The Care and Feeding of Griffins (44 page)

She cringed back into her chair at once, hugging herself and sobbing.

The wizard glanced at her as he took the pheasant from the fire.  It had just begun to burn.  She looked so confused, so wounded.  It was all he could do to keep from laughing at her.

The wizard broke a wing off the singed side of the bird and offered it to Aisling, who had just wandered in from the other room at the sound of tears.  The griffin ignored the food and went to its mistress, uttering plaintive peeps and trying to rub its head on the back of her hand.

“Stop crying, Taryn, and tell him it’s all right,” he said, taking a little tea as he waited for his pheasant to cool.

Taryn did, in a listless voice that still hung wet with tears.  Aisling sat at her feet, looking unconvinced.  The glance the griffin sent back over its feathery shoulder was eerily tinged with suspicion.

“Feed him,” the wizard suggested, passing over the wing.

Taryn obeyed, and Aisling ate, sending swift, narrow looks back at the wizard the entire time.

“Now send him away.  Just to the other room.  Tell him to sleep, Taryn.”

Aisling, in the spirit of his mistress, chose to resist this command, but eventually, he did rise and slink away.  The wizard tolerated the gleaming of the golden eyes from the shadows underneath his table while he feasted on roast pheasant, occasionally offering tidbits to Taryn and encouraging her to take from his hand.  After a while, the sight of his human eating from the wizard
’s fingertips seemed to soothe whatever passed for sensibilities in a griffin’s mind, and Aisling lowered his head to his talons and dozed.

The wizard smiled at Taryn from across the table, admiring the bewildered, mournful look he had put in her. 
“Tell me your name,” he said, already knowing she would not.  Not with the half he had, not even with his seed simmering in her belly.  She was only human, but she was Earth-born and blunt to magic, and beyond even that, she was still fierce in her own little way.

Sure enough, she merely looked at him with those sorrowing eyes.

He decided to try a different approach.  “Why won’t you tell me your whole name, Taryn?” he asked.

“
I don’t like you.  You hurt me.”

“
You don’t have to remember that.”

“
But I always know it.”  She blinked her damp eyes slowly, wretchedly.  “Because you’re always hurting me.  Even when I’m not with you.”

He could feel himself stiffening again already. 
“Soon, you’ll always be with me, Taryn,” he said.  “You and Aisling both.  I’m going to break you.  I’m going to make you believe that you love me.  Eventually, I won’t even need magic.  Your will, your mind, your desires…everything you are will be mine.  You’ll hold Aisling in your arms while I drink from him.  You’ll hold the knife that slashes his throat.”

She shook her head haltingly.

The wizard drank a little more tea, relishing the sight of her.  “I suppose the minotaur will come looking for you if he doesn’t see a fire burning at your camp tonight,” he mused.  “So I’ll have to send you back.  And you’ll go.  You may even feel a little sick tonight as you huddle in your tent.  A little sad, for reasons that never will surface completely.  And you may even think of me, but be assured that when you do, you will think of me with longing.  You won’t remember any part of this golden afternoon but what I chose to allow you to remember—a pleasant chat, tasty tea, the tragic tale of my arrival in Arcadia and the menace of the beastmen who met me.” 

Her mouth moved in silence for several seconds, and from somewhere, she found the strength and fortitude of will to ask,
“Why…are you doing this…to me?”

He considered the question as he picked at a little more pheasant. 
“Because you’re here,” he said finally.  “And because you’re beautiful and ignorant and pliant.  And because you had the awesome audacity to bring a live griffin right into my home for me to see.”

“
Never…”  Her chest heaved with effort, but her voice was scarcely a whisper.  He waited patiently for her to gather the strength to finish.  “Again!”

“
Oh yes.”  He smiled and reached across the table to caress her chin.  “Again.  And again.  My seed is in you now, and while it can’t be as potent as if I’d sown you properly, it will still prove an effective tether.  I’ll just have to rein you in from time to time to give you more.  You will be as well-schooled a whore as can be found in the jade brothels of the Imperial Palace by the time I’m ready to pierce that delicious petal you’re protecting.”  He raised his cup to her in mock salute and drank, reaching down with his free hand to test the readiness of his quivering shaft.  Hard as rock.  He rose, bumping down his cup, and went to where she sat.

