Caught in the Devils' Hand

by Ruby Duvall

  “Good night, Oka,” she called, and waited for her brother to run up for his good-night kiss before following Vallen down the hall. She heard her brother happily flop onto his bed as she walked away. Her room, which she assumed would be the room she shared with Vallen, was located on the exact opposite end of the hallway, separating their rooms by at least a dozen others.

  “I can only assume why this room is so far from my brother’s,” she teased, watching her lover slide open the bedroom door. He smiled at her over his shoulder.

  Leaning in for a look, she gasped and quickly went inside the room.

  It was twice as big as Oka’s, sporting two cabinets, one of which was propped open and displaying at least a dozen dresses. The bed was laid upon a raised area, almost like a dais, and there were two steps leading up to it on all sides. It was large enough for four people, but rather than the simple white pillow with which Oka was probably snuggling, the head of their bed was strewn with black and green pillows, much like the ones that had decorated the floor of the tent where they had made love so many times.

  The artwork on the walls was more ornate, though not gaudy, and its obvious central theme was trees or forest scenes. Even the flooring, similar to what was in the sitting room and Oka’s room, was dyed to match the décor better.

  “It’s…it’s far too grand for me,” she whispered, a little overwhelmed. She started when he slid his arms around her from behind, his chin resting lightly on the top of her head.

  “You deserve this and more. I would have you live like an empress, if it were possible. The next few days, weeks or months may be difficult and full of uncertainty, but I’d like to give this to you, at least, a place that makes you feel how you’re feeling now,” he said softly, his deep voice rumbling inside his chest and against her back.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, rubbing her hand against his arm.

  It was an hour later that they finally closed their door, confident that Oka had fallen asleep in his room after checking on him, and she settled onto the divinely comfortable mattress, her shoulder now mostly numb thanks to the well-made salve. She looked up at Vallen, who had stripped down to just his pants but was still standing on the other side of the bed.

  “I never did ask but…do you sleep?” she asked softly, her eyelids feeling heavy.

  “I haven’t had a wink of sleep since the night I was cursed,” he admitted. This woke her up a bit.

  “Then do you not get tired?” she asked, adjusting her head on her pillow.

  “If I haven’t taken energy from a woman after two weeks, I start to feel fatigue. It’s not until the last few days that I feel really drained, but even then, the prospect of getting energy from a woman is more than enough motivation to spend energy on wooing her,” he explained.

  “I see,” she said somewhat petulantly, not liking it when he reminded her of his many other lovers. Her eyelids shut and she didn’t realize it until she opened them again.

  “You must be exhausted,” he mumbled softly, his voice close as he came to lie down next to her.

  “What will you do when I fall asleep?” she whispered.

  “I’ll hold you for as long as possible. I must attend to some things before you wake, but I shall be here when the sun rises.”

  “Living without sleep for so long, and without your friend for fifteen years…I am amazed at your courage and strength of will, Vallen,” she confided.

  “If you are my reward, then it was worth it.” He lifted his lips in a grin at her, sidling closer and even bringing one leg over hers. “Just promise me that you’ll keep yourself alive.”

  “I can’t control that so well,” she laughed, “but I promise to try not to leave this earth prematurely,” she consented. They looked at each other for a moment then, though she had to fight the weight of her eyelids.

  “Kiss me,” she sighed, curling toward her lover. She knew he had been looking at her lips more than her eyes.

  “With pleasure,” he mumbled, carefully sprawling himself across her to avoid putting pressure on her shoulder. His mouth gently settled upon hers, his tongue sliding inside to slowly dance with her own.

  She softly cried out into his mouth, bringing up her free hand to hold his jaw as he sucked on her lips and tongue, enjoying her mouth like he was licking juice from an exotic fruit.

  However, it could not and did not go further than that. After a couple of minutes, they reined in their passions, slowing down the kiss until finally their swollen, wet lips fell away from each other, and though he could not resist a few fleeting kisses to her chin and cheek, he eventually settled against her side, one arm thrown across her chest.

