Dark Lord of Kismera: Knights of Kismera (54 page)

Drace came to her and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, a change from the man who, a moment ago, was trying to bash Cearan on the head. “What brings you two lovely ladies out?” he asked, wiping his face with a big hand.

Drace had confessed all about Maggie to Ki the night before, and had been prepared to spend the night in the barn. He had been surprised when Ki had taken his story in good grace and understanding. She had admitted to being honored that he would stop before mating fully with another female, because of her. She absolved him of guilt, but had warned him that now he was with her again, she would geld him if he was unfaithful to her. Knowing that would never happen, Drace had proven his love to her all through the rest of the night.

“I would have a word with Lexin,” Ki answered, interrupting his reflection.

Hearing his name, Lexin came over to see what Ki wanted, Cearan behind him. “Cousin, you are looking rather round, I mean, well,” he teased. “How may I help you?”

Ignoring the teasing, Ki said, “I would have you teach Cerise some weapons skill. To go unarmed in the stronghold she is safe but she will wish to travel past these walls and must be schooled.” Ki looked at Cerise. “To carry a weapon without knowledge of its use is more dangerous than to go without one at all. I would have you safe, sister.”

“Why me, cousin?” Lexin asked, puzzlement on his face. “Cearan and Drace are better with a sword than I.”

Ki smiled at his doubt of his ability.
He might not be as good as my mate and brother but not by much.
“You are better by far with a dagger. I would have her have some skill with a sword but I think she would be better to master a knife,” Ki explained.

“Why can’t I master a sword?” Cerise asked, not understanding her
restrictions.

The other four had formed a loose circle around her. “Look at the height difference, C,” Drace pointed out. “For you to reach anyone of us you would have to use a sword too heavy for you to handle well.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m a shrimp next to you guys.” She turned to Lexin and gave a mocking bow. “Teach me of the force, oh great Obi-wan.”

Lexin stood with his mouth open, thoroughly lost in her words. Cerise heard Drace’s smothered laugh behind her.

Ki threaded her arm around Drace’s sweaty waist. “Take her to the armory and find her some weapons,” she directed to Lexin who made a face.

Ki lifted her brows at him, but did not say a word. He grabbed up his shirt from where he had dropped it on the ground. With a jerk, he snatched it over his head and then put his arms in the sleeves. “Follow me, Lady Cerise, if you will,” he said and took off at a brisk walk, leaving her to hurry to keep up.

After asking him to slow down, Cerise picked up a dirt clod and gave it a throw. It caught Lexin in the middle of his back. He paused a split second and then resumed his stride. When the small pebble bounced off the back of his head, he stopped and turned around, one side of his mouth pulled up in a snarl, canines flashing a warning

Cerise heard him give a lion’s growl, but did not back down. She gave the next dirt clod a throw that caught Lexin right between the eyes. He staggered back a step, one hand going to the spot and then he charged at her with a roar.

Cerise screamed and turned to flee but Lexin was on her, one arm snaking around her waist to drag her back against him.

Oblivious of their audience, Lexin spun her and then slung her over his shoulder. Cerise pounded on his broad back with her fists and kicked at whatever she could reach of his front, fighting him all the way to the armory.

“Well,” Drace said in disbelief once the pair disappeared inside the building. “Didn’t see
that
coming.”

Cearan stood stunned for a moment and then moved as if he was off to save one of them, although he wasn’t sure which one that would be.

“Hold, brother. Leave them to work it out on their own,” Ki ordered gently. “Come and wash. The evening meal is soon and I believe I am fair starved.”

Later, after everyone had found their seats for supper, Ki leaned over to Drace casually. “I do believe I was wrong, my love,” she said softly.

“What do you mean?” he asked as he buttered a thick slice of fresh bread and handed it to her.

She gave an almost inconspicuous gesture with her head toward Cerise and Lexin. Drace let his gaze drift down the table and then back to Ki.

Cerise sat looking sullen, stabbing at her food with her fork. Drace had not failed to notice the beard burn mark on her cheek. Lexin was sporting a red mark under his left eye that promised to be blue by morning.

“I do not think Cerise is as helpless as I first thought,” Ki mused, accepting the bread and taking a bite.

“It might not be wise to arm her if she is antagonistic towards our cousin, sister,” Cearan spoke up. “If she fights as boldly with a knife as she does her fists, poor Lexin may end a gelding.”

