Ashar'an Rising (Nexus Wars Saga) (2 page)

The woman was dazzlingly beautiful, even in the stained apron and black clothing she wore. Dazzling platinum hair hung past her shoulders, and her enrapturing eyes were emerald green, wide and large. A shapely mouth revealed sparkling teeth as she smiled, regarding the two standing men like children playing a game not as enjoyable as before. Both stood regarding her as if about to speak, but she narrowed her eyes and pressed her pale lips together in a frown.

Grumbling, the older man turned with a motion to his friend and they returned to their table across the room, the older man never losing his arrogant sneer.

The woman's smile returned in full and she turned to Valdieron with almost an apologetic sigh. “They aren't that bad, really, just a little tentative about strangers. Here's your food.”

A heady scent overwhelmed him as she leant past him to place the tray of steaming food on the table, though why she couldn't have done it from the side he did not know. Maybe she was wary of Kaz, though the cat had hardly shifted at his feet.

He was barely able to stammer “Thank you,” as she removed the plates from the tray, taking one broth filled bowl and leaning down to place it in front of Kaz, who sniffed at it briefly before lapping hungrily at it, though he did not rise. As she straightened, Valdieron could not but admire her figure, despite her loose clothing and apron.

She recovered the tray and took a step back, but made no move to return to the kitchen. She stood with one hand resting against the table and regarded him with her head leaning to the side in a gesture that only accentuated her alluring beauty. As if sensing his discomfort, she smirked slightly and turned to leave. “If you have need of anything else, just call.”

With a swirl she was gone then, drawing his gaze with a magnetic allurement as she passed from table to table. She did not go near the two men, both of whom turned to look at him occasionally, one with a cold sneer, the other a patronizing smile.

With a bemused sigh and a frown, Valdieron turned his attention to the food, and was instantly glad he had picked this particular Inn, despite the weird patronage. The meaty broth was thick and heavily herbed, though slightly bitter to the taste. The bread also was warm and heavily buttered, with a block of cheese and a sweetly cooked apple. He ate slowly, savoring each mouthful.

In a short time the taproom began to fill rapidly, and a smoky haze began to permeate it as a muddled buzz built. The majority of the patrons appeared to be well-dressed youths, probably low-ranking courtiers or members of the Duke's court. Valdieron caught many blunt stares and looks of wonder. He moved himself to a solitary table at the rear of the room, away from the press around the bar.

The dim light mixed with the strange smoke gave him a euphoric light-headedness the longer he sat, and he found himself smiling as he scanned the room. He could hear the soft straining of a Lute or harp and wondered where the Bard was playing from, because he could not see one anywhere in the room.

The beautiful young maid appeared before him then and he reeled back with stunned surprise at her presence. He had not seen her approach. She carried a round ceramic tray of drinks: slender crystal glasses containing a dark liquid. She leant forward enticingly to place one on them on the table before him. He found himself staring at her slender fingers, delicate with long nails painted with a dark red pigment, like warm blood.

“
You're new here?” He found himself nodding as she took a slight move forward, filling his gaze with her figure. He glanced up at her dazzling face as she smiled down at him enchantingly. “My name is Kaylara. What is yours?”

“
Val- Valdieron!” Why he told her his real name and not the one he had given the gate guards earlier, he did not know. He shook his head slightly, but Kaylara's hand touched his chin so she could look directly at him, and he felt an almost electrical surge from the contact, which sent tingles through his body.

“
A beautiful name, Valdieron.” So saying, she spun, her dress swirling. Valdieron looked after her, and then remembered he had not asked for the drink she had given him, nor had he paid for it. He began to dig into his purse, but she was gone. Dropping a Crown onto the table, he would remember to give it to her next time.

