The Rising Page 18

  Serena came out of her leap with her eyes on Silence.

  And she finished, “Is what you should be practicing.” She looked to me. “And you.” Her eyes moved to Ha-Lah. “And you.” She returned to Silence. “You were exceptional in the Battle of the Veil. Consider what you could do if you honed your skill.”

  “I have heard you and Silence helped in extraordinary ways with the winning of that battle,” Ha-Lah muttered out of the side of her mouth. “Well done.”

  “Thank you, sorella,” I replied. “But in the doing, I nearly depleted my magic. I now must take potions day and evening. Potions that Elena has tried to mask the taste with mint and rose, but they are still most vile. I also must meditate every day over a card Elena draws for me to help replenish it,” I told her. “This, she prescribes me to do, for at least an hour. I have found, through the doing of it, I am not much skilled at sitting still.”

  Ha-Lah turned her head and grinned at me. “I suspect it was worth it.”

  I grinned back. “It bloody was.”

  “I’m not sure they should be depleting their power,” Elena, also across the courtyard from us, called to her sister.

  “And I am not certain my little sister will be close enough to another battle to throw her fire bombs,” Jorie declared, having heard the tales told over a dinner of an evening, and even when he did, not liking them (and it should be said, many tales were told on both sides, including the fact that not only Silence, but Ha-Lah too, was Mer). But after he said this, he instantly looked down to Silence with a gentle expression on his face and stated, “Though from what I have heard, they were most remarkable, and your aim was exceptional.”

  “I’m a powerful witch, Jorie. But Serena is correct. I should sharpen my skills,” Silence told her brother.

  “You are a wee witch, Silence.” He lifted one of his big hands and held out his forefinger and thumb about an inch apart.

  Silence’s head ticked as her eyes dropped to his fingers.

  “Oh dear,” Ha-Lah whispered.

  I pressed my lips together.

  Jorie dropped his hand. “And as such, you should be protected from matters such as these.”

  “I need to do my bit,” Silence replied.

  “You have done your bit,” Jorie retorted. “Now let others do their bits.”

  “Hmm,” I hummed, thinking this was not the course he should take to win his little sister.

  Or at least not this little sister.

  “I can’t let everyone else take all the risks,” Silence declared.

  “You very well can,” Jorie rejoined.

  I could sense that Silence was beginning to become heated with the tone of her, “I will do what I must.”

  “You will keep yourself safe,” Jorie returned.

  “You do not have charge of me, Jorie!” she snapped, with that, sounding just like a little sister. I knew this for, in growing up, I must have said this to Mars five hundred times when he was being overbearing. “Thus, I will do what I please!”

  “Fine.”

  Silence stared up at him in surprise at his capitulation.

  However, he was not finished speaking.

  “I will speak to your husband and cousin about this.”

  Silence slowly turned her head toward Ha-Lah and me.

  Her cheeks were very pink.

  I tried very hard not to laugh.

  A stifled noise coming from Ha-Lah beside me shared she was doing the same.

  “Let us move on to how you use a charging warrior against himself,” Serena called into this verbal tussle, thankfully.

  Then, for the next ten minutes, Serena sent Chu flying half a dozen times in half a dozen ways as he charged her. Though I noted immediately, she tended to send him careening over her back by ducking a shoulder into his approach and letting his momentum do the rest of the work.

  Using a charging warrior against himself, indeed.

  Each time this happened, Serena offered Chu a hand to pull him to his feet and they exchanged a look that made my skin heat.

  Ha-Lah was clearly of the same mind, for she whispered to me, “I wonder what sex is like between those two.”

  “I shan’t wonder, for my husband is on an island in the harbor and not close to me,” I replied.

  We both giggled as Serena called, “Farah, Ha-Lah, Silence, it is your turn.” She pivoted to Kyril and requested, “Will you help?”

  “I’m not charging a queen,” Kyril declined. “Any of them.”

