Authors: Rhiannon Paille
34 - Marry the Land
Krishani pressed his back against the cave wall. Kaliel stretched onto her back in the grass. She pulled her hands over her head and pointed her toes, her body pulling taut. She relaxed and rolled onto her side, her eyes digging into his. He tensed as she crawled over to him. His knees had been hunched against his chest, but he spread them out as her head found his lap. She nestled her thick white curls into his thigh. Shivers ran up his spine and he involuntarily sucked in a breath.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. She tilted her face sideways, and from this angle he could see the slight color in her cheeks, the tempting curvature of her rosy lips.
He smiled and let out an exasperated sigh. “I was wondering how to ask you something.”
She furrowed her brow and pushed her elbows into the grass, pulling herself up so her face was close to his beige tunic, his stomach muscles clenched underneath the fabric. She had no idea how attracted he was to her, and when she moved like that, it was hard to stifle his want. Her other hand traced a line overtop the fabric from his collarbone down. He pressed his lips together, avoiding the urge to push her into the grass.
The question was really important.
“What question is that?” She eyed his tunic like she wanted to slip her hands underneath it and explore the skin beneath. Krishani gently covered her hand with his own pale, calloused one, the knuckles like rigid mountaintops across his skin. He went to put her hand at her side and she sat up, her face looming inches from his. He blinked to remember what he had been talking about, the scent of lavender and honeysuckle wafting off her breath. He resumed his candor and pulled her into his lap, his fingers tracing along the outlines of her ivory dress.
“I want to ask you to marry me, but I don’t know if I should be asking you or the Gatekeeper.” His hand paused on the seam of her dress, his fingers trailing along the outline of her breasts. Her heartbeat quickened under his palm. Her eyes said the same thing—wild passion, fear, wonder.
She smiled her usual faint smile, her mouth opened slightly in shock. “Just ask me.”
“Would you marry me? If you could?” Krishani let the words tumble out before he lost the courage to say them at all. It was hard to talk about the future with Kaliel; it didn’t feel like they would have one that would belong to them.
“Even if I couldn’t, I would,” she said, tucking her chin in, color spattering her cheeks. “I won’t marry the land,” she said. “I refuse to. And I won’t ask the Gatekeeper for permission.” She had fire in her green eyes, fire unlike the Flame’s fire, unlike anything Krishani had seen in her before. She was so determined, and so sad, like she knew this was wishful thinking but didn’t want to admit it.
Neither did he.
Her eyes locked on his. “All of me belongs to you and you know it.”
Krishani didn’t have the words to respond. Instead he cupped her face, pulled her against him and kissed her with all the passion he was holding back. He smiled against her lips as her hands found the hem of his tunic. She shifted her weight and pulled it over his head, his arms twisting upwards until he thrust the clothes onto the grass. She went to kiss him again and his hands found the knot behind her neck, the one holding her dress tight against her chest. He unraveled the knot. She put her lips to his as the fabric fell away, her body pressed against his bare chest. He pushed her gently into the grass. He was too aware of the fact there was nothing but her undergarments and his breeches between them, but he didn’t care. He wanted to savor her sweetness until the harsh reality cast them out of paradise.
He made a fiery trail of kisses down her collar bone, his lips nipping at the tip of her breasts. She squirmed under him and let out a surprised breath as his hand pushed her dress north while he lips continued moving south. He tarried along her skin, eliciting delicious ripples of shivers from her as he reached her inner thigh, running the tip of his tongue along the smooth skin. She moaned loud and he smirked. If they tried this in the tower, she wouldn’t be able to hold in her pleasured screams. He inched forward, bracing his hand on her knee as he tasted her. The lands slipped away, the aphrodisiac making his mind blank. Primal passion invaded his mind, pushing every bad thought away. Her hands clamped on his hair as another delirious sigh ripped through the cave. He heard a timid voice far away, his tongue stroking slow circles on her smooth skin. He was blind and deaf to everything, intrinsically immersed in her sex, heady with the taste of her.
One thing he knew that she didn’t was there was no way the land would ever let him marry her.
Not if it could find a way to stop it.
