Kethril (5 page)

“You’re being very silly, Cousin.” Liselle
walked to her sleeping roll. “I know you’re a man. Now if you boys
are finished with your baths, please clean up the dishes. I’m going
to turn in for the night.”

Vevin immediately grabbed the pot to begin
cleaning it while Tathan stared incredulously at Liselle’s back.
Anilyia had tuned out of the conversation, being more interested in
Tathan’s skin and muscles. Tathan helped Vevin clean up, which only
took a few minutes. When they were done, Vevin went to lie down
with Liselle. Anilyia had stared at Tathan the entire time he was
doing dishes. Her gaze aroused him just as much as her touch. She
held her hand out for him to go with her.

They walked into the forest a ways. Tathan
knew it was dangerous, but didn’t care. He was tense and needed a
release. If a monster, tree or carnivorous fairies tried to attack
him, they were going to be in for the shock of their lives.

A few minutes later, they came to a glade.
Piohray, one of Ryallon’s two moons was full directly above,
casting a dim red light. Siahray had yet to rise. Anilyia looked at
him yearningly, the moonlight giving her skin an eerie pink cast.
Tathan took her in his arms and kissed deeply. She reached her arms
around his shoulders and returned the kiss.

It was said that Piohray’s light had an
intoxicating effect that aroused passion within lovers. Neither
Tathan nor Anilyia said a word as they lay down together in that
glade, spending the night making passionate love with no regard to
whatever consequences might come of it.

***

The next morning they woke in each other’s
arms to the sound of chirping birds. Nothing had disturbed their
lovemaking or sleep and light was beginning to appear in the east.
Anilyia, stretched out on top of him, smiled as she ran her hand
over his chest. He returned the smile and arched his back to work
out the kinks from lying on the ground. Dew clung to Anilyia’s hair
when Tathan kissed the top of her head. The smell of her platinum
locks mingled pleasantly with the wet grass.

She repositioned herself to sit above him
and then leaned over and kissed him again. Her lips were warm and
soft, bringing pleasure to his. They both had goosebumps from
waking up naked in the cool air. Tathan ran his hands up and down
the soft skin of her back and sides. Her body was perfect in every
way and he couldn’t stop touching it.

They revisited their ardor of the night
before, ignoring the audience of squirrels, birds, butterflies and
a passing porcupine who wondered what all the noise was about. It
figured the two creatures rolling around were best left alone and
went about its business.

***

The smell of cooking breakfast greeted them.
Liselle didn’t even bother to look up when Tathan and Anilyia came
into camp, although Vevin cheerfully waved at them. Tathan waved
back while the princess hid behind him. She followed as he went to
get his tunic from the bedroll where he had set it the night
before.

They took the plates of food Liselle handed
them and sat down to eat. She still made no eye contact. Tathan
became uncomfortable with the silence. He pointed at the food on
his plate. “Good morning, Cousin. Thank you for breakfast. It’s
wonderful.”

“I figured you were so busy disturbing the
wildlife that you wouldn’t make it in time,” she replied
archly.

Anilyia stood with anger evident on her
face. “Don’t you dare judge us, child. We will do as we please and
you have no right to treat me or your cousin in such a manner!” She
finished with her chin in the air and all the power of her royal
heritage portrayed in her stance.

Blue flames flared in Liselle’s eyes, taking
over with their hypnotic movement. “You are to be married, yet you
wantonly sleep with the first man you come across, and you,
Cousin,” she said, pointing at Tathan, “You can’t resist yourself
for a little while. You have to steal the pretty treasure the first
time Piohray lights her face.”

“You don’t get to make decisions for me,
especially not with regards to who shares my bedroom or even my bed
. . . or grassy glade,” Tathan retorted. “Isn’t that what you told
me? . . . minus the part about the grassy glade.”

The fire dimmed and ghosted behind the
irises. She became thoughtful. “What are you talking about?”

