Swords of Waar (46 page)

He didn’t get much of that last bit, so I put it another way. “Nobody’s perfect, Lhan.
You
gotta fight your fears.
I
gotta fight my rage. And the thing is, when I’m with you, I can. I start to get my mad on and then I think, Lhan’s gonna die if I go off like a rocket. I gotta keep it together.” I shifted around and looked him in the eye. “Maybe that’s the real secret of this Dhan and Dhanshai stuff. It’s not just that we defend and protect each other, it’s that we make each other stronger too.”

Lhan held my gaze for a long moment, like he was thinking it all through, the suddenly he stood up from the window bench and bowed and crossed his wrists to me.

“Mistress Jae-En, I would pledge myself to you as a dhan of Ora should—heart, soul and arm. From this day forth, you will be my dhanshai and I will be your dhan. Your safety and well-being will be my only concern. Your love will be my only goal.”

Just like the last time he’d done it, my first reaction was to laugh. My second was to say yes and pull him into my arms, but it needed more than that. I stood up too, then crossed my arms and bowed to him.

“And I would pledge myself to you as a woman of Earth—with my heart, soul and arm. From this day on, Lhan-Lar of Herva, you will be my dhan and I will be your dhanshai. Your safety and well-being will be my only concern. Your love will be my only goal.”

Lhan looked a little shocked as I finished up, but then he smiled. “Ora may not find it proper or correct, but for you and I, it is as it should be. I accept your pledge.”

“And I accept yours.”

I spread my arms, but he stayed where he was. “May-may I have my balurrah back now?”

I laughed, then took it off my neck and held it out. “Come get it.”

He reached for it, but I caught his hand instead and pulled him to me. We kissed. There was another horn blast above us, but neither of us looked up. It was a damn good kiss, and it was making up for a lot of lost time. It was also making me weak in the knees—and hot and slippery a little further up. Lhan seemed to be getting kinda excited too. We were still as naked as we had been when we’d escaped the temple, and I could feel him getting hard between us, and climbing up my leg.

I checked out the window. The Oran navy was about a mile away and closing fast. I looked into Lhan’s eyes.

“If we’re gonna die here, I wanna chance to make good on this vow of ours first. Whaddaya say?”

He tied his ballurah around his waist, smirking. “I say, I have never been propositioned with such poetry or romantic fervor. You take my breath away, beloved.”

And then he pushed me back on the bench and buried his head between my thighs.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

TORRENT!

Y
ou know, I hope the Oran navy has binoculars, ’cause I really wanted the fuckers to see me leaning out that window ten minutes later, flipping ’em the bird as Lhan bent me over that bench and pounded the living hell out of me from behind. I wish they’d been close enough to hear me moaning and gasping. I wish they’d been close enough that I coulda told ’em I didn’t care how many ships they had, or how many swords, or how many wands of blue fire, or that I was gonna die. None of that shit mattered, not one goddamn bit of it, because after being thrown around to Waar and Earth and back, and after all the fights and the fighting, I was with Lhan again, and this time it was right.

Five minutes after that, though, I completely forgot the Oran navy even existed. By then, Lhan was lying back on the bench and I was riding him like a pony on a merry-go-round, with molten honey bubbling and boiling inside me so strong I couldn’t think thoughts or say words, just bounced harder and faster and harder and faster until, with Lhan bucking beneath me, I came like a steam hammer, jerking and grabbing the sill so I wouldn’t fall out the window.

After a minute of just lying there, panting and half-out the window, I slumped down beside Lhan and we held and kissed each other and caught our breaths, sweat dripping off our bodies. But then I noticed it wasn’t all sweat. Something was splashing on my face.

“Lhan, what are you—?” I opened my eyes, then squinted as wind and water blew through the open window. I stared, stunned.

“Lhan. Lhan, look!”

Lhan moaned and raised his head, still groggy. Then he stared too.

“Rain! Mistress, it worked. You’ve done it!”