Lexin visibly blanched although he tried to act as if he had not heard. Cerise, on the other hand, gave an evil grin and continued to eat.

The meal continued in relative silence for some time, only to be broken by the arrival of six warriors who had come from the High kingdom.

The lead warrior came to kneel before Ki and Drace. When bid to rise he produced a rolled parchment from the coat he wore over a chain mail shirt. “My Lady, my Lord, I have a message for Lord Lexin,” he announced.

Ki indicated to Lexin who had stood at the other man’s words. The warrior handed the parchment to Lexin.

“Please, seat yourself and your men and eat,” Ki invited the warrior while Lexin sat and began to read.

“What is it, Lexin?” Ki inquired when he finished and had rerolled the letter.

“Yeagar has demanded my return. There has been some raiding on the northern border.” He glanced at Cerise who looked pale and concerned. I must go and ready,” he said as he stood. “I will leave in the morning with Yeagar’s men.”

Lexin left the table but not before he laid a big hand over one of Cerise’s. “I am leaving your lessons to my cousin, little one,” he said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. His lion’s eyes gave her a direct gaze and then he excused himself to pack his belongings.

Cearan finished his meal quickly and excused himself as well to assist Lexin.

Drace explained the closeness between the two men to Cerise who had been sitting silent after Lexin’s announcement.

“I thought Lexin was one of the Oralian warriors. Why does he have to go?”

Ki answered for him as Drace had never had that connection explained to him. “Lexin’s father, Ilsay, married to my mother’s sister, was Yeagar’s war chief. When he died a few years ago, Yeagar put Lexin in that position. Lexin can refuse that position at anytime, but he has not chosen to as of yet. His mother still resides there. She is a rather ambitious woman and has hopes to further Lexin’s standing with Yeagar.”

“With Yeagar’s wife dead, she could marry him herself if he would have her.” Drace said, seeing that possibility.

“This is true,” Ki confirmed. “If something were to happen to Cearan and I, Lexin would be next in line.”

“Ah, political intrigue,” Cerise whispered. “But I don’t understand why Lexin didn’t go back with the rest of his men after the battles were over.”

“To be with the part of the clan that needed him more. Drace had been returned to your world and I was rather, ah, well…,” Ki stumbled over the explanation. “And Cearan was nearly killed. Lexin wished to stay until both of us healed, both physically and in our hearts. Besides, Lexin does not get on well with his mother; her ambitions are not his own,” Ki answered her and then belched softly behind her hand.

Drace laid a gentle hand on her belly. “Not enough room in there?” he teased with a smile, and then looked surprised when he felt the baby move.

“Oh,” Ki breathed. “I have not felt him move so strongly before.”

The baby responded with a series of healthy kicks, which had both parents looking at each other in wonder, Lexin and Yeagar forgotten. Neither heard Cerise leave the table to go to her chamber.

CERISE MOVED QUIETLY through the now dark hall and made her way to the tower stairs that led to Lexin’s quarters. She was dressed in her shift and a night robe. She had something to say to him after he had kissed her senseless in the armory. He had been furious with her and the last thing she had expected when he carried her into the building was to be placed on her feet and pulled roughly against him.

“I could snap your neck like a twig,” he had literally growled in her face. “But damn you, I find I think of this more often.” He had then expertly kissed her then until she thought she might go up in flames.

Lexin had abruptly moved away from her then, going to a wall to survey swords hanging in racks. He picked one and checked its belt and sheath, and then moved to a cabinet containing daggers, his back rigid with emotion. After checking the balance of several, he grunted with decision on one, turning to shove the blades at her.

Cerise remembered the fury in his expression, which had pissed her off.
He kissed me not the other way around.
Without thinking more on it, she’d balled up a fist and slugged him. Taking advantage of his shock at her striking him, Cerise had grabbed the weapons from him and bolted from the armory. Now she felt badly about hitting him.

Arriving at Lexin’s chamber door, she knocked lightly and it swung open. Cerise gasped loudly when she saw him and one of the girls she recognized from the kitchen in a decidedly intimate position.

Lexin turned his head with a growl, the redheaded girl under him squealing with surprise. When he saw Cerise in the dark, he abruptly stood, jerking his breeches up over his hips, fighting to put his manhood in order, difficult in its present state.

