Dance With the Enemy (27 page)

He was on her within a few feet, though she’d made it far enough to see the thick, vine covered branches that covered the end – the door to her freedom. If she could just get to the other side…

Twisting beneath him, she fought with all her might, bucking against him, working against logic to get a sure footing that would allow her to thrust him off. “Shemek, please! If you truly care for me, you’ll stop this and let me go.” The sting of his palm against her face halted her movements. Shocked, she stared up at him sitting atop her, his hands holding hers to the ground, and for a brief moment she thought she saw the depravity in his dark eyes lift, replaced with sadness for a mission gone terribly wrong. “Shemek, please,” she whispered. “Please, let me go.”

He looked up for a moment, seeming to look beyond the tree covered exit. “We could have made a wonderful life together, Ya.” His voice was distant, higher and airier than she’d ever heard it. He looked back at her, through her. “You were mine.”

She shook her head, tears beginning to trickle down the sides of her face, wetting the hair at her temples. “No, Shemek. I have always been his and you’ve always known.” The look on her face was one of pity and sorrow.

He nodded, and Elenya took a short-lived breath of relief before the air was cut off from her lungs by his hands around her neck. “I can’t let you go. You know that. I can’t…”

She resumed fighting, though with his body straddling her torso, his feet hooked over her legs, it left her little room to maneuver, and more so with the intensified burning in her lungs. Billowing clouds took over her mind. She stared up at him as her body stilled, attempting to find a spark of reasoning in his brooding eyes.
Please
, she thought.
Dear God, help me one more time
.

The sound of the warriors gathering to leave for battle sounded in her ears, the thunder of a thousand horse hooves lulling her, pulling her into darkness. She felt so light, the hard ground giving way as she floated into nothingness.
I love you.
That one last coherent though formed along with a vision of her warrior’s face looming above her right before she closed her eyes.

Chapter 44

A woman shrieked. A man yelled. Elenya gasped as Shemek’s hands were torn from her throat. She opened her eyes briefly to see Cerissa advancing on her. Her limp limbs thwarting her escape from the woman who wanted everything she had. Was she working with Shemek? If so, who had screamed, and who had removed him from her?

She closed her eyes, too tired to try to make the pieces fit. A coughing spasm overtook her as Cerissa hooked her hands under her arms and pulled her toward the tunnel wall. The other woman sank down, holding her upright until the convulsions passed, then cradling her while she forced air into her aching lungs through a throat constricted and denied for far too long, now wracked by the bout of coughing.

Again she heard the thunder of horses, the ground beneath them vibrating with the growing sound. She opened her eyes to see her warrior and at least ten other mounted men advancing down the passageway toward her. Tahruk pulled up, stopping beside her and dismounting with the agility of one well-trained. His eyes darted between her and the expanded area before the tunnel’s exit. With effort, she tore her eyes from him and turned her head, gasping anew when he and the others began advancing on the two men at the end.

The battle between Shemek and Redahn was heated, quickly moving toward the vines and limbs that protected the passage from unknowing intruders. Swords clanked, steel against steel, as each man tried to gain the upper hand. Elenya sat forward, pushing away Cerissa’s hand, her own discomfort quickly forgotten. She noticed Redahn’s arm drop, once then twice, knew he didn’t have the strength after his injury to fight a man like Shemek who had been training with the King’s Elite Guard.

“Help him,” she tried to scream, though the sound came out as a screech through her chaffed throat.

“Now!” Tahruk roared. He and the other men charged forward when Shemek turned his back on them, the tip of his sword precariously close to Redahn’s neck. The latter man, having nowhere to go except through the brush, ducked down just as the others rushed them, thrusting Shemek through the branches. Elenya could hear his scream as he fell, saw Tahruk drop to his knees, his horror-filled
no
echoing through the passageway.

The other men backed away – the other men, minus Redahn. Elenya had watched in disbelief as Shemek turned and grabbed him, both men toppling through the opening. Elenya crawled to her husband’s side. She didn’t say anything, didn’t touch him. She simply waited.

“Brother.” The faint sound of Redahn’s voice filled her ears just before a hand pushed through the brush. Startled, she scurried backwards while Tahruk, already in motion, pulled his brother back through the vined branches. The force unbalancing him, both brothers ended up on their backs, side-by-side on the tunnel floor.

“Hellfire and damnation, Brother, are you trying to give me heart failure?” Tahruk turned his head to look at his younger brother. “How did you manage to avoid the fall?”

Still breathing heavily, Redahn shook his head. “When your body is gone, you have to rely on your other senses. When I realized earlier he was trying to force me through the brambles, just as I would have done to him given the chance, I managed to kick the rope over…”

“The rope?” Tahruk interrupted.

“The safety rope, to keep those without a stomach for heights from falling.” Tahruk nodded and Redahn continued, still breathing heavy between words. “I tried to move when you charged him, but he grabbed my ankle. Thankfully, I was able to get hold of the rope, though with his added weight, I slid down several feet before I managed to kick him off. With my arm, it was a bear climbing back up. Next time, consider checking for survivors before you drop in defeat, Brother.”

