Winter's Bite

Three

   

   

  The sun was already sailing high over the branches by the time the twins woke. They found themselves alone in the Fairy’s bed. Idrys rolled over and propped himself up on one arm to look at his brother. Emyr’s eyes opened and a small smile played across his generous mouth. The smile faded, however, as he recalled all of why they were there and not just the mysterious and beautiful events of the night before.

  “It’s too bad they won’t ever believe this story,” Idrys said with a wistful sigh. “How many can claim that one of the Fair Folk made them men, eh?”

  Emyr gave his brother a light push. “I don’t feel any more a man today than I did yesterday. Besides, father will be sick with worry.”

  He rose from the bed, suddenly uncomfortable with his nakedness around his brother in a way that he’d never been before. He ruefully thought of his words a moment ago. No, not like a man, but still, she’s changed us somehow.

  “True.” Idrys yawned and stretched. “But ah, I think it worth it.”

  Emyr threw him another amused look and found his tunic. Pulling it on he went to the door and reached to pull it open. The door didn’t budge. He put his full weight against it until he finally fell back into the sheepskins, his arms burning.

  “Quit playing, brother.” Idrys rose and walked to the door. He set his weight against it and got the same result as his brother. They shared a look and then both tried, gripping the smooth wooden handle hand over hand.

  The door stuck.

  Both men sat down then, the sense of dread from the evening before returning full force. They were stuck in a fey home, trapped by a lady of the Folk. Emyr and Idrys looked at each other with apprehensive eyes.

  “I think I like stories better when they stay stories,” Idrys said.

  “No argument here. I tried to tell you we should leave that white buck well enough alone, didn’t I? But no, you just had to go running after every bleeding whim of yours, as usual.” Emyr’s words held more bite than he intended, fear turning what was meant as a gentle rebuke to something crueler.

  To his surprise Idrys dropped his gaze and curled up with his arms around his knees, mouth pressed into an unhappy line.

  Unaccustomed to this lack of fight from his twin, Emyr sat for a few minutes in silence, thinking. He took stock of the small cabin. There was a covered pail, much like the indoor privy buckets he was used to at home. At least their captor had provided for that need, though it cut off an excuse to leave the house.

  He looked finally to the small window. The windows at home were usually shuttered or covered in leather scraped thin enough for light to come through. This one looked too smooth and clear for leather.

  Rising, Emyr went to investigate it. The pane felt like stone under his fingers, warmed from the sun and very hard. He rapped on it with his knuckles just in case. The stone reverberated a little but otherwise didn’t budge. He dug with his nails around the edges, seeing if there was a way to dig free the pane. Emyr thought they might be able to squeeze out of the opening if he could remove the barrier.

  “Emyr.” Idrys’s voice held a warning and none too soon.

  Emyr stepped free of the wall near the window and turned to his brother just in time as the door swung open and Seren entered carrying a basket under one arm. She closed the door behind her and smiled at the twins.

  “You’re awake, lovely. I’ve brought a present for my loves.” Her smile was brilliant and for a moment chased away the shadows of fear in their minds.

  Idrys, still naked, and Emyr, in his dark brown tunic, both moved to take the basket from her. It was a beautiful basket, woven of dyed rushes in twisting knot-work patterns that evoked images of long-legged birds.

  Having reached her first, Idrys removed the covering of fine linen and found to his delight the basket was laden with fresh berries and ripe pears. Forgetting his earlier melancholy, he turned to his brother and they sat down with the gift to break their fast.

  “Thank you,” Emyr said and Idrys echoed him with a mouth stuffed with berries, the red and purple juice running down his chin.

  Seren smiled benevolently down at them and then moved to sit on the skins beside them. Her fine-boned hands gently played with Idrys’s dark curls. She’d unbraided his hair the night before, remarking on how perfectly similar the twins were in visage.

  They were so different in personality, however, she mused. Emyr had loved her with determined concentration, touching her as though she were fragile. His passion had come as reverence more than sexual desire.

  Idrys was different. Once over his initial shyness, he’d explored her like a man hunting a rare creature. His touch was full of raw desire and an almost selfish need. He’d taken as much as he’d given, his long-lashed eyes wide with the wonderment of the act.

  When the final moment of consummation had come, Emyr’s eyes had been closed.

  Seren had taken mortal lovers before, but never twins of such exquisite youth and strength. She had little doubt she’d tire of them soon enough, though perhaps not soon as these humans measured time. For the moment, however, she intended to keep her new pets and teach them well how to please her.

  The twins ate their fill and then looked at their captor.

  “We need to go home, Seren. May we leave?” Emyr spoke, asking the question that hovered on the mind of both, hoping the answer would dissipate the fears that loomed once again.

  She laughed, the sound like the burbling of the waterfall outside her house. “You’ll go home, of course! But it is nearly night now, too late to make a start of it this eve. Stay another night with me.” Her silver eyes grew hard and her gaze sharpened. “Unless, perhaps, you grow weary of my company so readily?”

  “It is not that, Lady,” Idrys spoke up. “It is only we’ve been gone so long, we don’t wish to kill our father with worry.”

  “Such lovely and dutiful sons he has.” Though she smiled so beautifully it made their hearts and loins ache, they were not oblivious to the mocking sting of her words.

  She rose then with a gesture that forestalled any further queries and closed Emyr’s mouth before he could say aught. She removed her gown, letting it slide seductively down her hips as she undid the clasps and lacing. Her skin, luminescent and pale as moonlight, rekindled the twin’s desires.

  At Clun Cadair, they’d both begun to play the adolescent games of discovery and courtship. The speculative whispers in their shared bed at night and the stolen and deliciously furtive kisses of Caron and Efa, the two girls closest to their age at home, were only explorations of a desire they hadn’t yet entirely manifested. Until Seren. She’d imparted a knowledge and a need that, once roused, was a fire nothing might quench.

  Idrys rose first, naked and hungry for her flesh. He was accustomed to shrugging off doubts and consequences and used his experience to banish the nagging voice in his mind. One more night, what could that harm? His father’s fretting would be a tiny price to pay for such mysteries as the Lady might show them in the softly lit interior of her magic home.

  Emyr watched his brother rise without hesitation and envy stole over him. Idrys was always so sure of himself, so able to act without the weight of doubt. Or, he thought bitterly, without consideration.

  He watched his brother’s tanned body entwine with the tall pale beauty of their host. The sight of them kissing in focused hunger shoved away the doubts in Emyr’s mind. He’s right, maybe. Enjoying himself like this. We can’t change the situation immediately anyway. Perhaps she’ll let us free on the morrow. He stood and pulled his tunic back off as desire burned away his fears.

  Still, there in the back of his mind, hovering like an insect he couldn’t quite catch, lurked the tiny voice whispering that she’d never let them go.