“Wait!” he called as Cerise turned to flee. He caught her halfway down the stairs and when he grabbed her by the arm, she turned and slapped him hard across the cheek.

Baring his teeth at her he caught her hand when she went to strike him again. “Hold woman!” he snarled. “Enough! Do not strike me again.”

Cerise could tell by his tone he would retaliate the next time. The stairs were dark but she felt the presence of the other woman. “My Lord?” the kitchen servant questioned from behind him.

“Get you gone,” Lexin ordered, angrily.

“But…,”

“Now!” he demanded. He pulled at Cerise, who resisted.

“I will not have this conversation for all to hear,” he informed her as the kitchen girl went down the stairs. Cerise felt the girl’s resentment. “Come with me,” Lexin insisted. “Please,” he added, his voice softer. “We have already given fodder for talk. They need no more. I will not harm you, I swear this.”

Cerise tripped on the stair as she agreed and Lexin put a supportive hand under her elbow. He closed his door behind them, making sure it latched securely this time. “I am sorry you saw that, Cerise,” he began. “I am not normally that much an animal. I burned for someone else. The girl offered…,” he couldn’t finish his statement.

Cerise was confused. “If you wanted someone else, why not just ask her?”

Lexin touched the mark under his eye. “She did not seem to favor my attentions.”

“Me?”.

“Yes, my Lady, you. I hurt from wanting you.”

“So you jumped the next willing female because I didn’t swoon into your bed?”

“I do not think I like the jumping part if I understand you correctly, or even the swooning bit,” he said, running his hand through his long hair. “Your words sometimes confuse me.”

“Yours sound proper and sometimes poetic,” Cerise returned. She moved to sit in a chair by the fire. She saw in her mind’s eye the flexing of his naked hips as he moved over that woman. She turned her face away from his gaze to stare at the flames.

Lexin sat across from her on a low stool. His choice of seating made him seem even larger. “Cerise,” he said very quietly. “Why
did
you come to my chamber tonight?”

She glanced at him. “I was coming to apologize for your eye. Oh, and the back and front of your head.”

“You have very good aim, little one. One day I will teach you to throw a dagger. You will have much greater reach.” He touched under his eye again. “Although I think you may be as deadly unarmed.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call me ‘little one’. I am not a child.”

“If I had been referring to a child I would have said ‘young one.’ I will not call you that in the future if that is what you wish.”

Cerise nodded and tucked her legs underneath herself. “When do you think you will be back?”

Lexin rose from his stool to add more wood to the fire and then leaned against the mantle, his back to her. “I do not know. It may just be simple raiding; a cow here and there, maybe a horse, some corn from a stock pile. Things one would need to survive the winter. Or, it could be someone out to cause serious trouble,” Lexin answered. “Truthfully, I have neglected my duty to Yeagar.”

“Will you be in danger?” Cerise asked, not really wanting the truthful answer.

“Perhaps…probably. But so will the men I lead.” He turned to face her. “Why do you worry over me?”

“You are my…friend. I hope you return soon, unharmed. I will…miss you.”

Lexin sat on the stool again. “I will miss you too, little…I am sorry… Cerise. Let me ask a question of you,” he said, leaning forward on his knees. “Why did seeing me with that female upset you? I am an unbonded male. If I do not take her unwilling I may take whomever I wish. It is our way.” He held up a hand when she began a heated retort.

“Wait and listen, Cerise. Werre men love women. But we also hold much respect and care for them. To take a woman against her will is a death sentence.”

“What do you mean by ‘a death sentence’?” Cerise asked, her eyes wide.

“If a male, human or Werren, takes a female, of either race, without her consent, he will be beheaded. It is simply not done.”

“What if the woman lied?”

“There is a trial of sorts. If it can be proven she spoke untrue, she will be whipped for her lie. If it is proven after the male has been executed, she will be killed as well. It is not often either crime is committed. Our laws are strict and the punishments severe. We have very little offenses that way,” Lexin ended. “Now, answer my question.”

“I don’t know, and that is the truth. All I know is I saw you with her, and it took me by surprise.” Cerise looked at him. “And I really didn’t like her very much.”

She ducked her head, looking at his bare feet, and wondered at how elegant they looked compared to the rest of him. “If I swooned into your bed now, what would you do about it?” Cerise asked, not ruling out such a thing.

“I would have to refuse I am afraid.”

“Why? Am I not good enough for you?”

