01 - The Compass Rose (45 page)

“I think you should avoid the floor.” Fox turned on his side facing her, echoing Stone’s position.

She shook her head, a crooked smile on her face as she came through the door, shutting it behind her. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into these things.”

“Because you know you want to do exactly what we talk you into.” Stone scooted his back against the wall, making a little more room. He shivered again as the magic lurched, pulling tighter, when Kallista slid into the space between them. Even with the link that made it possible for her to call magic at a distance, there was still a difference when they touched. More intensity. More power.

She turned to face Fox, and Stone took a chance, leaning in to kiss that curve of her neck that had driven him mad during their time at sea. This time, Kallista shivered, and he grinned, slipping an arm around her waist to pull her back into his erection. Her waist was thicker than he remembered, and she had a little belly on her. The lazy days on the ship had had more of an effect than he realized. He liked the changes. They made her…normal.

“Fox, what are you doing?” Kallista jerked back into Stone. “Keep your trousers on, soldier.”

“I am. Just trying to simplify the cleanup.” He passed a handkerchief across her to Stone. “One for you,
brodir
.”

Kallista sat up as Stone was trying to stuff the cloth down the front of his pants, her elbows and knees transformed into dangerous weapons. “Well, that spoiled the mood.” She let go the magic and the delicious tension faded away.

“Not mine.” Stone struggled to his knees and twisted around to put himself behind her, thinking hard about how beautiful she was and how much he wanted her in any way he could get her. He didn’t know how this connection between them worked, didn’t know if he could send her a specific message through it, but he was damn well going to try. If he was only getting sex once a month, he wasn’t about to give up his once.

And maybe it was working. She let him move close, relaxed against him when he urged her to. He bent to kiss her neck and she tilted her head, offering access. Stone took what she offered, laying kisses from the curve of her shoulder along the soft pale skin to the hollow beneath her ear. His hands slid forward, touched her sides, moving toward her breasts, but she caught them, set them firmly back on his knees. He didn’t protest, because she called the magic again, drawing it from every dimension of his body with a caress so erotic his vision went dark.

Or maybe he’d just shut his eyes. He slid boneless to lie on the bed when she did. She leaned into Fox, kissed him. Somehow Stone could feel it. Not as if he were kissing Fox himself, but knowing how it felt to Kallista when she kissed him. She pulled the magic tighter, making them all three gasp, then she let it go, whipping it higher, faster as they rode it together.

Stone lost all sense of himself, tumbling arse over ears in the wild magic, fighting to hold on, make it last longer. But as before, he was the first to break. He shouted, shuddering as the fierce delight broke over him. His climax triggered the others. Kallista cried out. Fox kept silent but seemed to shake the more violently because of it.

“What,” Stone said long moments later when he could see and hear and breathe again, “do you suppose it would be like if we had ordinary sex while you did that?”

“Saints and sinners,” Fox muttered, borrowing Obed’s oath, his face tucked into Kallista’s neck, “I’d never survive it.”

Kallista kissed his forehead, then rolled to her back and kissed Stone’s jaw. “After, maybe we can try it.”

“Why not now?” Stone pulled Fox’s arm across Kallista’s waist and settled his own above it, just under her breasts. “I don’t mean
now
now, obviously, but why wait till
after?
Who knows if we’ll still be alive, after? I don’t understand what you have against sex, anyway.”

She sighed. “It’s not that I have anything against sex, exactly…”

“It’s us,” Fox said.

She twisted toward him and kissed his mouth. “No, I do not have anything against you either. Or Obed. You’re all gorgeous. And Torchay, well…”

“So, what is it?” Stone said. Anything that would get him more sex…

“I don’t know. Stupidity?” Kallista caught Stone by the throat of his tunic and pulled him in for his own kiss, then squirmed out from between them to stand. She straightened her tunic and smoothed back her mussed hair. She looked as if she would rather discuss anything besides the current topic, but Stone wasn’t ready to let it drop.

“Does that mean you’re going to start having sex with us? The regular kind?” He pulled the clammy handkerchief out of his trousers. It seemed to have done mostly as intended.

