The Silver Mage - Katharine Kerr [41]
“Could you favor me?” he murmured.
“Can’t you see I already do?” She regretted her bluntness the instant she’d spoken.
He laughed. “I had hopes that way, but I’d not get you in trouble with your master. What will he do if he finds out you’ve got a man?”
The question puzzled her. The women here in the fortress had always taken lovers when they wanted them, whether anyone else had approved or not.
“Naught,” she said. “Why would he do anything? I’m only his apprentice, not his daughter or suchlike.”
“Well, then.” He smiled, his eyes eager, as if he were waiting for something.
“Then what?”
“Then will you invite me in?”
“Oh!” She realized that despite everything he’d said and done, she’d still been doubting herself. “Of course.”
As they went inside, he shut the door firmly behind them. He put his crystal down on the stool by her lectern, then slipped his arms around her before she could do the same. He drew her close and kissed her with the white pyramid caught between them. When his hands slid down to her buttocks, she felt so aroused that she nearly dropped the precious crystal. He laughed, caught it in one broad hand, and turned away to put it down next to the black.
Hwilli pulled her dress over her head and let it fall to the floor. She lay down on her bed, so narrow that he barely fit next to her, but once his arms were around her, it became all the comfort they needed.
After their lovemaking, she drowsed in his arms, only to wake when a pale gray light filtered through the window. He woke as well, to turn onto his side and contemplate her face. He was smiling, and with a gentle finger he traced the shape of her lips.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said. “I’m honored that you’d favor a man like me.”
“Oh, don’t say daft things.” She kissed his fingertips. “I’m the one who’s honored.”
“Indeed? You’re a healer, you can read and write, and what am I? Just a fighting man who happens to know horsecraft.”
“I’d say you know women just as well. I—” Hwilli stopped, abruptly surprised. “Wait! I’m understanding every word you say. The crystals are still over there.”
Rhodorix sat up, twisting to look at the lectern and the stool, where indeed the two crystals sat some five feet distant.
“Ye gods!” He lay back down. “Well, that’s a handy thing, then.” He started to say more, but the priestly gongs began announcing the dawn in a racket of struck bronze. Rhodorix swore and winced, then waited till the sound died away. “Why in the name of every god do they keep making that wretched noise?”
“In the name of every god, just like you said.” Hwilli grinned at him. “It’s the priests’ duty to mark the points of the passing days, and the days themselves, the cycles of the moon and the sun, the rising of some of the stars, all of the heavenly things. That’s why the prince built this fortress up so high, so the priests would be closer to the stars.”
“I think me that the sun would rise without them making all that cursed clamor.”
“So do I, but the priests don’t.”
“Ah. Like the cocks that crow on the dung heap, then, and the sun obeys.”
She laughed until he kissed her again, and neither of them had any need of words or laughter.
Yet once their lovemaking finished, sunlight was flooding in the window, and he needed to leave to rejoin his men out in the horse yard. Hwilli lay on her side and watched him pull on the funny, baggy legging-things he called brigga.
“Will you come back tonight?” she said.
“If you’ll have me back,” Rhodorix said.
“Of course!”
He paused to grin at her, honestly thankful that she would want him. Me, she thought. He loves me. Nalla was right!
“Well, then, let’s settle somewhat.” Rhodorix turned solemn.
“From now on, you’re my woman. I don’t want you looking at any other man.”
“Fear not! There’s not a man in this fortress I’d want, not after you.”
He smiled again, as bright as the sunlight coming through the windows. “Let me take the crystals with me,” he went on, “and at the morning meal today, I’ll tell the guard captain that if any other man looks at you wrong, he’ll have me to answer