The Sacrifice

by Nhys Glover

  Darkin still had not returned when we all sat on the portico stairs to eat our meal. The cold meat tasted almost as good as the freshly cooked meat, and far better than the stew of the day before. I was determined to learn to cook so I could enjoy my meals, not just fill my stomach.

  Once we had eaten Calun touched my shoulder and I turned to him. He pointed to me, then himself and then the sky. I nodded enthusiastically and hugged him.

  I knew I had shocked and embarrassed him because his ears turned red and he looked at his feet. Then, before I could say or do more, he hurried away.

  "Calun hasn't had much to do with women. The whores, well... the whores made fun of him and said he was retarded. So he stayed away from them. Ma was the only woman he's really had much to do with," Jaron explained as we watched Calun jogging off to the paddock to prepare his airling.

  "Why would anyone do that? He is handsome and strong. Just because he cannot talk does nothing to detract from his worth."

  Jaron shrugged. "I agree, but there aren't too many others who do. If not for the airlings, I think Calun would curl up and die of loneliness. Don't get me wrong, he's our brother and he knows we care about him. But the airlings fill the deep hole inside him. We all have a hole, an empty space where Ma used to be, but for Calun it's worse, somehow."

  I had seen that sadness in his eyes, but also the kindness and peace. If the airlings gave him peace I had to be grateful to them. On light feet, I hurried down to the paddock. I had my first opportunity to see how a rider mounted an airling.

  Calun had whistled for his airling and one of the flock separated itself and hopped over to him, nuzzling its head into the man's chest. Calun rubbed his body against the animal's neck and then pulled on the beastling's shoulder. As if on cue, the airling dropped into a sitting position and spread its wings a little. Calun lithely stepped on the thickest part of the wing structure and then slid into place behind the pair of odd horns that were its shoulder blades.

  He motioned for me to come closer and I did, knowing instinctively not to move too quickly. I looked up at Calun and, as our eyes met, I saw myself doing just what Calun had done, allowing the airling to rub up against my body, and me rubbing against its shoulder and neck. I did as he suggested and it took only a moment for the beastling to accept me. The thrill I felt as our bodies brushed stayed with me after it was finished.

  Calun held out a hand and, smiling gleefully, I took it and let him pull me up in front of him. I had changed back into my own clothes, which included breeches, so I felt comfortable sitting astride, just as I had the day before.

  I felt Calun's thighs tighten behind me, and the great beastling rose to its feet, took several jerky hops and soared up into the air. I must have screamed with delight, because Calun's hand came over my mouth and I felt his chest shaking as if he were laughing at me. I felt like a child on her birthday. This was the best gift I had ever received!

  The air blowing past me, nay through me, nourished my soul as well as my body. Wisps of hair escaped my tight knot and blew around me in gay abandon. I was intensely aware of everything: the cool wind, the bright sky surrounding the burning sun, the warm, sweaty flesh of the airling between my legs, the slight jerk as the leathery wings rose and fell, and the pressure of a strong male body behind me. And I felt his pleasure and then his discomfort as his body responded to mine.

  I knew about a man's cock. It was a common topic of gossip in the harem and among the guards and youths. I had felt Darkin's length, as it pressed against me from behind the day before, and Rama's, as he drew me close to kiss me. So it did not disturb me that Calun was aroused by my closeness. In fact, had he not been so embarrassed by his body's reaction, I would have enjoyed his closeness, and his arousal. Being surrounded by fast-flowing air like this freed me from my limiting beliefs, the ones I still clung to even though my life had changed so drastically.

  Those beliefs would have condemned me for feeling energised by a man's attentions. Especially because it was not just one man who seemed capable of stirring long-dormant feelings inside me. A good woman would not feel as I did now. A good woman would not even be in the position I was in right now, pressed against a hard male body while being dressed as a boy. But Rama's comment, about me being like an airling pinned from birth, had hit home. It would be horrible to pin a creature meant to fly before it had a chance to do just that. Equally, it was horrible to close a girl in a women's only prison, albeit a luxurious one, and deny her the pleasure and power that was so obviously her birthright.

