Sharon Green - Brat 02, page 20
“What - what’s happening?” she asked, trying to move out of the hold of two wide arms around her.
“How did we - I mean, I thought we were - “
“I think you must have gone into a brief swoon,” Derand said, keeping those arms firmly around her.
“One minute you were moaning, and the next you’d gone limp. Just sit still for a while until I can be sure you were complimenting me rather than showing signs of a problem.”
“I’m perfectly all right, so you can let me go,” Elissia said when it was clear she couldn’t free herself. “If something were wrong I’d know about it, and there’s nothing to know. Aside from - “
“You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that,” he said, then moved her even closer and kissed her.
Elissia had been about to add that she wanted that bead out of her and her underdrawers pulled back up, but the kiss refused to allow her to speak the words. And with the bead still inside her, it wasn’t long before she was forced to return his kiss with passion. She drowned in the sensation of softly demanding lips on hers, and then she nearly choked.
“Shhh,” the monster said without actually taking his lips from hers. His right hand had found its way up under her skirts, and his toying fingers made her squirm even more than the bead was doing. With her underdrawers still down he’d had no trouble reaching her womanly parts, and in no time at all her body was engulfed in flames.
The monster kept the kissing and toying going until Elissia was ready to scream at the top of her lungs, and only then did he let her get up and move to leaning on the bench again. This time he entered her slowly and carefully, starting to stroke slow before increasing the pace. Elissia accepted it all in squirming bliss, and when her body found release for the third time, his body joined hers.
“You’re ? amazing,” the monster panted just before he withdrew from her. “It’s almost possible for me to believe that you’re really enjoying my lovemaking. But of course you’re not, you’re just going along with the plan. Please excuse me for daydreaming out loud.”
By the time Elissia was fully back to herself, the bead had been taken out of her and her underdrawers were up and tied again. Once her skirts were down she was able to straighten up, but she didn’t say a word while Derand went for her horse. The bench would have to serve as a mounting block, and she’d be able to climb up on it with Derand’s help?
It’s almost possible for me to believe that you’re really enjoying my lovemaking, he’d said, his voice wistful and faintly filled with longing. But that was just the pretense making him feel things he didn’t actually feel, she knew, so Elissia did them both a favor and pretended she hadn’t heard what he’d said.
Once they learned who the enemy was, she would be out of this man’s life for good.
They rode back to the palace entrance, dismounted and gave the horses back to the grooms, then Elissia went for a bath while Derand left to see to something or other. Maids helped Elissia into the bath, then left when she said she wanted to soak for a short while. As soon as they were gone Elissia let the tears come, tears she couldn’t have stopped even if her life had depended on it.
This second kind of release would let her join Derand for dinner without making a fool of herself for wishing life could somehow be different?
Chapter 13
Derand spent the next morning discussing arrangements for the games that would be part of the “wedding celebration” that his subject kings had been invited to. All the kings knew he meant to hold “games”
instead of indulging in constant warfare, but he hadn’t yet had an opportunity to show them what the games would be like. Most of the kings expected to sneer at whatever they were shown, and Derand couldn’t allow that to happen. He had to get them interested and involved, personally as well as through their fighters. It was almost time for lunch, but Derand and Listen and two of Derand’s battle commanders were thinking about ignoring the meal when a guard came to say Derand had visitors.
“Visitors?” Listan echoed when he heard the guard. “Who would be coming to visit now? None of the kings could have made it here this fast? “
“Instead of trying to guess, let’s go and see,” Derand said as he got to his feet, then he turned to the battle commanders. “You men keep working, but have some food brought in. You can’t do your best if half your mind is on how empty your belly is.”
The two men chuckled and agreed to send for food, so Derand and Listen left the room. The “visitors”
had been stopped at the front entrance of the palace, a security precaution that would not cause trouble when the kings began to arrive. Men who knew all the kings would be stationed at the front entrance, but at the moment -
“I’m relieved to see that you aren’t taking matters lightly, Derand,” King Ostrin said from beside his good friend King Almis. “The safety of you and my daughter can’t be slighted in any way at all.”
Along with Derand’s father and Seea’s were the two queens and Seea’s brother. Gardal grinned at the surprise he had to see in Derand’s expression, but didn’t try to push forward to greet his friend first.
“You’re all wonderfully welcome, but what are you doing here?” Derand finally managed to say after laughing out his delight. “We weren’t expecting anyone for at least another day.”
“We decided to surprise you,” King Almis said in his normal voice, then stepped forward to add more softly, “And we didn’t want to present separate targets for assassins. If we’re all together, we can watch each other’s backs.”
“Good idea,” Derand said heartily, even though he wasn’t completely sure he agreed that the idea was quite that good. “I sent fighters to escort all of you? “
“And they almost found themselves in a fight,” Gardal said as he also stepped forward. “When we ran into them we weren’t completely sure that they were from you, but their captain had those ‘tokens’ you sent to identify them. A small wooden box for my father and mother and me, and a dagger for your father and mother. The captain didn’t know what those things meant, but we did.”
