Tivi's Dagger (12 page)

Such an emission was not unexpected but its
volume certainly was. I pulled off him to spit it onto the ground,
choking and wiping my mouth. His prick slapped against his stomach,
spent for the moment.

“
Ah Ned, I’m sorry! I was trying to
hold it, truly.” He was half-panting and half-laughing as he pulled
me to him. “But your mouth is truly amazing. I’m sorry if I drowned
you.”

“
There are worse ways to die.” I
grinned and stroked his hair out of his eyes, which were
heavy-lidded with sleepy satisfaction. Even though I was as hard as
the rocks around us and aching for more, I laid my head on his
chest and listened to his heartbeat slowing. A deep contentment
filled my heart. We had hours ahead of us, alone by the shimmering
lake, and time had never seemed so precious.

Before I knew it I was dozing, but he nudged
me awake with a childlike grin on his face. “Let me show you
something great.”

“
Something greater than what we’ve
just done?”

He laughed. “Not exactly. But great all the
same.”

I struggled into a sitting position and
scratched my head, watching as he darted away in all his naked
glory toward a hunched-looking tree with a thick, gnarled silver
trunk that told of ancient times. Sighing, I got up and approached
it. Its leaves were vast compared to its height, thick and green
and spanning at least three or four hands, and drooping as if their
stalks could barely support their weight.

“
It’s an umbrella tree,” he said
happily. “Rare at these heights but still…how I’m reminded of my
childhood!”

Crouching beside Kari on the smooth pebbles,
I took a leaf in my hand. “It’s certainly aptly named,” I remarked.
“If these were plucked and somehow sewn together, they would
provide a good shelter.”

He smiled at me. “It’s not the leaves that
make this tree so special. Look underneath.” He lifted a leaf
gently and pointed to its underside. My eyes widened at the sight.
Hundreds of tiny snails were clumped along the thick vein in the
center. Their shells were as colorful as a rainbow and glittered
like diamonds.

“
Take a snail,” Kari said, and plucked
one from its place.

I did the same, observing how the creature
immediately disappeared inside its shell. He released the leaf and
it sagged back down, bobbing gently. Then he turned to me with a
wide smile. “When I was a boy, my grandmother often played this
game with me. There were few other children in the monastery to
play with. I believe she lived a second childhood with me, with
such sport as this.”

“
Sport? I thought we were to eat
them.”

He laughed gaily. “Of course not! These
snails are poisonous, like most creatures in this land. We will set
them on the topside of the leaf in the center. With such
brightly-colored shells, they do not like to tarry long in the
sight of birds, and will quickly aim to go back to the safety of
the underside. We will soon see whose snail is the faster.”

“
And what is the prize for the
winner?”

He gave me a wicked wink. “Everything.”

I placed my snail in the center of the leaf
beside his, feeling a pang of trepidation. Surely he did not mean
what I thought? In such matters I was as virgin as he was, and did
not warm much to the thought of being taken thus by one so vigorous
and well-endowed. Remembering the wincing and barely-masked squeals
of the women I had prepared so — at their behest, as the act did
not result in unwanted bastards — I hoped I had not selected the
snail equivalent of an aging nag, as I was wont to do back when the
Protectors still permitted donkey racing in Azmara.

“
Go!” Kari commanded as we released
the snails, which did not move.

I chuckled. “Perhaps there will be no
winners today.”

“
Patience, Ned.”

Kari smiled as the snails began to poke
their heads out from their shells and quickly realized they were in
the dangerous realm of sunshine. “There they go!”

The tiny creatures headed in opposite
directions toward the edges of the leaf, but I was sure that hair
grew faster than they moved. I pictured Mother Kiti sitting calmly
and contemplating life while her excitable grandson leapt and
cheered on the slowest of creatures in its exertions. Kari was
beaming with excitement and his warm, wide smile was like all the
joy in the world. I took his hand with a grin.

“
You’re losing, Ned!”

“
Not by much!”

