Dust of Dreams: Guardians of Light, Book 4

by Renee Wildes

  Vali and the council came up to them. “That was as fine a spinning as I’ve ever seen,” the old wish faerie pronounced. “The others are in agreement. Pryseis, we hereby elect you council Prime. Do you accept?”

  Her? Prime? Maeve just might die of apoplexy. Pryseis was just grateful to be back on the council, to have people look her in the eye and call her by name. No matter Anika’s earlier prediction, she truly hadn’t thought to be elevated from corpse to Prime in the span of a few hours. But it felt like the Mother had a Hand in her fate; it felt right. Still, her smile trembled a bit. “Are you sure?”

  “You’ve shown us a clear path,” Vali said. “We’re certain, aye.”

  “Then I’d be happy to lead tomorrow night until you say otherwise.” Pryseis raised a hand. “On the conditions that I get my same chamber and my chair’s no bigger than anyone else’s.”

  Hallar grinned. “Aye, Prime. It shall be so.”

  “Goddess, it’ll take three of us to remove that monstrosity Maeve used.” Myri groaned.

  “Come on, let me show you around.” Pryseis took Benilo’s hand and led the way into the palace, through the hall to the council chambers. Sure enough, though the table was round, Maeve had distanced herself from the others in the biggest, most ornate chair she could find. Myri, Keyla and Deinara wrestled it back into obscurity while Vali and Hallar brought in two chairs that matched those already set in place. Pryseis in turn placed them equal distances apart until all nine surrounded the table—as equals. “Dream, hope, wish, dream, hope, wish,” she ordered. “There are no divisions. We are one.”

  “Aye, Prime.” They nodded. Pryseis stared at their earnest, beloved faces. Surely this was a turning point in their history.

  Stars, she was tired. “I’m going to bed,” she announced over a jaw-cracking yawn. The thought of a hot bath and sleeping in a feather bed again…

  “Want me to wash your back?” Benilo whispered.

  Vali smirked as Pryseis’ cheeks flamed. “Go on, children.” She shooed them out of the room.

  “Children?” Benilo mock-frowned. “I am—”

  “Half her age,” Pryseis stated.

  “Ah.” Benilo kept his hand on her back as Pryseis led the way to her suite.

  Cilla curtsied as she opened the door. “They told me you’d returned. Welcome back my lady. I’m glad they let me serve you again.” She wrinkled her nose at Pryseis’ appearance. “Would you care for a bath, lady?”

  “That bad, hmm?” Pryseis laughed. “I would love a lavender bath! And some herbed wine. Is there any of the anise/valerian blend left?”

  “I think so, lady. Let me start the bath and then I’ll go see.” She disappeared into the bathing chamber.

  A knock sounded at the door. Benilo opened it to admit Anika and Pahn. “Mog and Tik are staying with Kreq’s kin,” Pahn said. “We’ve come to discuss the lad.”

  “What’s he done?” Pryseis asked. Her heart fluttered a bit. They looked so serious.

  “He be a very special child,” Anika began. “He wast apprenticed to their sorry excuse of a sorcerer. The dreams manifested wert created by Mog. He created the monsters. He saw thy net. He intervened when Brannan and Dax wert at odds. He intervened when we faced off against the council. He bonded immediately with the troll younglings—the trolls adore him already.”

  “He’s a shaman,” Pahn said. “He could be a great leader of his people one day. But the goblins have no shamans, and he’s completely untrained. As such, he’s highly vulnerable to influence and attack.”

  A shaman. So that was why she was able to feel so much more from him than the other neither-goblins, sense things normally only other goblins could detect. It all made sense now.

  “I was planning on teaching him to shield…” Pryseis started.

  Anika shook her head. “We be air. He be earth and metal. We hath no common grounding. Thou wouldst fail. He needs training by earth and metal shamans.”

  “He needs to come with us,” Pahn said. “The dwarves. We can give him the training, guidance and protection he needs.”

  “He has real magic? You’re sure?” Pryseis gasped as they both nodded.

  “We’ve already spoken to Tik,” Pahn said. “I leave in the morning, and she’s agreed they’ll come with me. I hope you’ll be able to reassure him in the morning that this is a good thing.”

