Dragon of the Island (36 page)

Maelgwn braced his hands on her thighs and
spread her legs even further apart, and then he glanced up at
Aurora’s face. Aye, it was all there, the beguiling beauty and
mystery he had first beheld in her father’s feasting hall. Aurora’s
blue eyes were both misty and bright with desire, the exotic lines
of her cheeks quivered with rapt intensity, and her full lips were
ripe and swollen with passion. Aurora sighed with impatience, and
Maelgwn turned again to the pleasures his mouth knew how to give a
woman.

Salty, sour sweet—like tears or the sea—or
did she remind him of the dark wet forest, a scent both musky and
wild. His tongue dove into her, feeling the quiver of life inside
of her, feeling her firm, slender thighs push hard against him, and
pushing back with his strong hands, feeling the spasm of release
shooting down her whole body. Her voice rose in harsh whispers of
pleasure, and then primitive cries and finally wordless, sighing
screams.

At last she collapsed against him, and he
pulled himself over her. Had he already worn her out? No, her
cheeks were fiery with passion, and she moaned intelligibly, as she
pulled his body to her own. It had been so long—he had almost
forgotten the luxurious snug embrace of her body tight around him.
He coaxed her to accept more of him, more and more, until he was
buried to the hilt, her long legs tight around him, her nails
silencing her screams, in his skin. He had forgotten, too, the
breathless powerful creature they made together—a seething monster
that shook them both with agonies of pleasure, rocking and roaming
over the oceans and mountains, the clouds and the heavens—over
everything.

It was over too soon. He held her tight,
reluctant to pull away even as he felt himself shriveling inside
her. Finally, he adjusted his body slightly so that her lovely face
was cradled in the space between his chest and shoulder. He could
feel her heart still pounding, and he could not resist one last
delicious tug on a rosy nipple. Now, he thought, now he should tell
her that he loved her.

There was a knock on the door. Maelgwn swore
and threw the blanket hastily over them.

“Come in.”

Gwenaseth and Torawc walked into the room
together. At first, they both gaped with surprise, then Gwenaseth
broke into a radiant smile while Torawc advanced to the bed with a
scowl.

“Maelgwn! What are you thinking of? She
needs her rest!”

Maelgwn could not help smiling
mischievously. “I am a man going off to war—you would not deny me
this. I might be dead on the morrow, and I need to make sure I
beget an heir before I go.”

“Dead! ‘Tis more likely you will kill your
poor wife with your coarse attentions—why her face is bright with
fever!”

“That is hardly a fever that inflames her
lovely face,” Maelgwn said smugly. He got out of bed with an abrupt
movement, forcing Gwenaseth to turn away in embarrassment while he
dressed. Then he turned back to Aurora. He did not want to say
good-bye this way—there was so much left unsaid.

“I’d better make sure everything is ready to
leave tomorrow.”

“Will you come up here to sleep
tonight?”

Maelgwn looked at Torawc’s stern,
disapproving face. Perhaps the bard was right—he should be careful
not to tire her.

“It will be late, and I hate to risk
disturbing you... but I will try,” he finally said before he kissed
her lightly and left the room.

Aurora spent a miserable night. Torawc said
that it was important that she begin to sleep without the sleeping
potion, but her head still ached unbearably and her dreams were
confused and frightening. She woke several times and reached out
for Maelgwn, but he was not there. She finally slept peacefully
near morning, and when she awoke, she could tell by the light that
it was late. Maelgwn and his army were gone.

Gwenaseth came in to bring her breakfast and
help her to the chamber pot. Aurora was surprised to see that her
face was streaked with tears.

“What is wrong, Gwenaseth?”

Gwenaseth sniffed and wiped her nose. “I had
my first fight with Elwyn.”

“I am sorry,” Aurora said sympathetically.
“What was it about?”

“He wanted to go with Maelgwn, and I
wouldn’t let him.”

Aurora nodded. If she could have stopped
Maelgwn from going, she would have.

“I can’t believe the things he said to me,”
Gwenaseth continued angrily. “He said I treat him like a little boy
and not a man. He even brought up my father—saying that the two of
us act like he is a pet dog whose purpose in life is to keep me
content!”

Aurora could not help smiling weakly at
Gwenaseth’s indignation. In her sweet way Gwenaseth
was
always ordering Elwyn around.