* * *
35 - Nothing Left
The rooms were small. Shimma entered, finding Kazza stretched out on the cot, trying to get comfortable. Her sister looked like she was ready to pass out from stress. Kazza always loathed the thought of battle, but she wasn’t going to flee.
Shimma glanced around the room. Three cots lined the walls, a candle sat on a small table in the corner illuminated the room. A square window had been cut into the stones above the only empty bed. Kuruny was on the bed to the far left of the room, Kazza opposite her. Shimma crossed the floor and sat.
“We have a problem,” she said, rubbing her hands along her dress.
“On the contrary, we were successful in Nimphalls,” Kazza said, propping herself on her elbow.
Shimma’s eyes flickered over to Kuruny. She was out cold. “Do you mean to say.…”
Kazza nodded. “We broke the hex.”
“Who were the men following you?”
“Nobody important. Guards. We had days on Nimphalls.” She didn’t need to explain they had taken the blood back and performed the transfusion. Kuruny was probably exhausted from the process.
“Krishani is slipping away,” Shimma whispered, ignoring Kazza’s comment.
“I don’t care about him.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“We can’t leave until she has her strength back.”
“Are you planning on fighting in the battle?”
Kazza gave her sister a perplexed look. “You care about him, don’t you?”
Shimma glanced at her hands and made a face. She hated to admit she had spent enough time with Krishani to know what kind of person he was. There were emotions, but they were murky. She shook her head. “I don’t know how I feel.”
Kazza scoffed and crossed her arms. “You have
feelings
for him.”
“I’m afraid of him, too.” Knots cinched her stomach muscles as she thought about the beach and the night she found him with his shirt off, but the disease made her shudder.
“Stop thinking about him,” Kazza snapped. She glanced at the door. “I bargained with the dragon riders to allow us to return. As long as we stay on their side, we won’t be harmed.”
“They can’t be trusted!” She balled her hands into fists. “I won’t return with you.”
“You will go where I say you go, sister.”
Kuruny stirred and turned over, but didn’t wake. Shimma felt like Kuruny was the glue holding them together. It was true Shimma was the youngest and that Kazza was the oldest by a technicality, but when Kuruny was immortal, she was the strongest, and that counted for everything.
“Kuruny won’t let them touch her again. She won’t be so foolish,” Kazza said.
“I don’t want to hear this,” Shimma said, her voice shaking. She moved to the door and put a hand on it. “Join me in the battle, if you will.” She slipped into the halls.
• • •
Kuruny’s eyes snapped opened. She looked at Kazza and flinched when the door slammed shut. “What happened?”
Kazza smirked at her. “Our little sister is in love with the Ferryman and is going to go find her death by a sword.”
Kuruny bolted upright and tried to pull together consciousness. Her limbs felt limp and she winced at the heaviness in her head. There was a river of strength flowing underneath the soreness as she stared at the bruises along her arms. “That can’t be.”
“It is so.”
“You did something to me.” Kuruny assessed herself, lifting her dress and finding splotchy purple marks staining her legs. The last thing she remembered was being shown to her room. She was bludgeoned by something, and everything went dark after that. She groaned. “You performed the transfusion.”
Kazza smiled. “I knocked you out first.”
Kuruny buried her hands in her lap. “Thank you,” she said through them even though she felt horrible.
“I want to leave before the battle begins.”
Kuruny’s head swam with vertigo and indecision. She shook it back and forth and felt wobbly. “I won’t leave Krishani to fight on his own.”
“He has an army, we aren’t needed.”
Kuruny sighed. “I saw what he did to the man on the beach. I would rather be loyal to him than hunted.”
Kazza crossed her arms.
• • •
Pux sat at the table in the main hall, eating the final scraps of bread and picking chicken off leftover bones. He was famished, the day’s work cutting into him, making his muscles ache. The past few weeks had been disdainful. He spent most days with the chickens and pigs, chasing them, cleaning up after them, harvesting eggs. He was seen as nothing more than a helping hand by most of the villagers. It was a welcomed difference to the way he had been treated in Avristar. Home was so far away he couldn’t remember how it smelled. The Tavesin compound was disgusting, pigs were smelly, chickens were prissy, and droppings were everywhere.
The table bounced as the doors burst open and elephant-like footsteps pounded against the stone.
“Pux!” Grimand bellowed.
