“You are mine and shall be so forever,” he whispered as though pronouncing a blood oath. “Woman, do not forget the words I speak to you.”
And then his lips took mine, crushing them with the strength of his desire, making my head swim. I clung to the arms of him, knowing there was naught I might do to halt his desire, knowing too that there was naught I wished to do. My body burned where his hands touched my flesh, and I writhed in his lap, consumed by the need he had brought upon me. So quickly and easily was my enslaved body made his, captured more surely than by the points of spears, held more tightly than by the weight of chains. I moaned as I twisted about against him, feeling the strength of his awakened manhood upon my body, fearing that he would laugh and push me from him as he had done other times. My fears were unfounded, however, for Ceralt’s need raged as high as mine. The breech was torn away from my body, and then I was thrust to the lanthay fur and entered so strongly that a gasp was forced from me. Ceralt’s body drove at mine, causing me to cry out even as I rose to him; and it was many reckid before the storm passed from him. At last I lay in his arms, still in his possession, knowing that had I not been told of Mida’s wishes, I would indeed have considered myself his. The smell of him was strong upon me, marking me his as clearly as his presence within me, and had it not been contrary to the way of Midanna, I would have wept for the loss which would be mine. Ceralt would be taken from me, likely by Mida’s will, and should that be so, there was naught I might do for it.
“She has truly become much of a woman, brother,” came Lialt’s voice from above me. I raised my eyes to see that he studied me openly with a grin, Telion also agrin by his side. “I look forward to my use of her this darkness,” said he.
“I, too, feel so,” agreed Telion, resting his arm upon Lialt’s shoulder, silent laughter in his eyes. “Such use is greatly preferable to the hiding I had wished to give her.”
The two males stood gazing down upon me, and Ceralt’s eyes joining theirs in appraisal. “Is this what you wish, wench?” asked Ceralt most softly, his right hand gently rubbing at my breast, his light eyes soberly upon me. “Should it be contrary to your desire, I must hear words from you.”
The lanthay fur beneath my back was not the best of resting places, for as I writhed somewhat to the stroke of Ceralt’s hand and the throb of his strengthening presence, the fur seemed to whisper weakness to me, greater weakness than I had yet felt. Ask to be kept as his alone, whispered the fur, stroking my bottom as my hips began to move. Beg him to keep you from the others, it urged, tangling gently with my hair where it lay crushed beneath me. Ceralt slid slowly about within me, forcing a moan from my lips, his gaze becoming more demanding, yet I could not speak such words. Lialt and Telion watched with amusement as Ceralt extracted slave-due from the once mighty Jalav, and to add to the humiliation of such a state was beyond me.
“I cannot,” I whispered to Ceralt, agonized to my soul. I knew he would leave me with need full upon me, yet I could do no other than as I did. I awaited his withdrawal, awaited the aching emptiness, yet it was not to be. A sadness touched the broad, strong face of him, and then his lips came briefly to mine.
“Patience will see it done,” he murmured, more to himself than to any other. “The fey will come, and upon that fey I will be there.”
Then he held me more tightly in his arms and saw to the need of both of us. It must surely be the doing of Mida that thought is impossible at such a time, for had it not been so, I would have spent the pleasure in demands for understanding. When he left me at last and stood to see to his leathers, I lay upon the lanthay fur, still held by the memory of his use. So strong was this Ceralt, so filled with satisfaction for a warrior. Ah, Mida. Do you take him so that he might be brought to your Blessed Realm for your own use? If so, your war leader bids caution. This male is one who might find the means to enslave a goddess.
“You have rendered her useless, Ceralt,” came Lialt’s voice, more mockery than annoyance therein. “I had hoped to give her a reading lesson, and now it must wait till her mind returns to govern her flesh.”
Lialt’s words and the laughter of the other males came to me where I lay in the fur, yet I felt no shame at the way I stretched and wiggled about. Ceralt was a male like no other, and the pleasure he gave belonged to a warrior. I rubbed my face and body in the lanthay fur and smiled my satisfaction, and each of the males laughed even further.
“She seems to find little disappointment in the loss of a lesson,” chuckled Ceralt, replacing his leather body covering. “It would indeed be futile to attempt teaching her now, yet the matter may be seen to later. Hannil and the others may not arrive till darkness has fallen.”
“We are as prepared as possible,” said Lialt, the laughter having left him. “Should the skies refrain from burying us in snow, we shall be able to begin the balance of the journey with the new light.”
“There are a number of things we must discuss before Hannil’s arrival,” said Ceralt, going toward his body furs at the tent’s entrance. “Walk with me, brothers, and give me your thoughts to add to mine.”
The males each donned body furs and left the tent, thinking no more of the female who lay naked in the fur, she who had been made to writhe to a male. There were weightier matters to concern males than a female who had been used and left, and I sat up bitterly, no longer in the grasp of pleasure. How was such dismissal accepted by village females? Had they no pride, no sense of self, that they lived no farther in the world than the shadow of their males? Was I, war leader of the Hosta, foremost of all the clans of Midanna, to accept such dismissal in a similar way? A growl came to my throat and I rose to my feet to find and replace the breech Ceralt had torn from me. To live with no purpose in life was to live not at all, yet I had purpose aplenty before me. Mida had spoken, and I would ride in the cause she wished to see me tend to, and then would males be dismissed from my thoughts. I put my hand to my hair and rubbed at the scalp, easing the place where Ceralt’s grip upon my hair had been so tight, then turned to the clearing away of the boards which had been fed from. My thoughts turned to the males who had served me, and the grimness dropped slowly from mind.
The boards had been cleaned and returned to their places when there was movement at the tent entrance. I had been considering dressing and going forth into the cold once more, to walk about in the snow and lose myself to my thoughts, when the tent flap moved aside and she called Famira entered. I knew not why she should be there, yet the tent was not mine to defend against intrusion. The village female stood no more than a step within, her face flushed from the cold of the fey, her eyes startled as she took in my form, clad in no more than leather breech. I cared little for her or her startlement, yet when I failed to address her, she took it upon herself to begin.
“I would enter and speak with you,” she said, the words coming slowly and with difficulty. Her hand brushed the hood from her head, and she looked upon me squarely, her gaze not avoiding mine.
“You have entered,” I returned, standing straight and folding my arms beneath my life sign. “You are also speaking.”