I watched, strangely caught up in the
proceedings, as Kari’s snail inched its way toward the edge and
mine ground to a halt, apparently to contemplate life and all its
mysteries. “Go on, damn you!”

My urgings seemed to have an effect on the
creature as it revised its course and made for the closest edge
with renewed vigor. It left a trail like a thread of shining silk.
Almost simultaneously the snails reached the edges of the leaf,
before mine dipped under first with what I fancied to be a gloating
flick of its tail.

“
Well, there you go,” I said, almost
relieved. “A fast start is not always the best one.”

Kari hugged me and whispered in my ear.
“Congratulations, my Ned. Now you’ll have to take your
winnings.”

I looked into his eyes and realized he’d
been hoping for it all along. When we lay back down on the rug, he
fetched a small vial of oil from his satchel and smiled at me. The
sight of it glittering in the sunshine made my breath catch in my
throat at the thought of what we were about to do. For some reason
it seemed such a momentous thing, even though I’d had more lovers
than hot meals and was well used to the fuck. He was so beautiful
at that moment, flushed and happy, and I stroked my finger down his
cheek. Slowly, I touched my lips against his and he kissed me back
with a sigh. I savored the taste of his tongue, the feel of his
soft lips and the springy chest hair under my fingertips. He buried
his fingers in my hair with a groan and I observed he was fully
hard once more, a sure sign of youth.

“
You think of everything,” I muttered,
tapping the little vial, and he smiled against my mouth.

“
I’ve spent so many nights reading of
the act of love, my Ned. I’ve longed for this moment for so many
years.” His hand found my prick and squeezed a grunt out of me. He
was breathing heavily, his eyes dark with arousal as he spread his
muscular thighs and lay back on his elbows, giving me access to
anything I wanted.

“
Patience. We can’t go at it like a
battering ram just yet.”

Slowly I prepared him with oil-slicked
fingers, watching the expressions — lust, pain, surprise — play
across his face as he gasped and moaned. Finally his body began to
open up to me and I could scarcely restrain myself from becoming
the battering ram I had warned him of. As I pushed my aching prick
slowly inside him I felt his body tense. For long minutes I stroked
his chest and belly, kissing him until he became used to the
position. He lifted his knees higher and finally, I was buried
inside him to the hilt.

Never had I felt such pure happiness as I
did at that moment, being united in flesh with this glorious youth
as the sun beat down hard upon my back.

We moved slowly at first until the
heat overtook me and I bit down on his neck as he rocked with me,
faster and faster. His hands clutched at my back, urging me on, and
when I looked down between our bodies I saw glistening threads like
spiders’ silk trailing from the now-purple tip of his prick and
catching on the soft hairs of his belly. “Oh, it hurts,” he
breathed, “but so
good
.”

A few moments later we reached a frenzied
rhythm and then his eyes rolled back in his head and his jaw sagged
open. I thought he had died until I felt the wetness spouting up
between us and then his arse gripped my prick hard. I groaned and
shot my seed into the heat of his channel as my arms gave out and I
collapsed on top of him, unable to stop the flood of endearments
spilling from my lips into his ear as I buried my nose in his hair.
Whiteness tinged my vision and I barely knew what I was saying as
all my senses floated away on the river of pleasure’s
afterglow.

We lay there in the sunshine, catching our
breath, fingers tangled in each other’s hair, planting soft kisses
over each other’s faces. At that moment I would have killed to keep
him in my arms. There were tears in his eyes and I wiped them away
with a fingertip. “Did I hurt you?”

“
No, my Ned. Thank you, truly. It was
everything I imagined and more. I love you too.”

Had I told him such a thing? I tried to
remember but could think of little but the dizzying pleasure of
losing myself in his body. No matter. Words spoken in passion were
naught but smoke from the fire, quick to die. Surely Kari would
know that, versed as he was in the theories and acts of love.

I rolled off him, elated and yet exhausted.
I did not have the youthful vigor he had, and was sure that I was
done for the day. He slipped his leg between mine and hugged an arm
across my chest, nestling his head against my shoulder. We dozed
idly, content to be silent and listen to the soft lapping of the
water on rocks and the melodic cries of the birds as the shadows of
the trees began to lengthen, and time seemed to spin away into one
long, wonderful irrelevance.