  So I refused to feel guilty, and I would not let this gentle and kind young man suffer embarrassment because of his body's natural response to a woman.

  In an effort to reassure him, I reached to the side and pressed my hand into his hard thigh just above his knee. My mind was suddenly inundated with images of my hand moving higher and clasping him where he ached. I knew he was not asking me to do it. The image had simply slipped out as a response to my touch, but it shocked me enough to have me taking my hand away again.

  As we flew even higher, I looked down at the small and insignificant world below. The rules petty men made to regulate their lives were not for me up here. Only the power of the wind, the wonder of flight, and the naturalness of a male's attraction to a female, mattered here. I forgot my discomfort and placed my hand back on Calun's thigh.

  This time I saw myself dancing the night before. I felt Calun's wonder and aching desire for me. I saw him coming to stand in front of me while I writhed and wound myself around his body like a vine. It was the single most erotic image I had ever seen and I moaned and leaned back into my silent companion. I drew on the air around me and felt my power building.

  Calun's hand slid around my waist and pressed me closer. I could hear his breathing against my ear. Using my hand to guide his lower, I did not stop until he was cupping my aching mound. I felt wet kisses on my shoulder. Encouraged, Calun's other hand slid up under my tunic and cupped one of my breasts. I arched into his hand and rubbed my butt against his hard erection. His hand kneaded my flesh and then rubbed the tip of my nipple between two of his fingers. I squirmed, wanting more.

  When Calun removed his hand from between my legs I almost cried out in regret. But, in the next moment, that same hand slid under my clothes and down to my mound again. I could feel his damp palm against my curls and, when one finger slid between my nether cleft, I nearly jumped off the airling's back. Only Calun's arms tethered me in place.

  I knew about the bud nestled in those folds. I had intentionally never touched myself there, as I knew other non-magical girls did, because it would build my power. But I had always wondered whether being touched there could truly be as exquisite as I had heard.

  It was. As Calun slid his finger through my wet folds and then dipped inside me, I curved my hips to give him more access. He pressed into me and used the heel of his palm to rub against my nub of pleasure as he continued to minister to my aching breast.

  I did it then, what he had pictured in his head. I reached around behind me and felt for the hard length pressed against my butt. He shuddered as I clasped him through his breeches. As his hand continued to work me, I madly sought my way under his clothes so I could feel that hard length in my hand. I wrapped my fingers around it, damp and hot, the skin silky around flesh so hard it felt like bone.

  Something was building inside me. The hard thrust of not just one finger but two inside me, as his heel continued to rub my nub, was torturous pleasure. I found my hand cupped around the tip of his cock and felt slick, sticky liquid on my palm. In the next instant Calun pinched my nipple hard and I exploded.

  This time when I screamed Calun didn't stop me. His hands were fully occupied, after all. And his airling didn't seem to mind. Suddenly, Calun's shaft became rock hard and thrust into my hand. I felt hot liquid flowing between my fingers. I was caught between horror and fascination, still coming down from the most incredible erotic experience of my life.

  When he stilled and sl
umped, with his head on my shoulder, I inched my hand free of his body. As I did so he pressed deep inside me again and I gasped as the pleasure rose once more, but far faster than the last time. I knew where I was headed. I rushed toward it with every ounce of my being. If it was possible, the second release was more thrilling than the first. I felt Calun's teeth nip my shoulder and I rocketed up and over again.

  I turned my head so he could catch my words. "How did you know what to do?" I thought he was an innocent like me, and yet he played my body like I was his flute.

  Shame and excitement washed over me as I saw a couple in a bedroom. It felt like I was looking through a window. I recognised the man immediately. It was Darkin, and he had the woman in much the same position as Calun had me. But in her case she was naked and so was he and the woman was moving up and down Darkin's cock. It was inside her.