“In Puujan, at the White Tree Inn, you told
me that I don’t get to make decisions for you, especially not with
regards to who shares your bedroom. It was when I told Vevin he
couldn’t sleep in your room,” Tathan explained. Liselle nodded as
she remembered the conversation. “Now I’m telling you the same
thing. It applies to Anilyia too. We’re both adults, older than you
I might add.” The flames grew again, but Tathan ignored them.
“We’ll make our own decisions regardless of whether or not we are
thief and princess.” He crossed his arms. “Your boyfriend is a
dragon I might add. Do you have any idea how hard it’s been for me
to keep quiet about that fact?”

Liselle crossed her arms too and the light
died from her eyes. She frowned at her cousin, considering his
words. “I love Vevin,” she said.

“Yes, I know,” Tathan replied.

“Do you love her?” She gestured toward
Anilyia.

“Yes I do,” Tathan answered easily. Surprise
washed across Liselle’s face while Anilyia squeed and wrapped her
arms around him. The truth was that Tathan still wasn’t certain he
loved Anilyia, but thought he might. He was a very good liar though
and used that ability to portray confidence in the statement.
Liselle’s surprise turned to suspicion, but part of Tathan’s
ability was to continue a lie once begun.

She reluctantly nodded. “Alright. You’re
both in love. So what do we do now?” The situation bewildered
Liselle. “I thought this was supposed to be easy. Rescue the
princess, shake the pursuit and get her home.” She put her hands on
her hips. “None of the stories Uncle Laremy told me mentioned
anything about the princess falling in love with . . . my cousin.”
She gestured at Tathan before throwing her hands up in the air.

Tathan shrugged. He turned to the princess.
“What do you want to do now?”

“Umm . . .” Anilyia shrugged too.

“Do you want to dash off and settle down
with Tathan?” Liselle asked.

“I don’t want to settle down,” Tathan
interjected. “I’m having too much fun running around the world,
getting into trouble and falling in love with princesses.”

“So you love more than one princess?”
Anilyia asked dangerously. Both she and Liselle crossed their arms,
set their jaws and glared at him. Vevin had a look of fascination.
He had been doing a slow listening dance the entire time and was
staying very quiet in hopes he wouldn’t be involved in the
argument.

“No,” Tathan answered firmly. “It was just a
turn of phrase. I have only fallen in love with one princess and
have no intention of ever falling in love with another.”

The ladies went over the words in their
minds to find a hole in them. Luckily, for Tathan, they didn’t
succeed.

“So we take the princess adventuring with
us?” Liselle asked.

Anilyia shook her head. “I like being a
princess. I like it a lot . . . I really, really, really like being
a princess.” She sat back down on the log. Then she held up the
sleeve of her shirt. “Adventuring is wet and uncomfortable.
Everything feels weird and icky and wonderful,” she whined,
gesturing up and down at her body. “I don’t like it at all. I like
sheets and my soft bed and people to dress and bathe me and . . .”
She trailed off with a great sigh.

“When in doubt, stick with the plan,” Tathan
said, nodding to himself.

They looked at him.

“When in doubt, stick with the plan. It’s
advice a good friend of mine gave me once. If you can’t decide what
to do, then keep going with whatever you originally started doing.
Hopefully an alternative will appear, but if not, at least you’ve
accomplished your original goal.”

Liselle rubbed her chin in thought and
absentmindedly smiled at some flowers that had just opened their
petals to the growing light. “So we continue with the plan of
traveling to Kethril and finding a way to return the princess to
Mayncal?”

“Yes. It’s a good plan, but if we decide to
do something else, we can change it at any time.” Tathan turned to
Anilyia. “Will that work for you?”

She nodded. “Yes, I like it. I’m still in
love with you though and I want to have lots of . . . sex,” she
said, blushing red as deep as Piohray.

Liselle rolled her eyes. Upon seeing the
reaction, Anilyia narrowed hers and with a sly grin said, “I want
to have as much sex as Liselle and Vevin.” Liselle gasped and both
she and Vevin blushed in response. Then everyone burst into
laughter.

As the party was leaving after having packed
up camp, Vevin asked Tathan, “Whatever happened to your friend, the
one that said ‘when in doubt, stick with the plan’?”

Tathan didn’t respond immediately. “Well . .
. he died. His original plan was
really
bad.”

