Hers To Choose (Verdantia Book 2)

by Patricia A. Knight

  The eerie green eyes glowing from the interior of her dark hood would have shaken a lesser man but he had seen many ugly things in service to House Contradina. The transformation of his beautiful mistress into a hideous monster was only one of them. Had he been a philosophical man, he would suggest her present appearance more accurately portrayed her true nature. He waited patiently for her instructions.

  “Sso close. Only half a day’ss ride from thiss camp.” Her skeletal fingers drummed on the arm of her chair. “Bring her to me.”

  “What about Commander DeStroia? He would be a valuable hostage.”

  “Kill him. Kill all but the woman. Sshe iss the only one we need.”

  The captain bowed low and left the elaborate tent that Lady Contradina insisted be set up every night. He and his band of war criminals had escorted Lady Allegra Contradina from Sylvan Mintoth toward Silver Grove Gate for the last few days. Her words confirmed his suspicions. Allegra Contradina moved to intercept Lady Sophillia DeLorion, the act a betrayal of Verdantia to the Haarb.

  Life had made him a cruel, hard man. He would describe himself as a man of brutal practicality but never a traitor to his planet – despite fate’s ill-treatment of him. His cold eyes grew colder.

  Chapter Ten

  Eric used one of the charged diaman crystals to heat the water filling the huge tub. He crossed to his lovely companion and sat on the bed beside her. “Sophi, I know the cinnagin still rides you. I have been told a hot soak mitigates many of the more intense sensations. I have added some special salts to the bath. I particularly like the smell.” He shrugged with a disarming smile.

  Her lovely aqua eyes flashed up at him. “Sounds reasonable, thank you. I’ll tell you if it works.” She rose and walked into the bathroom.

  His eyes followed the sinuous sway of her hips, the soft motion of her full breasts, the glimpse of swollen, rose-colored flesh between her legs as she stepped into the bath. Her potent allure stiffened his cock and he had to turn away or drag her to the bed again. Collecting the clothing he had strewn all over the floor, he dressed and then gathered the diaman crystals, amassing most of them in a sheet from the bed.

  “Sophi, I’m taking these ‘rocks’ downstairs and returning them to their owners.”

  A feminine murmur and a splash from the bathroom made him smile. Every woman was different but in some things they were all the same.

  As Eric descended the stairs, the scene in the gathering room duplicated what he had found earlier that morning. Headman Stumpf, surrounded by several tradesmen, identifiable by their dress, waited at the base of the stairs. Villagers crowded into the remainder of the space.

  “Magister DeStroia! By the Goddess, Sir! Here, Sir, we have cleared a table. Over here.” Headman Stumpf preceded him, opening a path through the people.

  As they saw what Eric held in his arms, their faces glowed as brightly as the crystals and they parted, allowing him a path to a large trestle table. Joyous murmurs of delight accompanied their low bows and respectful, ‘Magister’s’.

  Eric couldn’t help but smile as the square, portly headman clapped his hands together in childlike delight, practically dancing in place. “By Her light, how wondrous. Oh, thank you, Sir, thank you. And Magistra DeLorion?” An anxious note entered the headman’s voice. “She fares well, Sir?”

  “Well enough, Mr. Stumpf. She enjoys a bath at the moment. We probably won’t see her for an hour or so.”

  “Good, good,” the congenial man returned. “We was worried as she isn’t schooled, you see. Wouldn’t want no harm to come to the young lady.”

  “Don’t worry on that score. No harm will come to her if I’m alive to prevent it,” Eric vowed and gave the village headman a hearty slap on the back. Eric nodded toward the living rocks covering the table in a pulsating, golden glow. “I’ll leave you to sort those out.” Turning, he climbed back up the stairs to the chamber he had shared with Sophi.

  As he walked through the door, the humming and splashing coming from the bathroom indicated Sophi’s continued preoccupation with her bath. Goddess, I am tired. He eyed the large, rumpled bed. Just until Sophi’s out of her bath. Pulling off his boots and stripping out of his leathers, he luxuriated in the smooth coolness of the fine sheets and the soft welcome of the pillow beneath his head. With a quiet groan, he surrendered all thought of the extraordinary events of the day and slept.

