Lore of Sanctum Omnibus

by Elaina J Davidson

“For fuck’s sake, Torrullin, no.” Elianas lowered his leg, swiping the questing hand away. Reaching for the axe, he turned. Dark eyes latched to silver. “It is subservient in him. There is no need for this.”

  Torrullin laid a hand over Elianas’ on the axe - an action so blatant in its erotic intent that the man drew an inadvertent breath - and stepped closer.

  “You want to believe it, Elianas, for it is easier, and I wanted to trust to it as well, but look at him, look carefully.”

  Elianas’ head swivelled with apparent unconcern to brush his gaze over the golden man and lifted to Rose casually, and swung back. “I see, yes.”

  Torrullin’s fingers slid onto the axe’s shaft and he hefted it. “Better go for a swim or something before I take this edge to his head rather than the wood,” he muttered.

  Elianas’ laughed under his breath, and ambled away in the direction Torrullin had emerged from.

  Torrullin noted Rose’s shoulders subside. Teroux was again staring at the fire. After a moment, he prodded at the embers. A flame shot out.

  Wood split and scattered.

  What to do now? How to delve into his grandson’s psyche for the truth?

  Torrullin lifted the axe again. It was time to confront Teroux, he understood. Did he wear a mask of his father Tannil’s making or was attraction simply stronger than memory loss?

  Wood split and scattered.

  ELIANAS DID NOT ENJOY being bait.

  Being prey to a spider in hiding was more uncomfortable, though, and thus he became the hunter. Elianas returned from an actual swim to wash sweat away and strode past Torrullin furiously chopping. Clearly the man attempted to still murderous intention in physical action. He grinned inwardly as he moved on. He knew how it was.

  He gripped a few logs from the stack and headed directly to the fire. Behind him, he heard the indrawn breath, and understood the fair man knew what he was about.

  Rose approached from the river hefting a pot filled with water.

  “Coffee, Elianas?’ she called out as he tossed the chunks of wood into the embers.

  “Yes,” he responded, kneeling beside the fire to blow on the embers, holding his long dark hair to one side to avoid the flames. He looked up suddenly … directly at Teroux.

  Tawny eyes were fixated on him. Icy shivers erupted on his naked torso. Something landed on his back and he nearly lost his skin. It slithered away as a shadow fell over him.

  Torrullin.

  His tunic.

  “Thank you,” he managed to say, snatched it up, stood and donned the article, all the while watching Teroux.

  The bloody Valla kid did not know how to hide it. Either he was playing a deliberate game of brinkmanship or his hidden self had stepped forth unaware it needed to mask these feelings.

  Rose was there. She set the pot nearby. “I will gather the essentials,” she said and moved off.

  Teroux did not even look at her.

  Torrullin sat beside Teroux, nudged him. “Do you like coffee?”

  Teroux blinked and turned to him as if emerging from a trance. “Excuse me? Coffee? Yes, I like coffee. Do you like coffee, Elianas?” His head swung back.

  Elianas felt as if an invisible web tightened around him. His eyes narrowed and he glanced over his shoulder to check on the location of his sword. Torrullin, he noted when he turned back, watched him rather than Teroux. Torrullin had his sword strapped in place.

  “I like coffee,” Elianas murmured.

  “We need more seating,” Torrullin said, rising. “Elianas, help me drag that trunk closer.” He pointed towards the river, and silver eyes bored into him.

  Nodding, he moved in that direction, Torrullin behind him.

  “What the fuck, Elianas? No bait, you say, and now you offer it up on a platter?” Torrullin muttered.

  “I refuse to stand in his shadows,” Elianas replied. “Torrullin, he dares to lay a hand on me in a manner I find offensive, and I am cutting that fucking hand off.”

  “I will probably get to it first, but more likely is his head,” Torrullin responded.

  At the fallen tree, Elianas stopped. Ignoring the eyes boring into his back from further up, he said, “This is your grandson. Do not be hasty. I hear you, but allow me to deal with him. I swear to you I will not kill him, but I intend to put him in his place. I promise I will not actually chop his hands off.”

