Olivia (102 page)

He thought about it.  “Huuk, I think.  Huuk or Thugg…but Thugg’s always been loyal even when he hasn’t been very nice.  I don’t think he wants to be tall as much as he just wants you, so if anything, this news might actually make him stand off.  Whereas Huuk would probably prefer Thugg in his pit, but for a chance to be
tovorak
should word come that Vorgullum is dead?”

“Fine.”  She turned to Wurlgunn.  “Go find this Huuk person and tell him that Sudjummar orders him to take Horumn and Tina to Hollow Mountain.”

Wurlgunn’s brows rose.  “Huuk could probably handle Horumn, but not both of them.  He’ll need someone to carry one of them.”

“Then that’s what you’ll do.”  Olivia’s fierce glare wavered; she touched his arm.  “Take a little time to see Beth first.  But please hurry.  And don’t answer anyone’s questions if you can help it.”

“But if they do ask,” Sudjummar called as Wurlgunn headed for the tunnels, “don’t lie.  As delaying tactics go, this isn’t bad,” he added, brushing at Somurg’s cheek.  “But I hope you realize that’s all it is.  A delay.”

“There is nothing wrong with you!” she hissed.  “
Nothing
!  I refuse to be stripped from you for such a
stupid
reason!  I refuse!”

Sudjummar finally looked up at her, his eyes deep with pity.  “Olivia, I know it’s hard for you to understand our laws, but they exist for a reason.  It takes a strong male to stand tall in these evil days—not cleverness, strength.  And I won’t kill a man just to keep you, and believe me, it will come to that.”

She stared at him until her eyes hurt.

He sighed and looked back down at Somurg’s sleeping face.  “We’ll play it your way.  For now.  We’ll see.”

CHAPTER FIVE

LOGARR

1

It seemed mere minutes had passed before the four of them left for Hollow Mountain (including Huuk, who made a point of saluting Olivia as he left to carry out his part in the mission he had been so honored to accept), but a glance at her watch told her it had actually been more than five hours. Wurlgunn spent most of the time in his lair with Beth, and Olivia was certain that he was not the gossiping kind, but Damark was right about him.  He didn’t have a secret-keeping face and he hated to lie.  By the following night, when she and Sudjummar made the official announcement, the entire tribe already knew Vorgullum had been shot, but all Olivia heard were words of reassurance and concern.  She dared to hope there would be no trouble.

The next day, Olivia even dared to venture into the commons alone, reasoning that to hide in the women’s tunnels would only make Sudjummar’s position that much more vulnerable.  Still, it seemed like things were all right.  She’d acknowledged Vorgullum’s injury, made certain to appear this morning on the arm of her metal-maker, and made an obvious point of placing Somurg in Sudjummar’s arms when he returned to the forge, but she was horribly afraid that the only person impressed by all her efforts was herself.

Now she sat making cord from sinews with the other women, wondering whether or not she would ever see Vorgullum again, when she became aware of a gulla standing before her.

She looked up warily.  It was Thugg, and he carried the point prong of an elk’s antlers—the trophy taken by a hunter who has stalked and killed the beast without aid.  “Oh damn it,” she said, deeply dismayed.  It seemed Sudjummar wasn’t right all the time after all.

“Olivia,” he said without preamble, “take this and come with me.”

“I’m busy,” she replied, ignoring the way the cave had fallen silent, the way her heart slammed against her ribs.  “Play with your antler later.”

“I am done with playing,” Thugg said firmly.  “You’ve lost weight.  You look pale.  Come with me, Olivia.”

Olivia stood up and turned to face him.  “Of course I lost weight.”  She spoke in the slow, impatient way of a woman addressing an idiot.  “I just had a baby and I needed to lose weight.  Of course I look pale.  I haven’t seen the sun in over a year.  And just why you should think that pale means unhealthy is beyond my comprehension since you furry people never even
knew
pale until we got here.  I am not coming with you.  I’m busy.  If there is something you want to say, say it, and let me get back to what I am doing.”

“Here is what I have to say.”  Thugg held out the antler.  “You can’t eat the metal toys that Sudjummar makes.  He is not providing for you.  I will.”

Olivia looked at the prong in his hand, then reached out and took it to look at it more closely.  “I’m supposed to eat this?” she inquired coolly.