“So, Elwyn wanted to go and fight the
Picts?”

“Aye, he said he is a soldier, and he ought
to be going with Maelgwn.”

“Perhaps there is some truth to his words,”
Aurora suggested gently.

“But we need him here! Our house is not even
finished and winter is coming. Besides, who else will guard us
while Maelgwn’s army is gone?”

“Please don’t be angry with Elwyn,” Aurora
pleaded. “I don’t want to see the two of you fight. I want
someone
to be happy in their marriage.”

Gwenaseth looked surprised. “I thought when
we found you and Maelgwn together yesterday... that you had... that
everything was all right.”

Aurora looked uncomfortable. “Oh, Gwenaseth,
it is just the same as it always was. In bed, aye,
then
everything is all right. But the minute he gets out of bed, he is a
stranger again. You saw how he mocked my desire for him in front of
Torawc. And now he has gone to Manau Gotodin—knowing how I feel
about Cunedda, knowing that I am so afraid for him.”

Gwenaseth watched the queen carefully. She
was sitting up in bed, and in her excitement, her face looked
flushed and almost healthy. Perhaps it was time she knew the
truth.

“Aurora, I think I know why Maelgwn may be
acting so strangely,” she began.

“When you were first brought to the tower
room after your injury, Maelgwn did not leave your side. I gave him
some drugged wine to make him rest, and Balyn and I made him a bed
on the floor. During the night you called out in your sleep. You
were very frightened—you were calling out in terror. You woke
Maelgwn.”

“I don’t understand. What does this have to
do with anything?”

“Because in your fear, you kept calling out
a name—you kept calling out for someone named Marcus.”

Aurora turned pale again. “I did that? I
called for Marcus?”

“Aye, and not just once or twice, but over
and over.”

Aurora’s eyes were wide with fear. “What did
Maelgwn do?”

“He asked me who Marcus was, and I told him
that I thought that it was someone you knew in Viroconium.”

Aurora sighed. “So he thinks...” She sighed
again and raised her hands to her face.

“It is not so bad as that,” Gwenaseth said
consolingly. “He was hurt that you called for someone besides him,
but he must surely understand that you might have had feelings for
another man before him.”

“But he is so jealous!” Aurora said
wretchedly. “He has always been afraid I loved someone besides him.
Now he is gone, and there is no way I can prove to him that there
is no one else!”

Maelgwn and Cunedda looked at each other
wearily across the sputtering fire. It had rained almost constantly
the last few days and now it was starting again.

“I wish they’d stand and fight like men
instead of cowardly dogs,” Cunedda said angrily. “But that is the
way of the Picts—move in quickly and quietly to kill and burn and
then sneak away into the shadows.”

Maelgwn shook his head. “My army has been
here for almost a week, and we haven’t even seen the enemy. Are you
sure they’re still within your lands?”

“Aye,” Cunedda answered in frustration. “How
do you explain the cattle bodies we have found burned, the
slaughtered people? Who else could it be besides the Picts.”

“I don’t like it,” Maelgwn muttered. “There
is never enough damage done to leave a clear path for the enemy.
How many are there?
Where
are they?”

“It is almost as though someone wanted to
keep us here, but avoid fighting,” Balyn said thoughtfully.

Maelgwn and Cunedda both looked at him
sharply. His words expressed their own thoughts, although they
dared not say it. Were they being led into a trap?

“It would not be so bad if Ferdic did not
have half my army on the northern border,” Cunedda mused. “This
kind of warfare makes me nervous—to have my forces split and my
people unprotected.”

“Why did Ferdic go north when the problems
seemed to be here in the south?” Maelgwn asked.

Cunedda shrugged. “He thought he could head
off the Pictish armies there. He’s such a headstrong boy, that one.
There’s no arguing with him when he makes up his mind.”

Both men were thoughtful for a time. Maelgwn
could not help wondering if Ferdic was unwilling to fight beside
him after the incident with Aurora and the trophy head. It seemed
unwise of Cunedda to give his son half his army. It made Cunedda
entirely too dependent on Maelgwn’s help.

Maelgwn stood up impatiently and flexed his
legs. “I’m sorry, Cunedda, but I cannot stay and help you
indefinitely.” He pulled up the hood of his cloak. “I have my own
lands to look after, my own worries.”