  “I will not either.”

  Serena whirled to Chu when he said these words.

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “This is a foolish question I will not answer,” he said.

  “You charged me,” she pointed out.

  He smiled a smile at her that also heated my skin before saying, “I am physical with you in numerous ways, my warrior. But I will not touch my queen, nor will I touch any of the others.”

  “I’ll do it,” Elena entered the discussion before it, too, became heated. “I could use some physical activity. I’m getting tight.”

  “Their majesties can throw me!” Aelia volunteered. “I’ll charge them all day!”

  Ellie shot a grin at her. “Maybe a bit later, all right?”

  Aelia clapped excitedly.

  “Um, I do not know if I could throw Elena,” I said.

  “I’ll be fine,” Elena assured. “We’ve been taught to land soft.”

  I widened my eyes at Ha-Lah.

  Ha-lah just laughed and entered the turf area of the courtyard, declaring, “I’ll start.”

  She did well, notwithstanding having to maneuver her heavy skirts and cloak, which Serena didn’t have to do, as she wore a short tunic with long sleeves and thick leg casings.

  “We need trousers,” I told Ha-Lah as we switched places when it became my turn.

  “I’ve already decided I’m commissioning a wardrobe of Finnie’s breeches,” Ha-Lah replied.

  I made note to do the same before I concentrated on the matter at hand.

  Serena showed me the steps. How to plant my legs but not lock them. How to protect my head and neck. When to engage my arms.

  Elena was only able to clash bodily with Ha-Lah twice in the charges they’d done.

  Elena was able to wrap her arms around me four times.

  “I don’t think I’m good at this,” I muttered.

  “You will not encounter charging soldier after soldier,” Serena said, coming to stand close to us. “But if there is one, you need to keep your head about you and know what to do. Tomorrow, we will go over some of those hand-to-hand maneuvers I taught you in the Thicket. In any combat, you will likely be mounted and out of the way, using your magicks. What I am teaching you is just in case.”

  I nodded.

  She gave a curt nod back that was not dismissive, it was just Serena’s way of sharing she was ready to move along.

  I resumed my place beside Ha-Lah and watched as Elena attacked Silence repeatedly while Jorie scowled thunderclouds at them.

  We then watched Elena playfully tussling with both Dora and Aelia.

  “Would all this business was over so that I could give Aramus a daughter,” Ha-Lah murmured wistfully.

  “Not a son?” I asked.

  “Oh, I would take a son,” she turned dancing eyes at me. “But he’s keen on daughters.”

  “Are all women on land this comely and spirited?” Jorie boomed his question to Kyril and Chu, who were again standing together at the side, watching Elena with the girls.

  Though, I was complimented to see that he swung his long arm out to include Serena, Ha-Lah and me.

  “No,” Kyril answered.

  “This is good,” Jorie stated, crossing his arms on his chest. “For I would wish I had taken my legs far more often if they were.”

  “Do you not have a special someone, brother?” Silence asked.

  “I have one who is new who has all my attention, little sister,” he replied, then hoo
ked her about the neck and yanked her to his side. “And she is right here.”

  “I think I might love him,” I muttered.

  “Aramus is quite lucky that he is all he is, or I would not wish to be Queen of the Seas, but Queen of the Mer,” Ha-Lah replied.

  We giggled again.

  Elena flopped on her back in the turf and demanded of the skies, “It must be time for biscuits and tea!”

  Aelia flopped on top of her, making Ellie emit an “oof” noise, at the same time crying, “It is! Let’s take them in that room that used to be all black and gray and sad but now is all yellow and gay and happy!”

  “Let us do that, my little red princess,” Elena agreed.

  Aelia hopped up, shouting, “I want the biscuits with the chocolate on top!”

  “I’m going to have lemon ones,” Dora said, coming to help Aelia pull Elena up, each girl having a hand.

  “Ooo…I want a lemon one too,” Aelia declared.

