Fireborn

  Hallow lifted his hand. “Can you find use for an arcanist?”

  Deo eyed him. “Why should I take you into my company? You are more likely to be a spy than Allegria.”

  “Hey!” I protested.

  Deo waved it away.

  “What reason do you wish to join me?”

  “I want to help,” Hallow said simply. “And I have sworn to use my knowledge to end the invasion. Your company is smaller, so you will benefit more from my help. Your father will soon have the armies of others to join with his own, and does not need me as badly.”

  “I don’t need you at all.” Deo didn’t look convinced.

  I studied Hallow’s face, unsure of whether he was telling the absolute truth. I wanted to believe the explanation was as simple as he said, but a small doubt wiggled in the back of my head.

  Evidently Deo had similar doubts. “You are Fireborn? How come you to have knowledge of arcane matters?”

  “I had a Starborn master,” he said simply.

  I watched him, troubled now by a new thought. Would Hallow swear fealty to Deo, even though he had just offered to cast aside his fealty to Lord Israel? How could a man seem so honorable, and yet in truth hold his word in so little value? And why did it matter to me so much that he be the man I wanted him to be? Just because we’d enjoyed a little romp in the cot didn’t mean we had anything else binding us.

  I needed to accept that Hallow was as he was, and not let his flaws bother me.

  Deo shrugged. “If you think you can do good, then you are welcome to fight alongside us. But do not expect protection against the Harborym. We will be too busy destroying them to protect a delicate arcanist.”

  Hallow’s lips thinned a little at the word “delicate,” but he said nothing in response, a fact I admired. I wouldn’t have been able to resist responding to such a comment, but my temperament was more like Deo’s—quick to fire and explosive—whereas I was beginning to realize that Hallow had an analytical mind. He looked at situations from all sides before committing himself to action, and apparently treated most situations with humor.

  “If you wish to join my company, then I expect you to tell me what you know,” Deo said, turning to Hallow. “Why was the runeseeker in my father’s camp?”

  “He seeks to recover moonstones belonging to the queen,” Hallow said.

  “For what purpose?” Deo asked. A sullen Rixius and another servant brought food, wine, and campstools for us, allowing Hallow and I to eat somewhat voraciously, since food had been scarce while we were on the road.

  Hallow was silent for a few minutes, chewing the heel of a bread before finally saying, “Exodius did not speak about the moonstones themselves, only that he sought them. Lord Israel wanted him present because Exodius is also the Master of Kelos, and thus the head of the arcanists.”

  “That tells me nothing.” Deo’s expression was as hard as granite. “In fact, nothing you have said gives me insight into my father’s plans. Perhaps you really are here as his spy.”

  Hallow looked up from where he was offering me a piece of pear. “I am here because I did not believe it was safe for Allegria to travel alone along the South Road.”

  That was not entirely true, and Hallow and I both knew it. However, I was willing to let it go. I knew that had I been in his shoes, I would want to join forces with Deo. I could hardly blame Hallow for coming to his senses in seeing that Deo had a better chance of succeeding than his father.

  “Allegria is a Bane of Eris,” Deo said, giving me a smug look that I didn’t return. I remembered too well how the chaos magic betrayed me. “There is nothing on Alba she fears.”

  “I’m sure that is so, but nonetheless, I could not be easy letting anyone travel alone with the Harborym on the move. I remain here because, as I’ve already explained, I believe you will be in Starfall before the Four Armies, and I can do more good with you than with them. They have Exodius. You have no one with arcane abilities. If you do not wish me to stay, speak, and I will leave. Otherwise, I am here to do what I can to destroy the invaders.”

  Deo grunted acknowledgment, returning to the map spread out under the plates. “We will leave at dawn, and should be at the west gate shortly after noon. If my father is two days’ journey away, and awaiting the arrival of the Tribe of Jalas and the Starborn vizier, then we should have the invaders destroyed before my father can take to his horse.”

  “You are that sure about your company?” Hallow asked.