There was laughter.

Thugg had brightened considerably when she took the prong, but didn’t seem to know how to react to either her sarcasm or the mockery from the crowd.  Flustered, he fanned his wings out to hide her from the others and leaned in close to hiss, “No, you’re not supposed to eat it, you’re supposed to be impressed.  That’s a trophy from a black-tail, damn it.”

“I’m not impressed.”  She put the bit of antler back into his hand.  “Now leave me be.”

“Leave you…?”  Thugg swept his eyes across the loose crowd.  “I’m not leaving you anywhere!  You…Where is Sudjummar?”

“Working.”

Thugg threw her a look of hotly mingled frustration, discomfort, and exasperation.  “May I speak with you for a moment in private?”

Olivia glanced at the other humans, who all stared back without a great deal of sympathy, then at the gullan females, who watched raptly, and finally, warily, at the men, who looked either envious or curious.  Something was happening, all right.  She supposed she’d better find out exactly what.  Olivia stood up, shrugging, and stepped into an alcove with Thugg, in full view of the others, but where their voices couldn’t carry as far.  “What is it?”

He scratched nervously at the side of his throat.  “How much has Sudjummar told you about challenges?”

“Just what I need to know to understand what I’ve already seen.”

He nodded, looking annoyed.  “Let me tell you what’s just happened,” he said.  “I gave you the trophy of my kill and you took it!”

“I gave it back,” Olivia said, her heart beginning to beat a little harder.

“That doesn’t matter, you still took it!  In front of everyone!  I don’t even have to fight for you now.  In the eyes of the tribe, you accepted me!”

She stared, horrified.  She wanted to disbelieve him, and if he had gloated over the information even a little, she would have.  Unfortunately, he looked just as uncertain as she and that left her no choice but to believe him.

“You are my mate now,” Thugg was saying.  “We need to go back before the others so that I can claim you.  Sudjummar should challenge me—”

“You mate-stealing dick!” she yelled, and made sure she yelled it loud enough for everyone to hear.  By the second wave of laughter, everyone had. 

“How was I supposed to know he wouldn’t be here? 
You’ve
got no business wandering around in the commons without your mate!”  He watched her nervously, then added, “Look, I know you’re not happy with me, but you need to come with me for now. Just to my lair.  I’ll go tell Sudjummar and see how he wants to handle things.”  Thugg winced.  “Probably with his fist in my face, but this isn’t my fault.  I won’t take you to my pit until he’s had the chance to challenge me for your return.”

“How very understanding.”

“This is not what I had planned!”

“Well, you didn’t plan things very well, did you?”

He looked guilty, but couldn’t argue.  Taking her by the arm, he brought her back out into the common cavern.  “You are all my witness!” Thugg announced.  “I claim this female as my mate.  I claim her son as my own.  Do you refuse me, Olivia?”

“No,” she said crossly.

“Good,” he said, dropping his voice.  “Good enough, let’s g—”  He broke off abruptly and shoved her back.  Olivia stumbled and swung around, ready to start yelling again, when she saw what he had seen.

A large male had shouldered his way to the front of the crowd and was coming towards Thugg, one that Olivia knew, although she had never seen him in the commons before.  He wasn’t really tribe, after all.

Thugg raised his hackles and spread his wings guardedly.  It was a pathetic display.  Logarr had six inches and maybe fifty pounds on him.  “What do you want?”

“To challenge for your mate,” Logarr replied, and sprang, a motion unexpected and strangely beautiful, his feet thudding into Thugg’s shoulders.  Logarr hopped gracefully over his opponent’s head as Thugg flailed.  Thugg managed to tuck his wings under him before his fall to the stone floor could snap them, but a gulla on his back was frighteningly vulnerable.

Logarr crouched, watching closely as Thugg flipped himself onto his side, got one knee beneath him, then brought himself to his feet.  At any moment in this defenseless time, Logarr could have easily knocked him down.  He chose to wait until Thugg was standing before striking out again.

Then he pounced, driving one shoulder into Thugg’s midsection and slamming him up against the wall.  Logarr backed up a step, then cracked his knee into Thugg’s stomach.  He allowed Thugg to drop, then brought his joined hands down between Thugg’s shoulder blades.

Thugg made a horrible sound—a belching, amphibious croak—and fell on his face, gasping.