  “I’d take redhead, if True and I weren’t destined to have a daughter who was dark,” I muttered.

  “And I’d take a blonde, if Aramus and I had any earthly hope of such a thing,” Ha-Lah replied in her own mutter.

  We again looked at each other.

  And smiled.

  Princess Serena

  Guest Bedchamber, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  “I am sweaty, and have smudges of dirt all over me,” she declared. “I shall change and meet my sister and her girls for—”

  She didn’t finish that for she found herself pressed against black stone and had Chu growling in her ear.

  “Hands to the wall.”

  Her pussy pulsed.

  “Chu—”

  “Hands to the wall, little mouse.”

  They had not played since they’d reunited.

  Oh, how she had missed this.

  Serena placed suddenly trembling hands to the wall.

  Other parts of her were trembling after he pulled up her tunic and then ripped her body stocking in two at the crotch.

  “Chu,” she said, this time in a moan.

  “Speak only when spoken to,” he ordered in her ear, driving two fingers up her cunt.

  She went up on her toes and her eyes rolled back into her head.

  He fucked her like that and then slid his fingers out, gliding them to her clit and rolling.

  Her head fell back.

  “Rub yourself against me,” he commanded.

  She did as told.

  “Did you miss this?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  “I only touch you.”

  “Wh-what?”

  “It would not be sexual, what you requested earlier, but I only touch you.”

  “I—”

  He thrust his fingers inside her and her eyes drifted closed.

  “Fuck yourself,” he demanded.

  Serena did.

  “It is of my people,” he continued. “It is respect, to your chosen one. In my land, a man does not only give his heart. He gives all of himself. Unless it is a daughter, a mother, a sister, one of direct blood, his fingers never even brush another woman’s skin. There are regions where a man will not even raise his eyes to another woman once he has bound himself to the one he loves.”

  Listening to his words, having him inside her, she started fucking herself faster on his fingers.

  “I touch no one but you,” he growled into her ear.

  “Al-all right.”

  “And the daughters we will make.”

  She shuddered.

  He withdrew his fingers and replaced them with his cock, fucking her against the black Airenzian stone, finger at her clit, face in her neck, his breath heavy and hot against her skin.

  This he did until she climaxed for him, and then he did the same in return.

  He was fucking her gently, his arm about her belly now, but his mouth was still at her neck.

  “We will have only daughters. You can magick this, yes?”

  He wanted to make babies with her.

  And knowing that, she wanted to make babies with him.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Then you will give me daughters.”

  But I want a son who looks like you.

  The thought entered her mind unbidden, and even if it astonished her, the having of it instantly made it a yearning.

  “If we should have a son, we will teach him to love his brother, like your brother loved you, and you loved him,” she said.

  He slid out, turned her to face him, then pressed her to the wall with his body, his face close to hers.

  “If we had a son, he would have claim to my brother’s throne. We will have no son, Serena.”

  “We would teach him—”

  “You are Nadirii, you wish a boy?” he asked.

  I want a boy just like you, she thought.

  “I want you to have what you want,” she said.

  “Then give me girls with copper hair and freckles.”

  “I can magic the sex,” she muttered. “The rest is up to the goddess.”

  His eyes smiled. “Then I shall pray to my gods for copper hair and freckles.” And with that, he kissed her quickly, then moved away, heading toward the door, tucking himself in his trousers as he murmured, “Clean up and go have tea and biscuits with your sister. I will see you here again as we ready ourselves for dinner.”

  “Chu,” she called.

  At the door, his trousers rebuttoned, he turned to her.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Why?” he asked in return, his head tipping slightly to the side, his expression puzzled.

  She swallowed.

  And all she could say to explain her question was, “Me.”

  “I did note the copper hair and freckles,” he answered immediately.

  She swept her gaze away.

  “My princess.”

  She looked back.

  “Why me?” he queried.

  “Sorry?”