  Bending to one end of the trunk, Torrullin murmured, “Fine, but you need to push him beyond every endurance.”

  “Why?” he hissed back as he gripped the opposite end.

  “Here we are out of time, and we might as well use it. Push him, so we can see what lies below.”

  “Thus you wish to expose his whole truth,” Elianas understood. Ice flowed into his marrow.

  Grunting, they lifted the weight together and shuffled up the beach.

  “I need you to create the opening,” Elianas murmured.

  “Hmm, and how do I do that?”

  He refused to stand in the shadows. “Play with me,’ he said, sending the fair man a look.

  Torrullin stumbled and nearly dropped his end. “Really?” he said.

  Laughing under his breath, Elianas said, “Go full out.”

  Torrullin did drop the trunk then, fortunately in the right place. He groaned and only Elianas knew why that was.

  He dropped his end and sat opposite Teroux.

  Rose now perched beside her husband, busy with the water. She looked up. “It will not be long. I could sorely use a cup as well.”

  Elianas smiled at her. It caused Teroux some confusion. The Valla now did not know what to think.

  “Teroux, are you all right?” Rose demanded, wearing a frown.

  He glanced at her. “Of course.” His gaze returned to Elianas.

  Torrullin was behind Elianas and had lifted his hair. Fingers combed through the dark length. “It is knotted after your swim,” he murmured.

  Rose’s gaze moved to him, one eyebrow shooting up.

  “Such glorious hair.” Fingers combed and smoothed.

  Elianas skin rippled in response. Gods, it would be hard to think straight with the fair man doing his best to create sexual tension.

  Steam escaped the pot and Rose leaned in to lift the lid. Over her bent form, Elianas felt Teroux’s hungry gaze. Tawny eyes raked him. Torrullin clearly saw it, for Torrullin braced legs, pulled his head back to rest against his abdomen and proceeded to massage his shoulders.

  “You are tense,” he said, fingers digging in.

  It felt wonderful. Not only his magical touch, but also the hard muscles pressing into him. Those fingers slipped under his tunic at his neck and laid hold of skin. Elianas inhaled.

  Even Rose understood the meaning of that. She straightened. “Enough, you two. We are in enough of a bind here without the two of you pawing each other and creating unnecessary tension.”

  Teroux’s head swung her way. “What do you mean?”

  She tutted under her breath and said, “Always trying to arouse each other, they are, and it causes others to feel uncomfortable.”

  “Arouse?” Teroux whispered.

  Elianas felt almost sorry for him.

  Torrullin hunkered behind him to slip questing hands onto his thighs.

  His instant reaction to the hot fingers spreading heat into his blood had Teroux looking at him anew, eyes hooded. Teroux abruptly crossed his legs and there was only one blatant reason he would do so.

  Rose shook her head and chose to pour the hot water into waiting mugs.

  The coffee aroma intensified his growing need, and Elianas shifted on the log. He gripped those hands and lifted them to his abdomen, likewise to Teroux crossing his legs. He leaned back, knowing the fair man behind him would take his weight.

  Torrullin’s inhalation nearly had him swinging around to devour the man, consequences be damned. Teroux, however, despite arousal, exercised self-control. He made no further move, other than to watch. Either he remained confused by sudden and conflic
ting emotions or he sought to keep a mask in place.

  It was time to damn the consequences.

  Elianas rose, stepped over the trunk, and reached down to drag Torrullin up. Shoving fingers into the man’s hair, he stepped in. Torrullin’s gaze silvered and he gripped his butt to yank him in …

  “You fuckers!” Teroux screeched. He shot to his feet, scattering grit and ash into Rose’s coffee.

  She shouted and stood, pulling at the livid man’s arm.

  Standing there gesticulating wildly, a huge bulge evident in his breeches, Teroux screamed, “You continue to insult! How fucking dare you! Take your hands off my grandfather, you fuck!”

  Rose, mouth agape, stared at her husband.

  Elianas turned, cocking his head. “There you are, Teroux Valla.”

  He swung back to Torrullin, who pulled him in to kiss him as if they were entirely alone. For a few moments it was exactly like that, just the two of them, hands, mouths and need completely enmeshed, and then Teroux barrelled into them, sending them stumbling apart.

