The Devil's Concubine (23 page)

sounds she had been waiting for that told of Talin’s return. She had not been idle. Partly this was because she had been far too restless to remain so without feeling as if hysteria was closing in upon her. Most of it, though, was because she had convinced herself that the best way to assure Talin that she had accepted her role in his life was to show him she thought of the palace at Tetan as her home.

When she had done what she could with the royal suite, which no longer included

a bed chamber for the master and a separate one for the mistress, but rather a single sleeping chamber for them both and a solar that they could use as a private retreat, she tracked down the chamberlain. They needed rich fabrics to soften the harshness of stone walls, floors, and ceilings. Almost reluctantly, he had led her to the king’s storerooms.

The cavernous room, she discovered, was filled almost from floor to ceiling with

more riches than she had seen in her lifetime--all collecting dust.

Ignoring the man’s protests that most of it had been stored since Talin’s mother’s

time and that the king had no interest in such frivolities, she had promptly begun

emptying the room of paintings, wall hangings, and carpets; goblets, plate, pitchers, and platters of silver and gold, encrusted with bright gems; and ornately carved and crafted, tables, chairs, chests and armoires, working the palace servants from daylight till dusk.

In the back of her mind, she spent much of that time castigating herself for

focusing on something so inconsequential and unnecessary as beautifying the palace

when they were on the brink of war. She realized after a little time, though, that it had as bracing an effect on the nerves of the castle folk as it did hers. They found comfort in the very fact that it was so completely frivolous. They had less time to think and worry about the threat looming over them, and the brightening and beautification of their immediate surroundings lightened their spirits.

Unable to remain suitably dignified and wait in her suite for Talin to come to her,

and fearful, truth be told, that he might not linger but instead leave again almost at once, Aliya hurried down the tower stairs to the great room as soon as she was certain that it was Talin who had arrived and not someone else. She arrived at one entrance to the great hall, breathless, at almost the same moment that Talin entered the great hall from the courtyard entrance.

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Plainly distracted, he was half way across the great hall when he came to an

abrupt halt as if he had only then noticed that something was different. A twinge of uneasiness went through Aliya as he began to look around the great hall as if he had

never seen it before and wondered if he had wandered into the wrong place. It occurred to her forcefully for the first time that she had not even asked his permission to make the changes she had, or asked if Talin would mind her removing his treasures from storage.

She had, in fact, ignored the chamberlain when he had suggested that Talin might not like it and behaved as if she had every right to do whatever she pleased.

When Talin at last met her gaze across the distance that still separated them, she

felt guilt creep into her face, though she tried her best to appear unconcerned.

She could tell nothing about his expression, but after a moment, he headed

directly toward her.

She was still trying to decide whether to race back up the stairs and bar the door

to the solar or stand her ground when Talin stopped in front of her. “I have missed you,”

she said a little weakly.

Some of the tension seemed to leave him. A faint smile curled his lips. “I can not

imagine where you found the time.”

That was not precisely the reaction she had been hoping for, but at least he did not

seem angry. “Even so.”

Slipping his arms around her, he pulled her close. “I have missed you more,” he

murmured, nudging her chin up with his hand and covering her lips hungrily.

As acutely self-conscious as she was of the audience they had in the great hall,

Aliya discovered her shyness did not outlast the heat of that kiss. Warmth flowed

through her veins like honeyed wine, stirring her senses to a sharpness that detected the faintest of touches with every labored breath they took. When he broke the kiss and

swept her into his arms in a dizzying swirl of motion and started up the stairs, she could only cling to him, resting her head against his shoulder.

Instead of setting her on her feet when they reached the suite, Talin kicked the

door closed behind then and strode to the bed, climbing onto the mattress with her still clutched against his chest and settling heavily against her even as he laid her on the mattress. Covering her mouth at once, he kissed her as he traced the fitted bodice of her gown. Reaching down, he grabbed a handful of fabric and tucked her skirt around her

waist, exposing her legs and belly. Cool air caressed her through the thin fabric of her undergarments and then brushed her bare skin as he thrust the confining fabric out of his way.

Anxious to feel the touch of his hands on her bare skin, Aliya reached behind her

back and tugged at the ribbon that secured her bodice, loosening it only fractionally. It still restricted her ribs, making it difficult to breathe as her heart began racing with excitement.

Abandoning his exploration of her belly, Talin slipped his hand upward again,

scooping one breast from her bodice. As he dragged his mouth from hers and covered

the puckered tip of the beast, he reached down again, searching for the opening he had unearthed before in her under garments.

Aliya gasped as he found it, his clever fingers sending sharp stabs of pleasure

through her as he parted the tender flesh of her woman’s mound and teased the tiny,

exquisitely sensitive bud of flesh there. Desire seemed to pour through her in a fiery tide THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE

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from both points, colliding in her belly. Moisture gathered inside of her clenched sex.

Her body began to quake and shudder with the need to feel him filling her.

“Talin!” she gasped, arching against his hand, digging her hands into the mattress.

Lifting his head from her breast, he surged over her, parting her thighs with his

knee and settling his hips between hers. She arched against him, silently pleading with him to ease her distress.

She nipped at his shoulder and then sucked it as she felt the head of his cock

slipping into her wetness, stretching her. Her hips seemed to come up off the bed of their own accord, pressing forward to sheath his hard flesh.

