TWELVE

PASSION’S POWER

The creek resumed its own babbling tune. For a while its chattering had been relegated to the background, almost as though it feared to impose on the power of Alecsis’s song.

“What does it mean?” Antano asked, wringing the last of the water from his breeches. Laying them out beside his drying tunic, he turned back to the big, blonde man crouched on a similar rock under an overhanging tree branch.

“‘Tis a holy song. Homage to a God whose name I have forgotten,” Alecsis answered as he started scrubbing his soiled top. Lorenso had the forethought to include some scented soap in his pack, its fragrance still clinging to his skin.

Lorenso had cancelled the unnerving invisibility spell not long after Alecsis woke, saying the troops searching for them had come and gone. Alecsis never had handled that spell well. Something irked him about being no more than a shadowy outline. Once his perception of himself had returned to normal, Alecsis was relieved to see his wound had become nothing more than a thin mark upon his skin.

Feeling exhilarated by his rejuvenating sleep, he’d taken off at a run through the forest, almost falling head first into the stream they were now bathing in. He had no recollection of the tortuous healing process during the night, just as he couldn’t remember from whence he’d learnt the melodic verses.

“It isn’t an Avionan dialect, is it?” Antano asked, stretching out on his rock. Now completely naked, his honey-brown skin glistened in the afternoon sunshine.

“Nay,” Alecsis replied, wishing he could lie in the sun for hours like Antano.

“How is it ye can recall the words to the songs, but not how ye came to learn them?” Antano asked.

Alecsis shook his head, causing a wave of drying hair to fall in his face. Sweeping it back with a free hand, he stared up at the embankment. “Sometimes I wonder that myself.” A flicker of colour caught his eye. Instinctively he knew someone was crouching behind one of the pink flowering bushes, watching them.

With a swift, fluid movement, Alecsis grabbed his sword and jumped to his feet. “Show yourselves, or suffer the consequences,” he bellowed, conscious of Antano staring up at him in alarm. “Protect yourself,” he hissed at the youth. Needing no further encouragement, Antano dived head-first into the water, not surfacing until he’d reached the other side of the creek.

“That be the kind of armour I like to see a knight in,” a shrill, highly amused voice cried out from above.

Alecsis acted on instinct. Swinging The Holy Avenger up in an arc, Alecsis severed the sturdy tree branch, sending it and its occupant tumbling into the creek with a loud splash.

A bedraggled figure hauled itself up out of the water, but stopped when the point of Alecsis’s sword touched its chest. Scrambling back, the individual blinked up at him. “Is that the way ye treat yer intended? ‘Tis I, Karina.” Reaching up, she loosened the ribbon from her dripping hair, letting it fall freely over her shoulders.

Slowly Alecsis lowered his sword, recognition dawning. “Karina?” he croaked. “Is that really you?”

She nodded solemnly, water running into her eyes.

So used to handling possibly dangerous situations with force, Alecsis barged on with his interrogation. “What do you here, and why are ye dressed in a boy’s tunic?”

“I came to find you,” she whispered. For the first time he noticed the way she was staring up at him. With a gasp of embarrassment, he clasped his free hand over his privates.

Karina saw the flush spread across his face and creep down his neck. She couldn’t help smiling at his belated modesty.

Propriety sweeping his embarrassment aside, Alecsis extended his hand. As she placed hers into it, he lifted her onto his rock. “Now ye can look directly into my eyes as you answer my next question. What on earth possessed ye to undertake such a dangerous mission?”

“Because I love you, because I was worried about you, particularly with ye being so badly injured,” she answered, sliding her arms around his waist.

Her fingers against his skin sent a spear of longing through him. Never having felt a woman’s hands against his bare flesh, Alecsis began to tremble. She hadn’t been repulsed by his naked body, after all.

If he wasn’t mistaken, a touch of desire tinged her midnight blue eyes. He should have known better. Karina loved him for who he was, not what he looked like. A swirl of elation coiled around his heart and warmed his soul. “It has healed, as you have no doubt already noticed.”