  “He’ll be scared to death!” Pryseis protested.

  “He likes me, and I’ll be with him until I can get him to my clan’s shaman,” Pahn assured her. “Trussold’s so old and kind he wouldn’t scare anyone, and Tik stays with her son.”

  Mayhaps Tik could have her own adventure and find a peace in a new beginning.

  “I thought so,” Benilo admitted. “The darkness was so real—well beyond nightmare. This is the best thing for him.”

  Pryseis sank into the nearest chair. Things were happening so fast.

  “We’d appreciate your support,” Pahn stated.

  Cilla appeared. “The bath’s ready, lady. I’ll go get that wine, now.”

  “We shall see thee in the morning,” Anika said. “Get some sleep.” She and Pahn followed Cilla from the room.

  “Come on.” Benilo hauled her to her feet. “Bath, then bed, remember?” He pulled her into the bathing room and viewed the huge tub of steaming lavender-scented water. “It is big enough for two, unless you would rather no—”

  Pryseis yanked him close for a desperate kiss, cutting off his words. She wrapped her arms around his neck, nipping at his lower lip until he growled and his tongue surged to duel with hers. She tugged his tunic up until she could slide her hands over the rippled muscles of his stomach, higher to tease his nipples. He stumbled backward, lost his balance and they both landed in the water with a hot, steamy splash. She broke off the kiss and yelped at the heat, only to stare as he yanked off his tunic and threw it in a sopping heap in the corner of the room.

  “What are you doing?” she bleated.

  “Taking a bath.” He grinned. “It is easier to wash the clothing once it is actually off the body, and easier to wash the body too.” He reached out to tug her boots off. “Those shall take a while to dry.”

  Pryseis quickly got into the spirit of things, giggling as she helped Benilo remove her probably ruined clothes, and his also. “Whatever shall Cilla think?” she asked.

  “She seems like a smart lass.” He palmed her breast, teasing the nipple to a tingling point of need. “I would wager she leaves the wine out there on the table and retires for the night.” He leaned forward to grab the fragrant bar of soap, lathering his hands. “Now, where would you like me to start? Here?” He smoothed his hands over her shoulders and down her spine.

  She shivered, arching into him.

  “Or here?” Benilo trailed his fingers betwixt her breasts, gently cupping them in his palms, kneading their firm weight until Pryseis whimpered and scooched closer. His hands slid lower to span her waist under the water, teased betwixt her legs with the bar of soap. “Or here?”

  Sweet Mother, he made her melt. She stood shaking as he soaped every inch of her skin to quivering awareness, eased back down into the water to rinse. It felt so good to be clean, to smell like lavender instead of mud. It felt strangely intimate, him washing her hair. “My turn,” she said, stealing the soap from him. Slowly she lathered her hands.

  He almost pulsed with anticipation. “Am I in any danger?”

  “Oh, definitely.” She tilted her head, considering. “You should have run when you had the chance.”

  Heat flared in those fathomless, starlit eyes. “I was lost from the first moment I dreamt you up.”

  “I, as well.” Pryseis confessed. “Whenever the darkness threatened to overwhelm, I called on you and the fear receded. We hadn’t even met yet.”

  “Oh, but we did, thanks be to the Lady or the Mother.” He shuddered as her hands slid down his chest.

  She kneaded the muscles of his neck and back and arms. Such strong arms, broad s
houlders. She washed his hair, loving the sole softness on his hard, muscled body. He flinched as her soapy caresses hit a ticklish spot under his arm. “Stand up,” she whispered, lathering her hands again. He obeyed, and she ran her hands up his legs, over his backside. His body was hard and straining when she finally curled her fingers around his erect shaft. “Well, well, what have we here?” she murmured.

  Benilo gasped, his fingers knotting in her hair as she fondled his heavy sac. “Mercy, my love.”

  Her fingers tightened around him. His pleasure as she stroked him fueled her own need. She was his love as he was hers. He was all hers. She yelped as he plunged down into the tub and back up again. Water sluiced off his hard frame as he swept her up into his arms, capturing her protest with his mouth. He tasted of starlight and deep night. Every velvet stroke of his tongue made her squirm with anticipation and thwarted need.