  Calun must have felt my excitement and his shame vanished as he continued to show me the scene he had witnessed. While he did, he circled my nub with more force and, just when I thought I could not take any more, the image of Darkin, his beautiful body wrapped around that woman, thrusting into her as Calun thrust his fingers into me, undid me again, and then again. When I sagged forward, letting his arms keep me upright, he let me off and slowly, reluctantly removed his hands from beneath my clothes.

  I took the hand that had clasped my breasts and I kissed the palm. His answering kiss on my shoulder required no words to interpret.

  When Calun turned the airling for home I was not sure whether I was glad or sorry. Part of me wanted to fly on forever in the silent man's arms. But another part was satiated by sensation, overwhelmed by what I had experienced.

  When the hovel came into sight I felt a flash of welcome. I was not sure if it came from me or Calun. I had somehow become entangled in him, his thoughts and feelings were mine. I wondered if mine were his. Immediately an image of Rama kissing my nape the day before flashed into my mind. Ah, the answer. Yes, Calun was in my mind, just as I was in his. It embarrassed me just as he had been embarrassed showing me the scene of his brother with the whore. Yet I had never felt so understood.

  When the airling landed, Calun slid off its back and then held up his hands for me. He slowly dropped me to my feet, allowing every inch of our bodies to touch as he did so. Gods, this man was incredible. And when he smiled down at me I saw none of the sadness lurking there as it had before.

  Chapter Eleven

  "We have a problem," Darkin said, striding onto the portico with his brothers close on his heels. They seemed to have an uncanny knack of sensing each other's needs that I would normally find intriguing. In this instance, however, with my mind flashing back to what I had done with Calun on the airling, I had to wonder if I was about to be publically berated for my behaviour. Or if Calun was going to be punished for disrespecting me.

  "Airling troopers flew over town late yesterday afternoon," he told us. "Heading in the direction taken by the wagon Airsha rode in."

  "They are tracking wagons that left Godslund Palace around the time I disappeared, then," I voiced what we were all thinking. I had to admit that this news was actually more of a relief than it should have been. I was not to be publically humiliated for my actions.

  "It seems that way. When they didn't see it in town they probably flew on. When they reached the wagon, which they likely did last night, they'll have discovered no stowaway. But the wagoners might've told them about you when interrogated."

  My eyes were drawn to Darkin's bloody lip and swelling eye. "What happened to you?"

  A cutting motion with his hand told me to drop it. His impatience implied we had far more important concerns than his injuries.

  "The Gambler's men?" Rama asked tensely.

  "Aye. After hearing the news, I was too distracted to notice them gathering. They didn't do much damage."

  I grimaced in empathetic pain. I was already causing these men hardships by my presence. If the wagoners gave me away it would only get worse.

  "I have to go. If I took an airling, would it return to you when I let it go?" I asked, drawing on the story Darkin had made up to tell the townspeople.

  "You don't know how to direct one, or where to direct one to go, even if you did know how. That's if one would let you ride it without one of us with you," Darkin said impatiently. His worry was a palpable thing now. And it ate at my barely controlled emotions.

  The air began to stir around us. Jaron looked up, the first to notice. "You're scaring her. She's losing control of her power."

  Darkin sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It's all right, Airsha. We'll look after you. No one's going to sacrifice you to the gods while we have breath in our bodies."

  "That is what I am afraid of. I would rather die than risk you," I used my hand to indicate all of them. "Fly me to the flight path of the troopers and leave me there for them to find on their way back."

  "No!" came three loud replies and an even louder one in my head. I grimaced in pain.

  "You're ours to protect now," Rama announced gruffly. "We don't leave a man down. We most definitely don't leave our woman down."

  Blinking my eyes in shock, I stared at him. My mouth must have dropped open because a gentle hand, Calun's, pressed my chin up so it would close.

  "I am not..."

  "Aye, you are. Now shut up and let us think," Rama barked, looking away and up at the sky, as if watching for airlings.

  "They hadn't been back this morning or I would've seen them, or heard about them," Darkin went on as if the matter was closed. "That means one of two things. They haven't met up with the wagon yet, or the wagoners led the troopers in the wrong direction."

