Brute (30 page)

“Do you have a bath?” Aric asked. He’d become used to the palace baths and was missing them already.

“Another two coppers if you don’t mind sharing. Want me to have my girl get it ready now?”

“Gray?” Aric asked.

Gray looked very eager. “A b-bath would be
lovely
.”

The landlady summoned a teenaged girl who was obviously her daughter, and while the girl ran off to prepare the bath, the landlady took her guests to their room on the second floor. The room was an enormous improvement over Aric’s old place at the White Dragon. It was spacious, as the proprietress had promised, and had a large window facing the harbor. The bed was made up with a bright, cheery bedspread; two low, overstuffed chairs were arranged in front of a clean-swept fireplace. The floor was white-painted planks with small rugs scattered here and there. Everything was spotlessly clean, and a bouquet of fresh flowers sat on the mantel.

“Dinner’s in two hours. We’ll lay a fire for you while you eat.”

Aric glanced at Gray, who looked a little tense. “Would it be possible for us to eat up here?”

The landlady shrugged one big shoulder. “I’ll have my girl bring it up when it’s ready.”

“Thank you.” Aric paid her twelve coppers and waited for her to close the door. Then he turned and touched Gray’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“I think so. D-dinner in our room is a good idea.”

“I thought the fewer people who see us, the better.”

“D-does it feel good to be on land again?”

“It does,” Aric answered, although in truth he still felt as if the floor were rocking beneath his feet.

After a few minutes of resting and settling in, Aric took clean clothes from his satchel for himself and for Gray. He was missing the palace laundries and couldn’t help but laugh at how spoiled he’d become over the past months.

The bath was located in a low-ceilinged room attached to the back of the inn. The girl had just finished getting it ready as they arrived, so she simply smiled, pointed at the towels and soap, then left. Aric bolted the door behind her and took a happy look around. The bathtub was much more ornate than he’d expected—sunk into the floor, decoratively tiled, and able to fit two men with no problem, even if one of them was a giant. The tiles were set in an abstract pattern that suggested waves and fishes, and vapor rose gently from the water into the cool air. The room had no windows, but a half dozen fat candles were set on shelves throughout, and a tidy fire roared in a tiled stove. A bench had been set in front of the stove, inviting bathers to relax in comfort as they dried.

“It’s g-good?” Gray asked.

“Take off your clothes and find out.” Aric was already pulling his shirt over his head. It took him a very short time to remove everything else and set it aside, and by the time he did, Gray was naked as well. Aric’s breath caught at the sight of him. He’d seen Gray unclothed every day for the past year—except on the ship, of course—but this was different. The chains were gone, and the Brown Tower was far, far away.

Perhaps Gray’s thoughts were running along the same lines, because he had a wicked grin and his cock was half-filled. “Will you scrub my b-back?” he asked with a slight purr.

“I’ll scrub anything you want.”

Aric took Gray’s hand and helped him into the water. A seat was built into the edges of the tub, and Gray squeezed himself in beside Aric. For several minutes they simply sat there, inhaling the slightly spiced air and relaxing. But when Aric reached across Gray to grab the soap, Gray took hold of his arm and began kissing it, beginning at the wrist and working his way up to the shoulder. When he got to Aric’s neck, he repositioned himself so that he was straddling Aric’s hips. Their cocks ground together under the water while Gray gnawed and licked at Aric’s neck, and Aric stroked the smooth skin at the small of the other man’s back. Aric let his head fall back and his eyes drift closed as Gray nibbled his way across a collarbone and then down to a hard, sensitive nipple. Aric clenched his teeth so as not to cry out. He didn’t know who might be listening and what reaction there might be to two men’s amorous activities in the bath.

Gray turned his attention to the other nipple, and Aric moved his hand so that he was cupping Gray’s ass. There was more meat on that ass than there used to be, and it felt solid and firm under his palm. He began to tease a little, trailing a fingertip just barely into the crease between Gray’s cheeks and then forward, to that wonderfully sensitive bit of skin just behind Gray’s balls. Aric’s skin felt too tight, the sensations almost too much, and all that he could think of was how damned good it was not to have the chains in the way. In fact, that thought inspired him to push Gray away from his chest and then pull him up close again so that Aric could kiss at the raised ridge of skin where the collar had been.