  “I ken what you need,” he purred in her mind.

  “You, in me.” Already she creamed, pulsing empty and hungry.

  “Mayhaps.” His eyes glinted wickedly. “But not yet.” He laid her on her bed and followed her down onto the turned-down covers, soaking the mattress and pillows. “I smell like a flower garden.”

  Pryseis giggled. “Aye, you do at that.”

  “And you, my love, smell like delicious, delectable woman.” He nuzzled betwixt her thighs, teasing her folds with the tip of his tongue. “So hot, so sweet…” He lapped at the sensitive pearl until she squirmed helplessly into his mouth. She tried to pull away from the precipice, but he didn’t allow her a moment’s reprieve. She felt a burst of satisfaction from him as she shattered into bits of splendor.

  He kissed his way up her torso, leisurely swirling his tongue over every inch of lavender-scented skin. Her breasts tightened in anticipation as his mouth approached. She caressed his arms and shoulders as he slid within reach, anchoring her fingers in his hair and pulling him to her. As his mouth closed over a breast to suckle hard, tonguing the tip of her nipple until she thought she’d scream, he dipped his fingers betwixt her legs, teasing through her cream, inserting a finger into her hungry channel.

  “Benilo!” Pryseis arched off the bed. “Please.”

  His shudder rippled through her own soul in reaction to her breathless cry. “Such sweet softness, like silk.” He switched to her other breast, drawing hard. The world shrank down to pure sensation, a haze of pleasure, of hunger and need. Pryseis fought to touch him, but he remained torturously out of reach, using mouth and fingers, lips and tongue and even his hair to drive her quietly—and then not so quietly—out of her mind. Need, hot ravenous liquid need, spiraled through her. Through him. Pulsing hot and heavy, sizzling through blood vessels and nerve endings until every touch, every breath, was exquisite agony.

  He inserted a second finger. It wasn’t enough. She wanted, needed more. All he had to give. “Benilo, please.” Begging, writhing, pleading, on fire. She tightened until she thought she’d scream, and he only drove her higher. He drew her legs up over his shoulders, grasped her wrists to hold her hands over her head. Only then did he ease into her, in tiny little thrusts that did naught to soothe the desperation. She tried to rock up into him, but he held back.

  His own need burned as brightly as hers. Where he found the control, she’d no idea. All sensation centered on him, slowly tormenting them both as he…almost…in…out…deeper. Barely…and again. She pulsed around him, tried to pull him deeper, and he pulled away. Almost out…and in. He was killing her, inch by inch. She’d never survive. “Benilo, please. I need you. Now—”

  He surged into her, buried himself to her womb, in a breathtaking thrust. Pryseis screamed and promptly shattered, spinning away into a maelstrom of sensation. Her body clenched around him, tightening on his engorged shaft like a fist. He roared in her mind, a stunning hunger, and thrust into her again. And again. Hard. Hungry. Over and over he slid deep, rubbing that sweet spot until she broke around him yet again. And then time stopped, for a moment, as his body stiffened for a heartbeat and then burst in a rush of fulfillment. The lights dimmed as she spun away.

  They collapsed together into the mattress, panting, boneless. Replete. She might never move again.

  He hauled her into his arms. His heartbeat pounded under her ear. She gasped for air, only to have him capture her mouth in a kiss of infinite tenderness as his hands set about soothing what he’d just aroused. She shook in his arms, completely undone. “I love you,” he whispered, nibbling on her ear. “Marry me.”

  Pryseis bawled like a baby.

  “It is a good thing I already ken what you are thinking and feeling, or a man might be worried,” he murmured. “Cerilyrian avariel, elingrena. You complete me, My Heart.”

  She bawled louder.

  “Was there a ‘yes’ in there somewhere?” he teased.

  She could only nod—and sniffle. What a romantic sight she must appear.

  “You are beautiful to me,” he assured her.

  Lovely—she must really look awful. Pryseis sat up and wiped her eyes, flinching at the flash of tenderness.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Other than nearly dying of frustration?” She shot him a glance that narrowed in speculation. “Just remember something.”

  “What?”

  “Someday I intend to return the favor.”