  Deo made mildly outraged noises. “Chaos magic is the very thing that gives the Harborym their power. You cannot understand, because you only have dealings with the magic of the stars, which is fine for court conjurers and entertainers, but we bear the power of death itself. Nothing can stand before us.”

  “That is insulting!” I said, shoving back my plate and giving Deo a frown. “Hallow is a learned arcanist. You have no idea of the sorts of things he can do—”

  Hallow’s hand covered mine, giving my fingers a little warning squeeze. “I appreciate the quick defense, but it’s not necessary.”

  “It is if Deo thinks you’re no better than a court conjurer—”

  He squeezed my hand again, and for a moment, I was distracted by the warmth of his fingers on mine, the memory of just what those fingers could do filling my body with a heat that was hard to ignore.

  That heat stayed with me for the rest of the night, through Deo’s debate with Hadrian about the best way to force the city gate open, Hallow’s suggestion that we could easily enter the city by one of the lesser guarded bolt-holes that he had learned of from his old master, and Deo’s decision—after hours of arguing—that if Hallow knew of such a bolt-hole, it would be wiser in the end to save our strength for the destruction of Harborym rather than the gates of the city itself.

  I had just emerged from a quick bath in the privacy of my tent when a cough outside the door heralded the arrival of the man who had filled my thoughts. “Are you decent?”

  “I’m a priestess. Of course I’m decent,” I answered, wrapping a drying cloth around me.

  Hallow pushed aside the tent flap and entered, the by-now familiar shape of him making my heart beat a little faster.

  Foolish heart, I told myself. He’s just an amusement, and nothing more.

  “You’re wet,” he said, his gaze crawling over me in a way that made me want to drop the drying cloth.

  “Yes, I am. Did you bathe? I’m afraid my bathwater is not as clean as I’d like to think it was, but I was on the road for several days, so if you wanted to use it—”

  “I had a bath in the river half a mile away. Two of the banesmen took me there and laughed uproariously when I jumped in and found the water was ice-cold.” He glided forward, that magnificent chest calling to me. “If I’d known you were going to bathe in private, I would have joined you, instead. Do you want me to dry you?”

  I pulled the cloth from my body and held it out to him, turning around to present my back, glancing over my shoulder. “Certainly. You can dry all the spots I have trouble reaching.”

  “Thank you,” he said on a breath, using the cloth to pat my back and behind dry. “I think your legs need extra drying.”

  “That’s very thoughtful of you,” I said, my own breath stuck in my throat when he tossed aside the cloth, knelt, and ran his hands up my calves.

  “You’re so soft for someone who fights so effectively,” he murmured, kissing a little path up my thighs. “And you smell like flowers. I’ve never known anyone to smell like flowers. Is it your soap?”

  I turned around when he took my behind in both hands, planting a kiss on either cheek. “I used Deo’s soap, so unless he smells flowery, no. Are you going to do that thing you did the other night? With your mouth?”

  He smiled up at me, his eye crinkles making my belly contract with pleasure. “If you promise not to pull out all of my hair this time, I will.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said instinctively, then glanced down at the top of his head. Unlike man
y of the Fireborn who were white-blond, Hallow had thick hair, which swept back from his brow, and was cut on an angle in the back, leaving longer strands that sometimes fell down over his brow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You have more hair than most men. Hallow.”

  “Hmm?”

  I knelt before him. “What did you think of Deo?”

  He grimaced. “I think your boyfriend is lucky we’re here to keep him from wasting so much time on the gates when the bolt-hole offers a much easier solution. If that’s the sort of counsel he’s been given from his two advisers, he’s in more trouble than he need be in.”

  I pinched his arm. “He’s not my boyfriend. If I had one, you would be my boyfriend, but I don’t have one, so you’re not. Did you like him?”

  He tipped his head to the side in a manner that I found wholly endearing. “Does it matter to you if I do?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Not because he’s my boyfriend.” I tugged his tunic over his head. “But he is a friend, and I believe in him. In what he’s doing. And I know how much his father has hurt him.”