  She was asleep within seconds, her mouth tingling with his kisses and her sex warm with arousal. The heat of his body and the warmth of the blankets kept her warm as the day’s heat seeped away from the house, and though she woke once when he moved away from her, a small kiss and a reassuring whisper sent her back to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  She dreamed…

  Running through fields, darting between trees and skipping lightly over the surface of rivers and lakes, the rising sun always to her back. She ran as fast as the wind, her body light and sometimes floating rather than running at all. She passed hundreds and hundreds of people as she sprinted through varying vistas, some of them she was sure were figments of her imagination, and some of them undoubtedly were born from Vallen’s stories.

  The people all looked on her as she sped by, their faces full of wonder as though a vision from the Divine One had been granted to their eyes. She felt like she was more a part of the earth than a member of the human race…the quickening in the soil, the heat of the sun, the wind in the trees, the water in the lakes and clouds. She was the piece that held the earth’s heart, the Divine One’s grace and the love for the human race that made it possible to support so many…so many people.

  Finally, her journey ended and a vision of Vallen’s secret mansion, though looking different, swam before her eyes. Dozens and dozens of raven-haired people greeted her, but one head was blond and an older Oka ran to greet her, followed closely by two faces she had never seen before.

  However, the one face she had hoped to see was not there…

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The sound of chirping birds and soft breezes slowly brought Shumei out of sleep. Her injured shoulder felt very warm and a bit stiff, and her stomach was cramping for lack of food, but she otherwise felt fine. A wonderful scent that she hadn’t smelled in a very long time greeted her nose and she heard her stomach growl for eggs.

  Opening her eyes, she watched the play of shadows on the far wall for a few minutes, cast by the swaying branches of trees under a full sun. She was both loathe to get out of bed and yet eager to do so. There were many things to be done now, starting with Vallen’s cure. She also had to worry about Majo, the village leaders, Akiji and, oh yes, the sudden and violent attacks being made on villages and cities after decades of peace.

  Finally, she heard Oka’s laughing voice and turned her head on the pillow, taking in a breath and giving in to the urge to stretch just a bit. Deciding it was time to get out of bed, she slowly sat up, breathing evenly as a few small throbs of pain started up in her shoulder, but she was lucky that the pain was minor. She was also lucky that her wound hadn’t become infected, what with their hasty retreat from the village and their half-day journey to come to this place.

  As she stood, she found herself face-to-face with the mirror above the dressing table next to the bed. Her bed-tousled hair made her look rather silly, but her skin was clear and fine that morning, most likely due to the extremely satisfying night of sleep she had just had despite being injured. Any circles under her eyes had been lost with what had been nearly thirteen hours of sleep, if the light of day was any indication.

  She would have to get her bandage changed again before breakfast, but first came a quick visit to the room with the mysterious handle. She first looked in the room n
ext to hers to see if something similar had been installed there, but found an empty, dusty bedroom instead. So she began to walk to the opposite end of the hall, and as she passed by the sitting room, she looked in to see Vallen entertaining Oka with his story of falling from a house in Noukou to be left dangling naked in the breeze.

  “How did you get down?” Oka asked, his voice full of boyish laughter.

  “Thankfully, only a shocked old man was awake to see my predicament. In the dark of night under trees, he probably thought I was a blondie with my light-colored hair so he very kindly unknotted the end of the rope holding me to the balcony of the house and I fell the last few feet to the ground,” Vallen explained.

  “This must be a favorite memory of yours to share something so embarrassing,” she purred, admiring her lover in his new outfit. He was wearing all black again, though this time the shirt was an undergarment for a leather vest cinched tightly to the contours of his chest and shoulders. His pants were also of leather, tight across his hips and down his thighs, but they flared out from the knee down. They were not traditional in style, and she found herself breathless with appreciation.