  “I hate you!” Teroux shouted.

  Elianas straightened. After sending Torrullin a look of regret, he strode up to the younger man and gripped his balls and penis. “You do not hate me, Teroux. Feel this? You fucking want me.” He squeezed once and released.

  Torrullin moved up to stand shoulder to shoulder at his side. Never had he known Torrullin to be this silent.

  “Teroux?” Rose whispered.

  The younger man fell to his knees, clutching at grit with clawed fingers, head lowered.

  “Tell the rest of it,” Torrullin said.

  Teroux lifted a ravaged face. “You played me again? There is nothing between you?”

  Elianas inhaled, but before he could respond Torrullin said, “Look at me, goddamn it. Does it appear as if I am removed from this?”

  Teroux’s gaze lowered to his crotch.

  “Yes, there. If we were alone now, clothes would be hitting this beach until only skin is under my hands. Elianas’ skin, Teroux. It is the greatest aphrodisiac there is.”

  Elianas slowly lowered to the ground, hunkered there. His heart thundered and he fought for equilibrium.

  “Teroux?” Rose said again.

  He moved his head her way. “Forgive me.”

  “Did you … are you …?” She shook uncontrollably. “Have you been lying to me? You did not forget who you were?”

  “I forgot for two days and then my father came to see me.” He swung from her to Torrullin. “How can you do this?”

  “’This’?” Torrullin repeated.

  “Him!”

  Elianas looked up as one arm flailed in his direction.

  “I do him with the most supreme pleasure there is.” Torrullin’s tone had now lowered and in it was seething anger and frustration. He would seek to lash out soon.

  Elianas rose. Time to head that off. “Enough. Teroux, your anger is for yourself.”

  Teroux squeezed his eyes shut before staring at him directly. “Indeed it is. I am very aware, thank you. I am also, however, beyond furious that my illustrious and touted grandfather, the mighty Elixir, sleeps with a man.”

  Elianas approached cautiously to hunker before the kneeling man. “Tell the truth.”

  Teroux blinked rapidly. “I am furious that he sleeps with you.”

  “Why?”

  Teroux shrugged. All fight left him. “Because I want to.”

  “Say it, Teroux. Because you want to … what?”

  Teroux inhaled and then slowly let it out. “I want to sleep with you. I am attracted to men more than women, but since I met you, it is only you.”

  Rose stumbled to a log and sat untidily. After staring at her husband for a moment, she switched her gaze to the ground, and did not move.

  Torrullin went past to likewise sit on the trunk they dragged closer earlier. He did not move either, or speak.

  Elianas studied the younger man. “It will never happen, this act you wish for. I am attracted to women, Teroux. The only exception is Torrullin.”

  Teroux sneered. “So if Lowen were to wander in now, you would want to sleep with her?”

  “In a heartbeat, yes.”

  “I do not understand.”

  “You do not need to. These are my complications. You need to understand yourself, and you have to realise where the limits are.”

  “The Valleur will …”

  “They will not,” Torrullin murmured from his lowered position. “You have judged yourself. Move on. Either make a life with Rose - if she will still have you - or seek a new path.”

  “His path may be entrenched,” Elianas said. “The man he believes is his father will not release him.”

  Teroux closed his eyes. “I swear to vanish into obscurity somewhere, ignoring the demands my father makes, if …” His eyes snapped open, but he said no more.

  “If?” Torrullin growled.

  Rose lifted her head.

  “One kiss, Elianas. It is all I ask,” Teroux whispered.

  Torrullin’s attention shifted to Elianas, awaiting his reaction.

  Teroux reached out, clutched Elianas’ hand. His thumb smoothed the flesh there. “Please. I will disappear, you have my word.”

  Shuddering inside, Elianas removed his hand gently from the desperate clasp. Torrullin gaze had fixated on him, he felt it. Elianas stood and then stared down at Teroux. “You have not understood. I cannot kiss you, despite your promise. As much as it would ease the situation, it is not …”

  Teroux hurtled to his feet.

