The Battle Lord's Lady (25 page)

Slowly she began to slide the length of her
body up and down his as he continued to build her passion with
himself. Water sloshed over the sides of the tubs, unheeded as
their rhythm grew steadily faster and wilder. He kept her pressed
to his groin with his free hand, and Atty clutched his shoulders,
using her knees to help her seesaw her breasts over his chest,
scraping his skin with her hard, tight nipples.

Their mutual release came without warning,
catching them unprepared for the power it contained. Their bodies
spasmed, and Yulen cried out as his fingers dug into Atty’s hips. A
bright, sharp pain arched through his neck, and he realized she had
bitten him inadvertently when she’d climaxed.

As they both drifted, semi-conscious in the
aftermath, Yulen wrapped his arms around her to hold her tighter
against him. Atty settled her forehead in the crook of his shoulder
and closed her eyes. The warm water enveloped them as it settled
back in the tub.

She knew he would have to get up soon and get
dressed to begin the emotionally grueling ordeal of standing over
and lighting sixteen funeral pyres. Lifting her head, she kissed
the golden stubble on his cheek. “I’ll be with you,” she told him
softly. He nodded silently, eyes closed.

While he was out there she would be with him
in spirit and soul, if not in body. She prayed it wouldn’t be long
before she could stand next to him and before his people without
trepidation. Because once that day came, all terms of their
conditions would be met, and they could finally have their first
night of true, unrestricted passion.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Enemies

Atty stood by the window all day and watched
Yulen as he personally tended to every family, spoke solemn words
over each wrapped body, and helped to light the wood below the
pyre. There was another man dressed in dark robes who remained with
him throughout each ceremony. She guessed he had to be their man of
faith for the compound.

At one point she caught Yulen glancing in her
direction. He must have known she would be watching from that
particular window. And although he made no gesture or motion that
he’d seen her, she knew he was aware of her.

The wind was blowing in from the northwest,
keeping the smoke from enveloping the compound. Still, the odor of
the burning bodies was inescapable. As midday approached, nine of
her victims had been sent to their eternal rest. The remainder
would be taken care of that afternoon. In the distance she could
hear a bell toll nine times, then seven more times.

Berta came with another tray. The amount of
food on it was tremendous, making Atty venture to ask the woman,
“Why do you bring so much?”

“The Battle Lord specifically asked me to,”
the servant replied. “Especially the milk. I was ordered never to
forget the mug of milk.” For the first time she paused and dared to
ask a question back. “What are we supposed to call you?”

Atty managed a sad smile. “What are they
calling me downstairs? Or do I want to know?”

Berta gave a little grunt. “They say your
name is Atty, but I thought I heard the Battle Lord refer to you by
another name once.”

She took a shaky breath. “My full name is
Atrilan Ferran. He’s the only one to call me Atrilan. Everyone else
calls me Atty...when they’re not using other choice words.” She
gave the woman a wary smile.

The servant woman nodded. She hadn’t missed
the wide swath of water overflowed from the tub onto the floor, nor
the shredded shirt when she’d come up to clean earlier.

“Atty,” the woman softly said to herself, as
if she were tasting it to see if it was palatable. “I’ll be back
this evening with your dinner tray.” Giving her a curt nod, the
woman left.

In the afternoon the wind shifted, but the
change in the weather had been anticipated. The remainder of the
funerals were on the opposite side of the compound where Atty
couldn’t watch, even though she could still hear the sounds of
crying and the crackling of flames. When the sun had passed over
the roof to the other side of the main lodge, she decided to lie
down for an hour. The sun was beginning its descent when she awoke
and saw the woman standing at the foot of the bed, watching
her.

Shaking the sleep from her eyes, Atty sat up
and scrambled back toward the wall. Her ears could catch no sound
other than the soft echoes of the dying fires in the distance. The
funerals were over. Tomorrow would be a fresh day.

“All I have thought about today is what our
people would do to you if I had you dragged out into the courtyard
and left you there for them,” the woman began darkly.

“Yulen would never allow you to do that,”
Atty returned. The woman couldn’t hurt her physically, and they
both knew it. The Battle Lord’s protection was absolute.

Madigan nodded. “True, but I can still have
my dreams, can’t I?”

“Why are you here?”

“I had to see you. I had to see for myself,
and witness for myself.” The woman walked across the room to peer
through the door and saw the damp floor still drying in the bath.
She took a ragged breath. “Knowing you’re here in his rooms, that’s
hard enough for me to have to swallow. But knowing he’s been having
you in his bed...” She bowed her head and placed a hand to her
face.

“You know Yulen never came to bed last
night,” Atty reminded her in a tight voice.

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
Madigan whirled on her. “What about the night before that? What
about tonight? And tomorrow night? And the night after that?” She
held up one balled-up fist and shook it at her. “Does he really
expect me to look the other way when he’s copulating with a Mutah
under this roof?”

Atty crawled off the bed but remained at a
safe distance. “Yulen hasn’t done that with me,” she informed the
woman.

The look of disgust that passed over
the woman’s face was like a blow to the stomach. “Don’t even
start
with your lies!”

“I’ve never had a man,” Atty told her, trying
to keep from breaking down. The woman’s hatred was so thick, it was
choking. “I’m still a virgin. Yulen told you that!”

Madigan reacted by grabbing one of the
dishes off the tray and hurling it toward her. “
Liar!
” Her aim was poor. Dish and food went
sliding across the floor.

“Go on!” Atty yelled at her. “Ask Liam!
Have him come up this minute and have him examine me! He’ll tell
you.
Then
will you believe
me?”

Mentioning the physician had an impact on the
woman. She took a couple of steps back but remained staring at her
for a long moment. “Why?” she finally asked. “What’s wrong with
you?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me.”