“There’s not a mark on you.” Karina smiled, and moved one of her hands round to caress his stomach where the wound had been. His skin felt warm and smooth under her touch.

“Wh- who are you travelling with?” he asked shakily. “I saw another figure.”

“Nira, my maid.”

Reluctantly he pulled away from her and turned back to the embankment. “Ye can come out now,” he called.

“She already did. See!” Karina pointed behind him, and Alecsis turned to watch the dark-haired maid swimming through the creek towards Antano. “Nira seems to have taken a liking to him. Methinks we should leave them alone for a while.”

Alecsis returned his attention to Karina. “If she be anything like you, he won’t stand a chance.” He smiled, his green eyes twinkling. Releasing her, he bent to pick up his damp clothing. “We have a few things to discuss. Shall we take the opposite embankment?”

Antano and Nira had already disappeared as they clambered up the hillside where Karina had left her cloak. Alecsis collected his boots along the way, and stabbed the sword into the earth a few feet away from where Karina and Nira were camped. It glowed slightly at losing touch with its earth bound owner. As Karina sat down on her cloak, Alecsis straightened out his rumpled trousers, preparing to slip them on, but Karina reached for his hand.

“I prefer you in what ye’ve got on,” she said, pulling him down onto the cloak beside her.

“Why are you the only woman who finds my paleness attractive? You, who could have virtually any man in court.”

Karina’s mouth puckered. “That’s where you’re mistaken. My brothers can take any woman they please, but a princess must remain pure for her husband, usually a man chosen for her by her father. In many ways I have more restrictions placed on me than someone of Nira’s standing. I possess beautiful clothes and jewelry, but my life is not my own. ‘Tis why I made it so plainly obvious to my father that I wanted you. If I hadn’t, he would simply have married me off to some distant lord.”

Alecsis frowned, a touch of sadness shadowing his eyes. “Yer father really thinks so poorly of you?”

“‘Tis why I can’t wait to marry you and leave Scarthe.”

“Where will we go?”

“Wherever father thinks is suitable.”

Alecsis took a deep breath and swallowed hard. “Would it distress you unduly if we didn’t accept your father’s dowry and found our own way in the world?”

He knew he was asking a great deal. What woman of her standing would throw away her position to follow a mere knight into the unknown? Alecsis had almost given up on finding anything out about his past. If after three years all he received were fleeting flashes of dark emotion, he was prepared to let it lie. Instead he focused on the future. Alecsis could think of nothing more fulfilling than having Karina at his side.

“I would follow ye to the ends of the earth, Alecsis dearest,” she reassured him, gently squeezing his hand. “But I doubt my father would see it that way.”

“If I return with Prince Dorban he would have to honour my request. He hath already done me one injustice. He wouldn’t dare commit another.”

“My father can be a stubborn old mule when he wants to, but aye, honour would come into play, particularly if Uncle Dorban were present. My uncle is a good man. He would ensure you got yer reward.”

“Then we must urge him to come to Scarthe.” Alecsis moved to extricate his hand from hers, but Karina held it fast. “The day grows old. Braythe is three days away. We should be on our way.”

“Oh Alecsis!” Karina sighed. “Always doing what’s right, never listening to yer heart. How can ye sit there and not even give me a kiss?”

“I do apologize,” Alecsis murmured, suddenly aware of how much he wanted to do precisely that. Letting the bundle of clothes tumble from his grasp, he drew her close. Enveloping her in his embrace, he touched his mouth to hers and drowned in her sweetness.

They lay back on the cloak, mouths and limbs entwined in passionate embrace. Alecsis longed to go on kissing her tender lips forever. But eventually he drew away. For a moment they lay there gazing into each others’ eyes. Then Karina sat up, but Alecsis suddenly felt too weary to return to camp. For a moment he stared up at the late afternoon sky, a few wispy white clouds contrasting with the deep blue canopy.