***

“
Where in the name of the Thirteen
have you been all this time?” My brother’s fury brought me back
down to the earth with a resounding thump.

I placed the dried clothes on the table and
tried to look innocent. “I went with our guide to the Vanishing
Lake in order to wash our clothes. Thankfully the sun was kind to
us and they dried quickly. Look, your shirt.”

This seemed to enrage Brin more, and I was
glad that Kari had decided to see to the birds before coming in to
eat.

“
You went through my things,
wretch?”

“
No! You had left your dirty garments
by the door. Why would I want to go through your
things?”

His dark brows knotted together and he
glared at me as if he was trying to see into my soul, then
mercifully, he seemed to relax. “It was a good idea, I suppose. My
vestments were not getting any fresher, for certain.”

Kel had hidden his translations away,
presumably wishing his heretical activities to remain hidden from
my brother. He knelt at the fire, stirring the cookpot with a
wooden spoon. He looked preoccupied and not a little worried. He
cleared his throat. “I have prepared some soup, if you are
hungry.”

Lana emerged from the tiled room clad only
in a thick towel. “The water is finished,” she announced,
separating her damp black curls into three thick strands and
beginning to braid it with practiced swiftness. “By the Gods, what
a day! The path around the mountain is truly precarious. Rocky,
loose stones, not firm underfoot at all. We followed it some, then
returned for the donkey but despite the lure of a carrot he would
not set foot upon it, so our choice is made. The tunnel is dark but
mercifully large and well cut. If we stay away from the walls, we
may be lucky enough to avoid the spider webs. Such a size they are!
With luck a torch should keep their creators at bay.” She looked at
me with a grin. “You have caught the sun well today, Ned.”

“
Indeed,” Brin agreed, sitting down at
the table. “It’s well for some, lying idle in the sun while others
do the donkey work.” He began to ladle the soup into his bowl. It
was dark and watery with crudely cut chunks of fleshy root floating
on top, but the warmth and the smell enticed my empty belly
nevertheless. He swallowed a spoonful of soup with a wince then
looked at me with a resigned sigh. “I suppose I should expect
little else from you, brother.”

I was about to remind Brin that he had left
me asleep before venturing out, but instead I looked at my hands
and remembered my place as dictated by the Rite. “Yes,
brother.”

He glared at me once more and I wondered
what on earth I could do to stop him from hating me. It was amazing
how my brother could simply remove all my happiness with a single
raised eyebrow. I stared into my soup and stirred it glumly,
watching the roots float round and round. Kel was no cook but it
was not the worst soup I had ever tasted. The roots were chewy and
occupied my mouth for some minutes while my brother and Lana
discussed the best way to create a suitable torch which would light
our way through the tunnel.

“
I must say, Brindar,” Kel burst out
suddenly, just as the door creaked open and Kari entered the hut
peering at a tiny scroll of parchment. “I am not one bit happy
about the prospect of going through this tunnel! And that’s before
we even contemplate these caverns under Khar Tam, whatever monsters
lie therein. We’re men of Lis, born to walk in the sun, not creep
upon our bellies in the dark like wretched insects! If I’m honest,
it’s only the longing to see Thar Mati that keeps my feet following
yours, for I’m a scholar, not a warrior. I fear we will meet a
grisly end in the web of some giant spider…destined to be its next
meal, if we don’t plunge to our doom first!”

Brin opened his mouth to reply, but Kari cut
him off. “It is not a good idea to venture off alone, Kelthras,” he
warned, slipping the parchments into his satchel. “The new Keeper
will arrive in the morning, with warriors to guard him. It is not
safe with agents of the Blood Red about, for we know what
abominations walk with them. I can only pray that the warriors we
saw previously in the forest have already found the source of this
terrible plague and ended it right there, for the death of the
necromancers is the only way to stop such evil.” He closed his eyes
and began to murmur a prayer.