“And you’re just going to stand there and watch?”
Drake grinned, his golden tooth glinting. “I was thinking of joining you.”
Beck looked as though she was considering the idea, and leaning towards telling Drake exactly where he could go.
“You first,” she said. “And if you try to touch me when I get in, I will drown you.”
Unbuttoning his shirt proved to be fairly difficult with a broken arm, but Drake guessed that asking Beck for help would result in a less than favourable response, so he laboured alone, dropping the shirt to the ground along with the sling that held his arm in place. He had to sit to remove his boots, and then pulled his belt free, letting his britches drop and stepping clear of them. Naked as his name day, save for the charm attached to his wrist and the ring on his finger, Drake stood in front of Arbiter Beck, grinning. She didn’t return the smile. He saw her eyes dart all over his body, a frown forming on her face as she took in his scars and tattoos.
“These things safe to take a dip?” He nodded towards the charm on his wrist.
“They’re waterproof,” Beck said, her eyes momentarily dropping to Drake’s crotch.
“Good.” Drake tucked his right arm close to his body, an act which brought eye-watering pain, and leapt into the pool. He plunged into the hot water, and the sudden change in temperature threatened to take his breath away. With his eyes closed he could see nothing, but he didn’t need to see. Water had always been Drake’s element, and his mother had used to say that she couldn’t believe he’d been born without gills. The Drurr had used all sorts of water-based tortures on him, and although they still hurt and ached, and had almost broken him, they’d never seemed as bad as the ones involving fire.
Drake used his left arm to propel himself to the bottom of the spring, and his feet soon touched the rock. He could feel the heat coming up from the earth, warming the water. He pushed off the bottom, swimming upwards quickly until his head broke the surface.
Kicking lethargically to keep himself at the surface, Drake used his good hand to push his hair back and wipe the water from his eyes. He found himself looking at the cave, so he turned back to find Arbiter Beck undressing next to the hot spring. Her hat was on the ground and her golden hair was spilling down around her face, lank and grimy from many days of poor treatment. Her jerkin, along with the brace of pistols, had been discarded, and she was busy undoing the last button on her blouse when she noticed Drake had resurfaced and was staring at her.
Without a word, Beck popped open the last button and dropped her blouse to the ground. Drake gawked at her breasts. He’d seen a fair few pairs in his time, and he’d happily admit that the Arbiter’s were very close to being the best. Some sagged, others were too perky, but Beck’s were right there in the middle, and large enough for a handfuls a piece. He’d already pegged Beck as a woman who enjoyed the attention of men, and he was more than happy to give her his, full and undivided.
“Are you done?” She raised an eyebrow, and Drake barely even felt her compulsion.
“Oh, I could happily stare at those all day.” He grinned, and spared a moment to quickly lock eyes with her. Unfortunately she chose that same moment to drop her britches, and Drake couldn’t help but drop his gaze again.
Treading water was becoming difficult with only the one arm, so Drake swam backwards a little and grabbed hold of the wall of the spring, spitting out some of the foul-tasting water.
“Very nice,” he said as Beck stood before him as naked as he was, putting herself very much on display.
With a snort she stepped forward and disappeared beneath the surface of the pool. Drake looked down through the clear waters and saw Beck below him. She‘d swum down to the bottom, just as he had, and now appeared to be looking up at him.
When Beck resurfaced, Drake treated her to one of his more genuine smiles. He could still just about see her breasts, distorted only a little by the rippling water, and it wouldn’t have been untruthful to say he was finding it hard to calm himself. She pushed her hair back and smiled – possibly the first real smile Drake had ever seen on her face.
“You were right,” Beck said, her voice a little softer than usual. “It really does feel good. It’s been so long since I’ve felt anything close to clean. Honestly, how do you pirates live like this?”
Drake laughed. He was leaning against the wall of the hot spring, kicking slowly, with his good arm draped over the side. He watched Beck clean a month of dirt, sweat, and grime from her skin.
“This is nothing,” he said. “Few weeks, maybe a month at sea, with minimal bathing opportunities broken up with some time on land, where bathing is pretty much required. Besides, you oughta try getting yourself locked up in a dungeon deep, deep underground. Soon changes ya values on what exactly ‘clean’ means.”
Beck looked at Drake as she wrung water out of her hair; it was fairly obvious she didn’t believe him. “I can’t imagine who would want to lock you up.”
“Let’s just say your Inquisition did a piss poor job of wiping out the Drurr.”
Beck laughed. “This is where you tell me it was a Drurr matriarch who locked you up because she was in love with you.”
Drake tried to laugh but couldn’t quite force it out. “Aye. That’d make for a fine fucking story.”
Beck turned different eyes on him then; not the iciness that he was used to, but deep blues filled with endless pity. “I’m sorry, I thought…”
“Reckon you’d prefer to bathe alone.” It took more willpower than Drake would have liked to admit, even to himself, to turn away from the naked Arbiter. But he did, and then proceeded to scramble, claw, and roll free from the hot spring, earning himself a few scrapes along his good arm. His body protested at being out of the water, and all the aches and pains the soothing spring had been suppressing made themselves known again. Drake heard the Arbiter swimming across the pool towards him. He ignored her and started walking towards the cave.
“Wait.” Beck grunted as she pulled herself out of the pool. “Drake, I’m sorry.”
Drake stopped, and let out a sigh. It took some effort, but he wiped the frown from his face before turning around.
Beck stood there naked and dripping wet, with an expression so earnest it was almost painful to see. Drake had seen many attractive women in his time, and until that moment he would have named Rei Chiyo the most beautiful, but the little Empress of the Dragon Empire was only seventeen and, in many ways, still a child. Arbiter Beck was no child, and her body proved it. Drake found himself at a loss for words. He stood there staring at the beautiful sight before him, and the earth moved beneath his feet.
Beck’s eyes went wide and she dropped into a crouch, her hands going to the sides of her head. It took a moment longer for realisation to dawn on Drake, even as the geyser erupted behind him.
The noise was a deafening roar that blasted all thought from his head and scrambled his senses. Drake felt his legs buckle just as the force of the eruption hit him, and the world twisted. For a brief moment he caught a glimpse of boiling steam rushing into the air, and then he hit the rocky ground hard, and the pain brought on a whole new set of problems.
The world was still twisting above Drake, swaying from side to side in a manner that usually only the truly dedicated drunkards would experience. There was a persistent and loud ringing in both his ears that wasn’t only painful, but was also making him nauseous. Drake punctuated that particular torment by retching up what little was left in his stomach. His body felt like bread dough, beaten, battered, flipped, beaten again, and finally left to bake at an uncomfortable temperature. He would have expected the experience to have brought back painful memories of his time in Drurr captivity, but his memory was in open revolt and refusing to take orders.