Karina’s fidgeting attracted his attention. To his surprise, he saw she had removed her tunic, and was now unwinding the silk sash from her breasts.

“What are ye doing?” he gasped, struggling to sit up.

Placing a hand against his chest, she urged him back down. “What does it look like? I want to make our love whole.”

“We - we can do that on our wedding night,” he stammered, staring in wonder as her beautiful full breasts swung free. A shudder of desire rocketed through his loins, filling him with a searing heat.

“And what if there is no wedding night? What if we never reach Uncle Dorban’s court? Did yer night in the dungeon not prove how easily things fall apart? Love is everlasting, but its joys are not. What holds you back, Alecsis? Why are ye so shy?”

She leaned over him, the soft silkiness of her hair tumbling against his cheeks. He stared up into her flushed face, her dark eyes wide with passion. Weren’t virgin girls supposed to be reluctant and uncertain? Alecsis trembled, realizing he was the reluctant one.

How many times had he longed for a woman’s touch, yearned for tenderness to thaw the cold emptiness inside? And now that he had his chance he quivered with uncertainty. What foolishness had control of him now? Certainly not fear of King Rostan finding out. What could he possibly do to him except throw him back into the dungeon with the threat of his head on a stick?

She had offered herself to him. He’d be a fool to resist, and gently cupped her full, ripe breasts, rubbing his fingers over the hard nipples. She threw her head back in pleasure as he drew a pink bud into his mouth. He felt her hands in his hair as he tasted her honeyed warmth.

“I take it all back,” she giggled ecstatically. “Shyness does not describe what ye’re doing to me now.” She rocked against him, and he took his fill, drowning in her soft cleavage. His hands slid down her body to the downy triangle between her legs. He let his fingers explore the hot, moist folds of her womanhood. She trembled and writhed against him as he stroked and coaxed.

“Oh!” she gasped. “How did you know?”

“Know what, my love?” he whispered against her ear.

Karina couldn’t answer. She was too lost in the pleasures his gentle touch evoked. Shivers of delight sizzled through her body, and she collapsed against him, shuddering with release. Making love to Alecsis was everything she had ever dreamed of.

She lifted her head to look into his flushed face. “That felt incredible. But it’s not over yet.”

“You want more?”

“I want it all, Alecsis. And you want me too. I can feel it.” She started stroking his hot, yearning manhood. He shuddered with pleasure, but as his eyes dropped shut, something black and sinister slid into his mind. His eyes snapped open, and he focussed on Karina’s face. The revulsion faded, but it left him wondering where it came from. He realized he had wilted under her touch, and she looked at him in confusion.

“‘Tis all right, Karina. If you want our wedding night to take place now, I will happily oblige,” he said, banishing the unknown demons from the past. If he could not remember, then they couldn’t hurt him. He kissed her, gently at first, then with increased passion. Alecsis didn’t stop at her mouth, finding the sensitive spot at the base of her neck. Again she stroked him, coaxing him back to life.

Sliding her beneath him, he finally claimed her. Karina felt little pain, a sharp jab, then nothing but pleasure. She had what she wanted, after all, Alecsis’s soul bound to hers.

Alecsis had never felt such intense excitement. The shadows from the past were forgotten as he plunged into her hot, moist flesh. The burning ecstasy became almost too much to bear. With a shudder, he filled her eager body, moaning and clasping her tight. “Karina. Karina... I never knew t’would be like this.”

“Neither did I,” she whispered back, her body trembling with the same fierce passion as his.

“Never knew. Never knew,” he murmured again, collapsing beside her. He reached for the edges of the cape and drew it over them. Full of glowing warmth, he wrapped his limbs around hers.

Karina snuggled against him, conscious of his seed inside her. Let me be with child, she prayed to Lorin. I so want to be the first Avionan to give birth to a golden-haired baby.

Lorenso cursed the foolishness of youth. He stomped around the campsite like a bull seeing red. The four recipients of his wrath crouched well back, waiting fearfully for his tirade to finish. They all knew that enraging a wizard could have dire consequences. He was likely to cast an instant aging spell over someone to teach them a lesson. Karina feared it would be her. She had instigated the chase, after all.