“
So I’ll send you home,” he said, cupping the back of her head and bringing her firmly forward to envelop his member.  “But I have hours yet before I need to let you go.  And I mean not to waste it.  Oh, that’s it, Taryn.  Just as I have taught you.  Enjoy it, Taryn.  I command you to feel pleasure.  That’s the way.  And stop crying.”

53.  After Tea

T
he horseman stood unmoving in the waving grass of the plains, his runka in his hand.  He watched, still and grim and silent, as his kinswoman stumbled from the wizard’s wood.  He watched her fall, retch, sob, and finally rise again to walk a dazed path home with her griffin in her arms.  He kept a pace with her from his distant ridge until he knew that she would find her home in safety, and then he wheeled about and galloped for his chief.

Before the sun
touched even the highest peak of the Dragon’s mountains, the lord of the Valley knew all.

54.  Lordly Pursuits

T
aryn sat by the coals of her fire with a cup of cold tea in her hands, staring into the west and thinking about visiting the magus.  She didn’t really want to go.  She had a hoe half-knapped and a hoe-handle ready to be smoke-hardened and sanded smooth.  Working on that little itch for the past three days had been enough to keep her pleasantly occupied, but not today, apparently.  Today, that lonely itch was in her all the way down to her bones and she just couldn’t stand it any more. 

Maybe after a pot of tea and a little conversation, she
’d be able to concentrate again.  Maybe no.  So often, it seemed that even though Taryn’s concentration improved after her visits to the magus, her emotional reserves were utterly depleted.  She had no idea why.  He was nothing but pleasant to her.  The hours just flew by in his company, but she was invariably a wreck on the walk home.

She needed to just sleep with him already.

She supposed she should be shocked by the thought.  She wasn’t.  In fact, the longer she considered it, the more sensible the idea seemed.  She’d just sleep with him and get it out of her system.  Then either she’d feel better and quit falling apart after leaving his cabin, or she’d feel worse and have an excuse never to see him again, but in either case, this rotten ambiguity would stop. 

Taryn stood up and dumped out her untouched tea, beginning the business of locking down her campsite.  If she
’d had the power to step back out of her body and take a long look at herself, she’d think she was looking at a woman on her way to her own funeral, but of course, she didn’t know how grim she looked.  She might not have cared even if she had known.  She was lonely and she was tired.  That was all she really cared about these days.  And she wanted that to stop.

Taryn tied up her backpack and kicked around the edges of the copse, hunting up stones for her slingshot.  She came back into camp with her head bent, counting the rocks in her palm, on her way to whistle out Aisling and zip up her tent.  She had to make several re-counts as she walked.  Her attention just couldn
’t seem to come together.

“
Where bound, human?”

Taryn shrieked, flinging her handful of stones into the air and then ducking underneath her arms to weather out the pelting rain that followed.  When it was safe to straighten up and turn around, there was Antilles.

He was standing next to her firepit, and he still had the lid of her cauldron in one huge hand.  The other was covering his muzzle as though to hide the smile he couldn’t make anyway.  The set of his ears and the shape of his eyes betrayed his surprise and no small amount of humor.  There was a large, leather purse, sagging and empty-looking, slung over his shoulder, and his hoof-caps were caked with dried mud and chaff. 

“
Jerk!” Aisling cried, delighted, and bounded out of the tent to pounce at one travel-bedraggled fetlock.

Taryn was less inclined toward the sentiment at the moment than in the literal interpretation of the word. 
“What the
hell
, Tilly!” she snapped, and dropped to start hunting up her fallen ammunition.

He moved his hand slightly. 
“My apologies.”  He sounded like he was trying very hard not to laugh.  “T’was not my intention to alarm you.”

“
Like hell it wasn’t!  The only way you could sneak up on me is by trying!”