Kallista blushed and looked away. “I…”

“If you don’t have anything against sex, and you don’t have anything against us, I don’t see what the problem is.” Did women always make things more complicated than they had to be?

“Because it’s not just sex.” She began to pace the small room. “Even doing it this way with the magic, it’s more than just sex. I care about you and I care about Fox, and every time we…make love, I care more.”

“And you don’t want to.” Fox sat up and swung his feet off the bed.

Kallista stopped and looked at them sitting side by side. She swallowed hard, her eyes haunted. “It scares me,” she said finally. “More than facing down the entire Tibran army with all its cannon.”

Stone blinked. Kallista, admitting to fear?

She took a deep breath. “But I don’t seem to have any choice. I seem to care as much for Aisse even though I don’t have any inclination to have sex with her. We’re ilian. It doesn’t seem to make any difference how hard I fight it. I still care.”

All the emotion free-floating around the room made Stone want to pull a pillow over his head. Or make a joke. “So,” he said. “Sex? You and me? You and Fox? You and Obed and Torchay?”

Kallista laughed and Stone let out a relieved breath. “I think Obed might object to sharing,” she said.

“So maybe Torchay won’t. I won’t—but you know that.” He worked hard to keep his tone light and teasing. “Fox won’t either. He has no objection to anything, remember?”

“You’re hopeless.”

“No, no. I’m
hopeful
. Sex? Please? Often?”

She left the room shaking her head at him to answer a knock at the parlor door. The laborers had arrived with luggage from the ship. She never did answer his question.

Aisse stayed close to Torchay as they walked through the streets of Haav, hood up, head down. The robe that flapped around his calves dragged the ground on her and she liked it that way, liked being covered head to toe, hidden from everyone’s eyes. She’d never ventured into this part of town until she’d been loaded on a ship to sail to Adara, never left the warriors’ section of town once she’d been assigned there. Her mother had been assigned to Craftsmen’s caste and Aisse had grown up running the streets around forge and foundry, past the workshops of weavers, tanners and potters. That was where the Ruler had found her, two years before her coming-of-age.

She forced the memory from her mind. She was Adaran now. Ilian. Safe. If any saw through her disguise and demanded sex, she could say no. Torchay would defend her. Obed too. And they would be overwhelmed and killed for trying to defend her. No Tibran would allow such a thing.

So much pain stabbed through her at the thought, she stumbled. Torchay caught her arm. “Careful, Tiger aila. A slip could expose too much.”

“Yes.” She would not slip, would not make a mistake. But if it happened, she would give whatever was demanded. She would not be the cause of Torchay’s death. Of any of their deaths, for Stone would fight too, and even blind Fox. They belonged to each other.

And somehow, because she knew she could say no, the thought of saying yes didn’t disturb her so much. Sex wasn’t important enough to die over. She had done it before and could endure it again if she had to. But…was it always something to be endured? Kallista didn’t seem to act as if it were.

She sidled closer to Torchay. “You think Kallista is doing magic with Stone and Fox?”

“Aye. Now be quiet. Your voice will give you away.” Torchay shook back the sleeves of his robe to expose his blades, and folded back the unbuttoned sides as he followed Obed into the horse market. Aisse scurried to stay between them, kicking the skirt of her robe at every step to keep from tripping over it.

The men moved from trader to trader, inspecting horses, rejecting most, but occasionally coming to terms. Torchay would hand the purse to Obed who would pay. Warriors didn’t sully their hands with trade if there was a merchant about to do it for them. Then Obed would hand the lead of the newly purchased horse to Aisse.

Eventually, they had six horses and two pack mules to lead back down the docks to the inn. Obed took the reins to half the animals and Torchay stalked alone. The white robe worn open merely declared him foreign. All else, from the red of his tunic to the red of his hair, blazed out his warrior status and kept all they passed from approaching.

“Torchay…” Aisse skipped ahead to catch up with him, the horses she led breaking into a brief trot.

“Should you be seen talking to me?”

“We’re foreign. They expect strangers to do strange things. Kallista says that you will teach me what I want to know.”

“Aye, that’s true.” He slowed his pace slightly, making it easier for her to keep up. “What are you wanting to learn?”

“How sex can feel good.”

Torchay lost a step. “You want to learn what?” He seemed on the edge of shouting.