Logarr stood over him.  All were silent, even Olivia.

Thugg reached up shakily and wiped blood from the corners of his mouth.  He tried to push himself up.

Logarr took a step back, giving him room enough to stand.

Instead, Thugg made a clumsy lunge for Logarr’s knees.

Logarr dodged easily and stomped hard on Thugg’s back, slamming him down flat again.  Then he waited, a man at peace with himself and the world.

Thugg spat something, but it wasn’t surrender.

Logarr scooped him off the ground, punched him the stomach, and threw him against the wall.  He held him there with a few more punches, and then let him slide back onto his face on the floor.  He stood.  He waited.  Then he picked Thugg up and slashed him open from his left shoulder to his right rib.

Thugg screamed, and hidden in the agonized sound was a single word: “Concede!”

Logarr glanced at Olivia.

She stared at him, unable to decide what she was feeling.  It had all happened so quickly and now she was faced with the thing she had feared the most. There was a storm of emotion inside her, but none of it could be identified.  There was no fear, no dread, only a kind of numb anticipation.

Logarr looked down at Thugg.  “You may not touch that female,” he said.  “You may not challenge for that female.  Your word on it.”

“My word,” Thugg said hoarsely.

“Break it ever, and I will hunt you out.”  Logarr led him over to a bench and sat him down.  “Whether she is mine or not.  My mark is on you.”

“I know the law.”

Logarr turned back to Olivia.  His gaze was steady and speculative.  “Will you come to my lair?” he asked, absurdly gentle.

She shook her head.

He nodded as if this were the answer he had expected.  “Then you will yield to me.”  It was not a question, but he watched her as carefully as if he expected rebuttal.

Time stood still while Olivia considered her options.  She could refuse, at which point Logarr would almost certainly march down the tunnel, haul Sudjummar out of the forge and beat him half to death.  Or she could yield, as Sudjummar had explained, as far as the victor’s alcove, and there refuse him, which might still cause Sudjummar no end of trouble, but was at least a painless way out of this mess.  She felt herself nodding.

He put out his hand and her own slipped into his grip.

Logarr led her out of the cavern, through a labyrinth of short passages and alcoves, to a very small room.  She could see nothing, but she could sense its smallness.  He felt his way cautiously ahead of her, found the bench she had known would be there, and put her on it.

“Do you intend to refuse me?” he asked.

“You’re damn right I do.”

“I see.”  The back of his hand brushed against her cheek; she twisted away.  He was quiet for a moment or two, and then he said, “I am sorry for what I am about to do, Olivia.  I wish that it had been anyone but you.”

Before she could move, before she could scream, he seized her.  Her back slammed down on the stone bench.  He levered her legs apart, pushing his way between her thighs where her kicking feet could do no harm.  Her skirt pooled up around her waist.  His hand came down over her mouth.  She clutched at his immoveable arm and heard him say quite calmly, “I am very sorry for what I am about to do.  This excuses nothing, but I want you to know it anyway.  I am very sorry.”

He parted her labia with two fingers and slid his hand down to lay his palm flat against her pussy.

Olivia tried once, futilely, to buck him off before he could finish whatever bizarre examination he was performing and then a bolt of something hot and white as lightning cracked from the center of his palm and up through her womb to explode in the core of her body.  She screamed against his hand as heat like acid unfurled out from her middle, burning into every tissue, scathing and licking through her with flames of agony.  She screamed and screamed and screamed, and finally her voice broke and she could make only a harsh rasp of terror and at that, he released her and stood up.

Olivia threw herself to one side, crashed into the hard ground, and scrambled blindly away from him.  He caught her again, hauled her up by the back of her belt and put her flat on the bench again.  He held her there with one hand, unfastened and removed his loincloth with the other.  He caught her kicking legs effortlessly and pried them apart, coming between her thighs to straddle the bench.

She felt the hot brand of his member press on her from behind and that heat inside her exploded again with white-hot blistering force.  His hands gripped her hips, lifted and tilted her, but for a long time he only rocked, not penetrating but only rubbing the hard length of him against her throbbing pussy in slow, even strokes.  She was aware of a wet, sucking sound as he moved, realized further that she was having a massive, closely-locked series of orgasms, each coming so fast and hard on the other that they melted together into a streak of intense, seething pain.