  Oka was also wearing a new set of clothes, obviously those meant for a nobleman’s child. His much more traditional outfit was medium green and the fabric was ten times as nice as anything she and their mother had ever bought for him. It also boasted embroidery along the hem of his shirt in the shape of small saplings, which grew up to his shoulders and held small gold buds of the first leaves of spring.

  “Good morning, sister!” Oka said happily as he turned to look at her. She had taken time to comb some sense into her hair with her fingers but was certain that her hair still looked bedraggled. Vallen turned to look at her as well and by the spread of warmth low in her belly, she knew that those delicious-looking leather pants were getting tighter.

  It seemed as if they had just finished eating, but a couple of eggs, a few pieces of sliced meat and some more slices of apple were waiting for her under a glass lid on a plate that looked expensive enough to buy a city.

  The only place she had seen glass was in the windows of the leader’s home, thought to be the most extravagant house in the village, but after seeing at least two glass mirrors in Vallen’s grand estate and a simple dish cover made of glass, she realized that the leader’s home was not extravagant at all.

  “How do you feel?” Vallen asked, standing up, the medicine bag in his hand as he walked towards her. “I checked on you a few times, but you never seemed to be in any pain.”

  “Well, my shoulder does feel overly warm and a bit stiff, but I don’t feel dizzy or feverish. Must be the warmth of healing, or at least I hope it is. I would prefer to change my bandage before I eat,” she informed him, reaching up to touch her shoulder and finding minimal pain from the pressure. It was like touching a bruise several days old.

  “Let us change your bandage in the bedroom then,” Vallen announced, taking the elbow of her good arm to lead her back to the inner hallway.

  “Um, I was just on my way to answer nature’s call first,” she said softly with a small, shy smile, using his words from yesterday.

  “I’ll wait for you in the bedroom then,” he answered, gesturing down the leftward hallway before turning in that direction. She nodded, turning right, and took a second to peek in her brother’s room. She clucked her tongue to see that he hadn’t yet made his bed.

  The water closet was very clean, a much more civilized solution than simply using leaves and a private spot in the woods, and after completing her business, she eagerly pulled the handle, fascinated when the system of pipes somehow flushed away everything. She wondered if this was magic too.

  When she exited, she saw that Oka was gone from the sitting room, probably off to explore the woods more. She felt a strange need to walk to the outer porch and call his name to tell him not to wander too far, but she resisted the urge, knowing that they were relatively safe within the estate’s reinforced walls.

  Coming upon her bedroom again, she looked in to see Vallen sitting on the edge of the bed with his bare feet on the steps, a bandage draped over his thigh and a nearly completed mesh of medicines in the mortar he held in his hands. He looked up from grinding the leaves with the pestle, a smile on his face.

  “Were you as amazed at the ‘handle’ as Oka was? He couldn’t stop talking about it when we first started breakfast,” he softly chuckled. She smiled at him.

  “You look rather…pleasant today,” she complimented, walking toward him and gingerly sitting next to him.

  “I thought you might like the outfit,” he murmured with a lopsided smile, setting the mortar on the step beneath their feet. He leaned over and swept his arms around her a bit too sexually to make the process impersonal. His fingers swept up her thighs from her knees, curving around her hips slowly before moving behind. His hands began to deftly loosen her belt, and she felt her heartbeat pick up.

  “Now, now…don’t get so worked up,” he said with a small shudder in his voice. “I can’t control myself very well if you get aroused too.”

  “I can’t help myself,” she whispered, feeling her sex swell a bit as the shoulders of her dress slipped down her arms, revealing the bandage wrapped tightly around her shoulder. She kept enough fabric over her breasts to keep them hidden from the sudden hunger in her lover’s eyes, but it seemed to inflame his lusts even further that she hid herself. She watched the front of his leather pants and saw a bulge begin to form.

  “I don’t want to rip open your wound again,” he sighed, adjusting his position. He found the loose end of yesterday’s bandage and quickly unwound it, though the last layer was peeled slowly from her bare shoulder. She looked down at her wound as soon as it was revealed and felt a great wash of relief spread over her.