Picking up the strange chalice, he found it warm and strong, not nearly as fragile as it appeared. He sniffed tentatively at the dark fluid and found it gave off a strange but not unpleasant smell, though faintly. Taking a small sip he was suddenly overcome with burning warmth down his throat. His breath seemed to evaporate at its passing and he rasped for breath. Coughing slightly he almost threw the glass away from him, wondering what joke was being played on him, when the warmth seemed to spread to every nerve in his body. Like the jolting touch Kaylara's fingers had produced, he felt as if lightning were coursing through him, and his eyes blurred briefly.

Almost like in a dream, he looked around the room with a newfound awareness. His body felt asleep beneath him, but his senses were alive. His normally acute vision was intensified and he began to see things he would not usually notice, like the tiny naive below a young woman's left eye across the smoky room, and the missing button on another man's coat sleeve. His sense of smell, though infused with the heady vapor, picked out the aroma of herbs and garlic from the kitchen, plus another woman's scented perfume as she swept past three tables away. Even his hearing picked out the playing of the distant Harp over the din, and he could have sworn the player had to be in the room somewhere.

He sipped more of the drink, clutching the chalice in both hands as if for warmth, eyes closed to savor the sensation. He did not know what the liquid was, and his mind was too muddled and delirious to ask or object. He drained every precious drop and whirled to look for Kaylara, and found her standing before him again.

She smiled and giggled flirtingly as he handed her the empty chalice. “I thought you might enjoy that. Here, have another!” She handed him another chalice of the dark liquid and he took it. He took another longing sip and felt the waves of pleasure roll over him. He recovered to find Kaylara still before him, nodding slightly with a calculating grin, but her face lightened and she spun away again before he could hand her the Crown. He realized the Crown was a pittance compared to the worth of the dark liquid and began digging Sovereigns from his purse. He wondered if Kaylara would sell him a bottle of the liquid for the road.

He found the other patrons avoided him like he had the plague, but their looks suggested they were fearful of approaching him, and he wondered if his reputation preceded him. Maybe rumors of the death of Nortas at his hands in the tournament made him out to be a brutish murderer? Only Kaylara gave him any notice as she returned on cue whenever he drained his chalice, and every time he forgot to give her the growing pile of sovereigns set before him.

She returned some time later, however, and he grinned at her foolishly, finding her devoid of the apron and carrying two more chalices and a leather  bound bottle. She had changed into a black dress, light and split down both sides, sown from arm to hip with crossed silver lace. She wore dark slippers scaled like a fish, and her hair looked combed where before it had appeared disheveled from work. He rose as she sat without a word in the chair beside his and pressed one of the chalices into his hand, and he found his other was empty. He noticed Kaz at their feet, seemingly asleep, his big head resting between his paws, and he smiled.

“
What is this?” he asked curiously as he sat. It was not like ale or wine in that he knew he was not drunk, as he should have been having had about a dozen of them. His body still felt lethargic, but he had no trouble moving, and his mind was sharp though he remained light headedly euphoric.

Kaylara regarded him with her enrapturing gaze, and he felt himself flushing slightly. She sipped daintily at her own drink, and he wondered how she showed no outward effect of it other than her eyes sparkling even more, until they looked like tiny green pastures covered with dew on a fresh winter morning.

“
It is called Kuratar's Wine, though who Kuratar was I do not know. Wonderful, is it not?” She said this as she raised the chalice before her, spinning it in her hand.

Valdieron could only nod as he drank again. “Indeed it is. I would love to have some for the road.”

Kaylara raised her brows approvingly. “That can be arranged.”

Valdieron whooped with joy, then noticed the pile of coins before him and pushed them across to her. “Is this payment enough? I hope so, because I am all but out of gold.” He said this with a mischievous smile, but Kaylara regarded it without concern.

“
Payment is not necessary, Valdieron.” She pushed the coins back in front of him as he gaped at her incredulously. The he felt her foot lightly caress his leg, first low then creeping higher and he suspected she had an alternate payment plan. He flushed again, but did not look away as he regarded her boldly, wondering if it was the drink that made him so.