“
Perhaps your mind was elsewise occupied.  I assure you, I did not quiet my approach.”  He ran an eye up the sapling where her pack was tied and replaced the lid of her cauldron.  “Where bound?”

She knew better than to tell him she was off to see the wizard. 
“Nowhere in particular,” she said vaguely.  “Just out.  Why do you ask?”

“
Conversation—” began Antilles.

Taryn groaned and thrust a few found rocks into her pocket.  She
’d had twenty of them.  Now she could only find eight.  “Okay, fine, whatever!  What are you doing here?”

“
I have had matters to attend to in the far reaches of the Valley and this day did return.  As your camp is but a small step aside of the bridge, I thought to look in on your settlement.”

Taryn paused in the act of picking up a rogue stone.  She looked up at him through a fall of her unbrushed hair. 
“Why?”

“
I am the lord of this Valley.  You are a part of it.  It is for me to know how you fare.”

She could feel herself frowning.  She wasn
’t sure why.  She actually felt a little happy that he’d wanted to stop by and see her.  Confused, Taryn bent and continued combing the grass for rocks.

Antilles waited for a moment or two. 
“How fare you?” he asked, sounding very patient.

“
Fine.”  She didn’t look at him.

He continued to stand there expectantly.  After a while, he scraped one hoof along the ground and folded his arms across his powerful chest. 
“Have you no need?” he pressed.  “No comforts unmet?  No desire?”

Taryn
’s lashes fluttered as she fought not to steal a sidelong look at him on the word ‘desire’.  “Nope,” she said.  “I’m fine.”

One of his hands drummed on his bicep.  He waited.

Aisling panted happily in Taryn’s direction as the silence drew out and finally sat down on the minotaur’s hoof and started fussing over one of his talons.

Antilles continued to wait.

Taryn looked for stones.

At last, he blew one of his bullish snorts and said,
“Aye, well, as you have nothing to do and mean to strike out and do it anyway, you may as well accompany me.”

Really?

Taryn looked up, blinking, her fingers curling slowly around the rocks she’d found.  He looked irritated with her and her heart sank a little.  “No, that’s…that’s okay.  I wouldn’t want to impose on your—”

“
Get up, human,” he said bluntly.

She got up, scowling to disguise her blush as she pocketed her stones. 
“Where is it that you think you’re taking me?”

“
Nowhere in particular,” he drawled.  “Just out.  For I should hate to stand athwart of your intended destination.”

What an incredibly annoying and high-handed thing to say.  Taryn shot Aisling a glance and sweetly said,
“What do we say?”

Antilles narrowed his eyes at her.

The griffin gave her his goofy frozen-beak grin, looked up at the minotaur, flapped his wings and crowed, “Tilly! 
My sun-shi-i-i-ne
!  Too-ra loo!”

Naturally.

Antilles could not smile, but that didn’t stop a look of supreme satisfaction from spreading over his face.  He leaned his horns back and snorted again, sending steam out in a cloud from his muzzle.  “Well done,” he said silkily.  “Shall we be off, then?”

Taryn sighed and gave in with half a shrug.  Her emotions were all tangled up.  Here she
’d been going stir-crazy for lack of companionship and so companionship had fallen right into her lap.  She’d ought to be dancing on the moon, but that maddening, lonely itch hadn’t gone away.  Plus, it was Antilles, someone she’d done an awful lot of extra-hard thinking about since the last time she’d seen him, and here he was asking her out on a walk, but she’d managed to make him so exasperated with her in the process that she wasn’t sure if he viewed it more as a friendly visit or a babysitting chore.  And he was staring at her right now, waiting for her enthusiastic agreement, which the heart of her did want to give him, if only her head, stomach and mouth could get on the same page.

“
Well?”

She nodded, but then said, somewhat plaintively,
“Are you sure you really want to waste your whole day walking around with me?  Wouldn’t you rather, I don’t know, get a bath or relax a little at home?”

He cocked his head. 
“Does one preclude the other?”

Instantly, the image (improbable though it might be) of him and her sharing a bath rose up in flames, and suddenly all of her was very aware of the fact that he was naked. 
“I suppose not,” she stammered, her eyes burning on a point just to the right of the tip of his horn.