  * * *

  The lightest of caresses slid up the inside of Eric’s parted thighs and lingered, tickling the space just below his balls, then withdrew. A single finger drew small circles on the tender creases where his legs met his groin briefly before vanishing, reappearing elsewhere. An electric frisson of sensation teased the very tip of his slowly hardening penis. He cracked an eyelid. Sophi swirled a lock of her hair around the head of his cock and intently watched the lengthening results of her play.

  “Ahem.” He looked down the length of his body at her lying between his splayed legs.

  “I’ve been caught.” Sophi bit her lip with an impish grin and he choked on his laughter. “Don’t move, Eric. Please? This is fascinating.” She looked at him and chuckled at his expression. “Really. I’ve never watched a man become erect. I mean, I’ve seen plenty of erections, just never watched it happen. It is, well, amazing.”

  “Just as long as ‘becoming erect’ doesn’t count as ‘moving’.” She blushed.

  What a charming innocent you are, Sophi. Who would have thought? “Have your way with me, vixen. I am powerless to stop you.” He grinned at the look of amused disbelief on her face.

  “Powerless? Never,” she shot back.

  With a chuckle, he lay back. “Do your worst.” He closed his eyes and concentrated on the sensations coming from his loins.

  Sophi abandoned any stealth and moved up between his legs. She pushed his right thigh out with her shoulder and rested her head in the crease of his groin. He could feel her warm breath at the base of his cock. For the next half hour, it was all he could do to lie there. He didn’t try to remain silent. His groans of pleasure and hissed oaths accompanied her teasing.

  Soft fingers rolled and delicate nails tickled his testicles and scrotum, shifting them from hanging relaxed to contracted tight against the base of his cock. Using her hair as the softest of brushes, she teased his penis from base to the broad flare of its head, flicking back and forth where he was most sensitive until his hips surged against her soft touches.

  “Damnation, Sophi.” he grunted. “Woman, you kill me with your gentle touch. Harder. Take me in your fist. Stroke hard.”

  She laughed softly. “No. Lie there and take it.”

  He propped up on his elbows and scowled at her. “I have been like a godsbedamned rock for the last twenty minutes. Your curiosity must be satisfied by now. If you mean to just torture me, Sophi, I would remind you of a slap you dealt me earlier for putting you in the same position.”

  With a look he had seen on the most skillful courtesans, she straddled his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, her face mere inches from his. Her soft lips teased the corners of his scowling mouth, nibbling. Her tongue tickled the crease of his lips, then her teeth caught his lower lip gently.

  “Take me, Eric,” she whispered against his lips. “Have sex with me.”

  “Sophi,” he groaned. “I can’t.”

  “Ummhmm, the effects of the cinnagin wore off some time ago.”

  Eric wrapped his arms around her and flipped her underneath him. “What?”

  Sophi’s startled eyes met his. “Next time you do that, give me some warning.”

  “Did I mishear you? What did you say?”

  Her eyelids lowered in a sultry glance and her hands came up to play around his ears. “I feel no more effects of the cinnagin. I no longer burn. Arousal no longer drives me unnaturally with spur and whip. I think it has worn off.” Sophi spread her legs beneath him, cradling his shaft in her velvet folds, his cock pressing hard against her pubic bone. “I just want you. Please?”<
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  “Yes, Sophi. Oh, yes.” Eric answered her with a grin then sobered. “But let’s be clear. We are not having sex. I am making love to you.”

  The sultry look left her face, for an innocent joy which yet retained a woman’s allure.

  He ran his hands into her hair and held her head gently. “You are mine until Sylvan Mintoth. Mine to hold. Mine to protect. Mine to love.” I will never give you up.

  Eric didn’t wait to see her response, just lowered his face into her neck and tasted her flesh. He smiled into her neck at the resulting gasp. Her unique flavor swirled in his mouth combining intoxicatingly with the scent of the salts from her bath. “Hells’ breath, I’ll never get enough of you.”

  His kisses traveled up her neck, past her jaw to her mouth. “I want your lips, Sophi.” Eric began softly with light pressure on her delightful mouth. Sophi opened to him and he slipped his tongue into her, flooding his senses with more of her unique, sweet taste. Her tongue dueled with his, her mouth suckling his tongue, telling him silently of her need. She fanned his desire from mere want into desperate craving. He pulled away. They looked at each other, gasping like long distance runners.