  He studied her then inquired, “Why have you convinced yourself you are unlovable? Why do you ask yourself why my heart belongs to you and you do not ask yourself why you gave yours to me? What makes me worthy?”

  “You are…Chu,” she stated lamely.

  His lips tipped up. “I am that.”

  She felt his seed gliding down her thigh, not to mention she felt entirely uncomfortable with this conversation she, herself, foolishly instigated, and thus she murmured, “I must clean up.”

  “And you are Serena,” he called after she’d begun to turn away.

  She turned back.

  “I have fucked many women. I have mastered many women,” he announced, and her stomach twisted. “Not one of them was like you.”

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “It means, when she is the one, she is the one, and when she is, she becomes known as just that. You are the one, my princess warrior. I do not question why. Why I love gazing upon you. Why I love the feel of your cunt. Why I watch you use your magic on a target and it makes me fight my cock getting hard. Why I watch you offer your sister your version of kindness in her loss and it makes my heart tight. Why I like the smell of your hair when I sleep. I do not question why because there is no answer, but one. It is the one you gave to me. The answer to why for you is that I am your Chu. And the answer to why for me is that you are Serena. And you are mine.”

  “I think I wish to fuck again,” she declared.

  He gave her an entirely different smile as he began moving in her direction.

  “No tea and biscuits?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “No. Just Chu.”

  When he was close, he dipped low, caught her belly with his shoulder, and powered her back until she fell on the bed.

  He pulled himself over her and whispered, “You need to be cleaned. We’ll start with that and see where we go.”

  Chu didn’t give her the opportunity to respond.

  He slid down her bo
dy.

  And thus, there was no tea and biscuits for Serena.

  In fact, they almost missed dinner.

  King True

  Informal Salon, “The Red Room,” Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  “They asked for concessions?” Ha-Lah inquired, her brows up, her face incredulous.

  “They’ve demanded I roll back my proclamations and sit down with the gentry to hammer out a ten- to fifteen-year plan instituting the changes in a ‘much more manageable and palatable manner,’” Cassius answered.

  He then tossed back a large measure of whiskey.

  True felt Farah’s hand on his thigh give him a squeeze.

  He looked down to her where she sat at his side on the sofa.

  He then gave a short nod that this was true.

  Her mouth grew tight.

  True sighed.

  Suffice it to say, their trip to Slán Bailey had been a waste of time.

  Thus, they were all here, in the red room, having drinks prior to dinner, and those drinks were much needed.

  “And your answer was?” Jorie asked.

  “I gave them an option of where they could shove their ten- to fifteen-year plan,” Cassius drawled.

  Jorie roared with laughter.

  Still in the midst of it, he turned to Aramus and queried, “How did I not know these landed had such very big balls?”

  “Because prior to Cass, there was Gallienus, and he only used his balls to think, and considering the way he managed his rule, it is clear they were very small. And prior to True, was Wilmer, and he didn’t have any balls at all.” Aramus then looked to True and said, “I hope you take no offense, my brother.”

  “Would that one day I would find I am also of the Mer,” True muttered in answer, before he lifted his glass and drew in his own large measure of whiskey.

  He heard chuckles about him, but he used his concentration to swallow.

  “True,” Farah whispered.

  He looked to her.

  “I am not offended, sweetling,” he assured, and it was not a lie.

  She studied him a moment before she nodded.

  “Negotiations rather broke down after that,” Cass finished.

  “Because you walked out of the room,” Aramus reported, smiling broadly at Cassius.

  “Thus,” Ian entered the conversation, “I had the honor of sharing with Lord Felix that Cass is disbanding the feudal system and that, should he survive his term for treason against the crown, he will have no castle to return to. But regardless, in the now, he should endeavor to spend less time attempting to communicate with the AG in this ongoing conflict and more time trying to find someplace for his wife, sons and daughter to live for they’re soon to be turned out and their home made into an orphanage.”