  Hallow sat back and pulled off his leather boots, peeling off his breeches just as quickly. I spread my hands over his chest at the same time he claimed my breasts. “I think he’s very passionate. And hotheaded. And before you ask any more questions, do we have to talk about your boyfriend? Right now, I think I’d much rather talk about you, and what you do to my poor, abused body, and all the things I want to do to yours.”

  I smiled and leaned back. “Did you notice I have furs?”

  He glanced at my pubic area. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a fur—”

  “You idiot.” I poked him with my foot and patted the furs that covered a thin pallet of straw. “These furs. Big enough for both of us.”

  He crawled toward me, a wicked glint in his brilliant blue eyes. “Now that is an invitation I cannot refuse.”

  “Then maybe you’ll like this, too.” I gestured toward the furs, waiting for him to lie on his back before sitting on his thighs. “I was thinking about it, and I decided that what you did to me, I could do to you. Isn’t that so?”

  “Do you mean—”

  I took his penis in both hands. It was erect (causing part of my mind to wonder if he went around in that state all the time, which led to a mental note to ask him later if it wasn’t uncomfortable to ride like that), and as hot as I remembered. I leaned down and swirled my tongue around the tip, pushing the skin around in a way that had Hallow moaning in ecstasy.

  “Well, that’s interesting,” I said, considering the length of him. “You seem to enjoy that as much as I enjoyed your attentions.”

  “I do! I really do!” he said, panting a little. I noticed he had clutched the furs with both hands, a fact that pleased me. Clearly I could push him beyond his control just as easily as he did me.

  “And if I do this?” I leaned down again, and the combination of my hands and mouth had him arching back, his chest heaving, and a nonstop stream of moans of the purest pleasure filling the air.

  “I’m going to want...sweet Kiriah’s nipples, is your tongue made of fire?...my turn to torment you.”

  I released him to crawl up his body, kissing my way up his belly to his chest. “And I’m going to want you to give me my turn—”

  A cool wind swirled a warning a fraction of a second before the tent flap moved and the large shape of Deo was in the tent, saying, “Allegria, I’ve been thinking of this plan of the arcanist, and I think he could be—ah.”

  I’ll say this for him—Hallow is fast. Before my brain could even register embarrassment that Deo had just caught Hallow and me in an intimate position, I was beneath Hallow with one of the skins covering us both.

  I peered out under Hallow’s bicep (the sight of which made my inner self squeal happily) and blinked a couple of times. “Deo! What are you doing here?”

  A rare flash of humor passed over his face. “I had wished to talk to you about whether or not you trusted the arcanist, but I can see that you do. Er ... has this been going on for long?”

  “Long enough,” Hallow answered, clearly annoyed. I couldn’t say I blamed him, although I did see the humor of the situation. “Why do you ask?”

  “I just wondered if you knew her before she kissed me back in Aryia, or if you’d just met.” He turned, and paused to send Hallow a look filled with warning. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

  “A warning you might heed, as well,” Hallow said lightly.

  I looked at him in surprise. His tone was pleasant enough, but his meaning was quite clear.

  “You? Kill me?” Deo tossed his head and laughed, the sound filling the night air as he left the tent.

  I pinched both of Hallow’s sides until he looked down at me, his arms braced next to my ears. “I am not an object for you to posture over.”

  “In what way was I posturing—”

  “If I want to be hurt by Deo, that’s my business.” I realized how inane that sounded the second the words left my lips. “That is, I would never want to be hurt by anyone, but I am responsible for my well-being, not you. Now, are you going to lie back so I can do all sorts of wicked things to you?”

  “No,” he said, licking the tip of my nose. “Now, my defiant one, it’s my turn, and I fully intend on making up for that untoward interruption.”

  I sighed happily, and gave myself into the pleasure that only Hallow could stir.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  We were up well before Kiriah Sunbringer sent the sun to greet us.

  “Deo, I have something I want to tell you. Two somethings, actually,” I said as the company was preparing to depart. I’d led Buttercup, who was unusually obstreperous that morning, over to where Deo was saddling his large black horse. I gave the horse a wide berth, since he didn’t seem to like anyone, let alone Buttercup, who laid back her ears and bared her teeth in return.