Tahruk frowned, though it was short-lived before he found himself encompassed in a huge bear hug from his brother, the two men laughing together much as they had as children.

Redahn broke away, looking around, his eyes coming to rest on Elenya. “Is she okay?” he asked Tahruk without looking back. She sat huddled close to Cerissa, her body shaking, even beneath the blanket offered up by one of the warriors who had yet to unpack his gear from the extended training session. The two men hurried to her, Tahruk wrapping her in his arms where she fell against his chest.

He held her until the tears subsided, the other men moving away to provide privacy to the small group.

“How did you know?” she managed to ask Redahn at last, her voice cracking still as she clung to Tahruk, afraid to let him go.

Redahn turned to Cerissa who nodded her head after a few seconds. “Cerissa told me. She came to the Dremis gathering to get me when Tahruk was nowhere to be found.”

Elenya turned to look at the other woman who smiled at her and said, “I’m not your enemy, my lady. I truly am a warrior from Goddai, hired by your father to assure your safety. When I saw Shemek slip into the secret passageway, I followed him, hopeful he was simply taking a shortcut to the castle. But when he turned back toward the tunnels that went into the family chambers instead, I knew something was awry. I tried to find your warrior and learned there’d been a mishap that had kept a group of the elite out longer than expected. That’s when I tracked down Redahn.” She shook her head. “I knew if I tried to fight that madman on my own I would only endanger your life further.”

“But… you tried to take Tahruk from me…”

Cerissa was already shaking her head before Elenya could finish her sentence. “No, my lady. I was merely testing your warrior and assuring he did not stray.” She looked at Tahruk and smiled before looking back at Elenya. “I agreed that his nicely filled bed was where he needed to stay.” She laughed a little before adding, “Besides, fending off his brother provided more than enough Sharanis fulfillment to last a lifetime.”

The brothers chuckled. Elenya looked at Redahn, attempting a smile through her tears. “You missed your chance for first pick of the unmarked maidens. My apologies, my lord.”

Redahn pressed his lips tightly together and nodded his head before shrugging. With a laugh, he said, “There will be other years, other maidens. Besides, you’d be surprised by the rare jewels one often finds in the leftovers.”

“No one but you, Redahn. You always dance in your own light, don’t you?”

“Better than dancing within my brother’s shadow, which seems to be the lot of the second son.” He smiled at his brother.

Elenya sucked in hard, her voice rising with emotion. She turned to Tahruk. “Please, I need to see my son.”

Tahruk nodded and helped her to her feet and up into the saddle of his warhorse. Before he mounted behind her, he instructed one of the other men to assist Redahn and Cerissa, and another was dispatched to fetch Doctor Jorian to bring him back to Zanak. Several of the men rode behind them taking Tahruk’s horse once they were assured the couple had entered the security of Zanak’s halls. Elenya had already promised she would never again unlatch the passage doorway, regardless of whether the person on the other side presented as friend or not. If this night had taught her one thing, it was that people are not always who they seem to be. Friends turned out to be the true enemy, and those believed to hate you might well be sent to keep you from harm. And she must learn to trust her own instincts.

Hours later, Elenya assured of Rennie’s safety and Tahruk certain of her health, the couple lay alone in their chamber. Thinking her asleep, her back against him, the warrior pushed himself up just enough to see her without disturbing her rest. Twice now, he’d almost lost her and someone else had saved her life. The first time, he’d distanced himself from her, afraid of what might happen should she conceive again through his desire for her. But the night had showed him there were far greater dangers, especially since Doctor Jorian had assured him she would be all right.

Silently, he cursed himself for pushing her away when she’d tried to make her desires known. No more. He would wait for her to show him again that she was ready, and never again would he close himself off from her. With a gentle stroke, he swept her hair back from her face and kissed her cheek, her ear, her temple. He buried his face in her honeyed-cinnamon locks and breathed deeply. Essence of Oleander. The scent fueled his desire, especially when she turned in his arms, a tiny moan sounding in her throat and her arms encircling his waist to pull him closer to her.

“Elenya, my love,” he whispered. He knew he should let her rest after all she’d been through, but his need for her surged uncontrollably, every bit as fierce as that first night she spent in his bed. His hands moving over her, forming a trail for his mouth to follow, he tasted every inch of her, searing her, marking her again as his – as a part of him, not some creature to be owned and used. She lay beneath him, her body responding with heightened need when his mouth again found hers. Breathless from the assault of his tongue against hers, she turned her face away, arching her back to press into him.

“Tahruk, please,” she whispered. “Please, make love to me.”

As the last light of the Dremis moon pierced the darkness of the room, Tahruk once again claimed Elenya, uniting them as one – spirit, soul, and body – in the only union that made either of them whole.