  Thank all gods Torrullin could move fast. The man stood between them in a heartbeat. “I suggest you stop now, Teroux. Elianas has the right to his choices and you are not among those.”

  “One kiss,” Teroux whispered.

  Both men stared at him nonplussed.

  Teroux snarled, waved a hand, and vanished.

  Rose whimpered.

  Torrullin turned and Elianas reached for him, to hold onto him as if he held onto sanity.

  Chapter 20

  Abandonment teaches hard lessons.

  ~ Book of Sages ~

  Nowhere

  DARK IRREGULAR BEAMS dissected by rough slats held the reeds in place overhead.

  Old frayed twine secured the bundles together. A dusty spider web empty of its builder swayed in one corner. There an insect crawled and here a moth flitted. Shadows moved in random patterns as the light changed. A lattice of twigs covered the small window.

  On a narrow bed a man lay breathing the rhythms of deep sleep.

  Appearing in the ancient and obviously abandoned space, Teroux gazed around him in astonishment. Where was this? He noticed then the sleeping man. Not entirely abandoned, he mused, wondering who would live in such desolation.

  … his father?

  Teroux froze. What was his father doing in this place?

  He forced himself to move and headed cautiously to the doorway, which was no more than rough branches forming the lintel and jambs, a tattered hide shading the sun away.

  The sight of hide caused his thoughts to hurtle to the tents beside the river.

  To Elianas.

  To Rose.

  He stumbled out into bright sunshine, groaning, a sound of deep-seated suffering. Outside he faltered to a halt. There was nothing to be seen but a circle of dust in which the lonely hut behind him perched as if on sufferance.

  Nothing.

  Blue sky above, the whitest sun ever, and a circle of dust. There was no more. Teroux frowned. It reminded him of the circles of confrontation employed at the nowhere place, but here there were no paths, trees or leaden sky. Here was nothing.

  He squinted, wondering if his haste in leaving the river camp and its issues had been an enormous mistake. Feeling how his gut churned, he realised, mistake or not, he could not have stayed.

  Pressing a hand to his stomach, he swung to the hut and caught a peripheral view of a figure approaching from his left. It shimmered as it moved. Was it real? It had
every appearance of a mirage.

  The form solidified.

  A man.

  Real.

  Teroux waited unmoving. He discovered he would rather have words with the approaching stranger than the man asleep inside. Was he afraid of his father? Yes. The man who stepped from that crucible was not the father he remembered as a child. This ‘father’ was unkind.

  Soon enough a man with a forgettable face covered in dust from his lengthy amble stood at rest before him. “Welcome, Teroux.”

  His heart plummeted into his stomach for an instant. “Who are you?”

  The generic man squinted in the brightness. “You have not listened too well to what happens around you, have you? I am Tarlinn.”

  Teroux stared at him. All gods. Tarlinn.

  “This,” and Tarlinn swept a hand through the air, “is my holding cell. I created it to hold your father. You are the dutiful son indeed to pay him a visit.”

  Teroux did not know what to say. What could he say, when he had no clue how he landed up in this nothingness.

  A snort behind him caused him to glance over his shoulder. His father had awakened. The man stumbled blearily into the brightness.

  “You done with this nonsense yet?” he snarled at Tarlinn.

  Tarlinn simply shrugged.

  “Teroux? Did he capture you too?’ Tannil demanded.

  Teroux chose to simply shrug also.

  Tarlinn studied him for a moment, a glimmer of a smile appearing. “Teroux is visiting,” he clarified.

  “Why?”

  Clearly it did not occur to his father it could be out of duty or love. Teroux shuddered, but dared not say a word.

  “Teroux required escape from an intense situation,” Tarlinn murmured.

  His gaze snapped to the man to meet a bland expression.

  His father gripped his shoulder, yanking him around to face him. “Have you given the game away already?”

  Teroux could only nod, for that was the truth of it. In that moment he understood Torrullin had been deliberate in his actions - he had been drawn out to reveal himself. Elianas had been part of the ruse. Their reactions to each other, however, had been no subterfuge, and he grit his teeth and forced his thoughts away.

  Tannil abruptly chortled. “You allowed your dick to rule you, my son!”