“Oh, yes, there is,” Madigan chuckled. “There
has to be. Or else Yulen would have already made you one of his
women. Oh, yes, I know my son. You’re too beautiful not to have
caught his eye, even with your morning glory hair.”

Atty cast her eyes downward as she shook her
head. How could she explain to the woman that how she looked had
nothing to do with Yulen’s decision to bring her to Alta Novis? How
could she make his mother understand the self-imposed torment they
were putting themselves through?

“Please. Listen to me,” she asked the older
woman. “I have this skill—”

“With a longbow,” Madigan interrupted. “Yes,
I know. I’ve heard nothing but stories about what you did since Yul
returned. I know I also owe you a thank you for saving his life
from that ferret. Well...you have my thanks,” she grudgingly
allowed.

“I saved his life because I fell in love with
him,” Atty told her softly.

“Oh, spare me your platitudes! You’re here
because he wants you to teach the men how to use the longbow. He
wants you to spill your secrets.”

Atty nodded. “Initially, yes. I didn’t plan
on falling in love with him. He never planned on loving me, either.
It just happened. And now we’re paying the price for it.”

“
Really!
” Madigan laughed, although her face still
showed her bitterness toward the Mutah girl. “How are you paying a
price?”

“If I lose my virginity, I will lose all my
ability with the longbow. My people have told me that all my life,”
Atty confessed, her fists clenched by her side. “Yulen has asked me
to be his wife, which would mean my giving up my skills, and I am
more than willing to sacrifice them for him. But I placed a
condition on his offer.”

“He pledged himself to you?”

“Yes.”

“And you accepted?”

“With one condition.”

“And that being...”

“His people have to accept me readily and
without prejudice. Until they do, I will not consent to be his
wife.”

Madigan’s bark of laughter rang in the
room. “Oh, that’s just too rich! How inconceivably naive of you!
Perfect! Just
per
fect! You
know you will
never
meet that
condition, don’t you? As long as I draw breath, I will
never,
never
accept you as
anything but the enemy!” she taunted.

A single tear rolled down Atty’s cheek.
“And Yulen has sworn to me he will not take me until I take those
vows with him,” she finished. “So, you see, you have nothing to
worry about. If your hatred for me never abates, I can’t take those
vows. And without the vows, Yulen won’t... What was the word you
used? Oh, yes. Copulate. Yulen won’t copulate with me.” Another
tear followed, but she was unaware of it. “I am here not just
because he brought me here, but because I don’t want to ever leave
his side. I want to stay with him, no matter what happens,
regardless of whether we ever become husband and wife. Regardless
of whether we’ll be able to lie in each other’s arms.
I...
love
...him, Madigan. And
you can’t change that. Never. No matter how hard you try, no matter
how much you wish it otherwise.”

“And I love her just as strongly,” Yulen told
his mother as he stood at the door.

Both women looked up in surprise, Madigan
with more anger in her eyes. “How long have you been spying on us?”
the older woman demanded heatedly.

Yulen entered the room, shutting the door
behind him as he lifted an eyebrow. “Spying? In my own bedroom?”
Glancing at Atty, he asked, “Are you all right?”

“Is this true, Yul?” the older woman asked.
“Is it true she’s a virgin?”

Yulen glanced at Atty, who nodded slowly.
“Yes, Mother, it’s true. If you don’t believe me, get Liam up here.
He’ll confirm it right now if you need proof. Unless you want to
check her yourself.”

The casual comment caused the older woman to
throw her hands up in defeat. “And you pledged yourselves to each
other, but with the condition that this woman be welcome in Alta
Novis?”

“Atty will prove herself. It will take time,
but it’ll happen,” Yulen swore. “Now, if you don’t mind, I want to
spend a quiet evening with the woman I love. Berta should be
arriving soon with our supper. In the meantime, Atty, would you
like to take in some fresh air? I know you’ve been cooped up in
here all day.”

Knowing she’d been dismissed, Madigan hurried
out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Atty looked back at
where Yulen stood with his hands on his hips, his eyes cast
downward. “Please forgive her. My mother is a very bitter woman,”
he began. Atty hurried over, shushing him.

“No more. I don’t want to talk any more about
her. Did you say fresh air?”

He lifted his head and graced her with a
gentle smile. “Out on the balcony.”

“What balcony?”

Yulen chuckled as he ran his fingers through
her glossy hair. “I thought you were going to snoop. Surely you
checked all the doors to see where they led?”

She shook her head. His hand was gentle,
caressing. Closing her eyes, she was half-prepared to feel his lips
on hers. His kiss was long, slow, and deep, and made up for the
despair brought upon her as it sensuously filled her, starting from
her toes and winding its way up through her body. If they had all
evening and all night to be together, nothing else would make her
happier.

When he finally released her, he led her over
to the far door at the opposite end of the room. It was unlocked,
and led out to a balcony along the edge of the roof. From where she
stood, Atty could see where a bell had been erected at the furthest
end of the main lodge, close to the courtyard. Below it a narrow
ladder led down to the ground. Atty looked at him for an
explanation.

“Whenever there’s an important announcement
to be made, the Battle Lord, or whoever is in charge, comes out
here and rings the bell. That alerts the compound to gather to hear
the announcement. My father rang that bell when I was born, to tell
everyone he had a son.”

She could still hear echoes of it pealing all
through the day. “Have you ever rung it?” she asked.

“Two years ago. It was my first time to hold
the rope. To let the people know of my father’s passing.” His voice
softened with the memory. Atty leaned against him to offer him
comfort. “One day, Atrilan, I will ring it again to announce our
wedding. I promise you.”

“I believe you,” she answered him, surprising
herself with the statement. Maybe they would. One day. Soon,
hopefully.