  Three dawns later, Pryseis shivered in the wind as she stood naked at the edge of the pool. Benilo stood, equally unclad, afore all the trolls and faeries save one—Maeve. Hallar and Dax and Brannan as part of the wedding unit had likewise shed their clothing. Vali presided as the first pink hints of dawn tinted the skyline.

  “Pryseis and Benilo have come to join together afore the Mother and this assembly,” Vali pronounced, “to seal their vows of union in a public ceremony. They stand together free of all earthly trappings, as the Mother created them, as a symbol that they honor the Mother afore all else. That they come together with naught hidden, as a symbol of their stand for truth and honesty in all things. Pryseis is one of our own, our best and brightest. Benilo is a guest here, but we have come to ken him and his ways, and he, ours. Who stands with Pryseis as kin?”

  “I do.” Dax’s voice rang out strong and sure. He glanced at Pryseis out the corner of his eye and gave her a reassuring wink.

  “And do you hereby endorse hers as a worthy choice?” Vali asked the traditional question.

  “I do, without reservation.”

  Vali smiled and nodded regally. “Who stands witness to her heart?”

  “I do,” Hallar stated. “Her heart belongs solely to him.”

  “Benilo ta Myran, who stands with you on this day?”

  “I do.” Brannan stood tall.

  “And do you hereby endorse his as a worthy choice, prince of the elves?”

  “I do, without reservation.”

  “Then let these two souls, bound as one, come together afore the Mother as they entered this world, hiding naught from each other.” Vali placed the crystal necklace around Pryseis’ and Benilo’s necks, binding them together. “They petition their Mother’s blessing on this union.”

  The pink sky brightened. Softly the crystals began to glow. As the sun broke the horizon and pierced the dawn, Pryseis’ wings began to tingle as they shimmered in the light. The necklace blazed to life. It shone clear and true, wrapping Pryseis and Benilo in a blanket of shimmering warmth. Benilo’s eyes flared with reflected starlight and love.

  “You clove the darkness and returned me to the Light,” Pryseis whispered. “Without you I am incomplete. Only together are we whole.”

  “You are the one I have searched my whole life for. I give up my old life for you, to take up a new life with you.” Benilo reached down for a cupped handful of elixir, which she drank from his hand. Then she scooped it up for him to drink.

  The giddy euphoria swept them away, to the stars, to their Mother. “My blessings on thee both.” She smiled and disappeared.

  “Forever yours,�
� Benilo murmured.

  “Yours forever,” Pryseis agreed, pulling his face down for a kiss of lingering sweetness.

  “Afore the witnesses present, I now declare them forever sealed by the Mother,” Vali pronounced. “I was going to tell you to kiss your bride, but—”

  Benilo took complete control of the kiss, with a lusty expertise that left Pryseis breathless and clinging to him for dear life.

  “I don’t think they need any encouragement.” Hallar laughed.

  Benilo and Pryseis broke apart, and Vali reclaimed the necklace. “I rejoice in this day.”

  Anika came over, beaming. “I wish thee all the happiness in the world,” she added.

  “I am glad Loren let me stay, but it is past time for me to go home.” Brannan clasped Benilo’s arm, and leaned in to kiss Pryseis’ cheek. “First I should probably get dressed.”

  “Oh, do you have to?” Hallar teased.

  Brannan’s ears turned pink, and he hurried back into his clothing. “You ready, troll?”

  “Almost.” Dax turned to Pryseis. “I have to go. I have to find my own way.”

  He shimmered in her tears. She laid a hand against his cheek. “I ken that. I hope you find what you’re looking for, lad.”

  “Be happy, Aunt Pryseis.” Dax tugged on breeches and boots, then threw his pack over his shoulder. “I’ll send word.”

  “You’d better.” Pryseis smiled through her tears. “I love you.”

  He pulled her in for a quick hug, then turned away. “You coming, elf?” He and Brannan disappeared down the mountain.

  Anika was the only member of the company left, staying on to teach Benilo the ways of the air mage. Already those pesky sylphs were drawn to him. Anika laughed and said, since female air mages outnumbered males by around twenty to one, Benilo was bound to draw attention from the elementals. Pryseis kenned that, but she still wished their sinuous flirtatious selves elsewhere.