“Do you think Sir Danth is alright?” Liselle
asked. “He’s been scouting ahead for quite a while, but hasn’t come
back to check on us.” It was night and Piohray was in the sky
again, though not quite as full. Ryallon’s other moon Siahray was
just beginning to rise as well and its soft blue glow was tinting
the red to make a beautiful lavender color through the trees to the
east.

They had made good time that day in the
mild, late summer air. A gentle breeze brought the hint of autumn
with it. Tathan and Liselle talked of autumn days in the valley and
the leaves that turned beautiful colors. It brought fond memories
and a bit of sorrow. They held hands for a bit while talking,
giving each other strength and comfort.

The knight had marked a good place for lunch
and they had rested midday. Then, just before sunset, they found
another marking leading off into the forest a little way where a
firepit was laid out with extra wood next to a stream. He was still
looking out for them, but they hadn’t seen him at all.

“I think he’s fine,” Tathan answered. “It’s
hard for him to watch our affections.”

“I know,” Liselle replied with a sigh. She
felt bad for the knight. Not having a body was unimaginable to her.
What she hadn’t mentioned was that she believed there was something
else wrong. He was in pain and something was making him suffer. She
hadn’t figured out what it was and couldn’t do so if he wouldn’t
come around.

In addition, the flowers told her something
was haunting the knight. Liselle could communicate with flowers and
understood everything they told her, but the reality of a flower
was different from the reality of a person. His outburst the day
before had frightened her. Some days she liked Sir Danth a great
deal, but every once in a while he terrified her with his lust for
killing things. She could see it through the hollow slits where his
eyes should be.

Liselle knew that people lived behind their
eyes. The eyes were just a window and the soul protected itself
with a thick skull while playing on the energies of the brain. She
could see people and their energies when she was deep into using
magic, which was the manipulation of all the types of energy the
universe had to offer.

The knight was a little different because he
had filled his armor with the spiritual energy instead of operating
it through a body with a brain. Sir Danth’s soul was attached to
the armor, but the metal and the way the runes bound his soul to it
was tainting him. Liselle believed the knight to be quite mad and
dangerous.

Anilyia jerked Liselle out of thought when
she spoke. “Tathan, where does this stream come from?” The princess
was stroking his arm and had a leg over his lap. Liselle sighed,
but chose not to remark upon it when she realized her own leg was
on Vevin’s lap.

Tathan answered, “I don’t know. Let’s go
upstream a ways and see if we can find out.”

Anilyia jumped up. “Alright! Let’s go.”

Liselle rolled her eyes as she watched them
disappear into the foliage upstream. Vevin ran his hand up and down
her back. “They really are in love, darling. I think it’s nice.” He
smiled, showing sharp dragon teeth crowded in his mouth. Vevin had
tried making his teeth human once, but hated the feeling.

She stared into his slowly swirling,
liquid-silver eyes and caressed his cheek. “I know. It’s just that
she’s betrothed, and you’re not supposed to fall in love with
another man when you’re betrothed. Plus, if the wedding doesn’t
happen, then thousands of people could die in war and that’s the
whole reason we saved her in the first place.”

The fire was dying down and she wasn’t quite
ready to go to sleep, so she tossed on another piece of wood and
stoked the flames. Vevin waited for her to continue. She stood and
walked over to the stream to listen to the sound of it running over
rocks. Glowflies flitted about through the trees in a natural dance
of activity. A few nightflowers on the other side smiled at
Liselle. They had opened up their petals to Piohray’s moonlight.
Uncle Laremy had told her the red moonlight was a sign of evil, but
Liselle believed it to be the magical light of passion and love.
She was hoping to study it in the libraries in large cities she had
heard about. Vevin was teaching her to read, but they only had a
few books and it was taking her a while to learn.

Liselle turned to Vevin who was still
sitting on the log while swaying side to side as he watched her. “I
think the fire will be fine for now. Let’s take a walk in the trees
for a little while . . . in a different direction from those two.”
She gestured upstream where Tathan and Anilyia had disappeared.

Vevin chuckled and stood to join her. “That
sounds nice. I like walking with you.” He gave her a soft kiss that
she returned. They crossed the stream and went into the forest on
the other side. Four purple balls of light appeared and danced
above as they walked.