Gray made a needy little sound and then froze. Aric stilled as well, not sure what was wrong.

“Aric?” Gray said in a small voice. “Wh-what did you do with the k-k-k-key?”

It took several seconds for Aric to figure out what he was talking about, and then another few to remember the answer. “I… I think it’s in the satchel. I didn’t want to just leave it. I wasn’t sure if it would get someone in trouble if it was discovered. Why? I can throw it away if you want. I’d forgotten about it.”

“Th-there are probably m-m-m-more. And i-i-if there aren’t, th-th-they could j-j-j-just make m-m-more ch-chains.”

Gray’s stutter hadn’t been this bad in months, and Aric didn’t understand what was bothering him. “It doesn’t matter, Gray. You’re not going back to the Brown Tower. Not ever.”

Gray began to shake, and he buried his face in his hands, making it harder for Aric to understand what he was saying. “B-b-b-but I w-w-was s-safe there, you s-s-s-see? It w-w-w-w-was always th-th-the fucking s-same, b-but I kn-kn-kn-knew it. Knew e-e-every fucking s-s-s-stone. I d-d-d-deserved to b-be l-l-l-l— Fuck! L-locked away a-and I w-was and n-n-n-now everything’s new a-a-a-a-and so fucking b-b-b-b-big and I-i-i-i d-don’t kn-kn-kn-kn-know h-h-h-h….” His voice cracked and broke completely, and all he seemed to be able to do was howl into his palms and tremble. And then he was crying, and Aric realized it was the first time he’d seen Gray really cry outside of a nightmare.

Aric wrapped his arms around Gray and held him tight.

He thought of a bird, a sparrow his mother had kept in a cage. It had been a gift from Aric’s father, a little brown thing that would hop from one perch to another and peck at seeds from Aric’s baby-sized fingers and sing in cheery little bursts. His mother would whistle back at it, which always made Aric laugh. And then came that dawn when the sheriff burst into their little home and took Aric’s father away—the sheriff and some of the other Geddings had dragged him right out of that comfortable bed wearing only his trousers and with his hair all morning-wild. Aric’s mother had yelled at Aric to
Stay here!
and she’d run after the sheriff and her husband. Aric had crouched in the corner, frightened and confused.

His mother came back a while later. Her face was still as stone, and her eyes were dry. She’d gathered Aric into her lap and held him—much like he was now holding Gray—and she’d sung him one of her songs.

When the song was over, she set Aric gently on the ground. She walked across the room and took the birdcage off its little table, then walked to the open door. She opened the little latch on the cage, and after a brief pause, the sparrow flew away.

It didn’t go far, though. In fact, it flew back into the hut, and his mother had to shoo it out with a broom, after which she closed the door. But Aric could still hear it on the tree nearby, on the roof, on the little ledge outside the window, chirping and chirping away.

“Why, Mother?” Aric had asked, mystified why the bird didn’t simply fly away.

“He doesn’t know how to be free.” And she’d collapsed to the floor, her face hidden in her hands.

Three days later, the sparrow was still nearby when the sheriff came again—more quietly this time—and led Aric’s mother to the village square, her son close at her heels. Aric’s father had been brought into the square, and for a brief moment, Aric had been thrilled to see him—until he noticed the rope around his father’s hands, the fear on his father’s face. Aric stood and watched his father die.

The sparrow was there outside the hut when his mother took him home again. It sang as the Geddings came and took almost everything the family had owned. He could hear it singing—much more frantically now—as his mother drank from a silver flask. It only stopped singing that night, when Aric cowered in the hut, his mother’s corpse a few feet from him on the floor. The sheriff came one last time in the morning, maybe to see if there was anything he’d missed the afternoon before, and he discovered the body. He took Aric away, and as they walked down the path that led to the village, Aric looked in vain but couldn’t find the sparrow.

He liked to think it had finally learned to be free and had flown away. Maybe it had found some new sparrow friends. But even when he was very young, he had known that in all likelihood, the bird had starved or fallen to a predator.

“You’re not the sparrow,” Aric said.

The sheer nonsense of that statement was enough to halt Gray’s sobs and make him raise his head. “Wh-what?”

“This has… it’s all been a lot for you. It’s been a lot for
me
. I never expected to travel any farther than Tellomer, and I never thought I’d be a fugitive. I’m scared too.”