  Sophi reached for him and caressed his face. “Please. Don’t make me wait.”

  He caught her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm. “Tell me if I go too fast.”

  Eric slid up her warm, soft thighs until his cock was poised at her entrance. The petals of her swollen lips wrapped his cock head in a slick, hot welcome and he pressed forward into her. Even slippery with arousal on this second union, her flesh resisted his entry. Watching her intently for any sign of discomfort, he probed harder. With a slight give, her tissue stretched to accommodate the head of his staff and he paused.

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Just go slow at the beginning, I’ll loosen.”

  “I don’t want to hurt, you, sweetling. You are very tight.”

  “Goddess, Eric, you are not hurting me.” Her legs wrapped his thighs and she surged up, seating him deeper. “Ah, by the gods, that’s good.” Again she reached for his face. “You are not hurting me.”

  Eric closed his eyes, took firm hold on his control and sank into her until his balls met warm flesh. The tight slide of her hot, slick flesh tormented his engorged cock. When he bottomed in her, the quivering of her walls intensified the torturous sensations spearing through his penis, his balls and up his spine. His arms quivered as if he had engaged twenty swordsmen.

  “Okay, okay,” Sophi groaned. “Wait a minute. Just wait a minute.” Her ribs shivered in a gentle laugh. “I’ll never give you a small piece of cloth again.”

  Eric couldn’t hold in his rumble of laughter. “It was the polar lake water. Everything shriveled from the cold.”

  She shifted underneath him. “Nothing feels shriveled now”

  A bark of laughter escaped him. “Hardly shriveled.” Eric gasped. “Don’t move, Sophi. You can’t know how incredible you feel.”

  Eric opened his eyes to find hers gazing at him tenderly. He lowered himself to rest on her breasts, his elbows still taking some of his weight.

  Her hair felt like silk as he ran it through his fingers. He bit back all the words he wanted to say. She had said to make her willing. He didn’t think words would do it. He set about showing her how he felt. He made certain his meaning was plain.

  Sophi’s scream of rapture eclipsed his choked-off grunt. He hilted deep within her. Her tight walls pulsated around his spurting cock, milking his climax, spurring him almost past consciousness. Sophi arched underneath him, her face a rictus of ecstasy. As she collapsed, he gathered what little strength remained in his body and rolled off to her side. With a moan, she curled up on his chest. Only the steady tick-tick of the timekeeper sounded in the room. I love you, Sophi. Then sleep claimed him.

  * * *

  The following morning, after a prolonged leave-taking, Eric swung Sophi up on her massive horse. Their saddlebags bulged with delicacies from the kitchens of the villagers. As she and Eric and their four-man escort rode out of the inn, it seemed the entire village lined the road and wished them well. Calls of “Goddess bless you, m’Lady, Sir,” and “Her light shine on you, Magistra, Magister,” followed them down the road.

  Eric smiled graciously and waved. Sophi did her best to emulate him.

  They had ridden down the road for some distance. Eric rode beside her silently, deep in thought. Sophi wondered if he regretted his “Mine to love” of last evening. She hoped not. Though she had not had the chance to respond before sleep claimed them last night or in their haste to depart this morning, she was his to love for the rest of their lives. Sophi felt a strange, inexplicable shyness. She couldn’t just blurt out, “I love you.”

  Eric’s deep voice interrupted her thoughts. “They won’t forget you soon, Sophi.”

  “I wish you would stop giving me all the glory. You had every bit as much to do with helping them as I—perhaps more. You were the one who said we would stay. You were the one who knew all the rites. You!”

  Eric shrugged in dismissal. “Sophi, I am only the setting and a roughly bracketed one at that. It is you are the rare jewel. I merely unshackle and direct the power She instills within you.”

  As she turned in her saddle to tell him he was the furthest thing from common, the pppffttt of arrows jerked her eyes to the four men riding behind. Feathered shafts sunk deep into their chests. Before she could cry out, another pppfffttt hissed past her. Her fierce warrior looked at her in alarm, then dropped his gaze to the heavy cross-bolts, half buried in his chest and abdomen. Red bloomed rapidly from each, soaking his clothes with blood.