  "Why would they do that?" I asked in confusion.

  "You didn't see the way they looked at you yesterday. They didn't want you handed over to the Gambler, and offering you to us was a dangerous move. The Gambler's infamous, and no one'd lightly go against him. They were being kind to you."

  I nodded, thinking about what they had said about my impending sacrifice. Mayhap they would not give me away. My heart lifted a little. It seemed odd to me that the people I had loved all my life would happily see me dead, and total strangers were willing to risk their lives for me. What did it say about the world I had lived in, nay existed in, up until a few short days ago.

  "We can't count on their kindness, or that anyone will believe you ran off with an airling," Darkin went on. "If they come back this way and start looking for you, we won't be able to hide you from them for long. Even if we can kill the troopers, others will come in their place."

  "Then let me go. Let me run." I had no idea where I could go, or how I could get there. Because they were right, I had no idea how to direct an airling or even which way to direct it. But I needed to go.

  Calun sat down at my side, cross-legged as I was, and put a protective arm around my shoulder. I drew strength from him, even as I regretted the intensity of the bond that had grown between us so quickly. If I had to leave him I would be devastated. If he was hurt because of me I would surely die. An image of me coming apart in Calun's arms as I rode his airling flashed into my head.

  I noticed the tension in the air shift and change. Confused gazes looked at us. Had Calun broadcast his memories of our earlier ride to his brothers by accident, the way he had sent me that image of my hand slipping further up his leg? But that had been wishful thinking on his part, at the time. Mayhap, if they all received that image they would simply dismiss it as wishful thinking, too. Or that was my hope.

  "I think you need to go, at least until the troopers have come and gone. If they come at all," Darkin said slowly, looking from Calun to me and back again.

  "No," Rama announced belligerently. "We're not letting her go. Anything could happen to her out there alone."

  "I'm not thinking of sending her on her own. There's that cave we used while we waited for you to heal during your escape. The Clifflings don't know about it. And it's only a few 'turns away by airling. Jaron can take her there a
nd stay with her until we send word the coast's clear."

  "Jaron?" Rama lifted a disbelieving eyebrow. "How safe do you think she'll be with Jaron?"

  "He'll behave, or else," his brother replied darkly. Had their mother named him Darkin because he was the dark one? But how would she have known there would be more boys, all with different colouring? Yet another of my stupid, irrelevant questions again.

  "Or else what?" demanded Jaron, lifting his chin. "And why're you still determined to protect your baby brother? I'm as big as you now, if you hadn't noticed. And a better fighter, if what the Gambler's men did to you is any indication. I've never come out of a confrontation with those boys with my face bloodied."

  "That's because you can talk your way out of nearly any situation. You don't ever need to fight."

  "Stop treating me like a child!" Jaron yelled, his fury so close to igniting I huddled closer to Calun.

  "I'm not protecting you, I'm sending you to protect her. If the Clifflings find you, you could talk your way out of trouble. We couldn't. We'd fight them and they'd win." Darkin sounded exasperated, his gaze repeatedly turning skyward, as if expecting to see airling troopers at any moment.

  That seemed to appease Jaron, because he nodded grudgingly in agreement. I looked up at Calun, asking for his thoughts. He flashed me an image of a cave mouth way above the plains below. I found myself being led inside and deep into the side of the mountain where I could see light ahead. When I reached the light I found I was in a huge cavern with water falling from the open roof into a large pool. Plant life had somehow found a way to grow here, and vines and flowers adorned the edges of the pool. It was the most magical place I had ever seen.

  I blinked and frowned, asking Calun with my eyes if it was real. He nodded. My heart soared at the idea of seeing it in person.

  Without another word, everyone went into action. Jaron headed for the hovel to pack supplies, including a whole haunch of meat left over from the previous night. I was sure that was supposed to be dinner for all of us, not just ours. But I was too busy collecting up my sewing and stowing it in my satchel to question his choices.