He was drawn in by her charm as they began talking intimately. For all Valdieron could care the others in the room were nonexistent, answering her questions without heed to guard them, and asking some of his own. They laughed and touched, though she did most of the touching, her foot never resting and her delicate hands embracing his, removed every now and then to refill their chalices. Valdieron marveled that the bottle did not run dry, for it seemed they drank enough for more than two such bottles to hold. He excused himself once to relieve himself, not surprised he had to make room for the abundance of liquid he was consuming. When he returned, Kaylara was where he had left her, trailing a fingernail around the rim of her chalice and tilting her head as if to pick up some distant sound. She rose when he drew near and grasped his hand.

“
Let's get out of here.” He only nodded as she picked up the bottle of Wine, not bothering with the chalices. He gave Kaz a concerned look as they left.

“
Your gear will be safe there.” Kaylara's dulcet whisper swept away all of his misgivings and he let her lead him to the door of a room off the hall, the furthest away from the bustling taproom.

The room beyond was plush and ornately furnished, not what he would have suspected, and he felt himself gazing wondrously about. Heavy velvet curtains covered the windows, with a marble mantle and hearth set in the right wall. In the middle of the room was a canopied bed, light red silk curtains swept aside by Kaylara as she pushed him down onto the soft matt. He gasped with shock, and saw her standing over him with a salacious smirk. With teasing slowness she slipped her dress from her shoulders and it fell from her figure at her feet and she stepped from it to kneel over him.

He gasped again with shock and a stunned realization of what was happening. His mind reeled, though the lightness he felt did not dissipate. He began to think of many things to say as he thought of Natasha and Kitara, but a distant voice told him Natasha was his no longer and Kitara was a fantasy, already gone from his life, maybe permanently. He saw an image of her, fading into a dim outline and he shouted silently for it to remain. With sudden urgency he grasped Kaylara to push her away, but as his fingers touched her bare arms his gaze met hers, and Kitara's image fading into nothingness.

Kaylara brought her lips to his and he met them with a cold detachment at first, as if still clinging to his sanity, but he let himself be carried away by her smoldering touch.

“
Come and share your pain with me, Kay'taari.”

This strange remark fluttered on the edge of his awareness, but her kisses and tender caress drove it away like a leaf carried by the wind. With some urgency he met her force with his own. Though naive in this, he was not without understanding and willingness.

The press of her warm body against his was purely sensational. Still in his mind he could hear the music, yet it had changed to a slow, emotional tune, which somehow reflected the moment and added to the pleasure. There was pain as she clawed at his skin with her long nails, but it was lost within the writhing pleasure of their unity and longing. He let his enhanced senses draw him into the experience, and he lost every other thought for the moment, the first time he had been able to in many weeks, as bliss carried him to new heights.

Valdieron
awoke from a deep but unusual sleep, unusual in that he had not entered the Dream Plane. He suspected it had something to do with the euphoric state his mind had been in.

As awareness came to him, he wished immediately he had remained sleeping. A throbbing headache struck him as a faint light filtered through the edges of the curtained windows. He guessed it was only just dawn by the angle of the thin rays.

Twisting his protesting head to the side, he found the bed empty beside him, though he did not know if that surprised him or not. Even with the intimate time he had shared with Kaylara, he had felt she was somewhat distant, eager to share the emotions of their coming together, but not letting herself be totally consumed by it.

With a confused sigh that rattled from his dry throat, he coughed in his chest and settled his head back in the soft pillow. He stretched a leg across the bed as if searching for residual warmth from Kaylara's body, but there was nothing. This brought another sigh from him, though he did not know why. He felt he needed time to think now, so he was glad she was not there.

If he dozed he could not remember, but his eyes snapped open at the quiet squeaking of the door swinging open. The room was no lighter than before, but still it hurt his keen eyes, which would have preferred the solitude of darkness. He did not shift his head far to have to see the doorway off to the right, and he suspected it was Kaylara returning.