“That was the idea,” Derand said, clapping Gardal on the shoulder. “And since you’re here in time for lunch, I’ll have you shown to apartments and then we can take the meal together once you’ve refreshed yourselves.”
“Is Elissia resting?” Queen Liminia, Seea’s mother asked as Derand began to gesture forward some of the servants who had appeared. “I’d like to see her, but if she’s resting? “
“Actually, your daughter is working rather than resting,” Derand said, speaking to King Ostrin as well.
“Yesterday she helped me find out that those of my people with legitimate problems weren’t being allowed an audience with me. She appointed a scribe to take down the details of some of those problems, and we learned this morning that once word spread that real problems were finally being addressed, even more people showed up. The scribe had had to send for two others to help him, and a lot of paper was filled up. I was busy this morning with organizing the games that will be held during the celebrations, so Seea is taking care of the lists made. She’s arranging them in order of severity, and we’ll start to look into them this afternoon.”
“No, it’s all right, Liminia,” King Ostrin said as he patted his wife’s shoulder. The queen had gone wide-eyed over what Derand had said, a typical reaction for the too-gentle woman. “Elissia doesn’t share your view of matters, so I’m certain she’s really enjoying what she’s in the midst of. She is queen here now, so the troubles of the people are very much her business.”
By then the servants had come forward to lead the royal visitors to their apartments, but Derand still had time to look toward his father with his brows raised. King Almis shook his head in answer, then joined his wife in following the servant assigned to them.
“No, your father didn’t tell my father what the real situation between you and Elissia is, but he did tell me,”
Gardal murmured from where he now stood to Derand’s left. “Have you made any progress in straightening out that mess?”
“Not really,” Derand answered with a sigh, remembering how quiet Seea had been the night before. And she’d been so deeply asleep when he’d finally gotten to bed that he hadn’t had the heart to wake her?
“She really seemed to enjoy thinking that I didn’t love her, as though a burden of some sort was gone from her shoulders. Now? Now I don’t know how she feels, and if I didn’t have so much to do I’d probably be going crazy. But busy or not, I may go crazy anyway? “
“Maybe when I talk to her she’ll tell me something you can use,” Gardal said, echoing Derand’s sigh. “If I thought she didn’t love you as much as you love her I’d step back and mind my own business, but I know she loves you. That’s why I can’t understand the reason she refuses to believe in your own love.”
“I - made a bad mistake with her,” Derand admitted, keeping his voice low. “She doesn’t know how things work in Arvin, and I didn’t want her to get hurt or killed because of inexperience. After all, people are still out for my blood, and if she hesitates in obeying me during an attack? Well, to make a long and stupid story short and stupid, I tried to get her to obey me completely in all things.”
“Oh, you didn’t,” Gardal said with ridiculing disbelief as Derand began to lead him and Listan toward a small sitting room. “No one who’s spoken to my sister for even five minutes would be dim enough to think - She didn’t let you bully her into agreeing, did she.”
“No, she didn’t,” Derand said, replying to the flat statement rather than answering a question. “And as she pointed out, I’m still alive because she refused to agree. An assassin was in the process of strangling me when she put a dagger in his back, something she wouldn’t have done if she’d agreed to obey me completely.”
“Of course not,” Gardal said with a nod as they entered the meeting room. “Obeying someone completely means making no decisions whatsoever of your own, everybody knows that. Didn’t things get better when you changed your mind about her obeying you?”
“We ? had words again once the assassin was dead,” Derand said, yanking on a bell pull rather than looking at Gardal. “She said that any man who had saved my life would have been rewarded with anything he asked for. She’d saved my life twice, and I hadn’t even offered her a thank-you. I - turned into a fool then and demanded to know what she wanted as a reward, and she -
said she wanted her freedom. Since I said I’d turned fool, I might as well admit that I agreed to grant her that freedom.”
“Oh, Derand,” Gardal said with such heavy disappointment that Derand flinched on the inside. “How could you say that no matter how angry you were? Oh, wait a minute? What she asked for must have also hurt like hell. Now I understand? “
“So do I, but all that understanding doesn’t help one damned bit in solving the problem,” Derand said, turning to look at his lifelong friend once more. “I’m waiting eagerly for any suggestions you’d care to make.”
“Well? There should be all sorts of things you can try,” Gardal answered lamely, gesturing with one hand. “I’ll make a list and get back to you with it.”
“Do you think holding my breath while I wait would be a good idea?” Derand asked, the sarcasm matching what Gardal would have said in his place. “I’ve been thinking about using chains on her if nothing else works, so you might as well put that on your list. And here’s our tea, which ought to help us wait for your parents and mine to be ready for lunch.”
Two servants accompanied by Potry were bringing in a tea service, and it was Potry who had the two servants drink some tea before he led them out again. Derand had once offered Potry the position of chamberlain, but Potry had turned him down saying that that kind of responsibility just wasn’t for him.
He’d accepted gold for his loyal service, though, but rather than retire as he could have he still worked in the palace. If he ever did retire, Derand would definitely miss him?