  Eric choked out, “Sophi, run,” then fell headlong from his horse. He landed heavily in a motionless sprawl. A puddle of his lifeblood slowly spread beneath him to stain the earth. His thickly lashed, green eyes closed and then Eric went limp.

  In seconds, all five men lay on the ground, ominously silent and unmoving.

  “Nooo!” she screamed. “No! No!” She tried to dismount but men sprang from the forest growth and converged on her, grabbing her horse, pinning her legs to its sides. A man wearing a captain’s insignia rode up to her and bound her hands behind her. He stuffed a rag in her mouth and cinched it tight with another, gagging her.

  “M’Lady.” He nodded. “You are coming with us.”

  Sophi screamed and sobbed into her gag. “Eric! Eric!” I can’t leave Eric! With a cry of “No!” she attempted to throw herself from her horse as their attackers began to lead her away. Don’t be dead. Please, don’t be dead!

  The man jerked her upright on her horse’s back as if she were no more than a rag doll then shook her violently.

  “Ride upright on your horse or belly-down on mine.”

  She nodded her head but could not speak through her sobs. He released her collar.

  “I have been told not to kill you, but you can arrive in any condition I choose. Do you understand me?” The flatness of his tone convinced her beyond doubt the man meant what he said.

  She nodded miserably through the shattering of her heart.

  The captain addressed one of his men. “Make sure the escort is dead.”

  Stunned, Sophi watched as the soldier went from body to body, looking for life. With a final vicious kick at Eric, he pronounced, “Dead. They are all dead, sir.”

  Her heart broke further as all hope disappeared. Sophi slumped over her saddle, sobbing into her gag. I love you, Eric.

  She didn’t know how long they rode—long enough that she had no more tears to cry. A heavy dullness settled in and she swayed on her horse, uncaring. The cessation of movement brought her to awareness of her surroundings; a military camp—an elaborate tent and a cloaked figure.

  “DeLorion’ss ssisster. Pretty. Lookss like him.” The dark, cowled figure examined her. Sophi fought not to shudder when she glimpsed the glow emitted by the creature’s artificial eyes. Some guards on the Haarb slave ship had been similarly enhanced, but she had nev
er become used to the phosphorescent glow.

  “Ssend a rider to Krakoll. Tell him to meet uss near Amboy Crater. Tell him I have the woman.”

  One day followed the next. Sophi closed down her traumatized mind and sealed off her devastated heart. She rode when commanded to ride. She sat where they told her to sit. When they noticed she didn’t eat or drink, someone forced food and water down her throat. When it rained, her body shook from the wet cold but she had withdrawn so far into her mind the tremors didn’t register. Someone threw a blanket over her but she made no attempt to prevent it from falling off. She simply existed.

  “Bring the woman to the front of the line.”

  Someone led her horse up beside the captain. He reached over and hauled her onto his saddle before him. Pulling a knife from his belt, he held the blade across her neck. He kicked his horse forward.

  “Hello, the garrison.” His shout rang across the road. “Open the gates.”

  A flurry of motion and spate of shouting could be heard within the Silver Grove garrison. After a few minutes, the gate swung open and Sergeant Trecchio rode out, halting a few feet from Sophi’s captor.

  He choked out a horrified, “Lady DeLorion!”

  “Good,” responded the captain. “You recognize her. We are riding through this gate. Fire on us and the woman dies. Approach us, she dies. Raise a hand or speak a word, and she dies. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes.”

  The captain’s cold steel stayed at her throat until every single man in his squadron had cleared the Silver Grove gate. When the final figure, Allegra Contradina, had vanished through the shimmering energy field, he kicked his horse forward. “You cannot injure me severely enough to prevent my killing her first.”

  With that, he spurred his horse into a gallop and passed through the parting in the energy field.

  Sophi returned to the wastelands of the Oshtesh. Her captors unwittingly took her to the one place on the Planet of Verdantia where she felt whole and strong, the one place where the land itself offered solace. The desert whispered of survival. The wastelands comforted her at night with a message of belonging and wholeness.