  Deo muttered a curse at the horse and told him to stop jiggling his feet before glancing over at me. “I had hoped you’d lose that beast in the wilds. I can give you a proper horse, you know.”

  Buttercup’s tail swished with indignation. I patted her neck, and said, “There’s nothing wrong with her so long as you don’t give her opportunities to misbehave. Did you hear what I said?”

  “Yes.” He tightened his cinch, and gave his horse a slap on the shoulder when the animal raised a back hoof in warning. “You have two somethings to say to me. If it has anything to do with what you and the arcanist were up to in your tent, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Surely you don’t expect me to believe you are jealous,” I said, amused.

  “Not jealous, although it was me you kissed first,” he pointed out, and gathered up a leather and metal chest piece. “I will always be flattered to think that I held your affections for all these years.”

  “You wish!” My amusement faded when I knew the time had come to unburden myself. I glanced around, but Rixius was mercifully off overseeing the packing of the wagons, and everyone else was busy putting on their armor and readying their mounts. Hallow stood with his horse across the camp, chatting with one of the men, who apparently was from a town near Hallow’s birthplace. “It’s something I didn’t mention in front of the others,” I said, suddenly unable to find the words I needed.

  “If you’re going to admit your love for me—” he started to say, clearly still laughing at me.

  “It’s about Idril.”

  He stopped buckling a bow to the saddle and didn’t move for several seconds before asking, “Why do you say that name to me?”

  “She’s here, Deo.” I watched the muscles in this jaw and shoulders tightening, his fingers white on the leather saddle straps. I took a deep breath, and let the rest of the words come out in a rush. “She’s coming with her father to the Council of Four Armies. I didn’t want to tell you in front of the others, but if the armies somehow make it to Starfall City while we’re still there ... well, I thou
ght you should know.”

  Slowly, the tension in his hands eased, and he continued strapping on his bow and quiver. “And the second thing?”

  My stomach protested the fact that I’d eaten some bread and porridge earlier. “I don’t know if you are aware that your mother is in Starfall.”

  “My mother is a prisoner of the Harborym. They hold her for a guarantee of good behavior in the few remaining Starborn.”

  “That might not be strictly true anymore,” I said slowly, wishing I hadn’t ever opened my mouth.

  Deo spun around, his eyes burning red. He grabbed my arm, his fingers luckily finding the silver cuff on my wrist instead of my flesh. “What are you saying, priest?”

  “I have heard that she is not so much a prisoner as a guest,” I said carefully.

  His fingers tightened on the cuff, making the runes light up as the power inside me stirred, no doubt sensing the pulsing waves of anger rolling off Deo. “Who dared speak of this to you?”

  “Who said it doesn’t matter—”

  “The arcanist!” Deo spat the word out, releasing me and spinning around, clearly about to go find Hallow.

  I dropped my reins and grabbed Deo’s arm with both hands, digging in my feet when he started forward. “Deo, stop!”

  “I’ll stop him, all right! I’ll stop him from ever spreading rumors about my mother—”

  “Will you listen to me for a minute?” I pulled hard on the power of the newborn sun, lighting up not just my runes but my hands, using the strength it gave me to jerk Deo around until he faced me.

  “You dare!” Deo bellowed. His eyes were black and red with rage, his face contorted in a snarl of frustration. Around us, those nearest froze in their actions, clearly startled.

  Behind him, Rixius suddenly jumped onto one of the wagons to see what was happening. He leaped off almost immediately and started for us.

  “Yes, I dare,” I told Deo, not allowing him to intimidate me. I held tight to his arm, speaking rapidly. “Your father’s own guards told Hallow that your mother was working with the Harborym, so if you are angry, you can take it up with them. For that matter, you can tell your father he should have better control over his own guards so as to keep them from gossiping. Regardless, it’s not Hallow who is spreading the rumors.” I took a deep breath, ignoring Rixius’s plaintive bleats for people to move out of his way. “You need to know what is being said in case it’s ... well, if there is any truth to it.”