“You are above me, my Lady. You are the kinswoman of the MacKinnon. I am just a poor knight who happens to be a cousin to the Lady Ki. I would be more if I were a brother, but I am not. You outrank me considerably.”

“But if I chose you, you would take me to your bed?”

“No, not this night anyway, for I stink of an easy skirt. I will refuse this time.” He stood and extended a hand to help her rise. “Now, my Lady, I have a long ride ahead of me and I must have a bit of sleep. Get you to your bed so I may wash and take my own.”

He escorted her to his door but stopped her before she opened it. “Let me assure you of my feelings for you,” he whispered, and pulled her against him, much more gently this time, his mouth dropping to take hers. He teased her at first, a slow kiss, then nipping at her lower lip. She leaned against him when he asked her to open her lips for him with his tongue as it traced the curve of her mouth.

She moaned and brought her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts against his hard chest as her knees grew weak. She felt his hardness against her belly when he clasped her bottom and held her close. She felt a rumble from him as he echoed her moan.

Abruptly, he released her and he gasped for breath. “That may have been a mistake, for now I will never sleep.” he uttered hoarsely.

“Are you going to get your girl back to finish it?” Cerise snapped.

Lexin’s eyes hardened. “No, I will do nothing of the sort. If I need finishing, I will…never mind. Please Cerise. You are driving me mad. I will see you on the morrow.”

He opened his door and helped her down the stairs. There was enough light from the embers in the hall’s hearth for her to find her way to the stairwell of her own tower. When she turned to wave goodnight he was already gone.

Lexin took the stairs slowly, giving himself time to calm down. Letting himself into his room, he stripped off his breeches and washed with water from the basin. He momentarily entertained the thought of relieving himself in his need for Cerise but he was too tired and it would be an empty pleasure.

He lay down, pulled the covers over himself, and watched the fire as it turned to coals. He felt more alone than he had in a long time.

Cerise cursed roundly as she heard the commotion of several horses in the courtyard. That man was going to leave early and not let her say goodbye. It suddenly seemed very important that she do so. She found a dress she didn’t need help fastening, slipped on a pair of shoes, and ran down the stairs.

Yeagar’s men were already mounted, their horses rested and ready to go. Lexin was saying goodbye to Drace and Ki, Cearan off to the side. Lexin was dressed in warm breeches and had a chain mail shirt on over a thick padded shirt. The mail hung half way down his thigh, sides split to his waist to allow him to ride. He had his wicked looking sword and dagger strapped to his waist and spurs on his boots. His coat lay across his saddle. This was a fighting man leaving for battle and Cerise’s mouth suddenly went dry.

Cearan gave Lexin a back slapping hug. “Take care of yourself, my friend. I do not wish to see you next in Arahtok’s halls.”

“Nor I you,” Lexin agreed. “Watch over my little cousin when he arrives.” They embraced one last time. Lexin gave Cearan a big-handed swat to the back of his head.

“What about me? Who’s going to watch over me?” Cerise spoke up behind them.

Lexin turned to her. “I will leave you in Cearan’s care, my Lady.” He gave her a beautiful smile, but she caught the hint of sadness in his eyes. “I will not return before spring at the earliest. Take care.”

Cerise moved to speak quietly for his ears only. Cearan moved off a few steps, giving them more privacy, a grin on his face.

“Will you really miss me, Lexin?” she asked, trying to look braver than she actually felt.

Lexin laid a hand on her shoulder, deciding if he should do what he really wanted to do. Oh yes, he decided, and pulled her hard against his chain mail shirt.

Cerise’s hands came up around his neck to lock on the tightly sewn braid at the back of his head, meeting his kiss hungrily. Finally, when they were both breathless, he released her.

“Ride safe, my Lord,” she said huskily, trying to hide her tears.

Lexin stepped back, pulled his gloves from his belt, and donned them, thankful for the length of the heavy chain mail shirt. He cleared his throat, feeling it suddenly blocked. Touching Cerise’s cheek lightly, he said nothing and then turned to his horse. He pulled his coat on then mounted the big stallion. With a final look to the four of them, he let his gaze linger longest on Cerise then turned his horse, and leading his men, galloped from the keep.

Drace came to stand beside Cerise and put an arm around her. “He’s a good man, Cerise. He’ll be back.”

She sniffed angrily, pulling from his embrace, and went back to the sanctuary of her room.