  It looked to be healing remarkably well.

  “Your shoulder feels very warm, right?” he asked, dipping a small bit of cloth into a basin of water.

  “Yes, why?” she asked, enjoying the cool touch of his hands on her shoulder.

  “I believe your magic is actually helping you. It was common in the days of the dark court when black-haired nobles and their house soldiers battled the minions of the Dark One. Even those with hideous wounds could make a full recovery after only a couple of weeks of rest. Those with more minor wounds, like yours, could heal after three days,” he explained as he cleaned off dried bits of salve.

  “Really?” she asked with a bit of shock. “I’ll be well in only two more days?”

  “It’s my guess,” he nodded.

  “So my magic is healing me?”

  “It’s speeding up the healing process, which is why your shoulder feels so warm. Your body’s natural processes are working overtime to heal you, but don’t worry. Your body can handle it. The warmth and a bit of stiffness is the only side effect,” he said.

  She nodded, watching as he spread a new layer of salve over the wound. The stitched flesh looked red and raw, but it had already fused together again. The Soothing Rosemary mashed into the salve began to work almost immediately and the mild throbs of pain quickly died away. Vallen finished by wrapping the new strip of bandage around her shoulder, tucking in the loose end and helping her put her dress back to rights.

  “And now I have something very important to tell you that cannot wait,” Vallen said, his voice very serious.

  “What is it?” she asked, her eyes wide.

  “I went to your village last night, and quite a number of things happened…had been happening,” he revealed, and she started in surprise to think that he went all the way back. She opened her mouth to ask, but he answered her question without even hearing it. “When we came here, it took us half a day, but my horse had been moving at a trot nearly the entire time. Running, it only takes a couple of hours.

  “Anyway, the village was holding a town meeting when I arrived, even though it was past sunset, and I watched from the trees. The leader, whose name I forget—”

  “Kimen,
” she supplied. He nodded.

  “Right. Kimen told quite a few lies and very few truths, but I could tell the lies from the truths thanks to you and so I can tell you with a fair amount of certainty that Majo has left the village, taking most of her belongings.”

  She almost audibly gulped, a feeling of dread dropping to the pit of her stomach.

  “She had screamed at everyone when she left, saying she hoped that the demons killed them all, and said that she was going to find you and kill you,” he said softly, his voice tinged with protectiveness.

  “She was at the meeting?” she asked.

  “No, she left at midday, but the leader recounted the events to those who hadn’t seen it, though I’m sure those who hadn’t seen it had heard it from their gossiping neighbors.” She listened carefully, nodding.

  “It was also said that Akiji went with her,” he then revealed, and she felt her heart start to beat double-time.

  “May the Divine One be merciful,” she whispered. “Akiji is a bully, but he’s not evil. He doesn’t know into whose company he was entering.”

  “I imagine he knows now,” he said cryptically.

  “What else did you learn?” she asked, leaning forward.

  “Well, it was when they were about to decide what new actions to take that everything broke out into chaos,” he muttered. She covered her mouth with both hands. “An entire battalion of demons swarmed upon the village, and though I killed a few, there were simply too many, and I could do nothing but save a few villagers, telling them to run to your medicine field to hide. That place has the correct prayers on its barrier charms to keep out all types of demons,” he explained.

  Tears began to fall from her eyes, and he couldn’t help but put his arms around her, comforting her with soft kisses to the top of her head. She had composed herself again a few moments later and he continued his report.

  “As you said you suspected last night while we waited for Oka to fall asleep, the ones to sabotage the barrier charms were human-born demons, commissioned to help get the rest of the demons into protected areas. They were the ones I went after to kill, and though I didn’t know any of them, I wondered how they had been recruited to do such work. I tried to ask one, but he felt it a better idea to attack me and I killed him without getting any answers,” he said, his voice hard and a bit bitter.