And we weren’t the only ones who noticed. A big cheer came from above us, and I could hear a lot of whooping and hollering.

“
We
did it, Lhan.”

I gave him a kiss on the cheek, then pulled away from him and stood up, feeling better than I had since… since before the priests had sent me back to Earth.

“Come on, let’s find some clothes and join the celebration. It’ll be our last bash before we die.”

***

But by the time we got up there, it was too wet for much of a celebration. The wind was picking up and the rain was blasting in under the canopy like a shower head, and the pirates were done whooping it up. Kai-La had half of ’em climbing up the shrouds to secure the sails, while the others were still at battle stations. Shal-Hau and Sei-Sien were huddled in the lee of the foredeck, staring out at the slashing rain. Sei still had the same look of dumb shock on his fine-boned face that he’d had when he’d been staring at the burning temple, but Shal-Hau beamed at us as we splashed out onto the deck.

“A miracle, friends! A miracle!”

I grinned. “Didn’t we tell you? We freed the water!”

“Aye, but I did not believe it would bring the rain so quickly. You have saved all the farms in Ora.”

Kai-La laughed and turned to us, water flying from her hair. “And us as well. Look!”

She pointed over the aft rail. Lhan and I looked, but there was nothing to see. In the few minutes it had taken us to pull on some clothes and make our way up to the deck, the rain had become a shimmering gray wall, so thick I couldn’t see more than fifty feet out from the deck. The Oran navy had completely disappeared. Hell, it was hard to see the other ships in Kai-La’s fleet, and they were right beside us. Even Ku-Rho’s massive man-o-war was nothing but a smudgy ghost off to our left.

I shook my head, amazed. “Well, fuck me sideways. Visibility zero.”

Kai-La clapped a hand on my shoulder. “You and your rain have saved our skins, lass. The navy will never find us in all this.”

She turned to Burly, grinning through the rain. “Halan. Tell the signalers no horns. We wouldn’t want the navy following our tune. Break out the flash lanterns, and give order to rise. We will take to the clouds!”

“Aye, Captain!” He turned to the crew, clapping his big hands and striding across the deck. “Haul out those lamps, lads and lasses. Lively now! And make ready to drop ballast!”

As the pirates hurried to follow Burly’s orders behind us, Lhan and I stepped away from Shal-Hau and Sei-Sien and stood at the rail, letting the heavy rain wash over us. We stared out at the torrent for a long time, mesmerized, then Lhan looked down. I followed his gaze.

It was impossible to see the ground, just a gray vertigo of rain, dropping away from us, but I could imagine it—dry earth turning to mud, withered roots soaking up water, thirsty animals coming out of their holes and lapping at new puddles, farmers stepping out of their houses and staring up at the sky like we were staring down, little kids opening their mouths to catch the drops.

Lhan squeezed my hand. “You were right, beloved. One woman
can
change the world.”

I squirmed, embarrassed, though I gotta admit I was pretty much saying the same thing to myself.

“I just hope it’s changed for the better.”

“Of course it is. How could it be otherwise?”

I got a sick feeling in my stomach, like he shouldn’ta said that, but then he wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me full on, and my worries washed away. I kissed him back, folding him up in a big pink hug, and we just stood there, melting into each other, as the ship rose up into the clouds and the deck and the crew and the rigging disappeared one by one into a thick white nothing, until Lhan and I were the only things left in the world.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my darling Lili for her patience and encouragement, to Howard, Sue, Grey, and Molly for early reads and showing me the way forward, to Ross for his understanding and insight, and to Bob for his perseverance and good cheer. Without all of you I’d still be rewriting the second act—again.

about the author

Nathan Long is a screen and prose writer, with two movies, one Saturday-morning adventure series, and a handful of live-action and animated TV episodes to his name, as well as ten fantasy novels and several award-winning short stories.

He hails from Pennsylvania, where he grew up, went to school, and played in various punk and rock-a-billy bands, before following his writing dreams to Hollywood—where he now plays in various punk and country bands—and writes novels full time.