rolled off her reluctantly and laid back to watch her dress.

  She took her time so that he could see every inch of her. She bent and kissed him. "You know," she purred, "if we keep this up, grandsire will have to hurry the wedding."

  "Why?"

  "Because I'll get pregnant, silly. Sharani are notoriously fertile. Seriously, Bryndel, I never realized before how much pleasure I would get from having a male between my legs. You're wonderful." Maybe I'll get one of those marble priapuses and rape him to death. Let's see how much he likes having something hard shoved up his unwilling ass with no grease.

  Bryndel's cheeks flushed. "You want my child?"

  "Yes," she said, kissing him again. "My work here is done. Aejys has the sword. We could be home in no time. And this kind of stuff is much more fun in a bed." She rubbed her breasts against him. "Let's pack up." She began to imagine what his corpse would look like when she finished with him.

  * * * *

  Scouts had already been deployed to have a closer glimpse at what the gorge looked like and check the area around the caves and tunnels for signs of incursions. The ground was still hot; it burned through the soles of their boots quickly. They could not cross through the gorge. The fireborn were arriving in greater and greater numbers each day. There were now three full wings of twenty-one each in the van. There was no sign of Carliff or his forces, for they had withdrawn to the north in case Mephistis should actually try for their fortress. That was just as well, for in the heat of battle all undead looked alike.

  Word came back that the gorge appeared to be impassible. However Jumpfree had a solution to that: he would jump the entire army past it in a single go. The next problem to consider was that Aejys did not want any of Hoon's people and creatures escaping through the occupied zone and back into Waejontor.

  With Kalestari acting as courier, word was sent to Anaria Dovane, Regent of Danae, Shaurone. Anaria controlled the occupied zone that bordered her lands and fronted on Hoon's Valley. It took another week to work out the details, but during that time, Anaria's people had discovered the remains of her daughter who had been murdered by Mephistis. Every thing started to fall into place. Readers confirmed Mephistis' part in the murder by comparing genetic material gathered from the other victims along his line of march from Dragonshead to Danae. Anaria's grief quickly became rage and she marshaled her substantial forces for an assault from the south. Nothing and no one was getting out of Hoon's Valley. The Sharani would hit them from the south at the same time that the fireborn and the Valdren invaded from the north. They would neither ask nor give quarter.

  * * * *

  Jumpfree, Aejys, and Skelly winged past the mountain. They could see the heat still rising from it. They flew for hours before they saw green fields again.

  "What do you think?" Aejys asked. "Can you get them this far?"

  Jumpfree considered. "Yes. If we get them as close to the other end of the burn as we can."

  "Come on, Skelly, let's go down, and have a look around." Aejys flew down, lighting in a meadow. The grass was a rich, healthy green, carpeted with white flowers. Aejys shivered, she had never seen them grow so thick. "Asphodel," she breathed the word, the hair rising on her arms. She walked across the meadow into the trees. The flowers grew beneath the trees, deep in shadow where they should not have been for want of light and yet there they were. She ran back into the open and took wing, feeling a pressure in her chest, skimming the ground. Every inch, no matter how far she flew across the gorge, was covered in asphodel – the flower of death.

  Jumpfree followed her closely, his head tilted, frowning in puzzlement. He did a loop-the-loop to stroke her wings.

  "Why do you do that?"

  "Because they're pretty," he said. "Is something wrong down there?"

  "Those flowers are asphodel."

  "Is that bad?"

  "They're death flowers, young one," Skelly supplied.

  "Do they kill people?" Jumpfree asked.

  "No," Aejys told him, putting on speed and flying back toward Norendel. "They grow on battlefields and places where people have died in large numbers. Do you have any idea how much blood has to have soaked the soil to have produced so many flowers?"

  "Oooooooh!"

  * * * *

  Aejys sat at the small table beside Josiah and Laurelyanne with Soren, Tagalong, and Borian. Jumpfree sat cross-legged on a chest near the flap beside Dynarien.

  "Let Hoon see the army if he wants, but not Skelly or the fireborn. We move the winged ones at night. Hide them in the forests by day. Let him feel confident in his walls."

  "Another thing," said a new voice as a crested head poked in through the flap and Kalestari entered. "I believe a single flight of fireborn should be dispatched to the Regent's forces." Aejys stood up and went to her, dropping to her knees to hug the fireborn. "That way they do not have to worry with bringing siege engines through the gorge. Let Hoon settle down for a long siege, and then we'll tear his walls down." The fireborn, who could reduce her size to that of a large dog, waddled slowly into the tent and settled beside the table. "The one thing I miss about my human body is the occasional glass of wine."

  "Why didn't ya say somethin'," Tagalong shouted. She immediately dug a bowl out of the chest at the end of the bed and filled it with wine. "Try that."

  Kalestari lapped it. "Uhmmm! That's good. What's the vintage?"

  "Faewin. It was a gift from Geoa's na'halaef," Soren said before she thought. No one had told Kalestari that Geoa had remarried.

  The entire tent went silent. The fireborn's head drooped. "She thought I was dead. She had a right to get on with her life. I am dead." Kalestari shook herself, settled her feathers, and went back to lapping the wine. "When I leave here, I'll take a flight of fireborn with me to the Regent. Anaria will be entering the gorge tomorrow. Barring unforeseen circumstances, she should reach the castle in three days. Four at most. You need to move out first thing tomorrow. If you have dispatches going back, Aejys, get them ready."

  "Jumpfree
, inform the winged ones, support units and the auxiliaries to move out immediately."

  "You're not leaving me behind, Aejys," Josiah said, his eyes searching her face.

  "I want to," she said, her voice soft with concern. "But I did that to some others that I loved and they're dead. I won't do that to you. I'm not going to say good-bye, because it isn't. Get out of here. I'll see you in Hoon's Valley."

  Josiah nodded and left with Laurelyanne. They would be traveling with the winged ones and the auxiliaries, since Laurelyanne felt the stress of a Jump could hurt Josiah in his weakened condition.

  "Kalestari, I think you'd better collect your flight before they all take off," Aejys said. "We'll go tonight. Camp in the valley."

  The fireborn nodded, following the others out.

  The winged units, ferrying wagons and supplies, were given a four-hour head start. The column, organized in a square formation, stood at the edge of the cooling lava. Jumpfree circled the center, his power rushed through them in a tingling of nerves. Horses screamed. Then they were gone.

  The troops materialized in the middle of the asphodel meadow, feeling momentarily disoriented. Scouts were immediately ordered out. Even with the head start, the company arrived ahead of the auxiliaries and was camped and waiting when the winged ones arrived at dawn.

  The horses were hitched to the wagons and the columns formed up. The fireborn dispersed into forests finding what cover their huge bodies could beneath the largest trees and settled to sleep away the daylight hours. Skelly found a river and sank into its depths where his pastel feathers became just one more reflection of the light upon the water. The quetzelcoatli were fishing dragons.

  A village was spotted at midday. Aejys ordered it quietly encircled before she rode in and had the villagers taken in hand. A priest read them for the taint of sa'necari and undeath. Those that were found with it were destroyed. The others were taken prisoner and brought along. She could take no chances with them.

  They made camp that night on a small rise above a stream.

  "Do you think they know we're out here, yet?" Aejys asked.