“First I find you two frolicking stark naked in the creek,” the old magician pointed an accusing finger at Antano and Nira. Both ducked their heads, fearing a shaft of magic to emerge from the digit.

“Then,” he whirled around. “I find you two in the same state of undress, wrapped around each other on the grass. I can’t begin to contemplate what yer father will say when he finds out.” He pointed at Karina, who clung to Alecsis’s arm as though her life depended on it.

“As for you.” He stood over Alecsis. “Why couldst ye not wait? Why dammit? Answer me!”

Alecsis couldn’t. Normally a self-controlled person, he didn’t know what had come over him, other than the need to assuage the long, empty years of denial.

Karina had been so warm, so yielding, but he should have held back. He knew that now. She wasn’t some serving wench willing to accommodate any man who asked. She was a princess, a woman of royal blood. What right did he have to take her, particularly now that he had no idea if they would be allowed to marry?

“And why did ye deliberately disobey me, Karina? I told you we would return with Prince Dorban.” Lorenso threw up his hands in frustration. “I have a good mind to teach ye all a lesson.” He glared pointedly at each of them in turn. Nobody dared meet his glowering dark eyes.

He swung around again. “I will have to send you back,” he decided, hoisting up his wide sleeves to begin an incantation.

“NAY!” Karina shrieked, jumping to her feet. Grabbing hold of his arm, she finally met his angry eyes. “Please don’t do that!”

“Give me one good reason why I should not?”

“Because I love Alecsis. Because I cannot bear to be without him. I will not face my father without Alecsis by my side. ‘Twas I who urged him into the coupling. ‘Twas I who could not wait. Don’t blame Alecsis. His honour is still as strong as ever. He’s still the man he always was.”

“Is he, Karina?” Lorenso demanded harshly, wrenching his arm from her grasp. “I told ye yer presence would distract him. Where was his mind when he took you into his arms? Certainly not on our mission, and definitely not on prospective danger.”

Suddenly Alecsis jumped to his feet and faced the irate magician. “Have ye forgotten what it’s like to be young and impulsive? You were married once. You must have loved your wife.”

“But everything had a time and a place,” Lorenso retorted hotly. “Sit down. I will deal with you later.”

Alecsis remained where he was, and stared pointedly into the old mage’s eyes. “Ye’ll deal with me now.”

Lorenso muttered something unintelligible under his breath. “All right, Alecsis,” he said slowly. “Why did you do it?”

“Because I was overcome with emotion, guided by my body’s needs if ye will. Unlike other young men, I’ve never had the opportunity to... to experiment.” He spread his hands. “Nobody would have me. Karina might be of royal blood, but she loves me for who I am. She offered herself to me and I lapped up her tenderness like the starved man I was.” He tapped his forehead. “In my mind I know ‘twas wrong, but in my heart it felt right. It was the most beautiful experience in my life... I would do anything for her. I love her with every fibre of my being. I will never love another.”

For a moment silence hung in the tense air, then Lorenso heaved a heavy sigh. “So, ye refuse to let me send the girls back?”

“Absolutely not,” Karina retorted.

“I was talking to Alecsis.”

“Nay, they can come. Karina has cousins at Braythe. I’m sure they will be pleased to see her. And a princess rarely travels without her maid.”

“And her maid rarely leaves her side,” Lorenso said. “They shall sleep together, not with either of you amorous young pups. There shall be no frolicking in this camp. Is that clear?”

“Clear as crystal,” Alecsis answered. Crystal? He mused. What on earth was that? Something from his past no doubt. If he could recall the songs of his youth, and a strange substance called crystal, was it possible that his memories would eventually return of their own accord?

No, I don’t want them. They will only torment me. Stay where you are, past. Stay lost at sea. Turning on his heel, he stalked off to gather some wood to start a fire.