The building pressure eased as he ceased to push, withdrew slightly. She dug her

head into the mattress, arching her neck, lifting her hips to receive him when he thrust again. Blindly, she clawed at the mattress as he moved deeper inside of her, panting for breath as her body adjusted to his possession, clutched at him.

Burrowing his face against her neck, he slipped an arm around her tightly and

thrust again, began a rhythm of thrust and retreat that was the sweetest of sword plays.

Gasping, groaning, she joined him in battle, parrying each thrust with her hips,

demanding more with the movements of her body.

Gasping hoarsely, he gave, began to race toward the summit they both struggled

toward at a desperate pace. A keen cry was wrenched from her throat as her body

reached its peak and broke apart in crashing waves of rapture, convulsing so hard it sent him over the edge to join her in the expenditure of bliss.

The explosion and the shock waves in its aftermath seemed to drain her of every

ounce of energy. Limp, totally sated, Aliya struggled to catch her breath as Talin relaxed heavily against her.

Slowly, her heart ceased to hammer so frantically it felt as if it would explode.

Her lungs stopped to labor for breath.

Drowsy in the aftermath of their lovemaking, she tried to block everything from

her mind and reach for the comfort of sleep. When Talin moved away from her at last

and then slipped from the bed and began to dress, however, sleep evaded her. She lay still for a few moments, but she found she could not bear for him to leave without

speaking with him.

“You are going?”

He glanced at her, but there was no surprise in his expression. He had known she

wasn’t sleeping. “I must.”

Gathering the sheet to her breasts, she sat up, feeling a coldness wash over her.

“You are going to fight.”

He frowned. “You will be safe here.”

“You will not be safe, though,” she said shakily. “You were going off to war

without saying anything to me at all?”

He grimaced. “I would rather take the memory of the sweetness of our time

together with me for warmth than the bitter taste of yet another argument. Do not

demand something of me that I can not give you.”

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Aliya felt a welling of hurt that almost took her breath. Her mind instantly

interpreted that to mean he could not profess feelings for her that he did not have. She could not be certain that that was what he meant, of course. It occurred to her that he might be referring to her demand that he try to make peace with her father, but she knew well enough that that opportunity had passed. No one spoke directly to her about the things that were happening beyond the walls of Tetan and beyond the borders of

Goldone, but she had heard enough to know that no one would be untouched by the war

that had broken out.

She found, though, that she really didn’t want to know what he had meant. When

he was safe and had returned, that would be soon enough to speak of what they felt for one another, to draw the boundaries between them if there were to be any.

She didn’t want to think that he might be distracted by anything she had said,

particularly an argument, when he needed his full attention on the business of staying alive. “I only wanted to ask that you take care of yourself … for me.”

He studied her for a long moment and finally moved back to the edge of the bed.

Leaning down, he kissed her with a heat that belied their recent satiation with one

another. To her disappointment, though, he did not linger.

When he reached the door, he paused and turned, surveying the room. “I had not

realized before what was missing from my home.”

Aliya sent him a questioning look, wondering what particular thing she had done

that had pleased him. The bed hangings perhaps? The rug she had spread on the floor between the bed and the hearth? “What?”

He smiled faintly, his gaze caressing her. “You.”

An unidentifiable emotion constricted her chest at that, squeezing her heart.

“I will return in a few days. You must be ready then to travel light and fast, for I will most likely move my household.”

Aliya was so stunned by that announcement that she was still staring at him in

disbelief when he exited the room. Was it as bad as that, she wondered fearfully?

She had been certain that the royal palace was virtually impregnable. That had

given her no comfort, at first, when she had only thought in terms of being freed by her father. When she had realized that her feelings had changed completely and that she was content to stay with Talin, even if she was not completely content to hold only the place of his second wife, she had looked upon the situation of the palace with relief. Whether her father would talk peace or not seemed to matter little so long as he could not actually engage in war with the folk of Tetan.

She should have known the moment she realized that Talin was planning to go out

and meet the army that something had changed the whole face of the war.

And there could be only one reason that Talin had begun to doubt the invincibility

of his fortress in the sky.

Her father had brought in a conjurer of the black arts.

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She should have known that, she realized, when she had seen what had happened

to Solly. Instead, she had been so completely wrapped up in her personal concerns that she had not considered how alarmed Talin had been about it, indeed all of the castle folk.

It chafed her to think she could do nothing but wait and worry. As hard as she

worked to fill her days with worthwhile tasks that kept her from feeling completely

useless, her mind still wavered back and forth between wondering where Talin was and

how he was faring and trying to figure some way that she could reach out to her father and try to stop the madness before the land ran red with the blood of innocents.

It was a waste of time, of course. There was no way that she could leave the

palace unless she could convince someone to take her, and she not only doubted she

could convince anyone to do what would amount to treason, but she could not bring

herself even to try. If she had been more certain that she could reason with her father, she might have felt that the risk was not too much to ask, but she was not at all certain he would even speak to her, let alone listen. And she did not think she wanted anyone else’s blood on her hands.

The penalty for treason was death, a slower death, perhaps, in peace time, a swift

one in times of war.

* * * *

Of all the clans of the man beast, the Wyvern were the only folk who had focused

their beast inward and discarded what they had considered the dubious advantage of their ability to change form. Since they no longer had the gift of flight, it fell to the other clans who still had that gift--the Golden Falcon, the Condor, and the Eagle--to handle the