Aric hadn’t really meant to admit his fear—he was supposed to be the strong one now, the protector—but his words made Gray sigh and melt back against him, his head on Aric’s shoulder and his arms around his body. “G-good,” he mumbled. Which didn’t make any sense to Aric, but then Aric’s own comment about the stupid sparrow certainly made no more sense to Gray.

Gray was kissing him again. More softly now. His movements spoke less of hunger than of the need to touch and the desire to unite. He didn’t use his teeth anymore, just lips and fingertips and flicks of his tongue, and he began to arch and rock on Aric’s lap so that soon their cocks—which had softened while Gray cried—filled again. Gray’s movements were slow. If Aric tried to do more than tender stroking of Gray’s back, his lover tsked at him and slowed even more, so that soon Aric was floating in sweet torment as deep as the bath water. Deeper. As deep as the sea itself. And still Gray took his time and hummed and nuzzled and ran his fingers through Aric’s hair.

Gray kissed him squarely on the mouth. Aric could barely breathe anymore and didn’t care—what did he need with all that air anyway? He had everything he wanted, everything he needed, right in his lap and up against him, warm and pliant and firm, demanding and yielding, smelling of sea salt and spices and ale.

Aric’s climax took him by surprise, and Gray swallowed his moans like candy.

Eventually they did get clean. Aric soaped Gray, just as he’d promised, and then Gray soaped him, joking as he did that the landlady should charge a giant double for soap. They rinsed. Aric helped Gray out of the bath, and they stood in front of the stove to dry themselves with clean, lemon-scented towels. Then they dressed and headed back up to their borrowed room.

They had just settled in when a knock sounded at their door. Aric smelled their dinner even before he opened the door. The landlady’s daughter was there with a tray and a shy smile.

Dinner turned out to be a rich mutton stew with crusty rolls and some sort of tart green fruit Aric didn’t recognize. He was famished and the food was good, but not as good as what he’d had from the palace kitchens. That thought reminded him of Alys. He wondered if she was happy, and he fervently hoped she’d faced no trouble because of Gray’s disappearance.

Although it was still quite early when dinner was done, both of them were exhausted. Besides, they intended to set out again as soon as the sun rose. They stripped and climbed into the bed. It was plenty big enough for the two of them, and as the landlady had promised, the mattress felt new. But Aric’s missing hand was clenched tight. He’d barely noticed the ache over the past several months—it was only an occasional, passing nuisance—but now it hurt as much as when he’d awoken in Hilma Gedding’s bed and discovered that he was facing an abrupt change in his life. He tried to ignore the pain, or to imagine the ghostly hand slowly relaxing, but neither strategy worked. And Gray was next to him, tossing and turning restlessly.

“Is something wrong?” Aric finally whispered to him.

“I c-can’t….” Gray sighed. “The fucking bed is too soft.”

So Aric cuffed him gently on the shoulder and kissed his hair, then pushed him out of bed so he could drag the blankets down to the floor. Aric wrapped himself around Gray, then wrapped a blanket around both of them. Gray made a happy little sound and fell immediately to sleep, and Aric was not far behind him.

A
RIC
had become skilled at waking up when Gray’s dream had barely begun. Maybe even in his sleep he could sense the tension in his lover’s body. Aric was already smoothing Gray’s skin and crooning in Gray’s ear when the moaning began. Sometimes Gray would flail and kick during his nightmares, but now he was very, very still except for the rapid movements of his chest. Aric could feel Gray’s heart beating frantically, like a bird in a cage.

“No,” Gray breathed in a deep, hoarse voice. “Not yet.”

“Shh,” Aric said, although he knew it would do no good.

“Please keep him safe for me.”

Aric’s own heart tightened, and his stomach clenched.

“Please! Keep him free and happy.” Gray uttered a terrible groan, like the sound of a timber giving under too much weight. Then he shuddered, and although Aric couldn’t see him in the dark room, he could feel the tears that dampened Gray’s stubbled cheeks. The tears wet Aric’s face as he pressed their cheeks together.

“Ssh,” Aric said again. He was proud of himself for keeping his voice soft and steady. “It’s only a dream. I’m here holding you now, and I’m real.”

Gray didn’t say anything else. He shuddered again, this time so violently Aric almost lost his grip, and his throat made an awful clicking sound. Then he went completely still.