Cunedda nodded. “Give me a week, Maelgwn.
We’ll cover one end of my lands to the other. We’ll find those
cowardly bastards and wipe them out once and for all.”

Aurora put down her sewing and fidgeted.
Forced inactivity was wearing on her nerves. Torawc did not think
it wise for her to go riding or even walk much yet, and she was
compelled to spend her time in the womanly crafts of sewing and
spinning. Out of boredom and loneliness she had finally joined the
other women in the great hall. They seemed to be growing used to
her presence.

They carried on with their gossip as though
she were one of them.

“Ohhhh!” Leian cried. Her baby was due in a
fortnight, and it appeared to be a ferocious kicker.

“I’ll bet it’s a boy,” said Wydian, Evrawc’s
wife. “Only a boy would make his mother so miserable.”

“Actually, my daughters were harder,” said
Sewan. “I was so sick with them I wished I could die the whole time
I was pregnant.”

“If men had to have babies, they’d not be so
anxious to get us in bed,” observed Marna.

“Aye, it seems to be all they think of when
they are home,” said Sewan. “I am almost glad when they go off on
campaign, and I can finally get some rest!”

“I don’t put up with it anymore,” retorted
Wydian. “I told my husband to go see the village harlot if that was
all he wanted.”

The woman glanced uneasily at Aurora, and a
few suppressed a giggle. The rumor that Maelgwn had shared
Morganna’s bed this summer was still going around.

“How can you say such a thing to your
husband?” Gwenaseth protested. “It’s your wifely duty to fulfill
your husband’s needs.”

“Why should I?” asked Wydian coldly. “I have
all the children I want, and Evrawc never pleased me all that much
anyway.”

“Now, Wydian,” Sewan scolded gently. “You
should not be saying these things to a newlywed like Gwenaseth. I
imagine she is still very much in love with her husband.”

“Perhaps it is easy to desire your husband
when he is handsome and sweet like Elwyn,” Wydian said sourly. “But
he may not always seem so agreeable.”

“Aye, Elwyn is nice-looking,” Mama said with
a smile at Gwenaseth. “Next to the king, I think he is the
handsomest man at Caer Eryri.”

At the mention of the king, old Browdan
roused herself out of her doze to join the conversation. “Few men
are as fair as the king,” she said with a nostalgic smile. “Maelgwn
has his mother’s looks, you know. His father, Cadwallon, was as
plain as an old ox—a big nose and not much hair. Maelgwn and Esylt
both take after Rhiannon. What a beauty she was—raven black hair,
deep blue eyes and skin like pure cream. But she was as evil as she
was beautiful.”

Aurora stopped her fidgeting and listened
intently. She had never heard anyone at Caer Eryri speak of
Maelgwn’s mother before.

“Setting her sons at each other’s throats
like that...” Browdan continued with a frown. “Anyone could see
that it would turn out as it did—with the strongest one winning and
the rest dead.”

“Why would a mother do that?” asked
Gwenaseth.

The old woman shrugged and her cloudy eyes
looked unseeingly at the younger woman. “I said she was evil. She
wanted things it’s not fitting for a woman to want-power and a say
in men’s affairs. I guess she thought that if she found the
strongest of her sons, he would give her that.”

“Maelgwn is not much like her, is he?”
Wydian observed acidly. “He is far from ruthless. I’ve heard even
Evrawc say that Maelgwn was too weak and conciliatory with
Constantine. He demanded only modest tribute—grain, wine,
foodstuffs and craftsmen—he left behind the gold and jewels we
could all be enjoying.”

The women in the large room held their
breath, glancing at Aurora nervously. Wydian was clearly baiting
the queen, challenging her to take sides against either Maelgwn or
her own people.

Aurora concentrated on the needlework in her
lap, trying to ignore Wydian’s provoking words. But it was too much
for Gwenaseth.

“How dare you say such things about
Maelgwn!” Gwenaseth said in an enraged voice, standing up abruptly.
“In making the agreement that he did, Maelgwn sought a lasting
peace that would benefit all the people of Gwynedd.” She fixed the
other women in the room with a scornful gaze. “Or would you rather
have piles of jewels to wear around your necks and wrists and then
lose your husbands in war when Constantine seeks revenge?”