“
Excellent.”  Antilles bent and scooped Aisling up in one hand, rubbed at the griffin’s beak with the tip of one finger, and then passed him into her arms before turning and walking away.  He raised one arm, beckoning without looking to see if she followed.

Taryn didn
’t move at first.  The thought of spending the day wandering around with Antilles had a strong attraction that was in itself deeply intimidating, but more than that, it felt faintly wrong.  She’d meant to go visit the magus today.  This almost felt like ditching a date.

‘
Oh come on,’ she thought suddenly.  ‘Tell the truth, who would you rather be with?’

Antilles had noticed she wasn
’t with him.  He paused out in the plains and looked back at her, his ears forward.  The sunlight outlined each fur-covered ridge and slope of muscle…

She started walking.  The first step was hardest, but after that first restrain
t was broken, not only was it easier, by the time she’d jogged up beside him, she was smiling.  His hand lit briefly on her shoulder and thoughts of the poor, lonely magus in the woods went completely out of her head and stayed there.

“
Now that you are better-settled,” Antilles began, setting off again, “how like you my Valley?”

“
My little corner of it is just fine.”

He glanced at her.  One ear twitched. 
“Your little corner,” he said (with a certain, wry emphasis on the word ‘your’), “is not all that you have seen.  You have been wandering of late.”

She shrugged, looking out at the river to avoid his piercing gaze. 
“Not so much.”

“
Nay?  Hm.  Yet Tonka tells me you have been away on no less than five of his visits to your encampment.”

She stopped in her tracks to stare at him, aware of a nasty blooming in her heart that she suspected was born of guilt more than outrage. 
“Are we going to do this whole spy routine again?” she demanded. 

He kept going for a step or two, but did ultimately come to a stop.  There he stood, his head bending as though he were in deep contemplation of his own hooves. 
“Nay,” he said at last.  His voice was heavy, even troubled, and shot through with a weariness that Taryn could almost feel resonating sympathetically in her own bones.  “Nay, we will not.  For I do believe you, Taryn.  I believe you when you say you mean no harm.  I believe the look of love I see in your eyes when you turn them upon your foundling.  I believe the labors of your body and the scars upon your hands.  I believe you.”

Taryn hugged Aisling closer, unsure how to respond, and Antilles turned around to face her fully.  He was frowning as he looked at her, and his eyes were in constant motion, taking in every part of her, it seemed, even the parts not out on the surface to be seen.

“Nay, there will be no more guards against you,” he said, and gave his head a hard shake.  “Instead, I will be the lord of you.  Aye.  Even you.”  He sighed, searched the skies, and finally looked at her again, resigned to something outside of her understanding.  “And as your lord, I come to you with that same audience that I give to all of mine.  I will walk with you and talk with you and take of you your measure.  Not for that I do not trust you, human, but for precisely that I do.  Now come.”

She started walking, and when
she passed him, he fell into step beside her.  They were quiet for what seemed a very long time, and then Antilles grumbled under his breath and said again, “Tonka tells me you have been away on five occasions.  Were you aware it had been so many?”

Taryn shrugged again, now turning her attention to each individual feather on Aisling
’s smooth head.  “I still don’t see why that should bother you.”

“
Have I said that I am bothered?  Nay, human, for as when I threaten, be assured that when the event transpires, there shall be little doubt of it.”  He frowned impressively out at the mountains for a while after saying this, and then blew out one of his bullish snorts and continued, “I remark merely for that I hold an interest in the welfare of one of mine, especially one so new-risen from Rucombe’s House of Tears.  Should I not be concerned that you are so often missing from your settlement and all your works left idle?”

She was blushing, she could feel it. 
“Maybe I think that making myself familiar with the lay of the land is as important as basket-weaving.”

“
Aye, and mayhap it is,” Antilles said placidly.  “Is that what you do?”

“
Maybe you’ve lived here all of your life, but you’ll forgive me if I’m still a little worried about getting lost,” Taryn shot back, very vaguely aware that this was not really an answer to his question.