“My father will be ready a lot sooner than my mother,” Gardal said as he came forward to help himself to the tea. “For some reason my mother has these really odd ideas about what a woman is and should be.
Not to mention what women should do. She’ll probably descend on Elissia and coo over the way my poor sister is being forced to do such terrible things as make decisions? Damn. I wonder if that’s it.”
“What are you talking about?” Derand asked from where he stood behind Gardal, waiting his turn at the tea. “And would you mind stepping out of the way so Listan and I can also get some tea?”
“Sorry,” Gardal said, taking his filled cup and moving to one side. “What I meant was, maybe our mother’s attitudes have affected Elissia more than a little - in an opposite way. My sister loves our mother, but she also seems to make a point of doing nothing the same. My mother has always seemed incapable of making any decisions at all, so - “
“So my bright idea to keep my woman safe made her think I was trying to turn her into a copy of her mother,” Derand said, the disgust in his voice completely self-directed. “That goes all too well with what my father pointed out, that I wasn’t accepting Seea as she was. But I still don’t see why that would make Seea want to leave me. She’s had no trouble refusing to listen to me until now.”
“My king,” Listan said, his voice thoughtful enough to draw Derand’s attention. “Could it be? Can it be that the queen is afraid to stay with you for the very fact that she does love you? If you asked her to do something she considers horrible for the sake of your mutual love, she might not be able to refuse. A fate like that? Personally I think I’d be more terrified than afraid.”
“By the gods, so would I,” Gardal said, startlement turning to immediate agreement. “But if that’s true, and it certainly sounds like it, we’re worse off than we were a minute ago, Derand. How can you possibly convince her that you’ll never put her in that kind of a bind? And how can you say it and mean it when we all turn foolish every now and then? We’re human, after all? “
“I think I’ll give up the throne and hide out in a cave for the rest of my life,” Derand said, one hand over his eyes to hide sight of a world he’d lost all control over. “The thought of doing something terrible and horrible to the woman I love is more than I can stand, but it could happen. Yes, that’s definitely the answer I was looking for: running away? “
Painful silence was the only response his words elicited from the other two men, which told Derand that neither of them could see any more of a way out of the horrible mess than he could. Derand might have stood like that for quite a long time, but a knock at the door and Listan’s immediate permission to enter changed things. Derand took his hand from his eyes in time to see a guard enter the room.
“My king, that miscreant collecting ‘tax’ money from the farmers and his false fighters have been captured,” the guard announced, heavy satisfaction in the man’s tone. “They’ve been brought here to the palace, and are at your disposal.”
“Oh, I’ll dispose of them all right,” Derand growled as he put his teacup aside and headed for the door.
“But first I’ll get some answers out of them. How nicely cooperative of them to get themselves captured just when I wanted someone to take a bad temper out on. Where are they?”
“In the prisoner holding area behind barracks three, my king,” the guard answered as he moved aside to get out of Derand’s way. “It was thought you might want to make use of the ? questioning facilities there.”
Derand didn’t answer as Listan and Gardal scrambled to keep up with him, the guard bringing up the rear. The idea of torture made Derand shudder on the inside even more now that he’d gone through it twice himself, but he couldn’t afford to be squeamish when it wasn’t only his own life on the line. If it was possible to get the answers he needed another way, he’d use that instead of torture. But if the captives refused to speak?
The prisoner holding area was secure and well guarded, and the first thing Derand did was announce a bonus in gold for the fighters who’d captured the criminals. The men cheered, of course, and once they’d shouted out their thanks Derand was able to go and take a look at the fish they’d netted. The definitely poor fish?
“A cell-full of living proof that clothes definitely do not make the man,” Listan said as he looked over the dross in black leather. “My mother makes a better fighter than any of them, and I’ve been told that they didn’t even try to resist being arrested.”
“Trying would have just gotten them killed and they obviously knew it,” Gardal said from next to Listan, also examining the supposed fighters. “What are you going to do with them, Derand?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Derand answered, having ignored the many for the one. The man he stared at was arrogant even in capture, sitting on the floor of the cell and leaning easily back against the wall as he ignored the man studying him. His pose said he had nothing to worry about, which was definitely odd?
“Let’s take that one next door,” Derand said after a moment of consideration, pointing to the man he’d been looking at. “We might as well be comfortable while he answers our questions.”
“There’s nothing to answer,” the man said with a shrug that didn’t quite hide his amusement as a guard began to unlock his cell. “I was out to collect as much money as I could without getting caught, but those idiots I hired refused to fight while I slipped away. Now you’ll make me give back what I collected, and then will probably throw me out of the kingdom. Well, there are plenty of other kingdoms to try? Hey, easy there!”
The guard had pulled the man to his feet and now dragged him out of the cell past Derand. There was still something ? off-key about the man, something Derand couldn’t quite put his finger on. Too bad he couldn’t send for Seea to see what she thought, but giving the woman more stuff for nightmares would not be a very good idea. This time he’d just have to manage without her?