“About sex that feels good. Are you angry? Kallista said it would be all right, but if—”

“She said that, did she?” He did sound angry.

“I asked if she could use the magic to show me, but I’m not marked and it only works if you are, so she said you would do it if I asked you, but if you don’t want to—” Aisse resigned herself. She would satisfy her curiosity another way. Or forget the idea. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know that badly. “Forget I asked.”

“I can’t very well do that, can I? Not now you’ve asked it. And I did no’ say I didn’t want to.” He opened the gate to the inn yard and turned it over to the stable boy to hold as they entered with the new horses. “Hush now. No talking.”

They turned the animals over to the inn’s horse-groom laborers and went inside. At the top of the stairs, Torchay paused outside the door to their rooms after Obed had gone inside. He moved close to Aisse, crowding her against the wall. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

His height made her nervous, looming over her. His nearness made it worse, but she couldn’t get away. She stared up at his face. This was Torchay. He wouldn’t hurt her. Aisse nodded, unable to make the motion smooth.

“Maybe you do want it.” He touched her cheek and she flinched away. “But you’re no’ ready to learn it.

“You didn’t mind coming close to me,” he went on, “but you don’t want me moving close to you. You don’t want me touching you. If you truly want…what you asked, you’ve a great many other things to learn first.” His thumb stroked across her skin, making her shiver. “Do you want this?”

“Yes.” This time she could say the word.

Stone put his head out through the open door. “What are you two doing out here? Aren’t you coming in?”

“Aye, we’re coming.” Torchay slung his arm over Aisse’s shoulders and she stiffened, but endured it as they walked in together. “We had a discussion to finish.”

“What about?” Stone shut the door behind them.

“Torchay is going to teach me about sex. Good sex.” Aisse made herself stay where she was, no matter how badly she wanted to duck away.

“You are?” Kallista’s eyebrows went up, but Aisse couldn’t tell whether she was pleased or angry.

“Not anytime soon.” Torchay took away his arm and Aisse almost sagged in relief.

“You could have asked me.” Stone leered at her, trying to make her laugh. “I wouldn’t make you wait.”

“That’s why I didn’t.” Aisse scowled. “I don’t trust you.”

“You shouldn’t,” Fox put in from his chair by the window. “Not when it comes to sex. Stone’s technique has always been limited to in-and-out-and-boom. I’m a much better choice.”

“Stars, give the man sex and he starts talking as much as a bureaucrat.” Stone flopped down in a chair and kicked at Fox’s knee. “What makes you such an expert?”

Fox’s smug smile made Aisse feel strange. “I have no caste, remember? I was a toy in women’s quarters. I learned
many
things about women and sex.”

Kallista leaned against the wall and folded her arms, a faint smile on her face. “Aren’t you going to offer to teach her, Obed?”

“No.” He turned away, said nothing more. Aisse wondered if Obed hurt where no one could see, without a blow being struck. Why did she care?

“I have a teacher,” Aisse said to draw attention from Obed. “I don’t need another.”

She held herself still when Torchay set his hand on her shoulder. He didn’t hurt her. It was only a touch, only the warm weight of his hand resting there. It made her feel as peculiar as Fox’s smile had.

“So,” Torchay said. “Where do we go from here?”

They went north yet again and west, leaving on Peaceday, following the Silixus, a deep, narrow river that changed from brown to green when they moved past the tidal flow. The banks were high, often rocky, lined with tall trees, and climbed higher as they traveled. They rode sometimes atop the rocky bluffs and sometimes down at the river’s edge, depending on where the road took them.

Long stretches of it were paved with square-cut stones or hard-fired brick. Twice on their upriver journey, they came upon gangs of sweating laborers with their shaved heads and brown trousers laying the pavement in the roadbed carved out of the forest. At each location, a single Ruler in his teens acted as supervisor accompanied only by a pair of Warrior bodyguards, one as youthful as the Ruler, the other gray with experience.

The workers did not seem to need even this much supervision, laying brick after brick at a seemingly tireless pace. Stone explained that the laborers worked hard because each man knew his caste and role in life, and had the promise of rest after death. Fox added that the promised rest often came early to those who showed too much independence.