Pux dropped the bread, his eyes wide at the sight of his elder. He felt like a frightened animal caught in a heavy storm. He scurried from his perch on the bench and scaled the wall. He didn’t say anything as Grimand cornered him.
“Have you had enough of your shenanigans?” Grimand asked.
Pux smiled but he wanted to scowl. “Elwen has been a very good host.” He tried to express disapproval, but the words were caught in his throat and he choked them out instead.
“I should send you home,” Grimand said, his eyes blazing at the feorn.
Pux actually felt sad. He worried about Krishani and the battle everyone had been talking about. He knew nothing about fighting, but if it was for Krishani, he would do it. He owed the Ferryman that much. “I don’t want to go back there.”
“Why not?”
“I want to help.”
Grimand paced. “You’ll get hurt. The only reason you were involved in the battle on Avristar was because you transported there and disobeyed the orders of Lady Atara and Lord Istar.”
Pux cowered against the wall. “I would never sit back and let them hurt my friends.” He closed his eyes, anticipating another outburst from his elder.
Grimand shook his head. “You’re hopeless, Pux. You heard the words of the Great Oak … you weren’t meant for this.” He pinched the bridge of his nose with his hairy hands.
Pux felt daggers in his chest. He stood straight, his courage failing, his knees shaking. He neared Grimand, his tone low. “Kaliel wasn’t meant for this either.”
Grimand gasped. “You would say her name? So cavalier, so brave?” He was clearly being sarcastic. His eyes poured over the feorn and he raised his chin. “Fine, ask Lord Tavesin to fit you with armor.” He pushed his chest out as if trying to show his honor, reform and strength, but Pux clenched his fist. He refused to shrivel back into the scared little thing he had always been.
“I’ll see you on the battlefield,” Pux said boldly. He stepped around him, Elwen on the opposite end of the hall conversing with a guard. Avristar warriors in white gold armor marched into the hall. Pux felt like something had smacked him in the face. He turned to Grimand. “When the battle is over, will you tell me how to go home?”
Grimand shook his head. “Aye, feorn, when this is over you can go home.”
Pux grimaced. He wasn’t sure if he would be going home after this, but he couldn’t think about the possibility of dying. “Thank you.”
• • •
Krishani pushed his back into the grass and stared at the sky. Above him the stone walls of the castle spread up to the clouds along with leaves from trees growing near the lake. Between all of that were grayish-blue skies. He felt empty, but wanted rest before the battle came. It was there he would let the Vultures have him. Footsteps crunched the ground next to him and he tilted his head to see the feorn’s feet. He looked at the sky again.
“What are you thinking about?” Pux asked, settling on the grass.
“Death.” Krishani didn’t care anymore; whether Pux was his friend or not was irrelevant. He couldn’t protect the feorn from what he was anymore than he could protect anyone else.
“Oh.” Pux was quiet for a long time. “I’m scared.”
“So am I.” Krishani wanted to stave it off, let the fear stay hidden in the depths of his bones, but it was the truth. He couldn’t imagine what Kaliel had to face, and now that it was his turn to look into the eyes of Crestaos, he couldn’t fathom feeling any sense of calm. He sat and rested his arms on his knees. He didn’t bother to hide the disease. It was part of what he was, something they would all have to get used to when the change happened.
“Grimand is here. He says we can go home when this is over,” Pux said.
Krishani glared at him briefly, then turned his attention back to the lake. “He means you can go home. I’m exiled from Avristar, remember?”
“What will you do after the battle?”
Krishani shook his head. The easiest answer was he wouldn’t exist afterwards. “I don’t know.”
“Why did you challenge him?”
“Because I want to end him,” Krishani whispered.
Pux let out the breath he’d been holding in. “Do you think it’s worth it?”
“If we both die, then yes.”
“I don’t want to pretend to know what that means.”
Krishani glanced at him. “It means nothing, Pux. After this battle there will be nothing, because there
is
nothing.”
“How can you say that? Grimand says Avristar is rebuilding.”
Krishani rubbed his forehead in frustration. “But they will always be missing the most important thing.”
“Oh.” Pux seemed to understand. “There is nothing to lose then, is there?”
“Nothing at all.” He stood and left the feorn to his thoughts.
* * *